Author: Arbi Tashjian

Asbarez: Encino’s Holy Martyrs Armenian Church Marks 60th Anniversary

Arbi Tashjian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 

 

in Community, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

Zeron Titizian Honored With The “Knight Of Cilicia” Medal

A special dinner took place on October 7 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Holy Martyrs Armenian Church in Encino.

The event, held under the auspices of Western Prelate Bishop Torkim Donoyan, was chaired by benefactors Mr. and Mrs. Mike and Evelina Sarian and hosted by philanthropist and parish delegate Mr. and Mrs. Zeron and Sona Titizian at their residence.

During the gathering, Prelate Donoyan shared the contributions made by the dinner’s host and the Titizian family to our nation and community. He announced that at his request, His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, has decided to award Zeron Titizian with the Catholicosate’s “Knight of Cilicia” medal.

Dzeron Titizian and his wife, Sona were awarded the “Knight of Cilicia” medal by Catholicos Aram I

On this occasion, Holy Martyrs Church pastor Archpriest Razmig Khatchadourian read a special decree issued by the Catholicos, while the Prelate pinned the medal on Titizian and presented Sona Titizian with a special “pin” as a token of appreciation. Additionally, the Prelate presented to the Sarian family a special memento from the church Board of Trustees.

Titizian, the host of the evening, and her daughter Tamar extended their appreciation and sincere and heartfelt gratitude to Catholicos Aram I and Prelate Donoyan.

The dinner was attended by Vahe Hovaguimian, Chairman of the Executive Council of the Western Prelacy, his wife Hasmig, and members of the Board of Trustees. Also in attendance were representatives of local organizations and institutions, as well as members from bodies operating under the auspices of the Holy Martyrs Armenian church. In addition, the administration and Board members of Holy Martyrs Ferrahian Armenian School, benefactors, friends, and guests also attended the dinner.

Dr. Mike and Evelina Sarian were the event sponsors Dzeron and Sona Titizian hosted the event at their residence

After Rev. Khachadourian delivered the opening prayer and welcome remarks, Hovig Bedevian, chairman of the church Board of Trustees, gave brief evaluation of the 60-year contribution of Holy Martyrs Armenian church to the Armenian community.

Prelate Donoyan’s message exuded warmth as he addressed the attendees. He began by extending his congratulations to Holy Martyrs Armenian church on the occasion of the 60th anniversary, proceeded to express his wishes and prayed for “spiritual renewal, intellectual clarity, physical well-being, and unwavering faith to become a permanent presence in our lives.”

The Prelate acknowledged the current state of despair and pain affecting Armenians and Armenia, attributing it to various known factors. He emphasized the importance of relying on God to overcome these challenges, urging the audience to not settle for mere dialogue but to translate their faith into action, a principle that has guided the Holy Martyrs Armenian church throughout its 60 years of existence.

Bishop Donoyan also highlighted the ongoing efforts of responsible institutions, individuals, and benefactors affiliated with the Western Prelacy in promoting solidarity and ensuring a bright future for the Prelacy Armenian Schools, organizations, and the Armenian community.

He closed his remarks by expressing his gratitude to benefactors Mr. and Mrs. Mike and Evelina Sarian for their generous support of Western Prelacy projects.

Russian and Iranian emigres find haven in old Armenian factory

Arbi Tashjian
Reuters
Oct 9 2023
By Roman Churikov
  • Derelict textile plant repurposed as shelter and art space
  • Charity invites artists to small town in northern Armenia
  • Locals welcome new venture after years of post-Soviet decay

TUMANYAN, Armenia, Oct 9 (Reuters) – A disused Armenian textile factory has become a sanctuary for artists and other emigres from Russia, Iran and Ukraine whose lives have been turned upside down by war or political turmoil.

Abandoned workshops that once produced Soviet knitwear have been turned into a creative space for painters, puppet-makers and photographers in a venture that is helping to revitalise a town in decline.

Launched in 2022, the project is called Abastan – "shelter" in Armenian – and is open to participants and guests from around the world.

