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Armenians from Syria have decided to settle in their ancestral homeland

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Armenians in Syria have decided to settle in Armenia shortly, a Yerevan-based charity announced yesterday.

The Armenian Development Initiatives (IDeA) foundation, created by Russian Armenian philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan, has allocated US $ 250,000 in October to support the Syrian Armenians who are seriously affected by the bloody conflict in the Middle East.

The funding aims, among other things, to help them settle and find employment in Armenia through three local non-governmental organizations. One of these NGOs, called Halep (Aleppo), brings together Syrian Armenians living in their ancestral homeland.

In an official statement, IDeA announced that 37 Armenians from Aleppo have already moved to Armenia through its project. Eighteen others told the representatives of Halep that they wanted to follow their example, he adds.

The announcement follows the capture by Syrian government troops of all Aleppo districts remaining under rebel control. Around 80,000 Armenians lived there before the civil war.

According to estimates by the Armenian government, only about 7,000 Armenians remain in Aleppo at the present time. Virtually all of them live in neighborhoods controlled by the western government of the city, bombed for years by rebel forces.

It is estimated that up to 20,000 Syrian Armenians have fled to Armenia over the past five years. Many have found it difficult to find employment in a country that has long suffered from high unemployment.

IDeA said that as of next month another NGO based in Yerevan, the Mission Armenia, will use its funding to cover the housing costs of some of these migrants.

The charity hoped to get funding from organizations and individuals in Armenia as well as from its global diaspora when it launched the aid scheme two months ago. So far, he has raised only $ 22,000.

Wednesday 28 December 2016,
Claire © armenews.com

Diaspora Ministry “discovers” Armenian communities in Costa Rica, Nicaragua

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YEREVAN. – Armenian communities were discovered recently in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, with 400 and 380 Armenians, respectively.

Minister of Diaspora of Armenia, Hranush Hakobyan, informed about the aforementioned at the year-end press conference on Tuesday.

In her words, there are 30 thousand Armenian organizations, 38 pan-Armenian organizations in 20 countries, and 1,004 Armenian schools in the world.

“Twenty-six more Armenian schools opened this year alone,” added Hakobyan. “We [i.e. Armenians] have 821 communities in the world, [and] with which we work. We have Armenian institutions and organizations in 112 countries.”

Diaspora Minister: 516 Syrian Armenians moved to Armenia in 2016

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YEREVAN. – A total of 516 Syrian Armenians have moved to Armenia in the current year, Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan said at her year-end press conference on Tuesday.

In her words, a total of 27 and 50 Syrian Armenians have relocated to Armenia in December and November, correspondingly.

“This year, 18 thousand Syrian Armenians received Republic of Armenia citizenship, 1,800—residency status, [and] 300—refugee status,” said the minister.

Hakobyan noted that 22 thousand Syrian Armenians currently live in Armenia.

“The passing year certainly was difficult,” added the minister. “[But] the indicators of Syrian Armenians’ relocation from Armenia to the West have dropped since the beginning of the year, and they have begun to stay more in the historical homeland.”

How Chechens selling arms to Azeris were killed in London

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In late February 1993, a high ranking Chechen official, an aide to rebel leader and the first President of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Dzhokhar Dudayev, 38-year-old Ruslan Outsiev and his brother Nazarbek, 20, were killed at their London penthouse. As it turned out later, the assassination was linked to the Armenian security service members.

PanARMENIAN.Net – According to the primary lead, the two were killed to prevent purchase of missiles for Azerbaijan. PAN has studied the publications in foreign and Armenian Diaspora’s media outlets and presents the key circumstances of the incident.

Official Grozny said at that time that the Outsiev brothers arrived in London as Dudayev’s envoys with a brief to arrange the printing of passports and banknotes for the new Chechen state. However, along with their public mandate to print the documents of the putative Chechen state, they had a number of other missions: to secure a $250 million loan from an American businessman for the modernization of Chechnya’s huge oil refineries; to conclude negotiations with the German energy company Stinnes AG for the quick sale of Chechen oil at world prices; and as investigators later discovered, to purchase 2,000 ground-to-air Stinger missiles.

