DECEMBER 14, 2019 Mirror-SpeTHE ARMENIAN ctator Volume LXXXX, NO. 22, Issue 4615 $ 2.00 NEWS The First English Language Armenian Weekly in the United States Since 1932 INBRIEF Former Armenian Armenia Honors Genocide Victims on President Charged United Nations’ Day of With Embezzlement Commemoration YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Law-enforcement YEREVAN (Armenpress) — On the occasion of authorities brought on Wednesday, the International Day of Commemoration and December 4, corruption charges against Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide Serzh Sargsyan, Armenia’s former presi- and of the Prevention of this Crime, on December dent who was toppled during last year’s 9, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian and “Velvet Revolution.” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the The Special Investigative Service (SIS) Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in alleged that Sargsyan “organized the embez- Yerevan Monday morning. zlement by a group of officials” of 489 mil- Accompanied by Speaker of Parliament Ararat lion drams (just over $1 million) in govern- Mirzoyan and Foreign Minister Zohrab ment funds allocated in 2013 for the provi- Mnatsakanyan, they laid flowers at the Eternal sion of subsidized diesel fuel to farmers. Flame honoring the memory of the Armenian In a statement, the SIS said that Genocide victims. Sargsyan interfered in a government tender Former President Serzh Sargsyan December 9th has been declared International for the fuel supplier to ensure that it is won Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims by Flash, a company which has long been of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of one of Armenia’s main fuel importers. lion drams ($3.8 million) as part of the ply the same quantity of diesel fuel at a this Crime in 2015 during the 69th UNGA. The res- Flash is owned by Barsegh Beglaryan, a scheme designed to help tens of thousands lower price which would have allowed the olution was presented by Armenia and was passed businessman believed to have had close ties of low-income farmers across the country. government to save 489 million drams. unanimously. to the 65-year-old ex-president. According to the SIS statement, another The SIS said that the government’s The government paid Flash over 1.8 bil- private company, Maxhur, was ready to sup- see EMBEZZLEMENT, page 2 Armenian Catholic Church Reopens in Wife of Prime Minister Invites Azeri First Lady to Visit Karabakh Aleppo YEREVAN (Armenpress) — Anna will be our guest. Our people, the people of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) ALEPPO (Panorama.am) — The Armenian Hakobyan, the wife of Armenian Prime Artsakh know how to host, honor a guest, Resolution on Women, Peace and Security. Catholic Cathedral of Our Mother of Mercy was Minister Nikol Pashinyan, invited Mehriban and one of the rules of our hospitality is to In 2000, the UNSC formally acknowledged reopened on Saturday, December 7, in the al- Aliyeva, the wife of Azerbaijani President honor the guest with music he/she prefers. through Resolution 1325 the changing Telal neighborhood of Aleppo after restoration Ilham Aliyev, to Artsakh, on December 4. We can ensure a mugham, we can make her nature of warfare, in which civilians are and renovation works to fix the damage caused “A few days ago Azerbaijan’s first lady dream come true and listen her beloved increasingly targeted, and women continue to the cathedral by terrorism had been complet- Mehriban Aliyeva said on her Telegram music in Karabakh. This is an invitation, to be excluded from participation in peace ed, the official Syrian news agency SANA report- account that she dreamed of listening to a and if she accepts this invitation, I am also processes. ed. mugham [Azeri folk music] in Artsakh. I ready in my turn to be hosted in Baku,” “But if Mehriban Aliyeva means that The opening ceremony was attended by Syria’s invite Mehriban Aliyeva to Artsakh, and she Hakobyan said at the conference on the their dream is to come to Artsakh to listen Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, the Papal to mugham with war, I assure her that in Ambassador to Syria Mario Zenari, Aleppo Mufti that case this dream will remain unful- Mahmoud Akkam in addition to a crowd of Muslim filled,” she added. and Christian clergymen. Hakobyan added that the only way to The head of the Armenian Catholic Community reach that dream is through peace, the nor- in Aleppo, Archbishop Boutrus Mrayati, stressed mal relations with Artsakh and the mutual the importance of celebrating the reopening of the visits as a guest. She said that different cathedral, which was built in 1840, as a spiritual nations of the world managed to overcome occasion that aims at preserving Syria’s history, wars and hatred over the course of years. pointing out that renovation works were carried “If this happened to other European out by national expertise. nations, why can’t we do