Polina Ivanova, a co-founder of Abastan, said locals in the northern Armenian town of Tumanyan were at first bemused by the strangers in their midst.

"I think that for many people this was really incomprehensible: who are those people? Why are they here?…

"And slowly, sometimes through public events like theatre performances, sometimes through personal relationships, we get to know the people and people get to know us."

Arghavan Majd, a painter from Iran, said she found the atmosphere "more free" in Abastan and it was easier to make personal connections.

Since Majd left Iran, the country has been convulsed by protests over the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody, and she said she had no intention of going back.

Torfeh Ekhlasi, a puppet maker also from Iran, said she had felt "completely paralysed by bad news" there, "but here all the people are so alive".

Danil, a software engineer from the Russian city of Perm, said he left after President Vladimir Putin called up 300,000 men last year to fight in the war in Ukraine.

"I simply didn't agree with the political agenda in the country and thought that it was dangerous to stay in Russia given my views," he said.

Abastan was established as a charity with funds from an American-Armenian philanthropist who has chosen to remain anonymous. When Reuters journalists visited last month, there were a couple of dozen people in residence – three Iranians, two Ukrainians, an Armenian, a Georgian and the rest from Russia.

Some live on savings or money from relatives, others sell their art or work online – though one Russian said that source of income had dried up.

"At first I worked remotely. And then my company was told that it was undesirable for staff to work from abroad, so they rehired me as a freelancer. Since then I haven't received any salary yet," Danil said.

Timofey Moskovkin, a Russian now working in a cafe funded by the charity, said local people in Tumanyan, a town of about 1,000 people, had treated him warmly.

"In spite of the general context of what's happening in the world, and with Russia, people here are still very welcoming," he said. "I feel good here."

Ararat, a local Armenian man who declined to give his last name, said the arts venture had brought joy to a place that had seen factory closures, unemployment and emigration since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.

One evening, he and his wife were walking past the factory. "We looked and saw the lights were on, it was beautiful, there was music and young people dancing," he said.

Writing by Mark Trevelyan Editing by Gareth Jones

Greek Prime Minister expresses willingness to offer humanitarian support to Armenia

Arbi Tashjian
The Greek Herald
Oct 6 2023

The Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, met with Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, in Granada on Thursday to discuss humanitarian cooperation between both countries.

During the meeting, Pashinyan emphasised the situation resulting from the forced deportation of over 100,000 Armenians due to Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing policy in Nagorno Karabakh.

For his part, Mitsotakis expressed willingness to provide humanitarian assistance to the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Greek Prime Minister also emphasised the need for international steps to strengthen peace and stability in the South Caucasus region.

 

PM Pashinyan says resigning wouldn’t solve Armenia’s problems Reuters

Arbi Tashjian
Reuters
Oct 4 2023
Reuters

Oct 4 (Reuters) – Embattled prime minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Wednesday he would resign instantly if that would solve Armenia's problems, but that he believed it would only make things worse.

His comment to an opposition member of parliament reflected the mounting pressure on Pashinyan since neighbouring Azerbaijan seized control of its Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh last month.

Since then, more than 100,000 people – most of Karabakh's population – have fled and sought refuge in Armenia, a country of just 2.8 million.

Pashinyan, in power since 2018, said Armenia had always faced challenges.

"I’ll say it straight: If I know that, for example, by my resignation or removal all these challenges will be resolved, I'll do it the very next second because, unlike you, I do not cling and have never clung to my chair," the state news agency Armenpress quoted him as saying.

"But all my analysis shows that this will lead to exactly the opposite result. And this is also the reason why it isn't happening."

Protesters have called for Pashinyan to quit over the fate of Nagorno-Karabakh, which most Armenians see as a national tragedy that has forced them to abandon ancestral lands.

The region is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but its ethnic Armenian majority had enjoyed de facto independence since breaking away in a war in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Pashinyan said earlier he would attend European Union-brokered talks in Spain on Thursday even though Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had pulled out, according to Azerbaijani state media.

The two neighbours have fought two wars over Karabakh in the past 30 years, and efforts by the EU, the United States and Russia have yet to convince them to sign a peace treaty.

