First Fresno Unified school named for ArmenianOctober 15, 2021 - 16:58 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The quest by Fresno’s Armenian community to have a Fresno Unified school named for an Armenian ended Wednesday, October 13 night when trustees voted unanimously to change the name of Forkner Elementary School to H. Roger Tatarian Elementary, GV Wire reports. The board’s vote came after multiple speakers addressed the board on both sides of the issue, with Armenians urging the board to change the school name and members of the Forkner community, including Principal Ryan Duff, imploring the board to maintain the status quo for the northwest Fresno school. Duff said that students and staff at the school already have had to deal with the impacts of the pandemic, school closures, school reopening, and now are buffeted by the renaming debate. Tatarian was a Fresno native who achieved worldwide fame as editor of United Press International and who, unlike the Farbers, was overwhelmingly supported in a community survey conducted by the district on the 10th and Ventura campus naming. The Armenian community lobbied to name the campus for Tatarian, noting that it’s in the neighborhood where he grew up and where Armenians lived because they were prevented from buying homes elsewhere in the city. Even though Armenians make up about 7% of Fresno’s population, the city’s largest school district had no schools named for an Armenian before Wednesday’s renaming vote, which came after a lengthy comment period by community members and trustees. 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 | Armenia to participate in key EU meeting for the first time ever National Assembly speaker Alen Simonyan has said that Armenia will for the first time participate in the Conference. 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 CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. 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. |