Ruslan Outsiev was the volatile Dudayev’s most trusted adviser and a hard-liner in the faction-ridden administration. His brother was a martial arts expert and general muscle-for-hire, although, Grozny said, he left for the British capital to study English. In London, Ruslan Outsiev posed as Chechen Prime Minister, but he actually was a vice chairman of the supreme presidential council headed by Dudayev.

As it often happens, Ruslan Outsiev was also a criminal authority with haughty ways. He visited expensive restaurants, booked ‘elite’ prostitutes and bought a flat for £700,000 (according to some sources, he paid £1,000,000) in Sherlock Holmes’s reputed domicile at 221B Baker Street.

To embark on complex negotiations, the Chechen government representatives needed a skilled interpreter and fixer. Ruslan Outsiev remembered that he was once interviewed by a BBC producer, Alison Ponting, and he turned to her for help. She suggested her husband, Gagik Ter-Oganisyan, who lived in London since 1988 and was a swimming-pool attendant at Wandsworth baths, hoping, perhaps, that he would find gainful employment. Thus, Ter-Oganisyan was hired by Outsiev for his London trip as a translator, guide and adviser.

A student of Russian and Eastern European Studies at Manchester University, Alison Ponting, visited Armenia in 1984 for a training, when she met Ter-Oganisyan, fell in love and kept up communicating upon returning to Britain. In 1988, they got married in Yerevan and moved to London, where Gagik, a salesman, started working as a swimming-pool attendant. Later, with his wife’s help, he went into business, exporting computers, faxes and cheap clothes to the post-soviet state.

Ter-Oganisyan attended the meetings Outsiev held and witnessed signing of contacts. At some point, relations between the Armenian and the Chechens soured. Later, England’s Crown Prosecution Service insisted that Ter-Oganisyan had discovered that the Stinger missiles were destined for Azerbaijan to be deployed in the war against his home country, Armenia. Ter-Oganisyan alerted one of his friends, Armenian KGB member Mkrtich Martirosyan, to the Utsiev brothers’ activities. The prosecution also said that a couple of hitmen were dispatched from Los Angeles, the center of the Armenian Diaspora in the United States, to London.

Disguised as the head of the Armenian chamber of commerce, senior KGB member Ashot Sargsyan arrived in London to prevent the bargain. With the help of Alison Ponting, who was, however, unaware of the goings-on, Martirosyan also got a UK entry visa.

Upon his arrival, Martorisyan met with Outsiev in Langham Hotel (Ter-Oganisyan was also present) to dissuade him from the purchase of missiles. However, Outsiev did not change his mind, thus, according to the British prosecutors, signing his own death-warrant. Determined to eliminate the Chechen, Martorisyan left for Los Angeles to hire a killer, Ashot Detmenjian. (In some documents the hitman is mentioned as Arthur, but he was presumably the same person, A. Detmenjian.) On February 20, Martorisyan returned to London, rented an apartment in a suburb and waited for the killer to arrive. However, due to certain visa problems, Detmenjian failed to reach Great Britain.

On February 26, Nazarbek Outsiev went into hospital for a sinus operation, providing the perfect opportunity for his older brother’s murder. The Chechen official was killed with three shots to the head in his luxury apartment. Two days later, Nazarbek was killed the same way upon being released from hospital. The only reason for killing the younger brother was, as it turned out later, to prevent inevitable revenge of the outraged Chechen kin.

After purchasing a fridge-freezer with a cardboard box to hold the elder Outsiev’s decomposing body, the Armenians paid two delivery men £450 to take “17th century statue” to a rented flat in London suburb. Unfortunately, the box split and the smell alarmed the men. By the time they contacted police, Nazarbek was also dead.

The policemen detained Martirosyan and Ter-Oganisyan, when they entered the Outsievs’ apartment with electric saw and sacks to disjoint Nazarbek’s body and take it away. The gun was also found at the site.

Alison Ponting was arrested as well. However, she was released after the police found out that she was completely unaware of the events.

The reasons for the double homicide were not immediately clear and the police initially thought that the brothers were killed in a robbery attempt, but the circumstances that were revealed in the course of the investigation prompted that the motive was different.

