18:51, 24 October 2023
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin assured that Ankara will make every effort for de-escalation in the Middle East.
"During the negotiations, President Erdogan emphasized that Turkey will continue to make all efforts to ensure peace in the region," RIA Novosti reports, citing the office of Turkish President.
18:53,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 26, ARMENPRESS. Cultural cooperation with Armenia occupies a special place in French politics. French Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak said at a joint press conference with Armenian Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan.
"There is soul, emotion and great power in this regard. I am here to reaffirm once again that France supports Armenia in the cultural sphere as well," said the Minister of Culture of France.
According to the French Minister of Culture, as a result of the discussions with the Armenian Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, the already existing programs have been reinforced.
"Cooperation between the the Maison carrée monument in Nîmes and the Pagan Temple of Garni is planned, because this famous memorial complex of Nîmes has been included in the UNESCO list. It is a very good start, within this mutual cooperation to include the Garni Temple in the UNESCO list in the future," said Rima Abdul Malak.
According to Rima Abdul Malak, cooperation between the two Armenian-French ballet schools is also planned.
During this visit, different ideas arise related to different areas of culture, and all of them are very expanded and aimed at being implemented in different frameworks of cooperation and partnership,” added the French Minister of Culture.
17:43,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The Chairman of the Bundestag Foreign Relations Committee, Michael Roth, is in favor of the EU expanding its civilian mission in Armenia.
''I strongly support the EU expanding its civilian mission in Armenia for the benefit of Armenia, the safety and security of the Armenian people. We support this policy,'' Michael Roth said at a briefing with journalists.
''The Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, during his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, presented a landmark provision, which means Armenia's willingness to get closer to European structures as much as possible.
It means that the European Union should develop, expand its economic and political cooperation with Armenia as soon as possible and provide wider support to displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh,'' said the Chairman of the Bundestag Foreign Relations Committee.
Karine, 24, had just given birth to her second child – a daughter named Mane – and was looking forward to her family arriving at the maternity hospital in Martakert, a town in Karabakh, to bring her and the baby home.
At Karine’s house on the outskirts of town, her close friend and sister-in-law, Mariam, was decorating the house and laying the table for a celebration to welcome the newest member of their family. With her were her husband Hrach and their two children, and her brother-in-law, – Karine's husband – Artyom.
But the joyful homecoming never happened. Messages began to circulate telling people to take cover. At the hospital, doctors told Karine and other mothers on the ward to head down to the basement with their newborns.
“At that moment, the main fear I had was that my son was in kindergarten,” Karine said. “I was thinking: ‘Where will he be … what will happen to him?’.”
While Artyom rushed to the kindergarten to find their young son and bring him to the hospital, Mariam and her family rushed home and took shelter in their basement. “We just left everything … and ran away; we didn’t finish decorating the room. We just managed to grab our documents from home and run down to the basement,” Mariam said.
With communications down, the whole family chose to reunite at the hospital and spent two anxious nights sheltering underground. Finally, fearing for their safety, they took the difficult decision to leave their hometown and head for the border with Armenia. With the roads jammed with families trying to escape, what was usually a three-hour journey took them more than 40 hours.
It was only when they finally crossed into Armenia early on 25 September at the village of Kornidzor, exhausted and hungry, that the reality of their situation hit Karine. “I will never forget the moment when we reached Kornidzor. I always saw it in the movies where people in extremely difficult situations … are approached by aid workers, cars, rescue services. I would have never thought that I would also be approached by aid workers saying ‘how can I help you?’.”
Karine and her family were among more than 100,000 refugees who entered Armenia from Karabakh in the space of a week at the end of September. Many arrived traumatised, exhausted and hungry, and in urgent need of psychosocial support and emergency assistance. Some 30 per cent of the refugees are children, along with many women and older people.
Teams from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have been on the ground at the border in Armenia since day one, providing assistance in support of the Government-led response. The agency has provided technical equipment to help the authorities register new arrivals and assess the needs of refugee families.
UNHCR is working around the clock and, together with its partner Mission Armenia NGO, is distributing foldable beds and mattresses, warm blankets and pillows, linen, hygiene items, kitchen sets and other essentials to refugee families. Many new arrivals are being hosted in remote border communities and face the added challenge of coping with harsh early winter conditions. The agency and its UN and NGO partners have appealed for $97 million to respond to the urgent needs of refugees in Armenia.
While some refugees are living in hotels, hostels, schools and other temporary shelters, Karine and her relatives are among those now staying with family and friends in Armenia. Fifteen members of the extended family have crammed into the two-bedroom house of Hrach’s and Artyom’s parents in Vardenis in the Gegharkunik province of Armenia, a rural town set amid plains surrounded by mountains to the north and east and Lake Sevan to the west.
