Author: Diana Dabaghian

Russia is to blame for Azerbaijan's blitzkrieg against Armenians, a senior EU official has said. And Moscow is hoping to topple Armenia's Western-leaning prime minister, the official added.

Luc Devigne, the head of the Russia department in the EU foreign service, shared his views at a snap meeting with MEPs in Brussels on Wednesday (20 September).

HEADLINE:

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin has announced that the Blessing of the Holy Muron ceremony, planned to take place on October 1, has been postponed. Instead on that date, the Mother See will lead worldwide Armenian churches in a pan-national Prayer for Artsakh.

Diocesan Primate Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan informed the faithful of the Eastern Diocese of the decision in a message of September 22. Despite the postponement of the Muron Blessing service, the Episcopal Ordination services on October 8–where Fr. Mesrop will be consecrated as a bishop of the church–will go forward as planned. The service in New York welcoming the newly ordained Bishop Mesrop back to the Eastern Diocese will also proceed as planned on October 14.

Read Fr. Mesrop’s message to the public below.

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A Message from Our Primate, Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan

Dear Faithful:

These are hard days for all Armenians: a time of heartache, deep reflection, and earnest prayer over Artsakh. The mood of our people, in our homeland and around the world, is somber—and naturally that sensibility will affect our national observances planned for the coming days.

I am writing to inform the faithful of the Eastern Diocese that the Blessing of the Holy Muron—the grand ecclesiastical celebration scheduled to take place on October 1, 2023, at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin—has now been postponed, and will not be going forward as planned.

This decision was made by our church’s Supreme Spiritual Council, during a meeting on September 22, presided over by His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. The determination was prompted by the circumstances now surrounding Artsakh. A new date for the blessing ceremonies has not been announced.

Instead, a different service will be held at Holy Etchmiadzin on Sunday, October 1: a pan-national Prayer for Artsakh, which will be offered as part of the Divine Liturgy at the Mother See, and in Armenian churches throughout the world on that day. Additional information on this service will be shared with parishes as it becomes available.

Finally, with great humility, I want to inform our faithful that the Episcopal Ordinations scheduled for Saturday, October 8, will indeed go forward as planned. I am already deeply grateful for the honor His Holiness Karekin II will confer on me and my brother clergymen on that day—and to receive this precious sacrament at such a critical time in our history leaves me profoundly moved in my heart and spirit.

In our own Diocese, my first Episcopal Divine Liturgy in New York’s St. Vartan Cathedral will also go forward as planned, on the morning of Saturday, October 14. I take this opportunity to renew my invitation to all our people across this blessed Diocese to join us in prayer, with a spirit of Christian Hope, on that day.

To close, let me repeat what I told worshippers last night, during a united prayer gathering at St. Vartan Cathedral, presided over by myself and my Brother in Christ Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian. I observed that at this point in time, we cannot predict what the outcome of this week’s developments will be. But one thing is very clear to me: That in the days and weeks to come, our people in Artsakh are going to need our support more than ever before—and that we must stand united, as Armenians, to help in any way we can. It will take great spiritual reserves to undertake the task before us. But our Lord Jesus Christ has given the Armenian people such strength in the past—and He will do so again. It is to Him, above all, that we must open our hearts, and ask for his help and blessing.

In the days and weeks to come, please keep these calls to united effort in your heart. And please continue to pray for the Lord’s protection over our brave Armenian sisters and brothers in Artsakh.

Prayerfully

Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan
Primate

—9/22/23

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YEREVAN, Armenia – Authorities in an isolated ethnic Armenian region of Azerbaijan on Tuesday allowed entry of a humanitarian aid shipment in a step toward easing a dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan that has blocked transport to the region since late last year.

The region, called Nagorno-Karabakh, has been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the 1994 end of a separatist war. That war had left much of the surrounding territory under Armenian control as well, but Azerbaijan regained that territory in a six-week-long war with Armenia in 2020; Nagorno-Karabakh itself remained outside Azerbaijani control.

Under the armistice that ended the war, Russia deployed some 3,000 peacekeeping troops in Nagorno-Karabakh and were to ensure that the sole road connecting the enclave to Armenia would remain open. However, Azerbaijan began blocking the road in December, alleging Armenians were using it to ship weapons and smuggle minerals.

The blockage caused serious food shortages in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan proposed that food be sent in on a road leading from the town of Agdam, but the region's authorities resisted the proposal because of concern that it was a strategy to absorb Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan agreed this week that both the Agdam road and the road to Armenia, called the Lachin Corridor, could be used for aid shipments under International Committee of the Red Cross auspices.

The aid delivered on Tuesday includes 1,000 food sets including flour, pasta and stewed meat, along with bed linen and soap.

“We regard the fact that the cargo was delivered precisely along the … road as a positive step and an important shift towards the opening of this road,” said Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizade.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/beleaguered-armenian-region-azerbaijan-accepts-urgent-aid-shipment-103117340

Gyumri (Armenia) (AFP) – A kilometres-long caravan of trailers loaded with used cars meanders on a dusty road leading to a customs terminal in the Armenian city of Gyumri.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine and unprecedented Western sanctions levied on Moscow have created a business opportunity for used car dealers like 31-year-old Yaroslav Kolchenko, who sips a coffee in the sun near the queue.

