12:37,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. The government of Armenia allocated 1 billion 155 million drams to partially compensate the utility payments (gas, electricity, irrigation water), as well as the real estate tax of residents of 81 settlements of 23 border communities.
The respective decision was approved today at the Cabinet meeting.
“We deal with nearly 100 beneficiaries”, Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan said, while presenting the draft.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has spoken over phone on Feb. 23 amid Ukraine crisis.
Turkey is ready to do its part to calm tensions in Ukraine, Erdoğan told Puti,n according to a statement by the communications directorate.
Elevating the issue to a more complex level and military confrontation will not benefit any party, Erdoğan also said.
The president also reiterated that Turkey does not recognize Russian steps against Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Previously, Turkey has expressed hope for Russia and Ukraine to return to the negotiation table amid a growing crisis between the two countries as Erdoğan has informed that he will seek to establish contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin following an online meeting of NATO leaders.
“Our wish is that Russia and Ukraine, both our neighbors from the Black Sea, return to the negotiations as soon as possible,” Erdoğan told journalists on his return from Senegal early Feb. 23.
Erdoğan recalled he had talked to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier about the recent escalation on the Russian-Ukraine border following Moscow’s recognition of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
“I have underlined [to Zelensky] that we will never accept any attempt to violate the Minsk Agreement. I have also told that we are ready to do our share in order to avoid further escalation and solve the problem through dialogue,” Erdoğan said.
NATO leaders will meet at an online emergency meeting on how the alliance would respond to the Russian violation of international law and defying Ukraine’s sovereignty.
NATO should decide on Ukraine
Erdoğan recalled that earlier attempts by French and German presidents failed and that no meeting between Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden could be realized to de-escalate tension. “If we look at the situation from the perspective of a state or an institution, there is only NATO left. NATO should determine its approach through this virtual meeting. It should do whatever needs to be done,” he said.
The NATO countries have not ruled to deploy troops to Ukraine and Russia has a massive military deployment on the Ukrainian border, Erdoğan said, adding, “Of course, one does not need to be a prophet to predict what the result might be in the face of this picture. In this regard, let’s see what the leaders of NATO allied member countries will say in this video conference. Of course, we will determine what we will say according to what they will say, and we will reveal our approach.”
He also said that Turkey attaches huge importance to the NATO meeting.
Erdoğan urges caution
With the continued escalation, one needs to be more cautious and sensitive, Erdoğan warned, criticizing those who are linking the ongoing crisis with the supply of natural gas and consequently the rise in the energy prices.
“We are running a state here, we should preserve our common sense. We should take our steps in this sensitivity,” he said, informing about Ankara’s efforts to create a communication between him and Putin. He said it will be better for him to talk to Putin following the alliance meeting.
Turkey has unique ties with Ukraine, Russia
On a question how Turkey’s ties with Ukraine and Russia would be influenced in case of further escalation, Erdoğan said: “We cannot give up on both. We have political, military and economic relations with Russia. We also have political, military and economic relations with Ukraine. If you say ‘Give up on Ukraine’, we cannot give up, because our country’s interests here are very advanced. If you say, ‘Give up with Russia,’ we cannot give up on it either, because we have really advanced relations with it right now.”
Therefore, Turkey is exerting efforts to resolve the problem without scarifying its relations with Russia or Ukraine, the president said, underlining that Ankara will determine its policy following the NATO summit.
German president welcomes Herzog’s visit
On a question about his phone conversation with Steinmeier, Erdoğan said they discussed the regional and bilateral developments as well as ongoing cooperation on the migrant problem.
The conversation covered Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s confirmed visit to Turkey on March 9 and 10. “A new era will begin on Turkey-Israel ties with Herzog’s visit. Mr. Steinmeier expressed his satisfaction about it and described the visit as a right move,” Erdoğan said.
“We have also discussed the developments in the Gulf and our trip to the United Arab Emirates. We have discussed that this could bring a new momentum in the Gulf,” he added.
Borders with Armenia can be opened
On the Turkish-Armenian normalization efforts, Erdoğan said he and Steinmeier also discussed the dialogue between Ankara and Yerevan.
