WASHINGTON (Armenpress)—The President of the National Assembly of Artsakh, Ashot Ghulyan, arrived in Washington on Nov. 30 on a working visit. On Dec. 1, Ashot Ghulyan met with the US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick.
On the same day, Ghulyan met with the Co-Chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues and the Congressional Coastal Caucus, Frank Pallone. During the meeting the two discussed a range of issues related to the expansion of cooperation between the US and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, and the implementation of US humanitarian aid programs.
Ghulyan thanked the Congressman and his colleagues for their statements condemning the downing of an unarmed Artsakh Air Force helicopter on Nov. 12 by Azeri forces, which lead to the death of three Armenian servicemen.
A certain man who is a locksmith, Burbank community activist, Glendale activist getting rid of ANCA members in Glendale City Hall, hunger striker, Policy Forum Armenia member, and author of a “white paper” titled “To Donate or Not to Donate,” [Locksmith] has been campaigning against Armenia Fund.
When someone attacks Locksmith’s argument, he introduces straw-men arguments. In this case, Locksmith argues that one should not donate to the Armenia Fund because of supposed Republic of Armenia tax leakage. Locksmith’s argument is ridiculous. First of all, every country has tax leakage. Does the B’Nai Brith stop donating to Israel because there is tax leakage in Israel? Second, tax leakage in a country should not have a basis in donating to a cause. Armenia Fund has helped Artsakh build roads, build hospitals, and helped the population to improve access to drinking water. These are tangible results. Locksmith’s argument basically advocates that progression of these tangible results should be halted because there is tax leakage in Armenia, [which, coincidentally, is a separate country than Artsakh].
But of course, Locksmith is justified in being illogical. Locksmith’s arguments end with a discussion of who he is (or thinks he is) by his supposed ancestry or buffoonish antics. Locksmith justifies his poor arguments by first asserting (or supposing) that his maternal grandmother was a direct descendant of the Bagratuni Dynasty. Then, Locksmith tries to steal Soghomon Tehlirian’s thunder by bragging about how his grandfather, basically planned a hit on Taalat Pasha [in other words, Locksmith’s grandfather got someone else to do the dirty work, someone else to take all the risks while his grandfather sat back]. Finally, Locksmith pretends to be a human rights activist by going around like an attention whore trying to get Obama’s attention with a nonsensical hunger strike.