18:22,
YEREVAN, 23 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. President Vahagn Khachaturyan today had a meeting with UK Ambassador to Armenia John Gallagher.
Ambassador Gallagher congratulated President Khachaturyan on the occasion of assuming the position and wished success.
At the meeting the sides exchanged views about the Armenian-British bilateral relations, regional security issues.
ArmInfo. The issues voiced by the residents of Tsovagyugh and Semenovka communities of Gegharkunik region are in the focus of attention of the Human Rights Defender (RA). This is stated in the statement of the office of the RA Human Rights Defender.
The message received by ArmInfo notes that the Human Rights Defender and representatives of the Gegharkunik regional department of the HRD were informed about the problems voiced by the residents of the abovementioned communities at today's protest action.
"Today, from the very first moment of blocking the road by residents and until now, we are closely following the voiced demands and are in direct contact with representatives of the Ministry of Territorial Administration, Infrastructure and Gegharkunik region. Representatives of the HRD are also in touch with individual residents on the spot. The Human Rights Defender will continue to keep the issues raised by the residents in the field of his immediate attention, will contribute to resolving the situation within his competence," the RA Human Rights Defender said in a statement.
It should be noted that today, March 23, residents of the villages of Tsovagyugh and Semenovka of the enlarged community of Sevan blocked the Yerevan-Sevan highway and demanded a meeting with the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of Armenia Gnel Sanosyan. The villagers are against the enlargement of the communities. In this regard, they demand that Sanosyan come personally and solve their problems. The protesters say that the road will be closed until Sanosyan himself arrives. Residents of the community also asked for forgiveness from all citizens who suffered today as a result of the road closure. "Our war is not with the government, our war is with Sanosyan. Let him come personally and we will open the road," the protesters said, noting that Sanosyan had already deceived them earlier. Sanosyan has not yet responded to the demand, the road continues to be blocked. It should be noted that the residents of Semyonovka and Tsovagyugh on December 5, 2021, boycotted the elections to local governments. It is also worth noting that the inhabitants of the Armenian villages in the majority opposed the enlargement of communities, assuring that this would lead to a new outflow of the population. However, the opinion of the villagers was ignored.
17:55,
YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS. An unknown person reported about the threat of an explosion on a Moscow-Yerevan plane, ARMENPRESS reports a source in the law enforcement told TASS.
“Sheremetyevo Airport received an anonymous e-mail stating that there is a mine on a plane flying from Moscow to Yerevan. The inspection of the plane will be carried out at the airport of arrival”, the source said. The source did not specify from which airport the flight was carried out.
According to Flightradar24, two planes flying from Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports are currently flying to Yerevan. None of them sounded the alarm.
19:55,
YEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in Moscow on March 15, ARMENPRESS reports the Russian Foreign Ministry informs. The parties will discuss the situation with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear program and the developments in Ukraine.
"The Ministers will pay special attention to the situation over the Comprehensive Joint Action Plan on the Iranian nuclear program in the context of the completed negotiations in Vienna. The situation in Ukraine in the context of the special operations by the Russian Armed Forces will be addressed," the statement said.
The Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Artsakh denounced Azerbaijan’s recent provocations, which pose a threat to regional peace and stability. Below is the full statement released by the ministry on Thursday.
"On March 9 and 10, the Azerbaijani armed forces targeted the civilian population of Martuni region’s Khnushinak and Karmir Shuka villages and Askeran region’s Khramort village, employing large-caliber firearms, as a result of which one civilian was wounded.
In the night of March 8, the only gas pipeline leading to the Republic of Artsakh was damaged, depriving the entire territory of the country of gas supply. The damaged section is in the area under the control of the Azerbaijani armed forces. To date, the Azerbaijani side is hindering the repair of the gas pipeline, due to which the entire population of Artsakh is facing a range of humanitarian problems, which are especially severe due to the cold weather conditions.
During the past week, the adversary, through loudspeaker announcements, constantly urged the peaceful population of Khramort to leave the village, threatening the people with physical revenge.
Official Baku's policy is, as always, highly destructive. It grossly violates the principles of international law and humanity, represents in its essence a combination of Armenophobia, Nazism and terrorism.
The Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Artsakh strongly condemns the provocative actions of Azerbaijan, which are a threat to regional peace and stability, a blow to the Russian peacekeeping mission, a challenge to the civilized world, and should not be left unresponded.
The recent developments once again demonstrate the real intentions of Azerbaijan towards the Armenian people, Artsakh and its future.
The determination of the people of Artsakh to live in their homeland and defend it was, is and will remain unshakable."
13:06, 5 March, 2022
YEREVAN, MARCH 5, ARMENPRESS. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Poland and Romania next week, Reuters reports citing the statement of her office.
Harris’ visit is scheduled from March 9 to March 11, her office said.