Reporting by Reuters; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Kevin Liffey

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/armenias-pashinyan-says-hes-ready-resign-if-it-helps-situation-country-ria-2023-10-04/

Why Over 100,000 People Have Fled Nagorno-Karabakh In Just Two Weeks After Azerbaijan’s Military Crackdown

Arbi Tashjian
Forbes
Sept 30 2023
Brian Bushard

Forbes Staff

 

Nearly the entire ethnically Armenian population of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh has left the Caucasus Mountains region since Azerbaijan launched a military offensive on the war-torn region earlier this month, Armenian officials said Saturday morning, forcing more than 100,000 people to flee.

Armenian officials said Saturday morning the number of people who have fled to Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh climbed to 100,437, with more than 34,000 of them receiving government-provided accommodations in Armenia, state news agency Armenpress reported.

The mass exodus out of the region in the Caucuses comes just under two weeks after Azerbaijan’s military launched a military attack, declaring an “evacuation” of ethnic Armenians from the area, which it labeled “dangerous,” according to a translation by Politico.

Armenian officials called for a ceasefire one day after the attack—which included an explosion at a gas station that left more than 100 people injured—calling the “actions of the international community” to resolve the conflict “inadequate,” according to a translation by Reuters.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had “reaffirmed U.S. support for Armenia’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity” in a call with Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, with a State Department spokesperson adding the ethnic Armenian population in the region “should be able to remain in their home in peace and dignity” and that any residents who flee and return should be allowed to do so with assistance from a “neutral, independent third party.”

The decades-long conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as a region of Azerbaijan despite having a majority Armenian population, intensified in recent months amid a series of failed negotiations between the two countries, which both regained their independence in the fall of the Soviet Union and have fought over disputed region ever since. The bloodiest instance came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when a war between the two sides left roughly 30,000 people dead. Conflict in the region, which had been governed as a self-declared sovereign state called the Republic of Artsakh, escalated once again in September 2020, killing at least 6,500 people, though that war lasted less than two months.

Following the attack, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch released a report stating “thousands of civilians” in the region “have dire humanitarian needs” including food and medication shortages as a result of the attack and a preceding nine-plus-month blockade of vehicular and pedestrian traffic in and out of the region.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s press secretary Nazeli Baghdasaryan, who condemned Azerbaijan’s “large-scale aggression” in a post on X after Azerbaijan’s invasion nearly two weeks ago, claimed the attack is part of a larger effort to “complete its policy of ethnic cleansing,” following more than three decades of conflict in the region. Azerbaijani officials, however, have argued the attack was launched to combat growing “provocations” in the region, while ally Turkey’s Foreign Ministry claimed the military operation was the start of “anti-terrorism measures exclusively targeting military elements” in direct response to armed conflicts by “illegitimate Armenian armed elements” in the region.

Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia says 100,000 refugees flee region (BBC)

A Stunningly Sudden End to a Long, Bloody Conflict in the Caucasus (New York Times)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/09/30/why-over-100000-people-have-fled-nagorno-karabakh-in-just-two-weeks-after-azerbaijans-military-crackdown/?sh=5679edad7ff5

‘Modern-day saviors’ protest arrest of Armenian leader

Arbi Tashjian
Aleteia
Sept 30 2023

John Burger - published on 09/30/23

AChristian enclave in the Caucasus is about to come to an end, as thousands of Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh. The self-declared Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was annexed last week by the country that surrounds it, Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has taken control of the territory where Armenians have lived for more than a millennium. 

As an exodus of refugees floods into Armenia, that nation’s Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, said that in the end he does not expect any Armenians to be left in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinyan claimed that forces of mainly Muslim Azerbaijan have engaged in ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh’s 120,000 ethnic Armenians. About half of them have fled the country so far. 

“Although they are promising to protect the Armenian population, no one believes them,” Dr. Tom Catena, medical director of Mother of Mercy Hospital in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, told Aleteia.

Dr. Catena has followed events in the region since he won the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity in 2017. The prize was initiated in 2015 on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide. 

