Rescuers have just heard sounds from under the rubble during search and rescue work at the Surmalu shopping center, the rescue workers of the Armenian Emergencies Ministry's Press Service told NEWS.am.
This gave the rescuers hope that there may be a survivor under the rubble.
The deaths of seven people have already been confirmed.
The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on August 3, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Azerbaijan announced the conduct of the “Retribution” operation in Nagorno-Karabakh in response to the murder of a military man. Baku demanded the immediate withdrawal of the Armenian troops from Karabakh. Nikol Pashinyan stated the need to clarify the functions of the Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh.
The escalation took place amid the construction of an alternative road to the Lachin corridor, which was created according to the trilateral agreement signed by Vladimir Putin, Ilham Aliev, and Nikol Pashinyan. The Nagorno-Karabakh authorities informed residents of the communities of Akhavno, Sous, and Berdzor that they were to leave their houses by August 25, since the Lachin corridor would be handed over to Azerbaijan. Today, Baku has reported that the construction of the road along the new route of the Lachin corridor has been completed.
The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that the wording of the trilateral agreement makes it possible to interpret it in a broad way. Azerbaijan, having built a section of the road bypassing the Lachin corridor, did not violate the terms of the agreement on Karabakh, and if the route of the Lachin corridor is changed, it will remain under the protection of the Russian peacekeepers, economist and geographer Alexei Gunya emphasizes.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on at 03:01 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
See earlier reports:
Azerbaijan announces completion of road bypassing Lachin, Wording of agreement on Nagorno-Karabakh gives rise to conflict escalation, Demand to resettle outrages Akhavno villagers.
Source: Caucasian Knot
Источник:
© Кавказский Узел
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan blamed the Azerbaijani side during a meeting with Andrzej Kasprzyk, head of a small OSCE mission monitoring the ceasefire regime in Karabakh. Mirzoyan said Baku attempts to "destabilise the situation".
The Karabakh foreign ministry condemned the "new wave of Azerbaijan's aggressive actions against Artsakh [the Armenian name for Karabakh]".
Karabakh's leadership conveyed that Azerbaijan has demanded the closure of the Lachin corridor, which is the only overland link between Armenia and Karabakh, saying that "traffic must be organised along a new route shortly".
Armenia's Security Council secretary, Armen Grigoryan, dismissed the issue "It's not legitimate." He argued that under the agreement, Azerbaijan and Armenia must work out the new road by 2024.
The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry reported that an 18-year-old soldier was killed in the morning when its positions in the Lachin district west of Karabakh came under "intensive" fire. At the same time, Karabakh denied any clashes in Lachin and claimed that the road was open and safe.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry afterwards blamed Armenia for the fighting, saying that Yerevan has not withdrawn its troops from Karabakh and is in breach of the ceasefire agreement reached after the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war. However, since September, Armenia has pledged to withdraw forces and not send fresh recruits.
A recent tasting of some Punjabi food at the Claridge’s marquee restaurant, Dhaba, in New Delhi, brought back memories of a childhood treat that was a fixture in our refrigerator. Chef Harangand Singh, one of the most talented young Indian chefs of this generation, was recreating flavours of the undivided Punjab, of his home, as also some inventive fare that he is so good at. Amongst the dishes was a simple but delicious makai ki tikki that had been given an extra burst of flavour with aam papad from Amritsar.
Those of you who have eaten in the streets of this incredible city of the Golden Temple will appreciate how the very water and air of the city seem to imbue flavour to all that is cooked here—whether it is the hot, crisp kulche from the tandoor with a bite of freshly ground coriander and toasted kalonji (onion seeds), or Makhan’s incredibly delicious batter-fried fish, using either the local sole or singhada from the sweet waters of the Beas, or indeed the saffron-flavoured creamy lassi at Ahuja’s, for which milk is first thickened with kesar and then set to ferment.
But among the lesser-known delights of Amritsar is also the Aam Papad, available in mainly two versions, the sweet golden, and the sour kala or black.
A disappearing chaat from Amritsar is in fact the aam papad chaat, as chef Harangad reminded me, for which cubes of this indigenous Indian fruit leather are spiked with home-made masala and a dash of lime. At Ram Lubhaya’s shop those dates back to 1968 and which was the most famous address in Amritsar for this treat, a mix of 12 different spices used to be sprinkled on different types of aam papad to give you a semblance of chaat.
But the aam papad too comes in many different varieties other than the basic two, with mixed flavours and spices or shaped into rolls and even laddoos. You can carry some back along with the papad and wadiyan from the spice shops of this city.
While Amritsar’s inventive versions may boggle your palate, aam papad is in fact a pan-Indian treat, called by different names all over the country. It is equally popular in Bengal (where it is called aam satta) as in regions like Andhra in the south where it is called mamidi tandra.
In her iconic cookbook The Calcutta Cookbook Minakshie Das Gupta notes how even in 19th century zamindar households, annual visits by widowed aunts involved a cornucopia of treats taken out from the said aunt’s tin trunk. These could be anything from a home-made bottle of kashundi, fermented for extra flavour, to sweet, chewy aam satta that the aunt had made in the summer months, by delicately drying mango juice on sheets under the sun. The aam satta could then be moulded in beautiful handmade moulds and was a highly sought-after treat.
How old could this art of sun drying mango juice be in India and what can we conjecture about its origins?
Fruit leather (of which aam papad is a type) in the west, in America and Europe, is often thought to have southern European roots.
In Italy, the traditional centre for this craft has been Genoa, and fruit roll ups have been popular childhood snacks that many recall with great fondness. While modern day chefs and commercial enterprises have embarked upon many innovations in this genre and you may find modern plates with ingredients such as even tomato leather, the only two well-known fruit leathers from the medieval world that continue to exist in our post-modern, post-pandemic one is the sugared, scented Turkish delight and the Levantine apricot “leather”.
Fruit leather is said to have most likely originated in the Levantine region of the Arab world, from where its popularity spread to Spain and southern Europe.
If you have ever had the opportunity to try the amardeen, the Syrian apricot leather, you may have realised how closely allied it is to the Indian aam papad. The amardeen is popular in the US today in its version of “fruit rolls” or fruit roll ups.
While fruit roll ups have been popular in the US since the 1980s, their history goes back to the early 20th century, when amardeen was brought to the States by Levantine immigrants. In the early 20th century, amardeen could be bought at sweet shops in Arab-Christian neighbourhoods in New York City, apparently. Joray, the first brand in the US to offer fruit rolls, credits this invention to sheets of the apricot fruit leather which would be imported from Syria by George Shalhoub, an immigrant from Lebanon, who had come to the US in 1886, and sold this at his sweet shop.
In the 1970s, his descendant Louis Shalhoub developed the first fruit rolls, and the brand Joray came into being subsequently. These have been produced in New York ever since. Now, these roll ups are available even in India as the quintessential American confectionary!
All over the Levantine, however, the apricot fruit leather, ancestor of modern-day fruit roll ups, is an ancient way of preserving fruit that was plentiful in this region.
Like the Syrians and Lebanese, the Armenians too have a centuries old tradition of making what they call T’tu Lavash (literally, sour bread). Armenian apricots were much vaunted exports, and also a national symbol of the land. Pureed apricots—as well as other fruit such as plums and grapes found in the region—were sundried on sheets in homes and made into thin, easy to roll “flatbread” or sour “lavash”.
Clearly, the aam papad is a cousin of this T’tu Lavash or the amardeen. In India, mango, our own ancient fruit, loved by all, replaced apricots, while the term “papad” of course refers to the practice of sun drying lentil papads on sheets as a method of preservation of food.
There is no credible source or recipe that I have been able to unearth that can tell us of the bridge between India’s own sour/sweet-sour papad, aam papad, and the T’tu Lavash of the Armenians. However, we can always conjecture!
