David Nargizian – Page 54 – Armenian Directory & News

Caspian News

July 4 2018

By Nazrin Gadimova July 4, 2018

One of the world’s long-standing conflicts, widely considered the remnant of the legacy of the USSR, came into the spotlight on Sunday when Russian and Azerbaijani officials and experts met in Jojug Marjanli, the village located in Jabrayil – Azerbaijan’s southwestern district occupied by Armenia together with six other districts and Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Though Jabrayil is not still liberated, Jojug Marjanli has been thriving since 2016 when the Azerbaijani armed forces retook the strategic hill, which overlooks the village. International community believes Armenia should give back all territories belonging to Azerbaijan.

Dmitry Saveliev, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-corruption, said Armenia should relinquish its hold on Azerbaijani land that was captured during a war in the early 1990s and shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

“Karabakh and seven [surrounding] regions should be liberated and returned to Azerbaijan without any additional stipulations,” Azerbaijan’s Trend news agency quoted Saveliev as saying, referring to Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent districts that are kept under occupation by Armenia since the early 1990s.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has threatened peace and stability in the South Caucasus region since the late 1980s when Yerevan launched an ethnic cleansing campaign against Azerbaijanis living in Armenia.

In 1991, a military campaign against Azerbaijan was launched by Armenia following the fall of the Soviet Union and lasted until 1994, ultimately resulting in Armenia occupying 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territories – the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The war claimed the lives of over 20,000 Azerbaijanis, while one million more were internally displaced and 4,000 went missing.

In 1994, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) launched the Minsk Group. Co-chaired by representatives of the U.S., Russia and France, the group is charged with finding a peaceful, unarmed solution to the conflict. While it means well, the arrangement has resulted in over two decades of gridlock, much to the consternation and disappointment of leaders in Azerbaijan. Some say the group is ineffective and blame it for the ongoing occupation of Azerbaijani territories.

“Russia’s position must be active in the OSCE Minsk Group for an early settlement of the conflict,” Saveliev said while addressing Sunday’s conference.

The one-day event, held in Jojug Marjanli, has brought together Russia’s some of the influential politicians and experts, including deputy speaker of the State Duma, Vladislav Kalkhidov, a parliamentarian representing the ruling “United Russia” party, Alexei Ezubov, as well as Alexander Dugin, who leads the International Eurasian Movement, and many others.

One of the attendees, Yevgeny Bakhrevsky, a political scientist, and the head of the Moscow-based “Heritage” Institute, believes that more than one million of Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs should return home.

“For the South Caucasus, it is normal when different ethnic and religious communities peacefully coexist with each other, and from this point of view, it is necessary to return Azerbaijani refugees to their native towns and villages,” he told in an interview with Haqqin.az news agency.

Azerbaijan has one of the highest ratios of IDPs per person in the world, as nearly 1.2 million out of the country’s population of ten million are IDPs and refugees.

Though the full-scale war ended when a ceasefire agreement was inked in 1994, violations along the frontline are not uncommon. In 2010, 2012 and 2014, a series of skirmishes between Armenia and Azerbaijan broke out; the largest major flare-up since the full-scale war in the early 90s ended took place from April 1-5, 2016 following Armenian shelling of Azerbaijani villages.

As a result of these more recent clashes, later dubbed the April War, or Four Day War, Azerbaijan retook about 2,000 hectares (approximately 5,000 acres) of its land, including a village, and two strategic hills.

The village of Jojug Marjanli, which hosted the conference on Sunday, laid in ruins roughly one year ago, but after Azerbaijan’s army retook Leletepe hill, which overlooks the village, it was rebuilt. Reconstruction consisted of building 50 new houses in an area of 3,850 square meters; a secondary school that now serves 96 students; a mosque; a hydro-meteorological station; gas and power lines; and pipelines for potable water. The reconstruction served as a pilot project, described by the central government in Baku as part of a “great return” program to restore and rehabilitate remaining lands that are under Armenian occupation.

“It is symbolic that we are holding this meeting in Karabakh,” said Alexander Dugin, a Russian philosopher, political analyst, and strategist.

“This once again emphasizes that Azerbaijan is a strategic partner of Russia. From a legal point of view, Karabakh is the territory of Azerbaijan,” Dugin said. “Russia regards Karabakh as the territory of Azerbaijan . . . in accordance with international law.”

L'Orient-Le Jour, Liban

14 juin 2018

Paul Kaloustian au rendez-vous de l’Arménie

Conçu par Paul Kaloustian, le Smart Center de Lori repose sur la fusion de l’architecture et de la nature. Photo studio Paul Kaloustian

À Lori, Paul Kaloustian a fait la part belle à la nature en créant un bâtiment qui valorise les caractéristiques transcendantes du site montagneux, corridor routier entre l’Arménie et la Géorgie.

May MAKAREM | OLJ

15/06/2018

Conçu par l’architecte libanais Paul Kaloustian, le Smart Center commandité par le Fonds pour les enfants d’Arménie (COAF) vient d’être inauguré à Lori, la plus grande province d’Arménie. Dans cette région, située à la frontière nord du pays, bordée de montagnes et entrecoupée de gorges, Paul Kaloustian a planté une institution d’éducation et de formation, dédiée aux technologies de l’information, aux arts et à l’artisanat, ainsi qu’aux sports.

