The East Coast tour of Armenia National Assembly member Armen Rustamyan concluded on Sunday, December 13, after a guest appearance at the New York ARF’s commemoration of the Federation’s 119th anniversary. During his December 9-13 visit, Rustamyan met with Congressional and other US government representatives and visited east coast communities.

A key watchdog of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has given a mostly negative assessment of government-drafted amendments to an Armenian law regulating the work of non-governmental organizations, it emerged on Wednesday.

The Community.com, a social network for peace and human rights, featuring Desmond Tutu, President José Ramos-Horta of East Timor and other Nobel Peace Prize winners, joined forces with Amnesty International, the UN Foundation, CARE, the One Campaign and twelve other human rights and peace building organizations to raise awareness for the Declaration of Human Rights Campaign with a screening on December 9 of Clint Eastwood’s new film, “INVICTUS.”

The roadmap to regime change is a response to conditions that were crystallized by the recently signed protocols which represent the first step in the process of rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey. The ARF has properly viewed these documents as being detrimental to Armenia’s present and future national interests. In response to this assessment, the party has announced its formal opposition to the protocols. In Part I an explanation was offered as to how the ARF can deliver on its roadmap to regime change. Although this is a gargantuan task for which the ARF has the necessary experience to undertake, it is the how of the undertaking that is crucial. The response by the ARF, if it is to be effective, must be multi-faceted in its objectives and multi-operational in its implementation.

Finally it snowed! And finally, I used freshly split logs to start a long-awaited fire with dried kindling in the fireplace. It was the seventh of the month, and it had not yet snowed until now. That was a change from yesteryears, when Thanksgiving came in the middle of snowstorms stranding air and land travelers. The Greens attribute all this change to global warming, which, if persists, will melt the Antarctic snow and raise the sea levels to surpass that of the Great Flood, which prompted Noah to build his arc. Waves and wind had directed the arc towards Armenia, and when the waters receded, the arc had settled on our very own Mount Ararat—unlike the British Navy, which couldn’t (rather wouldn’t) climb our mountain as Gostan Zarian had portrayed in his novel Nave Lerran Vrah (The Ship on the Mountain).

It’s a long and tedious drive back from Las Vegas. Darkness has set and the red taillights wind ahead of the car like an unending ribbon twinkling in the night. Inside the car it is anything but quiet or boring. Shahane and Gayane are making a stream of phone calls, remotely trying to complete the layout of the upcoming issue of the college newspaper they co-founded, along with Arpine, four years ago while sophomores at UCLA. “Lets just do a newspaper and have all Armenians – not just UCLA Armenians – write to it and contribute to it and that’s how it started. Very randomly,” Gayane says of the original idea. At the time, she believed that students needed an outlet to express themselves in ways not available to them. “This way, students can write how they felt about our culture and how they felt about being in the Diaspora as students in a very free way without being judged for it.”

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation marked its 119th anniversary during a celebration event organized by the Central Committee of the ARF-Western USA. More than 1,500 community members flocked to the Glendale High School auditorium to witness a resurgence of the ARF’s commitment to fight for justice and the rights of the Armenian nation. Speaking at the event on behalf of the youth, Arek Santikian, the chairman of the Armenian Youth Federation, reassured the community of the youth’s willingness and determination to carry out its traditional duty to be the vital force of change in society; to hold true to the core values of the ARF, and to struggle for the Armenian nation. Below are his remarks.

The sudden resignation of veteran Turkish diplomat Nabi Sensoy before his tenure in Washington was set to expire in early 2010 has spurred questions about a potential rift between the Turkish government and its diplomats. Retired ambassadors contacted by the Daily News say the government has failed to give credit to Sensoy’s nearly four-decade-long diplomatic career.

Voters in the San Fernando Valley sent a resounding message throughout Los Angeles Tuesday night as Paul Krekorian won the special election in the Second Council District, defeating his opponent Christine Essel by a margin of more than13%.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday told the members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel is interested in direct talks with Syria over Turkish mediated negotiations, adding that his government would prefer Paris over Ankara in a situation in which a mediator is required, reported the Israeli Web site ynetnews.com.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having secured at least temporarily, the silence of yet another Administration on the Armenian Genocide, has used his U.S. visit to further press Turkey’s advantage–dramatically escalating his genocide denial rhetoric, reinforcing Turkey’s “Protocols” preconditions for lifting its blockade of Armenia, and attempting to use Ankara’s new found leverage in the Nagorno Karabakh peace process to deliver a pro-Azerbaijani settlement of this conflict, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

At a time when the ethnic press is teetering on the brink of change, the Armenian Weekly celebrates its 75th anniversary with a vision to the future. It has survived a monsoon of editorial exchanges, a transgression of readership, financial instability, unsettled attitudes, and now the electronic age.

Members of the Pasadena Armenian National Committee earlier this month met with the Interim Police Chief for the Pasadena Police force, Christopher Vicino and General Plan Manager, Jason Mikaelian.

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: