Author: Ara Felekian

“Armenia, My Home” Premiering February 27 Oo PBS Stations

Ara Felekian

Armenian News Network / Armenian News


PBS is set to air premiere of ARMENIA, MY HOME, a spectacular visual journey through Armenia, premiering February 27, 2024, on PBS (check local listings). From filmmaker Andrew Goldberg and narrated by Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Only Murders In The Building).


The documentary promises viewers a breathtaking exploration of Armenia's rich cultural tapestry, featuring stunning cinematography, striking archival photographs, incredible interviews, and vibrant music. 

 

View an Open/Promo for the show.


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BACKGROUND ON THE DOCUMENTARY

 

ARMENIA, MY HOME, narrated by Andrea Martin (Only Murders in the Building), features prominent voices from the Armenian diaspora including actor Eric Bogosian (Succession); author Chris Bohjalian (HBO’s The Flight Attendant); Pulitzer Prize-winning author Peter Balakian (Black Dog of Fate); journalist Araksya Karapetyan (Good Day LA), author Dawn Anahid Mackeen (The Hundred-Year Walk); Conan O’Brien’s famed assistant Sona Movsesian; and Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan, Primate of the Eastern Diocese of NY. Additional voices include educator Dottie Bengoian, internationally renowned artist Michael Aram, comedian Vahe Berberian, and scholars Ron Suny and Salpi Ghazarian.

 

ARMENIA, MY HOME celebrates the modern-day, independent Armenian Republic and its people, and offers a lens into the nearly 3,000-year-old storied past of the world's first Christian nation. From medieval monasteries nestled in northern forests to the spectacular Hellenistic temple of Garni, the documentary takes viewers on a compelling journey through Armenia's diverse landscapes. Sweeping from the Caucasian mountains with stunning views of the peaks of Mount Ararat, ARMENIA, MY HOME seamlessly blends the epic with the everyday, evoking the deep emotions felt by Armenian Americans for a heritage that has endured for millennia. The film incorporates the spiritual charm of Armenian music throughout, telling a story that resonates with the fusion of East and West.

 

“For so many that we interviewed in this film, Armenia is more than a country, it’s a part of who they are – a community that has survived and flourished, despite untold enemies who sought to conquer them. This is more than a story of a nation, it is the story of some of the most resilient people alive,” stated director Andrew Goldberg.

 

“It’s an honor to narrate this documentary exploring Armenia’s storied past and vibrant culture,” said Emmy Award-winning actress Andrea Martin. "As an Armenian-American, I am deeply connected to our ancient history and thrilled to be partnering on this project.”

 

Filmed using state-of-the-art cameras and drones, a team of cinematographers known for their work on films like Thor: Love and Thunder, and the upcoming Mad Max Furiosa, has revolutionized the visual representation of Armenia. This groundbreaking approach provides viewers with quite simply, the most impressive visual showing of Armenia ever made.

 

For an added layer of authenticity, ARMENIA, MY HOME takes viewers on a journey into a dungeon that dates back nearly 2,000 years, providing a rare glimpse into Armenia's ancient and mysterious history. Alongside the spectacular landscapes, ARMENIA, MY HOME delves into the complex and crucial subjects of the Armenian Genocide and the recent war in Artsakh, acknowledging their historical significance and impact on the Armenian people and the world.

 

About Andrew Goldberg

Emmy Award-winning producer/director Andrew Goldberg is the founder and owner of So Much Film in New York City. He has executive produced and directed 15 prime-time documentary specials for PBS and public television, multiple lifestyle series for HGTV, and Magnolia Channel, and a variety of long and short-form segments for such outlets as CBS News Sunday Morning, ABC News, NPR’s All Things Considered, E! Entertainment Television, and Food Network. He has worked as a journalist for virtually every major TV news organization including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox. In 2006, he produced and directed the critically acclaimed film, The Armenian Genocide for PBS. Andrew’s most recent film was the critically-acclaimed Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations, which was released theatrically across the country and aired nationally as a prime-time special on PBS in 2020.

