Sports: World Boxing Championships: Hovhannes Bachkov is in quarter-final

News.am, Armenia
Nov 1 2021

Bronze medalist of Tokyo 2020, world’s two-time bronze medalist, two-time European champion Hovhannes Bachkov made it to the quarter-final of the World Boxing Championships taking place in Belgrade.

The captain of the Armenia national football team competed with Italy’s representative Gianluigi Malanga in the 1/8 final of the 63.5 kg category boxers and defeated Malanga 3-2.

The situation was rather tense in the first round. The opponent was regularly protecting himself from Bachkov’s strikes with his hands, but the referee wasn’t responding to this. During the tense competition, the referees gave the advantage to Armenia’s representative.

In the second round, Bachkov added pressure and didn’t give the opponent the chance to strike back. In the second round, the referees gave points to Hovhannes Bachkov.

In the third round, the Italian boxer was almost always protecting and was doing his best to avoid engaging in a close combat with Bachkov.

The 28-year-old Armenian boxer started from the 1/16 final during which he had scored an impressive victory over Azerbaijani Malik Hasanov.

Photos and video at the link below

Artsakh State Minister speaks on opportunities for cooperation with elected officials of California

News.am, Armenia
Oct 31 2021

At the Consulate General of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles, Artsakh State Minister Artak Beglaryan met with a member of the California State Assembly, Senator Anthony Portantino, Senator Adrin Nazaryan, and Mayor of Glendale Paula Devine.
The State Minister thanked the elected officials of California for the constant support of the people of Artsakh, stressing the need to expand and develop relations. He stressed that the 2014 resolution on California's recognition of Artsakh's independence was not only a political act, but also opened a window for practical cooperation, towards which the Artsakh side is ready to take clear measures.
According to the source, Adrin Nazaryan and Anthony Portantino expressed their readiness to deepen the existing relations in all possible ways.
During the meeting with the Mayor of Glendale Paula Devine, they exchanged views on the sides of cooperation with the cities of Artsakh, mutually noting the importance of both material and technical support and programs aimed at capacity development.

Civil service reforms in active phase – Deputy PM Suren Papikyan

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 10:28,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, ARMENPRESS. The civil service system in Armenia is in the active phase of reforms, Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikyan said at a discussion on the European Union Twinning Project “Support to Further Implementation of Civil Service Reform in Armenia”.

“I am hopeful that the issues raised during this discussion will contribute with their important solutions to the modernization of the sector, and will approximate the civil service system with the European Union’s guidelines,” he said.

Papikyan added that Armenia always highly appreciates cooperation. In his words, there is great potential in the cooperating sides, and the utilization of this potential is an important cornerstone for the reforms which is contributing to the continuous cooperation between Armenia and the EU.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Pastinfo newspaper: Zurabov sues Armenia PM, claim is known

News.am, Armenia
Oct 23 2021

Former Minister of Health and Social Development of Russia Mikhail Zurabov, who owns 12.5% of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, has demanded to terminate the deal to sell 60% of the Combine’s shares to Russian billionaire Roman Trotsenko, Pastinfo newspaper writes.

According to Datalex system, Zangezur Mining LLC filed a lawsuit in the court of general jurisdiction of Syunik Province against Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, the Industrial Company CJSC (registered in Russia) and the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia.

After obtaining 60% of the shares of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, Geoproming, represented by Russian billionaire Trotsenko, donated 15 %of the shares to the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia.

Earlier, Zurabov had information that the alienation of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine was underway and, as a 12% shareholder, appealed to the court with a request to give preference to the obtainment.

The court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan not only satisfied the claim, but also imposed a ban on the shares.

The court decision of August 11, 2021 states that Zangezur Mining LLC filed a lawsuit against Amp Holding LLC, Star Dust CJSC, Mher Poloskov, Karen Hakobyan, Gurgen Abrahamyan in order to prevent the defendants from violating the plaintiff’s rights. The decision enters into force from the moment of its adoption and is subject to immediate execution in accordance with the procedure established by the Law of Armenia on Compulsory Enforcement of Judicial Acts.

