20:17, 8 January 2024
YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. On January 8, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan received Louis Bono, the Senior Adviser for Caucasus Negotiations, the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the foreign ministry said.
According to the source, during the meeting, the interlocutors discussed regional security issues, including the normalization process of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
A cargo terminal at a border crossing with Iran
Iran, once again, challenged Baku’s ongoing insistence to create a land corridor through Armenia to Nakhichevan, saying that preserving the territorial integrity of countries in the region is of utmost importance.
In an interview with Armenia’s Public Television, Iran’s Ambassador to Armenia Mehdi Sobhani emphasized that Iran’s position on regional developments has not changed.
“We are against any geopolitical changes in the region. Changing borders is a ‘red line’ for us, which was announced at the highest level in Iran and no one can deviate from this position,” the ambassador said.
“An extraterritorial corridor through the territory of one of the countries in the region makes no sense. Transport routes in each country are that nation’s sovereign affair. I believe that the establishment of an extraterritorial corridor on the territory of Armenia has nothing to do with international law, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states,” Sobhani said when asked to clarify Tehran’s position on the continued insistence by Ankara and Baku on the so-called corridor.
At the same time, Sobhani wondered whether those states that are talking about an extraterritorial corridor through Armenia are really ready to allow similar routes to be laid through the territory of their country.
“I think that the answer can only be no. Therefore, they should not expect from others what they would not want in their case,” Sobhani added.
The Iranian ambassador also discussed Tehran’s position on the forced displacement of Artsakh Armenians, and categorically condemned military responses to regional problems.
“We share the same opinion regarding the population of Nagorno-Karabakh. We believe that military action cannot solve fundamental regional problems. To solve them, it is necessary to identify the roots of the conflict, and this can be done through dialogue and peaceful communication,” added the Iranian diplomat, expressing his conviction that the best mechanism for solving existing problems is dialogue.
Sobhani said that to achieve a common understanding on all issues, Armenia and Azerbaijan should talk to each other.
“This is a package within which they must be able to reach mutual understanding that will ensure the establishment of a stable peace. This can be guaranteed by the participation of the countries of the region, a striking example of which is the holding of a meeting in the 3+3 format in Tehran. When the countries of the region support the agreements reached between Armenia and Azerbaijan, this could become the biggest guarantee of achieving permanent and stable peace in the region,” the ambassador said.
Referring to the humanitarian assistance provided to refugees from Artsakh, the diplomat noted that this was the least that a neighboring country could do. According to him, there is no religious, ethnic or other context in this either.
“In Kapan, I met with Armenian settlers to understand why and under what conditions they left their homes. Their clear message to me was that they want the necessary conditions to be provided in Nagorno-Karabakh to return to their homes. I asked them why they left their homes, they responded that they had to do so because they did not feel physically safe,” Sobhani said.
He also said that Iran’s newly-opened consulate in Kapan in Armenia’s Syunik Province has played an important role in simplifying traffic, helping drivers resolve emerging issues and increasing trade turnover between the two countries.
Sobhani said that the Syunik region is of strategic significance for Armenia, and added that the opening of a consulate was of vital importance.
“We can say that this diplomatic establishment has continued the path to developing relations in this region,” Sobhani added, expressing hope that it will soon be possible to open an Armenian consulate in Tabriz.
An armed mob attacked the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem on Dec. 28
Karekin II, Aram I Condemn Attack, Voice Solidarity with Patriarchate
After a mob of some 30 people attacked the Jerusalem Patriarchate compound on Thursday community leaders are asserting that the group, which was allegedly hired by an Israeli development company, attempted to forcibly seize land in what is commonly referred to as the “Cow’s Garden.”
“The attackers, who were sent by the [development] company, attempted to seize land, but fortunately, our youth who were on site were able to resist and drive out the attackers. Unfortunately, two of our young Armenians were arrested,” Hagob Jernazian, a representative of the Armenian community in Jerusalem, told Azatutyun.am.
“They are trying to resolve the issue by force,” Garo Nalbandian, another community leader told Azatutyun.am.
“We tell them that if they are insisiting that they have rights [over the area] let them bring court documents that backs their claim,” Nalbandian added.
At around 12:40 p.m. local time on Thursday, a group of 30 armed bandits approached the grounds known as “Cows’ Garden” with sticks, stones, and tear gas grenades in yet another attempt to violently remove the Armenian community from the area.
Armenian community members fought off the attackers until police arrived.
“This is the criminal response we have received for the submission of a lawsuit to the District Court of Jerusalem for the Cow’s Garden, which was officially received by the Court less than 24 hours ago. This is how the Australian-Israeli businessman Danny Rothman (Rubenstein) and George Warwar (Hadad) react to legal procedures,” the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement.
