Yegparian: Mishmosh

This week’s going to be a medley of topics appearing on my radar screen. Hopefully, given all the Thanksgiving eating you’ll have done by the time you read this, you won’t get indigestion from the strange mixture, not to mention this interconnection of metaphors.

Last Friday, I had the honor of interpreting for Artsakh’s President Bako Sahagian at the Orange County World Affairs Council dinner. What added spice to that event were the picketers outside and the questions inside. I was told the “Turks” were outside. By the time I went out to look, they were gone. Perhaps it was the same group of Azeris who were also inside and submitted a number of questions, at least some of which were asked. They received good responses from Sahagian. Then they were outside picketing again as people were leaving. Ridiculously, one of the picketers was holding a sign that read “I AM FROM SHOUSHI…” but confessed he wasn’t from that city! They got minimal, if any, mileage out of their presence, but it did add excitement.

Of course Sahagian’s in the LA area because the Armenian Fund Telethon physically occurs here. Let’s hope it does better than ever, so homeland infrastructural improvements can continue.

Unfortunately, I missed a celebration of Woodrow Wilson’s Arbitral Award held at the Glendale Public Library and organized by the Defense Council of Western Armenia. This is another manifestation of the very important and growing interest in taking action to recover Turkish-occupied lands.

Now that we’ve moved to Turkey-related issues, I was incensed twice today. First, I learned that the commander of Lebanon’s defense forces had ordered the removal of signs protesting Erdogan’s visit to Lebanon along part of the main highway there. Our parliamentarians there are pursuing the matter. But being incensed was not enough; revulsion also set in when I learned that one of the leading Turcophiles in the U.S. Jewish community, Abe Foxman, will be speaking at the LA World Affairs Council event on Dec. 8, at 7:30 p.m., Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. Can anyone spell p-i-c-k-e-t?

But Foxman’s gig presents a dilemma, since at the very same time, probably about two miles away, is a panel organized as part of the series of Armenians and Progressive Politics presentations. If you’re not picketing, you should be at the Hollywood Armenian Center for this program, which starts at 7 pm.

Finally, regarding a topic I’ve written about before, there’s good news. The formal opening of the LA River Bike Path is at 10 a.m. on Dec. 4 (details at http://la-bike.org/glendale/). You’ll recall this facility is something that is readily available to everyone and is particularly close to two of our LA area ghettos.

Unfortunately, the bike path opening presents yet another conflict. That’s the same day as the academic conference being held at the University of Southern California about the ARF, on the occasion of its 120^th anniversary.

Make sure to get out to some of this stuff. You’ll come away enriched.

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Garen Yegparian

Asbarez Columnist

Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.

Latest posts by Garen Yegparian (see all)

• Drones for Armenia - November 15, 2022
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