I’m half Azeri and half Turk, is it a good idea for me to move to Glendale, California where the Armenian population is large?
Glendale has about 200K population. Armenians make up the single largest ethnic community accounting for 40% of the city population. So, that means you statistically have a higher chance of encountering a non-Armenian than an Armenian but clearly you will inevitably stumble upon them.
Of course, not all Armenians hate Azerbaijanis and Turks. I have heard some Azerbaijanis and Armenians making friends or at least maintaining good relationship in LA though such cases are much fewer and rarer than in Moscow, for example. Yet, generally, the Armenian diaspora in the US is known for harboring more animosity towards Azerbaijanis&Turks than other groups of Armenians. Therefore, chances are very high that your car dealer, servant in the restaurant, cashier in the mall, agent at DMV might raise his/her eyebrows as soon as he/she knows you are an Azerbaijani/Turk. Especially, given the war of the last year, within both Azerbaijani and Armenian communities, emotions still run very high. (In July of 2020, Armenians protesting in front of the Azerbaijani consulate in LA had attacked a small group of Azerbaijanis having gathered for a counterprotest. In the same period, some Azerbaijanis living in LA had received threatening messages in their socmed accounts).
If you are a single person, you can still overlook these things and live even though you might find yourself in a row with some locals esp if you are a man. Glendale is considered one of the safest, cleanest places to live in the LA area. However, if you have a family and your kid should attend a local school, then, I would be very worried. The youth branch of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Armenian Youth Foundation is quite active within the Armenian-American diaspora. Through their activities, they help channel ethnic hatred to the young Armenians (though they are not the only channel of hatred transmission). That might mean most likely bullying for your kid at school. I would no way take that risk.
All in all, I wouldn’t feel comfortable knowing I am surrounded by some people who don’t like me just because of my ethnicity. LA is gigantic. Sure, there are many other districts to settle in.
Mount Athos is a peninsula in northern Greece (in the geographical region of Macedonia). It is home to 20 Orthodox Christian monasteries and administratively it is an autonomous polity, governed by a Holy Community consisting of representatives of those monasteries. Civil authority is represented by a Civil Governor appointed by the Foreign Ministry of Greece.
A fresco with Saint Mercurius and Artemius of Antioch.
In terms of culture, however, Mount Athos retains many Byzantine traditions & items and indeed some commentators have stated that it is like a place ‘frozen in time’. The Mount operates under a charter granted by Emperor Ioannes Tzimisces in 972. Byzantine cultural and religious practices are retained in those monasteries, most of which were built between the 10th and 15th centuries and are scattered over the heavily forested, hilly peninsula. They posses many medieval art treasures, including liturgical objects and vestments, Christian texts, Byzantine imperial chrysobulls (decrees), icons and holy relics. As such, one can say that Mount Athos is still Byzantine in a way.
The headline is from the piece written recently by the well-known Azerbaijani journalist Seymur Verdizade, an editor-in-chief of the online publication Yeni Sabah.
Our esteemed readers can remember, a bit while ago I have had an article about Seymur’s journey back to his house in Soltanli village of Jabrayil district which was liberated from Armenia’s occupation in 2020’s 44-day war. Seymur had visited his home village on April 2021 and was filmed crying on the remnants of his house.
Thus, I wrote an article called “A Long Journey of an IDP Journalist to His House” where described feelings of Seymur.
Now Azerbaijan has conducted a local antiterror operation in the territories of Karabakh, where Armenia’s Army remnants were still creating disturbances. After very successful operation a 10-thousand strong Army of Armenia agreed to surrender. Then a small Armenian community members decided to leave Azerbaijan forever. Or some of them will come back maybe.
Armenians are complaining of the situation. Some of them call Azerbaijan as an aggressor and even occupant. But the world knows and sees that Azerbaijan did not attack any other country’s territory. It has conducted an antiterror operation on its soil only.
Seymur has an answer to those Armenians who is complaining of the situation. As Seymur himself is and IDP due to Armenia’s occupation I found his article interesting and of need to spread around. That’s why asked him to provide it in English so many people around the world can read, understand and compare the realities. Especially those who fell a victim of Armenian propaganda.
30 Years Ago We Lived in Tents, Now It’s Your Turn
By Seymur VERDIZADE
In these days of victory, if we take a trip to history and remember those hard and difficult days when we were exiled from our native land, wouldn’t you be sad?
Hah, is there a single second been forgotten in these 30 years?!
This pain burned us from inside. Because the smoke of this fire did not come out, there was no one to pour water on it and put out the fire. We were left in flames.
We had a two-story house and a garden with flowers in Jabrayil. When my late grandfather built the second floor, the neighbors said: “Nurullah, even if a cannon is thrown, your house will not collapse”.
Therefore, when Karabakh was under occupation, I often said: “We had a bulletproof house in Jabrayil”.
Seymur Verdizade on the remnants of his house after 27 years. 13 April 2021
You know, when Jabrayil was occupied, when my native Soltanli village, where I was born, fell into the hands of the enemy, Armenians fired cannons at our house. But even the cannon fire could not erase our house from the face of the earth. Look carefully at the photo I shared: many of those majestic columns are still in place, which look like castle walls…
Since my late father was the youngest child in the house, our grandfather’s legacy was left to us. We had only one tractor with which we could bring everything that my father and grandfather had built, bought and accumulated over the years. We took our clothes and the five or six light items that my mother pointed out in tears and set off towards my friend’s house in Beylagan on the expired tractor. We couldn’t fit into a house because our relatives came after us. At night they made beds for the children under the dining table.
About a month later, we moved to Baku thanks to the support and dedication of Aziz Azizov, who is now the director of the Surakhani district and is known as a devoted patron of the families of martyrs, veterans, and former IDPs in the region.
We were now more comfortable in a room reserved for us in the administrative building of the old tram park. Unlike the house we took shelter in before, when we slept here at night, we could fully open our legs…
Most of our relatives and friends stayed in the regions. They were placed in tent cities. They suffered from cold in winter and heat in summer. Venomous snakes often entered the tents where the people lived. Those who escaped the hands of Armenians died from snake venom and various infectious diseases…
During the local anti-terror measures, a group of Armenian residents of Karabakh were placed in tents so that they would not be harmed. They have all kinds of guarantees. I saw their pictures yesterday that the elderly and sick Armenians are fed by the Azerbaijani police with their own hands…
We will not do to you even 3 percent of what you did to us thirty years ago. If you give up your grudge, you will soon return to your homes. It’s been 30 years, but because of you, we still can’t go back home…
The punishment for the crime you committed should have been severe, very severe. You are lucky that the state and people of Azerbaijan do not live with a sense of revenge. In fact, now your loved ones should have built a mourning tent for you, but we are building a tent to live…
The US’s Hypocrisy or How Does Look Like Double Standards…
By Azer HASRET
We know that the United States of America is the biggest and most powerful country of the world. We understand this and take it into account. But when it comes to fairness, we see that this very most powerful country is biased and hypocritic…
We are talking about the approach of the US towards the same issue in different countries.
The US is supporting territorial integrity of Ukraine which is now facing unfair occupation war by its neighbor – Russia. Ukraine is defending itself and even I’m in support of this country. Because I believe and know that Ukraine is in a right side.
The US also is supporting Ukraine. By any possible means. Like providing huge amount of financial aid plus arms support. We appreciate the US’s this very approach.
Why do the US do that? The answer is very clear: The US is supporting Ukraine to defend its territorial integrity and state sovereignty.
Great! Thanks to the US for this approach!
Indeed, the US is supporting those countries which is under Russian occupation or Russia’s oppression! Thanks again!
Logically if you do something in a likewise situation for someone you must do the same for others as well.
Thus, if the US is supporting Ukraine’s fight for its territorial integrity, it must support other countries which suffer from the occupation and separatism the same way!
But what do we see?
We see that the US is not doing the same for other countries or for one single country which is also facing occupation and separatism.
We are talking about Azerbaijan. Most clearly, about US’s stance towards the case with Azerbaijan which is trying to end up with occupation and separatism on its soil…
Azerbaijani lands were occupied by Armenia 30 years ago. And all cities, villages, even cemeteries, mosques, libraries, cinemas, theatres were destroyed by Armenian occupants during those years.
Plus, some 250 thousand Azerbaijanis were ethnically cleansed from Armenia. Then some 750 thousand Azerbaijanis again ethnically cleansed from the occupied Azerbaijani lands by Armenia…
Thus about 1 million Azerbaijanis were ethnically cleansed from their lands. Up today they can’t return to their homes/lands. The reason is Armenians/Armenia.
Today some 30 to 40 thousand Armenians are living in Karabakh, Azerbaijan. This region is internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan and no country on the world including the US is against this…
But from time to time the US policy makers stage discussions about 30 thousand Karabakh Armenians while we don’t hear from them a single word about 1 million Azerbaijanis expelled from their homes/lands.
We understand and accept that some politicians in the US are supporting Armenians and calling for their rights to be provided. But is there a need for that? Or why to call on Azerbaijan to respect the rights of a small Armenian community while Azerbaijan itself announced that their rights will be protected under the Constitution of the country?
Azerbaijan repeatedly announced and announces that it will protect Armenian community as well based on the Constitution of the country. So, what is the problem? Or why some people in the US are upset? And why these politicians of the biggest world power are calling on Azerbaijan to respect the rights of Armenians?
Is Azerbaijan doing something opposite? Is Azerbaijan ignoring the rights of Armenian community?
No! Clearly no!
The situation with Armenians is like this. The logic says that the US or other world powers are not interested in rights of Armenians in Karabakh, Azerbaijan. They are interested in producing as much as possible pretexts to press Azerbaijan!
And by this stance they are forcing Azerbaijan back to the USSR (Russia), while this country is looking towards the West for the integration…
At the end of this short piece, we’d like to stress out again that the US is supporting the territorial integrity of Ukraine or Georgia which lands are under Russia’s occupation. But the same US is hypocritically avoiding the issue of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan while talking about rights of Armenians…
Azerbaijan and Armenia must think twice while considering the relations with the US. If not, the US will force both countries to a new war. But we don’t want a new war or any military clashes…
A group of 50 senior leading European Rabbis have signed a joint letter condemning the leaders of Armenia for using holocaust rhetoric in its campaign against its neighbor, Azerbaijan.
RABBINICAL CENTRE OF EUROPE RCE B.S.D. Brussels, September 6, 2023
Mr. Yitzhak Herzog, President of the State of Israel, Jerusalem, ISRAEL
Dear Mr. President,
As rabbis serving the Jewish communities across the European continent, we are writing to you following interviews given by senior Armenian government officials in the international media on matters related to the political conflict with the government of Azerbaijan. They employed the language and comparisons that are appropriate solely to describe the deliberate, systematic and largest genocide in the history of mankind, which the Jewish people have been subjected to: The Holocaust.
During WWII the Jewish people were persecuted, murdered, butchered, burned, tortured, drowned and buried alive. The Holocaust was not limited to a single place but occurred throughout almost the entire European continent and with the collaboration of too many nations.
Such words as “ghetto”, “genocide”, “Holocaust” and the like in no uncertain terms inappropriate to be part of the jargon used in any kind of political disagreement. Usage of these terms belittles the terrible suffering experienced by the Holocaust victims and the entire Jewish people, which still bears the indescribable pain of the largest tragedy ever experienced by a single group. We call upon you to explicitly and unequivocally clarify to the Government of Armenia and all other countries that they should recognize and respect the terrible human suffering endured by the Jewish. We urge you to make them aware that the practice of minimizing and downplaying the suffering of the Jewish people for furthering any political agenda through the continued use of Holocaust-related phrases should be ceased immediately and completely.