According to the Armenian Patriarchate, bishops, priests, deacons, and Armenian Theological Academy students were among those seriously injured during the attack. A number of local Armenian community members were injured, as well, and two were taken into police custody.
His Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, in separate statements, condemned the attack and expressed their solidarity with the Armenian community of Jerusalem.
“It is obvious that the provocateurs are once again trying to achieve the appropriation of the ‘Cows’ Garden’ estate through terror, threats and violent actions, violating the procedures defined by the law,” Etchmiadzin said in a statement on Friday.
“We condemn the incident and express hope that the Israeli authorities will respond legally to the criminal actions manifested against the Patriarchate and the Armenian community [of Jerusalem], the guilty will be held accountable, and the recurrence of similar incidents will be ruled out,” the statement added.
Catholicos Aram I said that the Cilician Catholicosate is following the incidents and condemned the attack.
“As always, the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, expresses its complete solidarity with the Armenian Patriarchate and the Armenian community and calls on our brethren to defend the rights and security of the Patriarchate,” a statement by Aram I said on Friday.
In a recent interview with TASS news agency, Sergei Kopyrkin, the Russian ambassador to Armenia, reaffirmed Russia’s perception of Armenia as a strategic ally, despite the current tensions stirring between the two nations. The ambassador underlined the shared interests, history, and viewpoints on international matters that continue to bind the nations together. However, he acknowledged the existence of differences in their respective bilateral and multilateral agendas.
Relations between Russia and Armenia have been decidedly bitter since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. The situation has been further exacerbated following the September 2022 offensive by Azerbaijan, which Russian peacekeepers did not halt. Armenia has been openly critical of Russia’s perceived failure to live up to its security obligations.
The actions of the Armenian government, labelled as unfriendly by the Russian Foreign Ministry, and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s public criticism of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for its lack of support, have strained ties further between the two nations. Pashinian has also shed light on Russia’s delay in delivering weapons under defense contracts valued at $400 million.
Despite these concerning issues, Kopyrkin referred to them as operational matters that can be resolved through dialogue. This statement comes in a time when Armenia appears to be seeking alternative arms suppliers, having recently signed defense contracts with India and France. These actions signal a potential shift in Armenia’s military alliances, which could have profound implications for its relationship with Russia.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has criticized Armenia for supposedly seeking to replace its alliance with Moscow with ambiguous promises from the West. In response, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stressed the importance of careful wording when discussing Yerevan and Moscow relations, refuting claims that Armenia criticizes Russia at the highest level.
As the situation unfolds, it remains to be seen how these challenges will reshape the dynamics of Russia-Armenia relations and what consequences they might have on the wider geopolitical stage.
Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh and Russia’s Ukraine invasion have come to Armenia, where the future is uncertain.
In September, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region in the South Caucuses at the heart of a decades-long conflict between the two countries. Azerbaijan seized control of the territory in less than 48 hours, forcing hundreds of thousands of ethnic Karabakh Armenians to flee across the border. And they’re not the only ones. Since Russia launches its invasion of Ukraine, around a hundred thousand Russians have also fled into Armenia to escape conscription and sanctions.
But this massive influx has driven up prices and led to job scarcity in the capital, Yerevan, which makes life really difficult for the thousands of people looking to hoping to rebuild their lives there. GZERO World correspondent Fin DePencier tells the story of two people who fled to Armenia to escape war—one from Nagorno-Karabakh, the other from Moscow—to see how conflicts playing out thousands of miles away have a huge impact on the thousands of war refugees looking for a place to call home.
A small, land-locked country of not-quite three million—its diaspora is three times the number of its residents—you don’t hear much about Armenia. It was in the news briefly this fall during a border conflict with Azerbaijan, whose military bases overlook vineyards in Vayots Dzor, a prime production region. But in the wake of the larger conflict in Gaza occurring soon after, the Armenian-Azerbaijan situation has slipped from public view.
And that’s to the advantage of a wine industry undergoing a renaissance that just this year started exploring broader, international markets for commercialization. The concept of Armenian wine might be new to many, but the country’s wine production goes back at least 6,000 years. Evidence of systematic winemaking such as wine presses, jars and karases (clay vessels similar to amphorae) was found in the Areni-1 cave, a site from the Early Bronze Age in Vayots Dzor, and a stone’s throw from leading wineries today.
Like its Georgian neighbor to the north—another ancient wine culture—Armenia’s wine industry suffered under Soviet rule that prioritized bulk and brandy production over quality wines of place. It’s been only in the post-Soviet years that winemakers were able to reclaim their heritage and infuse the old vineyards with new technology and renewed stewardship.
