LIVE: the March 21, 2014 attack on Kessab

 

Attached is the only recording of the attack on Kessab on March 21, 2014. It was recorded by Badveli Sevag Trashian. Against the tranquility of the village, the chipping of the birds and the gun shots can be heard. HAVE YOUR SOUND SETTING ON HIGH.

Samvel Shahramanyan, an accidental figure

 Vaհe H Apelian

Samvel Shahramanyan is an accidental figure in Armenian history who came onto the Armenian history’s stage as a leader Armenia could not afford. I note this as a conclusion because I followed Samvel Shahramanyan as best as any Diaspora Armenian interested in Armenia could have at this historical junction.

I followed Samvel Shahramanyan’s election as president of Artskah, his Inaugural speech in Artsakh National Assembly, his complete reversal from the speech he gave and signing the liquidation of the Republic of Artsakh, his escort to Armenia by Russian forces 

Here is a summary in chronological order, as to what transpired during those fateful 52 days, from August 7 to September 28, 2023 in Artsakh and then up to May 17,2025 in Armenia.

August 7, 2023, Tavit Ishkanian was elected speaker of the Artsakh National Assembly.

September 1, 2023, Arayik Harutyunyan, the popularly elected president, resigned.

September 10, 2023 Samvel Shahramanyan was elected president by the Artsakh national assembly.

September 11, 2023, Samvel Shahramanyan gave his presidential inaugural speech to the national assembly. Armenian pundits in the Diaspora welcomed the change of Artsakh governance and one of its most ardent analysts likened it, in ARF newspapers, to a snow ball that will continue rolling down and take over or roll over Yerevan.

September 17 -20, 2023, in complete reversal to his presidential inaugural speech, Samvel Shahramanyan signed the Artsakh capitulation and the exodus of the Armenians began, abandoning historic Artsakh that ceased to have its native Armenian inhabitants it had throughout history.

In Armenia I followed his interview on Artsakh television station in Armenia, his meeting the Armenian government officials that he will not meddle in politics in Armenia. And finally, on May 17, 2025, I followed him willingly accept to act as the president of Republic of Artsakh in Armenia, the same republic he abolished and side with the opposition throwing the gauntlet at the government of Armenia

I had named my blog as “Samvel Shahramanyan, a veritable enigma,” But I concluded that he is not an enigma. He simply is an accidental figure who was thrown, on his own will, onto the modern Armenian history, when Armenian history could not afford to have him or anyone else like him.  

I remain reminded of Prof. Z.S. Andrew Demirdjian, who titled an article he wrote, “ABANDONING ARTSAKH WILL HAUNT ARMENIANS FOR EVER”. 

For those interest to read further, I attached below the blogs I wrote about Samvel Shahramanyan.

                                                ***

1.  Samvel Shahramanyan: Inauqural speech 

l (Sunday, September 10, 2023)

https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/09/lachin-corridor-test-of-wills.html 

2. From Arayik Harutyunyan to Samvel Shahramanyan: What changed?: (Sunday, September 10, 2023)

 https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/09/from-arayik-to-savel-what-changed.html

3. Samvel Sharamanyan: Nothing of this sort has happened in our tortured history: (Wednesday October 11, 2023)

 https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/10/nothing-of-this-sort-has-happened-in.html

4. Shahramanyan: An accidental figure: (Monday November 6, 2023)

 https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/11/an-accidental-figure.html

 

5. Samvel Shahramnayan: An Unusual meeting with Civil Contract representatives:  (November 28, 2023)

https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/11/an-unusual-meeting-samvel-shahramanyan.html

 

6. Samvel Sharamanyan: One free in Yerevan and 8 imprisoned in Baku, (Thursday, January 16, 2025)

 https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/01/one-free-in-yerevan-and-8-imprisoned-in.html

 

6. Samvel Shahramanyan:  Recalling Artsakh history: Remembering Samvel Shahramanyan's inaugural speech 

(Friday January 10, 2025)

 https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/01/recalling-history-remembering-samvel_10.html

7. Samvel Shahramanyan throws the gauntlet   Recalling Artsakh history:  

(Saturday April 19, 2025). https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/04/samvel-shahramanyan-throws-gauntlet_19.html

Snowballing for the follies

 Vaհe H Apelian

Today early in his press conference, in response to a reporter’s inquiry, the PM Nikol Pashinyan restated his stand as to what transpired in Artsakh a few weeks before the September exodus of Artsakh Armenians.