Le centre, qui va desservir 20 villages de la région, s’étale sur 5 000 m², et repose sur la fusion de l’architecture et de la nature dans cette région, berceau du musicien Sayat-Nova, du concepteur de l’avion MiG Artem Mikoyan et de son frère l’homme d’État soviétique Anastas Mikoyan, élu en 1964, après la mort de Khroutchev, à la tête du Soviet suprême.

Suivant la topographie du site, le bâtiment de plain-pied s’étend horizontalement aux pieds des montagnes qui le bordent, créant une allée sinueuse en forme de ruban. « Choix inhabituel dans cette région, la structure en béton armé et métal intègre des espaces qui marquent la transition entre le dedans et le dehors », explique l’architecte, indiquant que « le volume du bâtiment s’amenuise doucement et se désagrège en une promenade en plein air », c’est-à-dire dans une cour de 7 000 m² qui estompe toute barrière entre l’homme et son environnement. La limite entre eux est volontairement gommée. « La nature pénètre le bâtiment, celui-ci s’y intègre et ceux qui y vivent sont baignés de lumière. L’immensité du paysage éclipse la structure », ajoute-t-il, signalant aussi que les paramètres contextuels tant ruraux que topographiques ont clairement orienté le projet.

Outre les laboratoires informatiques, les salles de classes et bibliothèques, le campus dispose d’un auditorium pour spectacles, d’un restaurant, ainsi que des installations adjacentes comprenant un terrain de sport et des ateliers pour diverses activités. Une garderie est située dans une structure séparée ; tandis qu’une autre « construite à moitié sous terre, face au soleil du Sud », abrite le quartier des collaborateurs participant au programme. Là aussi, « un mur planté dans le paysage prend du volume lorsque le visiteur entre par la porte. Mais ce volume se brise en une extension vers le paysage qui se déroule au-delà de la longue façade vitrée… » Au menu également, les sources d’énergie renouvelable, qui ne s’épuiseront pas à l’échelle du temps humain.

Réduire la pauvreté rurale

Paul Kaloustian a donc produit un projet qui a tenu compte et fait preuve d’une sensibilité au lieu. Le « Smart Center » a été présenté en événement parallèle à la 15e Biennale de Venise. Un autre des projets de l’architecte, « House in a Forest », a été exposé le temps de la 13e Biennale, ainsi qu’à l’Institut du monde arabe à Paris et à Londres dans le cadre d’une manifestation intitulée « Atlas of the Unbuilt World ». L’architecte a, en outre, récemment reçu le 3e prix du concours international lancé pour la construction du nouveau musée national de Chypre à Nicosie.

Diplômé de l’ALBA et de la Harvard Graduate School of Design, Paul Kaloustian a travaillé à l’agence d’architecture suisse Herzog et de Meuron à Bâle (2000). Il a enseigné au Boston Architecture Center et à l’American University of Beirut (2009-2010). Il a reçu le prix Samir Mokbel, et celui de l’ordre des ingénieurs et architectes pour son « Mémorial du génocide arménien », qui lui a valu la mention Très bien en 1997.

Children Of Armenia Fund (COAF), présidée par le philanthrope américain Garo Armen et le légendaire galeriste d’art new-yorkais, Tony Shafrazi, est une organisation non gouvernementale à but non lucratif. Elle utilise des approches dirigées par les communautés pour réduire la pauvreté rurale, avec un accent particulier sur les jeunes. Depuis le lancement de ses programmes en 2004, le COAF a financé et mis en œuvre des programmes d’éducation, de santé, de développement communautaire et économique desservant plus de 28 000 personnes dans les villages ruraux d’Arménie. C’est en 2015 que le COAF a lancé Smart, un modèle sans précédent de prestation de programmes éducatifs holistiques supérieurs et pertinents dans les régions rurales, axés sur la technologie, la durabilité, les arts, la linguistique, les affaires et l’engagement civique.

16:58 | June 1,2018 | Social
Հայ
Рус

The children gathered at “Orran” charitable organization are waiting for the hamburgers prepared by President Armen Sargsyan.

On the occasion of the International Children’s Day, Armen Sargsyan prepared hamburgers for them.

Before starting, Mr. President asked not to be very strict, as he would do it for the first time.

His only experience in cooking was making omelettes.

“A1 +” asked his wife Nune Sargsyan whether omlettes mad by him were tatsy.

“It’s tasty, one can eat it,” said Mrs. Sargsyan.

She also mentioned that unlike her husband her two sons are professionals in the kitchen.

24.05.2018

Հայաստան

653

ՀՀ վարչապետ Նիկոլ Փաշինյանը նախագահ Արմեն Սարգսյանին առաջարկել է աշխատանքից ազատել ՀՀ ԶՈՒ Գլխավոր շտաբի պետ Մովսես Հակոբյանին։

Այս մասին Փաշինյանը հայտարարեց կառավարության հերթական նիստի ժամանակ:

Վարչապետի խոսքով` Մովսես Հակոբյանն այլ աշխատանքի կանցնի։

«Որոշումը կայացվել է փոխադարձ համաձայնությամբ: Այսօր մինչև օրվա վերջ Գլխավոր շտաբի պետի պաշտոնում նոր նշանակում կլինի և վաղը նա կներկայացվի Զինված ուժերին », – ասաց Նիկոլ Փաշինյանը։

| 11:18 | May 25 2018

Category

Politics

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan introduced on his Facebook page the new Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Major-General Artak Davtyan.