“This region needs peace, stability and prosperity. We have engaged with Armenia for a normalization process with this understanding. Azerbaijan President Ilham [Aliyev] finds it useful, too. We are also content with the will displayed by Armenia for the normalization,” he said.
The two countries’ special envoys will come together on Feb. 24 in Vienna in the second leg of the talks, Erdoğan informed. “We know that Armenia has concrete expectations for the opening of the borders and establishment of the diplomatic ties. If Armenia continues to remain committed to the process with us, it’s out of the question for us to keep the borders closed,” he vowed.
15:00,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Some Armenians living in Donetsk are being evacuated but most of the Armenian residents prefer to stay, according to Vahagn Matevosyan, the President of the Donetsk Representation of the Union of Armenians of Ukraine.
“We had actually prepared the evacuation plan weeks ago. The Armenians in Donetsk region who wanted to leave have left. There were some Armenians who wanted to leave but didn’t have cars so we supported them. But a very large segment prefers to stay in Donetsk, they don’t want to leave their homes,” Matevosyan said.
He said there are large queues outside pharmacies, banks, gas stations and ATMs in Donetsk, like elsewhere. People are unable to withdraw money from ATMs.
“Sounds of gunfire are heard in the city, we feel that heavy artillery is firing, but I find it difficult to convey specific details now. I can only say that there are no victims among Armenians,” Matevosyan told ARMENPRESS’s Anna Gziryan.
Russia has begun a military operation in Ukraine following a request from the authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics for assistance in repelling Kiev’s military aggression, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in urgent address on Thursday.
He said that Moscow would seek the "demilitarization and denazification" of Ukraine, called upon the Ukrainian army to lay down weapons and warned there would follow a prompt response to attempts at foreign intervention from outside.
17:30,
YEREVAN, 21 FEBUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 21 February, USD exchange rate down by 0.30 drams to 478.70 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.82 drams to 543.80 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.10 drams to 6.22 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.17 drams to 652.66 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price down by 15.95 drams to 29143.57 drams. Silver price up by 2.62 drams to 365.83 drams. Platinum price up by 174.28 drams to 16791.1 drams.
After a decade of meticulous research in more than 15 archives, Bedross Der Matossian’s book on the Adana Massacres of 1909 has recently been published in paperback, hardcover, and kindle editions by Stanford University Press.
Titled “The Horrors of Adana: Revolution and Violence in the Early Twentieth Century,” the book examines the 1909 twin massacres that shook the province of Adana, located in the southern Anatolia region of modern-day Turkey, killing more than 20,000 Armenians and 2,000 Muslims. Images of Adana after the massacres show unprecedented physical destruction of a once prosperous city. Local Armenian businesses, churches, residences, and living quarters were totally destroyed.
The violence that began in the city of Adana soon spread across the province and poured beyond its borders eastward into the province of Aleppo. In terms of the number of victims, this was the third-largest act of violence perpetrated at the beginning of the twentieth century, following only the Boxer rebellion (1899–1901) and the genocide of the Herero and Nama between 1904 and 1907 in the German colony of southwest Africa.
The central Ottoman government immediately sent investigation commissions and established courts-martial to try the perpetrators of the massacres. However, these courts failed to prosecute the main culprits of the massacres—a miscarriage of justice that would have repercussions in the years to come.
“The Horrors of Adana” offers one of the first close examinations of these events, analyzing sociopolitical and economic transformations that culminated in a cataclysm of violence. Drawing on primary sources in a dozen languages, the book provides an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the rumors and emotions, public spheres and humanitarian interventions that together informed this complex event. Ultimately, through consideration of the Adana Massacres in micro-historical detail, “The Horrors of Adana” presents an important macrocosmic understanding of ethnic violence, illuminating how and why ordinary people can become perpetrators.
Despite the significance of these events and the extent of violence and destruction, the Adana Massacres are often left out of historical narratives especially in the historiographies of Ottoman and Middle Eastern studies. Denialists of the Armenian Genocide continue to propagate the provocation thesis regarding these massacres. They view the “events” or the “disturbances” of Adana as a failed uprising by Armenians to bring in European intervention with the aim of erecting the Kingdom of Cilicia. Furthermore, they normalize the resulting violence as a natural byproduct of Armenian “provocations.”
