IM Artur Davtyan of Armenia took the 1st place in the Chessengland.com GM Festival FIDE Blitz tournament held in England on December 9.
Artur scored 13 points out of 14 and improved his blitz rating by 37 points, the Armenian Chess Federation reported.
Details can be found here.
https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2023/12/14/Artur-Davtyan/2939527
Hripsime Khurshudyan of Armenia has captured a gold medal at the IWF Grand Prix II in Doha, Qatar
The athlete lifted a total of 232kg (106kg in snatch and 126kg in clean and jerk) to win the gold medal in the women’s 87kg weight category on Wednesday.
The 87kg bronze went to Tatev Hakobyan who lifted 230kg (107kg in snatch and 123kg in clean and jerk).
Armenia's Aleksandra Grigoryan earned a bronze medal at the IWF Grand Prix earlier last week.
The IWF Grand Prix II Weightlifting 2023, a Paris 2024 Olympic qualifier, is being held in Doha from December 4 to 14.
Armenia’s third President Serzh Sargsyan has shrugged off the statement on the dissolution of the Artsakh Republic signed by its President Samvel Shakhramanyan.
He signed a decree to dissolve Artsakh's all state institutions from 1 January 2024 in line with the ceasefire deal with Azerbaijan in September.
"The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic cannot be dissolved by anyone's statement,” Sargsyan told reporters following a court hearing in his trial on Thursday.
Separately, the ex-president refused to comment on the would-be peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"How can I make any comments If I haven't seen the document?" he said, calling out the Armenian authorities for failure to disclose the agreement.
Council of Europe President Charles Michel during an interview with RFE/RL on Dec. 12
YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—The European Union’s top official, Charles Michel, has said that the EU keeps “working very hard” to help Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiate a comprehensive peace agreement.
“We are determined on the EU side to work with the partners and with them to ensure that as soon as possible a peace treaty will be signed between both sides,” Michel told RFE/RL in an interview.
In that regard, the president of the EU’s decision-making Council was encouraged by last week’s Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement to exchange prisoners reached as a result of direct negotiations.
“I would like to say that if it was possible for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make some joint announcements a few days ago, this is partially because we help them,” he said. “We encourage them. We suggested some options and some ideas to bring them closer to each other on the topics that have been announced. And we are still working on additional steps to encourage a peace treaty, a normalization agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
Michel was scheduled to host Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in October for further talks on the treaty. However, Aliyev cancelled the talks. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov likewise withdrew from a meeting with his Armenian counterpart slated for November 20 in Washington.
Michel declined to comment on Baku’s moves. “We are still working on a meeting that could take place in Brussels,” he said without giving potential dates.
Michel would also not say whether the EU or other world powers are ready to act as guarantors of Yerevan’s and Baku’s compliance with the would-be peace treaty. Nor did he clarify whether the treaty will likely make any reference to the rights and security of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population that fled to Armenia following Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive.
He pointedly declined to use the word “Karabakh,” referring instead to “this part of Azerbaijan” until recently populated by Armenians.
“We think that they [Karabakh Armenians] should have the right to return or at least to be able to visit this part of Azerbaijan and their security and rights must be guaranteed and there are international standards in terms of protection of the minorities that must be respected in line with the constitution of Azerbaijan, which should be a framework to guarantee those protections of minorities,” he said.
Brussels is therefore trying to “convince the Azerbaijani authorities to demonstrate that … they want to protect the minorities and to guarantee that the international standards are respected,” added Michel.
Even before their mass exodus triggered by the Azerbaijani offensive, Karabakh’s leaders and ordinary residents made clear that they will not live under Azerbaijani rule. Only a few dozen Karabakh Armenians are believed to remain in the territory recaptured by Baku. More than 100,000 others fled their homes later in September.
Growing up, whenever my attention would move to the causes of other peoples, my family and Armenian community would turn my attention back to our Armenian struggle, as if their hands were permanently embedded on my cheek, turning it the other way. Yet do we want to patent our victimhood and struggle? Is the Armenian struggle different or more important than other struggles?