EU explores opportunities for promoting peaceful development in the region. EU Special Representative

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 21:30,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Defense Minister Arshak Karapetyan received the delegation led by EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar. The Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin also took part in the meeting.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MoD Armenia, during the meeting, the sides touched upon the Armenian-Azerbaijani border situation, as well as issues related to regional security.

Toivo Klaar noted that the European Union supports the strengthening of peace in the region, explores opportunities for promoting peaceful development.

Vaccination rates significantly higher in Armed Forces than among civilians – Armenia Defense Ministry

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 14:46,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 19, ARMENPRESS. The vaccination rates against COVID-19 are significantly higher in the Armenian Armed Forces, than among the civilian population, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on social media.

“In response to concerns voiced by some social media users according to which a seasonal flu is widespread in the Armed Forces and, moreover, the servicemen do not get vaccinated against COVID-19, we announce that there is no reason to worry, there is no tendency of increase in number of seasonal flu or acute respiratory diseases, and the vaccinations are not only carried out, but also its rates are significantly higher than among the civilian population”, the statement says.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Preparing Sasna Klulik in the Colorful Garden at Noosh Guesthouse

Oct 13 2021
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Sometimes, you just want to take your laptop and camera and head to somewhere remote and enjoy time by yourself whether it be by working, relaxing, reading, or enjoying the peacefulness of nature.

Well, I recently visited one of the small villages in the Aragatsotn region called Ashnak. When I was there, I had a chance to discover Noosh Guesthouse, a relaxing retreat for coworking, connecting with nature, and unwinding!

Located right in between Yerevan and Gyumri on one of our favorite Armenian road trip routes, Ashnak is a typical Ararat Valley village surrounded by a semi-dry, colorful landscape.

Located approximately an hour from Yerevan or Gyumri, the nomadic road invites you to Noosh Guesthouse where you will have a chance to relax, photograph, and enjoy a traditional cooking experience… just like I did when there!

This cool and relaxing place was founded by two best friends, Ani and Gayane, who are optimistic and ambitious women that wanted to share their cool concept with other travelers and locals.

Ani was born and lived in Ashnak for years before she moved to France to study at Sorbonne University in the International Tourism department.

Her ancestors, like all of the residents in Ashnak, originated from the Sasun district in Western Armenia and were forced to flee into different parts of Armenia over the years.

Gayane, who also studied abroad in China and was a master of languages, became a certified guide and took up an interest in tourism and hospitality.

After graduating from university, Ani came back and wanted to develop her home village. In 2019 and alongside her friend, Gayane, the seeds were planted for Noosh Guesthouse… located on Ani’s family home’s property.

So, what does ‘Noosh’ mean? It actually means almonds because there are more than 20 almond trees in the garden and many in the village… the name ended up a natural fit as a result!

I really admire the perseverance of Ani and Gayane because they have faced their fair share of challenges. One is that the village only receives 2 hours of water daily and keeping the garden green is a gruesome task as a result of that!

However, they are determined to garner more attention to the village and they hope to help fix the water delivery issue as soon as possible (and potentially attract donors or investors to help with that).

This post is not only a review of my experience but also a post to help bring attention to the issue so we can help this community and Noosh!

The concept of Noosh Guesthouse is simple: you are there to relax, detox, and chill out. Also, if you stay overnight for one or several nights, you can learn how to cook traditional Sasun dishes, camp in the garden, and stargaze from a telescope they have on the property.

Seriously, Noosh is an epic location for digital nomads or location-independent workers!

The cozy house will provide you with clean rooms with big beds, delicious homemade food, access to a wonderful garden with many fruit trees, co-working spaces, and hammocks.

Sometimes, there are a group of travelers stopping by to eat, relax, participate in cooking classes, and enjoy traditional Armenian dances.

