The 111th Congress will adjourn before the calendar year changes to 2011. The Honorable Nancy Pelosi will have the unique opportunity to end her term as Speaker of the House of Representatives with a strong moral stand.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has responded to an October 13 open letter from the President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, William Schabas. In the letter, addressed to both Sarkisian and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Schabas, said: “Acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide must be the starting point of any ‘impartial historical commission,’ not one of its possible conclusions.”

sassounianIn his letter of November 20 to Armenian American organizations, Pres. Obama once again played shameful word games with the term genocide. At this point, one has to be incredibly naïve to believe that he is going to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide during the rest of his term in office.

Today is the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As we look back on the past six decades, it is evident that the signatory nations have not fully adhered to the declaration, nor have they respected the impetus for drafting this important document.

Armen Rustamian, a leading member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s Supreme Council in Armenia is touring East Coast Armenian-American communities visiting with congressional and other U.S. government representatives, announced the ARF Eastern US Central Committee. Rustamyan is also a member of Armenia’s National Assembly, serving as chairman of its Standing Committee on Foreign Relations. During his visit, he will discuss a wide range of issues tied to Armenia’s foreign policy and will reiterate the ARF’s continued opposition to the Armenia-Turkey protocols.

A retired Foreign Service officer, U.S. Ambassador Arma Jane Karaer, recently revealed a series of shocking revelations about the State Department’s behind-the-scenes efforts on behalf of Turkey during the 1980’s to kill congressional initiatives commemorating the Armenian Genocide, according to now-public documents circulated today by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared on the Charlie Rose show on Tuesday evening to discuss his meeting with President Obama in Washington DC earlier this week. Speaking on Prime-Time television, he directly linked the normalization of his country’s relations with Armenia to a pro-Azerbaijani settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Congressman Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) affirmed his positions on a number of issues of concern to the Armenian American community in his responses to the ANCA Questionnaire for candidates for the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts. Concerning the provision in the Armenia-Turkey protocols for a “historical commission,”reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

Armenians are understandably distressed when they encounter statements that distort or deny the facts of the Armenian Genocide, and feel comforted when it is properly acknowledged. While they are quick to castigate the deniers, they rarely take the time to recognize those who speak the truth.

Yes, it was a meeting, but not a “historic meeting” as posted by the Friends of Hrant Dink, the organizers of an academic event entitled “Closing the Divide.” The event was designed to build cultural bridges between the Armenian Diaspora on one side and the Turkish people on the other, to traverse a colossal gorge, not divide, created by centuries of slavery, abuse, colonization of Western Armenia, and pogroms, which peaked with the infamous genocide of 1915-23.

Historian Ara Papian and Armenian National Committee of America chairman Ken Hachikian will be the featured keynote speakers at the ARF Day Celebration scheduled to take place on Sunday, December 6 at the Glendale High School Auditorium.

Midway into the month-long Armenian American grassroots campaign to encourage President Obama to personally confront Turkey’s Prime Minister with the facts of the Armenian Genocide during their December 7th White House meeting, the Armenian National Committee of America’s (ANCA) “Countdown to Erdogan” has come under heavy fire from a Turkish lobby that appears increasingly nervous about the impact that Ankara’s growing rift with Washington will have on U.S. complicity in its genocide denial campaign.

Town hall meetings have begun throughout the Western United States to inform Armenian communities of the current state of negotiations between Armenia and Turkey, the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) reported on Saturday.

Social networking applications, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, powerfully leverage our already highly-networked Armenian American community, providing free, new, and exciting avenues to develop open communication, foster greater understanding, develop mutual respect, and facilitate practical cooperation toward shared goals: