USA ARMENIAN LIFE TV 02.23.24 with investigative journalists: Appo Jabarian and Vosgan Mekhitarian. Transcription:
Appo Jabarian: Dear viewers, Good evening!
As you may remember, at the end of last week’s program, we started talking about “The Elephant in The Room.” We will talk about the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia’s “the Elephant in the Room” that is related to Armenian political party oligarchs.
And in the case of the Western Diocese of the Catholicos of All Armenians, “the Elephant in the Room” is the Soviet-Ottoman mafia, which — these days, is also called the Karabakh mafia. And of course, the Artsakhoids are different people. The Karabakhis are the ones that have become Sovietized, Ottomanized and anti-Armenian.
The same nuances apply to the Diaspora. There are Armenians in name only that are essentially anti-Armenian, that have sold their souls to mammon. They have lost their soul — I don’t know which circles they serve! And in the name of these circles, they bully their own people. For example, within the Armenian Revolutionary Federation of the Western United States (ARF-WUS), there is such a person named Viken Hovsepian. Because of some life conditions, Viken Hovsepian suddenly became … I don’t know what tool, in the hands of a certain circle.
According to a reliable source, during the party elections, he would scare his party rank-and-file members saying that “if you don’t obey my order and not vote in favor of our list, I will do this to you, I will do that to you through these bodies!” Imagine.
The day will come when I will go into more details, if the conditions require. We will do it if it becomes necessary. And fortunately, this information is not only in the possession of Appo Jabarian, nor Voskan Mekhitarian, but a squad of free press colleagues, and not only in Los Angeles.
So, what does “the Elephant in the Room” mean?
Since the topic is related to the Western Prelacy of the Great House of Cilicia, I must elaborate: When two or three prelacy members come together, they talk about internal issues. During the conversation, they abstain from talking about the oligarch leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. These real dedicated ordinary members. But for them ARF oligarchs are “the Elephant in the Room.”
As members of the free press, we are not indebted to any political organization, to any religious, public or community organization. Our loyalty goes to our collective interests. Like the martyred freedom fighter Garo Kahkejian who fought in Artsakh has said about The Armenian people, “MY PARTY IS MY PEOPLE.”
So, returning to the “Elephant in the Room” expression, the underlining topic of the conversations about the internal problems at the National Assembly, party operatives remain silent. Because “the order came from above”, by the party bosses, who have “deserted the party ideology and now want to control the Armenian Church.” At one time, “during the Cold War, they protected the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Great House of Cilicia Catholicosate operating in the free world, against the Bolsheviks, okay, but now that is over.”
But party ideology has been forgotten causing displeasure among hundreds of rank-and-file ARF members.
In order to illustrate their disappointment, they point out: “How can one explain the fact that in the 1980’s, when there were barely 300,000 Armenians in the United States of America, the number of Armenian Revolutionary Federation party members was close to 3,000, probably even more than 3,000, from among 300,000 Armenians?”
And now, in 2024, when the number of rank-and-file members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation of the Western United States should be 15,000 from among 1.5 million. Unfortunately, not so.
According to a reliable source, not even 3,000 are left, not even 1,500. A mere 914. If there are any errors, ARF leadership is encouraged to contact the editorial office at usarmenianlife@gmail.com, and provide more precise numbers if what we are presenting is wrong.
So, out of 914, 287 are the ARF Bureau loyalists, who are in alliance with the old kleptocratic regimes and have been de-facto participants in the looting of Armenia in every way. Likewise, the leadership of the ARF of Armenia, Dashnaktsutyun, is equally responsible for the dire consequences of the 44-day War in 2020. To top it all, Artsakh was surrendered to Azerbaijan on September 19, 2023, at the hands of President – an ARF-member.
That Artsakh handover is topic for a long discussion, so let’s refocus on the Western United States. Out of 914, 287 are ARF Bureau loyalists, 289 are loyalists of Viken and Nora Hovsepian. The remaining 338 decline to get involved. Further unmasking that “Elephant In The Room,” “The Elephant” is the same party oligarchs that during in the last decades, has been manipulating the election process of National Assembly members in every Prelacy church parish. They have also orchestrated the ‘election’ of the infamous Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, who has been a bad spiritual servant. In order to control, subdue and manipulate the prelate, ARF oligarchs have long been using their ability to orchestrate election as a Damocles Sword on their heads, saying that “We are the ones who have chosen you! Therefore, you must follow our orders.”
What has transpired from the end of 2020 to 2021-2022, 2024, till about three weeks ago?
During that time, the ARF Bureau loyalists and the Viken Hovsepian wing fought a legal battle against each other for control of the party assets. The legal battle in the U.S. courts lasted several years. In the meantime, they have unintentionally left the Western Prelacy alone.
