SEPTEMBER 5, 2020 MMirror-SpeirTHEror-SpeARMENIAN ctator Volume LXXXXI, NO. 8, Issue 4650 $ 2.00 NEWS The First English Language Armenian Weekly in the United States Since 1932 IN BRIEF Roma Auctioning Turkey Declares Henrikh Mkhitaryan Itself Party to Shirt to Benefit BLM ROME (PanARMENIAN.Net) — A Roma home shirt worn by Henrikh Mkhitaryan during the Roma-Fiorentina match in July 2020 has been put Karabakh Conflict up for auction to support the Black Lives Matter movement, the team announced on August 28. ISTANBUL (RFE/RL) — Turkey’s strong support for Azerbaijan The shirt bears the special “Black lives matter - makes it a party to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkish Defense Together” patch, a symbol of the club’s commit- Minister Hulusi Akar said on Thursday, August 27. ment to combating the phenomenon of racism after “Turkey is also a party to the conflict, standing with a brotherly the recent events that have shocked the United state and defending its rights,” Akar told the Turkish Anatolia news States, AS Roma said on the page of the auction. agency. The killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black Successive Turkish governments have unconditionally backed man in Minneapolis, sparked protests all over the Azerbaijan in the conflict, reflecting close cultural and ethnic ties world, with hundreds of thousands of people between the two Turkic nations. They have refused to establish diplo- marching against racism. In Rome, Roma manager matic relations with Armenia and kept the Turkish-Armenian border Paulo Fonseca and his players all took a knee closed. They have has also provided military assistance to Azerbaijan. before training at Trigoria to show their support for Black Lives Matter. see, TURKEY, page 4 Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar The proceeds from the auction will go to support Roma Cares for the promotion of initiatives to com- bat racism among the youngest. Now, for the remainder of the Serie A season, the Armenia in Talks With AS Roma team are wearing a special patch on their left sleeve which features the words ‘Black Lives Russia Over Another Matter’ along with ‘ASSIEME’ – meaning Together, Fighter Jet Deal the campaign Roma Cares launched during the Covid-19 crisis. YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Armenia is holding The team will wear the patch for a total of 12 talks with Russia to buy more Sukhoi Su-30SM Serie A games. fighter jets for its armed forces, Defense Minister The club is auctioning off match-worn shirts, fea- Davit Tonoyan said over the weekend. turing the Black Lives Matter / ASSIEME patch, to “The acquisition of a new batch [of Su-30SM raise money for a number of prominent anti-racism jets] is planned,” he said. “Negotiations are organisations. underway at the moment.” Tonoyan, who most recently visited Moscow Turkey Denies Airspace last week, gave no details of the negotiations. In a significant boost to its small Air Force, Use to Yerevan-Bound Armenia has already purchased four such multirole jets at an undisclosed price. They were delivered to German Military Flight an airbase in Gyumri in December. Tonoyan said ear- ISTANBUL (Der Spiegel) — Turkey in late July did lier in 2019 that Yerevan plans to acquire eight more not allow a Germany military aircraft en route to Su-30SMs in the coming years. Armenia’s capital Yerevan to enter its airspace, the Su-30SM is a modernized version of a heavy The Komitas statue with the graffiti German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Friday, fighter jet developed by Russia’s Sukhoi compa- August 21. ny in the late 1980s. The Russian military first According to Der Spiegel, Turkish air traffic con- Komitas Statue in commissioned it in 2012. trollers, without explanation, refused to allow the Before receiving the first four Su-30SMs the Bundeswehr aircraft to fly via the country’s air- Paris Defaced Armenian Air Force largely consisted of 15 or so space, forcing the Airbus 310 to return to its base Su-25 aircraft designed for close air support and in Cologne. PARIS (PanArmenian.net) — A monument to the great Armenian com- ground attack missions. The Armenian Defense The plane was actually on its way to Yerevan to poser Komitas was desecrated in Paris, it was reported on August 30. Ministry contracted on August 24 a Russian pick up Armenian soldiers there who were to be "Vandalism during a pandemic. On the monument to Komitas, personi- defense company, United Aircraft Corporation trained in Germany. The Bundeswehr (Germany’s fying the Armenian Genocide, it is written: ‘This is a fake,’” a Facebook (UAC), to modernize some of these aging jets. armed forces) is cooperating with Armenia on a mil- user wrote. Tonoyan revealed on Saturday that UAC will itary level, and soldiers from both countries are car- Designed by Armenian architect and artist David Yerevantsi, the monu- repair and upgrade four of them in Russia. He rying out peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. ment was inaugurated on April 24, 2003, while the small park nearby was stressed the importance of that deal, saying that As a result, the German Air Force had to take a renamed Yerevan Garden in 2009. the Armenian military had sought it “for years.” much longer flight route over Russia in mid-August The inscription on the monument reads: "An homage to composer, musi- The deal was signed in Moscow in Tonoyan’s to transport the soldiers. According to publication, cologist Komitas and the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide in presence. While in the Russian capital, the latter the German military sees the incident as a deliber- the Ottoman Empire in 1915." also attended the opening ceremony of the ate provocation by Ankara. The Armenian Embassy in France issued a statement condemning the International Army Games and met with Russia’s desecration. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. “The Embassy of Armenia strongly condemns the desecration of the Tonoyan praised the current state of Russian- statue of Komitas in Paris which is a manifestation of denialism, of a mon- Armenian military cooperation and, in particu- INSIDE ument dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims, as well lar, defense contracts signed by Moscow and as Armenians fallen for France,” the statement says. Yerevan in the last several years see JETS, page 4 Power of Art Sunny with a Chance of In Germany Funny: Sona Movsesian Page 13 Wants to Be Your Friend INDEX “If I have a camera pointed Armenia . .2-3 Arts and Living . 12 at me or not, I am the same Community News. 6 person. It’s me.” Editorial . 18 International . 4,5 See story on page 12 2 S ATURDAY S EPTEMBER 5 , 2 0 2 0 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARMENIA News From Armenia Armenak Urfanyan Posthumously Awarded Artsakh Hero Title STEPANAKERT (PanARMENIAN.Net ) — Captain Armenak Urfanyan who died in the Four-Day War in April 2016 this week was posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of Artsakh, the highest title in Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offen- sive across the entire line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh). Clashes that began in the wee hours of April 2 in 2016 lasted four days and were later dubbed the Four-Day War or the April War. Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan hosted a special ceremony in Stepanakert, Karabakh’s capital. The Hero of Artsakh title “is awarded for exclusive services in the defense of the state, strengthening its economic might, and for creating significant nation- al values.” Junior sergeant Robert Abajyan and sergeant Adam Sahakyan, who also fell in the April War, were awarded the title earlier. Statue of Alexander Griboyedov, Tigran Mets St, Yerevan, inscription underneath statue reads “Alexander Griboyedov, with grati- In August, Armenian tude from the Armenians”, sculptor H. Bejanyan, 1974. Experts Demined 33,143 Square Meters in Syria nobility. The play, under revision for many years, dealt with YEREVAN (PanARMENIAN.Net ) — Armenian the negative consequences of being a bit too clever for one’s explosives experts in Syria have cleared an area of own good. Czarist censors, considering the play offensive, 33,143 square meters from mines in August. Unseen continuously denied permission for its performance though According to a Facebook post from the Armenian underground copies were widely circulated. Center for Humanitarian Demining & Expertise, a Persian Shah Abbas and the Armenians: Due to Armenia’s total of 238,230 square meters have been demined strategic location, between 1513 and 1737 portions of east- since the beginning of the mission in 2019. ern Armenia including Yerevan were fought over by Ottoman In particular, the group of specialists from Turkey and Persia (Iran), with the area around Yerevan Armenia have uncovered anti-personnel mines, hand changing hands fourteen times. During the Ottoman-Persian grenades, and other ammunition. Armenia war of 1603-1618 Persian Shah Abbas I implemented a The first group of Armenian sappers and doctors scorched earth policy, devastating the Ararat valley and left for Aleppo in February 2019. Prime Minister deporting 250,000 to 300,000 Armenians from areas as far Nikol Pashinyan said back than that sending a away as Bayazid and Van to various regions of Persia. This humanitarian mission to Syria means responding in Discovering action was intended to prohibit an invading Turkish army kind to the people who helped Armenians fleeing the from living off the land. The wealthy Armenians and crafts- Genocide in 1915. men from Julfa, Nakhichevan, were settled in the newly con- Griboyedov structed town of Nor (new) Julfa near the Persian capital of Isfahan. Here, given special religious, cultural, and commer- Armenia Plans to Update cial privileges, they thrived greatly enhancing international Nuclear Power Plant trade and commerce in Persia.