So Much Film Contact:

So Much Film <>



Armenia-My-Home.pdf

Sweco enlisted to help save Armenia’s evaporating lake

Ara Felekian

Feb 19 2024


Stockholm-headquartered engineer Sweco has been retained to assess the consequences of raising the water level of Lake Sevan in Armenia by six metres to preserve it.

Covering more than 1,200 sq km, it’s the biggest lake in the Caucasus region, and provides Armenia with drinking water, irrigation, hydropower, biodiversity, and tourism income.

But it’s evaporating rapidly, having sunk 6.5m since 1903, and it now suffers from severe algal blooms.

The lake gets its name from a monastery established on an island in the 9th Century, now a peninsula.

Sweco joins a European Union initiative called “EU4Sevan” dedicated to restoring the lake’s health.

It’s funded by funded by the EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and led by the United Nations Development Programme and the German development agency, GIZ.

Sweco experts from Czechia will use detailed mathematics and long-term data to model future climate change scenarios.

The goal is to help Armenia boost policy frameworks and build capacity for sustainable development planning.

Economic implications of trade rerouting since Russia–Ukraine war

Ara Felekian
Feb 21 2024
Andrew Birch
Lilit Gevorgyan
Shuchita Shukla

Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, EU export flows have been increasingly reoriented towards other economies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This reorientation has boosted associated trade and transport services, cut competition for native exports to Russia, and awakened previously dormant investment in the region.

Since March 2022, EU trade sanctions have nearly halved the bloc's goods exports to Russia and Belarus. Over the same period, the share of EU exports captured by the rest of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA, excluding Ukraine) has grown from 0.8% to 1.2%, worth around €25 billion of additional goods flowing to the region.

The likelihood of a negotiated settlement to the Russia-Ukraine war remains low over the short term, pointing to a prolonged conflict and trade sanctions. The trade diversion and influx of economic activity will have a longer-lasting impact beyond the current war. Previously dormant investment in infrastructure, IT, and production is awakening. Any improvements in infrastructure and/or local production boost longer-term growth potential. The governments must walk a thin line between reaping the added economic benefits of maintaining connections with Russia and the rest of the world while avoiding secondary sanctions.

Kyrgyzstan

Diverted trade has had a relatively large impact on the small Kyrgyz economy, driving increases in trade and transportation services and buoying investment in the country. Kyrgyz national bank data reflects the uptick of imports from Europe as well as a rise from Georgia. Exports to Russia also jumped in 2022 and 2023 compared to previous years.

The new trade activity passing through Kyrgyzstan is adding prominently to local economic growth. We estimate diverted trade provided a 4% net positive boost to 2022 overall nominal GDP. The additional activity contributed to an increase in the value added to GDP from the transportation and storage service sector and in the value added to GDP from wholesale and retail trade.

Kyrgyz authorities, looking to seize upon the opportunity that the new trade affords, are pushing forward with efforts to build out the Chinese-Kyrgyz-Uzbek rail line to increase its connections and, eventually, reach new trade markets. This would likely further boost Kyrgyzstan's position as a transit point of trade into Russia, while simultaneously offering Kyrgyzstan new export markets, reducing trade dependence on Russia. Financing and planning for the project remains unclear with no set timetable in place.

Armenia

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, and the ensuing Russian economic troubles, Armenia's economic growth trajectory has dramatically decoupled from that of Russia for the first time in nearly three decades. The previous pattern of recession spilling over into Armenia from Russia is no longer the case. As Russian real GDP fell into contraction in 2022, Armenian real GDP growth peaked at 12.1%, and is likely to have expanded at an annual average rate of 8.9% in 2023. Increased exports helped Armenia narrow but not close its trade gap with Russia.

