Author: Ani Kharatian

ISTANBUL

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday said that a “new world order is taking shape” as he addressed the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Contact Group meeting in the capital Baku.

“Now the world is witnessing the most serious East-West confrontation since the end of the Cold War, with repercussions for the remaining part of the world. As the second largest international institution after the UN, NAM should play a more visible and efficient role in the international arena and actively participate in reshaping the new world order,” Aliyev said.

He said that the international security architecture that has existed for decades is currently undergoing radical changes, adding that multilateralism is at stake with “the erosion of international law norms and principles" further threatening international order.

“More cases of violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity and intervention in the internal affairs of states are observed. The decisions of the leading international organizations are not either implemented or the selective approach and double standards are being applied,” he said.

Aliyev said that the NAM must unite to eliminate the growing trend of neo-colonialism, adding that the organization “strongly” supports the sovereignty of the Union of Comoros over the island of Mayotte, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, and that the NAM calls on Paris to “respect the rights of the New Caledonian people and other peoples in French overseas communities and territories.”

“The French-administered territories outside Europe are nasty remains of the French colonial empire. We also call on France to apologize and admit its responsibility for its colonial past and bloody colonial crimes and acts of genocide against NAM member countries in Africa, South-East Asia and other places,” the Azerbaijani president said.

Aliyev said that one permanent seat should be given to the NAM in the UN Security Council, in addition to supporting the idea of granting permanent seats to African countries, adding that the UN body is “reminiscent of the past and does not reflect the current reality.”

He said that the UN Security Council is “inefficient,” adding that four resolutions adopted by the UN body on the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian forces from Azerbaijan’s territory were ignored for nearly three decades.

“In 2020, Azerbaijan itself restored its territorial integrity and historical justice by military-political means and enforced the Security Council resolutions' implementation. Probably, it was the first case in the world since the establishment of the UN,” he said.

The Non-Aligned Movement was formed in 1961 under the leadership of then Yugoslavia when the world began to polarize between East and West. It currently has 120 members.

"The Fabric of Memory" exhibition flyer

Tufenkian Fine Arts announced a new group exhibition, entitled “The Fabric of Memory,” featuring a selection of recent paintings and sculptures by Carlos Beltran-Arechiga, Sam Grigorian, Carolyn Mason, Luis Moreno, and Gretel Stephens. This exhibition will be on view from March 4 through April 22, with an opening reception to be held at the gallery on Saturday, March 4 from 3 to 6 p.m.

The artists in “The Fabric of Memory” share a visual lexicon that emphasizes raw aesthetic elements, biological and organic structures, as well as the use of discarded and found materials. The overlapping aesthetics of the works in this exhibition demonstrate the breadth and dexterity of these artists’ practices: densely layered and collaged paintings, pared down canvases, and sculptures that explore the use of texture, structure, and coloration. “The Fabric of Memory” aims to depict the underlying psyches and rooted experiences of these artists through their assemblage of carefully considered choice materials.

Carlos Beltran-Arechiga paints implied and explicit structures which question the arrangement of the systems and policies that determine access and equity. Beltran-Arechiga uses his paintings to confront the promise of the “American Dream” and the “Promised Land” in a state of chaos and order; desolate and fertile. As a first generation Mexican-American immigrant, the artist populates his canvases with edifices that are meant to evoke the archetypal homes affirmed by the legacy of the “American Dream.” Using drop cloth as the canvas for these works, the artist memorializes the material’s accumulated construction stains, reflecting on the idea of how those who contribute to the sustainment of pre-established systems may not necessarily be designed by or for them.

Although incidental references to notational factors such as writing and musical notation recur in his work, Sam Grigorian is principally interested in texture, structure, and muted coloration. Grigorian’s material of choice is paper, and by folding, bending, crushing, ripping, scraping, plastering it, and painting over it, only to tear strips out of it again, he is able to achieve a relatively uniform (if still vital) “skin” on the canvas. Grigorian’s Armenian roots become visible through his special relation to paper, which he makes by hand before using it. As the artist strips back layers on the canvas, enigmatic signs begin to appear. These newly arranged signs become elements of a coded language of personal marks blended together with emblems of traditional symbols, making the loss of the oral tradition in the Armenian diaspora visible and tangible.

Carolyn Mason’s practice privileges the use of materials that have personal history whose significance emerges after thoughtful consideration. Mason’s use of wool and pinecones in her sculptures make reference to her childhood home which was full of weaving and craft projects as well as the summers she spent in the Sierra Nevada mountains foraging in the wilderness. Inspiration for her work comes from the marvels of biological life both aesthetically and metaphorically: patterns of flowers, vines, and fungus; the magic and regeneration of underwater plants; the mesmerizing serpentine movement of snakes.

The work of Luis Moreno draws from a vivid palette of everyday materials — masa, clay, gum, hibiscus, chocolate, dead flowers, dirt — to produce a fragmentary, provisional record of otherwise undocumented lived experiences. What is made is less of an _expression_ of individualism, it is one of many possibilities of a moving subject open to the desires of materials, things, and others. The resulting objects are abstracted forms evoking an imagined architecture, a lived terrain, and a place simultaneously familiar and estranged.

Gretel Stephens’ artworks are meditations on atmosphere, material, and the internal dialogue between color and composition. Stephens’ paintings achieve their vaporous luminousness through an intensive process of dry brushing layer upon layer of oil paint onto raw linen. The resulting veils of color and organic forms seem to undulate freely across the surface of the canvas, bringing movement to work that a moment before was wholly still and contemplative. For Stephens, the tactile pleasures of the raw linen canvas and the physical sensation she associates with its rugged surface evokes an expressive desire to paint.

MOSCOW

Azerbaijan offered Armenia to open checkpoints on the border between the two countries, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Saturday.

Responding to questions from journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany after a trilateral meeting between the US, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, Aliyev said Yerevan is yet to respond to the offer.

"If we are talking about the opening of communications, of course, checkpoints should be established at both ends of the Zangezur corridor and at the border between Lachin district and Armenia," Aliyev said.

Aliyev added “there is some progress" regarding a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia, adding that any mention of Karabakh in the peace treaty will be “unacceptable.”

He also called on Armenia to stop the illegal mining of Azerbaijan's resources.

Earlier, Aliyev met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

Opening the meeting, Blinken said Azerbaijan and Armenia have a “historic opportunity” to establish lasting peace after more than 30 years of conflict.

He added that the parties now focused on the peace process, including through direct negotiations, and also with the participation of the EU and US.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

In the fall of 2020, in 44 days of clashes, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages, and settlements from Armenian occupation. The Russian-brokered peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.

EU's foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell

The European Union renewed its call to Azerbaijan to end the now more than two-month blockade of Artsakh.

In response to a question from a European Parliament member, the EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said the “EU remains seriously concerned about the distress the ongoing restrictions to freedom of movement and to the supply of vital goods are causing for the local population.”

“The EU has called on Azerbaijan to take the measures that are within its jurisdiction to ensure freedom and security of movement along the corridor, in line with its obligations deriving from the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020,” Borrell’s statement said.

“The responsibility of Russia, whose peacekeeping contingent is in control of the Lachin corridor, as per the same trilateral statement, should also be highlighted,” the EU leader added.

Borrell also outlined that EU’s humanitarian funding mobilized to address the consequences of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict amounted to 3.6 million euros for 2022, saying that the funds have been entirely allocated to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is the only international humanitarian organization able to operate on the ground along the Lachin corridor.

“Since the escalation of the conflict in 2020, the EU has provided close to 27 million euros in humanitarian aid and early recovery to support the most vulnerable populations affected by the hostilities,” Borrell said.