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    Categories: 2022

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 02/24/2022

                                        Thursday, 


Iran Irked By Azeri Claims To Yerevan Mosque

        • Marine Khachatrian

Armenia -- The facade of the 18th century Blue Mosque in Yerevan, February 24, 
2022.


Iranian diplomats and clerics have criticized Azerbaijani lawmakers for claiming 
that a 18th century Shia mosque in Yerevan managed by Iran is an Azerbaijani 
monument.

The two pro-government lawmakers arrived in Armenia earlier this week to attend 
a session of a parliamentary assembly of the European Union and ex-Soviet states 
involved in the EU’s Eastern Partnership program.

While in Yerevan, they also visited the city’s Blue Mosque and later posted on 
social media photographs of themselves sanding at its picturesque courtyard. 
Both men wrote that the Muslim shrine is the “sole Azerbaijani monument” 
preserved in the Armenian capital and expressed confidence that its “real 
masters” will be able to pray there soon.

The Iranian Embassy in Armenia hit back at the Azerbaijani deputies on Wednesday 
in a series of tweets written in Armenian, Persian and English. It also posted 
photographs of Persian-language inscriptions on the walls of the mosque and 
adjacent structures.

“The Blue Mosque, a symbol of Iranian art, has been active again in the last 3 
decades as the praying and congregation place of Muslims residing in Armenia and 
a touristic attraction,” wrote the embassy.

“A great pleasure that its centuries-old Persian epigraphy has been preserved! 
Who can read them?” it said in English.

Mahmoud Movahedifar, an Iranian clergyman serving there, made the same point as 
he showed RFE/RL journalists around the mosque on Thursday. He insisted that it 
has distinctive features of Iran’s traditional Islamic architecture.

“What language is this: Persian or Azeri?” he asked. “Even if there was a single 
tile here with an Azerbaijani inscription we would recognize that fact.”

“If those gentlemen claim that this is an Azerbaijani mosque then let them show 
one trace of Azerbaijani history here,” he said.


Armenia -- Mahmoud Movahedifar speaks at Yerevan's Blue Mosque, February 24, 
2022.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly described Yerevan and other 
parts of Armenia as “historical Azerbaijani lands.”

Movahedifar complained that neither he nor other people working in the mosque 
were informed about the Azerbaijanis’ visit beforehand.

“Had I known about their visit, I would have immediately come here and shown 
them all this evidence and said: ‘If you say it’s Azeri, show me a single piece 
of evidence,’” he said.

The Blue Mosque was built in 1766 at a time when most of the territory of 
modern-day Armenia was part of the Persian Empire. It was shut down by Soviet 
Armenian authorities in the mid-1920s. Its buildings and courtyard were used for 
mostly secular purposes in the following decades, up until the collapse of the 
Soviet Union.

The mosque complex was reopened as a religious institution in 1996 after being 
thoroughly renovated by the Iranian government in line with an agreement with 
Yerevan’s municipal administration. It now also houses an Iranian library and 
cultural center.



Top Armenian Generals Sacked

        • Artak Khulian

Armenian - Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian (second from right), the chief of 
the Armenian army's General Staff, and other officers conclude "staff 
negotiations" with a visiting Russian military delegation, Yerevan, July 17, 
2021.


The chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff, Lieutenant-General Artak 
Davtian, and four other generals were dismissed on Thursday through presidential 
decrees initiated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

The Armenian government gave no reasons for the sacking of Davtian, one of his 
deputies, Lieutenant-General Andranik Makarian, as well as the commanders of the 
army’s artillery and engineer units and the head of a General Staff division 
dealing with army morale.

All of the generals except Davtian were replaced later in the day. The 
government did not immediately name a new army chief.

In what appears to be a related development, the chiefs of Armenia’s military 
intelligence and rear services were relieved of their duties last week.

Pashinian installed Davtian as chief of the General Staff in March 2021. The 
previous holder of the top military position, Colonel-General Onik Gasparian, 
was fired after he and four dozen other high-ranking officers accused 
Pashinian’s government of incompetence and misrule and demanded its resignation.

Davtian was widely expected to be sacked after being indicted last fall in a 
criminal investigation into supplies of allegedly faulty ammunition to the 
country’s armed forces.

Two other generals as well as former Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan and a 
private arms dealer were arrested as part of the same criminal case in 
September. They and Davtian were charged with fraud and embezzlement that cost 
the state almost 2.3 billion drams ($4.7 million).

