What’s the situation with ‘The Elephant?’ … Moving on towards a new world, a new mindset and approach!
Posted on March. 23. 2024
Below is the text of conversation of USA ARMENIAN LIFE TV program of March 15, 2024:
APPO JABARIAN: Dear viewers! Good evening!
My name is Appo Jabarian. My interlocutor today is Mr. Voskan Mekhitarian, a well-known commentator and investigative journalist.
These days, there are intensified developments in both the Homeland and the Diaspora circles that are coming to the surface one after the other.
Of course, to some extent, there are developments that instill optimism and nurture our spirit, strengthening our morale. On the other hand, there are also negative developments, but we must move forward in a realistic manner and accept the challenges facing us with an open heart, because without overcoming the challenges, neither our present nor the future will improve.
First of all, it is necessary to congratulate the Armenian civil society, both in the Motherland and in the Diaspora, that – against all odds, Armenia, the Armenian statehood, has taken the right path, strengthening its sovereignty, independence and defense.
It is true that there are quite big dangers, but we should not succumb. We will move forward with our inner light and determination. Because, if Armenia and the Armenian civil society were able to prevent and stop — as Erdogan and Aliyev had boasted and threatened with “The Second and Final Genocide” during the 44-Day anti-Armenian aggression by Azerbaijan-Turkiye-ISIS in 2020, it was thanks to the sovereign Armenian civil society and especially the Armenian soldiers who protected and prevented it at the cost of their lives.
We shall always keep in mind that there are still good days ahead of us, and for those good days to materialize, we must work, struggle and work every day.
As for the health of the Armenian civil society and the national, religious, cultural, sports, and political structures of the Armenians spread all over the world, then it is the same driving force that should guide us. Sovereign citizens are necessary for our people, within each and every faith-based and community-based organization. So, over the past few weeks, we’ve talked about some pretty pressing issues here in the Western United States, especially about a big family, the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia’s Prelacy inWestern United States.
And it must be said that when the news was circulated that the current Prelate had left due to illness, my interlocutor and I joined the voices of many compatriots, and the truth was that the party oligarchs wanted to railroad him. But apparently, they failed. We will continue to speak about this matter, because the mission and duty of the Free Press is to give voice to hundreds, if not thousands of concerned members of the community.
So, how do you, Mr. Mekhitarian see these latest developments?
VOSKAN MEKHITARIAN: Mr. Jabarian, as the saying goes, “The voice of multitudes is the voice of God.” Once again, the will of the majority prevailed. Therefore, all those lies that we all heard, that ‘Bishop Torkom is sick, and that illness is the reason for him to resign his leadership position and to leave,’ was a big lie.
A month passed after all this turmoil. After resting a little the Bishop returned to the Mother Monastery. Shortly, on the occasion of Easter, he will return and will perform Holy Mass at the Church of the Holy Martyrs (in Encino) and in St Mary’s Church (in Glendale).
Now, many people are asking me, personally: How did it happen that the ‘ill’ bishop was immediately cured and is coming back?
Beloveds, we have already announced that all of these claims are baseless. It is a plot. It was a big lie that they spread. And as we emphasized many times before. The political party oligarchs were trying to overthrow him in violation of the Church By-Laws.
The Prelate is a person chosen and approved by the Prelacy National Assembly, certainly with a seal of approval by the Catholicos Aram I. How can one force the resignation of the Prelate without due process at the Prelacy National Assembly? This is once again an indicator for us, all of us, dear ones, that we will stand up and protect our rights. Let it be clear to everyone.
The Church is The People. The Church belongs to The People. The voice of The People should be the dominant force, and not the whims of Willy-Nilly, nor this or that organizational leader. Let it be clear to all those who tried to manipulate and deceive The People. Let it be clear to them that the Church is a place of prayer and not a place for commerce. Forget about exploiting the Church for your party’s interests. The Church belongs to The People, and you have no right, not only you, but also any party has no right to take over the Church with the intention of exploiting it. That’s very clear.
