Last Updated on Saturday, 06 February 2010 15:27 Written by Administrator Friday, 05 February 2010 16:32

Nagorno Karabagh (in Armenian, Artsakh) is located in the northeastern area of the Armenian highlands. Since ancient times, it has been a province of historical Armenia. The northeastern border, according to all ancient sources, was the Kura River. In the ancient Armenian state of Urartu (9th-6th centuries B.C.), Artsakh was referred to as Urtekhe-Urtekheni. The nature and climate of the mountainous region are conditioned by its favourable geographic location. The works of Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Claudius Ptolemy, Plutarch, Dion Cassius, and others note that the border between Armenia and Aghvank (Caucasian Albania, its most ancient Caucasian neighbor representing a mixture of mountainous peoples) was the Kura River.

After 387A.D., Armenia was partitioned between Byzantium and Persia. Eastern Transcaucasia, including Artsakh, came under Persian rule. This did not affect the ethnic borders of the region until the late Middle Ages; the Right Bank of the Kura, along with Artsakh (Karabagh) continued to remain Armenian inhabited. Only in the middle of the 18th century did nomadic Turkish tribes begin penetrating the northern borders of Karabagh, initiating centuries long wars against Armenian noble families.

The nobility of Nagorno Karabagh, governed by hereditary feudal lords (meliks), were able to maintain real autonomy due to personal, noble, and other types of military units. Compelled to resist attacks by the Ottoman Empire armies, nomadic tribe invasions, divisions of populous, often hostile neighboring governors and the armies of the Persian shahs, the Artsakh meliks attempted to free themselves from foreign (Muslim) dominance. Working towards that purpose, the Karabagh meliks corresponded with Russian tsars, including Peter I and Paul I, during the 17th-18th centuries.

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In 1805, the historical territory of Artsakh, artificially named "Khanate of Karabagh", along with other widespread areas in Eastern Transcaucasia, were annexed to "everlasting rule" of the Russian Empire. The Gulistan (1813) and Turkmenchay (1828) treaties signed by Russia and Persia ratified this.

There was a peaceful period, that lasted until 1917. After the collapse of the Russian Empire, resulting in a new arrangement of recently formed states in the Caucasus, Nagorno Karabagh became a theater of war. The Independent Republic of Armenia and the newly formed Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, created due to Turkish intervention, battled over the territory between 1918 to 1920. From the moment of its formation, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic made territorial demands regarding significant Armenian lands in Transcaucasia. Taking advantage of the confused state of affairs due to world war, the collapse of the Russian Empire, and as a continuation of the 1915 Genocide of Armenians, Turkish forces joined with Azeri military units, from 1918 to1920, to destroyed hundreds of Armenian villages. Organized massacres of Armenians took place in Baku and Gyanja. Only in Nagorno Karabagh military formations faced any serious armed resistance, despite the fact that on March 28, 1920, Shushi, the area's capital, had been burned, plundered and the Armenian population annihilated.

Last Updated on Monday, 08 February 2010 23:23 Written by Aroutin Hartounian Wednesday, 03 February 2010 19:59

Why Turkey is playing the role of a peace loving nation by seeking the "help" of World Powers in dealing with Armenia?

The world powers, including United States, Russia, France and others have clearly indicated that the relations between Armenia and Turkey must be established without preconditions. The two countries, Armenia and Turkey also indicated that such a relationship must be pursued without preconditions.

While various individuals, including myself, and many justice seeking people in the world believed that Turkey should not be allowed to use the protocols to further its denialist campaign and put a gag on those who have attempted to recognize the Armenian Genocide, and that should recognize what its forefathers did in the past before any relations between the two countries (following Israel's example who justly refrains from conducting diplomatic relationship with any country that questions the reality or the magnitude of the Holocaust), it is very clear that the latest moves by Turkish regime is an aim to falsify its image as a peace seeking nation.

