WASHINGTON—Armenian Americans from the Greater Washington, D.C. area condemned ongoing Azerbaijani aggression and honored the memory of its latest victim, Arman Yepremyan, at a June 28 protest in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy, set to coincide with the closing ceremonies of the European Games in Baku, reported the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).
“We gathered at the Azerbaijani Embassy today to denounce Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev’s repeated attacks against Armenia and Artsakh, and to remember Arman Yepremyan and all the young men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure peace and freedom for the Armenian Homeland and stability in the Caucasus region,” said ARF “Sebouh” Gomideh Chairman Aram Sarafian, Esq. “No amount of public relations spending, or the extravagant hosting of the first European Games, can whitewash Azerbaijan’s crackdown against journalists and rights activists in their own country and ongoing ceasefire violations, which undermine prospects for a lasting Karabagh peace.”
Arman Mayisi Yepremyan was killed on the Nakhichevan border on Fri., June 26, raising concerns of yet another Azerbaijan-initiated escalation of violence this summer. Hundreds have been killed as a result of the Aliyev regime’s ceasefire violations over the past 20 years, with 2014 being among the bloodiest. Yepremyan’s death came one day after President Aliyev made outlandish statements laying claim to all of Armenia, stating, “Not only Nagorno-Karabagh is ours, but even the present-day Armenia was created on historical Azerbaijani lands. We all know that. Already the world knows about it. Erevan [Yerevan] khanate, Goyche, Zangezur mahal—these are our historical lands, and we, Azerbaijanis, must return to this land.”
“President Aliyev’s warmongering should be publicly condemned by the OSCE Minsk Group, charged to mediate a lasting Artsakh peace,” continued Sarafian. “Similarly, the European Olympics Commission and other international sporting organizations must not allow brutal dictators to use athletes to cover up atrocities and human rights violations.”
Over the past two weeks, Baku’s bid to boost its international image by spending billions of dollars to host the European Games largely backfired, with a steady stream of articles and op-eds that spotlighted Aliyev’s arrest and incarceration of journalists and human rights leaders appearing in top international publications, including the Guardian, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and lampooned on John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight,” available here:
https://youtu.be/N8f3knzPOlg.Members of the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) “Ani” Chapter and the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Leo Sarkisian Internship program participated in the protest, which was part of an international effort to educate elected officials and media about the Aliyev regime’s destabilizing role in the Caucasus.
Images from the protest are available on the ARF “Sebouh” Gomideh Facebook page.
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Good protest guys.
You’re doing a great job.
What an extremely foolish idea it was for Sargsyan to allow those precious Armenian athletes to go to Baku and participate in the “European Games” of Armenia’s mortal enemy (Azerbaijan), whose leader, Sultan Aliyev, continuously declares that the Armenian Nation must be destroyed. And this is how Sargsyan protects the athletes of Armenia? How shameful!
You can’t hide the truth from the Internet. Armenians are doing the right thing by spreading awareness.
That’s exactly what Azerbaijan and Turkey endeavor to do now, with slanderous Armenian Genocide Denial websites, and international lobby groups funded by a richly funded infrastructure, supported by both countries:
The “Tall Armenian Tale” hate site is only the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to Armenian Genocide Denial websites, and slanderous Turkish Internet propaganda, directed against the global Armenian community, as well as Armenia itself. These websites even take photographs of Armenian Genocide Victims, and then make a false claim that they are photographic evidence of Turkish victims. They use shills like Justin McCarthy, and others, to create a fantasy world of genocide denial claims. Thriving in the Western Armenian Highlands, have been
Then we have the Khojaly Massacre fabrications (February, 1992), described as a so called genocide, by Turkey and Azerbaijan, even though it was an isolated incident, with a death toll of a few hundred by some estimates, and not more than 750 at the most, if we accept the highest estimates. In fact, Azerbaijan’s military units, in the Agdam Area, were responsible for massacring refugees, from Khojaly. The Khojaly refugees were massacred near Adgam, beyond the reach of Armenians military units whom had escorted the refugees to Azeri front lines. In fact, Agdam was controlled by Azeri military units, until a year later, in 1993, when their positions were overrun by an Armenian offensive.
Immediately after Armenian forces captured Khojaly, there was a media blitz, stemming from news magazines, which accepted the Turkish and Azeri versions, without questioning their validity. Photographs of massacred Khojaly refugees were painted across cover pages of the magazines, in February, 1992.Eventually the truth was revealed through careful examination and research, and facts do support the Armenian version, which included a number of points, some of which I don’t present here.
Azerbaijan’s photographic evidence of the Khojaly massacre has been thoroughly discredited and debunked. Many of the so called Khojaly victims are drawn from photographs taken out of context, from other tragedies, including Kurdish earthquake victims, victims of the recent Balkan Wars, and many other similar examples. While, some photographs did show massacred Khojaly refugees, these were taken by Azerbaijan’s photographers, in the Agdam area, still in their control.
Not only did the Khojaly Massacre serve the interests of a coup, in 1992, but it also served Azerbaijan’s motives for slander against Armenia, because they themselves were already embarrassed by savage pogroms against Armenians, perpetrated by Azeri thugs in Sumgait, Kirovabad, Baku, and elsewhere, as well.
Azerbaijan oil wealth, and Turkey’s strategic NATO position have served to provide a well funded and well organized Internet campaign, for the dispersal of slanderous falsehoods against Armenia, Artzakh, and the global Armenian Diaspora. Armenian countermeasures against slander and genocide denial propaganda, are outgunned, and diaspora grass roots funds must take on the government propaganda budgets of Turkey and Azerbaijan.