One of the unintended consequences of the intra-ARF battle:
In late 2020, having learned of the ARF autocrats’ plans to orchestrate the re-election of Arc. Mardirossian for a new term, the independent faithful inside the Western Prelacy, turned to the free press and revealed how the party oligarchs wanted to re-elect Mardirossian. They viewed him as “a usurer, immoral, who had his eye on other people’s wives committing immoral acts.” They were troubled with the prospect of his re-election.
Therefore, to the credit of the healthy-thinking faithful, they mustered enough courage to share the information with USA Armenian Life. The same reliable sources stated that “from 1989 until now, until 2024, it has been 44 years since the infamous Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian came to America and what a set of incredible ‘feats’ he performed. Among those ‘feats’ was in 1982 when he invaded the life of a newlywed couple from Lebanon.” I don’t want to divulge the names of the victims, because I don’t want to open old wounds and I don’t want the names of the victims to become public property.
But if they make attempts like Arch. Hovnan Derderian and take USA Armenian Life to court, then we will have no choice but to hand over all the information to the law firm. And the law firm must present facts to the court. And in honor of a number of fellow Armenian faithful, there are already a number of individuals who are ready to present a declaration.
44 years (1980-2024) vs. 44 days (2020). So, 44 years of Arch. Mardirossian in Western U.S. as a discredited celibate priest who has broken his celibacy vows both as a priest and as a prelate, has proven catastrophic socially. The consequences of the 44-day War of 2020 proved to be tragic on a national level in Armenia and Diaspora.
At the beginning of 1980, reportedly he had an affair with a newly married woman and then he received death threats. Then they whisked him away from Western U.S. He spent his last month in U.S. someone’s house as a hideout before his escape to Antelias, Lebanon. A few years later, he came back to the Western United States.
He returned to the Western United States. He then settled in Orange County. We will not go into many details about it now.
Later, the ARF party oligarchs orchestrated with their proxies in the Prelacy National Assembly, then Very Rev. Mardirossian’s “election” as a prelate — mostly through manipulations and frauds.
Of course not all members of the Prelacy National Assembly are corrupt and lackeys of ARF, there certainly are honorable individuals such as Dr. Misak Barsamian – a truly meritorious person; Harout Beshlian, Harout Barseghian — indeed, these people have been elected as good, high-quality National Representatives.
But unfortunately, there are fraudulently elected members of the National Assembly who brought Arch. Mardirossian from Orange County by ‘electing’ him as the Western Prelate by force.
After being elected Western Prelate, he had an affair with the wife of a very dedicated priest. If necessary, everyone’s photos will be published and broadcast. Now, we will be satisfied with this and we will not go any further. A number of concerned witnesses who conveyed these reports to USA Armenian Life and Armenian Life TV asked us not to go any further for the moment, hoping that this immoral Arch. will leave the Western Prelacy alone.
I would like to ask my colleague, a well-known public speaker and investigative journalist, Mr. Vosgan Mekhitarian, to present his findings.
Voskan Mekhitarian: I would like to delve into the removal of Arch. Torkom Donoyan.
There is a major violation of the By-Laws here. Bishop Torkom left the Prelacy without due process. Although I would like to say that he was removed (by ARF oligarchs). Because it was beyond doubt that the highly regarded young spiritual leader was overthrown on the grounds that he is ‘sick and needs to rest, therefore he left his post.
Dear ones,
These scams must be stopped. It is very clear what happened. All these will impact our community life. If this community is to flourish, prosper, and preserve its identity, we do not need such surprises. Because in the end, the church is the strongest force in the Diaspora, everywhere, whether we accept it or not. It is neither the associations nor the parties. Although all of them have a role to play, the bedrock is the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Therefore, these storms will cause our people to gradually leave; lose their respect, and eventually leave completely. This is our concern. Arch. Torkom Donoyan is not here today. He is removed. We shouldn’t fool ourselves. Why didn’t all this happen through a due process? Why was this question not validated, that Arch. Torkom is truly sick, and that he is on medical leave?
There is no such thing. Why isn’t His Holiness Aram I the Catholicos making any statements? After all, it’s his fellow member of the Cilicia Brotherhood, isn’t it? I didn’t want to talk about the precedents. We already discussed them previously. Now, our concern is Torkom Surpazan. Does Catholicos Aram I have anything to say? Will we hear an official statement from Antelias? This means that the party oligarchs here, as Mr. Jabarian hinted, are the dictators of the prelacy. This means that they can bring and appoint a person as they wish. They can fire a person as they want. It was the same in the past. Mr. Jabarian pointed, so many times.
Each of the elections of Arch. Mardirossian was not an election. I wrote about it in the press. Just a reminder. In the last re-election (about 4 years ago), it was announced that Arch. Mardirossian was unanimously elected. What kind of unanimity is that when 11 electors who are also party members abstained because they were disgusted with Arch. Mardirossian? Therefore, let’s put an end to these lies. Let’s take ownership of our church.
“The Elephant in the Room…”