Armenian Assembly Supports stop being BLIND

My brother wrote this and posted on his facebook, I thought it's relevant to put here since I had a related post yesterday.

If I point to an animal, and tell you it is an Eagle, will you believe me? Or will you look for yourself? Please look for yourself, and you will see that I am not pointing to an Eagle, but a RAT.
If I tell you "The protocols have no preconditions and do not affect Karabakh or Genocide Recognition", will you believe me, or will you look for yourself? Please look for yourself. It is not that hard.
The protocols are a simple legal document, agreeing to terms for Armenia, and a clause in them states the English version is the dominant document, so American Attorneys are most qualified to analyze this document.

Here are the protocols you have heard so much about, complete with popup boxes explaining it all: http://www.anca.org/assets/pdf/misc/protocols_explained.pdf

Here is a letter from Steve Dadaian, a CA licensed Attorney with 17 years experience, analyzing the protocols: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?note_id=157479247015&ref=mf

Mark Geragos, one of the most famous attorneys of our time, has examined these protocols, and along with hundreds of other attorneys here in America, they all agree on Steve's analysis of the protocols, listed above.

The Armenian Assembly recently sent a Press Release stating that President Sargisyan clearly articulated that the Protocols include no preconditions and that they make no mention of Karabakh or the Armenian Genocide. So they pointed to an Eagle. Where is the legal analysis? Where are the FACTS? Where are the LOGICAL EXPLANATIONS behind stating there are no preconditions when there CLEARLY ARE? There are none. It is all LIES.

I know some Assembly supporters still have the decades old mentality about the ARF, "I hear they are all propaganda and guns; the AGBU and Assembly, they are the smart, logical ones, they have the money and the power". Well read for yourself below. The Assembly is the one spreading mindless propaganda and lies. There are NO LOGICAL EXPLANATIONS for their position, and NO ONE I personally know supports their position. They are simply getting ON THEIR KNEES, like our Armenian president, and blindly supporting the U.S. State Department, like they always do.

The Assembly called the ANC's verbal opposition to the protocols "crude and hostile." When you are facing a room full of ignorant snakes who take a position not based in logic, that is the exact reaction any intelligent person would have: anger and hostility. That is how YOU would feel if I continued to point to a Rat and tell you it is an Eagle over and over again, with no basis for my statement.

I urge you to please READ for yourself and get EDUCATED on what the protocols are, and come to a decision for yourself. Don't blindly listen to the mindless propaganda and name calling the Assembly is spreading (attached below). Hundreds of educated, professional Armenian Americans have come out and publicly supported the position that the protocols are BAD. Who is supporting the Assembly's position? Look for yourself and see that the Assembly is pointing to a RAT.

Armenian Assembly supporters?

Below is a message from the Assembly- I am currently looking for someone to defend the actions of the Assembly and prove the point the Assembly is making below that they speak for the community. I want to find the individuals they speak for and possibly have a civilized debate on the issues. Why are there no supporters out there willing to do this yet the Assembly speaks for so many?