It’s totally something else to come, to stand by the church, so that the church can grow more and become more useful to its people. You come with a hammer in your hand to dismantle the church so that you can exploit the income of the church and its Faithful. That’s it, the time has matured. Today the target can be Bishop Torkom, tomorrow Bishop Kirakos, Bishop Sarkis. Stand up to everyone. These young people have dedicated their youth years to the Armenian people through the tabernacle. Therefore, you, as a people, should stand up, not only by the bishop, but also by the most humble priest who faithfully serves his people.
The time has come to enter the churches without saying “what about us, what about me.” Join the churches, become members. Raise your voice. Look around you, there are no young people. We need this youth, healthy youth, newfound youth, we need to bring all of them to the church, because the church is the greatest force that can unite all the sons and daughters of our nation. Don’t hesitate any longer, take inspiration from the case of Archbishop Torkom. All these lies were revealed.
It is also gratifying that, on this occasion, His Holiness Aram I Catholicos bestowed upon him the title of Archbishop, as well as his other spiritual leaders from the same brotherhood. This means that Catholicos appreciated their performance and presented them with elevation in ranking. But dear ones, the greatest appreciation will come from you, The People, who should stand in solidarity with your spiritual leaders and servants, starting with the humble priests. A churchman is a servant who serves you through the church. Support all those who guide you to the church.
Where lese will you find your spiritual peace but in the world of spiritualism? We can transit from this material world to the spiritual one. What else is the way, if not the church, that will guide us? And our leaders will be our spiritual servants. Therefore, stand next to all the worthy ones and remove all those who think that the church is a club, a shop. No, dear ones, our church is a prayer house and will remain a prayer house. And our struggle, together with you, will never stop. All those who try to exploit the church must be stopped.
APPO JABARIAN: Yes, I congratulate Archbishop Torkom Donoyan from the bottom of my heart. As Archbishop Torkom said, the Armenian Apostolic Church is one of the greatest miracles of the Armenian people. And this is a profound expression, and the way I understand it is as follows: In the Christian world, the Armenian Apostolic Church is that special faith-based organization, where the clergy do not have a monopoly, the political parties do not have a monopoly, the Ottoman Sultan is no longer there, and the master and ruler is the Armenian People. And with an overwhelming majority, approximately 95% of the decision-makers and voters are the lay people. Democracy permeates the entire Armenian Church. Let’s not be surprised to witness the unprecedented growth of the Armenian Church by massive influx by new Armenian and non-Armenian members.
Most recently, we talked about “The Elephant in the Room” and how it affects the Faithful. Thus far, The People were able to partially throw out the elephant, and many believe that the time has come to throw out completely “The Elephant from the Room.” How? Let’s take an example, you remember from the past. We gave an example on how the past Parish leaders of St. Garabed Church in Hollywood violated the By-Laws by denying to give the church sary to give 30-day advance notice to all the members of the general assembly before any type of elections, right?
Moving forward, if your church parish leadership, and not just St. Garabed church of Hollywood, from any parish, violates the By-Laws, pertaining any meeting, and you receive a letter that indicates that a meeting is upcoming in 15 days or less, you need to sound the alarm. And you should inform the Free Press about it. We will also keep your identity anonymous, if you so desire, as we have fully kept our promise in the past. So, it is our duty, dear ones, to shed light onto dark affairs — not to embarrass certain circles, but to save what is ours. As Mr. Mekhitarian indicated, the youth do not like nefarious activities.
The new generation is very upright, unlike the previous generations. The previous generations were functioning under Ottoman-Soviet despotic rule and way of thinking. To a certain extent, we do have quite healthy thinking individuals in the older generation, but unfortunately, the Armenian Apostolic Church, both in the former Soviet space as well as certain parts of the Free World, we are still exposed to Ottoman-Soviet style corruption and despotism. Our people were saved from the Ottoman sultan, but the rule has passed from the sultans to the Armenian special interest groups and oligarchs. The Armenian Apostolic Church which was systematically destroyed by the Soviet authorities still suffers under the yoke of the Ottoman-Soviet oligarchy.
So, there is a set of nefarious activities in both the Western Diocese and the Western Prelacy. There are still “special interest groups” that don’t care if they destroy the bedrock of faith both on statehood level in the Republic of Armenia and the Church level just because they want to monopolize the entire Armenian nation.