The Armenian community prized for being resourceful and innovative and functioning as merchants, gunsmiths, priests and soldiers became fairly well entrenched in India during the Mughal times, after people from the region dispersed all over the Persian empire, and a few arrived in medieval India.
They were allowed to settle down in close-knit settlements by Mughal rulers and establish their own churches. In 1562, an Armenian church, possibly the first in India, was constructed in Agra, and the identity of one of Akbar’s wives is often conjectured to that of an Armenian. She was apparently the sister of another powerful Armenian woman of the time, Lady Juliana, physician to the royal harem, according to some historians (though some conjecture her to be Portuguese).
Whatever be the truth of it, Armenians had become very well entrenched in Bengal by the 18th century and active in mercantile activities, after Aurangzeb granted them rights to form a settlement and permit to trade at reduced duties. An Armenian church was set up in 1758, in Saidabad, near Murshidabad. Armenian influences can be found in the cuisine of Calcutta and Bengal. And we can form our own theories whether these close cultural encounters have resulted in the innovation of the aam papad from the amardeen?
Like every other flavour that arrived in India through the vagaries of time and fortune, the fruit delight too seems to have been embraced, assimilated and transformed.
Different mango varieties in different parts of India result in different flavours of the aam papad—but it is also the addition of spices, local jaggery, even ingredients like sesame oil in some versions that uplift this from being a simplistic candy!
The cult of the aam papad is also closely related to that of the murabba, or fruit preserved in sugar, thought to be therapeutic in medieval India—many traditional homes still continue to feed the likes of amla murabba to pregnant women or recovering patients for “strength” and immunity.
I found a delightful recipe for mango morabba in my go to Sandford Anot’s Indian Cookery published from Persian and Hindustani in 1831, and it details out a process where by mangoes have to be peeled, cut into twos, and thrown in a mix of quick lime (another column on its use in cooking soon!) and water, then boiled and thrown in sugar syrup for one whole day and then taken out and put in reduced syrup again to give us candied fruit.
In fact, this sort of candied fruit was common to much of the medieval world, including in the courts of the Tudors and Stuarts, where culinary historians contend, they were served as dessert in the second course! These were also gifted, a practice common to medieval India too.
As for aam papad, it seems to have been more elusive, and more specialised because of the painstaking setting of layers, and thus a delight that would arrive either from Calcutta or Amritsar and the like and settle in our fridges through the hot summer and monsoon months till as late as the 1980s. It’s a treat that needs a revival now.
((Anoothi Vishal is the author of Mrs LC's Table. She is also a columnist and food writer, specialising in cuisine history)
https://www.indianarrative.com/world-news/from-armenia-to-amritsar-aam-papad-s-incredible-travels-189105.html
15:53, 2 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 2, ARMENPRESS. Governor of Kotayk province Aharon Sahakyan received Ambassador of Iran to Armenia Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri and his delegation.
Commenting on the meeting, the Kotayk Governor said on social media: “I fully share the belief of Mr. Ambassador that our province has huge potential and opportunities, and we should strengthen and make closer the mutual contacts and cooperation as much as possible, by turning these opportunities into real actions. Discussions were held on a number of directions. We have outlined the directions and areas which will serve as a link for establishment of relations between the province and the different province of Iran”.
The sides particularly highlighted the fields of tourism, agriculture, education, culture, sport, etc.
The possibility of organizing exhibitions in Kotayk province and any province of Iran was considered.
The necessity of conducting exchange of experience was emphasized.
"The change of guard at the bank began in April, when President Ilham Aliyev appointed Taleh Kazimov, a loyal supporter of his family, as chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.
Kyazimov is 38 years old; since 2015, he has held senior positions in the management of Pasha Bank, which Aliyev's daughters Arzu and Leyla Aliyev co-own with their grandfather Arif Paşayev, Aliyev's father-in-law.
