August 13, 2020

By David Davidian
YEREVA, ARMENIA

On Saturday evening, August 8, 2020, AUA CSE Professors Nelson Baloian in Chile and David Davidian in Armenia moderated a Zoom meeting with over forty members of the Chilean-Armenian community. While over forty members might not sound significant by itself, there are only about a hundred Armenians in Chile. A request came from the Chilean-Armenian community through Nelson Baloian for an update on recent events directly from Armenia. Overall information available is sometimes contradictory or inadequately explained in Spanish.
It was an exciting event in that all those on the Zoom meeting stayed on until the end, almost two hours after it began. Davidian delivered updates and answered questions in English. Baloian provided consecutive interpretation in Spanish.

The first topic that listeners in Chile wanted to know about was the Beirut port blast and local Armenian reaction regarding further immigration from Lebanon to Armenia. To understand local Armenian reaction required an update on the Syrian-Armenian experience in Armenia. The discussion proceeded with a review of the latest fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Tavush region of Armenia, the string of Azerbaijani losses, and Azerbaijan's situation in general. This discussion morphed into perceived changes in Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations, requiring an explanation of Armenian and Azerbaijani positions and an overview of the Madrid Principles. Unfortunately, nobody has a crystal ball to predict the future.

Turkish and Russian reaction to the flareup in fighting came next, generating a series of questions, including Nakhichevan's situation. Some background on the Treaties of Kars and Moscow, CSTO status, etc., was necessary to respond to such questions adequately.

Inevitably, questions about the popularity of Nigol Pashinyan came up as was Armenia's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems there were similar initial reactions associated with wearing masks in both Yerevan and Santiago!

The widespread use of Zoom makes such meetings between people on opposite sides of the world a daily occurrence. The meeting went so well it was requested Yerevan provide periodic updates.

—
David Davidian is adjunct lecturer at AUA’s Akian College of Science and Engineering (CSE), has recently published a study on Armenia’s Existential Threats and Strategic Issues.

*******************************************************************

• The Week in Review Podcasts
• The Critical Corner
• The Literary Armenian News
• Review & Outlook
• Probing the Photographic Record
• Armenia House Museums
• ..and 

© Copyright 2020, Armenian News Network / Armenian News, all rights reserved.