Yes, indeed, at that time, the present opposition to the Nikol Pashinyan led government in Yerevan, heralded the resignation of Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunian, which came at the end August.

 The Diaspora ARF press joined the chorus and likened the change to a rolling snowball that should not melt but that it would roll down and take over Yerevan.  The actual title of that article was “Նոր ձիւնագնդակը պէտք չէ հալէ  - The new snowball should not melt”. That article is dated August 31, 2023 and is embedded in the link below,

 Even Kantsasar, the Aleppo prelacy journal affiliated with ARF, joined the chorus and reproduced the same article, as if that was a burning issue to poverty-stricken Aleppo Armenian community and the community needed, much like a hole in its head, to be led against the Nikol Pashinyan government.

 But the snowball turned into a fireball that incinerated Artsakh.

Read the link below. It is the blog I wrote in response to such a folly, on September 25, 2023 and titled it “The snowball that turned into a fireball.”

Link: “The snowball that turned into a fireball.”https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-snowball-that-turned-into-fireball.html

                                                                    ***

                                             ***

The snow ball of the follies

 Vaհe H Apelian

The haunting image of the exodus from Artsakh

A short while ago I watched PM Nikol Pashinyan's press conference. In response to a reporter’s inquiry, the PM Nikol Pashinyan restated his stand as to what transpired in Artsakh a few weeks before the September exodus of Artsakh Armenians.

Yes, indeed, at that time, the present opposition to the Nikol Pashinyan led government in Yerevan, heralded resignation of Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunian, which came at the end August.

 The Diaspora ARF press joined the chorus and likened the change to a rolling snowball that should not melt but that it should roll down and take over Yerevan.  The actual title of that article was “Նոր ձիւնագնդակը պէտք չէ հալէ  - The new snowball should not melt”. That article is dated August 31, 2023 and is embedded in the link below,

 Even the Aleppo prelacy journal affiliated with ARF, joined the chorus and reproduced the same article, as if that was a burning issue to the poverty stricken Aleppo Armenian community and the community needed, much like a hole in its head, to be led against the Nikol Pashinyan government.

 But the snowball turned into a fireball that incinerated Artsakh.

Read the link below. It is the blog I wrote on September 25, 2023 and titled it “The snowball that turned into a fireball.”

Link: “The snowball that turned into a fireball.”https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-snowball-that-turned-into-fireball.html

                                                ***

 

Beyond amendment, a shift in paradigm

Vaհe H Apelian

Recently I read an article in The Atlantic about the American Constitution. The cover of the magazine reads Amend it. But the headline of the article is different (see the link below). The central issue of the article may be summed up in the following sentence, “one of the Constitution’s founding purposes was to prevent change. But another was to allow for change without violence.” 

I am for the notion that a constitution allows change, surely not change brought about by violence. I am for, not only Armenia amends its Constitution, but also shifts its historic paradigm.

I unequivocally state that the opposition to the PM’s REAL ARMENIA Ideology, implies not being in tune with the historic course of Armenia since May 28, 1918, which has been the preservation of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan has wrapped it in REAL ARMENIA slogan for ease of propagation.

The central tenet of the REAL ARMENIA ideology pertains to equating the Motherland with, and restricting it to the current internationally recognized Armenian state — i.e., the 29,743 sq kms; a map of which the prime minister wears as his lap pin. And yes, everything that falls outside that area, the PM views it in the context of preserving the 29,743 sq. km. internationally recognized Republic of Armenia. Therein lies the PM”s emotional outburst to the lady’s claim that she advocates another map, not the map of Armenia, the one the PM wears and is passing around.

Those in Armenia, especially the leaders of the opposition, who ostensibly oppose the PM’s REAL IDEOLOGY and verbalize against the Real Armenia Ideology, implying that they have another map in mind, well beyond, the 29,743 sq. km. Republic of Armenia, are not being truthful to their constituents and to those in Diaspora who espouse them. As a matter of fact, they were de facto proponents of that ideology when they were in power, and will continue to be the proponent of that ideology once they regain power.  The real goal of the opposition leadership in Armenia is not to rescind the Real Armenia ideology. It would not surprise me that the real goal is to reclaim the beyond the law status they had carved for themselves and were immensely profiting from it, by theft. Then came the 2018 Revolution, the Velvet Revolution, led by Nikol Pashinyan that upended the status quo.