Days after the murder, Chehchen media outlets reported that it was masterminded by the Russian special services with a purpose to intimidate the Chechen leadership and make them sign the federal agreement. After the arrest, Ter-Oganisyan pleaded not guilty of killing the Outsiev brothers. The prosecution later said that he had taken a German translator on a diversionary shopping trip on that day.

Martirosyan, on the contrary, admitted the crime and confessed being a member of the Armenian national security service and acting by the order of Ashot Sargsyan. However, he later retracted, saying that the brothers were killed by a hired hitman. During the arrest, policemen discovered a small phial of snake venom under a bandage on Martirosyan’s wrist, apparently intended for his suicide. Shortly afterwards, customs officers intercepted another phial of snake venom sent by an Armenian in the United States to Ter-Oganisyan’s home presumably ordered by his wife. Alison Ponting was arrested again but soon released for absence of a crime in the act.

When in jail, Martirosyan had a visitor. According to some sources, it was Ashot Sargsyan, who gave him a flap dipped into snake poison to cut his hand and thus commit suicide. However, this attempt was also frustrated. Finally, Martirosyan hung himself in the prison cell.

The British police described Martirosyan as a clever man with a good sense of humor, despite being a brutal criminal. According to sources, the KGB threatened to settles scores with his family members in Yerevan. “The KGB will not forgive anyone,” Martirosyan used to say.

The man’s body was transported to Armenia by the request of his family. The employees of the Armenian embassy in London were not present at the trial and denied any connection of the national security service to the double homicide.

The police failed to find Sargsyan in the UK, however, he was killed in Moscow several months later in unclear circumstances.

As to Ter-Oganisyan, his direct involvement in the crime was not established in court. Although, the prosecution never knew who pulled the trigger as there were no fingerprints on the gun, Ter-Oganisyan was given a life sentence in October 2013. His wife suffered severe stress. In addition to his husband’s verdict she has become an object of revenge for the Chechens. Her life was attempted several times until her sister, Karen, who looked alike, was shot dead at the door of her house in April 1994. After the incident, Ponting was guarded by the police for a long time. There is no information available about her fate.

On the front picture, you see Afghan Mujahideen with Stinger missiles during the war

Sources:

Independent. Armenian jailed for London KGB killings: Arms deal led to deaths of brothers from rebel Russian republic in luxury flat

The New York Times. “McMafia”

E. Mickolus, S. Simmons, Terrorism, 1992-1995: A Chronology of Events and A Selectively Annotated Bibliography , 1997 Kommersant. Chechens killed for attempt to help Azerbaijan

Armenian International Magazine, Mission unraveled. The macabre case of the Dead Chechens, 1993, December

Hyusisapayl. “How Chechens’ attempt to buy Stinger missiles was frustrated”

Samson Hovhannisyan / PanARMENIAN.Net

Santa Claus is coming to Tehran, Iran

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An Iranian boy dressed as Santa Claus outside a shop in the capital Tehran on December 24, 2016, on Christmas eve.

TEHREAN, Iran (AFP) – Tehran might not seem like the most obvious pitstop for Santa Claus, but Iranians love the chintzy side of Christmas and it is also one of the safest places in the Middle East for Christians.

The past month has seen shoppers flocking to the Armenian district of Somayeh — the biggest Christian area in the city — to pick up fake trees, and stock up on baubles, reindeer toys and plastic snowmen.

“It’s really interesting and attractive for us,” said Niloufar, a Muslim women in her thirties who was out shopping with her husband on Christmas Eve.

“I love the decorations, the tree. We see it as showing a kind of respect for other beliefs. And of course I like all the chocolates!”

Shoppers line up for selfies with one of several Santas stationed outside stores on the main drag.

One Father Christmas, full of the festive spirit, breaks into an impromptu dance to a popular Iranian pop song playing outside a food stall.

Hamed Davoodian owns a grocery store on the street, and says the community never faces any trouble from the authorities.

“Why should we? (Armenians) have been here for 400 years. They are great to us,” he said, adding proudly that Christians fought alongside their fellow Iranians during the brutal war with Iraq in the 1980s. 