Message to Armenian Assembly Members, Supporters, Activists, and Friends

President Serzh Sargsyan Discusses Importance of the Armenian Turkish Protocols at New York City Meeting with Representatives of theArmenian DiasporaPresident Serzh Sargsyan clearly articulated that the Protocols initialed on August 31st by Armenia and Turkey include no preconditions and that they make no mention of the Nagorno Karabakh issue or the Armenian Genocide. While President Serzh Sargsyan acknowledged that there are risks and potential problems ahead in negotiations with Turkey, he indicated that the challenge and historic opportunity to establish diplomatic relations and open borders with Turkey must be realized.Sargsyan addressed about 40 representatives of major Armenian organizations from the Eastern United States and Canada on Saturday, October 3, at the Palace Hotel in New York City. The meeting was the second stop of President Sargsyan's tour of the Armenian Diaspora. Representatives of Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), and its affiliated groups were the only opponents of the protocols and objected to several of its provisions. These objections were led by Kenneth Hachikian, Chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), whose remarks were inappropriate and insulting to the President of Armenia. Hachikian called the president's action "naïve", "reckless" and "simply irresponsible." He also inferentially attacked the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) reciting past actions that he inappropriately characterized as consistently supporting the U.S. State Department. Furthermore, he accused President Sargsyan of acceding to Turkish blackmail and characterized those supporting the Armenian Government's efforts to establish relations with Turkey as a minority "no longer having political relevance in our community." Other speakers representing groups affiliated with the ARF objected to the protocols as well, but without the rancor or being disrespectful to Armenia's president.In their turn, representatives of the Assembly, Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), Diocese of the Armenian Church, Knights of Vartan, Ramgavar Party, Tekeyan Cultural Association, Congress of Canadian Armenians, and Primate of the Armenian Church of Canada, presented comprehensive statements of support for the pending Armenia-Turkey negotiations. Each explained the necessity to proceed with the negotiating process.Assembly Chairman Hirair Hovnanian challenged ANCA's assertion that ARF represented the majority views of the Armenian Diaspora, adding that he protested the crude tone and discourtesy of Hachikian's remarks toward President Sargsyan and his hostile attack on the Assembly, AGBU, Eastern and Western Dioceses of the Armenian Church, and the Knights of Vartan, whose joint statement welcoming the Armenian President's initiative seems to have provoked Hachikian's extreme and angry assertions.Assembly members Anthony Barsamian, Bryan Ardouny, Noubar Afeyan and Jirair Haratunian also addressed the meeting.Barsamian challenged as false the assertion made that any one person or organization has the right to speak for victims of the Genocide. Barsamian also stated that we collectively share the responsibility for ensuring affirmation of the Armenian Genocide. Bryan Ardouny spoke to the political dynamics in Washington to the Armenia-Turkish initiative and its effects on the Armenian Genocide resolution currently pending in the U.S. Congress and actively promoted by the Assembly.Noubar Afeyan addressed the necessity of economic progress in Armenia and the prospects ahead with the establishment of diplomatic and economic relations with Turkey. Afeyan stated that many of the arguments presented against the protocols remind us of the cold war between the Diaspora and Armenia that existed for the previous 70 years. He encouraged those present to "not work against Armenia." Afeyan also urged the group to "trust but verify" in Armenia's dealing with Turkey and called on the Diaspora to help build a bright future for Armenia.Jirair Haratunian congratulated the President on the success of his "football diplomacy," which brought Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Armenia. He reiterated that this move radically changed the political landscape in the South Caucasus, for the better, and made the current diplomatic initiative possible. Finally, Haratunian urged the process to proceed and if it fails it should not be because of any lack of effort by Armenia.

I'll be back

I'll be back.

Sometimes you need more than 140 characters to express your thoughts, so Twitter is OUT and this blog is back IN... just not today.

Stay tuned.

Blogs are dead Twitter is in.

In this day of short attention spans and demand for up to the minute information, blogs are dead. The new medium to share thoughts and information is twitter. With twitter I try to post a daily thought which is usually accompanied with a link to another article which either triggered the thought or expands on it. I'll continue to update this site as often as I was before, basically for extended thoughts, as I deem necessary.

So www.twitter.com/kristapor80 it is.

Enjoy.

I moved back from SF? Why? (More observations than reasons for anything)

Ok here’s the deal with SF. The fog is insane, I mean insane. Why is there always fog? The week I moved back to LA I played a round of golf and I was in shorts. Here I was in the middle of January playing golf in shorts in LA while I had moved to SF in August and not once was it shorts weather. Who knew I even cared about that stuff? I Lived in DC through one of their harshest winters in years, I used to travel to Montreal in the dead of winter when it was -30 but the difference is that in SF there are no seasons there’s just fog.

Also while its easier to actually conduct conversations with people in SF, they’re also a very different breed of folk. Just say you’re from LA and you get this look of disgust like LA is hell and who would want to live there anyway (this is usually by the ugly girls who are too intimidated to move to LA but that’s a different topic for a different time). My favorite complaint is still the smog complaint everyone talks about. “I would never move to LA because of all that smog.” I have no clue how the smog has affected my life in a single way, and the funny thing is everyone up there smokes cigarettes which apparently is fine but god forbid there’s a bit of smog in the air.

