Armenia

In response to "A Dying People Needs Urgent Help," Commentary, April 5: I would like to commend you for printing that very informative and touching piece by respected human rights activist Elena Bonner, whose husband, Andrei Sakharov, has won the Nobel Peace Prize and led the Soviet human-rights movement. Although both Azerbaijan and Armenia have much at stake, it is true that many innocent Armenians are dying because of the cruel and inhumane blockade placed against Armenia by its neighbors and terrorists, the Azerbaijanis and Turks.

Prosecutors are investigating allegations of voter fraud in Little Armenia, part of a Los Angeles City Council district where two candidates are waging a bitter battle for an open seat. According to a spokeswoman for L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey, prosecutors are trying to determine whether backers of one candidate illegally filled out mail-in ballots for dozens of voters in the Armenian enclave in East Hollywood. The May 21 election will decide who succeeds Eric Garcetti, who is running for mayor.

How ironic that the recognition that Armenians have long sought should come about, at long last, as a result of an overwhelming tragedy. There must be some compensation in that very fact to Armenians throughout the world. It is surely inspiring to read about all the aid being rushed to this small segment of historic Armenia in the Soviet Union. And the care and concern expressed by world leaders as well as the men and women on the streets are truly incredible tothose of us who have been aware of Armenia's struggles for survival.

When two groups supporting rival Los Angeles City Council candidates met on a street in Little Armenia last week, an afternoon of vote canvassing turned into an altercation. Two 17-year-old campaign workers for candidate John Choi claim they were stopped and threatened with violence by two men who are backing Mitch O'Farrell, Choi's opponent in the 13th Council District race. They allege that after they called a supervisor to come to the scene, a third man then approached and brandished a gun. Supporters of O'Farrell deny that account, saying it was the Choi workers who sparked the confrontation by falsely claiming that a prominent Armenian American leader had endorsed Choi.

ARMENIA Presentation Matthew Karanian will showcase both modern and ancient Armenia in this presentation about creating the country's first commercial travel guide, "Armenia and Karabakh: The Stone Garden Guide. " Illustrated with images that he and co-author Robert Kurkjian photographed during their research. When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Admission, info: Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220. MT. WHITNEY Presentation Whitney expert Kurt Wedberg will offer tips for gear and trip planning and show detailed slides of various approaches to the mountain.

Turkey and Armenia are likely to announce a deal soon aimed at easing their conflict, diplomats said Friday in a development that would sweeten President Obama's visit to Turkey next week. The two countries are expected this month to announce an agreement to resume official contacts and reopen borders that have been closed since 1993, said the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the subject.

Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark agreement Saturday to establish diplomatic relations and open their sealed border after a century of enmity, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helped the two sides clear a last-minute hurdle. The contentious issue of whether the killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians during the final days of the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide is only hinted at in the agreement. Better ties between Turkey, a regional heavyweight, and landlocked Armenia have been a priority for President Obama, and Clinton had flown to Switzerland to witness the signing, not help close the deal.

Detectives are investigating whether a man suspected in the slaying of a family in Little Armenia stalked one of the victims, according to law enforcement sources. Alberd Tersargyan of Los Angeles has been charged with killing one member of the family, but police said they believe he's responsible for all three slayings, which occurred over two years in the Hollywood area. LAPD Capt. Kevin McClure said detectives recovered a weapon when they arrested Tersargyan on Thursday but declined to provide further details about the case.

By some measures, Matthew Karanian was a Connecticut Yankee: a 34-year-old litigator in Hartford, American-born and bred. But he had a wild idea. So he took a summer off, headed for the rustic land of his ancestors, and soon found that Armenia was rearranging his life. Now, 18 years after that first visit, Karanian is an expert on the place. His self-published guidebook, “Armenia and Karabakh” (320 pages, $24.95), has just gone into a third edition. It's based on more than a dozen visits to the country, including a residency from 2002 to 2006.

FRANCE, ITALY AND SWITZERLAND Presentation Tricia Holbrook will look at hut-to-hut trekking through France, Italy and Switzerland on the Tour du Mont Blanc, and from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn along Switzerland's Haute Route. When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Admission, info : Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220. CAMBODIA Presentation Travel photographer and tour guide Ralph Velasco will present a virtual circumnavigation of Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia and offer photo tips about these images.

International Women's Day is today. How are you observing it, aside from perhaps noting the Google Doodle set up in its honor? Maybe you're signing an online petition seeking gender equality in medical research. Or tweeting using the hashtag "#womensday" to honor women's progress and to renew commitments to women's rights. If you're in Kabul, Afghanistan, you might be making a stop by that city's first Internet cafe just for women. International Women's Day is not nearly as well known in the United States as it is in other parts of the globe; elsewhere, it's marked by rallies, banners and even a day off. Many people in Armenia and Mongolia get time away from the job; in China, only women have that luxury.

A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey on Sunday, killing at least138 people and sparking widespread panic as it collapsed dozens of buildings into piles of twisted steel and chunks of concrete. The death toll was expected to rise. Tens of thousands fled into the streets, screaming or trying to reach relatives on mobile phones as apartment and office buildings cracked or collapsed. As the full extent of the damage became clear, survivors dug in with shovels or even their bare hands, desperately trying to rescue the trapped and the injured.

A UCLA-led team reported Monday that it had discovered a 6,000-year-old facility in an Armenian cave that contained everything necessary to produce wine from grapes, including a grape press, fermentation vats, storage jars, wine-soaked pottery shards and even a cup and drinking bowl. The ancient winery is at least 1,000 years older than any similar installation previously known, and it was found in the same cave where researchers in June announced the discovery of the world's oldest leather shoe.

The so-far-uneventful march toward soccer's 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine continued Friday without a significant misstep by any of the leading contenders. That said, the day's qualifying play did involve a couple of surprise results and one decidedly strange bit of behavior. The latter occurred in Podgorica, Montenegro, where home-team striker Mirko Vucinic celebrated scoring the winning goal in a 1-0 upset of Switzerland by removing his shorts and putting them on his head.

Reaching from Los Angeles to Yerevan, local doctors are healing the eyes of Armenian infants who otherwise would go blind. In June, the doctors performed surgeries at a neonatal clinic in the Armenian capital, delivered key equipment and trained about 200 Armenian doctors in how to treat retinopathy of prematurity. The illness strikes premature infants whose eyes have not developed enough to be exposed to the outside environment, said Dr. Thomas Lee, director of the Retina Institute at the Vision Center at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, which partnered with the Armenia Eye Care Project on the mission.