Turkish Forum

Category: Authors

  • Next Step is the Planned Intervention

    Next Step is the Planned Intervention

    Maria Angela Holguin, the Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General, has concluded her sixth week of investigations into the existence of a negotiating basis for a solution to the Cyprus problem.

    After weeks of negotiations and attempts, Holguin realised that there was no common ground and informed her big brother, Colin Stewart, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), in detail.

    The instruction sent to her was as follows; ‘continue to deceive, pretend to continue the negotiations in the triangle of Ankara-Athens and Nicosia, but your main task should be to establish contact with Civil Society Organisations, especially in the North Cyprus, and to identify the Civil Society Organisations that are pro-Atlantic Alliance and want Federation’.

    The goal of the Atlantic Alliance is clear. 

    Of the 3 states existing on the island of Cyprus, the TRNC, the Greek Cypriot Administration of Cyprus and the Akrotiri State, to eliminate the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which is separatist according to them, to remove the Turkish Armed Forces from the island and to intimidate the Turkish Cypriots who believe in the TRNC.

    Second step;

    To completely remove Turkey’s hand from the island of Cyprus, to destroy Turkey’s Exclusive Economic Zone rights in the Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean and to confine Turkey within its own territorial waters by putting the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean completely under the control of the Atlantic Alliance.

    05.20.24 Asil Mudahale bundan sonra

    The actual intervention to bring the island of Cyprus completely under the control and sovereignty of the Atlantic Alliance will begin in mid-2025, in line with the report given by Maria Holquin, with the games and manipulations to be played on the TRNC people and economy.

    The first target will be to make the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, who, according to them, is ‘intransigent’ and stands in the way of the Atlantic Alliance’s goals and creates obstacles, ‘lose the TRNC Presidential elections to be held in October 2025 and get the candidate of their choice to be elected’.

    Maria Angela Holguin, the Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General, has identified non-governmental organisations, politicians, opinion leaders, media organisations, media members, columnists, newspapers, social media activists and influential people who are sympathetic to the Atlantic Alliance and who are in favour of the establishment of a Federation-type so-called ‘Joint Government’ in Cyprus, which will consist of Greeks and Turks. (Which she preferred these people and organisations during her visits to talk).

    As of the moment, a work programme is being prepared to discredit TRNC President Ersin Tatar and his supporters, politicians, non-governmental organisations, media organisations, media members, columnists, newspapers, social media activists and the people who can be influential, and to mobilise the pro-Atlantic Alliance group.        

    Firstly, an action plan and budget will be determined.

    The action plan will include the identification of a ‘new vision’ that will have an impact on the Turkish Cypriot people and how the pro-Atlantic Alliance group will be mobilised.

    The second and most important step will be the action plan.

    In this plan; The establishment of a political party or various non-governmental organisations supporting the wishes and visions of the Atlantic Alliance will take place and to promote the visions of Atlantic Alliance and to convince the majority of the Turkish Cypriot people with fancy and enticing promises through organisation of rallies, existing newspapers, television organisations, social media activities.

    The last step would be:

    To convince the majority of the Turkish Cypriots that the President Tatar’s idea of an ‘equal, sovereign, internationally recognised two-state solution’, which he has been advocating since the day he was elected, is not correct and on the contrary the Federation-type so-called ‘Joint Government’ consisting of Greeks and Turks in Cyprus is the best solution… 

    The village where the barns are visible does not need a guide.

    Prof. Dr. (Civil Engineer), Assoc. Prof. Dr. (Int Rel.) Ata ATUN

    Member of the Advisory Board of the TRNC President

    TRNC Republican Assembly 1st Term Deputy

  • Donations Tilt Vatican In Favor of Azerbaijan

    Donations Tilt Vatican In Favor of Azerbaijan

    In a lengthy article published in the Irpmedia.irpi.eu in Italian on March 27, 2024, titled, “How Vatican helped legitimize the Aliyev autocracy in Azerbaijan,” Simone Zoppellaro exposes Vatican’s pro-Azerbaijan tilt due to financial donations, despite Armenia being a Christian nation, while Azerbaijan is Islamic.