The key structural change has been the 95% increase in the number of registered IT companies. Since early 2022, according to Armenia's Ministry of Economy, over 2,000 IT firms and around 70,000 IT professionals have moved to Armenia from Russia. Apart from the inward migration of small businesses, several large Western firms have also located in Armenia. This influx of businesses has increased imports from the EU and US of communication and knowledge intensive goods, sanctioned for export to Russia, but not for Armenia's expanding IT sector. That said, in 2022 at least one company and a Russian subsidiary operating in Armenia were included in the US sanctions list.

Although the rerouting of trade in non-sanctioned goods presents new opportunities for Armenia, this may be short-lived as diplomatic acrimony between Russia and Armenia deepens. The diplomatic fallout with Russia risks undercutting the bilateral goods trade and tightening Armenian authorities' control over potential sanctions evasion. We expect minimum negative impact on the services and, especially, the IT sector, key benefactors of the structural shifts in Armenian economy.

Kazakhstan

In Kazakhstan, the impact on an already large energy economy is limited, even as the sheer volume of new trade flowing through the country is larger than through its peers. As the country with the greatest direct trade links to Russia, new transport and trade services are growing. An alternative east-west trade corridor is also emerging.

The Bureau of National Statistics is noting the uptick in foreign trade from Europe and to Russia. Imports from the EU increased to 4.9% of total Kazakh imports in January-September 2023 — up from less than 3% as of 2021. Russian imports were largely unchanged, resulting in higher overall imports to the country. The official Kazakh statistical bureau also registers an uptick of shipments to Russia, but only marginally. It is important to note that this data reflects officially registered trade only, and that unregistered trade is also likely. Kazakh authorities have repeatedly committed to cracking down on the trade of sanctioned goods with Russia.

The added trade has had a notable effect on the Kazakh transport and storage sector. In January-September 2023, the Bureau of National Statistics reported a 3.2% year-over-year increase in total freight traffic. Because the country exports so much energy via pipelines, however, the headline figure obscures a reported 10.4% year-over-year increase in road freight in the first three quarters of 2023. Higher imports from the EU and steady exports to Russia did result in a narrowing of the Kazakh trade surplus in 2023.

Georgia

Georgia's trade turnover with Russia has increased since the start of the Ukraine war. Although the two countries have not had diplomatic ties since the 2008 war, Georgia has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia. Georgian officials have said that the US$1 billion annual bilateral trade with Russia is critical for Georgia's economic stability and is insignificant to Russia.

Georgia's real GDP has been posting robust growth since the start of the war, up by 10.1% in 2022 and estimated to have expanded by 7.8% in 2023. The economic boost has come by way of inflow of capital, skilled labor, and increased trade both in goods and services. Georgia is not part of the Russia-led Customs Union, but its geographic proximity to Russia has given the country a notable role in the rerouted trade, including for goods movement from Armenia and Turkey to Russia.

Georgia has emerged as a key destination for Russian business, including for the IT sector. In 2022, 15,000 Russian companies were registered in Georgia, marking a 16-fold increase from the previous year. Much like in the case of Armenia, this influx of business has also boosted imports of capital goods, especially from the EU.

Tensions over the sanctions' implementation has a direct impact on Georgia's relation with the IMF. The latter has already suspended its US$289 million stand-by arrangement with Georgia, and has signaled that its resumption will also depend on full adherence to the sanctions regime. Rerouting of non-sanctioned goods through Georgia and the country's robust services exports are likely to remain in place in the coming years, providing an important growth impulse to the economy.

https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/mi/research-analysis/economic-implications-of-trade-rerouting-since-ukraine-war.html

RFE/RL Armenian Service – 02/19/2024

Ara Felekian 
                                        Monday, 


Armenian PM Admits ‘Tensions’ With Iran


Iran - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi meets Armenia's Deputy Prime Minister 
Mher Grigorian, Tehran, February 15, 2024.


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian appears to have acknowledged that Armenia’s 
deepening ties with the European Union and the United States are causing unease 
in neighboring Iran.

