Author: Alex Jidarian

Statement by Edward Nalbandian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia At the 22nd Meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council

Mr. Chairman,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to join the previous speakers in expressing our deep condolences with regard to the tragedy in California.

Dear colleagues,

I would like to thank Chairman-in-Office, Ivica Dacic and his team for their contribution to the activities of this Organization throughout the year, as well as to extend my gratitude to the Government of Serbia for the warm hospitality.

The 2015 marks the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide which has rallied a worldwide support, sympathy and condemnation of this heinous crime. In six days, on December 9th for the first time ever the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of Victims of Genocide will be marked. Its proclamation was recommended by the Resolution on the Prevention of Genocide initiated by Armenia and unanimously supported by the UN Human Rights Council in March 2015 and then adopted by the UN General Assembly again upon Armenia’s initiative. As a nation which passed through the horrors of genocide we feel moral obligation in contributing to the international efforts of prevention of crimes against humanity.

Today, we cannot remain indifferent to the repetition of such crimes by ISIS/Daesh, Al-Nusra, other terrorist groups and foreign terrorist fighters. Two years ago, when in the framework of the OSCE Armenia condemned atrocities committed by those groups in Iraq and Syria, particularly against the national and religious minorities, including our own compatriot Armenians in Kessab, Deir Zor and other places, one could have hardly imagined how the violence by terrorists would magnify and erupt in places far beyond the region.

Armenia values unambiguous implementation and strengthening of the OSCE commitments related to combatting terrorism. We encourage further efforts aimed at the protection of ethnic and religious minorities, including Christians whose fundamental rights and cultural heritage have been targeted. It is also important to adequately address the ongoing crisis of migrants and refugees emanating from the OSCE neighborhood. Armenia is not a bystander in this regard and has already received more than 17 thousand refugees from Syria.

Mr. Chairman,

40 years ago at the singing of the Helsinki Final Act German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt made a statement that sounds as a prophecy today. He said “it remains our aim to work for a state of peace in Europe in which the German nation will regain its unity through free self-determination”. In a month Germany will assume the Chairmanship of this Organization exactly as was preached – unified and in a state of peace. Not only the German nation but many others embraced the principles empowering the people to promote and protect their rights and to freely pursue their own future and thus contributing to the peace and security.
Mr. Chairman,

Unfortunately, peace continues to be challenged by those who refuse to abide by the common norms and principles. It has been more than two decades now that Azerbaijan rejects to recognize the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination. It turns a blind eye that this very right is proclaimed by the presidents of the Co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group as one of the basic principles of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution. Azerbaijan fails to notice that the determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will stands at the core of the settlement proposed by the Co-chairs.

The blatant defiance to the proposals of the Co-chairs is not the only path through which Baku tries to undermine the peace process. It boasts about solving the conflict through the military buildup pumped by oil revenues and continues provocations on the line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh and the borders with Armenia. The cease-fire violations by Baku have reached alarming levels. Baku uses heavy weaponry and deliberately targets civilians, which resulted in high numbers of casualties. Azerbaijan has an illusion that it can gain by negotiating with guns.

It does not come as a surprise that the Co-chairs directly called upon Azerbaijan to observe its commitments to the peaceful resolution of the conflict and to agree to the proposal on the creation of the mechanism of investigation of incidents, which Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have long accepted. The Co-chairs have also stated that Baku’s attempts to change the format or create parallel mechanisms can disrupt the negotiation process and impede progress towards a settlement. They called Azerbaijan to respect their mandate and the duties of the OSCE monitors.
Unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia has never criticized the Co-chairs. Attempts of Azerbaijan to blame the Co-chairs for setbacks in the negotiation process only mask the primary obstacle to peace – the lack of political will in Azerbaijan to reach a negotiated settlement.

Mr. Chairman,

The conflict resolution requires necessary political will which is manifested through unconditional adherence to the peace process, full implementation of the commitments, and readiness to build up trust. We have been witnessing time and again throughout the whole negotiation process the consistent efforts of Azerbaijan to disrespect prior agreements. Baku’s refusal to accept proposals that are the product of the tireless efforts of about twenty summits, several dozen ministerial-level meetings, and innumerable visits of the three Co-Chairs to the region has inflicted a serious blow to the negotiation process and severely damaged the trust. Therefore, curbing Azerbaijan’s destructive behavior at the negotiation table is key to the success of the peace process.

Armenia, unlike Azerbaijan, has stated many times that it is ready to continue negotiations, based on the proposals of the presidents of the Co-chair countries. As for Azerbaijan, it tries to present its distorted approaches as a position of the Co-Chairs, misinterpreting the ideas presented by foreign ministers, the presidents of the Co-chair countries and even the UN Security Council resolutions. However, a mere glance reveals that the approaches of Azerbaijan contradict to the principles and elements of the five well-known statements of the heads of the Co-chair countries.

