Author: Greg Madatian

 16:40, 9 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan on March 9 held a meeting with the Ambassador of Finland to Armenia Kirsti Narinen.

Issues related to possibilities of bilateral cooperation in the defense sector were discussed, the defense ministry said in a read-out.

Minister Papikyan presented the course of the ongoing reforms in the Armenian military at the request of the ambassador.

A number of issues concerning regional security were also discussed.

 21:15, 9 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, ARMENPRESS. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Wopke Hoekstra, stressed the fact of Azerbaijan's occupation of the territory of Armenia, emphasizing that the EU calls on Azerbaijan to return to its borders of September 12, 2022, ARMENPRESS reports the Federation of Armenian Organizations of the Netherlands informs that the Minister said this in response to the questions of several parliamentary factions regarding the meeting of the leaders of the Netherlands and Azerbaijan in Davos.

Wopke Hoekstra informed that the meeting held in Davos in January between Prime Minister Rutte and President Aliyev was initiated by the Dutch side in order to convey the concerns about the blockade of Lachin Corridor, during which the Dutch Prime Minister emphasized that the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh should not become victims of the political situation and emphasized the unblocking of the Lachin Corridor in fulfillment of the 2020 trilateral agreement.

The Dutch FM informed that the Netherlands is also actively working within the framework of the EU and the Council of Europe to unblock the Lachin Corridor, noting that Azerbaijan is poorly implementing the rulings of the ECHR.

In the answers to the parliamentarians' questions, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands confirmed that Azerbaijan imports gas from Russia to ensure the fulfillment of its obligations to the European Union and emphasized that this issue will be raised by the European Commission.

Minister Wopke Hoekstra reaffirmed Azerbaijan's occupation of Armenian territory, stressing that the EU calls on Azerbaijan to return to the borders of September 12, 2022.

In his answers, the Minister also referred to the issue of Armenian prisoners of war held illegally in Azerbaijan, assuring that the necessity of their repatriation is constantly raised in negotiations with Azerbaijani officials.

 17:03,

YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. United States Ambassador to Armenia Kristina Kvien discussed the economic and security situations in Vayots Dzor and Syunik with the governors of the provinces, the embassy said in a statement on Friday.

“Ambassador Kvien met with Vayots Dzor governor Ararat Grigoryan and Syunik governor Robert Ghukasyan to discuss the economic and security situations in these regions. She pledged continued U.S. support for Armenia’s sovereignty and independence,” reads the US embassy statement posted on social media.

For Immediate Release

YEREVAN, Armenia — In March, the Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center (EPIC) of the American University of Armenia (AUA) will launch STRIVE Pre-U, an offshoot of its popular STRIVE program. STRIVE Pre-U is a condensed 8-week program specially designed for graduating 12th-grade high school students preparing to enter university. It will introduce students to the world of entrepreneurship and, more importantly, the entrepreneurial way of thinking, otherwise known as the growth mindset.

Alisa Chalakhyan (BAB ’19), STRIVE program leader, explains, “We have had several graduating high school students participating in the mainstream STRIVE program with much success. So we thought, ‘why not design an offshoot for the most eager and enthusiastic students that are getting ready to enter university?’” The program will likewise focus on mindset to establish open, flexible thinking and resilience in our younger generation: a way of thinking that will allow them to adapt and thrive in a constantly evolving Armenia and the world by developing entrepreneurial attitudes, behaviors, and skills. “It’s all about developing the thinking and skills to solve problems, mobilize resources, be innovative, and contribute to society in a multiplicity of ways, “Chalakhyan elaborates. With a new program focusing solely on high school students, EPIC aims to provide them with first-hand experience in a university setting before starting the next chapter in their lives.

Using an experiential, problem-based methodology, the program will encourage participants to apply what they learn in real-world, resource-constrained settings. STRIVE Pre-U is open to 12th-grade high school students who have no prior experience in entrepreneurship or startups but who are eager to learn and are open to new ideas and approaches. The program aims to help high school students develop valuable skills, build confidence, and create a positive impact.

