By Wally Sarkeesian

When Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Istanbul earlier this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan handed him a copy of his book. To most observers, it was a symbolic diplomatic gesture. But to those watching closely, the moment carried a deeper meaning: Pashinyan’s political career had already followed Erdoğan’s blueprint step by step.

From prison cells to popular revolutions, from promises of peace to the concentration of power, both leaders built their dominance on a strikingly similar playbook. Whether by coincidence or careful imitation, Pashinyan’s rise mirrors Erdoğan’s rise with unsettling precision.

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Phase 1: From Prison to Power

Erdoğan’s Path: In 1997, Erdoğan, then Mayor of Istanbul, was jailed for reciting a poem deemed inflammatory. Far from ending his career, prison turned him into a martyr. In 2001, he co-founded the AKP, which swept the 2002 elections. Though initially banned from office, Erdoğan soon entered parliament and became Prime Minister in 2003. His narrative was simple: “I was oppressed, but the people raised me up.”

Pashinyan’s Path: Similarly, Pashinyan was imprisoned after the 2008 protests in Armenia. Released in 2011 under amnesty, he returned to politics stronger. By 2018, he led the Velvet Revolution, toppling Serzh Sargsyan and becoming Prime Minister. But his rise was not only about protest — it was also about political blackmail and populist pressure:

• He leveraged mass street demonstrations to corner the ruling elite.
• He declared: “Either me, or no one else will be Prime Minister.”
• During the snap election process, Pashinyan pressured the opposition not to nominate alternative candidates, knowing he had the people’s backing.
• The opposition reluctantly conceded, leaving Pashinyan the sole viable choice.

With this maneuver, he not only won power but also established the precedent that his authority came directly from the street, above institutions.

Blueprint Lesson #1: Turn prison into legitimacy. Combine victimhood with populist blackmail until rivals have no choice but to step aside.

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Phase 2: The Illusion of Peace

Erdoğan: In the 2000s, Erdoğan charmed the West as a reformer, even launching a peace process with the Kurds (2009–2013). Kurds gained cultural rights and political representation. But by 2015, the peace collapsed. Erdoğan pivoted to nationalism, and Kurds were left betrayed — their trust used as political capital.

Pashinyan: After 2018, Pashinyan spoke the language of peace and democracy. He promised reforms and reconciliation, even softening Armenia’s stance on Artsakh. But behind the rhetoric, he was already weaponizing peace against rivals:

• He branded critics of his peace agenda as “enemies of democracy” or “warmongers.”
• He positioned himself as the only leader brave enough to pursue peace, echoing his earlier “either me or no one” posture.
• By labeling alternatives as dangerous, he created a climate where supporting him appeared to be the only path to stability.

Blueprint Lesson #2: Promise peace to win trust. Use reconciliation as both a mask and a weapon to delegitimize rivals.

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Phase 3: Centralizing Control

Erdoğan: Step by step, Erdoğan captured Turkey’s institutions. Courts filled with loyalists, media silenced or bought out, police and military purged. In 2017, he replaced parliamentary democracy with a presidential system, making himself the ultimate power.

Pashinyan: In Armenia, Pashinyan’s “reforms” steadily stripped institutions of independence and concentrated authority in his hands.

• Judiciary: He pushed for a “transitional justice system” to purge judges, but this meant replacing them with loyalists.
• Military: When generals demanded his resignation in 2021, Pashinyan dismissed them outright, asserting control and showing that the army would serve the Prime Minister, not the constitution.
• Parliament: He forced early elections under his own terms. With the opposition fractured, his party secured dominance.
• People as leverage: Each time his authority was questioned, Pashinyan invoked the “will of the people,” using street legitimacy to overwhelm institutions.

Blueprint Lesson #3: Capture institutions under the banner of reform. When that fails, invoke the people’s will until only one voice remains.

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Phase 4: Exploiting Crisis

Erdoğan: The failed 2016 coup attempt became Erdoğan’s greatest gift. Within hours, he called citizens into the streets via FaceTime. The coup collapsed, and Erdoğan launched mass purges of military, judiciary, media, and academia. By declaring a state of emergency, he ruled by decree and emerged unchallenged.