Der Matossian offers a necessary corrective to these narratives by arguing that outbreaks like the Adana massacres do not occur sui generis; they are caused by a range of complex, intersecting factors that are deeply rooted in the shifting local and national ground of political and socioeconomic life. The book also addresses the question of how better to understand the Adana massacres in relation to the Armenian Genocide, while bearing in mind their individual trajectories rather than simply viewing the first event as foreshadowing the second.
“‘The Horrors of Adana’ is a truly groundbreaking and highly nuanced exploration of intercommunal, sectarian, and nationalist violence in the late Ottoman Empire. A must-read for scholars of the modern Middle East,” said Ussama Makdisi, Rice University, author of “Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World.”
“‘The Horrors of Adana’ is an outstanding analysis of a massacre never before deeply studied. Bedross Der Matossian offers a thorough inquiry into the perpetrators, victims, bystanders, and social-political context, useful to all those interested in understanding processes of mass violence,” said Jacques Semelin, Sciences Po Paris, author of “Purify and Destroy: The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide.”
“With ‘The Horrors of Adana,’ the Adana Massacres get their own story, a story that needs telling. Bedross Der Matossian’s deeply researched and engagingly argued book situates Adana in a longer trajectory of ‘forgotten’ massacres and as part of Ottoman history more broadly,” said Michelle Tusan, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, author of “The British Empire and the Armenian Genocide: Humanitarianism and Imperial Politics from Gladstone to Churchill.”
Copies of the book can be purchases through Amazon or by visiting the Stanford University Press website.
Bedross Der Matossian is the Vice-Chair, Associate Professor of Modern Middle East History, and Hymen Rosenberg Professor in Judaic Studies the at Department of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is also the President of the Society for Armenian Studies.
Born and raised in Jerusalem, he is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his Ph.D. in Middle East History in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University in 2008. From 2008 to 2010, he was a Lecturer of Middle East History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been appointed as the Dumanian Visiting Professor in the University of Chicago for Spring 2014. He is the author and co-editor of multiple books including the award-winning book “Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire” (Stanford University Press, 2014).
In 2021, Armenia produced 149.6 thousand tons of grain, the press service of the Armenian Ministry of Economy said in response to a written request from NEWS.am.
In 2019 and 2020, the figure was 195,000 tonnes and 241,900 tonnes, respectively. This indicates a 38% decline in production in 2021 compared to the previous year.
Earlier, NEWS.am reported that Armenia's food grain imports (458.7 thousand tonnes, including 349.8 thousand tonnes of wheat) increased by 30% after the 44-day war. Another reason for the grain shortage is apparently the high share of uncultivated arable land, which, according to the Armenian Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan, reaches up to 50%.
Security Council Secretary, CSTO Sec-Gen discuss situation at Armenian-Azerbaijani border
09:41,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan held a phone conversation with CSTO Secretary-General Stanislav Zas to discuss the current situation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Grigoryan’s office said in a readout.
Grigoryan emphasized that a border exists between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan back from the Soviet years. He stressed that according to the 1991 agreement on Creating the Commonwealth of Independent States, the parties recognized that border, ratified the agreement in their parliaments and made it an integral part of the two countries’ legislation.
Grigoryan and Zas also discussed issues relating to the Armenian chairmanship at the CSTO.
19:31,
YEREVAN, 11 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia Zareh Sinanyan is on a working trip to the Republic of France for the first time. The agenda in Paris began with a visit to the Esplanade of Armenia, where the High Commissioner and the Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France Hasmik Tolmajian laid flowers at the Komitas Monument, ARMENPRESS was infomred from the High Commissioner’s Office.
The Esplanade of Armenia is located in the heart of Paris between the Pont de l’Alma and the Pont des Invalides on a spacious territory adjacent to the Seine River. The space also includes the monument to Vardapet Komitas, opened back in 2004, and Yerevan Park opened in 2009.