Another observation is that everyone in SF is all about being green and recycling but the funny thing is if global warming took affect they would benefit immensely. SF is already one of the most beautiful cities in the world but the fog and cold ruins it, imagine if there was all this global warming and it was actually warm up there. My advice is stop recycling up there and start driving SUV’s to let the sunshine in.

Of course I had the time of my life and love living in cities where you can cab it everywhere instead of having to worry about who is going to be DD (usually noone). Drank more than I could when I was stuck in this place, partied more than I could when I was stuck in this place, had as much fun as I could when I was stuck in this place… (name that movie)

The real reason I moved back to LA? My contract ended and I didn’t want to pay rent while looking for another job so who knows I could be back soon… only time will tell.

This post sucks big time- actually they all have since the famous Armenia blogs (which you should scroll down and check out), the only reason I even put it up is because other sites have linked me for unknown reasons and I feel an obligation to post some crap. I’ll get good stuff up again soon… just not today.

Woah… did we just start a war?

Ok so for about… well for about my entire life I have been active in trying to get an Armenian Genocide resolution passed in Congress and it looks like that time has come. Now we’ve been working on this for so long that we completely forgot that there are actual repercussions to our actions. Turkey has always been thought of as that government out there that denies the genocide, but never as an actual government that can react when being confronted with the truth about their past its citizens have grown up denying. Well after the resolution passed the committee, I went to CNN.com and saw the banner headline of breaking news that Turkey recalled its ambassador to the US. Now the very first thing a country does before things get bad is recall its ambassador, and that got me thinking. We all assume that Turkey is all talk, but how do we actually know that? What if they aren’t, we sure are screwed if that happens. But more realistically it got me thinking about the Karabakh situation and how Azerbaijan has turned up the war rhetoric ever since they got their pipeline going. In the US we are using every single cent of political capital we have to get this genocide resolution passed, but then what do we do when it passes and we have 0 capital left and a really pissed off Turkey giving Azerbaijan the green light to go for Artsakh? Its going to be much harder to press our government in Washington to intervene since we just used up all of our favors and are going to be seen as those Armenians who are always complaining about something. Basically my point is if youre an Armenian-American like me doing everything you can to get this bill passed, I better see you in Armenia if there are any real repercussions out there. Just a thought.

Now on to more realistic thoughts. The bill looks like its going to go to the House floor. Speaker Pelosi is getting pretty far out on this issue that it doesn’t look like she’s gonna back down to the Bush administration this time. This is it people, the committee vote was nothing. Remember we had a committee vote in 2005 and that one passed 40-7, this one was only 27-21. People are jumping ship like nothing, were losing co-sponsors due to the intense lobbying by Turkey. The war-hawks are gonna keep going against us so you HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN. If we end up losing this vote, don’t expect to see another one for 10 years or so, nobody is going to bring this issue up on the floor again. After all of our attempts these next few weeks are the most important for any Armenian-American activist out there, call your member of congress and make sure theyre on the right side of this issue, tell all your friends and collegues from those random districts that you never wanted to bother before. Cold call random people if you have to-just do something because this is the least you can do to remember those who perished at the hands of the Turks in 1915.

Now get to a phone.

I moved to SF? Really? Why?

Why did I move to SF? I’ve been getting that question a lot recently, probably because I picked up and moved here in a moments notice with no real reason… but that’s exactly the point, there was no real reason. If you haven’t figured this out yet about me- I love to travel and try different things. After studying for the bar for a few months I needed to get away and go on some sort of vacation but since I traveled a ridiculous amount while in law school, I couldn’t really afford to take a bar trip like everyone else. I also had no job to hold me over until I get my bar results and was gonna take some contract position for a few months anyway so I figured why not do it somewhere else- like a paid vacation where you work during the day. I took the CA bar so I wanted to stay in CA and see if there were any cities besides LA where I might want to practice law so it was really a no brainer. I want to be in a big city and I want city life, im sick of the suburban life of LA and having to drive everywhere so it had to be somewhere with good public transportation. It needed to be somewhere where I wasn’t going to pay a lot for housing so that left one destination. Nareg recently bought a big house in the city and had a few extra rooms to spare so I called him up and got myself a place to stay.