From get go, I have found the Soviet era preamble of the Declaration of Independence poorly worded. I have especially the following statement in the preamble in mind: “Based on the December 1, 1989, joint decision of the Armenian SSR Supreme Council and the Artsakh National Council on the "Reunification of the Armenian SSR and the Mountainous Region of Karabakh;" I propose removing that clause, as a Declaration of Independence amendment.

Declarations of independence are supposed to be about lofty goals, but not about policy. Mexico’s Declaration of Independence is about their breaking away from Spanish colonialism. The American Declaration of Independence is about breaking away from the harsh and unjust British monarchic rule. There is no word in Armenia’s Declaration of Independence from what Armenia declared independence and why.

Armenia is confronting a shift in its historical paradigm, well beyond amending the Constitution & the Declaration of Independence. 

I understand that the Declaration of Independence - DOI - will not be amended but will rbe removed from the constitution. At this moment, the DOI makes the first article of the constitution and it should. I do not find appropriate that Armenia’s Constitution will have no reference to its Declaration of Independence, which will remain as an orphaned document, but live nonetheless.

Armenia will have come to grips. Will it be the Republic that lives in peace with its neighbors or not? I do not recommend Armenia be the Republic that holds on to an orphaned policy document that calls for reunification with a historic Armenian province Artsakh, that is part of Azerbaijan. Orphaned it may be, but it is a living a document, Armenia cannot ignore it, even if it does not include it in its constitution.

Armenia is confronting for a historic shift in paradigm, well beyond amending its constitution. The shift of paradigm is to be the Republic that lives in peace with its neighbors as codified in its Declaration of Independence and in its Constitution.

***

Link: The Atlantic’s October Cover Story: Jill Lepore on How the Radical Legal Philosophy of Originalism Has Undermined the Process of Constitutional Evolution https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2025/09/the-atlantics-october-cover-jill-lepore-amend-it/684155/

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond amending the Constitution, a shift in paradigm

Vaհe H Apelian

Recently I read an article in The Atlantic about the American Constitution. The cover of the magazine reads Amend it. But the headline of the article is different (see the link below). The central issue of the article may be summed up in the following sentence, “one of the Constitution’s founding purposes was to prevent change. But another was to allow for change without violence.” 

I am for the notion that a constitution allows change, surely not change brought about by violence. I am for, not only Armenia amends its Constitution, but also shifts its historic paradigm.

I unequivocally state that the opposition to the PM’s REAL ARMENIA Ideology, implies not being in tune with the historic course of Armenia since May 28, 1918, which has been the preservation of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan has wrapped it in REAL ARMENIA slogan for ease of propagation.

The central tenet of the REAL ARMENIA ideology pertains to equating the Motherland with, and restricting it to the current internationally recognized Armenian state — i.e., the 29,743 sq kms; a map of which the prime minister wears as his lap pin. And yes, everything that falls outside that area, the PM views it in the context of preserving the 29,743 sq. km. internationally recognized Republic of Armenia. Therein lies the PM”s emotional outburst to the lady’s claim that she advocates another map, not the map of Armenia, the one the PM wears and is passing around.

Those in Armenia, especially the leaders of the opposition, who ostensibly oppose the PM’s REAL IDEOLOGY and verbalize against the Real Armenia Ideology, implying that they have another map in mind, well beyond, the 29,743 sq. km. Republic of Armenia, are not being truthful to their constituents and to those in Diaspora who espouse them. As a matter of fact, they were de facto proponents of that ideology when they were in power, and will continue to be the proponent of that ideology once they regain power.  The real goal of the opposition leadership in Armenia is not to rescind the Real Armenia ideology. It would not surprise me that the real goal is to reclaim the beyond the law status they had carved for themselves and were immensely profiting from it, by theft. Then came the 2018 Revolution, the Velvet Revolution, led by Nikol Pashinyan that upended the status quo.

From get go, I have found the Soviet era preamble of the Declaration of Independence poorly worded. I have especially the following statement in the preamble in mind: “Based on the December 1, 1989, joint decision of the Armenian SSR Supreme Council and the Artsakh National Council on the "Reunification of the Armenian SSR and the Mountainous Region of Karabakh;" I propose removing that clause, as a Declaration of Independence amendment.

