Author: Hovik Karapetian

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian says the case of Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin will not become a precedent.

“I can’t say who will benefit from the Lapshin case, but it will certainly not add honor to anyone,” Edward Nalbandian told a press conference today.

“On the contrary, persecuting people for exercising their fundamental rights to the freedom of movement and freedom of expression is a shame,” the Foreign Minister said.

According to Minister Nalbandian, the case will hardly become a precedent.

“People have visited and will keep visiting Nagorno Karabakh,” Edward Nalbandian said. “More and more people have been visiting Nagorno Karabakh over the past years despite Azerbaijan’s discontent.

The visitors include not only outstanding public, political and culture figures, but also tourists.

“The more they [Azerbaijan] try to prevent the visits, the more they advertise Nagorno Karabakh. Everyone wants to go and see it,” the Minister noted.

“This only causes harm Azerbaijan’s reputation and the reputation of all those cooperating with Azerbaijan on such issues,” Edward Nalbandian said.

On December 15, 2016, police in Belarus detained Mr. Lapshin, a popular travel blogger based in Moscow, for his prior visits to the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and for his criticism of the Aliyev regime.

On 20 January 2017, at President Aliyev’s request,  the General Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus decided to have Mr. Lapshin extradited to Azerbaijan.  An appeal to the ruling was recently denied.

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement, strongly condemning the Azeri infringement attempt at the Armenian state border, which resulted in human losses.

“Under the conditions, when the serious damage caused to the negotiation process as a result of the Azeri aggression unleashed against Artsakh in April, Baku resorts to new adventurism, harshly violating the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg and ignoring the commitment to solve the issue in a peaceful way. This is the way Baku responds to the requirement of the Foreign Ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries to unconditionally respect the ceasefire agreements of 1994 and 1995,” the Ministry said in a statement.

“The international community, in the face of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs, has on many occasions urged to respect the ceasefire, especially on holidays. By resorting to an act of sabotage at the threshold of the New Year and Christmas, Baku goes against universal human values,” the Ministry said.

“The international community, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries should sober the Azerbaijani leadership, which stubbornly ignores their calls and requirements and which has lost the sense of reality,” the statement reads.

The Spanish website  has listed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev among the 48 dictators of the world.

“In 1993, the democratically-elected President Abulfaz Elchibey was overthrown by a military insurrection led by Colonel Surat Huseynov, which resulted in the arrival of Heydar Aliyev,” the website writes.

In 2003, Ilham Aliyev succeeded his father as president and his government has been charged with maintaining many of the policies of his predecessor, as well as seeking greater openness to the West and turning Azerbaijan into an industrialized nation.

According to the publication, to date the country has not fulfilled its commitments. “Although its constitution allows conscientious objectors to opt for alternative civilian service, the Government has not yet adopted a law to establish this alternative to military service. Conscientious objectors are currently being pursued, and there are reports of prolonged illegal detentions in military barracks.”

The leaders of Belarus, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are also included in the list.

“Armenia and Russia are linked not only by long-term allied relations, but also centuries-old friendship and brotherly relations between the two peoples,” Armenia’s Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan said in an interview with ahead of his official to Russia November 27-30.

Vigen Sargsyan will hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Army General Sergey Shioygu. The two Ministers are expected to sign an agreement on Joint Group of Forces and the plan of cooperation for 2017.

The Armenian DM said “the group was actually created long ago.” “Since 2000 we have been celebrating the day of creation of the Joint Group of Forces on September 27. The agreement on joint planning of the use of troops (forces) for ensuring collective security signed in Sochi 16 years ago served as a basis for it. The document envisaged creation of a group, and this was done in line with joint directives of our General Staffs,” Minister Sargsyan said.

As for the Armenian-Russian agreement on Joint Group of Forces, it will come to reinforce the legal ground for the group’s activity on the inter-state level. Besides, he said, the agreement will outline the goals, tasks, composition and organization of cooperation and the system of management, the financial-technical support.

“The main task of the Joint Group of Forces is the timely revealing of preparation of an armed attack (aggression) against Armenia and Russia and the rebuffing of it through cooperation between Armenia and Russia, as well as in collaboration with other troops, armed formations and structures,” he said.

 

 

 

A task force will be set up to promote the exports of Armenian goods, including food and agricultural products to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan has given the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments five days to discuss and present a project in cooperation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Healthcare and Agriculture.

PM Karapetyan said at a government sitting today that the task force should work with the Iranian side towards creation of institutional structures in Armenia with a view of ensuring the compatibility of Armenian products with Iranian standards, so that they can be exported to Iran according to a simplified procedure.

The Prime Minister said he expects the head of the task force to report on progress by December 25.

Karen Karapetyan also instructed the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments to hold discussions with interested bodies and enterprises the perspective of establishing a free trade zone at areas bordering Iran and present a proposal before December 25.

Associated Press – In the innermost chamber of the site said to be the tomb of Jesus, a restoration team has peeled away a marble layer for the first time in centuries in an effort to reach what it believes is the original rock surface where Jesus’ body was laid.

Many historians have long believed that the original cave, identified a few centuries after Jesus’ death as his tomb, was obliterated ages ago.

But an archaeologist accompanying the restoration team said ground penetrating radar tests determined that cave walls are in fact standing — at a height of six feet and connected to bedrock — behind the marbled panels of the chamber at the center of Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

“What was found,” said National Geographic archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert, “is astonishing.”

The work is part of a historic renovation project to reinforce and preserve the Edicule, the chamber housing the cave where Jesus is said to have been entombed and resurrected. It is the centerpiece of one of Christianity’s oldest churches and one of its most important shrines.