    On Feb. 22, 2020, the autocratic leader of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, and his wife, Mehriban Aliyeva, the country’s Vice President, paid a state visit to the Vatican. They were received officially by Pope Francis, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher. Mrs. Aliyeva was at the Vatican to receive the highest honor awarded to a lay person by the Holy See: “The Grand Cross.” The award is proposed by the Diocesan Bishops “as a sign of appreciation and gratitude for services to the Church or to society reserved for Heads of State, ministers, ambassadors, and royalty.” However, the driving force behind Vatican’s interest in Azerbaijan is the financial support provided by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

    Ironically, despite Azerbaijan’s intolerance of minorities, dissidents and other religions, the Holy See expressed its appreciation to “Azerbaijan’s openness and peaceful attitude towards different faiths.”

    Fearing the loss of Azerbaijan’s donations, the Vatican has been reluctant to allow any criticism of Baku, particularly by its own clergy. “Father Georges-Henri Russyen was expelled from the Pontifical Oriental Institute because he was critical of those who did not want to use the formula ‘Armenian genocide.’”

    Given the expectations of benefiting from Azerbaijan’s “Caviar Diplomacy,” the Vatican has not been willing to say anything more substantial than emphasizing “the importance of intercultural and inter-religious dialog in favor of peaceful coexistence among different religious and ethnic groups,” meaning Armenians and Azeris. The Pope prayed for the inhabitants of Karabakh, hoping “that the talks between the parties, with the support of the international community, will foster a lasting agreement that will end the humanitarian crisis,” Even during the 2020 War, “the Church was unable of going beyond generic appeals for moderation ‘to all the parties involved and to the international community’ to ‘lay down their weapons.’”

    On October 24, 2023, Prime Minister Nikol Pahinyan received from the Apostolic Nuncio José Avelino Bettencourt the same award given three years earlier to Aliyeva, Azerbaijan’s Vice President. However, there was a major difference. While Aliyeva received her award directly from the Pope, Pashinyan was honored by an Apostolic Nuncio. There were also other differences which “helped consolidate the power of the Aliyev family, despite human rights violations in Artsakh.”

    “Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, honorary president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture and chairman of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, is the highest Vatican official who has made the most efforts to open a dialog with Azerbaijan.” He was awarded the Order of Friendship in 2013 by the Azerbaijani authorities — a high honor offered for a “special contribution to the development of friendly, economic and cultural relations between Azerbaijan and a foreign state.”

    Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti is considered “the protagonist of the privileged channel” established between the Vatican and Baku. “Highly educated and polyglot, ambitious and lover of power, Cardinal Gugerotti has known the Aliyev family since 2002, when Pres. Heydar Aliyev, in power since 1969, was still alive.”

    “In the early 2000s, Gugerotti met with the Azerbaijani authorities as Nuncio for the Southern Caucasus, a position he assumed in 2001. Before then this nunciature for the Holy See included only Georgia and Armenia. Those were the years in which Russia guaranteed a ceasefire in the region, after Armenia had defeated Azerbaijan in the first conflict. The ethnic hatred that is still fuel for the conflict was beginning to settle, but Nuncio Gugerotti called Azerbaijan a ‘country [that] is a symbol of peaceful coexistence between people of different religions.’”

    “Ten years after he began his mission as Apostolic Nuncio in 2011, Gugerotti signed the historic agreement which, for the first time, regulated relations between Baku and the Catholic Church. At the time of ratification, recalls a 2019 book produced by the Foundation for the Promotion of Moral Values from Baku entitled ‘Christianity in Azerbaijan,’ Gugerotti expressed gratitude to the (Azeri) government for creating the conditions that made possible [the agreement], emphasizing that our country always remained committed to the principles of tolerance, and noting that the agreement was the first document of its kind, because the Vatican had never signed such an agreement with any state before.”

    According to Gugerotti, “Azerbaijan has once again demonstrated its tolerance. Now the whole world is witnessing it. I am sure that this document will receive a positive response in the international world and will be remembered as a great historical event. The reaction of the press from day one proves us right. On behalf of the Holy Throne and the Crown, I extend my deep thanks for all this to President Ilham Aliyev and the Government of Azerbaijan.”

    Since 2009, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, headed by Mehriban Aliyeva, has funded various activities in the Vatican: restoration projects, exhibitions and concerts. Other projects funded by Azerbaijan included: the Roman catacombs, the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Apostolic Library, and Catholic churches in France and Azerbaijan. These donations amount to one million euros.

    In 2013, Gugerotti received the Movses Khorenatsi Medal — the highest Armenian honor — from the then president Serzh Sargsyan for his important contribution to Armenian studies, but also the effort aimed at strengthening relations between Yerevan and the Holy See.

