US Names New Destroyer After Armenian Navy Secretary

The Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, announced last month that the next Arleigh Burke-class destroyers (DDG) will be named USS Paul Ignatius and USS Daniel Inouye. Paul Robert Ignatius (born November 11, 1920) was an American government official who served as Secretary of the Navy between 1967 and 1969 and was the Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Lyndon Johnson administration.Ignatius was born in 1920, Glendale, California, the son of Armenian parents who migrated to the United States.

“As secretary of the Navy it is my privilege to name these ships to honor a respected naval leader and a true American hero.” Mabus said. “For decades to come, the future USS Paul Ignatius and USS Daniel Inouye will represent the United States and enable the building of partnerships and projection of power around the world.”

The future USS Paul Ignatius (DDG 117) honors Paul Ignatius who served as secretary of the Navy 1967–1969 and as assistant secretary of defense under President Lyndon Johnson. The future USS Daniel Inouye (DDG 118) is named to honor former Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii. Inouye was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Tuscany, Italy, during World War II and later became a U.S. senator. USS Paul Ignatius and USS Daniel Inouye will be the first naval ships to bear these names.

Arleigh Burke-class destroyers conduct a variety of operations from peacetime presence and crisis management to sea control and power projection. They are capable of fighting air, surface and subsurface battles simultaneously and contain a myriad of offensive and defensive weapons designed to support maritime warfare.

source: http://asbarez.com/110534/us-names-new-destroyer-after-armenian-navy-secretary/

Morningstar Banned from Visiting Djulfa

Djulfa monument destruction (Graphic by Simon Maghakyan)

Urges U.S. Ambassador to Keep Pressing for Visit to Desecrated Christian Armenian Religious Site

WASHINGTON—The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has called on U.S. Ambassador to Baku, Richard Morningstar, to honor his commitment to the U.S. Senate to secure access to the site, in Djulfa, Nakhichevan, of the Azerbaijani government’s 2005 video-taped destruction of a medieval Armenian cemetery housing thousands of intricately carved Armenian stone-crosses (khatchkars).

In a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Baku Monday, Ambassador Morningstar stated that, when he was recently in Nakhchivan, he “discussed at length with local authorities one such site in Julfa, where, according to evidence from credible sources, an ancient Armenian cemetery was desecrated or destroyed. I regret that the authorities, citing security reasons, made it impossible for me to visit the site and personally see what is there.” Read the complete text.

“Ambassador Morningstar cannot take no for an answer,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “He can either keep knocking on the Ilham Aliyev’s door until this baseless ban is lifted, or simply travel to the site of the Djulfa cemetery on his own. Either way, it’s clear that, as Americans, we should neither sell arms to an Azerbaijani military that destroys cemeteries, nor send any aid to a government in Baku that blocks U.S. ambassadors from visiting sites of peace-time cultural desecration.”

In response to questions by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) during his confirmation hearing, in June of 2012, Ambassador Morningstar had committed to “make every effort to visit the cemetery and that any kind of desecration such as that is unacceptable, outrageous and I will do my best to get there, and soon.” He also said he would: “amplify our concerns to the Government of Azerbaijan and stress the need to respect and safeguard Armenian religious and cultural sites in Azerbaijan.”

In his recent statement regarding Djulfa, Ambassador Morningstar spoke of Azerbaijan’s “diverse cultural heritage,” while remaining silent on the virulently and violently anti-Armenia policies of the Aliyev government, including its escalating pattern of fatal cross-border attacks, and its recent pardon and promotion of Ramil Safarov, who axed to death an Armenian in his sleep during a NATO-sponsored peace training program in Hungary.

Click here for more information about the history of the Djulfa Armenian cemetery and its destruction, during peace-time, by uniformed soldiers, acting under orders.

Click here for a timeline on the international response to the Djulfa Cemetery destruction and Azerbaijan’s obstruction of an investigation.

source: http://asbarez.com/106331/anca-calls-on-morningstar-to-reject-bakus-ban-on-access-to-djulfa-cemetery/

Lies and Hateful Slander by the Baltimore Sun

Article referred to: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-09-10/news/bs-ed-armenia-dispute-20120910_1_armenian-army-stokes-caucasus-feud-safarov

I’m not sure which is worse: An axe murderer claimed as a hero or his exemplary behaviour’s pardon in an American widely distributed newspaper. Furthermore, the Baltimore Sun has published not only an article in which the details of the crime committed have been altered, but Armenia and her people are represented as nothing better than murderous savages. It’s a sad day when ill written and unedited articles are carelessly published in reputable agencies of ‘truth”. One would now wonder what, if anything, written in this newspaper is indeed truth, especially when the details of both the murder and the hailing of a coward as a hero are well known and thoroughly documented. It is sheer negligence on the editor’s part to allow such unforgivably skewed material to appear as part of the largest generally-circulated newspaper in all of Maryland.

I would like to direct the reader’s attention to a few lines that have me bemused.

“So when he engaged in a deadly fight with an Armenian military officer it was against someone who represented everything that’s wrong with today’s world.”-

1.  The details of what occurred can be found here
2. Armenians represent everything that is wrong with the world today? I didn’t know poverty-stricken landlocked countries belonging to one of the oldest civilizations in the world could ever warrant such a description. I daresay, it’s almost flattering! Who would think that a mere couple of million people out of the multiple billion could represent everything evil.. the Devil himself must be green with envy!
3. Forget the measly few million, a single man represents all the world’s evils… I’m utterly flabbergasted! To think, Armenians are on of more pious people of the world, criticized constantly for their sheep at a slaughter mentality….