In these past eight weeks, we have seen the death of over 20,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children. Families have been torn apart and entire lineages obliterated. We have seen the state of Israel perpetuate genocide. This is nothing new, but also begs us to ask our Jewish friends—is this the best you can do? Do you really believe you are the victims in this war? No civilian life should be taken, be it Palestinian or Israeli; however, there is something wrong in having to justify our support for an occupied people. Each day I come across a social media post and shake my head in disbelief at the delusions of many Zionists, the delusions of a people who justify their actions with their victimhood.
Our Armenian people also have delusions. Few Armenians are standing by the Palestinians, and I question the silence of our community. Some justify their stance by saying that Hamas congratulated Azerbaijan on taking Artsakh. This is true, and Al-Jazeera often sides with the Muslim side, but are we forgetting that Israel is a strong ally of Azerbaijan and armed them to commit genocide in Artsakh?
Recently, my husband Haig, my sister Taline and I climbed Mount Ararat. It was magical and one of the hardest things we have done. The highlight for me was the unity of all people, of Armenian and Kurdish guides, on our ancestral lands. Many Armenians do not want to step foot in historic Armenia because it is present day Turkey. Yet this land calls to us, recognizes us and knows us deeply.
It took us three days to climb the mountain amongst friends who quickly became best friends. When undergoing an arduous adventure, our vulnerabilities emerge, creating space for true humanity. On our first night at base camp one, we met a group of Israelis who were preparing for their climb. Born in Lebanon and having lived through war in my early years, I am a bit wary of Israelis when I first meet them and where their politics and feelings lie. The eldest of the group, Daniel, was 80 years old at the time and very friendly. He had been a runner all his life, having completed numerous marathons. Daniel was also an environmentalist. He opposed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu with passion, and as a progressive Jew, took part in many protests prior to coming on the trip.
On our first night, we partied under the full moon. We danced and sang, collecting our strength for the next day. Some of us felt a bit woozy from the elevation, but it was bearable. The Israeli group stood to the side watching us dance. Two of them joined, then retreated to their tent.
The next day was grueling, as we climbed and descended from Ararat in 14 hours. When we returned to base camp one, I noticed a Palestinian flag flying high. I ventured toward it and was excited to find a group of Palestinians preparing for their upcoming climb. We spoke a bit, and I told them that a group of Israelis was up on the mountain now. “They are progressives,” I said. Their eyebrows turned up. “Progressives. Let them show us how progressive they are. I would like to see that,” one of them said.
That evening, my body needed rest, and I had no choice but to lay in my sleeping bag. I heard the Palestinian group partying all night and fell asleep muttering about how much I wanted to join them. I still think of them often.
As survivors of genocide, we need to build alliances with other communities to take our cause further. We need to fight for our existence, side by side with people who fight for their existence. We need to incorporate Indigenous voices in our narrative and support Indigenous struggles. Ours is an Indigenous struggle, so why do we hesitate to support others?
For me, this was the highlight of our climb—people joined together in one place behaving like the humans that we are.
I ask myself why we cannot take this approach with us everywhere. As Armenians, we need to stand with the Palestinians. As survivors of genocide, we need to build alliances with other communities to take our cause further. We need to fight for our existence, side by side with people who fight for their existence. We need to incorporate Indigenous voices in our narrative and support Indigenous struggles. Ours is an Indigenous struggle, so why do we hesitate to support others? Why is it that we look at our struggle as us-against-them?
I believe our country has a bright future if we stand together. I pray that the narrative changes to allow for unity and the betterment of Armenia. As Hrant Dink wrote in one of his articles: “Come, let us first understand each other…Come, let us first respect each other’s pain…Come, let us first let one another live…”
The world has not been a safe place for Armenians, just as it has not been for the Jews. The victim mentality of seeing threats in many places is still present in the Armenian mindset. This approach perpetuates fear and promotes the intergenerational trauma within us.