    The author of the article concluded that the close relationship between the Vatican and Azerbaijan has had the effect, perhaps unintended, of strengthening the hegemonic role of the Azeri autocracy… which may contribute to a diplomatic normalization that would put in the background, or erase, crimes and aggressions committed by the Azeri autocracy.

  • Archbishop Bagrat is Leading the Effort To Oust Pashinyan and Save Armenia

    Archbishop Bagrat is Leading the Effort To Oust Pashinyan and Save Armenia

    A lot has happened in Armenia this past week that has shaken to the core the incompetent, inexperienced, defeatist and deceptive Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan who should have resigned on Nov. 10, 2020, the day he signed the capitulation agreement with Azerbaijan.

    Pashinyan came to power by exploiting the people’s gullibility and their resentment of the former leaders. He claimed that he will bring peace to Armenia, their sons will no longer die in wars, they will live in prosperity with high-paying jobs, there will be no corruption, and a million other falsehoods with which he misled the public.

    Drunk with his newly-found power, Pashinyan became completely unhinged. He arrogantly announced, while he and his mob of followers surrounded the Parliament building in 2018, that either he will become the Prime Minister or Armenia will not have a Prime Minister! This is the pronouncement of a self-declared democratic leader who became a dictator.

    During the campaign for the parliamentary elections in 2021, Pashinyan stood on a stage holding a hammer and promising to crush the heads of his political opponents. He also pledged to slam his Armenian rivals to the wall and flatten them on the asphalt. This is his crude understanding of democracy.

    Pashinyan told his crowd of followers in 2018 that he will leave his office when the people demand his resignation. Since then, he has ignored all demands for his resignation clinging to his seat of power. During one of the many demonstrations calling for his resignation, when a journalist asked him if he will keep his word and resign, he pompously replied, “they aren’t people,” implying that he considers only those who support him as “people.”

    Even though Pashinyan’s supporters falsely claim that he was elected Prime Minister, the fact is that he was not, since the Prime Minister’s post is not an elective position. He was chosen by his parliamentary majority which is composed of equally incompetent and inexperienced young men and women.

    Pashinyan has no tolerance for dissent. If anyone living in Armenia dares to criticize him, the Prime Minister orders his well-fed police squad to lay the critic on the ground, beat him up and arrest him. His top ally, Alen Simonyan, the Chairman of the Parliament, spit on the face of an Armenian in the street, just because he criticized him. And if a Diaspora Armenian disagrees with Pashinyan, he will not be allowed to enter Armenia after he arrives at the Yerevan Airport. Under Pashinyan, Armenia has become a dictatorship, ruled by the whims of one man.

    Now comes Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the Primate of the Diocese of Tavoush, who opposes Pashinyan’s arbitrary decision to turn over to Azerbaijan four Armenian border villages without a referendum and parliamentary approval.

    The Archbishop has come immediately under vicious attacks by Pashinyan himself and his cronies, including the thousands of fake Facebook followers who are paid to defame anyone who dares to criticize the Prime Minister.

    Pashinyan called the Archbishop and his supporters “Drug Lords” and “Foreign Agents sent from overseas” without a shred of evidence. It is very ugly when the head of a government uses street language to denigrate his political opponents. Anyone who dares to criticize Pashinyan is immediately labeled “a Kremlin agent” who is paid thousands of dollars to “undermine the country.” Why should anyone get paid to undermine Armenia when Pashinyan is already undermining the country all by himself?

    In a strange turn of events, the Archbishop has copied the same tactic Pashinyan used to come to power by marching from Gyumri to Yerevan in 2018. Thus Srpazan is giving Pashinyan a dose of his own medicine. The only difference is that Pashinyan violated many laws to come to power by smashing the doors of the Armenian Radio Station’s headquarters, surrounding a Court House with his followers to prevent the judges from entering the building, and blocking the entrances to the Parliament.

    The Archbishop has advantages and disadvantages. Srpazan is a clergyman whose weapon is truth and morality. He preaches peace, love and non-violence. All attempts by various opposition groups to topple Pashinyan by street protests in the past six years have failed. The Archbishop is the only person who has gained the trust of a large number of Armenians who eagerly joined his march from Tavoush to Yerevan. Over 100,000 Armenians flooded the city’s main square to listen to his message.