Pashinyan: Armenia’s catastrophic 2020 war should have ended his career. Instead, Pashinyan turned defeat into survival:

• Critics of the capitulation were branded as “traitors” and “war profiteers.”
• Opposition protests were suppressed, and activists were arrested.
• In the 2021 snap elections, he warned that opposing him meant risking national collapse. His party won a renewed mandate.

Like Erdoğan, Pashinyan transformed disaster into opportunity — not by saving the country, but by blackmailing society with fear of worse chaos without him.

Blueprint Lesson #4: Never waste a crisis. War, defeat, or even a coup can be turned into a weapon to silence rivals and consolidate power.

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Phase 5: Aftermath & Legacy

Erdoğan’s Turkey: What began as democratic hope ended in authoritarian rule. Turkey is polarized, institutions hollowed out, and journalists silenced. Yet Erdoğan remains, presenting himself as the nation’s indispensable protector.

Pashinyan’s Armenia: Once hailed as the face of democratic renewal, Pashinyan has left Armenia weaker and more divided. Institutions now serve his survival rather than the country’s resilience. Supporters call it reform. Critics call it betrayal.

Blueprint Lesson #5: A leader’s legacy is not in promises, but in the system left behind. Both Erdoğan and Pashinyan leave nations weakened, institutions gutted, but their own power intact.

Phase 6 → The Church Under Siege No nation can stand without its spiritual backbone. For Armenians, that backbone has always been the Apostolic Church — a guardian of faith, culture, and continuity through centuries of struggle. Yet under Pashinyan’s leadership, this institution too has come under pressure.

The government’s rhetoric has sought to sideline the Church, framing it as outdated and unnecessary in modern governance. This mirrors Erdoğan’s earlier tactics in Turkey: reshaping religious authority and bending institutions to political will. Where Erdoğan co-opted religion to strengthen his power, Pashinyan appears determined to weaken Armenia’s own spiritual anchor, creating deep divisions between Church and state

Pashinyan police Storming Armenian church

For many Armenians, this attack is not just political, but existential. The Church has long symbolized unity and survival; undermining it risks eroding the very identity of the nation. In this sense, the blueprint extends beyond politics and war — it penetrates the soul of Armenia itself.

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From Ankara to Yerevan, the same script has been performed:

Conclusion: The Book as Blueprint

The image of Erdoğan handing Pashinyan his book in Istanbul is more than a diplomatic courtesy. It is symbolic of a political truth: Erdoğan wrote the manual, and Pashinyan applied it in Armenia.

From Ankara to Yerevan, the same script has been performed:

• Prison → Power.
• Peace → Control.
• Crisis → Consolidation.

For Turkey, this meant the rise of Erdoğan’s personal rule. For Armenia, it has meant defeat, division, and a hollowed state.

The shadow of Erdoğan’s playbook stretches across borders — and Pashinyan has walked its path step by step.

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By Wally Sarkeesian

A Nation in Peril

This is not simply mismanagement. It is not mere corruption. What we are witnessing is a coordinated and systematic destruction of Armenia’s foundations—its land, its faith, its history, and its pride. No Armenian leader, not even in times of foreign invasion, has inflicted such comprehensive damage. For the first time, the greatest danger to Armenia does not come from beyond its borders, but from within—seated in the highest office of the land.

The Systematic Destruction of Armenia Under Nikol Pashinyan

Everything that is Armenian, Nikol Pashinyan has either destroyed or is in the process of destroying—at a scale never before witnessed in our history. His tenure is not simply a failure of leadership; it is a systematic dismantling of our nation, stone by stone, institution by institution.

Artsakh: The Shattered Symbol of Victory

Artsakh once stood as a symbol of Armenian resilience and triumph. It was proof that, against overwhelming odds, Armenians could defend and liberate their homeland. Under Pashinyan, this symbol of pride and victory was erased. He did not merely lose Artsakh—he destroyed it. Worse, he surrendered its leaders, who now sit humiliated in Azerbaijani prisons and courtrooms. This is not defeat on the battlefield; it is betrayal of the highest order, unprecedented in Armenian history.

Political Prisoners: Silencing Armenia From Within

The devastation extends far beyond Artsakh. Inside Armenia, Pashinyan has waged war against his own people. Political leaders are thrown into jail, opposition voices are crushed, and business leaders are silenced. Instead of strengthening the republic, his regime is hollowing it out from within—paralyzing its institutions, stifling dissent, and stripping the nation of its backbone.

Armenian Church: Severing the Nation’s Soul

Perhaps the most alarming assault is aimed at the Armenian Apostolic Church, the cornerstone of our cultural and spiritual identity since 301 AD. For centuries, the Church has carried the Armenian people through invasions, massacres, and genocide. To attack it is not simply a political maneuver—it is an attempt to sever Armenians from their soul, to dismantle the very institution that has ensured our survival through history’s darkest hours.

Genocide Denial: Erasing Memory, Insulting History

As if these wounds were not deep enough, Pashinyan adds insult to injury by flirting with genocide denial. He has openly declared, “we have nothing to do with it,” distancing Armenia from the crime that defines its modern identity and struggle for justice. Words matter—and these words cut deep. If he can deny our past with language, what is to stop him from erasing our memory with actions? What begins with denial could end with the demolition of monuments and the erasure of history itself

The Call to Wake Up

The Armenian people must recognize this reality before it is too late. Silence, apathy, and passivity will only accelerate the collapse of our nation. Armenia’s survival does not depend on hollow speeches or empty rituals—it depends on courage. The courage to confront betrayal, to defend our institutions, to protect our history, and to preserve our national spirit. If we fail to awaken and act now, the day may come when there is nothing left to save.

Subject: Request for Legal Action Regarding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan
Dear Esteemed Scholars and Members of the Armenian Bar Association,

I am writing to you out of deep concern for the Republic of Armenia, the Armenian nation, and the future of our people. The actions of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan raise urgent legal, constitutional, and moral questions that, in my view, demand immediate examination by the legal community and possible accountability before the law.

When Pashinyan came to power, he did so by presenting himself as the leader of a movement against corruption, promising honesty, justice, and democracy. Yet, the record of his governance reveals a very different reality.

• He held multiple undisclosed meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, without informing the Armenian people or even members of his own government.
• He presided over the so-called 44-day war of 2020, which ended in a sudden capitulation on November 9. This decision was made without consultation with Armenia’s foreign minister, parliament, or the Armenian public.
• After this, vast portions of Artsakh were surrendered without referendum, parliamentary debate, or national consensus.
• Hundreds of Armenian villages were likewise handed over, again without public mandate.
• The so-called “Zangezur Corridor” was conceded under the same secretive circumstances, with no referendum or constitutional process.
• Most recently, instead of welcoming recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Israel and other nations, Pashinyan publicly undermined the matter, suggesting it was irrelevant to the interests of Armenia, and framing it as mere “geopolitical bargaining.” This statement effectively minimizes and denies one of the most painful truths of Armenian history.

Taken together, these actions raise serious issues of abuse of power, violation of constitutional duty, and betrayal of national sovereignty. They appear to bypass democratic processes and ignore the fundamental rights of the Armenian people to be consulted on existential issues of territory, security, and historical justice.

For these reasons, I respectfully urge Armenian legal scholars, jurists, and diaspora legal associations to consider avenues of accountability — whether through constitutional challenges, international legal instruments, or diaspora-led legal action.

History has shown us that silence enables injustice. Today, it is vital that the Armenian nation’s legal institutions rise to their duty: to protect the Republic, to uphold the Constitution, and to ensure that no leader can unilaterally dismantle the rights and dignity of the Armenian people.

With respect and urgency,

Wally Sarkeesian

By Wally Sarkeesian

Armenian Genocide, Artsakh Genocide, Now Gaza Genocide, by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Israel

I created Gagrule.net in 2000, not because of politics, not even because I am Armenian, but because I grew up with my mother’s tears. Every time she heard a song, she would burst into tears. “This was my cousin’s song… this was my uncle’s song,” she would say. As children, we never understood why the music broke her heart.