The brothers’ mother Romella described the desperation she felt when she lost contact with her children and their families for several days. “It was a horrible feeling. I was crying all the time, praying for news. I cannot describe the feeling of relief when I learnt my children had arrived safely.”
That sense of relief outweighs any potential misgivings about having so many relatives under one roof. “On the contrary, I feel bliss, happiness. When the children were away, we were feeling lonely and the house felt empty to us. Now that everyone is here, and we are together, the house is full. I am so happy and gratified. Believe me, I do not have any concerns, nothing bothers me now.”
"We cannot live here like this for long."
But Karine and her young family are still deeply affected by their experience, like many refugees in Armenia whose lives have been uprooted. “The most touching thing is that my son wakes up every morning at 5 a.m. saying: ‘You will not take me to the kindergarten, no? I don’t want to go to the kindergarten.’ He is still afraid and does not want to go to kindergarten, as he was left alone there when all this happened.”
For Hrach, the current situation is only a temporary stopgap, but the future remains uncertain. He and his wife Mariam own a small house near the capital Yerevan, but it is only half finished and they cannot afford to complete the renovation work on top of the cost of the mortgage.
“We cannot live here like this for long,” he said. “This is our priority now. The most important thing for me at this stage is to have a place to live, and from that point, we can start a new life: to find a job, enrol the children in school and kindergarten. [But] we need to have a home to begin our lives again and raise our children.”
https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/refugees-find-safety-armenia-future-remains-uncertain
Armenia's Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan with CoE Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatović in Koyak on Oct. 18
Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan said Thursday that signs of torture and mutilation were observed on the remains of Artsakh Armenians killed during Azerbaijan’s large-scale attack there in September.
She said that her preliminary report on the ill-treatment and torture was used by attorneys representing Armenia during last week’s hearing at the International Court of Justice.
The report found torture and mutilations on numerous bodies that were evacuated from Artsakh to Armenia, including bodies of civilians, including women and children.
Speaking about the former Artsakh officials who are now jailed in Azerbaijan, the Human Rights Defender said that the rights of the Artsakh Armenians are being restricted with explicit violations of international legal standards.
“First of all the presumption of innocence of these persons is violated on all levels in Azerbaijan, because they are branded as criminals from the very beginning, both on the state level and by specific individuals,” Manasyan said, adding that it is impossible to guarantee due process in Azerbaijan given the state-sanctioned Armenophobia there.
On Wednesday, Manasyan and the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe Dunja Mijatović to visited the Kotayk province and met with displaced Artsakh resident temporarily being housed there.
Around 105 forcibly displaced persons, including 40 children, are currently living Tsaghkadzor’s winter retreat.
”Private interviews were held with forcibly displaced persons. They presented the deprivations they suffered and the problems caused by the forced displacement to the Defender and the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe,” Armenia’s Human Rights Defender’s office said in a statement.
“Special attention was paid to issues related to ensuring the rights of children and persons with disabilities,” the statement said.
Manasyan also visited the temporary accommodation of displaced persons located in the University hotel of Yerevan State University located in Tsaghkadzor, where 167 forcibly displaced persons, including 44 children, are currently staying.
During the meeting their conditions, needs assessment, medical aid and service, food, as well as personal hygiene items provision processes were examined.
As a result of the visit, the problems recorded by rights defender will be summarized and the proposals aimed at solving them will be presented to the competent authorities together with the appropriate analysis.
NEW YORK CITY: The UN on Tuesday expressed deep concern about the escalating humanitarian crisis in the South Caucasus, where more than 100,600 ethnic-Armenian refugees, including 30,000 children, have poured into Armenia from the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in the past few weeks.
Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, called for urgent measures to be put in place to protect their rights and safety, and to ensure they are able to eventually return to their homes, if they wish.
“I call on all efforts to be made to ensure the protection and human rights of the ethnic-Armenian population who remain in the area, and of those who have left, including the right to return, which should be prioritized,” she said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have struggled for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region for decades. It is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but came under the control of ethnic Armenian separatists in the mid-1990s. The Armenian forces also took control of a substantial amount of surrounding territory but Azerbaijan regained control of most of it during a six-week war with Armenia in 2020.
Azerbaijan launched what it described as an “anti-terrorist” campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sept. 19, and during a two-day offensive regained full control of the part of the region that had remained outside its control. Soon after, many ethnic Armenians, fearing reprisals, began to flee across the border to Armenia.
The latest conflict led Armenians to accuse Azerbaijan of “ethnic cleansing,” an allegation that was strongly denied.
Nderitu echoed a call by the UN’s high commissioner for human rights that the rights of all internally displaced people and those in refugee-like situations must be fully upheld, including ensuring that their right to return in safety and dignity.