“Our relations with Iran are deep and Armenia remains committed to those 
relations,” Pashinian said during a weekend visit to Germany. “But this is one 
of those cases where not everything is clear.”

“Our good relations with Iran are causing tensions in some places, while our 
good relations with other countries are causing tensions in Iran,” he added 
without elaborating.

In recent months, Iranian leaders have repeatedly told their Armenian 
counterparts that Tehran strongly opposes the geopolitical presence of 
“extra-regional countries” in the South Caucasus. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi 
conveyed the same message to Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian as 
recently as on February 15. Any intervention of “outsiders” in regional disputes 
could only exacerbate, rather than resolve, them, Raisi said in a clear 
reference to the U.S. and the EU.

This was construed by some Armenian commentators as a fresh warning to Yerevan 
which has been seeking closer security ties with the Western powers amid its 
unprecedented tensions with Russia. The latter has openly denounced Western 
efforts to broker an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal, saying that their main aim 
is to drive Moscow out of the region.

Germany - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Armenia's Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian meet in Municհ, February 17, 2024.

Both Russia and Iran have criticized Armenia for hosting a U.S.-Armenian 
military exercise last September. The Islamic Republic is also believed to share 
Russian concerns about the EU’s monitoring mission along Armenia’s border with 
Azerbaijan launched a year ago.

Pashinian and his political team say they are “diversifying” Armenia’s 
traditional foreign and security policy in response to what they see Russia’s 
failure to meet its security commitments to its South Caucasus ally.

Armenian opposition groups say Tehran’s stance is another reason why Yerevan 
should exercise caution in its dealings with the West. They argue that unlike 
the West, Iran could intervene militarily to prevent Azerbaijan from opening an 
extraterritorial corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave through Syunik, the only 
Armenian region bordering the Islamic Republic.

Iran regularly warns against attempts to strip it of the common border and 
transport links with Armenia.




Russia, Armenia Also Disagree On Ukraine


Ukraine - In this photo released by Russian Defense Ministry , 
Russian soldiers eliminate the mine danger in the city of Avdiivka captured by 
Russian forces.


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian openly criticized Russia at the weekend for 
occupying and annexing Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, 
underscoring the Armenian government’s deepening rift with Moscow.

Pashinian voiced the criticism at the end of a visit to Munich during which he 
attended an annual conference on international security and met with German 
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British 
intelligence chief Richard Moore. He cited a December 1991 declaration in which 
Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and other newly independent Soviet republics recognized 
each other’s Soviet-era borders.

“On the question of Ukraine, our position is that the Almaty declaration is the 
basis for recognition of our independence and territorial integrity,” Pashinian 
told members of the Armenian community in the southern German city. “Our logic 
is also valid in the case of Ukraine because that document applies to all of us. 
And if we demolish that, then we will also demolish everything.”

“I said a long time ago that Armenia is not Russia's ally on the issue of 
Ukraine, and this is our sincere position,” he said.

Russia reacted cautiously to Pashinian’s remarks.

“Indeed, we have diametrically opposed points of view regarding what is 
happening in Ukraine and the conflict around Ukraine,” said Kremlin spokesman 
Dmitry Peskov. “This is not a secret, this is the well-known position of our 
Armenian friends. We do not agree with them on this and will persistently 
continue to explain that we are right.”

Beglium - Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Ukrainian 
counterpart Dmytro Kuleba meet in Brussels, December 11, 2023.

Armenian leaders were until now careful not to criticize Russia’s 2022 invasion 
of Ukraine and subsequent annexation of more Ukrainian territory. Armenia has 
repeatedly abstained from UN General Assembly resolutions denouncing Moscow’s 
actions.

Pashinian’s administration appears to have begun changing its stance on the 
conflict in Ukraine last year amid its mounting tensions with Moscow. Pashinian 
made a point of talking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a 
European Union summit in Spain last October.

A couple of weeks later, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen 
Grigorian, attended multilateral peace talks in Malta initiated by Ukraine and 
sponsored by Western powers. The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the 
“demonstrative anti-Russian gesture of official Yerevan.” That did not stop 
Grigorian from participating in the next round of the talks held in Switzerland 
last month.