Afterwards, the High Commissioner visited the residence of the French Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and toured the church. He met with the head of the diocese, Bishop Vahan Hovhannisyan, and representatives of the deputy assembly of the Armenian Diocese of France. The head of the Diocese noted that they have 27 churches now. "The church is a mission, not a building," the spiritual leader emphasized. He presented the Diocese’s activities, active work with youth and the holding of the annual Armenian festival to the High Commissioner.
Armenian schools in France are in high demand, but they also have various problems. During his visit to Arnouville’s Hrant Dink primary school, the High Commissioner learned about issues related to teaching Eastern and Western Armenian and the lack of teachers. Accompanied by Armenian Ambassador to France Hasmik Tolmajian, the High Commissioner toured the school and met with the teaching staff and spoke with students. Now, there are about 85 students in the school. Zareh Sinanyan also had a remote conversation with the head teacher of the school, Garabed Dakessian.
The High Commissioner held meetings with a number of French officials, expressing gratitude for France’s friendship and brotherhood. During the meeting with Gilbert-Luc Devinaz, Chair of the Armenia-France Parliamentary Friendship Group in the French Senate, and members of the group, they discussed France-Armenia relations, the active involvement of Armenians in various spheres of France and the continued deepening of relations between the friendly peoples. The High Commissioner expressed gratitude to Senate members for their pro-Armenian activities and emphasized the importance of adopting a resolution on the need to recognize the independence of Artsakh.
The High Commissioner then met with Arnouville Mayor Pascal Doll. Appreciating the Mayor's concern for local Armenians and their love for Armenia and Artsakh, the High Commissioner invited Pascal Doll to Armenia. Arnouville signed a memorandum of cooperation with Yerevan’s Nubarashen administrative district. There is also a memorandum signed with the community of Shekher in Artsakh, which is now under the occupation of Azerbaijan.
High Commissioner Zareh Sinanyan met with the Mayor of Raincy, Jean-Michel Genestier, and the two discussed further developing ties with the city. They particularly noted the importance of “Dprotsaser” School. "The city is doing everything to keep Dprotsaser alive, so that students can fully utilize the city’s infrastructure," the Mayor said.
"I am sure that the Armenians living in Raincy are good citizens of France, and this is representative of their character. They are well-integrated, but maintain their love for the homeland. I want to express my gratitude for your work and hope that one day you will visit Armenia," the High Commissioner said.
High Commissioner Zareh Sinanyan took part in an economic forum organized by the Armenian Movement organization. He presented on the Office’s ongoing activities and the economic opportunities in Armenia, also responding to questions from entrepreneurs.
During the forum, the speakers introduced the main areas of investment in Armenia along with the advantages, as well as other issues related to Armenia-France economic cooperation.
The forum ended on a positive note, where the entrepreneurs agreed to assess the needs of the Armenian market.
BY LORI YEGHIAYAN FRIEDMAN
FEB. 8, 2022 3:01 AM PT
Growing up in the 1970s and ’80s, I spent Sundays and holidays at my medzmama’s house in East Hollywood. Two decades ago, the city designated my grandmother’s neighborhood as “Little Armenia,” where the first significant wave of Armenian immigrants settled in the mid-20th century.
Most arrivals had roots in western Armenia, Armenians’ homeland for many thousands of years until a genocidal campaign left more than 1 million dead, and hundreds of thousands displaced ― my medzmama, Herminé, among them.
Both of my parents were Armenian. In a marked departure from many first-generation Armenian immigrants, however, I wasn’t raised in an Armenian community. I didn’t grow up speaking the language. I didn’t attend Armenian schools. I went to public school and my friends were non-immigrant Americans.
My parents sent a mixed message: Being Armenian was central to our identity yet obscured. Between cultural continuity and belonging, they chose the latter.
My medzmama’s house and her neighborhood returned some of what was lost. I caught the sights, smells, tastes of my culture. Grizzled old men in trousers smoking cigarettes and playing Tavlou (backgammon) in their driveways. Mournful dirges resounding at St. Garabed’s Armenian Apostolic Church services, and recordings of men singing sentimental ballads, siroones, siroones (“my love”) spilling out of cars and shops. Za’atar and basturma wafting the moment we opened the door to Bezjian’s Market, and the khorovats smoking from backyard barbecues, including ours. My medzmama expertly and lovingly making dishes: manti, yalanche, yogurt soup, dolma, kufte and kadayif.
