Author: Jirair Kafian

Turkish press: Amid normalization, how can Turkiye, Armenia rediscover their trade potential?

Jirair Kafian
Aysu Biçer   |08.02.2022

YEREVAN, Armenia

Despite the absence of diplomatic relations and their closed border, Armenia and Turkiye have been engaged in trade for years via a roundabout route through Georgia, a state bordering both countries.

Now, as Ankara and Yerevan seek to normalize relations, Turkish-Armenian trade could flourish once more.

According to Richard Giragosian, a US-born Armenian who heads the Regional Studies Center (RSC) think tank in the capital Yerevan, economics and trade are now recognized as real incentives for normalization.

This was not the case years ago, he underlined, saying that the economic potential between Armenia and Turkiye and prospects of reopening the border are part of a broader regional restoration of trade and transport.

Armenia is a landlocked country with limited economic interactions with its region due to border closures with Azerbaijan and Turkiye. This contrasts with other South Caucasian nations who have long enjoyed vital trade and transport connections with their neighbors.

Today, Armenia has two border openings to the world — with Georgia to the north and Iran to the south. Georgia has provided Armenia with a gateway for foreign trade.

"This isn't only a positive foundation, but it's also an important first step at lowering transport costs," Giragosian said.

No longer must trade bypass border restrictions and pass through Georgia, he added, noting that direct trade relations would automatically lower export and import costs.

Win-win atmosphere

Giragosian pointed out that the RSC has been conducting joint research with the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkiye (TEPAV).
"Our studies' findings indicate that it's the east of Turkey that will benefit most from cross-border trade, stability and jobs," he said, using Turkiye's former name.

Turkiye's eastern region stands to gain the most from the border's reopening, rather than the national economy, he said, both in terms of tourism and trade. "It's a win-win," he added.

Engaging in protectionism, building walls, closing borders does not encourage economic growth or development, just the opposite, he stressed.

"I would think the Armenian economy would welcome the competition, which will develop between Armenia and Turkey," he stressed, saying the lack of diplomatic relations has led to a reality where the lack of information promotes misinformation.

Giragosian also said there is a shared challenge to recover from COVID-19. "And I do think new supply chains, new trade routes are beneficial, and there is little negative cost."

Armenian IT sector promising for Turkish partners

In particular, Armenia's growing IT sector would be in a good position to meet the needs of eastern Turkiye, the seasoned economist said. "The connection in terms of road and rail tourism, whether medical tourism or normal tourism, will only encourage benefits for Armenia, as well."

He added that Armenia's IT industry "is also distinctly positioned" to "add something new for Turkish partners."

According to Giragosian, the most obvious industry to benefit from a reopening of the border is, in fact, Armenia's Russian-owned energy sector, with plans to export surplus electricity to eastern Turkey.

He also underlined that Russian ownership of Armenia's railway network and plans to restore the rail link between the northwestern Armenian city of Gyumri and Turkiye's eastern Kars province ensures Moscow's support for the process.

Giragosian also noted the attractiveness of the textile sector, in which Turkish subsidiaries of firms setting up factories in Armenia could take advantage of low wages and highly skilled Armenian labor. This would also facilitate expansion into new markets for Turkish and Armenian textile products.

"In general, I think the starting point is so low that progress is guaranteed," he concluded.

Normalization as boon for regional development

Despite the Armenian economy's much smaller size compared to Turkiye's, it carries the potential for Ankara to enhance its position as a regional actor with an economic and political presence in the South Caucasus and as a market and recipient of investment, according to Guven Sak, the managing director of TEPAV.

According to Sak, normalization will be beneficial for both sides, noting fears on the Armenian side that opening the border would allow an influx of Turkish goods that could destroy the domestic industry.

He said similar arguments had been made and proven wrong in the runup to Turkiye's Customs Union with the EU.

"On the contrary … Turkish industry became stronger," he added.

Sak said he had sought to ease such concerns in Yerevan in a presentation he made there a decade ago.

"During that presentation, I told them: 'Yours (industry) will be the same,'" he added.

He underlined that though Armenia "is not a place that can be a source of growth for the Turkish economy on a national scale," it could be "extremely beneficial" as a regional development project for border cities.

Artur Ghazaryan, the program director of the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia, also commented on the issue, saying that conflicts must be resolved through a process starting with dialogue and progressing with cooperation and confidence-building.

"I believe the economy and business is the most sustainable area of cooperation since, once parties generate profit together, they will find it hard to stop," he added.