She acknowledged the assurances given by authorities in Azerbaijan that the ethnic-Armenian population and their rights should be protected, and welcomed initial access that has been granted to representatives of the UN to assess the humanitarian situation in the region.
“These positive steps need to be continued, including by permitting full humanitarian access,” Nderitu said.
“I encourage the government of Azerbaijan to take steps toward putting in place a comprehensive plan in this regard, including measures to ensure the right to return of those who have fled, as well as concrete steps for ensuring the rights and protections of minorities, which is a cornerstone of international human rights law.”
In addition, she stressed the importance of thoroughly investigating allegations of violations committed during the conflict, including reports of civilian casualties, and the need for full accountability in line with the standards of international human rights and humanitarian laws.
Nderitu also called for increased dialogue to help prevent any further military escalation or violence in the South Caucasus.
“The region has witnessed cyclical violence for far too long,” she said. “The impact on civilians has always been devastating. The risk of atrocity crimes remains present.
“All the people in the region deserve a future free from violence and fear. This requires concrete action to ensure a lasting peace, as well as to address and overcome the deep scars, distrusts and division that exists between communities.”
14:32,
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS. On October 11, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan met with Louis Bono, U.S. Senior Adviser for Caucasus Negotiations, U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Armenian foreign ministry said.
“Touching upon the process aimed at establishing lasting peace and stability in the South Caucasus and of normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized the need to restrain encroachments against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia and in case of the absence of such intentions on the part of Azerbaijan, the need of constructive engagement of Azerbaijan in the peace process. Views were also exchanged on addressing current humanitarian challenges and rights of more than 100,000 forcibly displaced Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. Minister Mirzoyan emphasized that Nagorno-Karabakh was factually subjected to ethnic cleansing, despite numerous targeted appeals of international partners, including the USA. Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized that the international failure to prevent the mass displacement of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh from their homeland in the 21st century once again testifies the imperative of clear steps of international actors in such situations,” the foreign ministry said in a readout.
Parakar (Armenia) (AFP) – Each day at her school, headteacher Anush Hakobyan passes by the photo of her son killed three years ago in a war with Azerbaijan for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The 48-year-old said she faces a difficult balancing act — educating children while preparing them for the possibility of another war with Armenia's arch-foe neighbour in the Caucasus.
The task has become even more complicated since September, when Azerbaijan recaptured the long-disputed breakaway region of Karabakh, which had been under Armenian separatists' control for three decades.
Hakobyan's son died in autumn 2020, aged 27, during the 44 days of fighting for control of the mountainous enclave within Azerbaijan, populated predominantly by ethnic Armenians who see it as their ancestral land.
In the school's entrance hall, his photo is displayed alongside about a dozen other faces of men killed during the hostilities that have claimed thousands of lives on both sides.
The three decades of the simmering conflict have deepened the rift between the two countries, especially among young people, fuelling streams of hatred on social networks.
It is in this toxic atmosphere that Hakobyan launched at her school of some 600 pupils a course called "Educating students to become civilised individuals".
"We've been through so many trials and wars, we know how to talk to children," she said.
Educating the students "does not prevent us from telling them that we will win the war, that what is happening in Karabakh is not logical", she added.
"We also educate them so that they know how to defend themselves. It's a balance to find. If Europe prefers (energy-rich Azerbaijan's) gas over helping us, we have no choice."
Armenia didn't intervene militarily when Azerbaijan launched an offensive last month to retake Karabakh from separatist forces, who surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting and agreed to return the region under the control of the central government in Baku.
Over the next few days, the majority of Karabakh's Armenians — more than 100,000 people — fled their homes to Armenia, sparking a major refugee crisis.
At Hakobyan's school in the village of Parakar, west of the Armenian capital Yerevan — as in all public schools in the country — military courses are taught from the age of 13, often by veterans of the two wars which Armenians and Azerbaijanis had fought over the last three decades.
The courses include instruction on military ranks and different types of weaponry. Young boys learn how to handle weapons as they prepare for the two years of military service they will have to complete when they come of age.
"I am preparing them to defend themselves, teaching them military art and history," said Sonbat Gasparyan, who teaches this course in Parakar.
He also has to address questions such as: "What have we done? Why are they attacking us?" without adding fuel to the fire of the deeply entrenched ethnic hatred.
"Of course there is hatred but we teach them that we cannot hate our neighbours," Gasparyan said with little optimism.
"We tell them that it's better to live in peace but they already have firm ideas."
In the teachers' staffroom, animosity also surfaces among adults towards the "Turks", a pejorative term widely used in Armenia to refer to Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanis.
