Author: Emil Karabekian

Armenian Robin the Robot vying for Golden Kitti Award 2020

Emil Karabekian
Public Radio of Armenia
Jan 22 2021
Armenian Robin the Robot vying for Golden Kitti Award 2020

Robin the Robot developed by Armenia-based Expper Technologies is vying for Golden Kitti Award 2020.

The Armenian-made product has been shortlisted for the award along with Apple MacBook Pro, iPhone 12 Pro, PlayStation 5, Apple Watch and others.

Voting is open on Producthunt.

– Public Radio of Armenia

Robin is the first “emotionally intelligent” companion for children.

Developed by the Expper Technologies Robin is a friendly robot that expresses emotions and builds interactive dialogues with children.

By engaging them in play and peer-to-peer conversations, Robin reduces their feeling of loneliness and mitigates their stress during their hospital stay.

The purpose is to support children during medical treatment and alleviate their pain by creating positive experiences.

“Hospitalized children have certain emotional needs and I’m here to address them in a new, personalized way,” a post on the company’s website says on behalf of Robin.

Ex-minister says life and health of Armenian captives not at risk

Emil Karabekian
Aysor, Armenia
Jan 21 2021


Former emergency situations minister Felix Tsolakyan took to Facebook to say that he is receiving many calls regarding the lists of Armenian captives, their condition and their safe return to homeland.

“I want to inform our compatriots that today I have discussed the issues of our captives as well as a number of issues relating to Armenia’s security with Russia’s ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopirkin,” he said, adding that the ambassador briefed on the works carried out to safely return captives to Armenia and convinced that Russian leadership and MFA are heartily dealing with the issues of safe return of Armenians.

“Immediately after the conversation with the Russian ambassador I had a phone conversation with vice prime minister Tigran Avinyan who too briefed on the works and convinced that everything is being done to ensure safe return of captives to Homeland,” Tsolakyan wrote.

“The already carried out and ongoing work inspires hope that the life and health of our captives are not at risk. We are looking forward to return of our compatriots captured by Azerbaijan,” Tsolakyan wrote.

 

Ombudsman hails “exemplary” cooperation between Armenia and Diaspora on human rights

Emil Karabekian
Public Radio of Armenia
Jan 19 2021

– Public Radio of Armenia

From the very start of this war, Garo Ghazarian and Karnig Kerkonian, Co-Chairs of the Armenian Rights Watch Committee (ARWC), prominent Armenian lawyers in the United States, have supported colleagues in Armenia every day since 27 September 2020, Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan said as he hailed it as an example of true cooperation between Homeland and Diaspora in the field of human rights.

Mr. Ghazarian is based in Los Angeles and Mr. Kerkonian, in Chicago.

“Throughout the war, they played an unparalleled role in protecting human rights in Artsakh and Armenia, by assisting the Human Rights Defenders in Armenia and Artsakh in compiling, monitoring, reporting, documenting and analyzing war crimes by Azerbaijan, and by cultivating strong ties with international human rights organizations in the United States and other countries.,” the Ombudsman said in a Facebook post.

“Thanks to their efforts, cooperation was fostered with other Armenian organizations in the Diaspora too, they being the bridge between the Armenian Diaspora, on the one hand, and Armenia and Artsakh, on the other.,” Tatoyan added.

He said Mr. Ghazarian and Mr. Kerkonian, through their dedicated efforts and true professionalism, have raised and continue to raise public awareness through the Armenian Bar Association of the United States about the hostilities, the true objectives of the Azerbaijani authorities, including Azerbaijani war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Artsakh and Armenia.

“During this time, they also led a series of widely-broadcast public discussions not only on legal matters related to the war, but also on its geopolitical and historical implications. Thanks to their devoted public activities and engagements, not only the Armenian Diaspora, but also the international community, was accurately informed about the war. Their efforts and contributions have been simply invaluable,” the Human Rights Defender noted.

To this day, he said, Garo Ghazarian and Karnig Kerkonian continue to support the Human Rights Defenders Offices of Armenia and teh Republic of Artsakh by providing their assistance around the clock in all human rights matters and issues (i.e. official letters to international bodies, follow-up work on the return of prisoners of war, recording of Azerbaijani war crimes, and a host of other issues).