He also stressed that efforts to develop ties anew would not be starting from scratch, noting that businesses on either side were cooperating despite the closed borders.

"In the absence of any official relations between Armenia and Turkey, there was one thing that was regulating relations between two countries: Business ethics," he said.

Ghazaryan said that despite this groundwork, Armenian companies would face some problems navigating Turkiye's customs system. Resolving these issues will be the first step towards the point in which the two sides could pursue joint investments, he said, adding that ensuring Turkish and Armenian firms are on equal footing could be the first step in the normalization process.

In spite of the closed borders, Armenia has imported goods from Turkiye via third countries such as Iran and Georgia. But, this remains a one-sided relationship with no significant trade flows from Armenia to Turkiye.

Armenian captives are held in Azerbaijan for political, military interests: Ombudsman tells UK Ambassador

Jirair Kafian

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 10:30, 8 February, 2022

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan had a meeting with Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Armenia John Gallagher, discussing a number of issues relating to human rights, the Ombudsman’s Office said.

Arman Tatoyan introduced the Ambassador on the problems existing in the judiciary.

Protection of rights of women and children were also discussed. The Ombudsman said that during the COVID-19-related restrictions in Armenia a working group has been formed at his Office dealing with the protection of women’s, children’s rights, the prevention of domestic violence. He also presented the current challenges in the field of the protection of rights of children.

The meeting sides also highlighted the role of reporters in guaranteeing freedom of speech and ruling out hate speech.

Tatoyan also presented to the Ambassador the violations of rights of Armenia’s border residents by the Azerbaijani armed forces, with concrete facts and examples. He emphasized the urgency of the return of Armenian captives illegally held in Azerbaijan, as well as the fact that those people are held there for political and military interests, for trade purposes.

The Ombudsman said the Azerbaijani armed forces must be withdrawn from the roads near to the Armenian villages, sometimes even near to the houses of the residents, and stressed the necessity of creating a demilitarized security zone.

Arman Tatoyan highlighted UK’s role in the field of human rights, as well as the cooperation with the British human rights institutions.

In his turn the UK Ambassador highly appreciated the high quality of the cooperation with the Armenian Ombudsman, as well as expressed readiness for further joint work.

Amnesty rebuffs Congress, urges US to pressure Israel over ‘apartheid policies’

Jirair Kafian 
Middle East Eye



[Rights group rejects criticism from US Congress against its report
labelling Israel an apartheid state]

MEE Staff
Feb. 3, 2022

Amnesty International has called on the United States to pressure
Israel "to repeal discriminatory laws and policies" and to "review"
its military aid to the country, days after the rights group released
a landmark report calling Israel an apartheid state.

In a statement, Amnesty's USA chapter appeared to push back against
criticism from members of Congress against the findings of its report
and said Washington was in a "uniquely placed" position to pressure
Israel into repealing certain discriminatory policies that have been
levied against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied Palestinian
territories.

"We encourage all members of Congress to use the full power of their
office to advance human rights for all by calling for a thorough
review of US security aid to Israeli forces to determine whether such
aid has been used in the commission of violations," the rights group
said.

"By conditioning security aid appropriated to Israel on an end to
violations of international humanitarian law and improvements in
respect for human rights.”

The statement comes just a few days after Amnesty labelled Israel an
apartheid state, saying its policies "benefit Jewish Israelis while
restricting the rights of Palestinians".

Amnesty became the latest rights group to join a cadre of
organisations that have used the term to describe Israel's
discriminatory treatment of Palestinians.

The organisation highlighted crimes Israel has committed that fall
under the definition of apartheid, such as the forcible transfer of
Palestinians; Israel's destruction of homes and land owned by
Palestinians; and the imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians
"without charge or trial".

In its report, Amnesty called on the UN Security Council to "impose
targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials
most implicated in the crime of apartheid, and a comprehensive arms
embargo on Israel.'

Accusations of slander and misinformation

The report, however, was met with immediate and fierce opposition from
Israeli officials and leaders, as well as the Biden administration
which rejected the apartheid label on Israel, a close and
long-standing US ally.

A number of members of US Congress across both parties also attacked
the report, including Republican Senators Jim Risch; Marco Rubio; and
James Lankford; and Democratic Senators Bob Menendez; Chuck Schumer;
and Congressman Ritchie Torres.

Menendez, who heads the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
accused Amnesty of "slander" and  "misinformation".