    When Srpazan arrived in Yerevan on May 9, he announced that he was giving Pashinyan one hour to resign. When the hour passed and there was no resignation, the Archbishop did not want to go to the next step of urging his 100,000 followers to storm the building and oust the Prime Minister. Instead, Srpazan announced a series of civil disobedience acts throughout the country.

    Srpazan is now consulting with various opposition leaders to discuss the next steps. If and when Pashinyan resigns or is impeached, both unlikely scenarios, the Archbishop said that a transition government will be formed which will later hold elections for Parliament to choose a new Prime Minister. It remains to be seen if Srpazan’s peaceful plans will succeed to oust Pashinyan.

    The best reason for getting rid of Pashinyan is that the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey have eagerly praised Pashinyan for his repeated and endless concessions. Prominent Azeri analyst Ali Hajizade even suggested the possibility of sending Azeri and Turkish troops to Yerevan to support Pashinyan’s government!

    All patriotic Armenians, putting aside their internal differences, should form a coalition to establish a transitional government that will hold the next elections. Public pressure must be exerted on Pashinyan to resign as soon as possible before the country ceases to exist due to attacks by internal and external enemies. This may be the last chance to save Armenia.

  • Regional Balances Are Changing Rapidly

    Regional Balances Are Changing Rapidly

    Turkey’s decision to completely stop its trade with Israel is likely to trigger a number of new developments in the coming months, deeply affecting Israel’s strategy of aggression, genocide and extermination of the Palestinian people.

    Israel is the 12th country to which Turkey exports the most.

    According to Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data, the volume of trade between Turkey and Israel in 2023 was $6.8 billion, 76 per cent of which consisted of goods sold by Turkey to Israel.

    In addition to this, Israel imports overland – especially strategic products such as oil – through Turkey. Therefore, it is certain that Turkey’s imposing restrictions on the shipment of products that Israel buys from third countries, raw materials and reserve ores that Israel needs for production, especially the oil that Israel buys from Azerbaijan, through its territory and ports, will put Israel’s economy in trouble. (Israel’s dependence on Turkey in this regard is many times higher than Turkey’s dependence on Israel).

    Considering these facts, Turkey’s decision to completely halt mutual trade with Israel resembles and evokes the global isolation policy that many countries implemented in the last years of the 20th century against the ‘apartheid’ regime in the Republic of South Africa, which ruthlessly implemented the idea that whites of European origin were superior to other races, including the suspension of the purchase and sale of all goods and services, and the severing of political and diplomatic relations.

    The last government in the Republic of South Africa, formed by whites of European descent, which had managed to maintain the apartheid regime for more than a century with the use of brute force in addition to the military and police force, in which whites were not arrested in any way, was crushed under these global isolations and gave up. Apartheid was buried in the dusty pages of history, never to return. 

    It should be noted that Turkey’s decision is not primarily directed against the Israeli people. The reason for this decision is the removal of the Israeli government, which persistently pursues the policy of genocide with its policy of global isolation, from power and the cessation of attacks against the Palestinian people and Gaza.

    It is certain that if some countries with common sense take Turkey’s decision to stop trade with Israel as an example and decide to stop their trade with Israel in the coming days, this will put Israel in a difficult situation despite all the support that the US has given/will give to Israel.

    At this stage, the US factor and Turkey-US political and economic relations have begun to come to the fore and gain importance. A few days ago, 57 Democratic Party members of the US House of Representatives asked US President Joe Biden to cut off aid to Israel, stating that Israel’s continued attacks would bring the region to the brink of a war that Israel and the US cannot afford, and the US government’s statement that it respects Turkey’s decision indicates that the regional balances have changed.

    In the coming weeks, it is possible to say that Israel will lose global support to a great extent, will rapidly move towards isolation, and as a result, the pro-genocide government will leave power, the attacks will stop and the Palestinian state will make great gains towards recognition.   

    Prof. Dr. (Civil Engineer), Assoc. Prof. Dr. (UA. Relations) Ata ATUN

    Member of the Advisory Board of the TRNC President

    TRNC Republican Assembly 1st Term Deputy

  • We Own Cyprus

    We Own Cyprus

    This was the catchphrase of the Greek Cypriots between the years 1960 to 2017 in Cyprus.

    The Greek Cypriots and Greeks, who leaned their backs to the Atlantic Alliance and the Christian world, thought and acted as if the island of Cyprus was their private property, their homeland, an integral part of the Great Byzantine Kingdom, and kept saying “We are the owners of Cyprus”.