This appointment was unexpected: the previous chairman of the Central Bank Elman Rustamov held this position since 1995, and in April 2020, he was re-approved for another five-year term. However, in April Aliyev, without offering any justification, proposed to parliament to dismiss Rustamov, and lawmakers obediently approved this decision and appointed Kazimov to the vacated position. Rustamov was then appointed advisor to Prime Minister Ali Asadov, but has not been heard from since. Nor is he mentioned on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers.
By law, the bank must be politically independent, and many observers saw in Kazimov's appointment a sign that Aliyev was tightening control over the banking system.
"The banking sector was already under the control of Pasha Holding. Now the Pashayevs dominate it indiscriminately," economist and opposition politician Gubad Ibadoglu wrote on Facebook.
As it turned out, this appointment was only the first step.
In May, Kazimov hired a new advisor, Farhad Valiyev, who also held a high position in Pasha Bank's management. Prior to joining Pasha Bank, Valiyev worked at Premium Bank and Silk Way Holding; both of these companies are also affiliated with the ruling house.
Then, on June 1, another high-ranking Pasha Bank employee, Gular Pashayeva, also became an advisor to Kazimov.
And on July 22, Kyazymov promoted Pashayeva to general director of the Central Bank. On the same day, Oksana Ismailova, who had held the same position at Bravo Supermarket, one of the largest businesses within Pasha Holding, which brings together all the family firms, became the new head of the Central Bank's human resources department.
"The Central Bank has officially become a branch of Pasha Bank. Long live Pasha Azerbaijan!" – this is how one Facebook user commented on the latest appointments. The satirical news site Hamam Times responded to these events with speculation about how they might affect the national currency, the manat.
"In short, from now on, the fate of Azerbaijan's national currency is in the hands of former employees of Pasha Bank or Pashayev's people," Hamam Times wrote. – What do you think will be more profitable for Pashayev – a strong manat, a weak manat, a fixed rate or a floating manat?"
Yerevan market and café
In the heart of the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, D.C. lies a café and market called Yerevan. An area deprived of our cuisine, Yerevan, teeming with life, is a staple for the Armenian community in D.C. and beyond.
As a Los Angeles native, I have grown accustomed to my Armenian bubble: seeing storefronts written in Armenian, being greeted in our language unprompted, smelling a variety of pastries from an Armenian bakery on every corner…the list goes on. Now, I’m spending the summer on the east coast, where even the concept of “Armenia” — let alone “Armenian food” — is foreign. There are restaurants that are reminiscent of home, as D.C. has its fair share of Mediterranean food. However, it was not quite what I was looking for. So, I decided to dig deep and ask people around me where I can find a slice of home. I received the same response from anyone I asked: “You have to go to Yerevan.”
You can imagine my relief when I stepped through the doors of Yerevan. The smell of soorj (coffee) and gata (cake) greeted me with a smile as did owner Stella Grigoryan, who invited me into the space with the proverbial Armenian hospitality that we all know and love, and even went further to ask, “Would you like a coffee? How do you take it?”
Grigoryan and her husband are not restaurateurs by trade. In fact, Yerevan is the couple’s first time running a café. The two moved to D.C. from Yerevan in 2012 and were – like me – shocked at the lack of Armenian cuisine in the area.
“We realized that there weren’t any Armenian cafés in the area,” says Grigoryan. “We wanted to change that. To my knowledge, we are the first ones.”
Inside Yerevan market and café
The space is warm and cozy with Armenian art and pictures adorning the walls. There is also a “market” section, where customers are able to purchase Armenian goods straight from the source: Armenia. They offer various items, ranging from wines and juices to fruit preserves and books. The menu is stacked with favorites, including lahmajun, zhingyalov hats, khachapuri and kufta. If you have more of a sweet tooth, you won’t be disappointed with the baklava and mikado. The café’s best offering is their Armenian coffee, prepared authentically with finely ground coffee beans in the traditional Armenian coffee pot, the jezveh.