Schumer, the Senate majority leader, told Jewish Insider:
"Delegitimizing the existence of the State of Israel – a fellow
democracy and the world’s only Jewish state – as Amnesty does in its
report, brings the parties no closer to peace, but simply hardens the
extremes who do not wish to ever see a two-state solution where
Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace, freedom, security and
prosperity."

Amnesty dismissed the criticism of the report and accusations of
antisemitism levelled at the group.

"Amnesty's research, campaigns, advocacy and statements pertaining to
Israel are focused on the actions of the Israeli government - they are
not, and never will be, a condemnation of Judaism or the Jewish
people," the group said.

"Furthermore, we condemn anyone who would cynically cite our research
as justification for committing anti-Semitic acts of hatred and
violence. Amnesty International condemns anti-Semitism in the
strongest possible terms," the statement said.

Dimension Investments is chosen by ACBA Bank as the Sole Market Maker of its Common Shares listed on AMX

Jirair Kafian

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 11:37, 25 January, 2022

YEREVAN, JANUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Dimension CJSC, one of the leading investment services companies in Armenia, has been appointed by ACBA Bank, one of the largest commercial banks in Armenia, as the sole market maker of its common shares to be listed and traded on Armenia Securities Exchange.

In November 2021, ACBA Bank successfully completed the IPO of 10% of its total common shares in the amount of AMD7.5 billion (approximately $15 million). The IPO was fully subscribed by over 5,200 individual and institutional shareholders, assigning over $150 million value to ACBA Bank’s common stock. This IPO was heralded as the largest and most successful in the history of Armenian capital markets, attracting capital from the broadest spectrum of the investor community of Armenia.

Dimension acquired 2% of the total IPO issue at the time of the offering, serving as one of the leading investors. Research coverage for ACBA Bank’s common shares will be initiated by Dimension, regularly publishing research reports and offering the investment community access to information required to assess and evaluate ACBA Bank shares as an investment.

“Our equity analyses, institutional sales, and block trading teams will be engaged on a daily basis to serve ACBA’s shareholders to own transparently, effectively, and continuously priced liquid stock of ACBA Bank,” said Mr. Mikayel Margaryan, CEO of Dimension CJSC.

In December, 2021, ACBA Bank’s shareholder's meeting approved the decision to list the company’s common stock on Armenia Securities Exchange.

About ACBA Bank

ACBA Bank was established in 1996 and is a member of ACBA financial group. The bank is one of the leading financial institutions in Armenia, providing universal banking services to its customers. The bank serves 400,000 customers through a network of 63 branches served by over 1,500 employees. ACBA financial group also includes ACBA Leasing, the leader in the leasing market and the first specialized leasing company in Armenia, and Amundi-ACBA Asset Management, one of the two pension fund managers in Armenia.

About Dimension Investments

Founded in 2018 and with capabilities spanning Investment Securities Services, Capital Markets Advisory, and Investment Management & Research, Dimension strives to put clients first by being their most reliable, insightful, and effective investment services partner in Armenia, while maintaining the firm's high integrity. Dimension’s capabilities are fortified by its core values, highly engaged shareholders and global network.




Armenian national airline Fly Arna appoints Chief Executive Officer

Jirair Kafian

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 10:39,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Fly Arna, Armenia’s national airline and a joint venture company between the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF) and Air Arabia Group, announces the appointment of Mr. Antony Price as Chief Executive Officer, the company said in a statement.

Mr. Antony Price brings over 20 years of aviation and tourism experience and has held senior leadership positions with British Airways, Air New Zealand, FlyBMI, and most recently as Head of Flight Supply Strategy for Agoda, part of the Booking.com family of OTA brands. Mr. Price brings strong knowledge and experience from one of Fly Arna’s founding shareholders where he previously held the position of Regional General Manager Europe for Air Arabia Group. Price has an extensive global background driving business growth in the UK, USA, New Zealand, Thailand, North Africa and across Europe.

Built on the knowledge and experience gained from previous roles, he will work closely with all stakeholders to ensure the company achieves growth and enduring value for its customers and shareholders.

With Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevanas its base, ‘Fly Arna’ follows Air Arabia Group’s successful low-cost business model offering comfort, reliability, and value-for-money air travel.

Tatoyan: Expired drugs found in mental health centers in Armenia

Jirair Kafian
  News.am  
Armenia – Jan 22 2022
15:01, 22.01.2022

The storage and use of medicines in mental health centers in Armenia is a concern, Armenian Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan said at a press conference on Saturday, speaking about the state of mental health centers in the republic.