The garden at Noosh Guesthouse is an amazing place for open-air cooking classes and to my delight during my visit, I had the opportunity to join in one of them where Ani and Gayane showed me how to prepare ancient dishes originating from Sasun called “Klulik”.

Sasna Klulik

Cooking traditional Western Armenian food in their lush garden in the remote village was seriously one of my most memorable experiences in Armenia and it really made me appreciate cultural and gastronomical experiences like this!

Sasna Klulik is not known to the masses and to be honest, I never knew it existed because it’s a very distinct food with cooking methods that have been passed down through generations and only in villages like Ashnak can you enjoy it at someone’s home.

Originally, Klulik was known as a vegetarian dish, but for tourists and meat lovers, it can often be prepared with meat. Naturally, you can request the way you’d like it prepared.

They had set up the open-air kitchen table and all ingredients were placed on it and the fun began!

We started to mix the ingredients together with our hands and form them into small balls.

and the fun and the interesting process started to mix, mash and mix with hands and creant small balls. It was so exciting to cook in this type of atmosphere beneath the fruit trees as it really illuminated the ingredients’ colors and freshness!

To get an idea of the ingredients in Sasna Klulik – you can see the list below:

Noosh Guesthouse making Sasna Klulik

  • Pre-made broth from pickled cabbage
  • Flour
  • Red and black pepper
  • Salt
  • Dry basil (can add any herbs you like!)

After mixing all of these ingredients together, you will need to add an egg as well as fried chopped onions and a bit of tomato paste.

Then, you will shape them into small balls and cook them in the aforementioned cabbage broth. It was incredibly delicious!

  • Experience availability: 7 days a week
  • Hours: From 10 AM to 8:30 PM
  • Reservations 24 hours in advance
  • Duration: 2-3 hours
  • Languages: Armenian, Russian, English, French, and Chinese
  • Max group size: 20 people

I recommend everyone to book a stay at Noosh Guesthouse. Trust me, you will find that this place is so inviting and the perfect place to rejuvenate yourself from the hustle and bustle of the city and everyday life!

>> Book your stay at Noosh Guesthouse here <<

Have you had a chance to visit Ashnak village or stay at Noosh? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! Thanks!

  • Yeganyans’ Guest House and Wine Yard
  • Make Sweet Sujukh with Tatoents Qotuk
  • Create Syrian-Armenian Food at Old Ashtarak
  • Yerevan to Gyumri Road Trips Stops
  • Gwoog Gastrohouse in Gyumri

**This article was produced with the support of My Armenia, a program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Smithsonian Institution. The contents are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the Smithsonian Institution, or the United States Government.

 

Potential Chabahar Port-Black Sea link through Armenia expected to increase turnover with Iran to billions of dollars

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 10:55, 14 October, 2021

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The government of Armenia is working intensely to resolve the issues related to the Armenia-Iran road communication, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan told Tasnim News Agency in an interview.

Grigoryan said the Armenian government seeks to complete the alternative road by yearend.

“We can say that this is generally a short-term issue. But there is another, more important project. In late September the Armenian government approved the North-South’s Sisian-Iranian border road project. This project is worth more than 1 billion dollars and will entirely change the region’s infrastructures. By implementing this program we also have in mind the idea of becoming a key infrastructure hub linking the Chabahar Port with the Black Sea. From this perspective we can say that this project will give great opportunity to increase trade turnover between Armenia and Iran,” Grigoryan said.

While currently the turnover between Armenia and Iran is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Grigoryan says the figure should soon pass 1 billion dollars. Grigoryan noted that this will enable to increase the trade turnover to several billion dollars in the future. He said that Armenia and Iran have a broad circle of a positive agenda in bilateral relations.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

FM spox: Iran will ‘respond appropriately’ to Baku’s baseless statements

Panorama, Armenia
Oct 16 2021

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh rejected the claims made by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev at the CIS summit, saying Baku seems to have the intention to make baseless media statements, which of course, will be "responded appropriately", IRNA reported. 