"We don't see them as a real nation. They've only existed for a hundred years and don't have their own culture," said headteacher Hakobyan.
Her colleague, Eranahi Grigoryan, a biology teacher, advocates reconciliation.
"They are our neighbours. I have nothing against them because they also lose their children. It's just the government in Baku that wants to expand its territory," she said.
Azerbaijan has declared the Karabakh conflict resolved for good after the region returned under Baku's control.
But few in Armenia accept the loss and many do not rule out a fresh conflict.
Hakobyan quoted a proverb that tells a tale about Armenians' resolve to reclaim this piece of land: "When you mix blood and soil, you give birth to the motherland."
Baku (AFP) – Most ethnic Armenians have fled the breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh since last month's lightning offensive by Azerbaijan, and some fear that the territory's culture is under threat.
Azerbaijan took control of the mountainous region, considered by Armenia to be its people's ancestral home, in September after a one-day offensive that sparked a mass exodus of the ethnic Armenian population.
It was part of Muslim-majority Azerbaijan since the end of the Russian Empire, but it is dotted with several hundred churches, monasteries and tombstones, some dating back to the 11th century.
Its ethnic Armenian Christian inhabitants attempted to break away after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 — making a unilateral declaration of independence that failed to achieve international recognition.
Some of the religious sites have unique features and are carved with armed knights dating back to the Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th century, said Patrick Donabedian of the Laboratory of Medieval and Modern Archeology in the Mediterranean in France.
Key figures who have lived in Karabakh and left during years of dispute include priests from the Armenian Apostolic Church.
They include the clergy of the Dadivank monastery, which is said to have been founded by Saint Dadi at the birth of Christianity.
Some fear their departure has left the region's Armenian cultural sites vulnerable.
"These sites will suffer the same fate as symbolic Armenian sites elsewhere," predicted Hovhannes Gevorgyan, Karabakh's representative in France.
He pointed to the destruction of Armenian historical sites elsewhere in Azerbaijan and in parts of the Karabakh region that were retaken by Baku in the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the territory in 2020.
The Armenian church of Saint Gregory in Baku — listed on the Azerbaijani register of national historic monuments — is currently closed to the public.
Its gates are locked and one of the entrance doors is blocked shut by the terrace of a nearby restaurant, an AFP journalist observed.
In Karabakh itself, the Saint Saviour cathedral in Shusha — a city Azerbaijan sees as its cultural capital — is hidden behind a wall of scaffolding.
Other Armenian monuments languish under tarpaulin.
Since the Azerbaijani offensive in September, "the risks… today take many forms", said Lori Khatchadourian, an archaeologist at Cornell University in the United States.
"There's the risk of damage. There's the risk of outright destruction, the risk of erasing of inscriptions," she told AFP.
Rather than famous monuments, it is historic cemeteries and churches in small villages that are the most under threat, she added.
Khatchadourian is co-founder of Caucasus Heritage Watch, which, she said, used high-resolution satellite imagery to document the fate of the Armenian cultural sites in Karabakh and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan.
In Nakhchivan, located near the Iranian border, the group's research shows "the complete destruction of 108 mediaeval and early modern Armenian monasteries, churches and cemeteries between 1997 and 2011".
"This figure represents 98 percent of the Armenian cultural sites we were able to locate," she said.
In the Nakhchivan city of Julfa, formerly Jugha, she said there was a slow-moving methodical process of erosion over a period of 10 years.
This data is impossible to verify from the ground because access to the sites is strictly controlled by Azerbaijani authorities.
Baku has said that mosques and other Islamic sites under Armenian control have been desecrated or damaged.
Armenian heritage could also be threatened, some say, by the fact that some of the 700,000 Azerbaijanis displaced in the 1980s and 1990s from Armenia, Karabakh and surrounding areas could now choose to move into the enclave.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said repeatedly in recent years that Armenians have no ancestral claim to the region.
Its mosques and churches are Azerbaijanis' historic treasures, he has said.
In December 2021, the International Court of Justice reminded Baku it had a legally binding duty to prevent the vandalism and desecration of Armenian cultural sites — including monuments, cemeteries and places of worship.
Azerbaijan's culture ministry did not immediately respond when contacted by AFP.
Since its lightning military seizure of Karabakh, Baku has pledged to afford equal rights to everyone in the territory, whatever their ethnic, religious or linguistic origins.
But Armenian intangible heritage is also "inevitably" at risk, Gevorgyan said.
Armenian folk dances and songs, other traditions and even the dialects spoken in Karabakh "risk vanishing over time".
"The natural guardians of places whose culture and traditions they have passed on down the generations might, once they have physically left be able to pass them on to the next generation," he said.
"But what happens after that?"