Author: Ani Tigranian

Ruling power MP: Armenia defends only its interests in talks for normalization of relations with Turkey

Ani Tigranian
NEWS.am
Armenia –
14:56, 26.07.2022

Armenia defends solely its interests during the negotiations for the normalization of relations with Turkey, and will not back away from them under any circumstances. Maria Karapetyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to the OSCE PA and an MP from the ruling majority “Civil Contract” Faction of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, told this to reporters in the NA on Tuesday.

The legislator was asked how Yerevan treats the statements by Turkish officials that Turkey is developing its approaches toward negotiations with Armenia in coordination with Azerbaijan. In response, the Armenian lawmaker said that Ankara's such approach should not surprise anyone.

"The fact that Turkey coordinates its approaches with Azerbaijan should not shock us. Their relations are not a secret for us. The results of the negotiations with Turkey are of primary importance for us. Both Armenia and Turkey record that the negotiations are proceeding without any preconditions. At the moment, there is a specific agreement," Karapetyan noted.

Turkish press: Armenian orphanage to be rebuilt in October

Ani Tigranian
  • 07:00:00

An Armenian orphanage, publicly known as “Kamp Armen,” in Istanbul’s Tuzla district, which was demolished on April 8 to prepare for the construction of a new building, have been chosen to be rebuilt in October.

A dormitory where 100 young people could stay, cultural center, foyer, library, auditorium and multi-purpose halls will be built on the land belonging to the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church and School Foundation.

Zaven Khanjian, the head of the Armenian Missionary Association of America, his wife Sona Khanjian and students from the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church and School Foundation visited the area.

“This land has always been a source of fertility to us. I want it to be a beautiful place which will serve the youth and integrate them into society after educating them in a cultural and social sense,” said Zaven Khanjian.

The project has been prepared as a social facility suitable for the information age, said Gedikpaşa Church Pastor Krikor Ağabaloğlu, adding that the reconstruction of Kamp Armen brought Armenian communities together.

The orphanage was built in 1962 by the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church, as a former building on the site could not host the increasing number of Armenian students arriving from various parts of Anatolia.

During the summer of 1962 and afterwards, Armenian orphans, between the ages of eight and 12, worked on the construction of the buildings at the camp.

Known as the orphanage where Hrank Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist who was murdered in 2007, and his wife, Rakel Dink, met, studied and grew up, the orphanage was expropriated by authorities in 1987 on the basis of a 1936 bill preventing minority foundations from acquiring property.

“We have turned that flat barren land into a place that is getting greener and more colorful. We went to live a camp life, we built camps and returned to our boarding school that summer,” Dink had written in a column in 1996, describing the days when they built the camp in the 1960s.

As the legal process and the lawsuits took years, in 2007 Dink was gunned down in broad daylight in front of his office in Istanbul before seeing the court verdict regarding the orphanage.

Although the Turkish government signed a decree in 2011 to return property taken away from minority foundations in the past, the orphanage was left out of its scope.

The building changed hands several times before being bought by Fatih Ulusoy, who had decided to demolish it to make room for new buildings in 2015.

The controversial plan was later shelved as Ulusoy donated it to the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church and School Foundation after a group of activists protested the demolition in front of construction vehicles, drawing public attention to the orphanage.

The protesters, who had held a vigil for 19 days, said on May 27, 2015, that they will resume camping in the area until the day the license for the buildings is given to the foundation.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 07/22/2022

Ani Tigranian 
                                        Friday, 


Senior Armenian Official Sees No Turkish Preconditions

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - Eduard Aghajanian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee 
on foreign relations, holds a news conference, Yerevan, April 15, 2022.


A senior Armenian lawmaker representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil 
Contract party insisted on Friday that Turkey has not set or reaffirmed 
preconditions for normalizing its relations with Armenia.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that Yerevan must 
take “concrete steps” to negotiate a peace accord sought by Baku and open a land 
corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. That, he said, is essential for 
normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations.

“I think that [Cavusoglu’s] statement mentioned by you was not [an expression 
of] preconditions,” Eduard Aghajanian, the chairman of the Armenian parliament 
committee on foreign relations, told reporters.

“In essence, Turkey has always come out with this position which obviously has 
never been acceptable to us,” he said.