Declarations of independence are supposed to be about lofty goals, but not about policy. Mexico’s Declaration of Independence is about their breaking away from Spanish colonialism. The American Declaration of Independence is about breaking away from the harsh and unjust British monarchic rule. There is no word in Armenia’s Declaration of Independence from what Armenia declared independence and why.

Armenia is confronting a shift in its historical paradigm, well beyond amending the Constitution & the Declaration of Independence. 

I understand that the Declaration of Independence - DOI - will not be amended but will rbe removed from the constitution. At this moment, the DOI makes the first article of the constitution and it should. I do not find appropriate that Armenia’s Constitution will have no reference to its Declaration of Independence, which will remain as an orphaned document, but live nonetheless.

Armenia will have come to grips. Will it be the Republic that lives in peace with its neighbors or not? I do not recommend Armenia be the Republic that holds on to an orphaned policy document that calls for reunification with a historic Armenian province Artsakh, that is part of Azerbaijan. Orphaned it may be, but it is a living a document, Armenia cannot ignore it, even if it does not include it in its constitution.

Armenia is confronting for a historic shift in paradigm, well beyond amending its constitution. The shift of paradigm is to be the Republic that lives in peace with its neighbors as codified in its Declaration of Independence and in its Constitution.

***

Link: The Atlantic’s October Cover Story: Jill Lepore on How the Radical Legal Philosophy of Originalism Has Undermined the Process of Constitutional Evolution https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2025/09/the-atlantics-october-cover-jill-lepore-amend-it/684155/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kessab: The three fateful days in March 2014

 Kessab: The three fateful days in March 2014 and their aftermath.

Vaհe H Apelian

March 20, 21, 22, 2014 will remained etched forever in the memories of those who lived through those three days. Those three days in turn and their aftermath  will go down in the history of Kessab, the only Armenian speaking enclave from historical Cilician (Western) Armenia.

The three days presented here are personal accounts from the ground zero, as the events were unfolding, on those very same days. The unfolding of each day was posted separately. I summarized in this blog those three fateful days of Kessab, and their aftermath as a continuum 

March 20, 2014, an ordinary day, the day before the exodus. 

The Teachers' Day in Syria, is typically celebrated on the third Thursday in March. As teachers’ Day goes, it is meant to honor the dedication of educators to building the nation's future. It is not a public holiday, but schools and communities celebrate with special events. In that fateful month, the Teachers’ Day in Syria was on March 20, 2014.

But in 2014, the Kessabtsis celebrated the Teachers’ Day a few days earlier on March 16. Ani Apelian had been the principal of the Armenian Evangelical School for many years. The celebration had happened in their house and Stepan J Apelian had taken that historic picture posted above.

My Facebook records indicate that I had been chatting with Stepan on March 20, 2014, at 3:40 pm, local U.S. Eastern Daylight time. I was in Cincinnati, OH. My cousin Stepan J Apelian, was in Keorkune, Kessab, Syria. The local time there was 10:40 p.m. It was an ordinary evening. We seem to be chatting about my friend Hratch Bedoyan who had passed away in 1992 due to a heart attack. Hratch and I had had visited Keorkune and had spent a few days at our family’s ancestral home, with my paternal uncle and his family.

I do not know when we ended our conversation, but it sure was later in the afternoon local U.S. time and late into the night in Syria.  

March 21, 2014, The day of the exodus,. 

Late in the night of the same day of March 20, 2014,, I received a message from Sevan Apelian from Anjar, that her brother had left Keurkune in haste, because Kessab was under attack.

It turned out that a few hours after Stepan and I ended our chat, on the wee hours of the early morning on Friday March 21, 2014, the first day of spring, hell had broken loose over Kessab

Heavily armed extremists had attacked Kessab from Turkey accompanied by artillery fire. In a matter of hours, the overwhelming majority of some 2,000 or so Armenian inhabitants of the greater Kessab, along with those who had taken refuge there from the civil war raging in Syria, had fled for their safety to the coastal city of Latakia, some 35 miles away. 

So had Stepan, Ani with their son Hovag, who was in his early teens, and Stepan’s mother, my aunt Asdghig. They had hopped into their car, carrying with them their essential personal documents, fand had fled Kessab, with the rest of  the Kessabtsis, to Lattakia.