“I usually spend my time in Tut’s tomb,” said Hiebert about the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun’s burial site, “but this is more important.”

National Geographic is partnering with Greek restoration experts to document the work.

A 12th-century building sitting on 4th-century remains, the Church of the Holy Sepluchre is the only place where six Christian denominations practice their faith at the same site.

The Edicule was last restored in 1810 following a fire, and is in need of reinforcement after years of exposure to humidity and candle smoke. A hulking iron cage built around the Edicule by British authorities in 1947 for support still stands, but is not enough.

Renovations at this holiest of spots require mutual agreement by the church’s various custodians, and that is notoriously hard to secure. The denominations jealously guard different parts of the site and often object to even the slightest of changes.

Church officials closed the Edicule to pilgrims beginning Wednesday evening, and workers used a pulley to slide open the marble slab, in hopes of reaching the burial surface. Hiebert said the slab hadn’t been removed since the year 1550.

Underneath the marble was a layer of debris. By Thursday afternoon, workers had finished removing the debris, revealing something unexpected: another marble slab.

Hiebert said he thinks the second slab, which is grey and features a small etching of a cross, dates to the 12th century. It is cracked down the middle, and underneath it is a whitish layer.

“I don’t believe … that is the original rock,” Hiebert said. “We still have more to go.”

The main Christian communities that govern the church have allowed the work crew only 60 hours to excavate the inner sanctum, Hiebert said. Experts are working day and night to reach the tomb’s core and to analyze it.

“We will close the tomb after we document it,” said Antonia Moropoulou, an architect at the National Technical University of Athens, which is supervising the renovation.

The restoration team wants to tightly seal the core of the tomb before injecting parts of the shrine with mortar for reinforcement, so the material doesn’t seep inside what is considered to be the holy rock.

One part of the tomb will remain exposed. Experts on Thursday cut a rectangular window in one of the Edicule’s marble walls, so pilgrims will be able to glimpse, for the first time, a part of the limestone wall thought to be the tomb of Jesus.

David Grenier, secretary of a group that oversees Roman Catholic church properties in the Holy Land, stood with a few other Franciscan friars, watching the work crew in awe.

“What happened here 2,000 years ago completely changed the history of the world,” he said. “To be able to dig, let’s say, to the rock where the body of Jesus was laid … it’s overwhelming joy.”

At one point, a National Geographic film crew documented the site as clergy burned incense around them in a daily church rite.

 

“This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Lithuania and Armenia. I am confident that we will further take advantage of every possible opportunity to strengthen our cooperation in trade, transport, innovations, science, education, and other areas of mutual interest,” wrote Lithuania’s Foreign Minister.

According to Linkevičius, Lithuania welcomes and wholeheartedly supports the ongoing negotiations on the new legally-binding EU-Armenia Agreement, which will open up new opportunities for enhanced bilateral trade, investments and people-to-people contacts.

On 21 November, Lithuania and Armenia will mark the establishment of diplomatic relations 25 years ago.

Armenia has much to offer to U.S. students interested in studying abroad, attendees of a two-day workshop held by American Councils heard on Tuesday.  During the workshop, made possible by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of State’s recently-established U.S. Study Abroad office, speakers from American Councils and the U.S. Embassy emphasized that Armenia has the potential to attract greater numbers of U.S. students, and discussed with representatives of Armenian higher education institutions ways of expanding their marketing to the American audience.  U.S. students are increasingly looking for non-traditional destinations that offer unique experiences for short-term study related to their fields of interest, and Armenian higher education institutions have much to offer in these fields.

“The U.S. places great importance on study abroad programs and encourages American students to explore these opportunities for many reasons, said Public Affairs Officer Jacqueline Deley.  “First and foremost, study abroad promotes mutual understanding between people of different countries and the U.S. Americans studying abroad forge strong, life-long friendships with citizens and other foreign students in their host countries, and can appreciate the histories and cultures of other countries in ways that cannot be learned in books.  At the same time, by sharing American culture and values with host country friends and contacts, these students can be enormously effective citizen diplomats.  The U.S. and Armenia have been friends and partners for many years, and we believe that increased flows of exchange students between our two countries will strengthen our bilateral relationship even further. We hope that more American students will take advantage of study abroad opportunities in Armenia, to serve as ambassadors of goodwill, and to contribute to the mutual understanding and friendship between our two peoples and experience the many delights this country has to offer.”

The two-day workshop included sessions on U.S. study abroad trends, the value-added of academic exchanges, lessons learned from past U.S. student programs, and tips for communicating with U.S. audiences.  In the audience were higher education professionals from public and private institutions in Armenia and representatives from the Ministry of Education and Science.

The mission of the State Department’s U.S. Study Abroad Branch is to not only increase the number of Americans studying overseas, but also to promote diversity of students, fields of study, locations of study, and types of higher education institutions.

Germany on Friday reiterated that a parliamentary resolution on Turkey’s World War I-era massacre of Armenians was non-binding but denied it was distancing itself from the vote to appease Ankara.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said it had always been clear that the June vote calling the Ottoman-era mass killing a “genocide” had no legally binding character, a question he said was of great interest to Ankara.

According to AFP, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also said Friday, when asked about the Spiegel report, that the German parliament “has the right and freedom to comment on political issues but, as the parliament says itself, not every resolution is legally binding”.

Steinmeier said there had been “many areas of friction, not just since the coup attempt”, and again urged Turkey to respect the rule of law in its treatment of the tens of thousands of detainees.

The minister also said that “of course it is the task of diplomats to reduce these areas of friction and to search for ways to maintain relations with Turkey and to provide a future perspective for them”.

“In recent talks we got the impression that this is an interest also shared by Turkey.”