“I am glad to introduce the newly appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia, Major-General Artak Davtyan”, the PM wrote.

Artak Davtyan served as the Chief of the Operative Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia.

Counter Punch

The U.S. Won’t Say ‘Genocide’ But Cares About Armenian Democracy?

by MAX PARRY

“Did Armenia just dance its way to revolution?”

Mass demonstrations that have shut down Armenia leading to the replacement of its prime minister have queued the obligatory western media push for regime change. Already dubbed a ‘Velvet Revolution’ after the 1989 protests that collapsed communist Czechoslovakia, there have been so many ‘color revolutions’ in former Soviet states that they colors are being recycled by the NGOs. The first crowds gathered in April in response to the Republican Party of Armenia’s decision to nominate outgoing leader Serzh Sargsyan as the sole candidate for Prime Minister after having already served as the country’s President since 2008. Despite its constitutional legality, this was perceived by many to be a consolidation of power as he would have retained the same authority since the country just transitioned to a prime ministerial system. Predictably, the western media commentary has framed the protests in the context of the new Cold War by emphasizing the ruling party’s links to ‘Kremlin oligarchs’ and Armenia’s presence within Russia’s sphere of influence. However, they have been forced to admit that the stated aim of the critical mass thus far has been limited to preventing Sargsyan’s interpreted power grab. Otherwise, Putin would nefariously intervene like in Georgia and Ukraine, right? The Washington Post didn’t find it important to mention the enormous political and historical reasons Armenia maintains close ties to Moscow, because presenting an accurate account of a political crisis always takes a backseat to the priority of demonizing Russia.

The genocide of 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians, perpetrated beginning in 1915 by the “Young Turk” (Committee of Unity and Progress) authorities of the Ottoman Empire, has been recognized as an indisputable fact by the vast majority of the world’s scholars and academics. There is overwhelming historical evidence both of its occurrence and premeditated planning. As a result, the governments of many countries have chosen to recognize it as a genocide. In addition to Russia and many countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America, the governments of France, Italy, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and others (a total of 29 worldwide) have all officially acknowledged that what was done to the Ottoman Armenians constitutes genocide. Some like France have even forbidden its denial by legal prosecution with a one year jail sentence as punishment. Although many individual politicians and institutions within America have acknowledged it, the U.S. government to this day has not officially done so and has taken deliberate measures in avoidance of it. The go-to excuse has always been one of ‘realpolitik’ and the complicated dimensions of the U.S. relationship with the government of Turkey, a thinly veiled admittance of its selfish political motivations. The Ottoman Empire’s successor state is a fellow NATO member and longtime strategic ally for the U.S. in the region as the bridge between the Middle East and Europe. Although the U.S. has failed to call it a genocide, the Republic of Turkey and the Turkic state of Azerbaijan are the sole governments in the world who explicitly reject the use of the term. Only American exceptionalism could permit the media to push for regime change in Armenia while letting its own leaders get away with not recognizing the genocide.

The empire’s fourth estate has neglected to take it to task for this controversial policy despite the genocide’s universal confirmation by the world’s intellectuals and historians. A perfect example is the broken campaign promise by candidate Barack Obama in 2008 after he reversed his position on the issue once in office as President, caving into the powerful influence and millions spent by the Turkish government’s lobby. Once the Obama administration became intimately involved in a collaborative intervention with Turkey in transforming Syria’s conflict into an Islamist proxy war, any likelihood he would ever do so vanished. WikiLeaks revealed Hillary Clinton’s email exchanges with advisors on the issue leading up to the 100th anniversary of the genocide in 2015, giving an inside look at the cynical reasoning behind Washington’s denial in the strategic importance of relations with Turkey in the region. Trump’s language has been identical thus far with the Obama administration on the issue, as he attempts to repair recently damaged relations with Turkey which has only prolonged the frustration for the Armenian-American community. To this day a U.S. President has yet to visit the Tsisternakaberd memorial complex in Yerevan.

The Armenian genocide took place during and under the cover of World War I as Russia advanced into Ottoman territory. The predominantly Christian Armenians had lived in the Caucasus of Eurasia for thousands of years and in the fourth century became the first nation in the world to make Christianity its state religion. Mount Ararat is even believed to be the supposed site of Noah’s Ark in the Book of Genesis. Armenia was then incorporated into Ottoman Turkey several centuries later at the peak of the Empire’s power when its territory spread across multiple continents. As Christians living in a Muslim majority society, Armenians did not have full rights and liberties as a minority group. Despite their treatment as second class citizens who faced tax burdens based on religious discrimination, they were able to practice their religion with a degree of autonomy and the community persevered under their rulers. When the Ottoman Empire began to decline towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Armenians found themselves the scapegoat of Turkish nationalists both for their religious differences and their relative prosperity as a minority group. Sound familiar?