Still, it could feel like visiting a foreign country, strange and sometimes uncomfortable, like when old people would tsk their tongues and wag their fingers at me. “Amot,” they’d say, “shame,” when they learned I didn’t speak the language.
As a teenager, I had moments of curiosity. I asked my father why I didn’t grow up speaking Armenian. He said he’d wanted me to speak English without an accent. When I expressed interest in learning my mother tongue, he said: “Why learn Armenian? We’re not going back.”
My father came to America to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950. Perhaps having a foreign accent wasn’t such a boon and speaking Armenian was of no help to his career ambitions.
This is not a finger wag, an amot to my parents. I cannot regret their choices without regretting who I turned out to be, which I don’t. I acknowledge the loss inherent in my assimilation. Now with young kids of my own, I’ve come to see their choices as driven by a parental desire to shield your child from pain and to give to them what you lacked.
I lost my parents early ― my father died of a heart attack when I was 23. When my mother passed away from cancer, I was 33 and unmoored by my sudden parentlessness. Haunted by a feeling that something was missing in my life, and a lingering sense that I hadn’t known either of them as well as I could have, I immersed myself in all things Armenian.
I moved from a studio apartment in Silver Lake to a one-bedroom in Glendale and started volunteering as a mentor to Armenian youth. For the first time, I made Armenian friends and took Armenian language classes at Los Angeles City College. I even traveled with a young professionals’ group to the Republic of Armenia. I always stood out as different and sensed that I wasn’t Armenian enough for some. But I found the people who accepted me and eventually, settled on a way to integrate my Armenianness into my life in a way that felt right for me.
The fragmented pieces of my families’ histories finally formed into a narrative, as I began to comprehend each generation’s losses and find my place in the story.
“When I was 40 days old, we got out,” my medzmama used to say, in her succinct style. Her family fled Aintab, an ancient city now in Turkey, to escape violence. My grandfather, who died before I was born, was from Kessab, in present-day Syria. They met in Jerusalem, Palestine, and when the Israeli-Palestinian war began, they lost everything ― again. My maternal grandparents and their four kids ― my mother, the oldest ― went to Beirut and eventually secured passage to the U.S. through a special refugee quota. My father was born and raised in the Armenian community of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. His parents had ended up in Africa after escaping massacres and genocide.
We sold my medzmama’s Little Armenia house a few years ago. The neighbors are gone too. Bezjian’s Market and other stores have closed. It’s not the hub it once was. I do what I can to give my kids a little of Armenia, including visits to the old neighborhood and to new centers of Armenian culture, like Glendale, where recent waves of Armenian immigrants have settled.
Last summer, I took my kids to an Armenian church near us to celebrate Vardavar, a life-affirming holiday where people soak each other with water. I didn’t grow up celebrating it, and only heard of it as an adult. They absorbed the sounds of the language, the smells of the khorovats and the sight of men playing Tavlou. I felt the loss of all that was erased by violence and assimilation — the last 150 years of Armenian history marked by impermanence. And yet, watching my children also renewed my hope that the culture will endure even when the places do not.
Lori Yeghiayan Friedman is a writer living in Oregon.
11:10, 8 February, 2022
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Member of Parliament Vagharshak Hakobyan from the ruling Civil Contract party condemned the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko’s recent remarks on Armenia.
“Yesterday, in an interview with Vladimir Solovyov, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko made inadmissible comments unfitting to a head of state, saying ‘who needs Armenia’ and so on. I’d like to note that these kind of remarks are truly condemnable. The leader of our partner country doesn’t have the right to voice such views about his partner. I’d like to remind who needed Armenia during the latest Kazakh events, and I am sure that Mr. Lukashenko very well realized who needed and who needs Armenia,” the lawmaker said.
In the interview, Lukashenko said the Union State between Russia and Belarus should expand and include most of the ex-Soviet republics. Particularly, speaking on Armenia, he said “Armenia has nowhere to run…..what, you think anyone needs them? They have already seen it, Nikol Vovayevich [Pashinyan] has already seen it.”