that? The The Grand Mufti Badreddin Hassoun said that Azerbaijani side just needs to show political reopening the cathedral is a message to the world will and refuse to wage war because it will that “we are rebuilding what terrorism had gain nothing with it. I want to once again destroyed of churches, mosques and factories.” He state that this invitation is very serious,” stressed that terrorism tools have destroyed the Hakobyan said. churches and mosques but they won’t be able to destroy Syria. Other speeches hailed the reopening of the cathedral, emphasizing that it indicates the N. Dakota Senator Blocks Christians’ insistence to stay in Syria and con- tribute to rebuilding what the terrorist war has Genocide Bill at Request destroyed. Of White House Zareh Sinanyan at Nor Kyank village, Armenia WASHINGTON (Axios) — The White Diaspora High Commissioner Sinanyan Works House directed Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) INSIDE to block an effort by Sens. Bob Menendez For Armenia-Diaspora Integration and (D-N.J.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Thursday, December 5, to pass a resolution Repatriation via unanimous consent formally recogniz- Hermitage ing Turkey’s genocide of the Armenian peo- YEREVAN – High Commissioner of Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Armenia ple, according to two sources familiar with Zareh Sinanyan spoke about the challenges of his office in an interview mid-October the matter. Director of this year. This is the third time that the White His life has taken an unusual direction, both liter- House has directed a Republican senator to By Aram Arkun ally and figuratively. The former mayor of Glendale block the resolution, a symbolic measure Page 12 Mirror-Spectator Staff and his family had emigrated to the US from already passed by the House that would Armenia when he was a teenager. In his new coun- infuriate Turkish President Recep Tayyip try, Sinanyan has been able to climb high politically, Erdogan. including serving on the Glendale City Council. However, he changed course and Cramer said on the Senate floor that he INDEX decided to relocate to his ancestral homeland and take this new position in Armenia doesn’t think this is “the right time” to pass Arts and Living . 12 on June 14, 2019. the resolution, noting that President Armenia . 2,3 (In summer 2018, Sinanyan had sat down for an interview while he was mayor of Trump has just returned from meeting with Community News. 6 Glendale. https://mirrorspectator.com/2018/08/23/mayor-zareh-sinanyan-work- Erdogan at the NATO summit in London, Editorial . 17 International . 4,5 ing-to-improve-glendale-while-strengthening-ties-with-armenia/) and that the resolution could undermine see SINANYAN, page 10 the administration’s diplomatic efforts. see CRAMER, page 10 2 S ATURDAY, D ECEMBER 1 4 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARMENIA News From Armenia Former Armenian President Vineyard Produces Charged With Embezzlement Organic Wine YEREVAN (Armenpress) — An organic wine has EMBEZZLEMENT, from page 1 The ex-president claimed to be not 20 in anticipation of his indictment. been produced in Armenia for the first time, made of failure to pick Maxhur amounted to a afraid of being arrested in rare com- “The guy positioned himself so as to certified organic grapes. deliberate embezzlement of public ments to selected journalists made in say ‘look, there is political persecu- Director of the Vine and Wine Foundation of funds ordered by Sargsyan. late October. He accused Pashinyan’s tion,’” claimed Hovakimian. “In Armenia Zaruhi Muradyan said on December 3 that The law-enforcement agency stopped government of jeopardizing democracy Armenia, nobody will be subjected to the production of organic wine is very important for short of arresting the man who ruled and stifling dissent in a November 20 political persecution anymore, at least Armenia. Armenia from 2008-2018. It said it had speech at a congress of the European as long as our political force is in gov- “Organic agriculture is recording a great progress him sign a formal pledge not to leave People’s Party held in Croatia. ernment.” in Armenia and has been studied in the recent years. the country pending investigation. Some of Sargsyan’s relatives, cronies Edmon Marukian, the leader of the This year for the first time an Armenian organic Sargsyan’s Republican Party of and political allies have been prosecuted opposition Bright Armenia Party wine made from grapes will enter into the market. Armenia (HHK) rejected the accusation, on corruption charges since his ouster. (LHK), also said that he sees no political Winemaking has started developing quite actively, carrying between four and eight years Also, his predecessor and erstwhile ally, motives behind the high-profile case. and our foundation carries out a lot of work in this in prison, as “fabricated and ludicrous.” Robert Kocharyan, was arrested in July Instead of alleging such motives, the direction,” she said.