In 1908, as the Empire’s power continued to dwindle leading up to WWI, the Sultan Abdul Hamid was ousted and the Committee of Union and Progress, aka ‘the Young Turks’, a secret society turned political organization seized power. While they ushered in liberal, secular reforms that transformed Turkey into a constitutional monarchy during their ten year reign, Talat Pasha and the Young Turks were also Turkish nationalists who wished to restore the empire to its previous status on the world stage. Its nationalism led to Turkification campaigns racially targeting minority groups, especially those perceived to be sympathetic to Russia like the Armenians. Russia had historically been protectors of Christians living within Ottoman territory, and the pretext used by the Ottoman authorities for the ethnic cleansing to construct a homogeneous state was a conspiracy that the Armenians were collaborating with them. The Young Turk authorities blamed the Armenians for the empire’s losses as its defeat in the Italo-Turkish war and the Balkan War of 1912 reduced its power significantly. This left it little choice but to side with Germany and the Central Powers once they declared war on Russia which proved to be an ill fated decision.

The Western jingoist narrative would lead you to believe the world ‘sleepwalked’ into World War I, an attempt by the victors rewriting history to claim the moral high-ground of fighting for ‘liberal values.’ In reality, the Allied and Central Powers both consisted of colonialists guilty of various genocides. Furthermore, preparations had been made for decades by the opposing sides with the buildup of their armaments and the development of naval and armed forces to eventually fight over the re-division of the world’s colonies. The war came as no shock at all to the powers that be, but was only a surprise perhaps to the working class who were used as cannon fodder in the industrial scale slaughter of its battlefields. The Berlin Conference in 1885 partitioned the African colonies and regulated European imperial expansion, resulting in the emergence of a new German superpower that suddenly threatened its British and French rivals. This proved to be the final instance the colonial powers were able to negotiate their territorial disputes without war. The increasingly powerful Germany wanted access to the British and French colonies and when they could no longer settle their festering differences peacefully, world war became inevitable. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo was the mere straw that broke the camel’s back — there had been many assassinations of leaders prior that didn’t lead to the outbreak of war, let alone a global conflict.

Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II had slaughtered tens of thousands from the Herero tribes leading to slave revolts — but were the British any more innocent? The Aborigines and numerous other indigenous populations that were halved under British colonies, not to mention the Irish who starved during the Great Potato Famine, would surely disagree. Perhaps the worst crimes of all committed by one of the Allies was under King Leopold II of Belgium, with its massacres in the Congo famously inspiring Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Or maybe the most extensive slaughter would be that perpetrated by the United States with its large scale ethnic cleansing of Native American tribes and black slaves? Truth be told, the Allies were no moral superiors at all to the Germans or the Ottoman Turks. All of this is important to understand in the context of critiquing the U.S. for failing to recognize the Armenian genocide, because it still has yet to fully come to grips with its own bloody history, let alone what it is subjecting the world to today.

The Armenian genocide was also nearly a successful one in that the Ottomans virtually exterminated the entirety of its Armenian population. It began on April 24, 1915, when hundreds of Armenian political, religious, and intellectual leaders were all rounded up and mercilessly executed. The Turkish government then established Tehcir law and made ethnic cleansing a state policy, ordering the deportation of all Armenian inhabitants in “death marches” to the deserts of Syria and present-day Iraq. Women and children were forced to walk over mountains and deserts, many of them raped and purposefully starved to death by Turkish troops. Some victims of the mass killing were even beheaded and burned alive. Those dispersed who were fortunate enough to survive fled to the Caucuses and Russia, while the refugees scattered elsewhere in the Middle East and those who emigrated to Europe and North America would form the Armenian diaspora that exists today. Any spared in Turkey were assimilated through forced conversion to Islam. Only a small remnant of the eastern-most part of Armenian territory remained to become the First Republic of Armenia. In 1920, it was overrun by the Red Army and absorbed into the Soviet Union in a joint republic with the other caucuses, not gaining its own until the 1930s. Armenia then remained within the USSR until its dissolution whereby it became industrialized and modernized. Presently, it remains a key ally for Russia complicated by the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh with its caucus neighbor Azerbaijan where the Kremlin has played mediator.

The Armenian-American painter and genocide survivor Arshile Gorky famously changed his birth name Vosdanik Adoyan to one after the Soviet writer Maxim Gorky partly because he felt Russia had saved Armenia. In fact, Russia and Armenia’s enduring close ties today are based on Russia having historically given refuge to the Armenians from persecution. Armenians had suffered during all of the Russo-Turkish wars of the previous two centuries for being painted as sympathetic to Russia, but WWI brought unparalleled suffering for them in the form of systematic extermination. During the genocide, the hundreds of thousands of Ottoman-Armenian subjects who were targeted by Turkish authorities were victims after being portrayed as a internal threat and potential traitors while Ottoman troops fought against the Imperial Russian Army on the war-front. The genocide itself had Russophobic origins and was ‘justified’ by the Turks as a militarily necessity, with losses such as the Battle of Sarikamish serving as a prelude to the genocide after Enver Pasha pinned their defeat on Armenians. The Turkish campaign to whitewash the genocide uses the existence of Armenian volunteer units who fought with the Imperial Russian Army as evidence to support their apologist narrative — discounting that the vast majority of the Armenians massacred were Ottoman citizens. Modern Armenia still stands because it was the sole province within its historical territory that was under the protection of Russia — without it, it is possible that no Armenia would remain at all.