“It is especially important that they, as long-time practicing lawyers in the United States, utilize their practical knowledge and experience to support us. They are our partners, and as partners, they also did absolutely the same selfless service during our crisis in April of 2016, during July of 2020, and indeed during all other periods of hostilities and crisis in years past,” Arman Tatoyan emphasized.

He added that the lawyers continue to undertake measures to protect the rights of Armenians in other countries of the world, from the Middle East to Europe, from South America to the United States of America and other countries.

“Their support over the years is a genuine example of what cooperation between Armenia and Artsakh and the Diaspora should be like,” the Ombudsman concluded.

CivilNet: Russian TV Portrays Karabakh Move as Humanitarian, Political Success

Emil Karabekian
CIVILNET.AM

06:15

By Emil Sanamyan

Russia’s Channel 1 dedicated roughly eight minutes of its hour-long Sunday news show to Karabakh, which included interviews with local residents, Russian personnel in Karabakh and selective citations of Western media commentary.

“Big thank you to your president Putin, he saved us, and stopped the war,” says Inessa Safaryan, living in temporary housing for internally displaced in Stepanakert. “If it wasn’t for Russia, for Russian soldiers, none of us would be here.”

The report continues by highlighting the work of Russian de-miners clearing unexploded ordinance and military medics providing health services to locals. “People here haven’t seen doctors of this qualification for a long time,” says the narrator.

The report continues with description of the Russian peacekeeping deployment and mission to safeguard the cease-fire along the line of contact and the link between Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia.

“Had Russian peacekeepers come earlier, this war would not have happened,” says an elderly man in Stepanakert’s main square. The narrator adds: “Putin’s role in securing the cease-fire saved thousands, if not tens of thousands of lives.”

“Western media, which is typically not very sympathetic to Russia had to recognize our country’s accomplishments,” the narrator continues, presenting a quote from an article in the Wall Street Journal calling Russian peacekeeping in Karabakh, a “geopolitical triumph.”

“Russia used this opportunity to win internationally and to increase its regional influence,” reports an Eastern European publication. “The West is losing its regional influence,” adds a German newspaper.

“It is hard to remember another conflict that would stop so quickly after introduction of peacekeepers,” the narrator continues. “This became possible with Putin’s mediation.” The report concludes with Vladimir Putin, Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan making positive comments about the cease-fire and its implementation at their January 11 meeting in Moscow.

This piece was originally published in Focus on Karabkah.

Emil Sanamyan is a South Caucasus specialist based in Washington D.C.. He is the editor of the University of Southern California Focus on Karabakh platform. 

COVID-19: Armenia reports 448 new cases, 603 recoveries in one day

Emil Karabekian

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 11:24,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 14, ARMENPRESS. 448 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one day, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 163,576, the ministry of healthcare said today.

603 more patients have recovered in one day. The total number of recoveries has reached 151,849.

12 more patients have died, raising the death toll to 2963.

2612 tests were conducted in the past one day.

The number of active cases is 8043.

The number of patients who had coronavirus but died from other disease has reached 721 (6 new such cases).

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

COVID-19: Armenia reports 396 new cases, 471 recoveries in one day

Emil Karabekian

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 10:46,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. 396 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Armenia in the past one day, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 163,972, the ministry of healthcare said today.

471 more patients have recovered in one day. The total number of recoveries has reached 152,320.

11 more patients have died, raising the death toll to 2974.

2546 tests were conducted in the past one day.

The number of active cases is 7952.

The number of patients who had coronavirus but died from other disease has reached 726 (5 new such cases).

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Pashinyan Administration vows continuous efforts to repatriate PoWs from Azeri custody

Emil Karabekian

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 15:42,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 14, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian vowed to lawmakers today that the Armenian government will continue efforts for repatriating all Armenian prisoners of war and other detained people who are currently held in Azeri custody.

“The fabricated charges against Armenian servicemen and the initiation of criminal cases against them in Azerbaijan is a violation of not only the trilateral statement but the Geneva conventions,” Aivazian told lawmakers at the foreign relations committee of parliament.

 “These factors do not contribute to the efforts of forming trust in the region, because the most important pledge for developing trust is the implementation of the assumed obligations. Armenia pursues on the highest level the issues of returning prisoners of war. Armenia will continue its efforts with the purpose of returning all prisoners of war and hostages and finding out the fates of those missing,” he said.