The truth was too heavy. They kept the horror inside. They couldn’t speak of the unspeakable crimes—the genocide the Turks committed against our people. My mother was only six when her life was spared. Some stranger threw her onto the back of a donkey and saved her. That’s how close she came to being lost forever.

On my father’s side, it was no different. Half the family is gone. Children slaughtered. Women stolen. The lucky few who survived joined the Armenian fighters, holding on to scraps of life. Most were massacred.

This pain lives in us. It passes from generation to generation. That is why, when I see Gaza today, I feel it in my bones. We Armenians know this grief. We know the silence of the world. Israel, Turkey, and Azerbaijan—they continue the same path of genocide and ethnic cleansing. The world still does nothing.

And when I look at our fellow Armenians in **Artsakh—Karabakh—our people who lived on that land for thousands of years—**I see the same tragedy repeat itself in the 21st century. The criminal regime of Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed Armenians from their homeland, murdering thousands. And this time, they had help from within—help from Armenia’s own so-called leader, Nikol Pashinyan, in one of the greatest conspiracies against the Armenian nation.

When I hear Israel speak now, I remember the words Hitler used when he invaded Poland. He told his troops, “Who today remembers the Armenians?”

That is why we must remember. That is why I cannot stay silent.

The Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh en masse still remember the first years after the Soviet Union fell apart, when their community suffered war and mass slaughter. 

But they also remember the more distant history of the genocide perpetrated against their countrymen by the Ottoman Empire. Consequently, they are rightly unwilling to rely on the mercy of the Azeri security services, who in recent years haven’t hesitated to attack Armenian civilians and civilian targets and commit war crimes in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Starting in the second decade of the 21st century, Israel has been helping Azerbaijan commit war crimes and defeat the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Israel has a strategic relationship with the Azeris that includes arms deals worth billions of dollars, stemming from both Israel’s war against Iran and the fact that it buys a significant portion of the oil it needs from Azerbaijan.

In the past, security ties between the two countries remained discreet. 

But in recent years, Azerbaijan has proudly displayed advanced Israeli weaponry, including missiles and suicide drones, in its military parades. It has also revealed that a factory that produces Israeli suicide drones exists on Azeri soil, and it has once again released official videos in which its forces are seen using Israeli weapons.

On March 6, Haaretz reported that over the past seven years, 92 Azeri cargo planes landed at the Ovda airbase – the only airfield from which explosives can be exported.

In addition, an Israeli suicide drone has been documented attacking an antitank battery in Armenia itself (Haaretz, March 15, 2021). Haaretz also reported that Azeri journalists and opposition activists have been targeted for surveillance with NSO’s Pegasus spyware (May 25, 2023).

Throughout this period, Israel hasn’t just supplied Azerbaijan with arms. It has also helped it distort history.

During legal proceedings in 2020, the Foreign Ministry admitted that Israel’s refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide – which it defines merely as a “tragedy” – stems in part from its relationship with the Azeri government. 

At the same time, Israel is also assisting Azerbaijan’s campaign for international recognition of the “Khojaly genocide,” which the Armenians allegedly perpetrated against the Azeris. Admittedly, there are conflicting stories about what happened in the battle of Khojaly during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war of 1992. But there’s one thing the international community agrees on regarding this issue – no genocide took place there, according to the accepted definition of the term.

What is happening in Nagorno-Karabakh isn’t the first case of ethnic cleansing that has Israel’s fingerprints on it. 

The persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar and the Muslims during the Bosnian War are just two examples out of many. 

Israel ought to have from the Jewish people’s own history that when you mix massive amounts of weaponry with a distortion of history, it’s a recipe for disaster.