A US native, Dr. Catena was one of the Aurora laureates and others who signed a September 29 letter condemning Azerbaijan’s arrest on Wednesday of Ruben Vardanyan, who headed the separatist government of Artsakh from November 2022 until February. Vardanyan, a co-founder of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, has been charged with financing terrorism.

“I’ve gotten to know Ruben over the past six years and can attest to his fine character and multitude of good deeds,” Catena told Aleteia. “Azerbaijan starts teaching hatred of Armenians from primary school, so they are putting out plenty of nonsense about Ruben.”

Western governments have urged Azerbaijan to allow international observers into Nagorno-Karabakh to monitor its treatment of the local population, but access has not yet been given, according to Vatican News. 

Vatican News also reported that the Azeri assault on the enclave resulted in destruction or damage to residential homes and a school. 

“They were bombing us hard. Children ran into the school,” said a witness. “The Azerbaijan then attacked the school using a mortar gun. Our children were injured there.”

Noticeably absent from the scene was Russia. The New York Times pointed out that Russia, Armenia’s traditional protector and ally since 1992 in a Moscow-led collective security organization, sent peacekeepers to the area in 2020 and promised to keep open the only road linking the enclave to Armenia.

“But Moscow, distracted by its war in Ukraine and eager for closer economic and political ties with Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey, did not intervene this year when Azerbaijan closed that route, cutting off supplies of food, fuel, and medicine,” The Times said. “The Kremlin ordered its peacekeepers to stand aside during last week’s lightning assault on Artsakh’s thin defenses.”

The letter signed by Aurora laureates, who include former presidents Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, Mary Robinson of Ireland, and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, called the arrest of Vardanyan “both outrageous and politically motivated.”

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative seeks to empower modern-day saviors to offer life and hope to those in urgent need of humanitarian aid and to continue the cycle of giving internationally.

“Ruben Vardanyan is being held captive because of his support for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and their right to a democratic way of life,” said the letter. “The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative to which Ruben has given so much, has for the past eight years honored and supported the work of those who fight for basic human rights, often at the risk of their own lives, all around the world. The irony is that Ruben now finds himself a victim of the same persecution as those he has sought to help as a human rights defender.”

Almost 98,000 Displaced Artsakh Residents Enter Armenia; Experts Accuse Baku of War Crimes, Genocide

Arbi Tashjian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Main, Latest, News, Top Stories

A caravan of vehicles on the road from Artsakh to Armenia (Photo by David Ghahramanyan for Reuters)


As of 6 p.m. local time on Friday 97,735 forcibly displaced persons from Artsakh have crossed into Armenia since the mass exodus began on Sunday, following Azerbaijan’s large-scale attack on Artsakh last week.

Legal experts are calling this forced exodus of Artsakh Armenians a war crime, while other international organizations are accusing world leaders of being complicit in Azerbaijan’s genocide of Armenians.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention criticized the United States for what it called Washington’s “reckless bothsideism” and its instance that the genocidal regime of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan can engage in dialogue in good faith.

The Lemkin Institute reacted to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller’s recent statement on Nagorno-Karabakh that the US has done its best “to find a diplomatic solution, but at the end of the day, we must not forget that there are two sides here that simply have differences.”

“Demonstrating that it has learned nothing from the genocide currently being committed by Azerbaijan against the Armenians of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, the United States continues to enable the perpetrator with its reckless ‘bothsidesism’ and its delusional belief that the genocidal regime of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev can engage in good-faith talks or negotiations,” the Lemkin Institute said in a social media post on Thursday.

“Genocide is not a matter of ‘simply [having] differences.’ Furthermore, suggesting that the US has played no role in enabling Aliyev’s impunity to commit genocide is mendacious at best. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention warns world leaders that they are behaving in ways that leave them open not only to charges of complicity in genocide but also to charges of aiding and abetting the crime,” the post added.

Several international legal experts believe the mass flight fits the legal definition of a war crime.