The talks with the leaderships of Poland and Romania will focus on the situation in Ukraine.
It is hard to believe that thirty-four years had passed since the trajectory of my life and the lives of hundreds of thousands Armenians who were born in Azerbaijan veered into thousands of different directions. On February 27, 1988, and for several days after, the events that would later be named “The Sumgait Pogroms” took place in my home country, then Soviet Azerbaijan.
Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte, author of “Nowhere, a Story of Exile,” human rights advocate, philanthropist, and founder of “astvatsaturian.org”, warns how Ethnic violence against Armenians will happen again unless…..
These pogroms targeted the Armenian minority population of the seaside town of Sumgait in Azerbaijan. Violent rioting mobs of ethnic Azerbaijanis stormed the streets and broke into homes of ethnic Armenian citizens of that peaceful city. These mobs attacked and killed Armenians both on the streets and in their homes, while the police observed and let the events unfold and medical personnel refused to assist the victims.
This was the start of the end of the Soviet Union. This was the end of my childhood. The events were triggered by a movement of liberation in the ancestral Armenian land of Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh as Armenians call it.
In the 1920s this historic Armenian region was handed over to Azerbaijan by Joseph Stalin to instill constant tension in the region by his divide and conquer policy. In the beginning of 1988 Nagorno-Karabakh demanded to be reinstated back to Armenia, asserting self-determination by a referendum in accordance with the Soviet Constitution.
The Azerbaijani government did not tolerate this. Instead of peacefully negotiating with the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, who made up close to 99% of its population, the government began an offensive, both militarily in Nagorno-Karabakh, and internally against the peaceful citizens of Azerbaijan of Armenian decent.
The propaganda machine began its skilled operation, fueling anger and hatred in the everyday Azerbaijanis toward their innocent Armenian neighbors. Soon after the Sumgait Pogroms more Armenian citizens suffered the results of this government-orchestrated hate, and in November 1988, the unfolded in a large city of Kirovabad.
Eventually, after months of riots, the violence hit home in January of 1990 in Baku, the capital city where I was born and lived; the city which prided itself on tolerance, multiculturalism, diversity and peace.
For a span of a week in this horrible January the Armenian community of Baku was raped, tortured and killed. Pregnant women were molested, little girls raped in front of their parents’ eyes, Christian crosses burned on their backs, elderly men and women robbed and set on fire.
These violent mobs travelled from home to home, attacking only Armenian households, as if someone was directing them. And indeed, someone was clearly directing them – these massacres were orchestrated by the Azerbaijani government.
Baku was no longer our home. This was a place we had to flee like hundreds of thousands of other Armenian citizens of Azerbaijan, lucky to be alive.
Some left bruised, beaten, with nothing, in the middle of the night in their nightgowns, boarding ships to nowhere. Others left hurriedly to distant places away from everything they knew and everyone they loved.
We lost our lives, our security, our belongings, our homes. The graves of my grandparents in Baku are no longer there because they were demolished, as were all of the Armenian cemeteries in Baku and the rest of Azerbaijan. The Armenian Church I treasured visiting as a child was set ablaze.
The first Artsakh War ended in a ceasefire in 1994. Although post ceasefire the Armenians of Artsakh gained full control of their borders, their own democratically-elected government and a Constitution, along with their own military and a functioning economy, for three decades they were isolated, unrecognized and blocked from the humanitarian aid and the human rights owed to them by humanity. And that wasn’t the end of their suffering.
When in 2020 Azerbaijan launched an offensive against Artsakh the world was reminded of anti-Armenianism, ethnic hatred of Armenians, and disregard to who was watching. The world was watching and doing nothing. Armenians were not wanted on their own soil and they were almost annihilated.
The rhetoric against innocent Armenians has tripled in the last three decades, especially after the latest war. Everyday Azerbaijanis are fed anti-Armenian propaganda by their government. There is a generation of Azerbaijani children that are taught by government-regulated schools that Armenians are monsters.
How does one live with a neighbour that is so prejudiced and violent toward Armenians, a country that so outrageously portrays itself as a beacon of tolerance and a model of multicultural, yet bombs Armenian churches and Armenian babies with F16s and weaponized drones? I don’t know. I don’t have any idea.
But one thing I learned from my family’s history with three instances of anti-Armenian violence (Armenian Genocide, the Baku massacres of 1918, and massacres at the end of the Soviet Union), is that we have to expect and be prepared that ethnic violence against Armenians will happen again.
Today I honour the victims of Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku Pogroms. I bow my head to the defenders of the Homeland in the 2020 Artsakh War. All these deaths were unnecessary.
I honour the Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan and all they have been through. You are not forgotten and your pain and suffering will not be in vain. There is a generation of Artsakh babies born in Artsakh everyday. They still live in their, albeit smaller and broken, Homeland, and I will never stop working for their independence, peace and future.
READ MORE: First Ambassador to Armenia Chrysantopoulos: Azerbaijan is committing “cultural fascism” on Armenian heritage.
17:16, 2 March, 2022
YEREVAN, MARCH 2, ARMENPRESS. Human Rights Defender of Armenia Kristinne Grigoryan says Armenophobia in Azerbaijan is a result of state policy which has existed both in the Soviet times and also continued since its independence.
During a public debate today relating to the Armenophobia in Azerbaijan and the danger of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh, the Defender said that the 2020 September 27 war unleashed by Azerbaijan was accompanied by large-scale hate and hostility propaganda supported by the Azerbaijani authorities.
“Armenophobia finds its practical _expression_ in the public speeches of the Azerbaijani president. He is making expressions full of threats, insults and hostility addressed to the Armenian people, the populations of Armenia and Artsakh. His is making such remarks which obviously contain manifestations of fascism. Unfortunately, Armenophobia is an internal and external political tool for the Azerbaijani authorities”, she said.
She emphasized the fact that during the 2020, while torturing, beheading the Armenian servicemen and civilians, and conducting other violent acts, the Azerbaijani servicemen were using the same expressions which their President used and continues using.
According to the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, that propaganda in Azerbaijan has two grounds – ethnic and religious.
She says the violation of the special measure imposed by the International Court is proved by the working group set up by Azerbaijan at a state level, whose task is to falsify and eliminate the Armenian cultural heritage.
Representative of Armenia to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Yeghishe Kirakosyan in his turn said that the propaganda of hatred against ethnic Armenians has several components, the first one of which is the propaganda within Azerbaijan, which is reflected in public speech by their top officials.
“The statements of the Azerbaijani president served as a base for brutal killings during the war. It is the atmosphere created by such propaganda that awakens atrocities in people leading them to war crimes”, he said.
10:58, 1 March, 2022
YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. US Congressman Adam Schiff issued a statement condemning Azerbaijani attacks on Armenians in Sumgait (1988) and Baku (2000) and ongoing aggression against Armenia and Artsakh, the Armenian National Committee of America reported.
Rep. Schiff's full statement is below:
“Yesterday, we marked the 34th anniversary of the Sumgait and Baku pogroms. Beginning on February 27, 1988, and for three days following, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians – leaving hundreds of civilians dead and injured and women and girls were raped. Some victims were thrown from windows and burned alive. Tens of thousands were forced to flee.
After two years, it was estimated that only 40,000 of the 250,000 Armenian residents of Baku remained in Azerbaijan. On January 13, 1990, organized Azerbaijani mobs turned on them, too, killing hundreds and injuring many more.
The pogroms came as a direct result of years of vicious, racist anti-Armenian propaganda by Azerbaijani authorities, dehumanizing the Armenian residents of Azerbaijan and laying the groundwork for mass violence. Azerbaijani authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities and deny the government’s role in instigating the attacks.
As we reflect on yesterday's anniversary, we honor the victims of this ghastly injustice and pledge to speak out against hatred so that history will not repeat itself. But tragically, more than three decades later, that is exactly what has happened. Beginning on September 27, 2020, and over 44 days, Azerbaijani forces once again targeted and murdered innocent Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, and displaced tens of thousands more. Today, Azerbaijani aggression against the people of Armenia and Artsakh continues. Armenian soldiers are still illegally detained and subject to torture while thousands of civilians still live in danger. Religious and cultural Armenian sites that have fallen under Azerbaijani control are under constant threat.
These are the horrific consequences when aggression and hatred grow unchecked – and it is why, whether these crimes against humanity occurred one year, thirty years, or a hundred years ago, we can never allow them to go unrecognized. More than that, it is why the United States must fully step into its role as a defender of democracy and peace around the world. We must not relent in our calls for the safe and unconditional release of the remaining Armenian prisoners of war and captured civilians, for the end of U.S. assistance to the Aliyev regime, and for stronger efforts to support democracy in Armenia and a free, independent Artsakh.
So let us pause to remember those who suffered in the atrocities of the Sumgait and Baku programs. But let us also recommit ourselves and our nation to doing everything we can, today, to bring liberation to our Armenian brothers and sisters abroad, once and for all”.
12:38, 1 March, 2022
YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. halt all future theatrical film releases in Russia, TASS reports citing CNBC.
“Given the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis, we are pausing the release of theatrical films in Russia, including the upcoming ‘Turning Red’ from Pixar”, The Walt Disney Company said in a statement Monday, CNBC reported. The management of the company will make future business decisions based on the evolving situation, it added.
Warner Bros. informed it was pausing the release of “The Batman" in Russia” in light of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine”, according to CNBC.
“We will continue to monitor the situation as it evolves”, the company said in a statement. “We hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to this tragedy”.