How about a different narrative? How about not seeing ourselves as victims? How about not fearing the people around us? How about embracing our strengths and not defining ourselves just by 1915? How about making our ancestors proud by becoming stronger in unity?
In View (Image by Silvina Der Meguerditchian)
արդ եւս|in view is the only grant program dedicated to cultural creativity in the Western Armenian language.
Culture constitutes an essential resource for the development of a language and a people. Culture, as well as heritage, are vehicles for identities and values, and should be used to build stronger and wider frameworks promoting long-term, people-centered and climate-resilient development paradigms.
As a medium for _expression_, communication and reflection, culture plays a crucial role in provoking thought and inspiring action, thus shaping and renewing itself constantly. It highlights truths, inspires resilience, builds new narratives, challenges norms and sparks social change. Cultural and artistic practices have helped address issues such as inequality, corruption and discrimination, and have acted as catalysts for change. As a powerful medium for raising awareness, it is imperative to use culture and the arts to trigger engagement with local and global issues in the Armenian language for the benefit of the Armenian people.
The driving forces behind positive social change are ideas and actions with real-world implications. Culture accelerates resilience and rootedness, enabling participation and community empowerment; through արդ եւս|in view, the Armenian Communities Department is creating the conditions wherein it will be possible to achieve this in the Armenian world and in the Armenian language.
This year, the արդ եւս|in view Western Armenian culture grant program will enhance the immense potential that culture has to influence, challenge and transform society, at the same time bringing renewal to the language through which it is transmitted and to culture itself. The Western Armenian language will be used to create culture that is a driver for sustainable progress, a source of meaning and vitality, a wellspring of creativity and a resource to address challenges. The aim is to have a vibrant Armenian language and culture, and stronger communities, institutions and individuals around the world.
For more information, visit the grant page and read the call for applications. The deadline for applications is Jan. 31, 2024.
10:33,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian authorities are introducing a new regulation aimed at reducing the caseload of judges by an estimated 90%.
Announcing the reform on social media on Monday, Supreme Judicial Council President Karen Andreasyan said that starting December 11, banks, credit organizations, as well as utility operators (power, water, telecommunication) will file forfeiture complaints not exceeding 2,000,000 drams to notary’s offices, instead of courts.
“As a result of this process the workload of judges will reduce by 90%,” Andreasyan said.
Civil Court Judges currently having a caseload of 2000-4000 cases will have somewhere from 200 to 300 cases from spring 2024, Andreasyan said. “Therefore, civil cases will last several months instead of years.”
It took one year to finalize the reforms because it required legislative changes, the developments of a new computer system, training of notary’s and combination of programs in notary’s offices and the bailiff’s service.
15:00,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Former manager of the Armenian national football team Vardan Minasyan has endorsed Aras Ozbiliz for the presidency of the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA).
Ozbiliz, the former Armenia midfielder, is running for the FFA presidency against Armen Melikbekyan, the incumbent FFA chief seeking re-election. The election will take place on December 23.
Minasyan announced his support for Ozbiliz in a statement posted online.
“I know you as a person, and I know your ideas and plans in football. The fact that you went through the European football school and you know the modern trends in football also matters. Good luck, Aras,” Minasyan said.
Officials in Washington are doubling down on their efforts to create a new energy corridor that runs through the Caucasus, a major transit route for trade and energy that connects Europe and Asia.
Focusing on Armenia and Azerbaijan, two countries at odds over land and history, officials in Washington hope to link the two countries with energy pipelines, despite Azerbaijan’s recent incursion into Nagorno-Karabakh, which resulted in more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fleeing the territory in September.
“A transit corridor built with the involvement and consent of Armenia can be a tremendous boon to states across the region and to global markets,” State Department official James O’Brien told Congress in November.
For decades, U.S. officials have pursued geopolitical objectives in the Caucasus. Viewing the region as a strategically important area that connects Europe and Asia, they have sought to integrate the region with Europe while pulling it away from Iran and Russia, both of which maintain close ties to the region.