“The Obama administration and Congress should instead take the courageous step of officially recognizing the Azerbaijani Genocide and the Khojaly Massacre — the biggest crime against humanity in the entire Caucasus during the second half of the 20th century.”-

1. Khojali is a complicated issue- My research on it can be found here
2. What in God’s name is the Azerbaijani Genocide? Genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFPch5OILfU) and the legal meaning of the word is: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
3. There was never any intention of destroying a people on the Armenians’ part- No proof of this exists nor is there any motive present. The Artsakh war was fought to liberate lands handed over to Azerbaijan, where Armenians were a majority but treated as inferiors. A war was fought and won and the land now belongs to the Armenians once again.
4. I beg to bring to the reader’s attention the massacres of Sumgait and Baku. Maraga joined the list in 1992- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6ZAf4DdHI8
5. The biggest crime against humanity currently lies in the fact that no Armenian is allowed into Azerbaijan. There are, however, Azeris living in Armenia, married to Armenians, comfortable in their settings but lamenting the closed borders and lack of access to see family sealed on the other side of the invisible wall.

“That would assure that U.S. foreign policy has not been hijacked by the Armenian special interests that are bankrolling the statements of the Obama administration and Congress this election year.”

1. I’m not sure whether to be shocked or to laugh at this absurd proclamation…. Armenia is a poor country with a few rich people who couldn’t care less what nationality they belong to- They definitely will not be buying out any politicians…. the ANCA is a lobby group that works to push the interests of a rather sizeable American minority in Washington. I highly doubt the grassroots organization has the means to buy anyone out either. The absurdity of this claim is only amplified by the fact that a few months ago, a scandal arose in which it was discovered that a pro-Turkish US politician was receiving large amounts of money from Turkish organizations for unknown reasons.
2. If US foreign policy had been hijacked by Armenians, America would have not only recognized the Armenian genocide, but condemned Turkey and placed pressure on its current rather strong ally to right the wrongs in her history.
3. I highly doubt Armenians will be voting for Obama this time around, since we are only human and broken promises aren’t forgotten easily.

I would urge complaints to be directed to customersatisfaction@baltsun.com

The power lies in the people. No news agency should be allowed to get away with inciting hatred and spreading undue lies.

 

 

Armenians in World Politics: Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana

Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana, born on September 14,1963, is a Mexican diplomat. He is the current Ambassador of Mexico to the United States, a former Consul General at New York City, and served as foreign policy coordinator in Felipe Calderón’s presidential campaign and transition team (February – November 2006).

His grandfather, Artur Sarukhanian, was a Russian Armenian aide to the 2nd Minister-Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government,Alexander Kerensky. After Kerensky was overthrown by the Bolsheviks, Sarukhanian moved to Venice, Italy where he trained at the Mekhitarist seminary. Sarukhán’s grandmother fled to Thessaloniki, Greece during the Armenian Genocide, then moved to Venice, where she met and later married Sarukhanian. Shortly after Benito Mussolini came to power, they left Italy for Mexico.

On his mother’s side, Sarukhan is a descendant of Spanish Republican refugees. The Casamitjanas, a Catalan family, crossed the Pyrenees into France at the end of the Civil War and after the fall of Barcelona, and were held in a French concentration camp. They sought asylum in Mexico, when then President Lázaro Cárdenas welcomed thousands of Spanish Republicans who fled after the victory of Francisco Franco’s fascist forces.

Sarukhan graduated from El Colegio de México with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and received a master’s degree in U.S. Foreign Policy at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., where he studied as a Fulbright scholar and Ford Foundation Fellow. In 1988–1989, before joining Mexico’s Foreign Service, Sarukhan served as the Executive Secretary of the Commission for the Future of Mexico-US relations, a non-governmental initiative funded by the Ford Foundation to recast the Mexico-US relationship.

He has served in different posts at the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs. In 1991, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs and during that period he also represented Mexico at the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL). In 1993, he was posted to the Embassy of Mexico in Washington DC and was the Chief of Staff to the Ambassador, during the NAFTA negotiations. In 1995 he was put in charge of the office for antinarcotics in the same diplomatic mission. In 2000–2003, Sarukhan was designated Chief of Policy Planning to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and served as Consul General in New York City in 2003–2006.

As an academic, he has taught several courses at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), at the National Defense College, at the Inter-American Defense College and at the National Defense University of the United States.

On 3 February 2006, he requested a leave of absence from the Foreign Service and left his post at the Consulate General in New York City to join Felipe Calderón’s presidential campaign as international spokesperson and coordinator of foreign affairs.

He was appointed Ambassador to the United States on 27 January 2007.

Sarukhan is member of several organizations. He is vice-chair of the Executive Council on Diplomacy Ambassadors Advisory Board, Board member of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas; Advisory Board member of the Post Classical Ensemble; member of the Advisory Board of the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, and ex-officio member of the Board of Directors of the US-Mexico Foundation. He is a recipient of the Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit of the Kingdom of Spain, and has been awarded the insignia of Commander of the Order of the Polar Star of the Kingdom of Sweden. In November 2010, he was presented with the B’nai B’rith Excellence in Diplomacy Award.

In October 2009, Sarukhan became the first Ambassador in Washington, D.C. to have a personal Twitter account.