“There were 30 to 35 martyrs from our neighbourhood,” he said.

Thousands of Christians have emigrated to the United States and elsewhere since the Islamic revolution in 1979, leaving only 120,000 Christians according to the last official count.

Most are Armenian — who are Orthodox Christian — along with a few thousand Assyrian Catholics.

Despite the exodus, Christians are officially recognised and protected — along with Jews and Zoroastrians — under laws introduced by the revolution’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

There are limitations. Converting Muslims is illegal, which leads authorities to crack down on Persian-language Bibles. Services must be carried out in the original language of the ethnic group.

Human Rights Watch says Persian-speaking converts face persecution.

But there are none of those concerns at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in downtown Tehran on Christmas Eve, where it is standing-room only for the midnight mass, delivered in the Assyrian language.

Archbishop Ramzi Garmou tells AFP that Christianity in the region dates back to the second century when St Thomas passed through on his way to India.

Having once numbered in the tens of millions, the Christian community is now tiny, and Garmou says he normally sees only a few dozen for Sunday mass — not least because it’s a working day in Iran and traffic is horrendous.

“But I’ve always said that the strength of the church is not in the number of its followers but the faith they show in their daily lives,” he said.

And he is grateful that Iran is such an oasis of peace in a region beset by war, and in which Christians face mounting persecution.

“Thanks to God, we really live in peace and security, but our neighbours live in anguish and violence. We pray for them tonight,” he said.

Source: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/iran2016-12-24T17-20-34

Washington: Congressman Dave Trott selected as new Co-chair of Congressional Armenian Caucus

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The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) today welcomed Michigan Congressman David Trott as the new Republican Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues joining Caucus founder Frank Pallone, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) and David Valadao (R-CA) in leading bi-partisan efforts to advance Armenian American policy priorities and strengthen US – Armenia ties in the upcoming 115th Congress.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis will join the Caucus leadership team as Republican Vice-Chair alongside Rep. Adam Schiff.

Kolkata: Blue Santa and fruitless Armenian Christmas cakes

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Brunnel Arathoon with her children, decorating her Armenian Christmas cakes.

By Shamik Bag

 Under Mamata Banerjee, Christmas in Kolkata is tourist-friendly. But the city’s traditions, like the Armenian celebrations, continue to flourish.

Though born and brought up in Kolkata, it is only recently that Brunnel Arathoon, 36, started examining her Armenian roots. All these years, Arathoon says, she had only the one identity, of a Catholic; her paternal origins in the Eurasian country remained a footnote in family dinner-table conversations and a conundrum in social circles.

“I had absolutely no idea of my Armenian identity and the history surrounding it. After I got to know of my father’s side originating from Armenia before shifting to Kolkata, I started looking up the map of the country. It is nice to know where one goes back to,” says Arathoon.

For the first time, she has baked the traditional Armenian Christmas cakes— spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon and stuffed with walnuts, and, unlike most other Christmas cakes, without fruit. They are a marker of her Armenian roots, a country from where large numbers came to settle down in Kolkata and do business, as far back as the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

Though the British are popularly believed to have been the first Europeans in Kolkata in 1690—Job Charnock, an employee and administrator of the British East India Company, is regarded as the founder of the city now called Kolkata— the discovery of an Armenian tombstone in the city dating back to 11 July 1630 has pushed back Kolkata’s European links by at least another 60 years. The site of the tombstone of Rezabeebeh, “wife of the late charitable Sookias”, is the Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth near Burrabazar, built in 1707 and widely regarded as the oldest surviving church in Kolkata. It stands as a monument to the city’s earliest encounter with Christianity, even as the number of Armenians has dwindled to an official estimate of less than a hundred. Arathoon, however, contends there are many like her: uncounted Armenians grappling with issues of identity, since only Armenians who are baptized are counted.

Having bagged orders for 56 cakes within a few days of promoting her effort on Facebook, Arathoon hopes the world will now come to know of her Armenian background. “Christmas in Kolkata is as good a time (as any ) to spread the word,” says Arathoon.