Aivazian said the foreign ministry is cooperating with international partners in this direction by combining its steps with other authorized bodies.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Slowing Armenian Strangulation in Azerbaijan

Emil Karabekian
Church Militant
Jan 14 2021
Slowing Armenian Strangulation by Azerbaijan
News: Commentary
by Trey Blanton •  ChurchMilitant.com •  
While Muslims in Azerbaijan consolidate their stranglehold on conquered Armenian territory, humanitarian aid to the area is being used to slow the process.
 
The president of Muslim-majority Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Moscow Monday — their first face-to-face since the end of hostilities between their peoples on Nov. 9.
 
Church Militant has reported on the nearly seven-week conflict, which was sparked in September when Azerbaijan invaded the Republic of Artsakh — an Armenian enclave known to Azerbaijanis as Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict ended in a tenable peace deal brokered by Russia.
 
'Restoring' or 'Reversing' Heritage?
 
The irony has not been lost on Armenians. It was under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin that Armenia's historical lands in Artsakh were first gifted to Azerbaijan. Now, in the post-Soviet period, the international community rejects the right of the enclave's Armenian population to self-determination.
 
With military conflict halted for the moment, President Aliyev of Azerbaijan has vowed multiple times to "restore" Azerbaijan's heritage in Artsakh, which has historically been populated almost exclusively (90%) by Armenians.
 
 “Aliyev's 'restoration' may include … the destruction of Christian buildings or their conversion to secular or Muslim use.Tweet
 
Aliyev's "restoration" may include the construction of airports and railroads in the conquered territory and, as many Armenians fear, the destruction of Christian buildings or their conversion to secular or Muslim use.
 
History: Rife With Conquest, Occupation
 
Aliyev's actions follow historically validated methods of conquest. The most famous example in the West: the Norman Conquest of Britain, in which William the Conqueror invaded England and consolidated his rule after the Battle of Hastings and his coronation in London. He did so by giving land to those loyal to him and securing their possessions with motte-and-bailey castles across the land.
 
Even more historical examples come from the Turks themselves and their Muslim-Arab predecessors. Raymond Ibrahim's book, Sword and Scimitar, describes the 14-century pattern. For example, the Seljuk Turks invaded Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and won a resounding victory at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Though the Turks failed to conquer Constantinople in the 11th century, they took over most of the region and established the Sultanate of Rum.
 
In war, the players that don't win it all take what they gain and build it up as their own. Reversals occurred back-and-forth due to the involvement of the Crusaders, the Mamelukes and the Mongols until finally, the Turks won it all in 1453 when Constantinople fell.
 
Armenians today are all too familiar with the concept that history never stops. They remember the plight of their grandparents during the Armenian Genocide of 1915, when 1.5 million Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and others — all Christians — were slaughtered or driven out into arid regions of neighboring countries.
 
Economic, Educational Help
 
Humanitarian organization Christians in Need Foundation (CINF) is looking past the turmoil caused by the Wuhan virus and the attack by Azerbaijan to continue its work strengthening education and cultivating trade skills in the capital of Artsakh, Stepanakert.
 
CINF recognizes the need for the Armenian diaspora to support their homeland and has worked ambitiously to counter the growing power of Armenia's Turkic neighbors by focusing on improving the local economy.
 
CINF began in 2014 with an attempt to bring eight Syrian Christians into the United States for educational purposes; their visas were denied by the Obama administration.
 
“Armenians' survival may depend on the skill of the people of Artsakh to live while cut off from foreign support.
Undeterred, CINF decided to go instead to the students of the Near and Middle East, beginning with Artsakh. Classes have been successful in teaching English and Italian to Armenian students in Artsakh in preparation to learn courses in the Practica Project. The Project promotes local business growth in various trades including hospitality, tailoring, cosmetology, ham and wine-making.
 
The onset of COVID-19 has moved preliminary courses online and increased construction costs by $250,000 for what will become its vocational school. More financial help is needed.
The project has already seen $30,000 worth of donated equipment for use by Italian artisans who will travel to Artsakh to give the students hands-on experience in a simulated restaurant, carpentry shop and hair salon.
 
Preserving Ancient Christian Communities
 
CINF Executive Director Stephanie Havens shared with Church Militant why she is passionate about the organization's work:
 
 
CINF works through education to preserve ancient Christian communities such that they can independently sustain their communities and defend their traditions. Throughout the Middle and Near East, Christian communities with ancient roots are threatened, both physically by their neighbors and ideologically by progressivism.
 