“The Caucasus is tremendously important as a crossroads between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East,” Senator James Risch (R-ID) said in a statement last year. “Trade agreements, energy deals, infrastructure, and investment all have the potential to better integrate the region within the transatlantic community.”
At the heart of U.S. planning is Azerbaijan. Given the country’s extensive energy resources, especially its oil and natural gas, U.S. officials have seen Azerbaijan as the key to creating a U.S.-led Caucasus that will help Europe transition away from its dependence on Russian energy.
“We have been hard at work, along with our European colleagues, over the course of the last decade, trying to help Europe slowly wean itself off of dependence on Russian gas and oil,” Senator Christopher Murphy (D-CT) explained at a hearing in September. “Part of that strategy has been to deliver more Azerbaijani gas and oil to Europe.”
Another reason for the U.S. focus on Azerbaijan is its location. With Russia to the north, the Caspian Sea to the east, and Iran to the south, U.S. officials have seen the country as “the epicenter of Eurasia energy policy,” as U.S. diplomats once described it. The United States has worked to position Azerbaijan as the starting point for an east-west energy corridor that benefits the West and deters a north-south corridor that would work to the advantage of Iran and Russia.
For the United States and its European allies, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline demonstrates the possibilities. Since 2006, the BTC pipeline has carried oil from Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean Sea, where it has been shipped to global energy markets. The pipeline is controlled by a consortium of energy companies headed by BP, the British oil giant.
“We need that to keep functioning,” State Department official Yuri Kim told Congress in September.
From the U.S. perspective, another major geopolitical achievement has been the Southern Gas Corridor. The corridor, which combines three separate pipelines, runs from Azerbaijan all the way to Europe. Since its initial deliveries of natural gas to Europe in 2020, the corridor has been critically important to keeping Europe supplied with energy during the war in Ukraine.
“That Southern Gas Corridor is extremely important for ensuring that there is energy diversity for Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, potentially Albania, and definitely Italy, and possibly into the Western Balkans,” Kim said. “We cannot underestimate how important that is.”
As pipelines carry oil and natural gas from Azerbaijan to the West, U.S. officials have sought to reinforce the east-west corridor by creating additional pipelines that run through Armenia. Not only would a pipeline through Armenia add another route to the corridor, but it would pull Armenia away from Russia, which maintains a military presence in the country and provides Armenia with most of its energy.
For decades, one of the major challenges to U.S. plans has been the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. As long as Armenia and Azerbaijan have remained at odds over the region, U.S. officials have seen few options for integrating Armenia into a broader east-west energy corridor.
“If not for the frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” U.S. diplomats reported in 2009, “the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline could have been routed through Armenia, reducing the distance and construction cost, and providing Armenia both an alternative source of gas as well as much-needed transit fees.”
In recent years, regional dynamics have rapidly shifted, however. As Azerbaijan grew flush with cash from its operations as an energy hub for the West, it began spending more money on weapons. With Israel and Turkey selling Azerbaijan increasingly sophisticated weapons, Azerbaijan built a large arsenal and acquired the upper hand over Armenia.
“Where other Western nations are reluctant to sell ground combat systems to the Azerbaijanis for fear of encouraging Azerbaijan to resort to war to regain [Nagorno-Karabakh] and the occupied territories, Israel is free to make substantial arms sales and benefits greatly from deals with its well-heeled client,” U.S. diplomats reported in 2009.
Emboldened by its growing power and influence, Azerbaijan made its move. As fighting broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan in late September 2020, Azerbaijan’s military forces took advantage of their advanced weaponry from Israel and Turkey to capture the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh.
Before Azerbaijan’s military forces could seize control of Nagorno-Karabakh, however, Russia intervened, brokering a ceasefire and deploying about 2,000 peacekeepers to the region. Although various observers portrayed the outcome as a victory for Russia, the deal did not last long.
This past September, Azerbaijan moved to take the rest of Nagorno-Karabakh, armed by additional supplies of Israeli weapons. Following Azerbaijan’s incursion, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled the territory for Armenia, where they remain today.
