As protests against Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression in Arstakh continue all over the world, Varante Yapoudjian, Board Member of the Armenian National Committee, tells what is going on in Canada.
Varante Yapoudjian
“When the war started, and people realized that this was much more than some temporary escalation on the frontline, the whole community became very concerned. People with various proposals, like action alerts to the government, protests, etc. contacted the Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC), which is the largest and most influential Armenian-Canadian grassroots human rights organization. Our local chapters already started the organization of protest, with the united Armenian organizations in the various cities with Armenian presence. We had over a dozen protests in cities like Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Laval, Edmonton and Burlington.
But the ANCC main work above all this, was to tackle the issue of Canadian-made target acquisition sensors, manufactured by the Ontario-based company L3Harris Wescam, which were used on Turkish Bayraktar UAVs. Last October, the Canadian government halted the approval process for new export permits to ship military goods to Turkey, but this spring an exemption was granted, which allowed the Canadian military equipment to slip through the arms embargo. The ANCC, at the initial stage mobilized the whole community, and used all the political pressure it could, to ban all new exports. While this is a temporary success, a permanent ban should be achieved.
Armenians demonstarting in Ottawa, October 4
Apart from that, many initiatives were taken to help raise funds for Artsakh. All funds will be transferred to the Hayastan All Armenian Fund. The ANCC and its sister organizations have so far raised more than $1,1 million all across Canada.
Everything we do here is organized locally. The Armenian-Canadian community is well established, and this is not the first time it gets mobilized when Armenia, Artsakh or the Armenian nation need it.”