The International Criminal Court’s founding documents say that, when referring to forcible transfer or deportation, “the term ‘forcibly’ is not restricted to physical force, but may include threat of force or coercion, such as that caused by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power against such person or persons or another person, or by taking advantage of a coercive environment.”

Such a “coercive environment” was created in Nagorno-Karabakh before the offensive by Azerbaijan’s obstruction of essential supplies, international lawyer Priya Pillai and Melanie O’Brien, visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars told Reuters.

“So the fear/apprehension of the population – due to the coercive environment created by the months-long blockade and the recent armed attack – would meet the threshold for this crime,” Pillai said, adding that it would be a more severe ‘crime against humanity’ if considered to be part of a widespread attack.

O’Brien told Reuters that the blockade — which Baku claimed was needed to prevent weapons smuggling — was in effect the start of a genocide because it was implemented with the aim of “deliberately inflicting conditions of life designed to bring about the physical destruction of the targeted group.”

The first prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno Ocampo, agreed with O’Brien’s argumentation, noting that a ruling of genocide did not require mass killings.

“For me, it’s obviously a genocide,” he said.

Meanwhile Armenia’s Finance Ministry has established a treasury account for donations to meet the needs of the forcibly displaced persons Artsakh residents.

“Due to the crisis situation, numerous compatriots and organizations, both within Armenia and abroad, have expressed their willingness to offer assistance and donations to meet the basic needs of people who have been forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia. A treasury account was opened in the Armenia’s Ministry of Finance in order to accept the donations and direct them to the socio-economic needs of the displaced persons,” an announcement on Friday said.

Individuals may make bank transfers in Armenian drams to the treasury account number 900005002762, or conduct online card transfers (in any currency) using an e-payment system. https://www.e-payments.am/en/state-duties/step3/service=5425/

Azerbaijan offers amnesty to Nagorno-Karabakh soldiers, except for crimes during first war

Arbi Tashjian
Sept 22 2023
 22 September 2023

ByIsmi Aghayev

Azerbaijan will offer an amnesty to members of the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh who lay down their arms, according to Azerbaijani presidential advisor Hikmat Hajiyev. However, Hajiyev said the amnesty would not include those who committed crimes during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

In a statement on Friday, Hajiyev said that those who ‘voluntarily laid down their arms are free, as we have openly declared’.

On Thursday, the authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said they needed a security guarantee before handing over their weapons.

Hajiyev said that the planned amnesty would not apply to crimes committed during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

During the 30-year conflict, numerous war crimes have been documented on both sides. Neither side has pursued prosecutions of their own personnel for war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The decision to pursue participants of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War could put a large proportion of the male population of the region who were of military age at the time at risk.

Since the surrender, there have been widespread reports that many of the region’s Armenian population was already planning to leave.

Hajiyev claimed that those wishing to leave were mainly military personnel and members of their families.

He claimed Azerbaijan ensured the safety of civilian vehicles along the Lachin Corridor connecting Stepanakert with Armenia. The corridor has been closed to civilian traffic for months.

Afgan Mukhtarli, an Azerbaijani investigative journalist based in Germany who participated in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, said that the amnesty did not go far enough.

‘It is commendable that the Azerbaijani side started discussions about an amnesty. However, the amnesty should not discriminate between the first and second wars’, Mukhtarli told OC Media.

He argued that those who had not committed ‘severe crimes’, such as participating in the Khojaly massacre, should not face prosecution.

‘During the war, there were people who did not volunteer but were forced into military service, and they joined the atmosphere of mass nationalism of the time.’

He added that the amnesty should not only cover military activities but ‘all other areas’.

In his speech following Nagorno-Karabakh’s surrender, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev vowed to hold ‘elements of the criminal regime’ — the government of Nagorno-Karabakh — responsible for war crimes committed during the conflict.

‘Some have already received their deserved punishment, and others still will’, he said, adding that ‘the Armenian people know that my word is my word.’

Anar Mammadli, a human rights activist and head of the Center for Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies, an Azerbaijani democracy watchdog, told OC Media that it would be up to the Azerbaijani parliament to decide on the criteria for an amnesty.

 For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.