Now that Azerbaijan has taken control of Nagorno-Karabakh, U.S. officials are renewing their efforts to persuade Armenia and Azerbaijan to forge a peace deal that could be the basis for a new energy corridor.
“There is business to be done in this region,” State Department official James O’Brien told Congress in November.
At the Start Department, officials have been reviewing U.S.-funded plans for building the new energy corridor. As O’Brien noted, “the feasibility studies on this transit corridor [have] actually been done, funded by [the Agency for International Development (AID)], so we’re in the middle of seeing what kind of economic future there may be.”
Several obstacles stand in the way of U.S. plans. One possibility is that an increasingly emboldened Azerbaijan will invade Armenia and take the territory it wants for new pipelines. If Azerbaijan continues to acquire weapons from Turkey and Israel, it could take Armenian land by force, something that U.S. officials believe could happen.
“I think, from what I hear, the Armenians are concerned and feel threatened by that corridor and what it might imply for another grabbing of land by Azerbaijan,” Representative James Costa (D-CA) said at the hearing in November.
A related possibility is that Azerbaijan could work more closely with Russia. As Russia maintains military forces in Azerbaijan, it could facilitate a move by Azerbaijan to take Armenian land for a north-south energy corridor that benefits Russia.
Although Russia maintains a security pact with Armenia, relations have soured over Azerbaijan’s seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh, making it possible that Russia will side with Azerbaijan.
Another challenge is the Azerbaijani government. For years, critics have charged Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with leading a corrupt and repressive regime that has hoarded the country’s wealth while leaving the population to suffer.
In internal reports, U.S. diplomats have been highly critical of Aliyev. Not only have they compared him to mobsters, but they have suggested that the country “is run in a manner similar to the feudalism found in Europe during the Middle Ages.”
As critics have called on Washington to reconsider the U.S. relationship with Azerbaijan, some members of Congress have begun questioning U.S. strategy, particularly as it concerns the U.S. partnership with Aliyev.
The United States may have made “the wrong bet by moving more Azerbaijani resources into Europe,” Senator Murphy said in September. “This strategy of being dependent on a system and series of dictatorships… may not necessarily bear the strategic game that we think it does.”
Other members of Congress have questioned the State Department’s claims that a new energy corridor can bring peace to the region.
“I don’t see the peace process as going nearly as well as some of the description I’ve just heard,” Representative Costa said at the hearing in November. “It was ethnic cleansing that happened with the removal of these Armenians from their historic homeland in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Regardless, officials at the State Department remain confident in their plans. Pushing forward with efforts to forge a deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, they remain hopeful that they can create a new energy corridor that runs through Armenia, even if means that the ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh will never be able to return to their homes.
“As we go from the medium to the longer term, there’s going to have to be some effort made to help integrate these folks into Armenian life,” AID official Alexander Sokolowski told Congress in November. “Many of them dream of going back to Nagorno-Karabakh, but for right now, they’re oriented towards making a life in Armenia.”
https://fpif.org/in-the-caucasus-the-u-s-priority-is-fossil-fuels-not-armenians/
15:53,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. The Ministerial Meeting of the Landlocked Developing Countries will take place on December 14-15 in Yerevan, Armenia.
The meeting will be one of the biggest events held in Armenia jointly with the UN.
The ministerial event is an official themed meeting ahead of the Third United Nations Conference on the Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDC3) to be held in 2024 in Kigali, Rwanda.
The Yerevan meeting will be attended by over 30 foreign delegations, including the foreign ministers of Botswana and Nepal, the transport ministers of Zimbabwe, Eswatini and Lesotho, the tourism minister of Malawi, the deputy foreign ministers of Georgia and Paraguay, and deputy transport ministers of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
Representatives of international organizations will also attend the meeting, particularly the UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) Rabab Fatima, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) Tatiana Molcean, TRACECA Secretary General Aset Assavbayev and the deputy director general of WTO.
The secretaries-general of the World Customs Organization and the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), as well as UN officials, will deliver speeches via video.