Azerbaijan announced on Wednesday that the first series of weaponry produced through its new domestic arms production program have rolled off the factory and are ready for testing, the Azeri Press Agency reported.

A report launched late Wednesday by an Ankara-based think tank urged the Turkish government to engage in relations with the Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia.

Leaders of the Pasadena Armenian National Committee took California State Assemblymember Anthony Portantino (D-44) on a tour of Armenian American businesses in the City of Pasadena on December 11, 2009 to help the Assemblymember better understand the challenges facing Armenian American business owners in this challenging economy and what actions, if any, the State can take to improve the economy.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation will hold street demonstrations on January 12 when Armenia’s Constitutional Court is scheduled to hold hearings on the Turkey-Armenia Protocols, said the leader of the party’s faction in parliament.

Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA) became, this week, the most recent additions to the growing bipartisan group of legislators supporting the Armenian Genocide Resolution (S.Res.316 and H.Res.252), reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

Two people were shot dead and several were wounded Tuesday in southeastern Turkey when a shopkeeper fired on demonstrators protesting a court ban on the country’s main Kurdish party, a local official said.

Law-enforcement authorities in Armenia said on Tuesday that they have finished a criminal investigation into two men who were arrested recently on charges of spying for Azerbaijan.

Armenian Diplomats stationed throughout Europe met in Paris on Monday for consultations with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian, reported ArmRadio.

The Armenian Relief Society of the Western US has issued an appeal to the community this holiday season, urging Armenian-Americans to participate in a charity drive to help the less fortunate.

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.

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.

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 event’s keynote speaker, Armenian National Committee of America Chairman Ken Hachikian,outlined the threats facing the Armenian nation as a result of the Armenia-Turkey protocols and the imperative for Armenian unity in opposition of these dangerous documents.

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.