The protocols themselves were an insult to the memory of 1.5 million plus Armenians who were killed and many more who were ruthlessly raped and maimed during the period between 1896 (in the hands of the Red Sultan Abdul Hamid) to 1923. The protocols call for the “establishment of an intergovernmental bilateral commission” which will be tasked with conducting “an impartial scientific examination of historical records and archives to define existing problems and formulate recommendations.” Immediately after the protocols were publicized, there was a question which was asked by many: Would Israel accept such an arrangement aiming at conducting an “impartial scientific examination of historical records” on the matter of the Holocaust? The answer is clear. They will rightly not do so. That would not only be an insult to the victims of the Jewish Holocaust, but it would also be an insult to history, an insult to justice, and an insult to humanity.

Remember how the World responded to the 2006 Holocaust Conference which was organized in Iran and aimed to “examine the scientific evidence supporting the Holocaust?”

Not only did the Jews of the world condemn such an examination, but so did we. Every one of us, Armenian, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, or African-American, we all felt insulted and outraged. It wasn’t because we were the direct victims of the catastrophe, but we felt that a part of history was being stolen from us. We felt that history was being altered.

When it came to the World governments, they rightly condemned it and threatened to withdraw their diplomats from Iran. But justice demands that we ask the tough question as to why when the Armenian-Turkish Protocols called for the “impartial scientific examination of historical records” of the Armenian Genocide, the World powers failed to condemn such a move. They even pressured Armenia further into submitting to what directly questioned the Armenian Genocide.

For the Obama administration, who both as an Illinois Senator and as a presidential candidate had called for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the Protocols were an easy way to dodge having to keep his promise. For Russians, putting such pressure on Armenia was the price it had to pay in exchange for the recent economic deals with Turkey.

And now, the once “Sick Man of Europe” (term referring to the Ottoman Empire) is putting together a drama of an unseen magnitude in the theater of the World, and is itself playing the role of the peace maker in front of the World audience. Turkey’s ally, Azerbaijan, is arming itself to the teeth in the volatile Caucasus region using its oil revenue, and is threatening Armenia with yet another war. Turkey, this new and rising star of the Middle East, has naturally remained silent on the war overtures made by Azerbaijan. They even went further in supporting the illegal actions of their ally by putting more pressure on Armenia through maintaining an illegal blockade against it. It is worthy to mention that this blockade is the last closed border in Europe.

It is in this background that the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia, in its review of the Protocols indicated that such a document cannot question the reality of the Armenian Genocide, as it is indicated in the Armenian Declaration of Independence about 18 years ago. This has been the position of Armenia since its independence from the Soviet Union. Armenia’s position could not, even if the President of Armenia wanted to, differ from what the Constitutional Court reiterated.

The Turkish claims are baseless. Legally, nothing has changed from the time of the signing of the Protocols in October. While the President of Armenia might have decided to sign the documents under World pressure (and because of the up and coming trade deals in the realm of oil and gas between various powers), it still needed the Court’s approval. And the Court did what it was created to do: to analyze, and then validate or strike down, any and all documents of the like.

Why is Turkey so worried about the Court’s ruling? Because the Court’s ruling is preventing it from falsification of history. It prevents it from being able to use the documents to deny the Armenian Genocide. What is Genocide? The crime of genocide is defined in international law in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.

"Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), which as its name suggests is staffed by people who are experts in the field, has clearly termed what took place against the Armenians as Genocide. Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish Holocaust survivor and a lawyer, who coined the term Genocide, when asked by CBS news commentator Quincy Howe about how he became interested in the subject, he responded by saying, “Because it happened so many times. It happened to the Armenians, and after the Armenians, Hitler took action.”

I would not have said it better than a non-Armenian York University student who wrote:

‘Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey accused the Chinese government of committing genocide in the northwest province of Xinjiang in mid 2009. Perhaps he must understand that he must recognise his own nation’s role in committing genocide in the First World War, before accusing others.

“There's no point in interpreting this [‘genocide’ in Xinjiang] otherwise," Erdogan confidently claims. I would have never thought I would say this, but it seems like a Turkish leader has finally, even though in a perversely indirect way, voiced the frustration of the Armenians towards their fight for recognition and justice.’

The lesson is clear. Genocide denial is the last step of the commission of Genocide. Those who deny it are as guilty as, if not guiltier than those who committed it. And the Turkish campaigns aimed at vilifying Armenia and Armenians as a people who are not seeking peace are not only purely diplomatic maneuvers, but they are preposterous and need to be condemned.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 January 2010 22:46 Written by Administrator Wednesday, 27 January 2010 22:11

In order to continue to serve our community and the needs of the global Armenian youth, we need your help.

Please take a moment and donate to Unified Young Armenians (UYA) through our secure website. Every dollar donated will put us one step forward in our fight against those who attempt to distort history by denying the Armenian Genocide. Every dollar donated will allow us to expand our cultural projects and ensure that the Armenian children continue learning their mother tongue regardless of their socio-economic condition. Every dollar will ensure that the Armenian youth have a say in the fast paced world where their input means new ideas, progress, and advancement.

By our active participation in and our response to the important issues of interest to the community, we have played a crucial role in ensuring:

1. An increased awareness and recognition for the Armenian Genocide
2. Higher cultural and political awareness and activism among the Armenian youth and the public in general
3. Higher level of cooperation and dialogue, combined with decreased factionalism among the community's various forces on various matters of national importance

This has been achieved and sustained through your generous support and our members' immense level of dedication.

Our members and the UYA's leadership operate on a volunteer basis so you know that every penny serves the intended purpose. We are a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization and all donations to our Organization are tax deductible. So whether you are a business or a citizen, you can help us further both the Armenian Cause and the cause of the humanity.

By helping Unified Young Armenians (UYA), you will no longer be a bystander to history; you will help write the history of the Armenian Nation.

Sincerely,

Unified Young Armenians' Board of Directors

Last Updated on Tuesday, 26 January 2010 23:48 Written by Aroutin Hartounian Tuesday, 26 January 2010 19:57

Washington, DC - The heading "US Congressman Stresses Azerbaijan's Importance," or a similar one is dominating the front pages of Azerbaijan's media.

The letter titled “Don’t Forget Azerbaijan” which according to the Azeri media was sent to all members of US Congress and stressed the importance of Azerbaijan for United States was the work of no other Congressman but the Arizona Republican John Shadegg which serves the state’s 3^rd District.

After millions and millions of dollars in lobbying “blood money” paid into such firms as the Livingston Group (Click here for details) and other high powered DC firms by the Governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey, one might have reasonably expected such a letter sooner or later. After all everyone has a price tag in politics. For example Dennis Hastert, the former Republican speaker of the House was notorious for his love affair with everything Turkish. Hastert, to no surprise of those who followed the news carefully, later found a new home at a lobbying firm representing the Turkish Government.

But to the dismay of the Azerbaijan’s Government, the new champion of their cause, Rep. John Shadegg is retiring after the end of his current term. The subsequent representatives who will run for Shadegg's seat will serve their interest as candidates and the interest of their donors to remember that there is a growing Armenian-American community in Arizona who closely follows the news and political developments in the region. Unlike the governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan, the Armenian-Americans not only have the power to donate money, but they also can vote. And at the end of the day, the votes get politicians elected. 

It is not a surprise that a short investigation proved that this latest champion of Azeri cause, Representative Shadegg, has also been visited by the Livingston Group on behalf of their client the Turkish Government (Click here for details).

It seems that while money does certainly buy influence in Washington, the Azeri celebration will be short-lived. And what would Representative Shadegg do after his resignation? According to the Congressman, he will “pursue [his] commitment to fight for freedom in a different venue.” Your guess is as good as ours: All roads lead to… the Livingston Group.