STRIVE is designed to serve as the first stage in the startup journey of aspiring Armenian entrepreneurs. It is where talented individuals first familiarize themselves with entrepreneurship and begin understanding what it takes to succeed. “Entrepreneurs are trained to think a certain way. When others see a problem, entrepreneurs see an opportunity. Our new program will seek to strengthen participants’ leadership skills, interpersonal traits, and emotional intelligence, thereby planting seeds for growing creativity and critical thinking to identify and solve problems. As we all know, when it comes to entrepreneurship, it is not about what you think but about how you think,” states Sona Martirosyan, who will lead the STRIVE Pre-U program. Sona, a program assistant at STRIVE, is experienced in curriculum development and leading cohorts at the Startup School program organized by Startup Armenia Foundation for middle and high schoolers.

“I took part in the second batch of the STRIVE program as a junior student at AUA. At some point in the program, I caught myself thinking, ‘if only STRIVE were available when I was in high school.’ The more I learned about entrepreneurship, the more confident I became with my thoughts. I’m glad my younger friends will have the opportunity to do so now,” says Azat Harutyunyan, one of the graduates of the STRIVE program. Azat is now participating in EPIC’s Incubation program after forming a startup team during the EPIC Jam ideathon.

Registration for the program is now open. Application deadline is extended to March 10. Graduating high school students in Armenia have a unique opportunity with STRIVE Pre-U.

STRIVE is the first-of-its-kind pre-incubation program in the Armenian startup ecosystem. Designed to engage participants from all walks of life, regardless of prior work experience or the existence (or not) of a startup idea, the program aims to shape aspiring founders’ mindset by helping them define, analyze, and test the most fundamental concepts of entrepreneurship and innovation.

The Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center (EPIC) is a platform of the American University of Armenia (AUA) for promoting entrepreneurial education, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and startup venture incubation. EPIC provides an ecosystem for emerging entrepreneurs consisting of first-class facilities and collaborative workspace, programs and events, and a network of mentors, advisors, and investors. EPIC fosters the understanding and application of entrepreneurship in students and faculty at AUA to craft high-impact multidisciplinary ventures.

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 17:18, 3 March 2023

YEREVAN, 3 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 3 March, USD exchange rate down by 0.78 drams to 388.17 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.79 drams to 412.08 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate stood at 5.15 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.31 drams to 465.57 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 109.20 drams to 22915.69 drams. Silver price down by 2.96 drams to 259.58 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.

 21:28, 3 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 3, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is in a very difficult and dangerous period, maximum seriousness and flexibility are required from everyone to overcome the existing challenges, ARMENPRESS reports, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a meeting with representatives of the Armenian community in Germany.

"I cannot say that we have guaranteed the security of our country today, on the contrary, especially in these conditions, when geopolitical earthquakes take place. Under these conditions, we are in a very dangerous environment. But on the other hand, we also have an idea of what needs to be done in terms of managing this security environment. The peace agenda is very important for us. We understand that it is not an easy page for us. We understand that there are many risks there, we understand that peace does not depend only on us and our desire. Armenia is in a very difficult and dangerous period. We need maximum seriousness and flexibility in order to overcome the existing challenges," said the Prime Minister.

According to the Prime Minister, Armenia does not have deep economic problems, there are no problems also in terms of internal security and democracy either.

"Our problems are related to the external environment and security, and we share these concerns first of all on international platforms. In these conditions, we do not have good news, but in a bad environment, the good news is that some international attention is focused on Armenia and the region, and we should be able to use this attention to achieve lasting solutions and peace in the region, concluded Pashinyan.

 11:34, 1 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Russia hopes that the jointly developed peace initiatives will be implemented during the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict resolution, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

She described the region as “pivotal” and said that “there’s still hope that the peace initiatives which [Armenia and Azerbaijan] have developed jointly with Russia will be implemented,” TASS news agency quoted Zakharova as saying on Sputnik radio.

The Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman slammed as “indecent” what she described as “the West’s attempts to be involved in the South Caucasus.” Zakharova said the West is engaged in such a policy not for resolving the conflict but “quite the opposite."

“Unfortunately we’ve been observing such trends there for many years, and now the West is even more active,” Zakharova said.

The spokeswoman said there are no successful examples of conflict resolution with participation of Western partners, while the “number of conflicts is growing because of the collective West.”

 19:40,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. On February 28, Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, who was in Geneva, participated in the UN Human Rights Council 52nd Session and delivered remarks.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from MFA Armenia, FM Mirzoyan particularly said in his speech,

“Mr. President,

Distinguished colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Armenia congratulates the newly elected Bureau of the Human Rights Council under the Presidency of H.E. Mr. Václav Bálek. We would like to extend best wishes of success to H.E. Mr. Volker Türk, as this is his first Council session in the capacity of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Armenia reiterates its unwavering commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights. This year again, Armenia received the highest rankings in the region by the World Press Freedom Index and the Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit. 

As a member of the HRC, including at its Bureau in 2022, Armenia strived to make a meaningful contribution to the international efforts to promote and protect human rights worldwide. I would like to particularly emphasize Armenia’s contribution to international efforts on the prevention of genocide. We thank each and every state that supported the consensual adoption of the HRC resolutions on the Prevention of Genocide put forward by Armenia in 2022.

In 2023 we mark the 75th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide – the first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly. It was followed by the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the next day. There was no coincidence in such a succession, as it was the aftermath of the bloodiest and most violent war in the history of humanity. Those two documents laid the solid foundation for the human rights architecture of the United Nations.

Mr. President,

The UN Secretary-General has recently assessed that “we are facing the gravest levels of geopolitical division and mistrust in generations”. 2022 was a challenging year for the Human Rights Council as well.

As the High Commissioner recently put it, in spite of geopolitical differences the Council should be the place where we come together to protect our shared human rights values and our shared humanity. We concur with him that the greatest challenge of the human rights system has been to ensure equal attention to the protection of the rights of all.

We believe that the protection of the human rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh has been continuously overlooked. While we can appreciate the gravity of the situation elsewhere because of other conflicts and crises, there cannot be any hierarchies of suffering based on geopolitical considerations and interests.

Against all odds, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh have been striving to exercise their human rights freely. This determination has not changed even after devastating repetitive waves of repression and aggression of Azerbaijan that killed thousands of people and ruined hundreds of towns and villages, civilian infrastructure, cultural and religious heritage. The international community, however, remained largely inactive as Azerbaijan’s appetite was emboldened by impunity. The latter, then, attacked and occupied the sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia.

In the atmosphere of such total impunity, Azerbaijan continues to breach principles of the international human rights law and international humanitarian law. It has been for around 80 days that Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the outer world. Azerbaijan has also disrupted the electricity and is regularly cutting the gas supply. As a result, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan announced at the highest level that it can lift the blockade for all those who want to leave Nagorno-Karabakh. It is a creeping ethnic cleansing in making.

In this context, I would like to underline that on 22 February the International Court of Justice issued a legally binding provisional measure against Azerbaijan in the proceedings brought by Armenia against it, while unanimously rejecting Azerbaijan’s requests made in the parallel proceedings with respect to alleged laying of mines by Armenia. In the mentioned order, the Court has found that there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm to Armenians’ rights under the Convention for Elimination of Racial Discrimination and ordered Azerbaijan to take all necessary measures to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. The ICJ provisional measures are legally binding, however, thus far Azerbaijan failed to lift the blockade of the Lachin corridor.

Azerbaijan commits this crime amid the wide and truly global demand to open the Lachin Corridor, including by the UN Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In the same manner, Azerbaijan has failed to investigate the extrajudicial executions, torture, mutilation and desecration of the bodies of dead Armenian soldiers, including women, as was specifically called upon by the UN Special Procedure Mandate Holders. The UN Human Rights experts further emphasized that they still anticipate from Azerbaijan “information on the factual and legal reasons for the continued detention of the Prisoners of War after the cessation of hostilities, and the measures taken to inform families of the disappeared about their fate and the exact whereabouts.”