The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2023-09-27/ty-article-opinion/israels-fingerprints-are-all-over-the-ethnic-cleansing-in-nagorno-karabakh/0000018a-d331-d13d-a98f-dbb5028e0000

By Harut Sassounian,

With each passing day, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statements contradicting Armenia’s national interests are getting increasingly alarming

Pashinyan started by denigrating Mt. Ararat, the preeminent Armenian symbol. He then mocked Armenia’s coat of arms, questioning why there is a lion on it, claiming that there are no lions in Armenia. With this statement, Pashinyan made three factual errors:

1) He did not seem to realize that the lion symbolizes courage and strength. It has nothing to do with whether there are lions in Armenia or not;

2) There are over a dozen countries that have a lion on their coat of arms without having a single lion in their countries;

3) He is also incorrect that there are no lions in Armenia. A well-known oligarch has had several lions in his Yerevan mansion for many years.

The Prime Minister then made abusive remarks about Armenia’s national anthem using the excuse that it contains the word “enemy.” There are several other countries that have the word enemy in their national anthems.

Pashinyan went on to complain that what is now called “Army of Armenians” (Hayots Panag) should be “Armenia’s Army” (Hayastani Panag), and that textbooks on the “History of Armenians” (Hayots Badmoutyoun) should be called “Armenia’s History” (Hayastani Badmoutyoun). He also wants to distance today’s Armenia from its past by contrasting “Real Armenia” with “Historical Armenia.” He then suggested, in line with Pres. Aliyev’s demand, that Armenia adopt a new constitution deleting the references to Artsakh and the Armenian Genocide.

Last week, I wrote about one of Pashinyan’s top lieutenants’ incredible suggestion to make a list of all 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide. This is an indirect way of questioning the veracity of the Armenian Genocide.

All of these statements indicate that Pashinyan is retreating from Armenia’s and Armenians’ nationalistic stands to appease Azerbaijan and Turkey.

To make matters worse, on April 24, 2024, the Prime Minister issued a statement full of confusing words which reflect his unstable mental state. He referred to the Armenian Genocide as Meds Yeghern (Great Crime) 11 times and only four times as Genocide. Meds Yeghern is a term that Armenians used until the 1940’s to describe the Genocide before the term genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin. Since then, the proper and legal term that should be used is Genocide or Tseghasbanoutyoun, in Armenian.

It does not come as a surprise that Pashinyan, in his April 24 statement, once again obfuscated the meaning of the term genocide thus continuing his attempts to downplay Armenian national symbols and terminology.

Pashinyan complained that due to the Meds Yeghern, Armenia often deals with other countries in a state of trauma or shock: “for this reason, sometimes we cannot correctly distinguish the realities and factors, historical processes and predictable horizons. Maybe this is also the reason why we get new shocks, reliving the trauma of the Armenian Genocide as a legacy and as a tradition.”

By making such a statement, Pashinyan is blaming the trauma from the Genocide of 1915 for his incompetent decisions and mismanagement of the State. While it is true that there is such a thing as transgenerational trauma, I would advise the Prime Minister to look at his own inability to rule rather than the trauma from the Genocide.

Pashinyan then surprisingly suggested that Armenians “stop searching for a homeland, because we have found that homeland, our Promised Land, where milk and honey flow.”

It appears that Pashinyan has lost all perceptions of reality! He is describing Armenia with its existential problems as “the Promised Land where milk and honey flow!” More likely, he and his family are the ones living a luxurious life at the Armenian taxpayers’ expense.

The only people who were pleased with Pashinyan’s April 24 message are the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey, Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. An indication of that pleasure was the crowd of Turks gathered on April 24 in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., chanting: “Pashinyan, Pashinyan, Pashinyan,” in the faces of Armenian protesters.

The President of Turkey, as he has done on every April 24 ever since 2014, issued a statement trying to fool the international community that he is acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. He actually lumped together Armenians and Turks and everyone else “who passed away or were martyred as a consequence of armed conflicts, rebellions, gang violence and terrorist acts” during “World War I.” He thus misrepresented the Armenian victims of genocide as war casualties. He described “the 1915 events” not as genocide, but a “tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.”