Following the war’s end, the Turkish National Movement and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who had led the Ottomans to victory in Gallipoli formed a nationalist government based in Ankara. Concurrently, Britain and France occupied Istanbul (Constantinople), resulting in the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923). In the initial stages of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, some of the Young Turk perpetrators were put to death for what they called ‘crimes against humanity’ in the Turkish courts-martial of 1919–1920 under the last Sultan, Mehmed VI. However, many of the real culprits in the Young Turk leadership were allowed to escape and avoid any real punishment for their heinous crimes. Once the formation of the the Republic of Turkey occurred in 1923 after Atatürk and the Turkish National Movement drove out the Allies, they were given amnesty from their deeds. Denial then became official policy of the state and even the memory of the presence of Armenia was not safe from destruction. Even though the Kemalists were not the guilty parties themselves and the new republic ushered in many reforms such as secular education and socialized medicine, it excessively glorified the country’s military which still held significant power in post-Ottoman Turkey. The former existence of Armenians was outright denied, with maps and history rewritten in schools falsely claiming that Turks had inhabited the region exclusively for centuries. Churches, monuments and all traces of Armenian culture were desecrated and renamed. Armenian children that were not killed were abducted from their parents, then renamed and raised as Turks. Recently revealed genealogy databases show the historical records that as many as 2 million Turks may have Armenian ancestry. The effects of this campaign are so widespread that even the most progressive elements of Turkish society harshly reject use of the term genocide to this day.

While the Turkish government was rewriting history, the Allied powers were preoccupied with more important things than prosecuting the Ottomans for war crimes. After all, the war had been fought for moral reasons, not over the subjugation of smaller nations — or had it? The Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France resulted in the partitioning of the former Ottoman territories for plunder and looting of their markets and raw materials with colonialism now acting under the banner of ‘mandates.’ Britain received Iraq and Palestine, while Syria and Lebanon went to France. Though confirmation of the account is disputed, just prior to the invasion of Poland it is alleged that Hitler remarked in a 1939 speech “Who after all, remembers the Armenians?” Many have said in hindsight that perhaps if the Turks had been held to account for their crimes, the holocaust could have been prevented — but this naive view discounts the fact that the Allies were guilty of many genocides themselves. The Armenian genocide also predates use of the word itself which was not until the 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe by holocaust survivor Raphael Lemkin, nor officially defined prior to the Genocide Convention of 1948. Lemkin coined the term as a hybrid of the Greek word génos (a social group of descent) and the Latin suffix -cide (an act of killing), specifically with the Armenians in mind. Genocide is also a heavily politicized term with regards to the west, which now exploits the word to justify its ‘humanitarian interventions’ abroad, often using it to mischaracterize bloody civil wars and ethnic conflicts (Rwanda, Yugoslavia) while failing to recognize its actual historical occurrences that fit its definition such as that perpetrated upon the Armenians.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia as an independent country has maintained close ties to Russia with the reduced energy prices provided by its Gazprom natural gas giant, military bases and trade relations. Since 1991, its economy has been obliterated by the ‘shock therapy’ of mass privatization by the IMF and World Bank who imposed their own demands as a pretext for their economic bailouts. According to IMF statistics, Armenia’s post-Soviet economy shrank by three quarters during the nineties and it has remained one of the poorest countries in Europe ever since. Armenia is currently a member of Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), from which the other ‘color revolutions’ in Eastern Europe keeping pushing former Soviet states into EU integration. The liberal opposition leader and parliament member who just became the country’s new Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinian, has stated he does not wish Armenia to become a client state in a geopolitical chess game between the west and east. Indeed, the protests have not been become violent on any large scale nor have they been infiltrated by far right nationalists, making any comparisons with the Maidan in Ukraine seem premature. While the full outcome of the protests is yet to be determined, Pashinian is clearly a shameless opportunist who cannot be trusted. Perhaps a comparison with the Orange or Rose Revolutions is a better one.

Washington’s plan to surround Russia installing favorable puppets is part of a larger plan to recolonize Russia and contain China’s growth to maintain its global hegemony. Pashinian has hijacked the legitimate grievances of average Armenians such as rising unemployment (nearly 20%) and economic stratification within the country to advance his own interests, namely re-alignment with the EU and the U.S. plan to undermine Moscow. Pashinian had objected to the Sargsyan government joining the EAEU in 2014, instead favoring a signing of the European Union Association Agreement which was not completed until last year, although with the negotiated term of Armenia not having to enroll as a EU member. The idea that entry into the EU will bring anything but more austerity is a scam, and is Armenia really in a position to move away from Moscow? Unlikely considering they just signed a joint military force agreement. We will have to wait and see what changes a Pashinian term will bring as he is set to meet with Putin in Sochi shortly.

While Armenia is in the grip of infighting amongst its political elites, Turkey is the midst of a power struggle between rival Islamists. The U.S. relationship with Turkey has also been in jeopardy and become increasingly strained since the failed coup d’etat attempt in July of 2016 to remove its Islamist President, Recep Tayipp Erdoğan, who glorifies the Ottoman Empire while supporting terrorism across the region. The failed ouster instantly shifted the world’s geopolitical alignment after Erdoğan responded by accusing the U.S. of involvement. This development may have consequences for any eventual U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide, as Trump balances both trying to win back Turkey’s favor while facing international pressure to condemn Erdoğan’s purges and increasing authoritarianism. While it is possible that Erdoğan staged the coup in a ‘false flag’ power grab considering its poor execution and the small amount of troops involved, the end result further sabotaged the U.S.’s plan to control key resources in the form of oil and gas pipelines from the Persian Gulf to the EU that had been the motive behind its involvement in Syria.