Zhingyalov hats from Yerevan market and café
“A lot of non-Armenians love coming to Yerevan,” remarks Grigoryan. “They appreciate our culture and cuisine and are interested in finding out more about the Armenian people.”
The beauty of the space is that it connects Armenians to their culture. Beyond that, it introduces the intricacies of our cuisine to non-Armenians. Coming to Yerevan during my stay n the east coast was truly a highlight of my trip. Creating spaces for Armenians to sit around a table, eat their traditional foods, drink their traditional drinks and engage in thoughtful conversations is important; it drives us forward. We have a deep connection to our food. It is a way of preserving the essence of who we are…regardless of how far from the motherland we may be.
Armenian pastries from Yerevan market and café
Iran-Armenia joint industry, mining, and trade working group held a meeting on Monday in which the two sides discussed the implementation of agreements and memorandums reached in the last meeting of Iran-Armenia Joint Economic Committee, Tehran Times reports.
Hosted by Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), the event was attended by TPO Head Alireza Peyman-Pak, Director-General of the TPO’s office of Central Asia, Caucasus, and Russia Rahmatollah Khormali, as well as Armenia’s deputy economy minister.
The parties discussed issues such as Iran’s export of engineering and technical services to Armenia, barter trade between the two countries, developing the north-south corridor, establishing joint industrial parks, and joint production of medicine and medical equipment in Iran as well as the exchange of pharmaceuticals.
While welcoming the idea of the joint production of medicine and medical equipment in Armenia, the Armenian side considered this project as an opportunity to enter international markets.
Also, referring to the 33 percent growth of trade exchanges between the two countries in the first five months of 2022, the Armenian deputy economy minister welcomed the establishment of Iran’s trade center in Yerevan and requested to send business and pharmaceutical delegations from Iran to Armenia to get to know their counterparts and hold B2B meetings.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday held separate calls with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, offering U.S. support for what he called a “historic opportunity” to achieve peace in the region.
The calls followed face-to-face meetings between the foreign ministers of both countries in Georgia on July 16, the first bilateral talks since the 2020 war over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies within sovereign Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians.
That last round of fighting, between September and November 2020, saw at least 6,500 people killed. A Russian-brokered cease-fire had the Armenian-backed government in the territory cede land to Azerbaijan.
Blinken spoke separately with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev but expressed U.S. support and assistance to help Yerevan and Baku “find a long-term comprehensive peace,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Blinken called on Aliyev “to release all remaining Armenian detainees.” It’s unclear how many Armenians are detained in Azerbaijan, bu the Armenian National Committee of America estimates it at around 140.
Blinken, in his call with Pashinyan, “commended” the prime minister on “positive momentum and concrete agreements” toward normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is a flashpoint of greater power conflicts between Russian-backed Yerevan and Turkish-backed Baku.
There is deep-seated mistrust between Armenia and Turkey over Yerevan’s charges that Ankara has failed to take responsibility and acknowledge the Ottoman Empire’s genocide against the Armenian people in the early 20th century.
The U.S. has strategic ties with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, but a strong Armenian diaspora in the U.S. consistently pushes Congress to impose limits on American military assistance to Baku and criticizes Turkey’s support of Azerbaijan.
The U.S., Russia and France are co-chairs of the Minsk Group, the international body charged with achieving peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two sides have fought brutal military conflicts in the 1990s and the 2000s.
Efforts to resolve differences between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the contested territory of Nagorno-Karabakh have gained new urgency since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
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While Russia’s invasion has dramatically reshaped global security postures in general, it has likely caused greater insecurity in Armenia, which has relied on Russian “peacekeeping” forces to help maintain the November ceasefire achieved with Azerbaijan.
Russia’s poor military performance in Ukraine and its refusal to withdraw and cease its aggression keeps Moscow’s attention away from Yerevan, with which it holds a defense pact. Pressure by the U.S. and democratic allies to condemn and isolate Russia on the global stage further weakens its position as an ally of Armenia.
—Updated at 7:20 p.m.