Pashinian embarked on the apparent rapprochement with Ukraine despite the 
latter’s strong support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In 
particular, Kyiv was quick to condemn the September 9 election by Karabakh 
lawmakers of the region’s new president, saying that it is “contrary to the 
rules and principles of international law.” The election came ten days before 
the Azerbaijani military offensive that forced Karabakh’s practically entire 
population to flee to Armenia.




Baku Raps Pashinian After Munich Summit


Germany - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hosts talks between the leaders of 
Armenia and Azerbaijan, Munich, February 17, 2024.


Azerbaijan criticized Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and again demanded major 
legislative changes in Armenia on Monday two days after his talks with 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in 
Munich.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders sounded satisfied with the results of the 
talks, with Aliyev calling them “constructive and useful.” Meeting with members 
of the Armenian community in Munich on Sunday, Pashinian confirmed that the 
foreign ministers of the two South Caucasus states will meet soon for further 
discussions on a bilateral peace treaty.

He also said that both sides remain committed to their understandings on the 
basic parameters of that treaty reached during their earlier contacts organized 
by the European Union. Earlier this year, Yerevan accused Baku of walking away 
from those understandings and laying claim to Armenian territory.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Armenia itself has 
territorial claims to Azerbaijan. The ministry spokesman, Aykhan Hajizade, 
pointed to Pashinian’s Sunday remark that “Karabakh’s right to 
self-determination is not supported by the international community.” He said 
Pashinian should have said instead that the Armenian “claims to Azerbaijan's 
territory are groundless.”

“This once again indirectly proves that the demands of the Armenian side are 
continuing,” added Hajizade. “In this regard, the claims to our territorial 
integrity and sovereignty reflected in the Armenian constitution and legislative 
acts should be removed.”

Aliyev said on February 1 that Armenia should remove from its constitution a 
reference to its 1990 declaration of independence which in turn mentions a 1989 
unification act adopted by the legislative bodies of Soviet Armenia and the then 
Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast. He reiterated on February 14 that he will 
not sign the peace treaty “if Armenia does not bring its legislation to a normal 
state.”

Pashinian rejected those demands the following day. The Armenian premier himself 
declared last month, before Aliyev’s statements on the issue, that Armenia needs 
a new constitution reflecting the “new geopolitical environment” in the region. 
He went on to criticize the 1990 declaration.

His political foes and other critics say that he wants to enact a new 
constitution under Azerbaijani pressure. Pashinian denies this.




Another Armenian Bank Set To Change Hands


Armenia - A view of an office building in Yerevan housing the headquarters of 
Ameriabank.


A leading Georgian bank announced on Monday a $303.6 million deal to buy 
Armenia’s Ameriabank partly owned by Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian billionaire 
jailed in Azerbaijan along with several other former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The deal requires the approval of the Bank of Georgia’s multiple shareholders 
and the Central Bank of Armenia. In a statement, the bank’s British-registered 
parent company, Bank of Georgia Group (BOGG), said it would “significantly 
enhance the Group's presence and growth opportunities within a fast-growing and 
attractive market.”

"This transaction is a significant milestone for the Group and a new chapter in 
our strategic development,” the BOGG chairman, Mel Carvill, was quoted as saying.

“Ameriabank has a well-regarded and experienced management team, and I am 
delighted that they will stay on after the transaction is closed,” added Carvill.

Ameriabank is one of Armenia’s largest banks with total assets worth $3.4 
billion, compared with $11.7 billion held by the Bank of Georgia. Vardanyan 
owns, through a trust fund, almost 49 percent of Ameriabank, making him its 
biggest shareholder.

The tycoon, who had made his fortune in Russia, briefly served as Karabakh’s 
premier in late 2022 and early 2023. He and seven other former political and 
military leaders of Karabakh were arrested by Azerbaijani security services last 
September during the mass exodus of the region’s ethnic Armenian population 
which followed an Azerbaijani military offensive. They remain imprisoned there 
on serious charges. Armenia has demanded their immediate release.