Needless to say that successful peaceful settlement requires cessation of hostilities on the ground, creation of the conditions conducive for negotiations, through full respect to the 1994 trilateral cease-fire agreement and the 1995 agreement on the consolidation of the cease-fire regime. These documents, which do not have time limitations, are agreed and signed by Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia and are prerequisites of the peace efforts.

The OSCE can contribute to the peace process by reaffirming its support to the cease-fire agreements encouraging the implementation of the confidence and security building measures, reinforcing the office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office on Nagorno-Karabakh as the only permanent presence on the ground in the conflict zone, through increasing the number of monitors, allocating more resources and technical means.

Mr. Chairman,

Azerbaijan tries to invoke the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in an effort to justify the noncompliance to the OSCE commitments. Likewise, Baku attempts to divert the attention from the outrageous human rights situation in Azerbaijan and the growing international criticism in this regard by escalating the military situation in the conflict zone. We are confident that the international reaction to Baku’s policy of escalation of tensions should not be less targeted and strict as it is on the human rights situation in Azerbaijan.

Baku’s consistent policy of reducing OSCE presence in the region is another worrying trend that ca
nnot be disregarded. Having first downgraded and then closed the OSCE Office in Baku, imposing restrictions on ODIHR election monitoring mission, now Azerbaijan is trying to curtail activities of the Personal Representative as well. Apparently, Azerbaijan would prefer to continue its destructive policy without international witnesses. This applies also to the ICRC – the work of which Baku is continuously impeding and using for the purposes of propaganda. Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have closely cooperated with the Red Cross to address humanitarian issues, particularly that of missing persons. We value this cooperation which should be always based on status neutral approach and impartiality.

Mr. Chairman,

Finally, I would like to brief you on the Constitutional referendum that will take place in Armenia in couple of days. The reform process is based on Armenia’s commitment at development and consolidation of the democratic institutions and good governance, protection and promotion of human rights, strengthening the rule of law, enhancing the independence of judiciary. According to the opinion of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe the draft is of “extremely high quality” and “is in line with international standards”. We have invited the ODIHR and other international institutions to observe the referendum, not having a formal commitment to do so.

Mr. Chairman,

The ever evolving security environment makes it even more important to have a unifying agenda of cooperation at the OSCE. We stand with the incoming German Chairmanship in ensuring the unity of our efforts throughout three dimensions and enhancing the viability of this Organization and its capacity to strengthen the safety and security in the OSCE region.

Thank you.

Russia has banned sales of tour packages to Turkey, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Monday. All charter flights to Turkey are prohibited, regular air travel will be regulated, he added, Sputnik News reports. 

President Serzh Sargsyan joined hundreds of Armenians today to pay homage to the victims of the terrorist acts in Paris.

The President visited the France Square in capital Yerevan to lay flowers in memory of more than one hundred people killed in the attacks.

Hundreds of candles were lit to commemorate the victims of the worst attacks in the history of France.

A private Cessna plane has crushed in Crimea, killing four, Pravda reports.

The aircraft crashed on Wednesday night in the area of Klementieva Mount, Pravda.Ru reports with reference to LifeNews, citing a source in law enforcement bodies of the peninsula.

Four people were killed in the air crash; the causes of the tragedy are now being specified.

On November 4, a transport An-12 aircraft crashed in South Sudan, killing 39 people, 21 of them were residents of the village, on which the plane crashed.

On October 31, passenger jetliner Airbus A321 with 217 passengers and 7 crew members on board, crashed in Sinai, Egypt, leaving no survivors.

The Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit in Prague was handed over to the parish of St. Gregory the Illuminator of the Armenian Apostolic Church, reports.

This historic event held on October 11 was attended by the Primate of the Czech Catholic Church, Cardinal Dominique Duka, whose efforts made the transfer possible.

Armenia’s Ambassador Tigran Seyranyan expressed gratitude to the Czech people and Cardinal Duka and conveyed the congratulations of the Armenian government. He said “the collective efforts of the Czech Armenian community, the church and the state finally yielded positive results,” he said.

Speaking at the event, Cardinal Duka referred to the Christian legacy of the Armenian Church and people, to the tragedy that befell the Armenian nation in 1915. The cardinal handed the symbolic key of the Church to the head of the Armenian church in the Czech Republic Barsegh Pilavchian
Note that Armenians have never had their church in Prague, but have held all religious services in a Catholic church.

“Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler,” a book by Stefan Ihrig to be released in January 2016, shows that the Armenian Genocide and the Nazi Holocaust are much more connected than previously thought.

Bismarck and then Wilhelm II staked their foreign policy on close relations with a stable Ottoman Empire. To the extent that the Armenians were restless under Ottoman rule, they were a problem for Germany too. From the 1890s onward Germany became accustomed to excusing violence against Armenians, even accepting it as a foreign policy necessity. For many Germans, the Armenians represented an explicitly racial problem and despite the Armenians’ Christianity, Germans portrayed them as the “Jews of the Orient.”

As Stefan Ihrig reveals in this first comprehensive study of the subject, many Germans before World War I sympathized with the Ottomans’ longstanding repression of the Armenians and would go on to defend vigorously the Turks’ wartime program of extermination. After the war, in what Ihrig terms the “great genocide debate,” German nationalists first denied and then justified genocide in sweeping terms. The Nazis too came to see genocide as justifiable: in their version of history, the Armenian Genocide had made possible the astonishing rise of the New Turkey.

Ihrig is careful to note that this connection does not imply the Armenian Genocide somehow caused the Holocaust, nor does it make Germans any less culpable. But no history of the twentieth century should ignore the deep, direct, and disturbing connections between these two crimes.

Within the framework of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Musa Dagh, pilgrims from all parts of the world visited the school after Franz Werfel in the village of Musaler.

The guests learnt about the history of the school, talked to students and teachers. Pupils staged excerpts from Werfel’s novel “40 days of Musa Dagh.

Yesayi Havatyan, chairman of the Central Body in charge of organizing the events dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the Battle of Musa Dag expressed gratitude to the leadership of the school.

“We must always be proud of being Armenian,” he said.

The pilgrims headed for the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin to meet with His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

he martyrdom of many Christians “with the complicit silence of many powers that could stop it”, was denounced by Pope Francis during his homily at Mass celebrated this morning in Casa Santa Marta, inspired by the Gospel story of the wrath of the scribes and Pharisees who discuss how to kill Jesus because he had performed a miracle on a Saturday, AsiaNews reports.

Mass was concelebrated this morning with the new Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians, Gregory Peter XX Ghabroyan (pictured), Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, and all the bishops of the Synod of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Church.

During his reflections, the Pope once again evoked the persecution suffered by Christians, even today, “perhaps more than in the early days”: persecuted, killed, driven out, stripped just for being Christians. “Dear brothers and sisters, there is no Christianity without persecution. Remember the last of the Beatitudes: when they bring you into the synagogues, and persecute you, revile you, this is the fate of a Christian. Today too, this happens before the whole world, with the complicit silence of many powerful leaders who could stop it. We are facing this Christian fate: go on the same path of Jesus.”

The Pope recalled, “One of many great persecutions: that of the Armenian people”: “The first nation to convert to Christianity: the first. They were persecuted just for being Christians,” he said. “The Armenian people were persecuted, chased away from their homeland, helpless, in the desert.” This story – he observed – began with Jesus: what people did, “to Jesus, has during the course of history been done to His body, which is the Church.”

“Today,” the Pope continued, “I would like, on this day of our first Eucharist, as brother Bishops, dear brother Bishops and Patriarch and all of you Armenian faithful and priests, to embrace you and remember this persecution that you have suffered, and to remember your holy ones, your many saints who died of hunger, in the cold, under torture, [cast] into the wilderness only for being Christians.”

The Pontiff also remembered the broader persecution of Christians in the present day. “We now, in the newspapers, hear the horror of what some terrorist groups do, who slit the throats of people just because [their victims] are Christians. We think of the Egyptian martyrs, recently, on the Libyan coast, who were slaughtered while pronouncing the name of Jesus.”

Pope Francis prayed that the Lord might, “give us a full understanding, to know the Mystery of God who is in Christ,” and who, “carries the Cross, the Cross of persecution, the Cross of hatred, the Cross of that, which comes from the anger,” of persecutors – an anger that is stirred up by “the Father of Evil”:

“May the Lord, today, make us feel within the body of the Church, the love for our martyrs and also our vocation to martyrdom. We do not know what will happen here: we  do not know. Only Let the Lord give us the grace, should this persecution happen here one day, of the courage and the witness that all Christian martyrs have shown, and especially the Christians of the Armenian people.”

Businessman German Sterligov who was detained at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on Monday has been released, his lawyer Artur Airapetov told TASS.

“Sterligov was released after talking to the law enforcers. He is fine,” the lawyer said.

Businessman German Sterligov was detained at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport upon his arrival from Yerevan, Armenia, on Monday evening. According to Airapetov, his client stayed at the airport all the time after the detention.

He said Sterligov had been detained due to the fact that Azerbaijan had initiated criminal proceedings against the businessman and had put his name on the CIS inter-state wanted list.

The airport’s border guards told TASS that Sterligov was detained when crossing the Russian state border.