    In order to cleanse the island of Cyprus from the Turkish Cypriots, relying on the Atlantic Alliance and the Christian world, they applied the genocide, same as the armed attacks in Gaza of today, to us, the Turkish Cypriots during years 1963 to 1974.

    When the Atlantic Alliance and the Christian world, which claim to be the flag bearers of “Human Rights, Peace and Justice”, did not raise voices such as “What are you doing, stop the massacres and genocide, you are violating human rights”, the brutal genocide they inflicted on us continued for 11 years till 1974.

    They thought that they had the right to take away all the materialistic and spiritual life opportunities of the Turkish Cypriots by the armed attacks, to crush the Turkish Cypriots, to destroy them, to squeeze them into a tiny area like three percent of the island and only allow them to breathe, and they thought they were successful with the full scale support of the Atlantic Alliance and the Christian world.

    In the second stage of the so-called negotiations that started in 1968, they would get up from the negotiation table whenever they felt like it, they would immediately reject the peaceful proposals made to them, they would try to corner the Turkish Cypriots by making proposals that would never happen and could not be accepted, they would put them in a difficult position and try to put them in a guilty position. Although it was agreed at the last stage of these negotiations to grant partial autonomy to the Turkish Cypriots, the Greek Cypriot leader of the period, Makarios, said, “I will not give the Turkish Cypriots even a neighbourhood headman ship, let alone an autonomy”, revealing that the negotiations were made for show and ended them.

    Such was the mindset of the Greeks, such was the idea that they owned the island of Cyprus.

    In July 1974, when the Colonels’ Junta in Greece staged a coup d’état on the island, overthrew the 1960 Republic of Cyprus, declared the “Hellenic Republic of Cyprus”, annexed the island to Greece and declared it as part of the Greece, the situation suddenly changed. Turkey, as a guarantor, had to intervene in order to re-establish the abolished 1960 Republic of Cyprus in the manner and method clearly stated in Annex 1, Article 4 of the 1960 Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus. In this way, the Turkish Cypriots were freed from captivity and were able to establish their own sovereign state in the northern parts of the island.

    The negotiations, which started in 1977 to stop the armed conflicts on the island of Cyprus and to restore the 1960 Republic of Cyprus, ended in 2017 in Crans Montana, where the last stage of the negotiations was held, with the Greek Cypriots leaving the table due to their megalomanic and maximalist demands and behaviours.

    The power and effectiveness of the Atlantic Alliance, which has been going on in the world since 1945, has started to decrease. The political and economic support of the Russian Federation and its allies, which unconditionally supported the Greeks and Greek Cypriots within the Christian world, came to an end. In the process, the mountains on which the Greek Cypriots had leaned and cocked their backs collapsed.

    Once upon a time they were saying “We are the owners of the island of Cyprus. Whatever we say, whatever we want, only happens”. By the time the political situation dramatically changed. The Greek Cypriots and Greeks are now begging and pleading for the Turkish Cypriots to sit at the negotiation table. They are trying to get the support of the strong partners of the Atlantic Alliance such as the UN, the US and the EU to intervene, but no positive results.

    It is time for them to pay for “obstructing the two peoples on the island from living in PEACE”, which they are the cause of the failure of the Annan Plan by voting “NO – OXI” in the Annan Plan referendum held on April 24, 2004, relying on the Atlantic Alliance and the Christian world…

    Prof. Dr. (Civ Eng), Assoc. Prof. Dr. (Int Rel) Ata ATUN

    Advisory Board Member of the TRNC President

    TRNC Republican Assembly 1st Term Deputy

  • Pashinyan Will Have Blood on His Hand If French-Armenian Dies at Yerevan Airport

    Pashinyan Will Have Blood on His Hand If French-Armenian Dies at Yerevan Airport

    Pashinyan Will Have Blood on His Hand If French-Armenian Dies at Yerevan Airport By Harut Sassounian The California Courier

    French-Armenian journalist Leo Nicolian has been on a hunger strike at the Yerevan airport for 16 days, after being banned from entering Armenia.

    Nicolian, 57, is an aggressive investigative journalist who has generated plenty of controversy due to his revelations about important figures. He has been on the frontlines of the conflict in Artsakh and the recent clashes on the Israel-Lebanon border. He was wounded during both conflicts.