An elimination of Russia’s grip on more than half of Europe’s natural gas market remains the ultimate geopolitical aim of the U.S. On his first day in office, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the trade bloc designed to undermine China, but it has done little to stop what appears to be an increasingly relentless drive toward WWIII. The possibility of a potential global war continues to arise from a deepening global economic crisis and desperation on the part of the U.S. to halt the rise of China and Russia on the world stage that is occurring simultaneously. Obama’s so-called ‘pivot to East Asia’ regional strategy, which concentrated more than half of American armed forces in the continent by taking troops to Australia, the Asian Pacific and Indonesia, had intended to build up America as a Pacific Power encircling China behind a missile defense shield. Just as its attempt to oust Bashar al-Assad was unsuccessful, Obama’s pivot to Asia proved to be a nothing short of a colossal failure.

America’s involvement in the Syrian conflict also took risks in their support for Kurdish proxies that undermined its ally Turkey, with its decision to arm the Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units) in Northern Syria particularly ruffling Ankara’s feathers. The YPG’s role in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces coalition was instrumental in the fight against ISIS, but the U.S. payed little regard to Turkey’s objection to their support for them over the group‘s ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK’s insurgency has been in an armed conflict with Turkey for almost forty years fighting to establish an autonomous Kurdish state. In the aftermath, Erdoğan insisted the failed coup was supported by the U.S. and orchestrated by his former ally, the pro-American Islamic cleric, Fetullah Gülen, who is based in exile in Pennsylvania. Gülen’s large cult-like following within Turkey is believed by the government to have infiltrated institutions, banks and the military. Blame was even placed on Gülen for the assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov in late 2016. Yet Turkey’s suspicion of the Gülen movement being a cover for the CIA is not implausible. It was Russian intervention that crushed the U.S. goal of ousting Assad in Syria — was the coup attempt part of a reset of U.S. policy in the region in an effort to install a preferred puppet? The souring relations between the U.S. and Turkey will likely prolong any potential recognition of ‘the other holocaust.’

The world finds itself in circumstances not unlike when Germany rose as an existential threat to the British and French leading up to WWI. As Germany challenged the already divided world, their imperial ambitions led to what was supposed to be ‘the War to End All Wars’ which facilitated the Ottoman extermination of the Armenians. More than a hundred years later, the world is now facing a similar historical moment to that which preceded the Great War which only ended after the Russian Revolution ousted the Tsar and its autocracy was replaced it with socialism. The only reason capitalism was not overthrown in the rest of Europe was the treachery of the social democrats, but despite socialism’s failure to spread west across the continent, the unrest was enough to frighten the powers that be to end the war — there was no heroic decisive victory on the part of the Allies like the west has depicted. Today, no one can claim the world is ‘sleepwalking’ into WWIII, as it has been given more than ample warning. The only thing preventing its outbreak is the dignified response of Russia to NATO’s expansion, and we can only hope the world wakes up to who the real aggressors are before its patience runs out. It was Russia that had saved Armenia from the expanding Ottoman Empire and provided refuge to its people from the genocide. If the west hopes to drive a wedge between them, it will have a difficult task ahead of it.

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Azerbaijan is a major factor in the region’s stability, said Ambassador Kamil Khasiyev, representative of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

He made the statement in his speech on the negotiations and the current situation in respect of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the second session of the 15th meeting of the EU-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Cooperation Committee in Baku on May 8, APA reports.

Khasiyev said Azerbaijan has been able to create not only bilateral but also trilateral cooperation formats.

"If we look at the format of Azerbaijan-Turkey-Georgia trilateral cooperation today, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line projects have been implemented. At present, the TANAP project is being implemented. The Azerbaijani-Russian-Iranian trilateral cooperation format plays a role in the formation of the North-South transport corridor. We are one of the most active participants in regional projects. I have been the ambassador of Azerbaijan to Croatia. European Union countries also have the opportunity to join the projects that Azerbaijan is a member of. One such project is TAP. Greece, Italy and Albania are among the participants in this project. By regional cooperation, we refer to other initiatives of cooperation with other regions,” he added.

Vassilis Maragos, Head of Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations said that Azerbaijan is a member of the Eastern Partnership program.

“This is also a form of regional cooperation. The EU supports the Southern Gas Corridor project. Our trade relations with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia are expanding within the association agreement. We hope that a new agreement with Azerbaijan will play its role in increasing trade relations. On the other hand, representation of the EU in Azerbaijan renders assistance to the country through various programs. We expect for investment programs to be implemented in transport area at the end of this year. 200 million euros have been allocated for the Eastern Partnership countries on exchange of youth at the academic level. We will cooperate with Azerbaijan in this field as well. The exchange program will last till 2020,” he noted.

Maragos emphasized that the EU does not import any goods or services from Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We are talking about the cases of abuse related to origin countries. The European Commission has sent relevant notifications to countries. From this point of view, I do not think that we demonstrate double standards on this issue. The EU does not export any goods or services from Nagorno-Karabakh,” he added.

COMPILED FROM WIRE SERVICES

YEREVAN

Published11 hours ago

Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinian addresses lawmakers during a parliament session to elect a new prime minister in Yerevan on May 8, 2018. (AFP Photo)

The Armenian parliament elected Tuesday opposition figure and protest leader Nikol Pashinian as the new prime minister after spearheading weeks of mass protests against the ruling party.