Dr. Mher Sahakyan is Director, China-Eurasia Council for Political and Strategic Research, Armenia. He was previously an AsiaGlobal Fellow, Asia Global Institute, University of Hong Kong. His most recent co-edited volume is China and Eurasia: Rethinking Cooperation and Contradictions in the Era of Changing World Order. Routledge, 2021.
He spoke exclusively to Aditi Bhaduri about the changing geopolitical and geo-economic landscape of Eurasia, in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. He points out that the Russia-Ukraine conflict could hasten China’s search for a new land trade route to Europe that by-passes Russia. He also speaks about the presence of thousands of Indians in Armenia, pointing out that a process of official engagement at a politico-military level has begun between New Delhi and Yerevan that rides the “very strong” people-to-people connections.
Excerpts:
How do you see the future of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in the backdrop of Russia's military operation in Ukraine and the changing world order?
[The] Ukrainian war creates problem for the further development of Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). As Russian and Belarusian economies together are the largest part of EAEU’s economy, and Western sanctions on Moscow and Minsk are also harming economies of other member states. However, sanctions on Russia and Belarus can create not only challenges, but also opportunities for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia. However, there is a need to note, that because of Russo-Ukrainian war, not only EAEU’s economy, but also economies of the EU, UK, and US are also declining, because of Russian sanctions on them. For this reason, great, middle, small states located in Eurasian continent are also losing [out] not only economically, but also politically as the West and Russia press them to take a side.
Mher Sahakyan with his latest book (Image courtesy: Twitter/@mhereast)
On your question about changing world order and EAEU, our international team from different countries published China and Eurasia: Rethinking Cooperation and Contradictions in the Era of Changing World Order book at Routledge in September 2021, bringing answers and recommendations. Actually, in the multipolar world order 2.0, where we are now, the EAEU is in the Eastern pole, which is being built by Russia and China. In the framework of the Eastern pole Moscow and Beijing agreed to harmonize with each other the EAEU and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Russian President Vladimir Putin's Greater Eurasian Partnership hinges on joining economic blocs, like EAEU with China's BRI, ASEAN and so on. Where do you see this GEP heading now in the light of sanctions on Russia?
The Greater Eurasian Partnership (GEP), initiated by Russia, is a constructive idea, which can bring development and stability to the entire Eurasian continent. However, in the era of Russo-Ukrainian war, it will be very hard to implement, as the EU, UK, Japan, South Korea and other allies and partners of the US will not join with this initiative. Russia can try to implement it with China, India, Iran, Armenia, Belarus, Central Asian Republics (CARS) and other partners and allies, but in this case, it will not become the continental project from Lisbon to Vladivostok and Tokyo and can be realized only within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The other problem of realization of the GEP is that it is not clear which states or institutions should finance this initiative. For instance, the BRI has had success, because China and its financial organizations are fully financing it. For this I recommend establishing a “Greater Eurasian Partnership Bank”, which will meet financial criteria for the GEP.
Russia was a major link in China's BRI. But now with the sanctions China is looking for alternate trade routes to Europe. Can you shed light on this?
You are right, one of the economic corridors of the BRI, which is Called New Eurasian Land bridge, passes through Russia. It utilizes Russian Trans-Siberian railways, ports in Eastern Russia for the trade and transportation between China, Asia and Europe. Because of the Russo-Ukrainian war and sanctions, the EU states will try to connect with China and Asia without passing Russian territory. For this reason, China also created another economic corridor which is called China-Central Asia-West Asia. In our times, this route, step by step, will stand the main transportation arteries for China-Europe trade and transportation. Therefore, the roles of Central Asian, South Caucasian states and Turkey will rise in BRI.
What is Armenia's role in Eurasia?