As they went on trial on January 19 the suspects denied the accusations stemming 
from the purchase of allegedly outdated air-to-surface rockets for the Armenian 
Air Force.

The latest sackings coincided with Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian’s 
first visit to Moscow that began on Thursday. The Armenian Defense Ministry said 
Papikian will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu and “other 
high-ranking officials.”



Turkish, Armenian Officials Hold More Talks


Armenia - Armenian deputy parliament speaker Ruben Rubinian (left) and Turkish 
diplomat Serdar Kilic,January 14, 2022


Special envoys of Turkey and Armenia met in Vienna on Thursday for the second 
round of negotiations on normalizing relations between the two neighboring 
states.

In virtually identical statements, the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries 
gave few details of the talks held by veteran Turkish diplomat Serdar Kilic and 
Ruben Rubinian, a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament.

“The Special Representatives confirmed that the ultimate goal of the 
negotiations is to achieve full normalization between Turkey and Armenia, as 
agreed during their first meeting in Moscow [on January 14,]” read the 
statements. “They exchanged views on possible concrete steps that can be 
mutually taken to that end and reiterated their agreement to continue the 
process without preconditions.”

There was no word on the date and venue of the next round of the talks between 
Kilic and Rubinian.

Ankara and Yerevan had described their January 14 meeting as “positive and 
constructive.” Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan afterwards voiced 
cautious optimism over the success of the dialogue welcomed by Russia, the 
United States and the European Union.

Ankara has for decades linked the establishment of diplomatic relations with 
Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border to a resolution of the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on February 10 that his 
government will continue to coordinate the Turkish-Armenian normalization talks 
with Baku.

For his part, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly said earlier 
this week that he is ready to improve relations if Armenia if the latter is 
“determined to continue the process that has started with the special 
representatives.”

“We are pleased with the will of Armenia to normalize [relations] with us,” he 
said, according to Turkish media.



Armenia In No Rush To Evacuate Citizens From Ukraine

        • Naira Bulghadarian

UKRAINE -- Smoke rise from an air defense base in the aftermath of an apparent 
Russian strike in Mariupol, .


Armenia did not move to evacuate its citizens from Ukraine or tell them to leave 
the country on Thursday hours after a large-scale military attack launched by 
Russia.

The Armenian Embassy in Kyiv instead urged them to contact the mission and 
inform it about their whereabouts. It publicized emergency phone numbers on its 
website and social media accounts.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry indicated last week that despite the looming 
threat of a Russian invasion it has no plans to evacuate the embassy or the 
Armenian consulate general in the Ukrainian city of Odessa.

The ministry said on Wednesday that Yerevan regards both Russia and Ukraine as 
“friendly countries” and hopes that they will resolve their standoff through 
“diplomatic dialogue.” It did not immediately react to what Russian President 
Vladimir Putin called "a special military operation" against Ukraine launched 
the following morning.

In a nationally televised speech early on Thursday, Putin sought to justify the 
offensive operation by claiming that he has to stop Ukraine from acquiring 
nuclear weapons and attacking two breakaway region in the eastern Donbass region 
which Moscow recognized as independent republics earlier this week.


UKRAINE -- CRIMEA -- A Russian armoured vehicle moves across the town of 
Armyansk, northern Crimea, early on February 24.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Moscow has launched a 
full-scale attack on his country, with missile attacks targeting “our military 
infrastructure” and border guards in several cities.

There was immediate and widespread condemnation from the West, with vows of new, 
tougher sanctions to be slapped on Moscow.

U.S. President Joe Biden called the action an “unprovoked and unjustified" 
attack on Ukraine and said the world would “hold Russia accountable.” The 
European Union likewise accused Moscow of “grossly violating international law 
and undermining European and global security and stability.”


UKRAINE - Cars drive towards the exit of Kyiv after Russian President Vladimir 
Putin authorized a military operation in eastern Ukraine, .
Ukraine is officially home to some 120,000 ethnic Armenians. According to the 
Union of Armenians of Ukraine, their actual number is much larger and only half 
of them are Ukrainian nationals.

Ruben Makarian, a representative of the union, spoke of a “first wave of panic” 
among Armenians living in the Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donetsk and 
Luhansk regions making up Donbass.

“In the Lugansk region, local authorities announced an evacuation [of the 
population,]” Makarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service from Kyiv. “But there is 
no specific evacuation of local Armenians yet. I am in constant touch with the 
leaders of the [Armenian] community there.”

Regular flights between Yerevan and Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities were 
cancelled on Thursday after Ukraine closed its airspace to commercial aircraft.



Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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