Aghajanian complained about a “gap” between Ankara’s statements and actions. “Of 
course one of our objectives is to do everything so that this discrepancy 
doesn’t exist anymore or is at least reduced to a minimum,” he said.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry did not react to Cavusoglu’s remarks which 
followed four rounds of normalization talks held by Turkish and Armenian envoys 
this year.

The Turkish minister has repeatedly made clear that Ankara is coordinating the 
Turkish-Armenian dialogue with Baku. He stressed on Thursday that Turkey and 
Azerbaijan are “one nation and two states.”

The Turks have for decades made the establishment of diplomatic relations with 
Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border conditional on a 
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Baku.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan complained last November about “new 
preconditions” set by Ankara.

“Among them is a ‘corridor’ connecting Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan,” Mirzoyan 
told the French daily Le Figaro.

The Armenian government has ruled out such an exterritorial corridor, saying 
that Armenia and Azerbaijan have been discussing only conventional transport 
links in their talks mediated by Russia and the European Union.



Armenia Said To Seek Arms Deals With India

        • Sargis Harutyunyan

India - A Sky Striker attack drone manufactured by Adani Defense & Aerospace 
company.


A delegation of Armenian military officials has reportedly visited India to 
explore the possibility of buying Indian-manufactured combat drones and other 
weapons.

The Mumbai-based news service dnaindia.com reported this week that the 
delegation “came armed with a shopping list” when it met with Indian officials 
last month. Citing an unnamed official, it said that drones “figured prominently 
on the list.”

The online publication gave no other details of the talks. Nor did it say if any 
agreements were reached by the two sides.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry on Friday declined to comment on the reported visit 
of its representatives to India or its broader interest in Indian military 
hardware.

Visiting Yerevan earlier this month, a senior official from the Indian Ministry 
of External Affairs said India and Armenia are discussing “long-term” military 
cooperation as part of their efforts to deepen their ties. The official, Sanjay 
Verma, spoke during a session of an Indian-Armenian intergovernmental commission 
on bilateral cooperation.

Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan meets with Sanjay Verma, an Indian 
Ministry of External Affairs secretary, Yerevan, July 4, 2022.

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, who co-chaired the session with Verma, listed 
“defense and military-technical cooperation” among the areas that are “very 
promising for our countries.”

Mirzoyan held talks with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in 
April on the sidelines of an international conference held in India. It was 
their third face-to-face meeting in eight months. Jaishankar visited Armenia 
last October.

“India sees Armenia not only as a friend but a good counterweight to Turkey 
whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been particularly belligerent on the 
Kashmir issue and followed a number of policies inimical to India,” wrote 
dnaindia.com. It noted that India’s arch-foe Pakistan is allied to Turkey and 
Azerbaijan.

Pakistan strongly supported Azerbaijan during the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war 
over Nagorno-Karabakh. But it denied claims that Pakistani soldiers participated 
in the six-week war on the Azerbaijani side.

Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian greets Indian Foreign Minister 
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Yerevan, October13, 2021.

By contrast, India has backed Karabakh peace efforts spearheaded by the United 
States, Russia and France. It has backed Armenia in an Armenian-Azerbaijani 
border dispute that broke out in May 2021. In a statement issued at the time, 
the Indian foreign ministry called on Baku to “pull back forces immediately and 
cease any further provocation.”

Armenian military officials had already visited India in August 2018 to discuss 
possible arms deals. The Times of India daily reported at the time that they 
showed an interest in the Pinaka multiple-launch rocket systems manufactured by 
an Indian defense company.

In March 2020, six months before the outbreak of the Karabakh, Indian media 
reports claimed that Yerevan will pay $40 million to buy four Swathi weapon 
locating radars from their Indian manufacturer. The deal was never publicly 
confirmed by the Armenian military.



Armenian Government Explains Entry Ban Imposed On Diaspora Leader

        • Artak Khulian

Mourad Papazian, a leader of the Armenian community of France.


Armenia’s government on Friday broke its eight-day silence on an entry ban 
imposed by it on a leader of France’s influential Armenian community critical of 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

The government’s press office said Mourad Papazian, a co-chairman of the 
Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF), was detained at 
Yerevan airport and deported back to Paris on July 14 because of organizing an 
angry protest against Pashinian’s visit to France last year.

In a statement, the office said that the ethnic Armenian protesters threw 
“various objects” at Pashinian’s motorcade when it drove through Paris on June 
1, 2021. It described the incident as an “attack” on the prime minister.