After being here a month the very first thing people from LA ask is “why did you move to SF? Are you gay or something the girls there aren’t as hot as LA.” My response is whatever man relax so there aren’t the hot Lindsey Lohan wannabees trying to be the next big thing in Hollywood but what the hell does that matter? Im not going to cancel a move solely because you think the girls aren’t as hot. It absolutely amazes me how many people really think that’s a valid reason to not move out of LA, like youre dating models every night buddy. I like change and moving to SF meant change, it meant something different, waking up everyday with a new adventure trying to discover a brand new city with new and different people. The people here are very friendly and very different from anywhere else I’ve been. Its also the most beautiful city in America. It calls you to go out there and see all it has to offer. The other day I grabbed a book and drove 5 min down to the beach where I sat on some rocks and just read while enjoying the scenery. This is something I would never do in LA, not because there are no beaches there but because I just wont do it. I grew up in LA so all my old friends are there and I end up taking the easy way out and just doing the same things over and over again. Here I do something different everyday and try to go out and really experience this part of California. I want to go see the redwoods and hope that theyre actually interesting to see and not just a bunch of tall trees, I want to check out the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, go wine tasting in Napa or check out a local festival in the park. Tahoe is close and a road trip to Portland, Seattle and Vancouver is not out of the question. Theres a whole new world of possibilities and I really had nothing to lose. Yes LA is great and it is where I will always call home and go back to, but right now I had time until bar results so it was to end up somewhere random and see what exciting adventure tomorrow will bring.
(well tomorrow I have work but you get the point)

Stupid Bar exam

My Parents Frequently Forgot to Read Children's Stories all they told me was that Armadillos From Texas Play Rap Eating Tacos. then i went to the casino and said I Put Five Bucks Down and remember the days when Clinton and Lewinsky Fondle Covertly Congress Fiegns Disgust but it was probably just MILD SEX. after the bar everyone will know that Cha Cha Is My Favorite Dance and ill tell my boys Good Dog no no Very Good Dog! random fact of the day: Frank Sinatra Didnt Prefer Orville Redenbaucher.

If I missed any please let me know.
Best of Luck to everyone I dont want to see any of you in the library in February, nor do I want to see myself at the Library ever again.

The gist of it is to go to www.anca.org and fax your representative about the Armenian Genocide bill. Below is my analysis of the current situation out there and chances of the bill passing. If you dont care then just click on the link.

So when the Dems took over Congress all Armenians (including myself) figured that a Armenian Genocide bill would sail through and we would finally start on our road to recognition of the injustices that our families went through in the early part of the 20th century. Well it turns out that we didnt step up our efforts accordingly since we figured it was a sure thing with Speaker Pelosi and the Turks did the exact opposite. Out of nowhere the Turks all of a sudden started a grassroots campaign and sent out their lobbyists to make sure this doesnt happen. All the top officials from Ankara are slowly being sent over to the US to lobby against us. The Pentagon has dispatched Generals and other top brass to try and convince anyone who will listen that this will cause irreparable harm to US-Turkey relations and result in a negative impact in Iraq (since they were so helpful until now). A friend of mine on the hill said that his office has received dozens of faxes from Turks and less than 5 from Armenians, also apparently the Turkish lobbyists have come by 3 times while the Armenians have barely made any noise. He also said that they dropped off a book of propaganda of how it was actually the Armenians who killed the Turks. They stepped up their efforts BIG TIME and its getting dirty out there.

Other fronts- remember Congressmen will ALWAYS take the easy way out and it is our job to hold them accountable and not give them an option of an easy way out. So Bush renominated Hoagland to be ambassador to Armenia so we have to fight on that front, then Bush ridiculously lowered US aid to Armenia and once again reneged on his promise of parity in aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan so now we have to fight on that front also. Then there was the assassination to Hrant Dink in Turkey- which on its face sounds like it would help us get a genocide resolution passed since he was killed speaking for recognition of the Armenian Genocide. There is a bill being pushed through by some Armenian organizations but the problem with it is that it once again gives Congress an easy way out to condemn what happened to Dink then turn around and tell us that look we just passed a resolution condemning the Dink assassination now we cant in turn quickly pass another resolution condemning our ally Turkey.

So instead of being on the offensive we have quickly turned to the defensive and have to fight Hoagland, fight for more aid to Armenia and then the Dink bill- then we have to tell Congress we also want a Genocide bill- all without giving these Congressmen an easy way out of telling us they helped us on 2 of those so they cant help on the Genocide bill.

Conclusions- nobody is going to hand anything to us on a silver platter Democrats or Republicans. We need to step up our efforts not down and get this thing done once and for all so we can concentrate on other issues like the lowering of aid by 50%, getting a social security agreement with the US and Armenia, helping improve the democratic process over there, get a peace agreement with the Azeris and whatnot. So send your fax and tell other people- especially those not from LA to send faxes also.

SF people- you have the Speaker of the House and the chairman of the international relations committee in SF so you better at the very least send a fax which takes a total of about 35 seconds. Or if youre really lazy send me your info and i'll do it for you.

Thanks for the two of you that read this far.

And for those of you who think where the hell did I get the time to write all this crap... you've obviously never been to law school where you sit in class and surf the net. (I ran out of sites to go to so if you have any interesting ones send them over)

Kris

May 28 picnic- Dont miss out

If youre in town on May 28th you HAVE to check out this event. It looks like its gonna be like the old school May 28 picnics that were great .They’re gonna shut down Hollywood blvd. from Vermont to Alexandria. This is like an Armenian Cinquo de Mayo block party. There should be lots of good food, great entertainment, hot girls, and well you really don’t need much more than that so get your ass over there. Its in Little Armenia, if you watched Sopranos and saw the Italian festival they had and thought “what the hell why cant we ever do shit like this or have this stuff in LA?” well this is it so stop complaining and get over there. Even the Mayor is gonna be there.

The entertainment will consist of
Element Band, Vokee, Sako, Ara Sahagian, Karnig Sarkissian, Nersik Ispirian, Paul Baghdadlian, Gor Mkhitarian, Ara Shahbazian, and many more. Various dance groups are also scheduled to perform traditional and contemporary interpretations of Armenian folk dances throughout the day.

That’s like a whose who of Armenian entertainment minus Nune and Tata. (See I’ll admit what it doesn’t have, but that’s the only thing that’s missing)

A variety of vendors, diverse entertainers, performers, writers, and organizations will be on hand from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, highlighting Armenian culture and raising awareness about Armenian history. Traditional Armenian food and artifacts will also be a part of the festivities, all in the tradition of celebrating Armenia's cultural wealth

I’d say see you there but I’ll be in Argentina so have a kebab sandwich for me.

April 24 thoughts

My 3 thoughts on April 24.

Yes I got your bulletin and I am now well aware that on April 24, 1915 there was a thing called genocide to a people called the Armenians or Hye’s as they like to call themselves. But here is my question to you- why were you not aware of this fact on September 24 or January 17 or maybe even July 30th? Contrary to popular belief, there are organizations that work on genocide recognition year round- that’s right I said they work on the cause all year long. Now you say you don’t like the politics of certain organizations? Ok fine then let me list you a bunch of options where you can work – if youre between the ages of 16-26 then there’s always the good ol’ AYF, if you don’t like them then there’s the Armenian Assembly of America, if they’re not to your liking then there’s the ESPN (worldwide leader) of the cause – the ANCA, if politics isn’t your game then there’s teachgenocide.org. Look, there’s a bunch of things you can do and its very encouraging to see that there is a fire within each and every one of you who want to get recognition for our people. I can see the impatience growing each and every year, and that’s a good thing because with the impatience comes more activism and the protests are getting bigger and bigger. My point is that imagine if we donated one day out of our lives, besides the day when its cool to do so, and help the cause. How about a random protest in the middle of August. Right now the Turks expect an outcry of Armenian Americans in the US and they dispatch their lobbyists at the exact same time to counter our actions. What if we kept them guessing and tried different things throughout the year, if we kept attempting different things at different times then we might actually be able to speed up this recognition effort and stop considering it a political issue so we can finally start mourning the actual victims and give them the proper recognition they deserve, not…

Ok look here’s my 2nd point- if you can’t wait for April 24 each year because its when you or your group/band finally gets to get some exposure to a large audience then you should rethink your strategy. This is not Showtime at the Apollo where every Armenian with a guitar or voice box gets to go up and put on a show “commemorating” the victims of the genocide, April 24 is not the date of your big break. But…

We have taken the political route and the anger route for so long and nobody would listen… we kept silent then we screamed at the top of our lungs but nobody listened. They killed all the intellectuals and the artists in order to paralyze our people for years to come and they almost succeeded. What is the most famous archive of the genocide that people can see? A painting by Gorky of him and his mother. Why? Because art speaks in a language everybody understands, art forces you to feel what you try to reject, and for that I applaud all of the artists who have taken the cause into their own hands. They may not listen to our lobbyists or our protesters but now we have found another channel to express the pains of our people. The artists are back and shouting at the top of their lungs with their paintbrush, their pen, their music, their lens… I have noticed this trend recently and it culminated in what I expected to be another random AYF event when I went to the valley chapter’s April 24 play. This was a bunch of kids who were not trained actors, directors or producers but they had a message they needed to get out… and boy did they get it out. It was an expression of what so many of us feel and a commemoration to those who fell, not an exploitation of some talents. There are numerous artistic events and the numbers are growing every year. This could be our new domain, this could be the purest sense of justice that we might find, timeless art that will forever express the words that the fallen could not. Yes, on this day they killed our leaders and artists but they also gave rise to generations more. (I just so don’t happen to be one of them but I hope you are)

New plan for me and democracy for you.

Ok so apparently in LA when people hear the word Republican they think you’re going to beat them over the head with your bible then steal their money (especially if they’re poor) and use it to fund the war in Iraq. People ask me about my political beliefs and I’m all over the place but at the end of the day I am a registered Republican (that has nothing to do with supporting this administration or not, and I haven’t been to church for a non-wedding or funeral in over 5 years). Well I’m going to post random short musings on the world as I see fit. Basically I no longer need to be focused on the TV so while watching it I’ll write up this random stuff. If you MySpacers only want me to put up humorous stuff then let me know and I’ll post this random crap on my old blog. Oh and I’ll keep them short not like my travel blogs, and remember I never proofread these things so if you find errors- oh well.

Well well well isnt our democracy policy coming back to bite us in the ass. The political philosopher Edmund Burke was a conservative because he believed that change should always be slow and gradual or else we will end up with unintended consequences. Well America welcome to your unintended consequences. The funny thing about this one is that while it might have been unintended it definitely wasn’t unforeseen.

So we have this policy of promoting democracy everywhere in the world- ok I’m all for it but now we have a small problem. Hamas was just elected to a majority in the Palestinian parliament and the US is throwing around the idea of condemning them and not dealing with them until they denounce terrorism. What kind of ridiculous message are we sending to the Palestinian people and to the rest of the world as long as we’re at it. “You can have a democracy as long as you elect the people we want you to elect.” Well I guess this is a better policy than propping up dictators in the Mid-East and Latin America like we do. I understand not giving them the millions of dollars in aid that we used to give to the corrupt PLO but you cant not deal with them and you cant condemn their government. That part of the world is more pro-violence and anti-US and Israel than anywhere else in the world so what did we expect them to elect. To the contrary we need to support this government and show them that we support democracy (while we wont fund this current leadership which is our prerogative to fund whoever we want) we can show them that we will support any legitimate election. If anything it sounds like it was a more legitimate election than even our past few elections (No im not saying Bush is illegitimate just that there was obviously controversy while here there is no controversy arising from the election process there). This wasn’t like Iran or Turkey where there are “elections” but everyone knows who runs the country, this was actually a legitimate election where the people were fed up with the current leadership and showed them that it was time for change. Let’s deal with them, its not like things can get much worse with Hamas. My point is that our simplistic policy is that democracy lead to peace, well here is the first real test of democracy where the people doing the voting aren’t all for peace so lets throw them a bone and show them how much friendlier we’ll be when they do things through a legitimate transparent process.

And I find it interesting how funerals are some of the most political events. They're showing the speeches at Coretta Scott King's funeral and it reminds me of some of the funerals i've attended that turned so political it might as well have been a bunch of rocks in the casket.