“Expired drugs were found in the centers of Sevan and Vardenis, their expiration date was 4 months ago, the same thing happened in the Lori regional psycho-neurological dispensary. Facts were also recorded when medical supplies, instruments, even for a period of two years, were overdue for quite a long time,” Tatoyan said.

According to him, most centers use mixed drugs without clarifying their compatibility. In addition, therapy sessions with psychiatrists are not conducted properly.

The Ombudsman welcomed the opening of a juvenile department at the Avan Mental Health Center, which can treat 12 people.

“It is a matter of concern that there are no such centers for minors living in the regions and having problems. And the children are forced to be transported to Yerevan, but even here the relatives face serious difficulties,” he concluded.

Will Turkey and Armenia Reach a Compromise?

Jirair Kafian
Jan 14 2022
By Neil Hauer

There’s rarely a dull moment in the Caucasus, and now is no exception.

The ongoing attempt at normalization of ties between Armenia and Turkey is the region’s latest drama. Following Armenia’s loss to Azerbaijan in the 2020 Karabakh War, the process has started up again, with the two sides holding their first bilateral meeting on the subject on Friday. 

The baggage on the Armenian side in particular needs little introduction — Turkey is the successor of the Ottoman Empire, which committed the Armenian genocide that Ankara continues to vehemently deny, to say nothing of Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan in the recent war. Nevertheless, the normalization process steams ahead, with hope for more progress than the abortive 2008 attempt.

For observers, the process is infuriatingly opaque. The impossibility of discerning true intentions, and the genuine willingness to reach compromise, both of participants and interested parties leaves outsiders guessing. 

Armenia, for its part, seems to be the most straightforward participant in both its outlook and goals. Yerevan’s line has changed little in three decades — normalization without preconditions. This approach, reiterated repeatedly by Pashinyan in recent months, entails simply the opening of the long-closed border between the two as a basis for potential future improvements. 

No topics like recognition or reparations for the genocide — a frequent demand from Armenia’s diaspora — or establishing full diplomatic relations are tied to this first step. For Yerevan, the opening of one of its long-sealed borders, would be achievement enough.

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Two other relevant players have their own interests in the process, ones that could see them either back an accord or seek to sabotage it. 

The first is Russia, Armenia’s erstwhile, though not particularly reliable, backer and treaty ally. Moscow has openly supported Turkish Armenian reconciliation, and also stands to gain from it. 

Russia has repeatedly pushed for the reopening of the Soviet-era railway from Russia through Azerbaijan and Armenia to Turkey. The restoration of this route, which Russian President Vladimir Putin acquired additional support for from both Aliyev and Pashinyan in Sochi last month, would give Russia its first functional rail connection with Turkey since the Soviet collapse. 

Conversely, however, the Kremlin has long benefited from, and been content with, the frozen status of the Karabakh conflict, which has kept Russia’s role as mediator center stage, not to mention a steady flow of arms sales. This influence, which only grew following the introduction of Russian peacekeepers to Karabakh in November 2020, gives the Kremlin a powerful incentive to keep the region divided and its inhabitants at each other's throats.

The other major stakeholder in the process has an even greater impetus to prevent its success. Azerbaijan, and its president Ilham Aliyev, have been riding high since recapturing three-quarters of ethnic Armenian-held territory in and around Karabakh in the fall of 2020. 

The Azerbaijani president has since directed his efforts toward attempting to force Yerevan, via military and economic pressure, into a capitulating settlement that would recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and admit the eventual cession of the remainder of Armenian Karabakh.

 For Aliyev personally, the modus operandi of his near 20-year dictatorial rule has been demonizing Armenians as subhuman creatures of evil worthy of little more than extermination, while portraying his administration as the only force capable of defending Azerbaijan against this terror. 

Baku has pressured Ankara to conduct its own normalization process in concert with Azerbaijan’s maximalist goals for Armenia. Some have suggested that Azerbaijan now has less reason to stand in the way of Armenian-Turkish normalization than it did in 2008, given its victory in 2020’s war. While this may be the case for the state itself, the Aliyev regime has ample interest in maintaining a tense standoff and maximum pressure on its eternal enemy.

The real wildcard is Turkey. Ankara’s diplomats have repeatedly changed tack in public remarks regarding normalizing relations with Armenia.

Early last year, a number of Erdogan advisors told media that Ankara was ready and willing to move forward with Yerevan, and that they had seen “positive signals” from Armenia following the war. 

In recent months, however, that line has shifted. Turkey’s foreign minister and other diplomats have begun to state that Ankara will coordinate closely with Baku on the process and keep their allies in consultation for the duration of the talks. This shift in rhetoric followed a sharp uptick from Azerbaijan in military provocations against both Armenia and Karabakh, something that may or may not have been related to the process. 