We meet one evening at a café attached to a book store in the Park Street area. It’s a week before Christmas, and Park Street is a merry swirl of revellers in red and white Christmas caps, caught ethereally within a dazzle of blue and white lights. On 16 December, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the state government-organized Kolkata Christmas Festival in this area’s Allen Park. This nearly three-week-long festival, which has been organized since 2011, sees street-corner pop-rock concerts, dancing, choir performances, parades, Christmas merchandise, roadside stalls selling Anglo-Indian beef roasts and pork vindaloo, and a heady maze of festive illumination running across Park Street and the St Paul’s Cathedral-Victoria Memorial area. At around 14-15 degrees Celsius, this year’s winter temperature is just adding to the cheer.

On 25 December, Park Street turns into a pedestrian-only zone, with thousands of people in their Christmas finery taking it over. This year, Banerjee spoke about visiting churches at midnight on Christmas Eve even when she was not chief minister. Her comparison of Christmas celebrations to Durga Puja almost echoed the campus saying in Kolkata that describes 25 December as a day dedicated to “Jishu (Jesus) Pujo”—a day when many non-Christian Bengali homes will bake or buy cakes, party at clubs, visit the zoo, St Paul’s Cathedral or Park Street, perfectly at ease in their red Xmas caps.

Youngsters can often be seen in red Santa Claus clothes, complete with faux white beards, while the Santa illuminations put up by the Trinamool Congress-run state government glow in blue and white—red is not a colour it favours. Bengali gospel songs played over public address systems and Santa cutouts in dhotis complete the appropriation of the occasion by even those who are not Christians.

Armenia’s citizens consider new premier’s 100 days satisfactory

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The Transparency International Anticorruption Center (TIAC) has organized a discussion on “100 days of the premier.”

Sona Ayvazyan, TIAC Executive Director, said that 34.5% of Armenia’s citizens consider the new premier’s activities satisfactory, and 29.4% made a poor assessment. The survey involved 653 respondents.

In response to a question concerning the premier’s steps to raise the effectiveness of government spending, 31% of the respondents called them satisfactory, 33.8% poor, 16.7% were contented and 6.9% called them excellent. On the other hand 12.4% of the respondents consider the premier’s work very poor.

As to their assessment of the premier’s steps to improve Armenia’s business environment, 30.6% consider the steps poor, and 28% satisfactory.

Nelly Lazaryan

Armenian “Havresc” A DAVID & GOLIATH STORY IN IRAQ: An Interview with Filmmaker David Ritter

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By Lucine Kasbarian.

The Iraqi village of Havresc (originally called “Hay Vrej,” the Armenian words for “revenge through survival”) was once populated with Armenian Genocide survivors and their descendants.
 
Circa 1970, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s military destroyed villages, such as Havresc, that were minority strongholds, and pushed their inhabitants into cities in order to assimilate them. 
 
Following Saddam’s death in 2006, persecuted Iraqi Armenians with family roots in Havresc decided to return to the village.  With the rise of nearby ISIS forces several years later, Havresc became a safe haven. The Armenians were later joined by Assyrians and Yezidis.
 
Against all odds, this village of 150 families blossomed thanks to the leadership of Mayor Aslan Murad Vartanian, a Havresc native. He and Armenian elders persuaded compatriots to come back and rebuild the village. Sporting a handlebar moustache reminiscent of fedayee predecessors, Murad is now father and protector to all in Havresc.  Once a career special unit sniper in the Iraqi army, he today heads a citizen militia with support from neighboring Kurdish groups.  Murad’s home functions as an arsenal where, astonishingly, he and others restore and convert guns from WWI and WWII – some purchased, some found while farming – into modern weapons.
 
Heavily outnumbered, the Havresc militia has nevertheless beaten back ISIS on many occasions.  We know of their acts of bravery thanks to independent filmmaker David Ritter’s documentary, HAVRESC: Stand on Courage. 
 
Following is an interview with Ritter conducted by Lucine Kasbarian.
 
Lucine Kasbarian: Tell us about your professional and religious background.
 
