Author: Jhanna Virabian

Feb 22 2024

This sketch came to mind today as I pondered what words to use to label the Armenian government’s strategy in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Is it “eating your cake and having it too”?

Or the slightly old-fashioned “running with the hare and hunting with the hounds”? Being blatantly duplicitous? Dancing at two weddings at the same time? Or perhaps serving two masters — since Armenia prides itself on its Christian heritage, this idiom might hit right home.

You see, Armenia’s problem is that, on the one hand, it very much wants to be friends with the West, and on the other hand, it very much does not want to be at odds with Russia and, most importantly, to lose the immense money brought by the illegal export of sanctioned goods to Putin’s empire of evil.

Last week in Munich, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenia is not an ally of Moscow in its war against Ukraine, but that it sides with Ukrainian “friends,” although it cannot to exert much influence on the conflict. Or can it?

Over the past two years, Armenia, a nation of three million people in the South Caucasus, has become the fourth largest exporter of semiconductors and dual-use (read: military) goods to Russia.

In just 12 months, the country’s economic growth amounted to an unprecedented 14%, placing it third in the world in terms of growth rate.

“Armenia’s exports to Russia are up 430% from before the invasion, which is about re-export of EU and Chinese goods to Russia. That’s not the end of it. Armenia’s exports to Kazakhstan are up 1200%, to Kyrgyzstan 1600%, to Uzbekistan 250% and to the UAE 900%.

“All going to Russia” tweeted the former director of the Institute of International Finance and former strategist at Goldman Sachs Robin Brooks on February 17th.

In the first nine months of 2023, Armenia’s exports to Russia grew by 85%, with 80% of this huge volume accounted for by re-exports.

These are the numbers acknowledged by Vaan Sirunyan, Armenia’s deputy minister of finance. Overall, according to the Jamestown Foundation think tank, Armenia’s foreign trade turnover has increased by 69% since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Analysts believe that this economic miracle was due to re-exports from Armenia to Russia.

A joint statement by the U.S. Departments of Justice, Commerce, and Treasury classifies Armenia as a hub for intermediaries or trans-shipment points used to circumvent sanctions and export controls related to Russia and Belarus. Because that’s what friends of Ukraine would do, right?

The year is 2024, Armenia’s role in supplying Putin’s Russia with everything it needs to continue with the war is an open secret, and no one seems to be doing anything about it.

Is the declared intention to become part of Western civilization enough for that civilization to turn a blind eye to the fact that right now Armenia is literally supplying Russia with sanctioned goods, including those for military purposes?

It seems so.

The media widely cover this issue, major European, American, Canadian and Ukrainian publications have repeatedly reported that Armenia has become the key hub for transshipment of sanctioned goods from the United States, Europe, China, Taiwan and other countries to Russia.

Moreover, there are reasons to believe that the volume of re-exports through this South Caucasus country will only grow in the near future: while the U.S. and its allies are exercising all their influence to persuade Turkey, Gulf States and Central Asian countries not to participate in shady schemes to supply sanctioned goods to Russia, Armenia remains virtually the only route to bypass sanctions.

In addition, Armenia’s favorable geographic location makes it an ideal transshipment point for arms and weapons shipments from Iran, another anti-Western rogue state.

Just think how much money this generates on a daily basis for those involved in illegal supply chains. While calculating profits, there is no time to think about how many lives this costs Ukraine every day.

“No one can serve two masters,” reads the Gospel. “Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Or, as the Russians put it, “you cannot sit on two chairs with one butt” (I have to give them credit, Russians know how to put thoughts into words).

I would wish that Armenia, as well as the West, would heed this.

FOX 41

Feb 22 2024

A stateless Armenian poet who died fighting the Nazi occupation of France during World War II on Wednesday became the first non-French Resistance fighter to enter the Pantheon mausoleum for national heroes.

The honour to Missak Manouchian has been seen as long-overdue recognition of the bravery of foreign communists — many Jewish — who fought the Nazis alongside members of the French Resistance.

Members of the French foreign legion carried the coffins of Manouchian and his wife Melinee, also a member of the Resistance, draped in French flags into the secular temple.

The names of 23 of his communist comrades-in-arm — including Polish, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish and Romanian fighters — will be added to a commemorative plaque inside the monument.

“Grateful France welcomes you,” President Emmanuel Macron said.

– Refugee turned fighter –

Manouchian arrived in France as a young man in the mid-1920s, after fleeing World-War-I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as a child to French-mandate Lebanon.

He joined the French communist party’s armed resistance in 1943, soon leading dozens of foreigners fighting the German occupiers in the Paris region.

Under his watch they carried out sabotage, derailed trains, attacked German soldiers and assassinated a German SS colonel in charge of the forced enlistment of French workers.

Manouchian was arrested in November 1943 and tortured before being shot dead by firing squad aged 37 with around 20 of his comrades in February 1944.

After their death sentences, a Nazi propaganda poster showing images of ten from the group on a red background, which became known as the “red poster”, sought to demonise them as members of a “criminal army”.

But it backfired, and later inspired a poem by French poet Louis Aragon, a song and several films.

During Wednesday’s ceremony, French singer Patrick Bruel read out the last letter Manouchian wrote to his wife before he was shot.

