A school planned to open in Dilijian and promising to make Armenia a respected center of regional and international study may not ever see a stone laid, due to public reaction over Armenia’s controversial “law on language”, allowing for curriculum to be taught in a foreign language.

The Dilijan International School, the brainchild of Moscow tycoon philanthropist Ruben Vardanyan, broke ground in April with President Serzh Sargsyan planting a “tree of knowledge” to herald the project. Expected to open in 2013, the project now is indefinite, owing to “an atmosphere that rejects” the idea.

Four Armenian babies who might have been blind in a matter of weeks, now have chance at a normal life due to the humanity of some foreign doctors, the dedication of local ones, and to benefactors who may never know the life-changing impact of their benevolence.

The infants’ good fortune has come by chance or by providence, but surely is the result of good timing and good intentions.

Last week, the Armenian Eye Care Project made one of its semi-annual missions to Armenia, following a schedule established since the project was founded by California ophthalmologist Roger Ohanesian in 1992.

In a statement issued during a weekend retreat in North Carolina, US President Barack Obama on Saturday (April 24) re-affirmed his “own view of what occurred in 1915,” but, as expected, did not use the word “genocide” on this day marked worldwide by Armenians as the startup of a genocidal campaign 95 years ago by Ottoman Turks that killed 1.5 million.

It is "a devastating chapter in the history of the Armenian people, and we must keep its memory alive in honor of those who were murdered and so that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of the past," Obama said in his statement.

An address to his nation by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan Thursday night should also be seen as a message to US President Barack Obama that says: “We honored our word. Now honor yours.”

By publicly stating what has long been known – that the protocol process is a failure – Sargsyan expressed sentiments that should be welcomed throughout the worldwide Armenian community, regardless of political persuasion, and in spite of the ugly history that afforded Sargsyan the national stage.

While Turkey attempts to gag the U.S. Congress from passing the “Armenian Genocide Resolution”, the republic might do better to muzzle its prime minister, who is making a remarkable case for why Turkey ought to be held accountable for its blood-soaked past.

This week Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened to deport some 100,000 Armenians from Turkey, who he says are living there illegally. The threat was leveled after Sweden passed a resolution recognizing the Genocide, less than three weeks after the US Congress House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly (23-22) approved HR252, a similar resolution that now faces the unlikely chance of making it to a vote of the full assembly.

In the predictable fallout over the House Foreign Affairs Committee passage of HR252, the “Armenian Genocide Resolution”, last week, contrary rhetoric has retorted itself into an irritant popularly expressed but shallow in concept.

A significant report recently released by Policy Forum-Armenia, a collective of economists, political scientists, journalists, legal experts and others from 10 countries, calls on Armenia and Diaspora to seek to reclaim common philosophical ground that has been eroded by political/civil upheaval of 2008 and by the ongoing debate of Armenia-Turkey rapprochement.

Its release unfortunately overshadowed by the dramatic vote of the U.S. Congress committee on House Resolution 252, the PFA report contains thoughtful, academic observations and reaches conclusions that offer timely application as the whole of Armenia face challenges that demand unified response.

Yerevan, Armenia ain’t Washington, D.C., any more than this newsroom is a Congressional Committee hall.

But in the world we live in here, most accept what nobody, there, is saying. This:

“Normalization” talks between Armenia and Turkey, failed quite a while before a late-afternoon vote in D.C. had congresspersons talking about that possibility.

Not since last October, when State Department led “protocols” offered promises that soon became impossible to fulfill, has there been reasonable belief that Armenia and Turkey were skipping hand in hand on a yellow brick road to lollipops and Technicolor dreams.

Immediately following Thursday’s dramatic House Foreign Affairs Committee vote approving House Resolution 252 affirming the Armenian Genocide, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the resolution should go no further.

By a tense and, for some, shocking vote of 23-22 the United States Congress House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved House Resolution 252 calling for affirmation of the Armenian Genocide.

As lobbyists and analysts waited while other votes were taking place on the House floor, the “nay” votes outnumbered “yea” until the Armenian side captured the last three votes (with one member not voting).