The vote was Pashinian's second attempt to get elected as premier after the ruling Republican Party narrowly blocked his first bid on May 1, despite initially promising not to stand in the way. That led to a crippling general strike in the capital Yerevan and other cities.

Pashinian called for an end to the protests after the Republicans — who have 58 MPs in the 105-seat legislature — issued assurances they would back his candidacy on a second attempt. He has also secured the support of two other major political parties — Prosperous Armenia and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) — who nominated him for the post together with his opposition Elk coalition. Pashinian was the only candidate for the top job.

His election by a 59-42 vote overcomes one hurdle in resolving the crisis, but the Republican party that he opposed retains a majority in parliament.

Supporters of Pashinian gather on May 8, 2018 in Yerevan's central Republic Square as the parliament votes for a second time to elect a new prime minister. (AFP Photo)

Tens of thousands of supporters of Nikol Pashinian are celebrating on the central square of Armenia's capital after the protest leader was elected the country's prime minister.

Many of the supporters are wearing white clothes, symbolizing their hopes that Pashinian's election will bring a new page in Armenia.

"We chose a new road in Armenia where the driver will be the people and not clans. Jobs will appear, people will return, corruption will disappear," demonstrator Tigran Azizian, a 42-year-old worker in the city's subway, told Associated Press.

In a speech to parliament on Tuesday preceding his election as premier, Pashinian said that his "revolution will lead to the de-jure recognition of realizing the rights of Karabakh to self-determination."

The Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994. Fighting periodically breaks out between those forces and Azerbaijani troops stationed on the other side of a demilitarized zone.

Any move to advance the region's sovereignty would likely be met with considerable hostility from Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey. Both those countries closed their borders with Armenia over the conflict, leaving Armenia with direct land access only to Georgia and Iran.

"My first work after my election will be ensuring a normal life in the country," Pashinyan said ahead of the vote. "There will be no corruption in Armenia. Armenia will once and for all turn the page of political persecutions."

He added that Armenia's relations with Russia will "remain a priority." "Military cooperation with Russia is an important factor in ensuring our country's security," Pashinyan said, referring to the two-decade conflict his country has been locked in with neighboring Azerbaijan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the Armenian protest leader on his election as the country's new prime minister. Putin said in a message to Pashinyan after his election that he counts on him to "aid the further strengthening of bilateral, allied relations between our countries." Russia has strong strategic interests in Armenia, including a military base, and had been watching the country's political turmoil closely.

On Monday evening thousands of Pashinian supporters rallied in Yerevan's central square, waving tricolor national flags and chanting his name. "I am 95 percent sure that your candidate will be elected as prime minister tomorrow," Pashinian told the cheering crowd. Analysts have said it appeared the ruling party had changed position in a bid to retain control of the legislature.

Pashinian (R), accompanied by Serj Tankian, the Armenian-American leader of the band System of a Down, addresses the crowd gathered at Yerevan's Republic Square on May 7, 2018. (AFP Photo)

'Period of disequilibrium'

Pashinian's election as prime minister would not necessarily end the political crisis as the ruling party will retain a majority in parliament and is likely to block his initiatives.

If lawmakers had failed to elect a prime minister a second time, parliament would have been dissolved and early elections would have taken place. In such an event, the deeply unpopular Republicans would have little chance of retaining their parliamentary majority.

Analyst Vigen Akopyan said snap elections are certain even if Pashinian is chosen prime minister.

Another analyst, Stepan Safaryan, warned that Pashinian would be caught between a rock and a hard place.

"Armenia is entering an interesting period of disequilibrium. Before the early elections Pashinian must maneuver between the will of the people and the parliamentary ruling party that he does not belong to and which cannot begin supporting him," he said.

Corruption and poverty

The hugely popular Pashinian has in recent weeks piled pressure on the ruling party through an unprecedented campaign of civil disobedience that plunged the Moscow-allied nation into its most serious political crisis in years. It led to the shock resignation of veteran leader Serzh Sargsyan, a week after he shifted to the newly-empowered role of prime minister after having served ten years as president. Observers have expressed concern that the turmoil could destabilize the country locked in a decades-long territorial dispute with Azerbaijan.

Pashinian's protest movement had accused Sargsyan of a blatant power grab, saying he wanted to extend his grip on power by becoming premier after serving two consecutive terms as president. In December 2015, controversial constitutional amendments initiated by Sargsyan were passed after a referendum that saw some 63 percent of the voters backing the country's transformation into a parliamentary republic with executive powers fully concentrated in the hands of a prime minister. After the plebiscite, thousands of opposition supporters rallied against alleged mass violations at polling stations.

Council of Europe observers have said the referendum was marred by allegations of large-scale vote-buying and multiple voting, among other irregularities.

Critics accuse Sargsyan and his Republicans of corruption and failure to tackle widespread poverty and the influence of powerful oligarchs in the tiny South Caucasus nation of 2.9 million people.

Pashinian: Armenia's maverick street leader

Just three weeks ago, few would have thought that Pashinian, a 42-year-old former newspaper editor who served time in jail, would transform Armenia's political landscape and become its next leader.

Sporting a salt and pepper beard, a tan and a baseball cap, Armenia's rising political star channeled widespread desire for change into a broad protest movement.

