Monday, July 4, 2022
No Result
View All Result
Asbarez.com
NEWSLETTER
ՀԱՅ
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
Asbarez.com
ՀԱՅ
No Result
View All Result

Unbelievable!

by Asbarez Staff
September 4, 2009
in By Any Means, Columns, Op-Ed, Opinon
8
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

gul-sargsyan-soccer-matchI suppose I owe some gratitude to the “leaders” in Yerevan’s halls of power for making it so easy to mouth off over their often imbecilic actions and policies. Forget about selling out/off natural resources and industrial infrastructure; even forget about the rampant corruption making people impoverished and cynical about building a truly representative government; let’s even turn a blind eye to the fawning and foolish act of honoring the megalomaniacal president of Georgia who’s busy persecuting the Armenians of Javakhk. All these and more are now eclipsed by the wholesale giveaway of Armenia’s and Armenians most basic rights and powerful legal weapons.

Of course I’m referring to the two protocols just released by the government of Armenia, Switzerland, and Turkey. If you haven’t read them, please do, you can find them on this publication’s website. They’re very compact and efficient in dissemination of pathetic policy. Just see how far your jaw drops.

Since I’m not fond of writing long, cumbersome articles, addressing all the foolishness filling those few pages is impossible. I’ll focus on the three most egregious elements in these platitude-filled documents. Discussing Turkey and respect for human rights in the same document, as occurs in the protocols, is just to laughable to address seriously.

The sanctification the inviolability of borders and territorial integrity play right into not only Turkey’s hands, but Azerbaijan’s as well. Silly me, I thought Armenians agreed that we will settle for no less than the Wilsonian demarcation of borders. If the Republic of Armenia says the current border is what it recognizes, then it signs away OUR rights to these territories. Simultaneously, Artzakh gets ceded to Azerbaijan by the same foolish stroke of a pen. Remember, Azerbaijan’s claims to Artzakh are based on the irrelevant, inapplicable “inviolability of borders and territorial integrity” arguments.

Then we have the much touted— by Turkey, its ilk, and their supporters— historical commission. Through these protocols, Armenia agrees to the creation of this stage for endless foot-dragging and a denialist talkfest. Remember TARC? How will this be any different? Just more U.S. Department of State funded meaningless new-age type chatter. While David Krikorian, the Ohio congressional candidate is spending valuable time and money on fighting Genocide denial, what is allegedly the highest official body representing Armenians, the government of the RoA, is busy giving away the store when it comes to Genocide recognition, and, naturally and consequently, reparations for damages arising from this example of Turkey’s malevolence.

Of course there’s the canard about the benefits of opening the Armenia-Turkey border. Turkey’s blockade may well be the best thing happening to Armenia’s minimal economy. Ankara has been successful in developing its economy so that it is one of the fastest growing in the world. Their manufacturing, and even agricultural, products would overwhelm what little Armenia has, further plunging the population into overseas-remittance-reliant misery. The irony here is that Turkey, having imposed the blockade over our success in Artzakh, now finds itself in a jam. Ankara WANTS to reopen the border to benefit its economy, but can’t be perceived as turning on its kissin’-cousins in Baku. What better way out than to get Armenia to BEG for something that hurts Armenia, benefits Turkey, and provides cover against Azerbaijan’s expectations.

What’s going on? For whatever reason, Armenia’s current government has embarked on a losing streak. Plus, these people seem to have incredibly outsized egos, can’t recognize their errors, and therefore don’t cut our losses. It seems that with each step they take in this lurid dance with their Turkish counterparts, they’re trying to efface the shame and embarrassment of the previous step. They serve up some new, even grander plan. But this “new and improved” approach ends up digging them even deeper into a hole of utter shame. Plus they do all this behind closed doors, away from the “prying” eyes of those of us who have a stake in the future of our nation and actually care to make it better.

It’s time to start hitting the government of the RoA much harder than it’s ever been hit. It’s time to demonstrate at official events. It’s time to let our revulsion show. And if after everything they persist in their nationally destructive path, then it will be time to assemble in a national conclave— Artzakh, Javakhk, Turkey’s crypto-Armenians and overt ones too, and Diaspora—to declare that on matters of Armenian rights—territorial, human, Genocide, reparations—the government of the Republic of Armenia has no right to speak for us.

If you agree, please say so, especially when you meet government representatives or visit Armenia. Maybe they’ll get the message.

Asbarez Staff

Asbarez Staff

Next Post

For Us Armenians, You Were the Greatest Teddy!

Comments 8

  1. Armanen says:
    13 years ago

    Why don’t we start a petition and/or call the Armenian embassy in Washington D.C.? We could also send mass e-mails to the Foreign Ministry of Armenia as well as the Office of the President of the RA.

    Reply
  2. Dav says:
    13 years ago

    Armenians worldwide should band against the protocals. I’ve read them myself and it is very offensive to the blood, sweat and tears that we have suffered. It is reduculus to think after all these years of protest our own admin is digging there, our and our future childrens graves. Please call, write and protest to the best of your ability and do not let this be passed.