The statement also said that Papazian was expelled under an Armenian law that 
allows the authorities to impose entry bans on foreign nationals posing a 
serious threat to the country’s “state security or public order.”

FRANCE -- French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and Armenian Prime minister Nikol 
Pashinian give a press briefing following their working lunch at the Elysee 
palace in Paris, June 1, 2021

Papazian dismissed the explanation, saying that he did not organize or 
participate in that protest. “This is a lie,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.

Papazian is also a leading member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation 
(Dashnaktsutyun), a pan-Armenian party in opposition to Pashinian’s government. 
He insisted that he was barred from entering Armenia because of his political 
views and activities.

Papazian argued that he visited Yerevan for at least four times after 
Pashinian’s June 2021 trip to Paris. “Why did they not ban me from June 1, 2021 
to July 13, 2022?” he asked.

France - President Emmanuel Macron, Mourad Papazian (right) and other 
French-Armenian leaders visit the Armenian genocide memorial, Paris.

Papazian reportedly participated in one of the daily antigovernment rallies 
launched by the Armenian opposition in Yerevan on May 1, 2022. Opposition 
leaders have condemned his expulsion.

The CCAF, which is an umbrella structure uniting France’s leading Armenian 
organizations, denounced the travel ban on July 15 as an “attack on democracy” 
and “brutal blow” to the French-Armenian community.

Pashinian’s office asserted on Friday that the Armenian authorities “have no 
reservations about any participant of peaceful protests.”


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Ararat Home Secures Glendale Presence with Windsor Acquisition

Ani Tigranian
by Contributor

 

 

 

in Community, Latest, News, Top Stories

Windsor, a Senior living home in Glendale, CA


MISSION HILLS, Calif.—Ararat Home of Los Angeles, Inc. announced an agreement to purchase Windsor, a Senior living community in Glendale.

Windsor is a leading provider of senior living and healthcare services in the Glendale area. Occupying almost a full city block in central Glendale, the community offers 73 independent living units and can accommodate 38 residents in its assisted living and 28 residents in its skilled nursing sections.

Ararat Home Board of Trustees Chair Sinan Sinanian said, “For over 20 years, we have been exploring opportunities that would give us a stronger presence in Glendale and allow us to deliver the Ararat Home Experience to an even broader segment of our community. We are delighted that this Windsor acquisition is perfectly aligned with those goals and with our mission of providing quality care to our seniors and elderly. With the ongoing support of our friends and community, this purchase will undoubtedly be a bright and promising future of growth for both Windsor and for Ararat Home.”

Windsor has been part of the HumanGood (previously be.group/Southern California Presbyterian Homes) family of care communities since 1937. As California’s largest nonprofit provider of senior housing and services and one of the ten largest organizations of its kind in the nation, HumanGood has an excellent industry reputation and has established a strong foundation of quality care and services at Windsor.

With over 70 years of experience, Ararat Home intends to build upon that foundation to continue offering services that engage residents to thrive and live rich and rewarding lives. Ararat Home looks forward to a smooth transition and to welcoming current and future Windsor residents, their families and staff members into the larger Ararat Home Family.

Ararat Home and HumanGood are presently working together to obtain licensing and regulatory approvals of the agreed-upon sale. Both parties anticipate the process to conclude successfully and hope to close the sale before the end of this year.

Sports: Exclusive: Armenia chosen by IBA to hold Extraordinary Congress after re-run of Presidential election ordered

Ani Tigranian
 

  • By Duncan Mackay

    •  

  •  Friday,

    • Yerevan in Armenia will host the International Boxing Association (IBA) Extraordinary Congress, where a re-run of the vote to elect a President will be held, insidethegames can reveal.

    The Extraordinary Congress is due to held on a date to-be-decided between 24 September and 1 October and is set to be IBA's second of the year, following on from the controversial meeting in Istanbul in May.

    The Netherlands' Boris van der Vorst was one of five candidates deemed ineligible to stand by the Boxing Independent Integrity Unit (BIIU) on the eve of the election, allowing Russian Umar Kremlev to be re-elected as President unopposed.

    The BIIU ruled that van der Vorst and four Board of Directors candidates – New Zealand’s Steve Hartley, Sweden’s Per-Axel Sjöholm and United States' Mike McAtee – had allegedly broken rules on breaches of collaboration between candidates and early campaigning.