    In the past 30 years, Nicolian has visited Armenia and Artsakh dozens of times and interviewed key leaders. However, what he encountered at the Yerevan airport during his latest visit two weeks ago was completely unexpected and shocking.

    In early April, Nicolian had gone to the village of Voskepar in the Tavoush District of Armenia and interviewed Primate of the Tavoush Diocese Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan who has been leading the popular movement in opposition to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s recent decision to turn over four Armenian border villages to Azerbaijan.

    Later in April, when Nicolian tried to return to Armenia, he was told by immigration officials at the Yerevan airport that he was not allowed to enter the country. When he asked why, he was told that he “presented a danger to Armenia’s security.” This is a ridiculous accusation because Nicolian is a professional journalist who has not violated any Armenian laws and committed no crimes.

    Regrettably, Nicolian is not the only Diaspora Armenian who is banned from entering Armenia. There have been several others who were told after landing at the Yerevan airport that they are not allowed to visit the country. None of them has done anything illegal or criminal to warrant such a harsh measure. Besides, if they had violated any laws or presented a danger to Armenia’s security, they should have been arrested at the airport and turned over to the courts to decide their fate. No official, regardless of his rank or position, has the right to make arbitrary decisions on behalf of the judiciary.

    Furthermore, Prime Minister Pashinyan has no right to decide who can enter the country. Armenia is not his private residence. He can’t decide whom to allow or not allow in. Armenia is the homeland of all 10 million Armenians worldwide and no official has the right to ban any one of them to enter the country in the absence of a legal reason.

    Nicolian and several other Diaspora Armenians are banned from entering Armenia simply because they dared to criticize Pashinyan’s defeatist policies. The Prime Minister has repeatedly claimed to be a democrat. However, freedom of expression is one of the basic principles of democracy which is frequently violated by the authorities in Armenia who have turned the country into a one-man rule — a dictatorship.

    To make matters worse, after Mourad Papazian, a prominent French-Armenian critic of Pashinyan, was not allowed to enter Armenia, he filed a lawsuit in an Armenian court which found the government’s ban illegal. Since Armenian officials had 30 days to file an appeal to reverse the lower court’s decision, no one knew if they would file such an appeal. Fortunately, when Pashinyan visited Paris in the midst of those 30 days, President Emmanuel Macron met privately with Papazian and Pashinyan and urged the Prime Minister to abandon his pursuit of Papazian. Pashinyan reluctantly agreed to drop the appeal, but it was shameful that the head of a foreign country had to intervene in an Armenian domestic matter.

    Meanwhile, Nicolian has been languishing at the Yerevan airport for the past 16 days. During our multiple phone conversations, he told me that he will continue his hunger strike even if it leads to his death. His life is at risk because he has several serious ailments. From time to time, local medical staff comes to measure his blood pressure and gives him some injections. He is not allowed to leave the airport for any medical treatment. In recent days, an ambulance was sent to the airport to check his blood pressure, his heart, and give him another injection.

    Nicolian’s status is in limbo. He tells me that because he is in the airport’s internationally protected “neutral zone,” Armenian officials cannot take any action against him. They have tried to convince him to board a flight to Paris which he has refused. They have also offered him sandwiches and water which he has turned down.

    Nicolian told me that he is committed to starve himself to death at the Yerevan airport. He thinks that his death will bring shame to the Prime Minister. I am not sure he is correct. I think that it will bring shame to the reputation of the Republic of Armenia.

    The French Embassy in Yerevan, contrary to its diplomatic obligations, has refused to visit its own citizen to inquire about his condition. This is the vindictive position of the local French Ambassador because Nicolian had exposed the Ambassador’s scandals in the media. The French Foreign Ministry has also not shown any interest in the welfare of Nicolian, since he has publicly criticized the French President in the past.

    Even though Nicolian has antagonized many individuals and organizations due to his harsh criticisms and abrasive personality, Armenians have an obligation to do whatever they can to publicize his critical situation and save the life of a fellow Armenian before he starves to death.

    I urge the citizens of Armenia to hold protests in front of Prime Minister’s building in Yerevan, demanding that Nicolian be allowed to enter Armenia. Protests should also be held in front of the French Embassy in Yerevan.

    French-Armenians should also hold protests in Paris in front of the Foreign Ministry and the Presidential Palace seeking their intervention with the government of Armenia.

    Should Nicolian die in the Yerevan airport due to his prolonged hunger strike, Prime Minister Pashinyan will have blood on his hands, so will French President Macron.