David Ritter: I’m a filmmaker/documentarian who studied photography and video production. I come from a Roman Catholic background and eventually found myself as a “Roaming Catholic,” which means I visit and respect various Christian denominations and communities. Throughout my experiences and while befriending Middle Eastern Christians, the Orthodox sects became a fascination for me. Little of Christian Orthodox history and culture is known to the greater Christian community. I gravitate towards the Orthodox and see value in their rich history throughout the world. 
 
Kasbarian: How did you find and come to be interested in the people of Havresc?
 
Ritter: My time in Havresc was a result of my anger and frustration at what was happening to many religious and ethnic minorities over the past five years in Syria and Iraq. I resented that the “social justice crowd,” whose doctrines dominate our schools and media, had little to say about the horrors so many people there were and are facing. I was disgusted that world leaders and governments initially dismissed the attacks by ISIS and acted as if there was no threat from such groups. I wanted to support the Christian militias of Iraq and volunteer my services to them and their communities.
 
Through my channels, I was introduced to Jeff Gardner, a photojournalist who has spent much time in the Middle East.  

Jeff knew about my background as a filmmaker documenting the demographics of racial and ethnic minorities. My last feature-length film was entitled German Town: The Lost Story of Seaford Town, Jamaica. 

So Jeff felt that I should visit Havresc.  He had visited Havresc in 2013 and was gob-smacked by how amazing these people were, especially their leader, Aslan Murad. We agreed that this village and its story deserved documentation.
 
Kasbarian: Though the U.S. Congress unanimously approved and, as a result, the Obama Administration adopted in 2016 the term “genocide” to describe the horrors suffered by Christians and Yazidis at the hands of ISIS, would you speculate why mainstream media has made so little of the modern-day genocide of Christians in the Middle East?  
 
Ritter: To be fair, the Obama administration has spent the majority of its time stating that ISIS was not a threat, and the U.S. mainstream media followed its lead.
 
Most mainstream media have an agenda.  If I had to speculate, it is because they usually care about an issue only when the governments, corporations and special interests they cater to can benefit.
 
I think the obsession with political correctness is also part of this conversation. For instance, much of the media on the Progressive Left want people to think that owning a gun or arming yourself is intrinsically wrong. But guns are a safeguard in situations such as Havresc’s.  Armenians – as victims of state-sponsored genocide on their native lands – know very well how dangerous it can be for a civilian population to be prohibited from possessing arms.
 
My documentary spotlights Havresc men explaining that guns saved their families and community.
 
Obviously, the concept of gun control is highly problematic in such situations.
 
Indeed, most mainstream media want people to see militiamen as dangerous to society. True, some militia members are threats, but others are not.  It  depends on the circumstances and the militia’s purpose. A gun in the hand of a responsible person can be used to defend and save endangered lives rather than harm innocent people.
 
Kasbarian: Why do you think Middle Eastern Christians – the oldest Christians on record – have been largely abandoned by their Christian brethren around the world?
 
 
Ritter: There are a few reasons.  One is “political correctness” – that is, Westerners defending co-religionists elsewhere is viewed as a bit chauvinist.  
 
Many Western churches function like businesses.  Defending Christians overseas does not increase their bottom line.
 
And some of these churches and their leaders are afraid.  They have seen what happens when people confront Islamic extremists:  media outlets are bombed and journalists killed.  Fear holds people back.
 
But there are clergy, churches and Christians who are doing all they can to aid the Christian communities of Iraq.  I met them while I was there, few as they are.  In my travels, Christians have stepped forward to help the Syrian and Iraqi people.  More would follow suit if they had the leadership and information to do so. 
 
Kasbarian:  We hear about Middle Eastern Christians avoiding refugee camps for fear of abduction and abuse and, moreover, not approaching the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) nor applying for immigration status because they feel they will largely be passed over. In this context, one can better understand why some Christians would prefer to endure or resist in endangered zones. Please speak about this phenomenon.
 
Ritter: The truth is these Christians would, indeed, most likely be passed over. It took nearly five years for anyone to acknowledge that Christians and Yazidis were even an endangered people in the Middle East. They were – and still are – the primary targets for ISIS and Jihadist violence.
 
