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Harut Sassounian
California Courier Editor
Harut Sassounian is the publisher of The California Courier, a weekly newspaper based in Glendale, Calif. He is the president of the Armenia Artsakh Fund, a non-profit organization that has donated to Armenia and Artsakh one billion dollars of humanitarian aid, mostly medicines, since 1989 (including its predecessor, the United Armenian Fund). He has been decorated by the presidents of Armenia and Artsakh and the heads of the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches. He is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
was mikoyan not also the originator of the russian MIG fighter plane which is the front line fighter in the russian arsenal. it is a shame that these great, powerful armenian men could not do more for the recognition and reparations of the genocide.
His brother, Artem Mikoyan, was one of the founders of Mikoyan Gurevich Design Bureau, of MiG for short.
Mikoyan certainly called out President Nixon for not liberating all of the oppressed, and it’s interesting to see how President Nixon skirted around the issue, stating that the United States wouldn’t engage in those “subversive activities”. It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to look back at past interactions between world leaders, and compare it to where we are today as a society. I’m sure if I shared this interaction on other social media websites, it would get people talking about such historical times, and how they have shaped the world we are in today. I appreciated how “wily” Mikoyan was as a leader, making his and Nixon’s interaction that much more interesting!
No. That was his brother, Artem Mikoyan.
Mikoyan had a unique talent for surviving such a long time at the top of USSR leadership, while many of his peers had been victims of Stalin’s purges and assassinations. Unfortunately, Mikoyan’s talents served only himself, not the Armenian people. He does not deserve to have a statue in Yerevan.
Mikoyan used the subject of Armenian oppression (Genocide) as a means to put Nixon on the defensive in this conversation. As you pretty much explain, his first loyalty was to the Soviet Union – Armenia maybe second, if that (as was naturally required for his position). the double standard that Mikoyan exposed, by the way, continues to this day sadly.
Very interesting!
would u rather have Mykoyan as we have him now…….or nobody would even know such a great name…..including his brother……..as other millions unknown to us bec of Stalin?
Thanks for keeping us updated with Armenian news.
Anastas Mikoyan was one of the greatest Armenian leaders of modern times. He is not well understood/appreciated today only because of the decades long anti-Soviet propaganda put out by Dashnak and Western powers. It is due to men like Mikoyan, and the realpolitik they pursued, that we have an Armenia today.
I’m not surprised that you praise an Armenian loyal to a foreign state before his own, since this is perfectly in tune with your other anti-Armenian rhetoric and “Russia is the beginning and end to all” loyalty. People like you who talk about “Dashnak” are no different than what type of rhetoric Turks and Azeris make, but with a Russki twist this time. And BTW Getse Tashnagsoutioun for CREATING Armenia for the first time in 500 years and pissing your Russia off for doing so! No Russian Bolshevik in a MILLION YEARS would have created Armenia for Armenians. Thank God for our REAL heroes like Antranig who saved what was left of Armenia from Bolsheviks and Turks and Karekin who saved Armenia from Bolsheviks and Azeris.
“The reality is that the Soviet Union did not defend the rights of the Armenians in Turkey.”
Furthermore, Soviet Russia certainly did not defend the rights of the Armenians in Artsakh, Nakhichevan, and Javakhk, when it illegally gave away these three Armenian provinces in a failed attempt to persuade Turkey to become a Soviet republic.
And almost a hundred years later, Russia (who pretends to be Armenia’s ally) is again not defending the rights of Armenians by selling four billion dollars worth of military arms to Armenia’s mortal enemy (Azerbaijan), with many more military arms to be sold to the Azerbaijanis within the near future.
As for the Yerevan City Council’s extremely absurd decision to erect a statue in honor of that anti-Armenian of Anastas Mikoyan, it’s quite obvious that they are attempting to please Russia, who happened to be so extremely displeased with the erection of Garegin Nzhdeh’s majestic statue, in the center of Yerevan, back in 2016.
The Russians have been a much better ally to us than Nzdeh ever was as a “leader”. To think he ever had contacts with the Germans, a people who helped Turks annihilate us in WW1, is frightening. His statue is not majestic at all, but rather a sad reminder that Tovmas Nazarbekian, Aram Manukian, Christopher Araratov, and Andranik Ozanian are not appreciated enough for their contributions to the survival of the Armenian Nation in comparison with that two-timing traitor Garegin Nzdeh.
Uncle Joe, who never forsake his beloved Georgia beside his Bolshevik ideologies, took friendly stupid comrade Mykoyan’s territory named Javakht, with entire Armenian population, where numerous Armenian noblemen born and died there, annexed to his beloved homeland, now people like you praising him because he had an Armenian surname! Shame on you! The only person as a tue Armenian, that I appreciate his brother, who created MYG fighter jets for USSR, brainer, who never failed in his field!Now you can blame Dasnaks and West, for your stupidness!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artem_Mikoyan
Mikoyan placed his personal interests above his ethnicity, many times he executed reckless orders from above at the expense of Armenians and his native land just to secure higher powers in the Supreme Soviet. Sadly, this is how he is remembered and his memory is tarnished within Armenia and its people.
Mikoyan was a selfish politician, what he did to keep himself in his high governmental position. He never cared for the Armenians. In 1918 our great dignitaries and personalities established the Armenian Republic with their clear mind, speech and hard work with dignity, integrity and devotion they put the base for free, independent Armenian government. Unfortunately In 1921 the bolsheviks destroyed it. And now we see the fruits of the bolsheviks.
I have noticed that many Armenians criticize Mikoyan for not placing Armenia above The Soviet Union. Let me ask this then.
Where is the same criticism of Garegin Nzdeh? The man who put faith in a race obsessed madman from Austria because it served a narrow minded purpose to “liberate” Armenia from the Soviet Union. The same man that many diasporans hold up as a hero almost had our country erased because he was a rabid anti-communist.
For those who don’t know, German high circles and elitists viewed Armenians as a “lesser people”. This is despite the Aryan classification given to Armenians by the Nazis. Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels all praised Kemal Ataturk and his campaign to eradicate “undesired” people from the Anatolian peninsula, Armenian Highlands, and the southern Caucasus. The turks were a good example of a warrior nation, while the Armenians were the “Jews of the Orient”, a stereotype given to them by Imperial Germany ( an Ottoman ally) in WW1.
Had Germany succeeded in Stalingrad and the Caucasus, Turkey would have requested that the Armenians be deported or slaughtered, and the Germans would have agreed to it because they always expressed a desire for good relations with Turkey.
With that being said, what is with the venom toward Mikoyan? At least under the Soviets, our survival was guaranteed. Under the Third Reich, we surely would have suffered a horrible fate. So why did Nzdeh, knowing that Imperial Germany in WW1 and Nazi Germany in WW2 were more Pro-Turkish, engage them at all? Or is that the only mark of a proud Armenian? To be mindlessly nationalistic and isolationist? Mikoyan was not ideal, but at least be consistent.