Khatibzadeh stressed the fact that such claims are in line with the Zionist regime’s interests and affect Iran-Azerbaijan brotherly ties.

Emphasizing Iran’s role in fighting narcotics smuggling, he said thousands of martyrs and injured over the last four decades in line with fighting this sinister phenomenon is only an example of Iran’s efforts in this regard, adding that the international bodies have confirmed this fact.

Stressing strong relations between Iranian and Azeri nations, Khatibzadeh noted that unfortunately, it seems that despite positive and private messages received from Baku, Baku has the intention to make baseless media statements, adding Iran will “respond appropriately” to them.

In a virtual meeting with the CIS leaders, Aliev claimed in an unrealistic statement that Armenia, in collusion with Iran, used the former occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan to smuggle drugs into Europe for about 30 years.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also rejected these allegations and stressed Iran-Armenia cooperation in fighting narcotics.

Remember us: recognising and rediscovering the Armenian Genocide

The Article, Canada
Oct 7 2021
by HEIDI KINGSTONE

On 24 April 2021, the American President Joe Biden formally recognised the Armenian Genocide. It had only taken 106 years to the day. April really is the cruellest month, as TS Eliot wrote in The Waste Land. The Armenian Genocide is crucial in understanding other genocides that followed. Until the Nazis, it was the high watermark of mass murder in the 20th century.

The world watched the genocide of 1915 unfold almost in real-time in what was then the Ottoman Empire, as the Turkish authorities systematically deported and killed most of the empire’s Armenian population. Over nearly two years of death marches, massacres and forced conversions, the New York Times published more than 140 articles on the subject. Here are some of the terms used to describe the “unparalleled savagery” and “acts of horror”: “young women and girls appropriated by the Turks, thrown into harems, attacked or else sold to the highest bidder”, “endure terrible tortures”, “revolting tortures”, “their breasts cut off, their nails pulled out, their feet cut off”, “burned to death”, “helpless women and children were roasted to death”, “1,500,000 Armenians starve”, “dying in prison camps”, “massacre was planned”, “most thoroughly organised and effective massacres this country has ever known”.

Three years later, at the end of World War One, in 1918, the Hearst newspapers serialised the biographical account of a young orphaned girl: Arshaluys Mardiganian. She had witnessed the murder of her entire family. In 1919, Hollywood made a silent movie, Ravished Armenia/Auction of the Souls, where she played herself. She changed her name to Aurora Mardiganian. Like Anne Frank decades later, both young women crystallised the horrors of the war from their personal accounts.

Donald Bloxham, a professor of modern history, wrote, “The genocide carried out on the Armenians was not only the first of its type but also the most successful. [The 1904-1908 genocide of Namibia’s Nama and Herero people is now considered the first.] Having wiped out a population, the perpetrators then succeeded in virtually erasing any memory of its destruction.”

The Armenian Genocide may have been the “forgotten genocide” in the 1950s during the Cold War. Still, since the 1960s and especially from 2015 onwards, genocide studies, which grew out of Holocaust studies, expanded. The Holocaust is the most frequently described genocide, but the Armenian one is probably a distant second.

When Hitler was planning to invade Poland in 1939, he wanted to send Polish intellectuals and opposition figures to a concentration camp. When someone objected, referring to the Armenian slaughter, he was reputed to have replied, “Who remembers the Armenians?” This was the lesson the Nazis had learned. Nations could get away with mass murder.

There was a long and slow build-up to the 1915 genocide by the Muslim Ottomans against the Christian Armenians. After five centuries of dominance, the Ottoman Empire was in decline. The elites were desperate to save the empire and hold on to their power, status and privileges. The Armenian reformers and revolutionaries were looking for political and social justice and equality, and sovereignty, which they didn’t have under the Ottomans. Non-Muslims were second-class subjects in the Empire.