Likewise, the ancient Christian communities throughout the Middle and Near East preserve many of the first traditions of Christianity. In many ways, they are our strongest link back to the origins of the Faith. We do what we do not only to protect these Christian communities, but also for the rest of the Western world. It is our hope that these ancient Christian communities will stand as models of the Christian faith, encouraging throughout the West, especially among the youth, a return to these traditions and values.
 
As Azerbaijan and its puppet master in Turkey greedily eye the remaining Armenian territory, Western nations are ignoring the jihadi expansion. The world ignored Hitler's increasing aggression until it was too late. A week prior to Hitler's invasion of Poland he famously said, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
 
CINF knows Armenians' survival may depend on the skill of the people of Artsakh to live while cut off from foreign support.
 
For Havens and the rest at CINF, careful planning with Artsakh's minister of education will help ensure students and teachers are safe in September from the ever-morphing threats of viruses and terrorists alike.
  

Russia never called for neglecting status of Nagorno-Karabakh — Foreign Ministry

Emil Karabekian
TASS, Russia 

Jan 13 2021
 
Moscow has never said the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement must be confined to the return of seven districts of the region, special ambassador Igor Popov said in the wake of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan’s article Origins of the 44-Day War
MOSCOW, January 13. /TASS/. Russia has never said the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement must be confined to the return of seven districts of the region to Azerbaijan without taking care of its status, the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, special ambassador Igor Popov said in the wake of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s article Origins of the 44-Day War.
 
"Claims to the effect Russia called for returning seven districts ‘in exchange for nothing’ and forgetting about its status have nothing to do with the reality," the diplomat said.
 
Popov said that in his article Pashinyan most likely used the term "Russian proposals" in relation to the multi-stage settlement plan. Its latest version was handed over to the conflicting parties in June 2019.
 
"That plan, largely identical to the Kazan document, is based on the fundamental principles of the Karabakh settlement, such as the return of five districts to Azerbaijan in the first phase and another two in the second phase. It should be stressed that the handover was firmly linked with the determination of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status," he explained.
 
The diplomat also stressed that among other elements of the first stage reflecting Armenia’s interests was the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh’s rights that would guarantee full-scale activity of its population, participation of Nagorno-Karabakh’s representatives in OSCE sessions, the lifting of the blockade, the opening of borders and the bilateral pledge not to use force.
 
About the question of the territories’ status Popov said it should be remembered that among the proposals that remained on the negotiating table in recent years there were the determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh "by means of holding (within the dates agreed by the sides and under the aegis of the UN or the OSCE) popular voting that would express in a free way the will of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population and be legally binding in accordance with the rules and norms of international law." The diplomat stressed that the question or questions to be put to the vote would be formulated with no restrictions set and that any outcome of the voting was to be respected by the sides.
 
"Incidentally, it was proposed that the width and status of the Lachin corridor would be considered only in the second phase following the return of the Kelbajar and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan," he added.
 
Popov stressed that neither the Armenian side nor the Azerbaijani one rejected this proposal. Although complete accord remained unachieved, negotiations had continued on a regular basis up to 2018, when Yerevan came out with new approaches.
 

Putin holds government meeting on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement

Emil Karabekian
TASS, Russia
Jan 10 2021
Russian Politics & DiplomacyJanuary 10, 16:33
MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with senior officials on issues of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement ahead of his talks with the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders, the Kremlin said on Sunday.
 
"Ahead of a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Vladimir Putin held a government meeting on issues of Nagorno-Karabakh settlement and the situation in the South Caucasus," as follows from a press statement posed on the Kremlin website.
 
Participants in the meeting included Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, director of th Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, and director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin.
 
Other topics included issues of security during the New Year holdays.
 
The Kremlin press service said earlier that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan were expected to arrive in Moscow on Monday, January 11, to take part in trilateral talks on the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The sides plan to discuss the implementation of their November 9, 2020 statement on Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as further steps to resolve problems of the region.
 
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July.
 
On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. Under the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides stopped at the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachinsky corridor that connects Armenia with the enclave to exercise control of the ceasefire observance. Apart from that, a number of districts came over to Baku’s control.