The US and the EU have banned the export of vehicles to Russia but cars can still be cleared through Armenia, and Kolchenko stands to gain.

"Today even wealthy Russians only have access to used American cars brought to Russia via Armenia," he told AFP.

The native of Saint Petersburg described the arduous journey for vehicles coming to Russia in the wake of sanctions.

"Used, damaged or cheap cars are bought at online auctions in the United States," he explained.

They are then "transported by sea to the Georgian port of Poti, repaired, transported to Armenia for customs clearance, and then taken to Russia by land via Georgia".

The parallel exports are generally seen as a legal grey area and contradict the spirit of sanctions.

The new and lucrative route helps explain growing Ukrainian and Western concerns that Russia's economic partners in the ex-Soviet Caucasus region or Central Asia are aiding Moscow bypass sanctions.

Armenia fell under the spotlight last year when President Vahagn Khachaturyan said Russia would "withstand sanctions" and vowed closer economic ties with "brotherly" Moscow.

The small and poor Caucasus country has a free trade agreement with Russia and clearing cars at Armenian customs is much cheaper compared to Russia.

This has helped Armenia emerge as a hub for re-exports from the United States to Russia after Western car dealers closed dealerships.

Kolchenko's business partner, Andrei, who gave his first name only, said they have been in the business since the war started last February.

"We sold eight cars in April alone and plan to expand the business, which is pretty profitable," he said.

By way of example, Andrei said one car he just purchased for $13,000 would be sold in Saint Petersburg for at least $23,000 with customs costs of spend around $5,000.

Those figures help explain why Armenia's trade turnover with Russia skyrocketed since Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine.

Official statistics show a 2.4-fold surge in exports that reached a record $2.4 billion last year.

Car re-exports grew last year by 170 percent, and more than 450,000 cars — mostly from the United States — were taken to Russia in the first quarter of 2023.

In March, the US departments of justice, treasury and commerce said in a joint report that Armenia was among the countries used as transhipment points to Russia.

The EU in June introduced new measures to its 11th sanctions package against Russia to clamp down on the evasion of restrictions, specifically closing loopholes on the re-exportation via third countries of sensitive technology like microchips.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told AFP this month that complying with Western sanctions without angering a key economic partner was a difficult balancing act.

"We're in close contact and cooperation with the EU special envoy and the representative of the US to ensure that we act as a responsible member of the international community," he said.

"At the official level, we do not have any objections or complaints from European or American partners, nor from Russia."

Still Yaroslav said that "what is happening here in Gyumri shows that any sanctions could be evaded."

"Of course, the Americans are not happy about it, and they will probably try to cause trouble but they will fail. You can't isolate a country as big as Russia," he said.

Standing nearby in the shadow of a wilted acacia tree, Andrei smiled in agreement.

"A they say, water will always find new channel if you block a river."

ISTANBUL 

Azerbaijan on Thursday said that a recent statement by the EU foreign policy chief on the current situation in the Karabakh region is “regrettable.”

“The presented approach towards the situation in the region by (EU) High Representative (for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) Josep Borrell in his July 26 statement, based on the propaganda and political manipulations spread by Armenia, is regrettable,” Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada said in a statement.

Hajizada said that Baku appreciates the EU’s support “to establish peace and stability in the region, as well as to the peace negotiations with Armenia,” but “ignoring” the grievances of Azerbaijan regarding the incomplete withdrawal of the Armenian forces from the region and presenting Azerbaijan’s establishment of a border checkpoint on the Lachin road as its closure is “fundamentally wrong.”

“Similarly, it must be made clear that the blatant misinterpretation of the relevant decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will not yield results,” Hajizada said, indicating that an ICJ decision earlier this month “once more demonstrated that the protection of its own security by Azerbaijan is legitimate.”

On July 6, the ICJ unanimously rejected Yerevan’s request to modify the court’s February 2022 decision on the “Armenia v. Azerbaijan” case, in which one of its demands was to remove the border checkpoint established by Baku at the entrance of the Lachin road.

On Wednesday, Borrell said that the EU is "deeply concerned about the serious humanitarian situation" in the region, while also claiming that movement through the Lachin road "remains obstructed for more than seven months."

Responding to the claim, Hajizada said that vehicles belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) pass through the road on a daily basis and that Azerbaijan continues to cooperate with the ICRC and facilitate the passage of medical supplies.

He further said that Azerbaijan made a proposal to use the Aghdam-Khankendi road and other alternative routes into the region for the transport of large amounts of cargo, while “taking into account threats originating from Armenia.”

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

In the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from Armenian occupation during 44 days of fighting. The war ended with a Russia-brokered peace agreement.

Despite ongoing talks on a peace agreement, tensions between the neighboring countries increased in recent months concerning the Lachin road, the only land route giving Armenia access to Karabakh.