    Reply
  3. Zareh says:
    13 years ago

    Serge Sarkissian has successfully diverted the nation’s attention from the ill-fated post-election violence that killed eight people in the streets of Yerevan in March 1st 2008. What better way to use this great card, Genocide and relations with Turkey, as personal Teflon shield.

    This guy has proven to be a dangerous individual, he always was since being the right-hand man of Levon Ter-Petrossian. The popular saying “he would sell his mother” fits perfectly to this egotistical megalomaniac.

    To ARF Armenia, demand his resignation NOW!

    Reply
  4. Zoud hye says:
    13 years ago

    This is crazy!! we just forget our past.. this is what the armenians been fighting for for the past 94 years!! now you are telling me lets be friends!!! WHAT?? come on Armenians NEVER Forgive NEVER Forget

    Reply
  5. palu says:
    13 years ago

    IF ARMENIANS DID NOT LEARN NOT TO TRUST TURKISH
    POLITICKS FOR THE LAST 500 YEARS, THEY HAVE LEARNED NOTHING
    AND THEY WILL BECOME SLAVES OF THE TURKS AGAIN.
    IF THEY SIGN THE PAPERS THAT THE TURKS AND SOME OTHER GOVERNMENTS
    ARE GIVING TO ARMENIANS.

    Reply
  6. Suren Seropian says:
    13 years ago

    Dear God in Heaven, what on earth is going on here? We tried to band with the Turks once and got stabbed in the back, among other body parts…they are in this only to get into the EU, and we are going to give away the farm…a sad day in our history.

    Reply
  7. viken from Uruguay says:
    13 years ago

    I agree 100% with this article.

    Reply
  8. Vatche Dakessian says:
    13 years ago

    Thanks to our brilliant politicians, it seems like Turkey has got istelf into a win win situation. on the one hand our losses will be tremendous if the protocols are implemented, if not Turkey will succeed in creating a deeper division between diaspora Armenians and the government of Armenia.
    One way out of this mess would be to suspend discussion of the protocols, immediatley grant every single Armenian anywhere in the world a full and unconditional Armenian citizenship with the right to vote and hold general as well as presidential elections as soon as possible to elect leaders with a clear, mature and logical political vision.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

Blessing of Muron Held at Catholicosate of Cilicia

Blessing of Muron Held at Catholicosate of Cilicia

3 days ago
Team of Armenian Mountaineers Summit Highest Peak in North America

Team of Armenian Mountaineers Summit Highest Peak in North America

3 days ago

Connect with us

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

© 2021 Asbarez | All Rights Reserved | Powered By MSDN Solutions Inc.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Community
  • Arts & Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Music
    • Theatre
    • Critics’ Forum
  • Op-Ed
    • Editorial
    • Opinon
    • Letters
  • Columns
    • By Any Means
    • My Turn
    • Three Apples
    • Community Links
    • Critics’ Forum
    • My Name is Armen
    • Living in Armenia
  • Videos
  • Sports

© 2021 Asbarez | All Rights Reserved | Powered By MSDN Solutions Inc.

Accessibility

Accessibility modes

Epilepsy Safe Mode
Dampens color and removes blinks
This mode enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode
Improves website's visuals
This mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode
Helps to focus on specific content
This mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode
Reduces distractions and improve focus
This mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode
Allows using the site with your screen-reader
This mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.

Online Dictionary

    Readable Experience

    Content Scaling
    Default
    Text Magnifier
    Readable Font
    Dyslexia Friendly
    Highlight Titles
    Highlight Links
    Font Sizing
    Default
    Line Height
    Default
    Letter Spacing
    Default
    Left Aligned
    Center Aligned
    Right Aligned

    Visually Pleasing Experience

    Dark Contrast
    Light Contrast
    Monochrome
    High Contrast
    High Saturation
    Low Saturation
    Adjust Text Colors
    Adjust Title Colors
    Adjust Background Colors

    Easy Orientation

    Mute Sounds
    Hide Images
    Virtual Keyboard
    Reading Guide
    Stop Animations
    Reading Mask
    Highlight Hover
    Highlight Focus
    Big Dark Cursor
    Big Light Cursor
    Navigation Keys

    Asbarez.com Accessibility Statement

    Accessibility Statement

    • www.asbarez.com
    • July 4, 2022

    Compliance status

    We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.

    To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.

    This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.

    Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.

    If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email

    Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

    Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:

    1. Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.

      These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.

    2. Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.

      Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Disability profiles supported in our website

    • Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
    • Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
    • Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
    • ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
    • Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
    • Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments

    1. Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
    2. Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over 7 different coloring options.
    3. Animations – epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
    4. Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
    5. Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
    6. Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
    7. Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

    Browser and assistive technology compatibility

    We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.

    Notes, comments, and feedback

    Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to