Following this, the recent renewed push for Armenia-Turkey talks came as something of a surprise, sparking speculation that Ankara wanted a diplomatic win of some sort in light of neverending crises with its European and US allies. In one article, anonymous Turkish sources even suggested the push came from U.S. President Joe Biden. 

With the Turkish lira and economy in freefall in recent months, engendering better relations with Turkey’s Western partners as well as the economic opportunities (albeit limited) from opening the Armenian border could also weigh on Ankara’s calculus. But only Erdogan and his inner circle know if this will be enough to overcome their stated desire to continue to back Ankara's allies in Baku.

The onus, then, falls squarely on Turkey in this round of prospective normalization. If Ankara opens its border with Armenia without preconditions — something today’s statement hinted at — then there will be a real possibility of doing so. If the potential spoiler role of Russia, and especially Azerbaijan, wins, however, it will just become the latest failed attempt to build towards peace in the Caucasus.

The views expressed in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the position of The Moscow Times.
Neil Hauer is an independent security analyst based in Tbilisi, Georgia. His work focuses on Russian activity in Syria and conflict and politics in the Caucasus.

Former Police Chief Lt. General Vladimir Gasparyan charged in 2,1 billion-dram money laundering case

Jirair Kafian

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 13:15,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. Former national police chief Lt. General Vladimir Gasparyan faces multiple criminal charges in a corruption case. The Anti-Corruption Committee released the indictment on January 12.

Gasparyan is accused in laundering more than 2 billion drams over the course of 18 years.

From 1997 to 2010, Gasparyan was the Chief of Military Police. He then served as Deputy Minister of Defense for a year. From 2011 to 2018 he was Chief of Police.

According to the indictment, Lt. General Gasparyan awarded no-show jobs to his wife and daughter at the Military Police and Police in between 2000-2018, with damages totaling more than 45,000,000 drams.

Lt. General Gasparyan is accused in abuse of power, falsifications and other corruption-related crimes, which led him to illicitly obtaining “expensive homes and cars” the value of which significantly exceed his family’s legal income. He then laundered the assets through accomplices. The investigation revealed that Gasparyan laundered a total of 2,116,040,804 drams of assets.

The indictment was sent to the Supervising Prosecutor for approval and forwarding to court.

The Armenians and the Jews: a look in the mirror

Jirair Kafian
The Times of Israel
Jan 5 2022
JAN 5, 2022, 2:21 AM

The other day, I happened to be in my local dry cleaners, when I heard a customer saying something to the owner, in a language that I did not understand.

“What did that gentleman just say to you?” I asked.

The owner replied: “He was wishing me a merry Christmas. It is the Armenian Orthodox Christmas.”

An awkward silence.

“You know,” I said, “I am a Jew,, and I have always felt a kinship with the Armenian people.”

He held up his hand, and said: “I know. I know.”

The poet Joel Rosenberg writes:

I count the ways we are alike

I cite the kingdoms of our former glory — which, for both of us, perhaps, had been a bit too much to handle,

As it has been ever since.

I cite our landless outposts

of diaspora, strewn close along the rivers

and the shores of human habitation

that branch outward from the founts

of Paradise. I cite our neighboring

quarters in the walled Jerusalem,

our holy men in black, our past

in Scripture, and our overlapping

sacred sites. I cite our reverence for family ties, the polar worlds of grandfathers and grandmothers…

Our Middle Eastern food, our enterprise, our reedy and Levantine tunes.

Our immigration histories, the grainy profiles

our ironic manner, our eccentric uncles. Our clustering in cities

Our cherishing of books

Our vexed and aching homelands.

Why should Jews be talking about this? Even as Armenians observe Christmas, the nation faces hostility from authoritarian Muslim neighbors. Armenian’s neighbor, Azerbaijan, still holds prisoners of war that it captured in 2020; it labors to physically eradicate all traces of Armenia’s ancient Christian heritage; and it covets control of sovereign Armenian land to establish an eastward corridor for Turkey.

So, this is a basic truth: Jews, who are another democratic minority in a Muslim region, should not be silent.

But, there is something else. Because when we look at the Armenians, it is as if we are looking in the mirror – and it is not even the sweet truth that our quarters, the Armenian and the Jewish, are adjacent to each other in the Old City of Jerusalem. (I have visited the Museum of the Armenian Genocide, in the Armenian Quarter, and found it heartbreaking – especially because I was the only one there.)

