U.S. Reps. call on California governor to sign Turkey divestment billSeptember 20, 2018 - 10:26 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Rep. Adam Schiff and eight colleagues in the California congressional delegation sent a letter to Governor Jerry Brown to urge him to sign AB 1597, legislation passed by the state legislature which would require the California Public Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) to divest from investments in assets owned, issued, or controlled by the Turkish government if certain conditions are met. AB 1597, which was sponsored by Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, passed the Assembly and Senate in August, and Governor Brown has until the end of September to sign it into law. The requirement to divest would come into effect upon the passage of a federal law imposing sanctions on Turkey for its failure to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. The legislation was introduced to respond to Turkey’s continued denial of the Armenian Genocide, which was carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, killing 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children. As Schiff and the other signers wrote in the letter, “We believe this legislation is a proportionate and appropriate response to Turkey’s continued denial of the Armenian Genocide, as well as its violations of human rights and actions counter to United States interests.” The letter also makes note of the increasingly autocratic rule of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, including the suppression of dissent and the imprisonment of journalists, as well as other steps they have taken contrary to U.S. national security interests. In addition to Schiff, the letter was signed by Reps. Jackie Speier, Tony Cárdenas, Salud Carbajal, Jim Costa, Anna Eshoo, Grace Napolitano, Zoe Lofgren, and Brad Sherman. Top stories The EU does not intend to conduct military exercises with Armenia, Lead Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano says. Hikmet Hajiyev has said that there is no place for USAID operation in Azerbaijan any longer. A telephone conversation between Putin and Pashinyan before the CSTO summit is not planned, Peskov says. London’s Armenian community has been left feeling “under attack” after the city’s Genocide monument was vandalised. Partner news | Russia clarifying reports on Baku’s alleged arms supply to Ukraine Russia says is carefully working to verify reports about alleged arms supplies from Azerbaijan to Ukraine Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. Armenia to sing in 2nd semi-final of Eurovision The organizers of Eurovision 2024 have revealed the running order of the countries in the two semi-finals. |