ANA Our Story

Around midnight on October 3, 2020, Donald Wilson Bush received a phone call from Hayastanci leader Gurgen Mkrtchyan with the news that Kristine Halajyan had just called for his advice as an attorney and as a friend.

Over the preceding months Kristine had emerged as the leading voice among the Hayastanci Diaspora in support of Nikol Pashinyan’s administration, and when the war broke out, her Facebook livestream became a source of daily inspiration to a majority of her 60,000 followers. By the end of the war, Kristine’s number of Facebook followers swelled to 150,000 and beyond.

That night, Mkrtchyan explained to Bush that Kristine’s Halajyan’s objective was to use her immense online presence to unify the Spyurk with a single call to action. The following day she was intending to lead a peaceful street protest in Los Angeles to support her Armenian people in the war against Turkey and Azerbaijan.

“Soon, the Zoom call began with Kristine and her friends Harut and Davit,” Bush said. “Quickly I learned that some of the other leaders with Kristine were planning to block the 101 Freeway and that no one, including Kristine, had either requested or obtained an LA City permit to block city streets. Brilliantly, Gurgen suggested that we use the CNN office building in Hollywood as a rallying point for all of the disparate groups to gather around.”

“You have to remember,” Bush explained, “the Azerbaijan attack on Artsakh happened right in the middle of COVID lockdown all across LA and less than four months after the Black Lives Matter (BLM) rioting and looting had burned out parts of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. So, the LAPD were very nervous and ready to arrest anyone who even threatened to break the law.”

“As we signed off the Zoom, it was agreed that we would meet at 1:00 A.M. behind the CNN building on Sunset Boulevard to discuss the matter further."

“Then, after the Zoom meeting concluded, I heard additional rumors that some of the younger Hayastanci leaders were also preparing for confrontations with the police,” Bush recalled.

“In all honesty,” Bush confessed, “I had a sudden vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. being arrested after opposing Bull Conner’s Birmingham Police in bloody protest. I told Gurgen that I still had some reservations, and that I needed a few more minutes to think it through.”

“That’s when I called Dr. Sarkis Mesrobian from my car and told him about Kristine, CNN, the lack of permits and about the young Hayastanci radicals who were planning to get arrested the next day by challenging the police,” Bush said. “I also requested his prayers and I asked for his advice on the best way to use my knowledge of the American legal and political system to support my adopted Armenian family during this time of crisis.”

“Dr. Sarkis literally blew me away when he said that this was probably the most important moment in my life and that God had chosen me for this moment.” Bush recounted. “He went on to explain how the mainstream media was just waiting for one, small negative incident to occur on the street, and then they would lie about it and magnify it to mischaracterize all Armenians as dangerous and violent people, which they are not!”

“The mainstream media was just waiting for one, small negative incident to occur on the street, and then they would lie about it and magnify it to mischaracterize all Armenians as dangerous and violent people, which they are not!”

“He was so impassioned while telling me this that I almost started to cry with rage,” Bush confessed.

“But then, the most extraordinary thing happened when Dr. Sarkis reached through the phone and blessed me in the most unexpected way,” Donald Wilson Bush recalled. “He told me that he was ready to pray for me, but, first, he needed me to understand the depth of his love for Armenia and Artsakh before his prayer could have any meaning.”

“He went on to tell me that if I chose to engage this protest by unifying the grieving Armenian souls and if I could keep them from getting violent, then he would stand with me. Dr. Sarkis said that he would lobby the US State Department and the White House with me; that he would call our friends in the California State Assembly; and that he would work the LA City mayor’s office from the sidelines while I managed the protesting Armenians in the streets and negotiated with the LAPD on the perimeter.”

“Finally,” Dr. Sarkis said, “if the LAPD want to arrest you for standing with Armenians while our sacred Homeland is under attack, then they’ll be arresting two of us because I’ll be right there getting arrested with you!”

With that, Dr. Sarkis Mesrobian prayed his blessing, and the rest is history.

“In that very moment I decided to take the risk and I called Gurgen back,” Bush said in conclusion. “I told him that I would help him to negotiate with the police and to ‘manage’ a peaceful protest if one were to form outside CNN on Sunset.”

“This was the first fruits of the Armenian National Association.” Bush declared. “And for another 36 days until the war ended, the new Spyurk worked together as a unified force holding spontaneous protests without city permits from Los Angeles to Washington, DC and New York City.”

*To view a complete, archived history of ANA activity during and after the Artsakh war, please: CLICK HERE

“I saw so many Armenians act as equals by putting down their own egos and coordinating their individual agendas,” Bush concluded, “even if it was for only a few weeks.”

October 17, 2012

As the Arsakh war dragged on, various Spyurk leaders continued to reach out to others in a selfless effort to establish lines of further collaboration that might save Armenian lives.

“One such meeting took place on Saturday night, October 17, 2020 when Sarkis Kiramijyan, MD, his wife and a board member of the GATEWAY INDUSTRY facilitated a meeting to coordinate with the ANA. Specifically, the GATEWAY INDUSTRY leaders were interested in collaborating with the ANA on PR messaging and political lobbying.

“I remember meeting with Sarkis and his group on October 17 in North Hollywood,” Bush explained. “The energy was palpable and we were invited to collaborate with the group and to support Gateway’s weekly meeting throughout the war.”

“After connecting with so many accomplished Armenian doctors, lawyers and professionals on a weekly basis,” Bush explained, “I knew right away that, with the right structure and organization, the Spyurk has the potential to build a strong network of new institutions capable of lobbying Washington DC and other world capitals in a powerful way to support Armenia and Artsakh.”

“With the right structure and organization, the Spyurk has the potential to build a strong network of new institutions capable of lobbying Washington DC and other world capitals in a powerful way to support Armenia and Artsakh.”

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