When the “Bloody Sultan” Abdul Hamid II came to power in 1876, it was at a time of rebellions. He believed that Turkification was the answer to Ottoman woes. He is best remembered for overseeing the decline of the Empire and the Armenian massacres of the 1890s. These “infidels” were labelled with the conventional tropes of alienation. Armenians were called disloyal, ungrateful and accused of profiteering from others, all of which began a justification for the violence.

The Turkish bourgeoisie grew as it acquired Armenian possessions, property and status during the 1908 Young Turk revolution and later in World War One. Local elites played a crucial role in creating the atmosphere. “They incited and provoked people and created this hateful, hostile atmosphere between Muslims and Christians,” says Dr Umit Kurt, an academic and author of The Armenians of Aintab. The Ottomans created false rumours. “They said that Armenians were attacking mosques and raping women. They handed out pamphlets about the threat of an independent Armenia.”

In 1913, the most militant faction, the Young Turks, who believed the Armenians were collaborating with foreign powers, took over the Ottoman Empire in a coup d’etat. Mehmet Talaat (pictured below) came to power, the de facto leader of the Government and one of the architects of modern Turkey — but also of the Armenian Genocide, which he ordered as Minister of the Interior.

Talaat (1874 –-1921) (Alamy)

1915 was a catastrophic year for the Ottomans. Fighting on the side of the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary) and against the Entente (France, Britain, Russia), they suffered their worst defeat. In January, the Ottomans were defeated by the Russians at Sarikamish in the Caucasus Mountains. The Young Turk-led government blamed the Armenians and scapegoated them.

Most historians date the final decision to exterminate the Armenian population from March or early April 1915. Talaat began by arresting Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915. That was and is the first step to destroying a community and making it headless. The responsibility for the deaths of more than one million Armenians, probably closer to 1.5 million, out of an Ottoman population of three million, rests primarily with him. By May 1915, the Entente powers were noting that the Young Turks had committed “crimes against humanity” against the Armenians.

A month later, the Ottoman Young Turks issued a Law of Confiscation, which allowed them to confiscate and then liquidate Armenian assets and properties, just as the Nazis would later do. The Ottomans in Aintab, now Gaziantep, would lay out the plundered goods of the Armenians in the middle of the street, and everything would be sold at ludicrously low prices.

This massive transfer of economic wealth was like winning the lottery for the local Muslim population. The material gain was a great motivator in perpetuating the genocide. The Young Turks benefited when they killed their neighbours and found willing executioners, eager to slaughter their Armenian neighbours, friends and countrymen for gain as much as revenge.

Some Muslims may have tried to help the Armenians, but to do so was illegal. Families were threatened, and they chose not to see what was going on in front of them. They said nothing because of fear, greed or both. Most people were afraid, and there was substantial resentment of the Armenians and economic opportunity for the perpetrators and collaborators. Still, the sense of terror can’t be underestimated, especially when your family is at risk.

Like their Nazi counterparts, too, Ottoman doctors experimented on children. They murdered those with learning difficulties by injecting them with poison, and they carried out experiments on others using typhus injections. Turkish doctors killed infants at the Red Crescent Hospital in Trabzon, used morphine to murder others, and gassed children in school rooms. Local officials used Armenian women and girls as prostitutes.

According to Paul G Pierpaoli Jr in The Armenian Genocide Encyclopedia, Dr Mehemet Reshid, who hated all Christians without distinction, treated Armenian patients as inferior. The atrocities were so horrific you have to ask what is wrong with the human race. He “devised brutal ways in which to treat Armenians. These included nailing horseshoes to their feet and forcing them to walk through Ottoman streets. He nailed Armenians on crosses to mimic the fate of their pre-eminent religious symbol, Jesus Christ. Dr Reshid also engaged in bizarre human experimentation on Armenians, resulting in his victims’ deaths…Their eventual mass extermination eerily anticipated how Nazi doctors attempted to justify their brutal treatment and mass killing of European Jews during WWII.”