Nagorno-Karabakh - Ruben Vardanyan leads a cabinet meeting in Stepanakert, 
January 3, 2023.

“Ruben Vardanyan has nothing to do with the possible sale of the bank,” Mesrop 
Arakelian, an Armenian opposition figure linked to him, wrote on Facebook.

Arakelian said takeover talks between BOGG and Ameriabank began in 2022. But he 
did not clarify whether Vardanyan approved the resulting acquisition of his bank.

Ameriabank is the second Armenian bank which will likely change hands in the 
coming weeks or months. Two weeks ago, HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, announced 
the sale of its Armenian subsidiary to Ardshinbank, the largest in Armenia.

HSBC said the deal, also subject to Armenian regulatory approvals, stems from 
its “strategy to redeploy capital from less strategic or low-connectivity 
businesses into higher-growth opportunities globally.” Reuters reported last May 
that the British bank is considering a possible exit from as many as a dozen 
countries after earlier announcements about selling off parts or all of its 
activities in France, Canada, Russia and Greece.

Established in 1996, HSBC Armenia is the only local commercial bank controlled 
by a major Western banking group.

The 18 banks operating in Armenia nearly tripled their combined profits, to a 
record 253 billion drams ($626 million), in 2022 amid a dramatic increase in 
cash flows from Russia resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The 
figure reportedly fell by 9 percent in 2023.



Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Armenia Assists the Transfer of Military Equipment to Israel’s Enemies

Ara Felekian
Jewish Press
Feb 14 2024
By

 Ayoob Kara

Azerbaijani media recently reported that Armenia seeks to use the Chabahar and Bandar Abbas ports in the Islamic Republic of Iran to purchase weapons from India. For the State of Israel, this is a major threat because Israel’s Alma has already reported how Armenia is a transfer point for Iranian weapons to Lebanon and Syria, which presently threaten the State of Israel today.

Indeed, as we speak, the IDF is targeting Hezbollah enclaves in Lebanon, after Hezbollah had fired numerous rockets into the Jewish state. Hezbollah is a proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which operates as a state within a state in Lebanon that constantly threatens Israel. This is best illustrated by the fact that the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian met with Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Hezbollah’s secretary general, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) chief, during separate meetings in Beirut in recent days, where they discussed the “Palestinian resistance” against Israel.

MEMRI recently reported that Al-Manar TV (Hizballah-Lebanon) aired a video of a military drill, titled “Ready for the Battle for the Promised Conquest and the Holy Jihad” last January. In the video, Yemeni-Houthi forces simulate an attack against Israeli and American military targets using tanks, missiles, and other weapons. The forces are seen invading a mock Israeli town, entering an Israeli home, and targeting two men in Orthodox Jewish garb.

Interestingly, this video was aired at a time when Houthi missiles had targeted the Israeli city of Eilat. Indeed, it appears that Israel can one day face a three-front war, with the Houthis targeting Israel from the South, Hezbollah and Syria attacking us from the north, and Gaza fighting against Israel from the west. And two out of these four forces attacking Israel would have gotten their weapons from Iran via Armenia.

Israel’s Alma reported that Iran exploits Armenia not only works to subvert Azerbaijan, an ally of Israel but also seeks to strengthen Hezbollah and the Assad regime at the expense of Israel, stressing that “the Iranian effort in both arenas works against Israel.”

They stressed: “Iran is acting against Azerbaijan on multiple fronts, with the IRGC’s Quds Force conducting operations in asymmetric warfare, information warfare, and transferring weapons and military equipment to Armenia.”

The report also mentioned Mehdi Sobhani, Iran’s former envoy to Syria who left his position in March to become the regime’s ambassador to Armenia.

