Opinions & Editorials

By Dr. Arshavir Gundjian, C.M. published in The Armenian Mirror-Spectator   Just as we regularly celebrate the start of the new year, Christmas, or Easter, the Armenian people systematically commemorate every year the genocide. We strive to honor the memory of one and a half million of our martyrs, who have been canonized as saints, through various church and political events, while we with decreasing effectiveness also continue increasingly feeble efforts to demand justice and compensation...

By Dr. Arshavir Gundjian   Under different, normal conditions, it would be a commonplace effort to devote time at the start of a new year to examine in an impartial and unflinching fashion the events of the past year, both accomplishments and failures – the latter which of course we would not want to see repeated. This time, however, the situation is much more serious. The informed part of the entire world-wide Armenian population, whether in Armenia,...

By Philippe Raffi Kalfayan published in The Armenian Mirror of Spectator   International news attests to the blatant injustices and the end of an international legal order built in the aftermath of the disasters and atrocities of World War II. Major powers, such as the United States, Russia and China, through their postures and actions, have slowly but surely neutralized the principles of international law by not respecting them. Among the small but powerful states,...

By Dr. Arshavir Gundjian C.M. published in The Armenian Mirror of Spectator   As literally hell has broken out in the Armenian homeland, today’s government, all opposition parties, as well as any and all organized groups in Armenia, and in the diaspora, must have one major objective that overrides all the many other important humanitarian, economic or political emergencies. That objective is, as the popular wisdom says, “to save the presently remaining furniture,” meaning to save,...

We are both Armenians born in Beirut who met some 50 years ago in kindergarten. We grew up in war-torn Lebanon, embedded in a bubble of Armenian language, school, and culture. We immigrated to the West (the United States and Switzerland), built careers as a scientist and a lecturer/columnist, and managed to stay in touch. The last time we saw each other was last summer in Armenia. We fondly remember sitting together in a...

  The multivector negotiations conducted for many months by the Armenian authorities at the highest level for the purpose of signing the Armenia-Azerbaijan “peace agreement” have gained significant momentum recently. The travel from Washington to Moscow, between these two politically opposing poles, passing through Brussels, Prague and other European cities, has reached a dizzying political speed, especially when it has become impossible to see in the successive announcements from those meetings even the slightest degree of...

By Suren Sargsyan published in the Armenian spectator   Whatever Armenia and Azerbaijan will agree upon regarding the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is not at all important, as Moscow has its own interests to promote in the South Caucasus region. If Moscow once lost Georgia and withdrew its forces from there, it does not mean that it will happen in the case of Armenia – and in Azerbaijan too, technically, as Russia’s peacekeeping contingent is placed in...

By Andrew published in The Armenian Mirror-Spectator   ISTANBUL (Al-Monitor) — Turkish authorities banned the commemoration of the 1915 Armenian Genocide for the second year running Monday in a decision condemned as “unacceptable” by organizers. The blocking of a memorial event in Istanbul came as issues affecting Turkey’s minorities took hold ahead of next month’s elections, following opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s declaration of his Alevi faith last week. The April 24 Commemoration Platform condemned the move in a statement. “There is no...

April 4, 2023 marks the 78th anniversary of the passing of Vahan Tekeyan in Cairo, Egypt. Below is a reprint of a masterful commentary on Vahan Tekeyan by Yervant Azadian, the recently deceased President of the Tekeyan Cultural Association of the United States and Canada. The commentary was first published on April 14, 2010 in the Armenian Mirror-Spectator.   "Many people, who are not very familiar with Armenian literature (and that is not uncommon in these...

In recent months, several political developments seemed to enhance Armenia’s position vis-à-vis that of its enemies, i.e., the verdict at the International Court of Justice, the placement of 100 European Union monitors on Armenia’s territory, and the resolutions adopted at the French Senate and National Assembly (the two houses of the French parliament). In addition, the tragic earthquakes shattering Turkey’s provinces (as well as Syria) had temporarily put a limit to Turkey’s aggressive stance...