Mass deportations began in June 1915. By the time of the death marches, most of the men were dead, either shot or bayonetted. The youngest and most attractive women were raped and young children taken as sex or military slaves. Older women, men and children were sent in cattle cars or on marches in the desert in caravans of death. They went without provisions in the scorching heat while paramilitary killing units followed behind. Marauding gangs robbed and raped. And typhus, pneumonia and dysentery killed as efficiently as hunger, thirst and exposure.

Armenians deported to the deserts of Syria in June 1915 were forced to walk over the dead bodies of Armenians towards the concentration camps where they were expected to die. Instead, 400,000 deportees arrived in Aleppo, a surprise for Talaat. “It was from this moment that they began to establish the series of concentration camps, which were in effect death camps as they had no food or provisions for survival.” Although a few Turkish officials were taken to court after the war, most were acquitted or not put on trial.

While the Americans have finally acknowledged the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish government still denies it. The Armenian Genocide scholar Professor Alan Whitehorn, Professor emeritus at the Department of Political Science and Economics at the Royal Military College of Canada, explains.

“There are often many reasons; one is psychological,” says Professor Whitehorn. “It’s tough for you to say: you know, my father, my grandfather or my uncle participated in mass murder. It’s even harder to acknowledge that your relative has done harm, to have been a murderer who’s killed or engaged in sexual abuse. Perhaps there’s embarrassment or family guilt. You don’t want to pass on the bad news about an elderly relative to your children.”

He adds: “The psychological is quite important. If you’re a product of ultra-nationalism and the Ottoman Empire was under the influence of the Young Turks, you don’t want to acknowledge mistakes. I mean, it’s the nature of nationalism to be proud of your country and critical of other countries. There’s a sense of self-superiority and subordination of the others. This is doubly so when you’ve had a history of an empire, where the subject peoples are considered inferior and need to show deference and subservience. So I think that historic nationalist sense of ‘we’re superior and we don’t acknowledge our mistakes to supposed inferiors’ is germane.”

(Alamy)

Also, as soon as you acknowledge your collaboration, there could be penalties and demands for compensation — reparation is the obvious one, as is the restitution of land and buildings. 

“The politics of genocide is not without long-term financial cost to the perpetrator state,” says Professor Whitehorn. Apart from making postwar Turkey a less ethnically diverse nation, “in slaughtering the Armenians, a key segment of its merchant class was wiped out.”

The Austrian-born Jewish author Franz Werfel wrote about the Armenian Genocide in 1933. His fact-based novel, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, was an international success. It also became a cause célèbre in Hollywood, when the Turkish Ambassador to the US before World War Two prevented its filming. The State Department supported the decision to keep good relations with the Turks.

The story is a fictionalised account about a cluster of Armenian villages that held out against Ottoman troops in 1915 for 40 days. The survivors escaped to French naval ships that took them to safety in Egypt.

Werfel wrote: “The book was conceived in March 1929, during a stay in Damascus. The miserable sight of some maimed and famished-looking refugee children working in a carpet factory gave me the final impulse to snatch time from the Hades of all that was, this incomprehensible destiny of the Armenian nation. The writing of the book followed between July 1932 and March 1933.”

The Jews in the Warsaw ghetto and in other Jewish ghettos read and re-read Werfel’s novel. In the Holocaust, they were looking for inspiration to fight against the Nazis. It was an inspirational and almost unique case of resistance and survival.

Professor Whitehorn’s metzmama, his Armenian grandmother, survived the Young Turks’ genocide. She was one of 100,000 orphans who did. She spent ten years in refugee camps and orphanages, including ones in Corfu and Greece, until an Egyptian Armenian family adopted her. In his work, Whitehorn has often wondered where she found the will to survive. Her first husband, whom she met in Egypt, had survived the genocide but couldn’t cope, and killed himself while she was pregnant.

Professor Whitehorn’s work on genocide and human rights is a way of saying thank you to his metzmama and those who need help today. He works at night when all is quiet — “except for the voices of the past who whisper their haunting words. Remember us . . . Please remember us.”