Harut Sassounian

If President Obama ends up being a one-term president, he has no one to blame but himself. While it is true that he inherited the Bush administration's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a devastated economy, he has not only failed to lead the nation out of its quagmire, but...

Pres. Obama's unilateral appointments of Matthew Bryza as Ambassador to Azerbaijan and Frank Ricciardone as Ambassador to Turkey must be strongly challenged. He took advantage of an archaic loophole to circumvent the Senate's constitutional mandate during the new year holidays to make these "recess appointments" on December 29.

While Pres....

Over the years, Armenian-Americans have gradually shifted their attention from demanding recognition of the Armenian Genocide to pursuing various legal remedies for the massive losses they suffered between 1915 and 1923.

They filed several lawsuits recently in U.S. Federal Courts against Western insurance companies and banks. In July, Armenian-American attorneys...

In a stunning development, a federal appeals court handed last week a major setback to German companies and Turkish denialists of the Armenian Genocide. It reversed its earlier ruling and decided that a California law extending the deadline for lawsuits against life insurance companies was constitutional, after all!

The...

In 2008, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an Alabama-based non-profit civil rights organization, published an article titled, "State of Denial: Turkey Spends Millions to Cover Up Armenian Genocide." It was a hard-hitting exposé of the Turkish government's elaborate and sinister efforts to pressure U.S. politicians and entice academics to...

A funny thing happened to Matthew Bryza on the way to Baku. He had rented out his Washington home and packed up his suitcase, after being assured by top White House and State Department officials that he was going to be the next U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan. He...

At the request of Sen. Barbara Boxer, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had postponed from early August to mid-September its vote on Matt Bryza, nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan. Senators Boxer, Harry Reid, and Robert Menendez were satisfied neither with Bryza's answers during the confirmation hearing nor with his...

In a major embarrassment for the Obama Administration, Senators took an unprecedented action last week, blocking the President's ambassadorial nominees for both Azerbaijan and Turkey!

The Administration showed a total lack of experience and poor judgment by ignoring warnings that Matthew Bryza and Francis Ricciardone, the nominees for Baku and...

After struggling for decades to get the Armenian Genocide recognized, and having taken legal action against western banks and insurance companies, Armenian-Americans filed their first lawsuit against the Republic of Turkey last week, seeking compensation for confiscated properties and belongings, and loss of income as a consequence of the Genocide...

Barack Obama ran for the Presidency on a platform of "change" and promised to bring a fresh approach to domestic and foreign policy issues. After the election, however, he disappointed his supporters by continuing many of his predecessor's policies.

One example of Pres. Obama's failure to break...

In the past week the world witnessed an amazing performance by a government leader that even the most accomplished Hollywood actor could not match!

Turkey's Prime Minister deserves an Oscar for presenting himself as a great humanitarian and protector of Palestinians. The people of Gaza are certainly oppressed and deprived,...

After a lengthy delay, Azerbaijan consented last week to the appointment of Matthew Bryza as U.S. Ambassador to Baku, The White House followed suit by making an official announcement this week.

It is noteworthy that there has not been an American Ambassador in Azerbaijan since last July. Surprisingly, there has...

Oh, what a tangled web we weave: when first we practice to deceive!

Under the guise...

CBS' 60 Minutes recently featured a devastating exposé on the violation of Greek minorities' rights in Turkey.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Greek Orthodox Church, headquartered in Istanbul, courageously criticized the Turkish government for treating him as a "second-class citizen." He went on to state that he felt like he...

In a recent letter 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.

During the...

A prominent legal expert, Mr. Geoffrey Robertson, exposed this week the false and inaccurate statements on the Armenian Genocide made by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The international jurist revealed that for many years the FCO (Foreign Ministry) had misled the British Parliament on the facts of the...

Playing the skillful political games of their Ottoman predecessors, Turkey's current masters present their country under various guises -- as European and Middle Eastern, Islamic and secular, pro-Arab and pro-Israeli.

It now appears that the end is near for at least one of these Turkish charades. Israeli officials have finally...

After months of rampant rumors and news leaks, the Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Turkey, with Switzerland as mediator, issued a joint statement on August 31, making public the text of two protocols intended to regulate their problematic relationship.

In a previous joint statement released on April 22, Armenian and...

For many years, the Turkish government and its hired propagandists have claimed that Jews have been well treated in Turkey throughout history.

In recent years, as Turkey came under intense international pressure to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, Turkish officials decided to present a more positive image of their country by...

In a daring statement, Turkish Prime Minister Rejeb Erdogan admitted for the first time that the expulsion from Turkey of tens of thousands of ethnic Greeks in the last century was a "fascist" act, Reuters reported.

Some commentators viewed Erdogan's remarks as a reference to the expulsion of 1.5 million...