In a direct message to Pashinyan, Erdogan stated that “Türkiye’s ties with Armenia … appear to depend on Yerevan’s stance on the issue [of genocide]… A new order is being established in the region, and it is time to set aside baseless claims. It is time to move forward with realities on the ground. It is better than moving forward with fabrications, tales.” This sounds very similar to what Pashinyan is trying to do. Erdogan made the intent of his message more obvious when he said: “Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan understands this [reality].” As a final dig, Erdogan stated: “I hope Armenia escapes from the darkness it was condemned to, thanks to its diaspora, and chooses the path of new beginnings.”

The true meaning of Erdogan’s words was revealed when the Istanbul Governor’s Office once again banned the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide on April 24. Actions speak louder than words!

By Stephan Pechdimaldji,

The 2024 presidential race is shaping up to be one of our country’s most hotly contested elections. With an electorate that has become more polarized than ever, independents and select demographic groups promise to play a more pivotal role in this year’s election. It is why Arab Americans in Michigan raised a lot of eyebrows when they turned against Joe Biden in the state’s primary, signaling their anger with the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. But Arab Americans are not the only group feeling betrayed by President Biden these days. Armenian Americans are also deeply frustrated with President Biden and how he allowed Azerbaijan to ethnically cleanse more than 120,000 ethnic Armenians from their ancestral homeland of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.

To fully understand why Armenian Americans feel let down by President Biden, one must examine the rising authoritarianism in Azerbaijan under President Ilham Aliyev and how Joe Biden has turned a blind eye to the petro-dictator’s tyrannical rule as a geopolitical trade-off. Since taking power from his father nearly two decades ago, Aliyev has embarked on a campaign to wipe Armenia off the map that started in the fall of 2020 when he launched an illegal and unprovoked war against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. The war was soon followed by a nearly 10-month blockade of the only road linking Armenians in the region to the outside world that culminated last September when Azerbaijan forced Armenians to leave their homes, upending a civilization that stood for a thousand years overnight.

As a candidate running for president in 2020, Joe Biden vowed to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its actions toward Armenia and rightly criticized the Trump administration for coddling Turkey in its efforts to support and help Azerbaijan. For Armenian Americans, that version of Joe Biden was consistent with his record as a U.S. senator who for years fought for Armenian American issues including the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Biden was a reliable friend to our community, which explains why Armenian Americans overwhelmingly supported his campaign for president in 2020.

That is why Armenian Americans were so excited when President Biden officially recognized the Armenian Genocide, something no other president had done since President Reagan, by fulfilling his campaign promise to hold Turkey responsible for the first genocide of the 20th century.

It was a watershed moment for Armenian Americans as politicians from both political parties had used the Armenian Genocide for political purposes. Looking for votes and money, President George W. Bush and Barack Obama both promised to recognize the Armenian Genocide as candidates but then bowed to Turkish pressure once in office.

Armenian Americans believed that the Armenian Genocide was no longer a political football for both parties to kick around. Political expediency finally took a backseat to common sense and truth.

So, while we welcomed this historic and long overdue statement, the spirit of its intent was short-lived as Biden made a fateful decision before the ink was even dry.

Days after recognizing the Armenian Genocide, he waived Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act that bans foreign aid to Azerbaijan, which was a harbinger of things to come. With a stroke of his pen, Biden essentially recognized a genocide, only to allow another one to continue.

Since then, Joe Biden has arguably been the most anti-Armenian president to occupy the Oval Office. He has refused to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its war crimes or enforce any sanctions against its leadership. His administration did nothing to help Armenians during the blockade while they starved and blocked countless United Nations initiatives to condemn Azerbaijan or support resolutions that would enable the safe return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh.

And his silence on Armenian political prisoners like the humanitarian Ruben Vardanyan, who currently sits in Azeri jails, has been deafening.

Biden’s failure and lack of leadership on issues that are important to Armenian Americans have come to a head. It is one of the reasons why community and coalition leaders from organizations like the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) have urged Armenian Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in their primary elections as a protest vote against Joe Biden’s complicity in Azerbaijan’s genocidal campaign.

With more than 200,000 Armenian Americans across Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin, this small but powerful group has the potential to tip the outcome of a race that could come down to slim margins in these battleground states.