Let me conclude, Mr President, by expressing Armenia’s firm conviction that the deployment of the UN interagency mission to the Lachin Corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh is the bare minimum that the international community can do in these circumstances. The UN is bestowed with a universal mandate and should enjoy unconditional and unimpeded access to people in need. The UN human rights machinery should be utilized for saving lives, extending the necessary humanitarian assistance and protecting the human rights of the people concerned. The world needs positive and successful cases of the application of international mechanisms, the ones that they were created and mandated for. The international system cannot afford to sustain yet another failure.

And I thank you.”

 18:06,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Today marks the 35th anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms, which have become one of the most tragic and hideous pages in the recent history of the Armenian people. From February 27 to 29, 1988, in the city of Sumgait, located just 40 kilometers from Baku, with the criminal connivance and even at the direction of the Azerbaijani authorities, mass progroms against the Armenian population took place, accompanied by murders, torture and other atrocities, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Artsakh. Armed with sharp metal rods, axes, hammers and other improvised means, groups of pogromists, with the complete indifference of the city law enforcement, broke into the apartments of Armenians and retaliated against innocent people with incredible cruelty. During several days of violence, dozens of Armenians were killed, hundreds were brutally beaten and tortured, and thousands were forcibly displaced. The atmosphere of hatred towards Armenians was fueled by anti-Armenian slogans and calls for violence voiced during the rallies. The purpose of these criminal acts, organized by the Azerbaijani authorities, was to create an atmosphere of fear and thereby suppress the peaceful demands of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Sumgait massacre became the first large-scale manifestation of the discriminatory and genocidal policy pursued by Azerbaijan against the Armenian people for decades. This was followed by massacres of Armenians in other cities of Azerbaijan, in particular Baku, Kirovabad, Shamakhi, Shamkhor, Mingechaur and elsewhere, as well as three wars unleashed against Artsakh, which were accompanied by deliberate attacks on civilians, the use of prohibited and indiscriminate weapons and other war crimes.

The pogroms in Sumgait became the basis for the revival of intolerance and hatred against Armenians in Azerbaijan. Armenophobia was elevated to the rank of state policy. The inspirers and perpetrators of this heinous crime became a role model in Azerbaijan, and crimes against Armenians became the norm. Two years later, in January 1990, the Armenian pogroms in Baku were carried out under the slogan “Glory to the heroes of Sumgait!”. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan was not held accountable either for the pogroms in Sumgait or for subsequent genocidal actions, as a result of which an atmosphere of political permissiveness and impunity was formed for the authorities of this authoritarian state.

The combination of these factors – a sense of impunity and permissiveness, intolerance and hatred towards Armenians, as well as the desire to suppress the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination at any cost – led to the rooting of genocidal intentions against the people of Artsakh in the political consciousness and state policy of Azerbaijan. A clear manifestation of these criminal intentions is the blockade of Artsakh that has been going on for more than two months, and was driven by the desire of the Azerbaijani authorities to force the people of Artsakh to give up their collective rights, deprive them of their homeland and ultimately destroy them.
Even after 35 years, Azerbaijan's policy of oppression, intimidation, gross violations of human rights, the use or threat of force, as well as deportation and ethnic cleansing against the people of Artsakh has not changed. Nevertheless, despite all the difficulties and challenges currently facing the Republic, the people of Artsakh remain firm and determined to defend their rights in their historical homeland and continue the struggle for freedom, independence, democracy and human rights.

We bow to the memory of all innocent victims of Azerbaijan's aggressive and misanthropic policy, and once again call on the international community to take active and effective measures to break the vicious cycle of Azerbaijan's wrongdoings, prevent new crimes against humanity and bring those responsible to justice.