“The Iranian ambassador to Syria and Lebanon is normally a senior IRGC officer in charge of coordinating Iranian activity with Hezbollah and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, rather than a diplomat appointed by the Iranian Foreign Ministry,” Alma said, claiming that the selection of Sobhani as the Iranian envoy to Yerevan reflects “the Revolutionary Guards’ high regard for Armenia.”

Speaking to Azernews, Dr. Mehmood ul Hassan Khan noted “Yerevan has been moving towards signing formal economic agreements with Tehran to use Iranian seaports for its arms trade with India. This development is a further sign of Armenia’s shifting away from Russia. It is crystal clear that India and Iran strongly support the Armenian desire to assist in the development and use of Iran’s ports.”

However, this development poses a grave threat to Israel’s national security, as it assists the steady flow of weapons to our enemies, despite whatever sanctions regime could be in place.

Minister Suren Papikyan, Lithuanian counterpart discuss bilateral issues

Ara Felekian

 15:20,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 17, ARMENPRESS. On February 17, in the framework of the working visit to the Federal Republic of Germany in the delegation led by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Defense Minister Suren Papikyan held a meeting with Lithuania's Minister of National Defense Arvydas Anušauskas, the Armenian Defense Ministry reported.

According to the source, the discussion focused on the current state and future prospects of cooperation between both countries. Several agreements were reached to enhance collaboration, particularly within the European Union and NATO frameworks.

Additionally, the ministers addressed various bilateral matters, including regional security issues.

Armenian court rejects conscientious objector’s appeal

Ara Felekian
Feb 12 2024
Ken Camp / Managing Editor

An Armenian court rejected the appeal of a Baptist conscientious objector who faces two years in jail for refusing to serve in the military.

On Feb. 9, a three-judge panel of Yerevan’s Criminal Court of Appeal rejected the appeal sought by 20-year-old Davit Nazaretyan, who received a two-year jail sentence last October.

“I am a Christian, and I read the Bible. … We have to love one another, even our enemies, and not kill people,” Nazaretyan told Forum 18, a Norway-based human rights organization.

Nazaretyan, a member of an unregistered Council of Churches Baptist congregation in Arinj, near Yerevan, is considering another appeal and will not be required to go to jail until further appeal is heard.

The court pointed to an opinion by the theology faculty of Yerevan State University, who stated, “The creed of the Baptist Church and the analysis of the presented case materials allows us to state that Nazaretyan’s freedom of thought, conscience and religion would not be restricted by military service.”

Mikhail Shubin, Nazaretyan’s pastor, rejected the testimony offered by the Yerevan State University faculty regarding Baptist beliefs, saying his church believes convictions regarding military service are “a personal decision for each church member based on their conscience.”

“Davit asked for alternative civilian service,” Shubin told Forum 18. “If the law allows this, why didn’t they give it to him? If an individual’s conscientious views do not allow him to carry weapons or swear the oath, why didn’t they give him alternative service?”

Nazaretyan began the process of seeking alternative civilian service on religious grounds in June 2022, but officials with the Conscription Service and the Alternative Service Commission repeatedly rejected his requests.

All men in Armenia ages 18 to 27 are subject to conscription and 24 months of military service, with deferments available in strictly limited circumstances. Individuals subject to conscription can apply for 30 months of service without weapons within the armed forces or for 36 months of alternative civilian service.

Armenia’s trade turnover with EEU states grew 39% – PM

Ara Felekian

 16:00, 2 February 2024

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s trade turnover with fellow EEU member states in 2023 grew 39% compared to 2022 and comprised around $7,8 billion dollars, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the EEU meeting in Kazakhstan.

“Exports grew 40,8% and imports grew 37,5%. At this stage we should view the strengthening of industrial cooperative, creation of new business ties, establishment of transnational digital services trade and data exchange among the priorities of the EEU,” Pashinyan said in his remarks.

Armenia holds the EEU presidency for 2024.

PM Pashinyan on February 2 arrived in Kazakhstan to chair the EEU prime ministerial meeting.