“My dear Melinee, my beloved little orphan, in a few hours, I will no longer be,” he had written.

– Foreigners –

Manouchian, who pursued poetry and literature while working in a shipyard and a factory before the war, had requested French nationality in 1933 and 1940, both times without success.

He was one of many foreigners in the French Resistance.

They were mostly “anti-Nazi Germans and Austrians, Spanish Republicans who had fled Francoism, anti-fascist Italians, Poles who had fled anti-Semitism, Armenians, and Jews from eastern Europe and Germany”, according to the French defence ministry.

It is unclear how many exactly of the 2.2 million foreigners in France at the time joined the Resistance.

But of the 1,000 Resistance fighters executed by the Nazis at the Mont-Valerien fort outside Paris during the occupation, 185 were foreign, historian Denis Peschanski told AFP.

That was a much higher proportion of foreigners than in the country’s pre-war population of around 40 million.

– ‘Quiet heroism’ –

Under Macron, since 2017 three people have been awarded a place inside the Pantheon: writer Maurice Genevoix, women’s rights icon Simone Veil, and US-born entertainer and French Resistance member Josephine Baker.

Baker, the first black woman to receive the honour, had been awarded French nationality before the war.

Last year, Macron said Manouchian would also receive the honour, paying tribute to his “bravery” and “quiet heroism”.

At the time, parliament was debating a contentious immigration bill that Macron eventually signed into law earlier this year.

The roughly 2,000 people invited to Wednesday’s ceremony include Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and representatives of the French Communist Party.

Far-right former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said she would also be attending, sparking controversy.

The parliamentary leader of the anti-immigration National Rally party was invited, but Macron said this weekend that the far right should be “inspired not to be present”.

Georges Duffau-Epstein, whose Jewish immigrant father Joseph Epstein was among those being honoured, said Le Pen was “not welcome”.

bur-vl-ah/giv

Feb 13 2024

On the morning of February 13, four Armenian soldiers were killed and one was wounded by Azerbaijani gunfire in the southern Syunik Province, Armenia's defense ministry reported. 

The news came a day after Azerbaijan claimed one of its soldiers was wounded by Armenian fire. 

On February 12, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry released a statement saying that a serviceman of the country's State Border Service was wounded "as a result of another military provocation" by Armenia. 

"This provocation of Armenia is a serious blow to the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia," the English version of the statement read. "In light of the stable situation of the last 4-5 months, such belligerent acts blatantly contradict with peace messages by Armenia. Moreover, such a provocation that was undertaken exactly in the territories observed by the European Union Mission in Armenia raises serious concerns about the aims and purposes of this Mission."

Government-linked news agency Caliber.az released what it called footage of the attack. 

In response, the Armenian defense ministry stated that the matter was "under investigation." "Preliminary findings indicate that no such situation occurred in this area on February 12," it said. "If this is confirmed, those responsible for violating the orders will be held accountable."

The next day Azerbaijani forces fired on the Armenian army post, near the border village of Nerkin Hand in Syunik Province. Four Armenian servicemen were killed, and one was wounded. He is reported to be in stable condition.  

Armenia's foreign ministry said that these "aggressive actions … indicate that Azerbaijan is looking for pretexts for escalation on the border." 

"These actions of use of force were preceded by bellicose statements by the military and political leadership of Azerbaijan, as well as information and propaganda preparatory activities in recent days," the statement read. "The leadership of Azerbaijan is constantly trying to disrupt the efforts of actors interested in stability and security in the South Caucasus to resume negotiations aimed at the normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations."

The Azerbaijani side denied the accusation, instead saying it "has eliminated the threat emanating from the Armenian military outpost following the military provocation that injured an Azerbaijani serviceman," adding that "this measure was purely a retaliatory one."

Azerbaijan's State Border Service named the attack "Operation Revenge," a moniker it has used for several past operations as well. 

Since Azerbaijan seized the whole of the formerly Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh region in September, there have been fears in Armenia of an Azerbaijani invasion. Last month Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev revived his demand for an extraterritorial corridor through Armenian territory connecting mainland Azerbaijan with the Nakhchivan exclave. Just recently Baku seemed to have backed away from this demand, as an alternative route exists through Iran. 

The U.S. embassy in Yerevan prohibited its employees and their families from "non-essential travels" to certain parts of the border, including Syunik, on February 2. 

On February 12, before the attack on the Armenian post, Ambassador Peter Michalko of the European Union to Azerbaijan was summoned to the foreign ministry. The latter expressed its concern "with regard to the activities of the EU Monitoring Mission in Armenia (EUMA) that contradict initial agreements with respect to this mission and activities."

"It was noted that contrary to its declared purposes of contributing to stability in the region and confidence between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the mission is being widely exploited as an anti-Azerbaijani propaganda tool," the ministry's readout of the meeting said. "It was brought to the attention of the EU side that the Mission has essentially become an agent of 'binoculars diplomacy' facilitating the visits of different European officials and unofficial delegations to the border areas. All such visits, without exception, are used for disseminating anti-Azerbaijani hate and replicating unfounded Azerbaijan-phobia."

The Council of Europe is "concerned about reports of exchange of fire along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border"and "calls on both sides to abstain from the use of force," Secretary General Maria Pejcinovic Buric wrote on X. 

Feb 16 2024