Villains, Heroes of 2014

Some of the heroes and villains who visited us this past year are perennials while others made the scene for the first time. Some will probably leave the stage sometime next year or the year after but they will have made an impact—positive and negative, large or small on issues of concern to most Armenians. Here it is: our—admittedly subjective–choices of 12 villains and 12 heroes who made a difference to the Armenian nation in 2014. The list is not in descending or ascending order. We invite you to add your choices to the list. Please send your candidates to Keghart.com below this article.—Editor, 24 December 2014

Picks of Keghart.com

Some of the heroes and villains who visited us this past year are perennials while others made the scene for the first time. Some will probably leave the stage sometime next year or the year after but they will have made an impact—positive and negative, large or small on issues of concern to most Armenians. Here it is: our—admittedly subjective–choices of 12 villains and 12 heroes who made a difference to the Armenian nation in 2014. The list is not in descending or ascending order. We invite you to add your choices to the list. Please send your candidates to Keghart.com below this article.—Editor, 24 December 2014

Picks of Keghart.com

VILLAINS

12. PRINCE ANDREW OF BRITAIN, KG, GCVVO, ADC (P), Duke of York, Earl of Inverness, Baron Killyeagh, Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Knight of the Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, de jure Prince of Greece (although Greece in not a kingdom), and Rear Admiral. The second son of the queen and the former husband of the notorious Sarah Ferguson, continued to play footsie with the brutal Aliev regime in Azerbaijan so as to feather his already fat nest with easy—but dirty–petrodollars. The queen’s third issue has met Baby Aliev no less than 15 times in the past few years. A friendly fellow, the prince was also chummy with Saif al-Islam, son of Moammar Gaddafi, was close friend of convicted gun smuggler Tarek Kaikuni, and the crooked son-in-law of Kazakhstan’s dictator.

11. ARMENIAN OLIGARCHS The greedy, violent, and criminal parasites who are strangling Armenia’s economy as they lower the standard of living in the republic through their network of monopolies, artificial pricing and influence on Serge Sarkissian’s government. Of course, many citizens of Armenia believe Sarkissian himself is the head honcho of one of the bigger oligarchic ziggurats while Robert Kocharian is the Corleone of the second-largest.

10. ISIL/ISIS/IS/DA’ESH For their brutalism, fanaticism, obscurantism and for persecuting non-Sunni Muslims and Christian minorities in Iraq and in Syria.

9. ABE FOXMAN, PRESIDENT OF ADL The head of the Anti-Defamation League in the United States who was, for years, the ringleader of the Armenian Genocide-denying cabal. This apologist of Turkey believes white-washing criminal Turkey is more important than acknowledging Turkey’s holocaust of Armenians. Foxman’s agenda is no secret: he would sleep with the devil if he thinks it would benefit Israel. Luckily for Armenians, this reprehensible blowhard retires, at long last, in next June.

8. THE RENT-A-SCHOLAR SET These are mostly American and some British “scholars” who are jobbers deft at inventing purpose-written “historic” tracts about Armenian/Turkish relations. The usual suspects Justin McCarthy, The Rent-a-Scholar Set. Guenter Lewy, Bernard Lewis, et al were joined this year with two brand-new hired guns: Christopher Gunn and Tal Buenos. The latter is the hirsute gofer of Hakan Yavuz (University of Utah) while the former teaches in a small Southern town at the third-rate Coastal Carolinas University. These two juveniles have joined the veteran liars in the custom-made scholarship run as unacknowledged propagandists for Ankara. They should be extra busy this year churning further banalities as Armenians commemorate the slaying of 1.5-million Armenians.                                                                                         

7. CATHOLICOS KAREKIN II For continuing his execrable ways in Armenia and in the Diaspora. The recent ambition of the oligarch-catholicos is to forcibly turn the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem into an Echmiadzin diocese so as to better control the Diaspora and pocket the assets of Armenian Diaspora churches. In his spare time, KII continues to throw his weight around, arbitrarily firing clergymen and checking the bottom line of a Yerevan bus company he partly owns with other birds of the flock.

6. TURKISH-AMERICAN/CANADIAN ORGANIZATIONS Funded by Ankara or fronting the Gulen movement, these associations, Anatolian “heritage” organizations, friendship and business groups have one goal in mind: to diffuse Armenian condemnation of Turkey and perhaps polish the traditional negative image of Turks in North America.

5. PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIEV, aka Aliev Jr., aka Baby Aliev, aka Baku Al Capone numbskull who—to divert the attention of Azeris from their miserable lives—orders border provocations with Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh almost on a daily basis and spends millions of dollars to persuade the world that the battle of Khojalu was genocide by Armenians. So far, nobody—except Turkey—takes lumbering Baby Aliev seriously.