Times have passed. We are not in the old world anymore. We are citizens of a new world. The new world is the reinvigorated civil society, where sound mind and the will of The People are dominant. True sense of self-determination is around us. No one can pressure us and insist that The Elephant stays in the room violating our rights.
CAN WORLD ARMENIANS ASSIST ARMENIA IN AVERTING ANOTHER OCT. 27, 1999-STYLE ASSASSINATIONS IN THE PARLIAMENT?
In this life, nothing happens by chance or out of thin air. We all know very well that in our personal lives, we need to work hard. Toil day and night in order to achieve success, right? So, it is the same in collective life. Therefore, we must constantly support each other, and most importantly, continue to develop the persona of a sovereign citizen within us, each one within himself. So that sovereign citizens can create a sovereign society. And a sovereign society can create a sovereign republic — the sovereign Republic of Armenia, the sovereign Armenian Apostolic Church, sovereign athletic and cultural organizations that function for the benefit of our people.
At this moment, when our entire nation, the Armenian nation, in the Homeland and Diaspora are standing behind Armenian statehood, we continue facing challenges. Do you see how our internal oligarchs joined forces with Putin’s Russia, so that the sovereignty of the Armenian Republic would be undermined in every
possible way? Let’s listen to our Armenia-based colleague, a fellow investigative reporter, commentator and host of MERONQ TV Suren Sargsyan who is guided by lucidity.
SUREN SARGSIAN: And these crooks, who are the so-called elite or the authorities of Nagorno Karabakh, who are threatening today that they will come (to Yerevan) boasting “oh, if we weren’t there (Karabakh), Armenia wouldn’t have had its back protected.” I consider such rhetoric very dangerous and unacceptable. Whoever says, whoever utters something like that, that “Karabakhtsis were guarding the border of Armenia now that they have come here (Yerevan), you (Pashinyan government) must give these people a house. (as is the Armenian government has left them homeless—cheap and baseless populism).
The house is not something that you can build in a minute, the important thing is that the systematic process is taking place and will help the people of Artsakh settle. But some people are allowing themselves to threaten (the Armenian authorities) saying “we will bring these Karabaghtsis to the (Armenian capital’s) Republic square and then we will solve our problems’ ‘. Make no mistake. Do not try to divide us into Armenians and Karabaghtsis once again. Our past leaders — Levon Ter-Petrosyan brought your scumbags (Pres. Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan) to power in Armenia. and they corrupted our human and honest relations.
Now, let’s talk about your expression — “We were protecting Armenia’s border.” How come you allowed Robert Kocharyan along with Serzh Sargsyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, Suslik to cheat, to loot, and illegally become billionaires or millionaires. How come you would not fight for the security of your state Karabakh, develop weapons and armor in order to really “defend the border of Armenia?”
Weren’t our children that came from Armenia guarding the front line? Who can claim that our nation is someone’s monopoly? … Now forget the arrogant statements of Karabakh Armenians. Like Vano Siradeghian said, “Armenia’s not an onion head”. Like Vazken Sargsyan said, “Control yourselves.”
The authorities come and go, but statehood remains. Therefore, we should be pro-state and not go to the square to raze the public, if we are really sincere in belief in the idea of statehood. The enemy is outside, it is the Turk, it is the Azeri. They are our enemies. Fellow Armenians could not be my enemies. I may disagree, but I must have the courage to sit at the table and exchange opinions without reproach.
It is to our advantage to show the whole of humanity, including our enemies, that we know how to sit side by side for the sake of statehood, because we have educated people, we have cultured people. It is not enough to just declare, let’s put it into practice, let’s show today that we are an educated people. We can sit side by side, even if we disagree, because we believe in the idea of statehood. It is this statehood that will energize today’s and all future generations. Therefore, let’s put these disagreements aside as the enemy is lurking behind the door.
A little while ago, Mr. Jabarian hinted in his comments that the enemy boasted that they would commit another genocide. These peoples, your enemies, have been genocidal peoples for hundreds of years. Now they will not change, they will not become angels. Therefore, we do not have the right to undermine each other. Let the idea of statehood be a sacred thing in us, so that we may be guided by it. Regardless of which party is in power, we need to create a healthy state.
