Our Story - Part 4
May 2012 – The ANA Plant Starts to Grow
With the seeds of the Armenian National Association taking root at a Mediterranean restaurant in Studio City on November 20, 2010, the small plant of the ANA’s plan to organize and train new Hayastanci leadership started to grow its leaves on May 5, 2012 at another Armenian-owned restaurant, “Favorite Place,” (now: “Heritage Eatery”) on Wilson Avenue in Glendale, California.
That was the very special venue where Donald Wilson Bush met Hermine Mnatsakanyan, an Armenian floral designer from Yerevan who had just recently received her American citizenship and passport.
The couple fell in love immediately, and after a year of courtship, they married on July 13, 2013.
“This was the beginning of my complete immersion into the Hayastanci subculture of Armenian-American experience,” Bush recounted. “The day that Hermine and I married, I inherited more than 90 members of her extended Hayastanci Armenian family, all living within a 10-mile radius of the famous Hollywood Sign.”
“I call them my Armenian ‘Khunami Tsunami’ and I love them all!” Bush said.
August 2014In time, Hermine and Donald had twin babies born on August 26, 2014, and less than a year later, Bush was invited by the president of Armenia to tour Artsakh and to address the Global Forum against the Crime of Genocide in Yerevan on April 22, 2015, and to attend the 100th Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide to be held at Tsitsernakaberd on April 24, 2015.
*To view a video recording of Donald Wilson Bush’s Yerevan speech please: Click Here
August 2015Bush then returned to Armenia with his young family for a second month’s visit to celebrate the twins’ first birthday with members of Hermine’s family still living in Yerevan. During the trip Bush met with the Armenian president numerous times, with his senior staff and with multiple advisors to the president. Again, and again, the subject of Spyurk relations became the main focus of conversation.
“This was the trip that made me realize how vitally important the Spyurk is to the survival and future prosperity of Armenia. It also made me realize how completely isolated and vulnerable the Christian Armenians are living in a region dominated by ethnic Muslims and Jews with only Russia to protect them.”
As his twin babies continued to grow, Donald Wilson Bush plugged in and began to learn the Armenian language along with his kids. He also began mentoring and meeting with young Hayastanci professionals to fulfill his promise to Gary Bedian. On a personal level Bush also did it to satisfy a deep desire to hold Turkey accountable for denying his adopted Armenian family a clear path to legal redress on behalf of their forbears who had suffered so terribly under the extreme cruelty of Ottoman rulers.
“If there is one thing I cannot stand,” Bush emphasized, “it’s a bully. And Turkey is a bully, pure and simple. The Turkish people should be ashamed of their government leaders and anyone else who does not support the Armenian cause for justice.”
November 2017Zarhui Postanjyan (Member of the Armenian National Parliament and an early supporter of Sasna Tsrer movement) received funding and airfare from Sophia Jesswein, a Diasporan leader and supporter of Sasna Tsrer living in Vancouver, Canada. Jesswein’s modest donation allowed Postanjyan to make a presentation in Glendale, California on November 27, 2017 regarding her own plans to create a unified Spyurk structure that—not unlike Dr. Andrew Demirjian’s earlier plan—promised to reward its Diaspora members with influence and power in Armenian government affairs through direct political participation in Armenian national elections.
“The public event with Zarhui Postanjyan took place at the Glendale Library,” Donald Wilson Bush explained, “but none of the organizers of the 2010 USC unity event were present. Conspicuous by their absence were Appo Jabarian, Harut Sassounian, Drs. Richard Dekmedjian and Andrew Demirdjian, respectively.”
“Instead of the ‘Old Spyurk’,” Bush observed, “Zarhui’s presentation attracted a room full of the ‘New Hayastanci Spyurk’ from the North Hollywood/Glendale area who had been following the rise of Nikol Pashinyan and were curious to hear, first-hand, Zarhui’s perspective on things taking place in Armenia.”
“Because I was away in Washington D.C. and North Carolina at that time, I did not get the opportunity to meet Zarhui Postanjyan in person, nor did I attend her presentation that evening.” Bush recalls. “But it was the first time I had a chance to see a video of the new Haystansi leaders who had come to prominence among the Spyurk when they used social media live-streaming to build enormous support for Nikol Pashinyan’s revolution.”
“Half way through the event Kristine Halajyan appeared sitting on the front row of the auditorium right in front of Zarhui who was up on the stage.” Bush observed, “and Arthur Sahakyan was there working the room as Sophia Jesswein’s organizing partner to manage the logistics of Zarhui’s public presentation.”
Through a pioneering use of daily video broadcasts on Facebook and other social media, both Kristine Halajyan and Arthur Sahakyan emerged as key influencers among the Hayastanci Spyurk, especially in Southern California, in the early stages of Nikol Pashinyan’s revolution.
* To view a video of Zarhui Postanjyan’s Glendale Library presentation from November 27, 2017 in its entirety, please Click Here
Although Zarhui Postanjyan’s presentation of her new global Spyurk-voting plan had little resonance with those who heard her speak that night, just the mere mention of trying to unify the Spyurk for the purpose of including their votes in upcoming Armenian elections was enough to re-energize Dr. Demirdjian and his “Old Spyurk” confederates to try their failed plan again.
December 2017Indeed, not a month later, after Zarhui Postanjyan had returned home, Harut Sassounian, Appo Jabarian and Dr. Andrew Demirdjian responded to the revolutionary changes taking place in Yerevan that continued to fuel Nikol Pashinyan’s inevitable rise to power. They began, once again, to make plans to re-introduce the failed Armenian Unity Initiative which they had proposed seven years before at the USC symposium on November 20, 2010.
Dr. Demirdjian and the others held two initial meetings during December 2017 and twelve more meetings were scheduled for February and the following months in 2018. The gatherings were convened in a law office conference room located inside 100 North Brand Boulevard in Glendale, California.
February 2018The first two meetings in December were chaired by Dr. Andrew Demirdjian and the third meeting was chaired by Hagop Chopurian, a well-respected attorney in Glendale.
Not unlike before, with the USC symposium, Dr. Demirdjian’s and Harut Sassounian’s agenda was still focused on launching a worldwide initiative to unify the Spyurk as inspired by his book. Nothing much else had changed, excepting only the addition of several key planning committee members which included Helen Haig (former Senior Policy Advisor to California Governor George Deukmejian), Arthur Minassian, Esq. (a prominent attorney and arbitration judge in Glendale) and Vahe Karapetian (successful entrepreneur, AGBU and Armenia Fund benefactor).
Regrettably, after only three meetings, the effort collapsed once again because of the same kind of infighting and disagreements among its core members that occurred the first time. According to the recollection of one participant in the newly constituted group, “As the My Step Party protests in Yerevan continued to grow, the energy for Dr. Demirdjian’s plan just started to fade out like air being released from a balloon.”
April 2018Nikol Pashinyan’s VELVET REVOLUTION was successful. Serzh Sargsyan was deposed.