The father-of-four has earned a reputation as a man of the people, wearing his trademark camouflage T-shirt during protests and carrying a massive rucksack which he says contains "everything I need" — including a chocolate bar and a laptop.

After Sargsyan's resignation last month following ten days of peaceful protests, the opposition lawmaker said only he could be the next prime minister.

Crowds of villagers poured onto the streets to greet Pashinian, offering him fresh bread and berries, as he travelled to rallies across the country.

Before the start of the protests last month, he walked some 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Gyumri — Armenia's second city — to Yerevan with his supporters, often sleeping in the open.

His creativity was visible during a parliamentary election campaign last year, when he went into courtyards, clambered onto the roofs of garages and stood on benches to deliver speeches.

Ahead of Tuesday's vote, however, he swapped his street attire for a sleek suit, transforming himself into a polished politician with a soft handshake and a bashful smile.

Before the current rallies some have called a "revolution of love", Pashinian was mostly associated with the tragic events following the 2008 presidential vote that first brought Sargsyan to power, when 10 people died in clashes between police and supporters of the defeated opposition candidate.

Authorities at the time accused Pashinian of seeking to seize power and provoking mass riots, claims he has denied.

He went into hiding but surrendered in 2009. He was released from jail in 2011 under a prisoner amnesty scheme and elected to parliament the next year.

Analyst Vigen Hakobyan called Pashinian a "classic revolutionary" who is ready to act decisively without hesitation.

"On the other hand, as the protest movement has shown, he can be flexible," he said. "In recent days he wanted to show the world he is capable of compromise."

David Alaverdyan, chief editor of a local news agency who studied with Pashinian, praised his "quick wit, rich language and humor".

"He's got a certain charm that attracts people," he told AFP.

Opponents from the ruling Republican Party have accused Pashinian — who says he wants good relations with both Russia and the West — of being unpredictable and lacking a clear program and ideology.

Pashinyan was born in 1975 in the small resort town of Ijevan in northern Armenia during the Soviet era. He studied journalism at Yerevan State University but was expelled in 1995.

He worked as a reporter and newspaper editor before getting involved in politics.

Pashinian set up the Civil Contract party, which entered parliament in 2017 as part of the opposition coalition.

With his fiery rhetoric and penchant for asking awkward questions, Pashinian quickly became a thorn in the side of the ruling party.

Pashinian said the protest movement empowered ordinary Armenians, showing them they could determine the future of their country.

"Prime ministers will come and go," he told a rally in Yerevan.

"But they will know that if they grow impudent, there are people who will say: 'We are the masters of our country.'"

The Telegraph, UK

Armenian crisis worsens as opposition leader detained during protest

Armenian opposition supporter shouts during a rally in central Yerevan Credit: KAREN MINASYAN/AFP/Getty Images

Armenian police on Sunday detained an opposition MP after ten days of anti-government protests and accusations of a power grab levied against Serzh Sargsyan, the prime minister.

Nikol Pashinyan was picked up by officers at a demonstration in Yerevan on Sunday, following a televised interview between him and Mr Sargsyan, which the prime minister cut short.

Police said in a statement: "Despite repeated calls to stop illegal rallies, Pashinyan continued leading a demonstration". It added that he and two other opposition politicians "were forcibly taken from the site".

The prosecutor general's office said that Mr Pashinyan and the other two "were detained as they were committing socially dangerous acts".

As an MP, Mr Pashinyan is protected by parliamentary immunity and cannot be arrested without the approval of lawmakers. His whereabouts is currently unclear.

His detention came on the tenth day of mass protests against Mr Sargsyan, who assumed the role of prime minister on April 17 after two five-year terms as president.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img class="responsive article-body-image-image" src=”"/content/dam/news/2018/04/22/TELEMMGLPICT000161152598_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqek9vKm18v_rkIPH9w2GMNoGXySPv9M1Jbe0Fc3Bi1Fk.jpeg?imwidth=480"” alt="Armenia&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s anti-government protest leader Nikol Pashinyan met with Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Armenia's anti-government protest leader Nikol Pashinyan met with Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian Credit: KAREN MINASYAN/AFP/Getty Images

In 2015, Mr Sargsyan tabled a controversial reform handing the main powers to the prime minister, a move that opposition supporters consider a power grab.

Mr Pashinyan challenged Mr Sargsyan to a debate at a hotel in Yerevan on Sunday, during which the prime minister said he was pleased the protest leader had "responded to my numerous appeals to negotiate".

However, Mr Pashinyan replied that there had been a misunderstanding, adding that he only wanted to discuss the terms of the leader's resignation and the "terms of a peaceful and smooth transition of power."

"You don't understand the situation in Armenia. The power is now in people's hands," he said.

Mr Sargsyan, Armenia's former head of defence, stormed out of the interview, pointing out that Mr Pashinyan's party only won eight per cent of the vote, and accusing him of "blackmail".

At the rally, Mr Pashinyan urged police officers to "lay down arms and join in the protests" before riot police dispersed the crowd of thousands using stun grenades.

Journalists at the scene reported that dozens of protesters were also detained.

Demonstrators at the rally were protesting rampant corruption in Armenia's judicial system, police, and education, as well as poverty.

Since 2008, the poverty rate in Armenia has increased by two per cent to 29.8 per cent, according to World Bank figures.

Author: David Nargizian

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