But it’s not too late for President Biden. With little less than nine months until election day, Biden has an opportunity to use his remaining time in office to set the record straight on Azerbaijan. He can start by holding Azerbaijan responsible for its war crimes, levying sanctions where appropriate, and directing the United States Agency for International Development to distribute more help and aid to Armenian refugees. He needs to stop emboldening Azerbaijan while he’s still in a position of power and be more vocal about these critical issues on the campaign trail.

President Biden has lost the trust of Armenian Americans. If he wants to earn our vote back, he has a lot of work left to do. Time is running out.

Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a first-generation Armenian American and the grandson of survivors of the Armenian genocide.

By Harut Sassounian,

There is a dispute among those who want to struggle for the recovery of Artsakh and those who say that Artsakh is lost forever and that we should forget about it. The latter shameful position is promoted by the current regime in Armenia which is responsible for losing Artsakh and is now doing everything possible to bury its memory.

I would like to share with the readers my decades-long view on the recovery of Western Armenia and its parallels to actions we need to take for Artsakh.

After every lecture I have given around the world on the Armenian Genocide and Western Armenia, some of the attendees immediately ask: what is the point of pursuing such a lost cause, particularly since the powerful Turkish military is occupying our historic lands?

I respond by saying that the worst thing Armenians can do now is to forget about Western Armenia. That is the surest way of losing forever our Armenian territories.

In addition to doing everything possible now, Armenians need to transmit to the next generation our demands for Artsakh and Western Armenia in order to keep the dream alive. If we don’t, our future generations, not knowing anything about our historic lands, will have no idea that they belong to us. Consequently, even if someday the geostrategic situation on the ground changes and an opportunity arises to recover our lost lands, our future generations will not show any interest in them.

Remember that for over 2,000 years, the Jewish people had lost their homeland and were dispersed throughout the world. The succeeding Jewish generations passed on the knowledge of their homeland to their offspring. For more than 2,000 years, parents transmitted the memory of Jerusalem and Israel to their children and they in turn passed it on to their children, and so on. They did not forget their roots and history while living in exile in Russia, Europe and elsewhere. They repeatedly told their children and grandchildren, ‘next year in Jerusalem!’ Two thousand years later, when the opportunity arose to recover their lands, they took advantage of it and realized their long-held dream. Palestinians, who were and still are forcefully displaced from their lands, are in a similar situation. They too are struggling to keep their dream alive and are proclaiming the right of return to their ancestral homes.

If Jewish people can keep their dream of returning to their homeland for 2,000 years, why can’t Armenians keep their dream alive of returning to Artsakh and Western Armenia someday? Armenians should tell their children and grandchildren: ‘next year in Shushi’ and ‘next year in Van’.

The question is: how can Armenians return to their lands someday if powerful enemies are occupying Artsakh and Western Armenia? We should not forget that nothing remains constant forever. There is not a single country in the world that has had the same boundaries since the beginning of history. Over the years, some countries have enlarged their borders, while others lost their territories. Some have become large empires, while others have disappeared from the face of the earth. But one thing is clear: No one can claim that today’s boundaries of Azerbaijan and Turkey will remain the same forever. Just 100 years ago, the vast and powerful Ottoman Empire was reduced to the much smaller territory of the Republic of Turkey. Even though it is not possible to predict the exact date when the boundaries of Azerbaijan and Turkey will change, they will certainly not remain the same. How will such changes come about? There are several scenarios, such as regional wars, even world war, civil war, and nuclear or other types of disasters. Such events have happened in the past and will surely happen again in the future.

When changes on the ground do take place, will future generations of Armenians know and have the memory that Artsakh and Western Armenia are part of their historic homeland or will they be clueless, having never heard of Shushi and Van? If they are deprived of that knowledge, when opportunities arise in the future, even if an unlikely benevolent Azeri or Turkish leader returns those lands to our grandchildren, they will not be interested in them, since they had never heard of them.

In conclusion, my advice is to keep the dream alive. While we are deprived of our lands due to the actions of our enemies, it is up to us not to lose the memory and dream of someday returning to our lands. Let’s pass on our demands to future generations. The enemy took away our lands, but did not and cannot take away our memory. By forgetting about our historic lands, we ourselves will be helping our enemies put the final stone on the grave of our cause!