4. PRESIDENT RECEP ERDOGAN, PRIME MINISTER AHMET DAVUTOGLU, aka Dynamic Duo, aka Batman and Robin, aka Tom and Jerry. Where does one begin listing the follies of the NeoCaliph-Sultan-Qaid-Padishah Ottomaniac and his eager-beaver understudy Davutoglu? Despite Davutoglu’s boast about “no problems with neighbors” not one of Turkey’s neighbors is enamored with Turkey, except mercenary Georgia. Even Ankara’s long-time patron Washington is disenchanted with the Erdogan’s cantankerous, boastful, provocative rants. At the end of the year the long-misunderstood Erdogan made a delightful present to world cartoonists and satirists when he announced that Muslims—read Turks—discovered America centuries before Columbus was born. You see… it was all a Crusader plot to take the credit for everything.

3. HAKAN YAVUS Reputedly to be connected to Turkish Military Intelligence, Yavuz is ensconced, thanks to Ankara’s piggy-bank, at University of Utah’s Middle East department. From his desert aerie, Yavuz spends his time manufacturing fairy tales and organizing symposia (funded by Ankara, naturally) to prove Turkey’s innocence in the ethnic “misunderstanding” a century ago when lots of Turks died. Yavus has a perfervid imagination bordering that of Salvador Dali. He will continue churning out fantasies with decreasing credibility despite his largesse.

2. BRENDA SHAFFER Political-science professor at the University of Haifa hid the fact that she had worked as an adviser “for strategic affairs” for the Azeri state-owned company SOCAR when she paraded in the U.S. as an objective scholar and wrote articles bolstering corrupt Azerbaijan’s image in the U.S. In one article she claimed Azerbaijan was an “important security partner” of the U.S. To persuade Americans to support the Aliev kleptocracy, she wrote that Nagorno-Karabakh might become “Russia’s next land grab.”  With her mask ripped, Shaffer should return to Haifa and focus her energies on importing watermelons from Azerbaijan.

1. SENATOR ANNE COOLS OF CANADA A former arsonist-terrorist and now a Canadian senator, Ms. Anne Cools advocated earlier this year the repeal of Canada’s recognition of the Genocide. For details about this wild woman of Canada’s Senate, see our previous issue titled “Senator Cools Blow Hot Air… As Usual”.

HEROES
 

12. GEOFFREY ROBERTSON, QC For his extensive scholarship of genocides and his recent book on the Genocide.

11. ROBERT FISK, foreign correspondent “The Independent” For not forgetting—unlike most Western foreign correspondents—the plight of the Middle Eastern Christians, especially in Syria and in Iraq.

10. YAER AURON and ISRAEL CHARNY, Israeli historians and authors. For indefatigably continuing their many years’ work to persuade Israeli politicians, media, and citizens that refusing to recognize the Genocide of Armenians—the prelude to the Jewish Holocaust—is an unforgivable omission.

9. ZORYAN INSTITUTE The Diaspora Armenian think thank which goes around quietly hammering further nails to the Turkish government’s coffin of denial.

8. PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER, MINISTER JASON KENNEY, THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT The prime minister of Canada, Mr. Kenney, Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister of Multiculturalism, and the Canadian Government  continued to resist unrelenting pressure (blackmail, threats, positive business inducements) from Foreign Affairs, from certain Canadian business lobbies, from Ankara and Turkey-hired lobbyists to soft pedal, if not reverse, Canada’s recognition of the Genocide. The Canadian-Armenian community owes big time to these politicians of courage, principle, and integrity.

7. MARK GIRAGOS The California lawyer and TV personality who has familiarized million of American viewers with the justice of the Armenian Cause.

6. PRE-PARLIAMENT in ARMENIA For telling it as it is in Armenia’s lawless governance and for spreading the word that unless the rule of law is made supreme Armenia is going nowhere fast. Pre-Parliament should also get extra points for advocating peaceful and democratic change.

5. ARMENIANS OF ALEPPO/ARMENIA/ARTSAKH For their steadfastness, sacrifice, and love of our nation in the face of untold physical and economic suffering.

4. RIGHTEOUS TURKS and TURKISH HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS For their courage in challenging the false and harmful narrative of their country’s history vis-à-vis the Armenians.

3. SHEIKH SULTAN BIN MOHAMMED AL QASIMI, the ruler of Sharjah; For donating $1.7-million to restore the Haghartsin Monastery in northern Armenia. The 10th century architectural jewel was in a dilapidated state when the sheikh rescued it.

2. ARGENTINA For being the largest investor country in Armenia, for recognizing the Genocide, for giving the brush-off to Turkish anti-Armenian lobbying, and for giving us Eduardo Eurnekian.

1. KIM KARDASHIAN The controversial—to put it mildly—media personality did more for the Armenian Cause with a simple tweet than countless Armenian projects have managed to do over the decades. Viva social media.