For me to explain the attitudes of Western leaders who create policies that are unmindful of Christians, I would have to adopt the mindset of a globalist. I refuse to do that. 
 
These policies may also have some basis in simple ignorance.  I have met many non-governmental organization (NGO) workers and United Nations members over the years, most of whom meant well.  But the isolation within which many of them exist on the ground, and their lack of understanding of the inner politics and cultures of the countries in which they work, is stunning. Poor management may also play a role.
 
There could also be more pernicious reasons. For example, many EU leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as the Obama administration, seem fixated on supporting more Islamic migration into Europe and the U.S. – but not Christian or Yazidi refugees. 
 
Kasbarian:  An aid worker predicts that Havresc will grow. Do you agree? Could publicizing Havresc attract greater threats?  One viewer at a screening said that beating back ISIS is a short-term solution and that in the long run, the villagers should move to Armenia. Expediency may encourage one to flee. But attachments may dictate otherwise. Is it crucial to relocate to foreign lands – or to Armenia, for that matter – when the people already there are unemployed and conditions are uncertain? 
 
Ritter: I’m not certain about Havresc’s future, but so far much has been done in a short period of time.  Havresc actually faced more attacks when the village was getting no media coverage at all, so neither Murad nor I think media exposure will hurt. Being in the open can be a better tactic than having nobody know about you.
 
ISIS is just one of many threats and risks to villages such as Havresc.  But even running away may not work.   Would you necessarily be safer in North America? Germany? France? England? Have we not seen massive attacks in those places on an almost weekly basis?
 
During the San Bernardino, California shootings in 2015 where Pakistani-American extremists killed 14 people and injured 22 at a county employee event in what the FBI called an act “inspired by foreign terrorist groups,” I was in Havresc with Murad in his living room watching the news. Murad pointed to the TV, looked at Jeff and me, and said, “You see? Now it’s coming to you in America. It won’t stop. This is their plan.”
 
Kasbarian:  You have been present at your U.S. film screenings from coast to coast. What’s next? And why do you think the general topic of your film is of interest primarily to Assyrian and Armenian circles but ignored by the mainstream media?  
 
Ritter: I’m hoping for many more screenings in the U.S., Canada and Europe. But in the end, my goal is to go back to Iraq and/or Syria to help while there’s still a need.  When I address the issues of radical groups like ISIS, too many people I know who follow mainstream media will express apathy, become defensive or change the subject.  Sometimes they claim that “Christians are just as violent as ISIS.”  
 
This is what their media has led them to believe, I suppose. Then again, I have met people across the political spectrum – from the Left to the Right – who agree that ISIS and Islamic extremism is a serious threat to the world.  I also think most Americans agree that radical Islamic Jihadists are a real danger. 
 
However, American and European mass media is more interested in demonizing Syrian President Assad than ISIS.  Mainstream media function as gatekeepers of information. If they cannot control the narrative and the people relaying the information, then they ignore or discredit the people relaying the information. 
 
There is a trend in globalist mass media to diminish the relevance of racial, ethnic, cultural and religious differences among peoples.  On the other hand, other media and some progressives call Western people racist or xenophobic when they show a love for their heritage or religion.
 
Could there be people in high places who enjoy seeing certain cultures and religions wiped out?  I have met such people.  
 
The Havresc documentary, however, shows men and women holding strong to their Christian faith and ethnic identities. They are proud of their Armenian and Assyrian ancestries and all that comes with it. 
 
Kasbarian: Speaking of mainstream media in the U.S. and Europe depicting national or ethnic pride as xenophobia, how can Westerners deal with this?
 
Ritter: It is important not to conflate patriotic ideals and non-extremist forms of nationalism with supremacist ideas. You can love Armenian, Greek or German culture and desire to protect your culture and nation without possessing a desire to harm others.  Our media and educational institutions throw around words such as “racist” and “xenophobic” too loosely.  
 
People must ask themselves whether such strong terms are always appropriate, or whether they instead induce a Pavlovian response that stigmatizes the targets of these terms.
 
Words are being used as if they are “Newspeak” – the controlled language created by the totalitarian state in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984.  Governments, advocacy groups, media and people alike should define their grievances and positions rather than stigmatize the views of others with loaded terms. 
 
Kasbarian: As an independent filmmaker, what’s your take on mainstream media attempting to silence truth tellers and freedom of expression by disparaging independent and alternative news media by calling their reportage fake?  
 
Ritter: The term “fake news” is being used by many to attack independent reporting whose facts and opinions conflict with mainstream narratives and with people and institutions in high political positions.
 
Note that politicians who voted for wars and conflicts like the invasion of Iraq – and used false information to sway the public into agreement – peddled fake news.  For example, the public was told about Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction.”  These weapons were never found.  The public was told ISIS was not a threat by these same politicians and their media outlets. That itself was fake news.
 
There is such a thing as fake news. It circulates throughout the Internet, sometimes created by paranoid people on grass roots levels. But far more fake news comes from mainstream media outlets that are government and corporate-sponsored. 
 
Let us not conflate fake news with dissent and genuine questioning. Hillary Clinton claimed she was once under “sniper fire” in Bosnia.  That turned out to be fake news.
 
Why are citizen journalists the ones being attacked for fake news when politicians, government outlets and mass media have been caught throughout the years fabricating news or simply not reporting the facts?
 
Kasbarian: Aslan Mourad says, “We Armenians live like the lion and if necessary, we will die like the lion.” His words speak to the moral courage and dignity of the Armenians. Can the story of Havresc empower others? 
 
Ritter: I hope this documentary inspires all minorities and majority nations and groups to take a stance to protect themselves, their culture and religion from people who wish to harm them and destroy the things they love. I think people should have militias and guns even if they are not endangered – just as we have fire extinguishers in our homes. We do not buy a fire extinguisher after our home has turned to ash. We buy it before that happens so we can stop a fire before it destroys everything. 
 
Kasbarian: Imagery of Kurdish leader, Massoud Barzani, is prevalent in Aslan Murad’s home in northern Iraq, which is in the Kurdish 
region.  Is having such imagery a matter of basic survival for Murad and Havresc?
 
Ritter: I cannot comment on Murad’s political connections, but he is working with many Kurdish people – a reality of living and working in Iraqi Kurdistan  – where all operate under Kurdish authority and work together for a bright future.  In order to have a functioning security force, Havresc has to go through proper political channels. That’s the law and reality now. No Christian community in Kurdistan can operate as an island unto itself. 
 
Kasbarian:  How can we support Havresc?
 
Ritter: Anything sent to www.Echo612.org goes straight to Havresc.  I am funding this film screening tour from my own pocket and from the money we collect at events from DVD and admission sales and the donations from institutions that host the events.  I give 30 percent of what we make at each event to Echo612 to help Havresc.   The donations will purchase food, medicine and basic aid for residents until things are secure and stable. It is not a long-term program. The people of Havresc do not want to be on a welfare system. They want to be independent and self-sustaining. 
 
The next screening of Havresc: Stand on Courage will be in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on January 19, 2017: 
 
To invite the filmmaker to screen this documentary in your area, contact David Ritter at: ritter.david.david@gmail.com
 
For details, visit: http://havresc.com/
 
To donate to the village of Havresc, visit: http://www.echo612.org/
 
About the interviewer:

Lucine Kasbarian is a syndicated journalist and political cartoonist. Visit: http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/Lucine_Kasbarian


 

Armenians pay tribute to killed Russian ambassador to Turkey & Berlin Christmas market attack

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Young activists of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) on Tuesday conducted a commemoration march to the Russian Embassy to pay respect to Andrei Karlov, the assassinated Russian ambassador to Turkey.

Simultaneously, another public gathering was organized outside the German Embassy in Yerevan to commemorate the 12 victims of the recent attack at the Berlin Christmas market.

The crowd, led by Karen Avagyan, observed a moment of silence, condemning the tragic shooting that claimed a human life.
Ambassador Karlov was gunned down at an art exhibition in Ankara as he was making a speech in a photography gallery event.
“Turkey is plunging into terrorism, and the recent act is sure to have its impact on the Russia-Turkey relations,” a young Republican said,