It is a very good and difficult question. I think that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia could not find its place not in Europe nor in Asia. Culturally and with its religion, Armenia is mostly connected with Europe and Russia, but physically it is in Asia. For this reason, it is causing problems for Armenia. Mentally most of the Armenians think that they relate to Europe, but of course on the ground they are in Post-Soviet Eurasia. This kind of thinking is bringing miscalculations in Armenian foreign policy with great losses, as it was during the last Karabakh war. Ukrainian and Georgian wars, once again proved, that no one is waiting for the ex-Soviet states in NATO and in EU. For this reason, Armenia must keep good relations with the EU and mostly with France with which it has constructive relations, but also understand that neither France nor non-Eurasian US can provide any military or security support to it. For this reason, Armenia must do its best to strengthen the Collective Security Treaty organization (CSTO) and EAEU, as it is a member of these organizations, to keep its military and economic partnership with Russia, to strengthen and improve relations with China and India in bilateral or multilateral levels. Also, there is a need to solve problems with Turkey and Azerbaijan, which will bring prosperity and peace to the entire region.
Tell us about the North South Road Corridor in Armenia. What will its function be, what is the aim, how far has it been developed? How will Armenia benefit from this?
Armenia builds its North-South Road Corridor. Yerevan aims to connect with each other’s Iranian and Georgian transportation infrastructures through its territory. The implementation of this project will connect landlocked Armenia with the routes of the International North South Transport Corridor, bringing Armenia more cooperation with India as well.
How do you see Russia-Turkey relations panning out in this changing order, especially in Eurasia?
In short, I will call Russo-Turkish relations in Eurasia as competitive cooperation. They compete in South Caucasus, Syria and Ukraine for the spheres of influence, but also cooperate. For instance, Turkey bought Russian air defence system S400 without taking into consideration warnings of its main ally US, Russia also constructs nuclear power plants in Turkey, and Ankara does not join sanctions against Russia, etc. But of course, if there were a direct clash between NATO and Russia, Turkey would join its allies.
What is the future of Armenia-Russia relations with Russia focused so much on Ukraine and its economy steadily weakening?
Relations between Armenia and Russia must be an all-weather friendship. Actually, entire world’s economy is weakening, therefore, maybe it will be constructive if Armenia tries to mediate between the West and Russia for finding ways for peace.
As someone specialising on China and Eurasia, do you think Armenia has a role to play in China's BRI? Don't you think Armenia can easily fall into a Chinese debt trap like Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan or Sri Lanka?
I do not think so. We have also great examples of Kazakhstan, Georgia, Serbia and dozens of other states, which joined to Chinese BRI, got investments and now develop their economies.
Armenia needs Chinese investments, technologies, innovations for developing its economy, but still there is not any activity in this direction. In this year, China-Eurasia Council for Political and Strategic Research jointly with Renmin University of China organized Armenia and China forum for finding some ways for improving Sino-Chinese relations.
Armenia is interested in defence ties with India. What kind of cooperation is Armenia looking for? Can you tell us something about this?
Armenia is interested to improve and strengthen relations with India in every sphere. Armenians live in India for several centuries, there are many Armenian churches in this wonderful country. Now thousands of Indians live, work and study in Armenia. You can find many Indian restaurants in Yerevan. I have many colleagues and friends in India, every year we have many attendees from India in our “Eurasian Research on Modern China and Eurasia conference”. We are also attending conferences organised by Indian colleagues, together we write books. Therefore, I think, that connection between Armenian and Indian people is very strong, thus we need to strengthen cooperation between states as well. We can see that during last year foreign ministries of both sides are working in this direction very actively. Hopefully they will have a success.
By the way Indo-Armenian relations cannot make problems for improving Sino-Armenian relations and vice versa, as India and China also closely cooperate with each other in the BRICS format and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). According to UN Comtrade in 2021 trade between China and India totaled approximately US$110.5 billion, it was US$23.9 more than in 2020. Therefore, Armenia needs to develop its relations with these two giants of Asia – India and China simultaneously for finding opportunities to sell its products in vast markets of these states and to develop its technologies and economy.
(Aditi Bhaduri is a columnist specializing in Eurasian geopolitics.Views expressed are personal and exclusive to India Narrative)