APPO JABARIAN: Our internal efforts require us to be in solidarity with each other, political allies. However, we need to be wary of our internal parasites, our fifth column. These are our internal oligarchs, the internal dark forces that are prone to sell out Armenia. These parasites are driven by the mentality of “Namastnik” psychology (Russian word “наместник” means “governor”); the Ottoman-Soviet psychology that prefers to be under the yoke of a foreign occupier, so that each can become little kinglets surrendering their own homeland to foreign power, only to become governing ‘princes’ themselves.
It is the Karabakh mafia’s Namastnik ambitions that compelled them to hand over Artsakh in order to overthrow the popularly-elected Pashinyan government by illegal means, and orchestrate a new power grab a la October 27, 1999 assassinations, but in the status of a Namastnik (Russian governor). Why? So that they continue to rob their own people. Never mind if Armenia loses its sovereignty. On September 19, 2023, the handover of Artsakh was staged in order to stage a coup d’état in Armenia. The acts of treason committed by these same elements during the 44-Day War in 2020 was aimed to become complicit in international ploy against Armenia and the Armenian people. What for? Only to become kinglets or Namastniks and robber princes.
Therefore, now, fortunately, since the 44-Day national tragedy, the Armenian people are vigilantly watching, not only in Armenia, but also in the entire Diaspora. One should not be surprised to discover that the landslide majority of the Armenian people are determined to disallow the former old kleptomaniacs and their accomplice false Catholicos Karekin II and their accomplices in the Diaspora such as Archbishop Mousegh and others to undermine the Armenian Republic and the Armenian Apostolic Church, so that they can monopolize power and continue looting their own people.
Those times have now come to past, and I am happy to inform you that our nation has entered a new historical period. There will be an awakening. The tolerance level for our internal parasites to hijack our collective present and future is ZERO!
So, let’s be attentive. Let’s keep in touch with each other and whenever you see something wrong happening, speak up, express yourself. If you would like to remain anonymous, please let us know and we will fulfill your request.
Together we continue our victorious march towards a new historical era; towards a new dawn.
Do not try to make such statements or any underhanded attempts (Just like October 27, 1999 assassinations in the Armenian Parliament). Robert Kocharyan’s lad Levon Kocharyan is making boastful remarks, so on and so forth. Let’s not treat them with reverence. The relevant security bodies, especially the power structures such as the National Security Service, should be attentive. Those crooks who came onto the streets of Yerevan on March 1st, 2008 shot and killed people. They have not been identified. We do not know who they are. Or maybe we know. They are lying in wait somewhere to strike at Armenia at the next opportunity. (They must be brought to Justice – Editor).
For the information of the National Security Service of Armenia – NSS, Yes, the Russian trace, the Russian desire is still there, that the ‘herd’ that humiliated Armenia for so many years and ruined Artsakh, may come to power in Armenia again, to orchestrate the handover of the Meghri Corridor, as we say, the Armenian Crossroad for Peace. It’s not just Crossroad for Peace, it’s… as a historian friend said “it can and will be a Crossroads of Civilization”. Armenia should talk and communicate to the world, regardless of what Iran’s behavior is today (that Armenia shall move forward with consolidating its sovereignty, independence and defense –editor).
There is a distinct possibility of diplomatic achievements, and Armenia will achieve it, but let these internal parasites, the so-called Karabakh elite (Also known as Karabakh mafia –Editor), behave. Let this be the last time you behave like this. In general, let no one allow himself to threaten saying that “we will bring the people of Karabakh here (to Yerevan). What are they? Are they herds? What are you bringing? Who are you to bring these people? Don’t you (Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan, Catholicos Karekin II) know that the ordinary people of Artsakh know exactly what you have done to them?
VOSGAN MEKHITARIAN: Dear viewer, at this moment I would like to focus on two things. The first is statehood, the second is government. If we confuse these two words, we will betray our motherland. Why? All those who believe in Armenian Statehood, cannot think otherwise.