    But, following an appeal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that van der Vorst should have been allowed to stand, adding that a formal warning or no sanction at all would have been sufficient.

    Shortly after the Istanbul Congress, the International Olympic Committee announced that IBA would again not be in charge of organising the boxing tournament at Paris 2024 after sports director Kit McConnell claimed that "enough was enough".

    IBA President Umar Kremlev, right, led the Board of Directors meeting which chose Armenia to host the world governing body's second Extraordinary Congress of the year ©IBA

    Van der Vorst had called for the Congress to be held in the Olympic capital Lausanne as a "necessary measure to show commitment to integrity and transparency".

    Earlier this week, van der Vorst had written to Armenian Boxing Federation President Ohanes Ovsepian to claim that visa requirements to enter Switzerland should not provide an obstacle to it hosting the event after he challenged the call for Lausanne to stage the Extraordinary Congress.

    The Netherlands were among several countries to submit bids, along with an unlikely proposal from Lviv in war-torn Ukraine, but Armenia was chosen following a meeting of the IBA Board of Directors.

    "After careful study of proposals from different countries [the Board of Directors] choose Armenia has as a host for the upcoming Congress," Kremlev announced.

    "Armenia showed their great organisational skills during EUBC (European Boxing Confederation) Elite Men’s Championships in May this year. 

    "Government support, accessibility and simplified visa process helped the country to win."

    Kremlev had met Armenia's Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan during those Championships, claiming the "people here love boxing".

    But the choice of Armenia, Russia’s only ally in the South Caucasus and which is home to military bases hosting 3,000 Russian troops opposing NATO’s eastern flank, will surprise several at a time many countries have imposed sanctions on Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine.

    Russia also officially protects Armenia’s airspace and state borders and is among Vladimir Putin’s closest allies.

    Armenia also has a long-running conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region with the two countries at war as recently as 2020. 

    Visa requirements for Armenia, though, are fairly simple for travellers from most countries.

    It has become increasingly difficult, however, to travel to Armenia from many countries since sanctions were ordered again Aeroflot, Rossiya Airlines and Ural Airlines following the Russian attack on Ukraine.

    IBA have promised that the Extraordinary Congress will be live streamed to allow online participation for those who are unable to attend in person.

    Armenia-EU Readmission Agreement’s annual implementation highly appreciated at Joint Committee’s session

    Ani Tigranian

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     17:26,

    YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. The Armenia-EU Joint Readmission Committee held its 8th session on July 14.

    From the Armenian side, the session was attended by representatives of the Department of Return and Reintegration of the Migration Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Passport and Visa Department of the Police and the border troops of the National Security Service, the Migration Service said.

    The meeting was held online.

    The Co-Chair of the Committee, Head of the Migration Service of Armenia Armen Ghazaryan highly valued the cooperation with the EU partners in the field of readmission, as well as EU’s support to Armenia’s planned institutional reforms in migration management field, also within the frames of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.

    “The expert, technical and financial support that we get from the European Union is really important for us, because in the context of reforms we move on the path of digitization of processes”, he said, introducing the single electronic platform workpermit.am, that was launched on January 1 this year for providing foreigners with employment-based residence status, as well as presenting the effective operation of the readmission management electronic system since 2019.

    The Committee Co-Chair, Deputy Head of the Irregular Migration and Return Policy Unit, European Commission Mauro Gagliardi in his turn highly appreciated Armenia’s performance and constructiveness within the frames of the partnership in the field of readmission. “Currently, we are working on a third assessment report about readmission cooperation with non-EU states. Armenia’s figures in the previous reports have been quite impressive”, Mauro Gagliardi said.

    India-Armenia Sign MoU On High Impact Community Development Projects In Armenia

    Ani Tigranian
    July 5 2022
    By India Education Diary Bureau Admin On Jul 5, 2022
    The eight-session of the India-Armenia Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological, Cultural and Educational Cooperation was held in Yerevan yesterday.

    Both sides discussed and reviewed the current state of cooperation in diverse fields such as trade, investments, health, tourism, infrastructure, culture, connectivity, information technology, agriculture, fintech, and education. India and Armenia also signed an MoU on High Impact Community Development Projects in Armenia with financial and technical assistance from India.

    Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan led the Armenian delegation. The Indian delegation was led by Secretary (West), Sanjay Verma. Secretary (West) also called on Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Hambardzum Matevosyan. He paid floral tributes to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. Later, he inaugurated a Mahatma Gandhi Auditorium at the Yerevan State Medical University along with the Rector of the University. He also interacted with Indian students studying at the University.

    Secretary of Supreme National Security Council of Iran to visit Armenia

    Ani Tigranian

    Secretary of Supreme National Security Council of Iran to visit Armenia

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     09:49, 6 July 2022

    YEREVAN, JULY 6, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Shamkhani will arrive in Armenia on July 7 at the invitation of Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan, the Office of Mr. Grigoryan said.

    During his working visit Ali Shamkhani will meet with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

    Working discussions between the Secretaries of the Armenian and Iranian Security Councils are also scheduled.

    Azerbaijan to build one of the longest tunnels in the world to bypass Nagorno-Karabakh

    Ani Tigranian

    July 7 2022

    • JAMnews
    • Baku

    Murovdag tunnel in Kalbajar region

    One of the longest tunnels in the world will be built on the highway that will connect the city of Ganja with Kalbajar. It will pass under the Murovdag ridge. Why did Azerbaijan need a several-kilometers-long tunnel to Kalbajar, and for what reason is it being built to bypass Nagorno-Karabakh? According to the expert, an alternative road never hurts, but there are also serious questions.

    • Closed borders: why Azerbaijani authorities refuse to reopen land communication?
    • Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev: “OSCE Minsk Group cannot be revived, it is dead”
    • Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan: “Baku is trying to legitimize another war”

    After the end of the second Karabakh war and the return of the Kelbajar region under the control of Azerbaijan, the question of communication with this region arose.

    Before the start of the Karabakh conflict, the only road to Kalbajar ran through the Aghdere (Mardakert) region. Later, the Azerbaijani authorities abolished this region and administratively it joined with the Terter region. The road through Agdere (Mardakert) still exists, but it passes through part of Karabakh, where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is stationed.

    The northern, much more difficult road to Kalbajar runs through the Murovdag Range and is almost impassable in winter.

    In the part of Karabakh where the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation is deployed, the authorities are completely subordinate to Moscow, Azerbaijani politician Igbal Agazade believes

    August 16, 2021, i.e. nine months after the end of the 44-day war, the foundation was laid for the tunnel – part of the road that will connect the city of Ganja (the second most important city in Azerbaijan) with Kalbajar.

    The length of the tunnel will be 11,658 meters, and according to the Azerbaijani authorities, it will become one of the longest road tunnels in the world.

    The tunnel is planned to be commissioned in 2025.

    According to expert Nazim Gamidov, the very construction of this tunnel and the year it was put into operation raise several questions at once.

    “Let’s be honest, a tunnel under a mountain with a length of almost 12 kilometers requires huge material investments. In other words, for Azerbaijan it is not a matter of image, or something else, there were simply no other options.

    If you look at the map, on the western side, the Kelbajar region borders Armenia. From the south, with the Lachin region, which also returned under the control of Azerbaijan. But in the Lachin region, there is a corridor 5 kilometers wide connecting Armenia with Khankendi (Stepanakert). It is also problematic with the eastern side – the old road runs through the zone of responsibility of Russian peacekeepers.

    Only the northern direction remains for unhindered communication. But…

    The tunnel will be put into operation only in 2025. As we remember, the period of stay of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh expires in the same year. Official Baku has already stated several times from the lips of various persons close to the government that it will not renew the agreement with Moscow on the continuation of the peacekeeping mission. And the agreement of November 10, 2020 has not yet been ratified by the country’s parliament. If you follow the law, the peacekeepers are illegally on the territory of Azerbaijan recognized by the whole world.

    But here we have a multi-million dollar tunnel construction project, which could not have been built if we were sure that by 2025 Baku would have unhindered access to the road through Agdere to Kalbajar. Apparently, there is no such certainty. But in any case, the second – an alternative road will not hurt anyone.

    As for the statements about one of the longest tunnels in the world, the Murovdag tunnel is not even included in the first hundred of the longest. If taken on a global scale. But undoubtedly, this is a huge project on a regional scale,” Hamidov said.

    https://jam-news.net/azerbaijan-to-build-one-of-the-longest-tunnels-in-the-world-to-bypass-nagorno-karabakh/