Hrant Dink, the founder and editor-in-chief of our newspaper, is commemorated at the place where he was shot on the 17th anniversary of his murder. There are also commemoration events in different cities and countries.

The commemoration will take place on January 19 at 15.00 in front of the old Agos office, as every year.

You can watch the commemoration meeting from 14.00 on the following link:

Hrant’s Friends, who organized the commemoration, included the following statements in the call text:

“The shooter of the Hrant Dink murder was 17 years old when he shot Hrant Dink 17 years ago. Today he walks freely among us. Those who said to shoot that day are still on duty. A shameful performance was staged under the name of trial. Hrant Dink Murder remains a huge stain in the history of this country.

We object, we rebel, we demand justice.

“We are at the place where they shot him, in front of 23.5 Memory Place (former Agos office), at 15.00 on Friday, January 19, at 15.00, on Friday, January 19, to express our rebellion more and louder, side by side, and to commemorate Hrant Dink on the 17th anniversary of his murder.”

Other events

Hrant Dink will be commemorated with different events throughout the week.

The title of the talk that will take place on Thursday, January 18 at 19.00 at Nostalji Kitap Cafe in Pangaltı is “Hrant Dink and the Struggle for Justice in Turkey”. The moderator of the conversation, in which Masis Kürkçügil was the speaker, is Sesil Artuç. Address: Teyyareci Fehmi Street, Şişli.

On Thursday, January 18, Agos Armenian pages editor Pakrat Estukyan will meet with the students of Surp Haç Tıbrevank School and share passages from Hrant Dink’s life.

Anatolian Music Cultures Association and METU Alumni Association are also holding a commemoration program for Hrant Dink on Friday, January 19 at 20:00 at METU Alumni Association Vişnelik Facilities. Akis Music Group will take the stage in the program titled “Sonic Witnesses of Migration – Gomidas Folk Songs/Ah Cilicia”. The guests of the event, where L. Doğan Tılıç was the speaker, are İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu and Sabri Ejder Öziç.

A commemoration event is held at the Gorky Theater in Berlin on January 19, as every year. At the event, Can Dündar, former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, will read a selection of Hrant Dink’s texts together with Saro Emirze and Sesede Terzyan, accompanied by the music of François Regis, in memory of Hrant Dink. The address of the event, which will start at 19.30 local time, is Am Festungsgraben 2, 10117 Berlin.

Continuing its work in Germany, AKEBI (Activist Action Union Against Racism, Nationalism and Discrimination) is organizing an event in Berlin on January 19 at 19.00 local time. At the event, where lawyer Hülya Deveci and Bülent Aydın from Hrant’s Friends Initiative will speak via live connection, Stepan Gantralyan, Selim Kırılmaz and Efe Bahadır, as well as the Mozaik Berlin choir, will stage their musical performances. The event was organized by Akebi e. V. Böckhstr. at 24, 10967 Berlin.

The commemoration event, which will be jointly organized by the German-Armenian Society of the Turkey Germany Cultural Forum in Cologne, Stimmen Der Solidaritat and Tüday, will start on the evening of January 19 at 19:00 local time. The address of the event where the artist Yaşar Kurt will give a musical concert as follows: Hohenzollernbrücke, 50679 Köln Am Armenischen Genozid-Mahnmal

The commemoration event in Nuremberg, Germany, on January 19 will be moderated by Eylem Çamuroğlu Çığ from Bayrueth University. Vartan Estukyan from Agos and writer Kemal Yalçın will take part in the panel as speakers. The European Assembly of Exiles (ASM) is among the organizers of the event, which will start at 18.00 local time. The address of the event is Kulturladen Villa Leon Philipp-Koerber-Weg 1

Dialogues Without Borders Initiative is holding a commemoration event on Saturday, January 20. Registration is required to participate in the event that will be broadcast on YouTube. Özgür Sevgi Göral, Rober Koptaş and Adnan Çelik are the speakers at the event moderated by Başak Ertür. Artist Suna Alan will also contribute with his musical performance.