Let us go back, to more than a century ago. In the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, the Armenians were seen as a foreign element in Turkish society — and, in this sense, they occupied the same place as the Jews of the Ottoman Empire.

Like the Jews, the Armenian Christians challenged the traditional hierarchy of Ottoman society.

Like the Jews, they became better-educated, wealthier and more urban.

Like Germany’s “Jewish problem” the Turks talked about “the Armenian question.”

The Turkish army killed a million and a half Armenians. Sometimes, Turkish soldiers would forcibly convert Armenian children and young women to Islam. In his memoirs, the US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau wrote that the Turks had worked, day and night, to perfect new methods of inflicting agony, even delving into the records of the Spanish Inquisition and reviving its torture methods. So many Armenian bodies wound up in the Euphrates that the mighty river changed its course for a hundred yards.

In America, the newspaper headlines screamed of systematic race extermination. Parents cajoled their children to be frugal with their food, “for there are starving children in Armenia.”

In 1915 alone, The New York Times published 145 articles about the Armenian genocide. Americans raised $100 million in aid for the Armenians. Activists, politicians, religious leaders, diplomats, intellectuals and ordinary citizens called for intervention, but nothing happened.

The Armenians call their genocide Meds Yeghern (”the Great Catastrophe”). It was to become the model of all genocides and ethnic cleansing. It served the Nazis as a model — not only the act of genocide, but also the passive amnesia. “Who talks about the Armenians anymore?” Hitler quipped.

More than this: the way that Armenian theologians responded to the horror echoed the way that Jews responded to the Shoah.

In 1915, in the small town of Kourd Belen, the Turks ordered 800 Armenian families to abandon their homes. The priest was Khoren Hampartsoomian, age 85. As he led his people from the village, neighboring Turks taunted the priest: “Good luck, old man. Whom are you going to bury today?”

The old priest replied: “God. God is dead and we are rushing to his funeral.”

So, too, those post-Holocaust theologians, like the late Richard Rubenstein, who believed that the idea of God had perished in Auschwitz.

After the Shoah, Jews cried aloud to God: “O God, how could You do this to us, the children of Your covenant?”

After the genocide, Armenian theologians cried: “God, how could this have happened to us, for we were the first people to adopt Christianity as a state religion?”

Some Armenian Christians referred to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and asked: “Were there not even 50 Armenians who could have been saved?”

After the Shoah, Jews cried: “We must have sinned. God has used the Nazis as a club against us.” Armenians cried: “We must have sinned. God used the Turks as a club against us.”

After the Shoah, Jews pondered: “The ways of God and of evil are unknowable.”

So, too, the Armenians: “It is not understandable in human terms. God’s ways are not our ways. It is all a very great mystery now, but in heaven we will find the answers to our many whys.”

Some Jews have wanted to hoard the concept of genocide: “What happened to the Armenians was not as bad as the Holocaust!’”

True, but that is an extremely high and ghastly bar to set. No genocide has approached the scale of the Shoah.

Not all genocides are created equal.

Jews were killed wherever they lived in Europe; by contrast, Armenians outside of Armenia were relatively safe.

Antisemitism is a deep, pervasive moral illness; by contrast, there is no such thing as “anti-Armenianism” in the collective psyche of the world.

But, if Jews do not allow the world to compare the Holocaust to other genocides, then its relevance to the world will wither.

And when that happens, Jews would be inflicted by moral laryngitis, losing their ability to speak truth to the world.

We Jews wish our Armenian friends and neighbors: Շնորհավոր Սուրբ Ծնունդ. A blessed Christmas.

I hope to return to Jerusalem this summer. Among my first stops will be the Armenian Quarter – to admire the crafts, the pottery – and yes, as I always do, to study the maps on its walls that tell a story of darkness that mirrors our own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeffrey K. Salkin is the rabbi of Temple Israel in West Palm Beach, Florida, and a frequent writer on Jewish and cultural matters. He also blogs frequently at Martini Judaism: for those who want to be shaken and stirred, published by Religion News Service.
 

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 30-12-21

Jirair Kafian

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 17:16,

YEREVAN, 30 DECEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 30 December, USD exchange rate up by 1.50 drams to 480.14 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 2.70 drams to 542.61 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.08 drams to 6.42 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 4.22 drams to 646.17 drams.

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

Gold price down by 81.98 drams to 27697.58 drams. Silver price up by 3.72 drams to 352.5 drams. Platinum price down by 92.10 drams to 14850.26 drams.