Kessab borders Turkey. This onslaught of extremists on Kessab from Turkey, surely happened with the assistance and the permission of the Turkish government. Many, if not most, of the extremists who attacked Kessab were later reported not to have been Syrian nationals but were mercenaries recruited from elsewhere. The attack on Kessab was termed the “Anfal” campaign. I quote, “Anfal, which is Arabic for the spoils of war, is the name of the eighth sura, or chapter, of the QurÂ’an. It tells a tale in which followers of Mohammed pillage the lands of nonbelievers. “Basically, the attackers were sanctioned to loot Kessab and looting they did. They also killed the few able-bodied young Kessabtsis who stayed behind to support their elderly family members who could not leave during the mayhem. The attack as recorded by Rev. Sevag Trashian.

March 22, 2014, the day after the exodus. 

Kessabtsis had become refugees in their own country. Some of them found shelter with family members, relatives, and friends they had in Lattakia. Stepan had the family settled in an apartment, he had his Lattakia based business lawyer, whom he had befriended over the years, rent for them. Not all had these connections and had to stay in the church compound. The Kessabtsis organized a relief committee to oversee the fair distribution of aid. 

Stepan posteտ the following on his Facebook page.

Stepan’s comment. 

"To all our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora and mainland Armenia.

It is a very sad day for Kessab. 

The first day of spring - 2014, March 21 - the barbaric enemy with the full support of Turkey as government; logistically, militarily, and even participated in military action and attacked Kesssab early morning at 4 a.m. The attack started with a heavy shelling of the peaceful village, with mortars and grads, creating a chaotic state. 

The civilians fled to Lattakia, but no one can assure safety in Lattakia too. 

This aggression of Turkey is not justified in any way. The extremists are hopeless and frustrated. They could not sustain their existence in many parts of Syria, so they poured their venom on a peaceful, farming, and touristic area – Kessab – and its peaceful people who had no inclination to politics and power, whatsoever.  All through the 3 years of dirty (civil) war, we stayed very peaceful, created no friction with any party, showed military activities against no one. All were busy supporting their families and gave a safe haven to more than 1000 displaced families from all over Syria, of all denominations and faiths without any discrimination. These people are now being penalized for such a peaceful stand. 

The super powers of West are making humanitarian and human rights declarations as the safeguards of all values. But in fact, are blindfolded and deaf to all such act s that they secretly support as well. President Obama in his presidency oath clearly declared that the U.S.A. will return back to its ancestors’ and founding fathers’ values. Wonder if he really did fulfill his promise. 

We ask all living world of conscience to raise their voice against all aggressions at peaceful and life loving civilians.”

March 2014, and beyond.

Most Kessabtsis remained in Latakia during the ordeal. On June 15, word reached them that the extremists had left and that regular Syrian soldiers had entered the Kessab. Following the news Stepan and many other  Kessabtsi men started returning to check on their houses, businesses, orchards. The found the Missakiian Cultural Center in the the center of Kessab still smoldering.

They found their homes, businesses, churches, community centers looted and mostly torched.  They found cemeteries desecrated. Some started rebuilding their shattered lives. But some left for overseas. Most of the latter group claimed their departure oversees was temporary and that they will when law and order prevail in the region to secure their and their families’ safety.

Stepan J Apelian inspecting his sacked and looted house and soap factory

For Stepan, Ani, Hovag and Stepan’s mother Asdghig, that, would be it. They would not return to Keurkune again, let alone resume their lives anew in Keurkune, Kessab.

Stepan returned to Keurkune visiting their ransacked house and businesses and made arrangements for essential repairs to save their home and businesses from the elements of nature.

 Ani, Hovag and Stepan’s mother Asdghig, went to UAE to be with their daughter and her family and from there onto the United States. The family settled in Corona, California. Stepan and Ani continue to live there.

 Hovag graduated from college with distinction into a fine young man.

My paternal aunt Asdghig, Stepan’ mother was born in Keurkune on May 5, 1931. She married my uncle Joseph in Keurkune, where he too was born and lived all his life. They raised their family in Keurkune and buried their elders there. My uncle Joseph had passed away in May 1988, in Keurkune. My aunt Asghgig passed away on May 29, 2025, in Corona, CA. 

The Muslim extremists wiped a century long hard work by the Kessabtsi Medz Yeghern survivors and their descendants. The blow the Muslim extremists had inflicted on Kessab was existential. Kessab has not fully recovered but it and Kessabtsis endure.

Celebrating Hovag's engaement