“During the Soviet era, much of the connection with traditional winemaking was lost except in home winemaking,” says Ara Sarkissian, head of wine at Storica Wines, a Massachusetts-based importer dedicated to Armenian fine wine. “After the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia saw an influx of immigration; Armenians moved [back] to their homeland, bringing with them technology, knowledge and funding.
“This allowed for a reset of sorts in winemaking and people were open to bringing in new ideas, approaches and technology from Europe and elsewhere to rejuvenate commercial wine production.”
Storica was established in 2018 and today represents seven brands by five producers, who, in turn represent a new generation and mindset for the country’s winemaking. Though they’re far flung across a rugged landscape, they are closely bound by a common commitment to quality and defining the new Armenian terroir.
Armenia 101. In part, Armenia mirrors conditions in some of the world’s most prized regions—high-elevation vineyards—up to nearly 6,000 feet above sea level—on well-draining limestone and volcanic soils. But any geographic similarities to Europe end there: the heart of Armenia’s wine country is defined by valleys and, in large part, a dramatic mountainscape—ripples of brown hues in the highlands turning to purple and snow caps in the distance. In some places, it’s the only horizon the eye can see. Indeed, mountains make up about 70% of the land. Some vineyards are so remote, all there is to see are earth and sky.
“It’s not really a hospitable region—very dramatic and a little extreme and edgy,” said Vahe Keushgerian, who along with his daughter Aimee, produces traditional-method sparkling wine from 130-year-old ungrafted vines at Keush, established in 2010 in Vayots Dzor. From his vineyards 5,741 feet above sea level, the boundaries of all four neighboring countries—Georgia, Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan—are in view.
His assessment is echoed by Arsen Mkrtchyan, director at Noa, a winery founded in 2017 on 35 hectares (~86 acres) of land formerly part of an “old-style vineyard more oriented to volume than quality.”
“When we bought the land, we didn’t expect it to be so stony and so much work, but now we can’t stop,” he said.
At this point, Armenia’s six wine-producing regions largely seem to be defined by their altitudes, and a visual reminder of this is Mount Ararat, a 16,854-foot dormant volcano, which, though in eastern Turkey, dominates the view for miles. The regional crown jewel is Vayots Dzor, with elevations up to 5,900 feet above sea level. Armavir, located in the Ararat plain (2,953 – 3,609 feet asl), is the largest and mostly focused on white wines. Ararat with (2,625-3,281 feet) follows in size. Aragatsotn is a northwestern outpost for quality-led boutique family wineries with the same elevations as Armavir. Keush’s French-trained winemaker Arman Manoukian says Armenia is about 20 years away from having an appellation system, so for now, valleys and elevations are the main markers.
The country is home to more than 350 indigenous varieties, about 80 of which have been DNA tested, Vahe estimated, with about 30 in commercial cultivation for still (dry) and sparkling wines are made. (Sweet wine production is limited and mostly consumed locally and is not part of the export strategy.) About 70% of Armenian wines are consumed in-country.
Thanks to those extreme elevations and diurnal temperature shifts, in general, the wines are crisp and have a linear fruit _expression_, ready for the modern consumer. Master of Wine Lisa Granik, author of Wines of Georgia and a market adviser to Armenia, calls them “well-balanced, approachable and appealing alternatives to the ubiquitous varieties in the current market.”
Storica focuses on five grape varieties that have the greatest potential to resonate with consumers in the American market. “We have decided to primarily import wines made with Areni, which is easy to pronounce, but is also approachable, being medium-bodied and low in tannin,” Sarkissian said. Some are crunchy-red-fruited wines that often can pass for Pinot Noir. The whites made of Voskehat can mimic a creamy-textured Chardonnay from the Burgundy villages.
The work starts in the vineyard. Starting with a clean slate means not only breaking ground, but also making viticultural decisions that will define the respective wineries: where to source grapes, how to farm them and how to manage resources, such as water, that are in scarce supply. The decisions are individual, but all the programming starts with a common desire to preserve and elevate what is truly Armenian.
Aimee Keushgerian, who grew up in Tuscany and repatriated from the United States, established Zulal (“pure” in Armenian) in 2017, making dry wines micro-vinified from grapes that were on the verge of extinction. She sources from small growers in Vayots Dzor and Artashat. Noa is working with a consulting oenologist on the winery’s sustainability program, focused on water conservation and other organic best practices. The winery is in its first year of pursuing the three-year organic certification.
Over at Voskevaz, winemaker Ghevond Petrosyan says “we’re trying to reactivate traditions in a modern style, but respect native varieties, natural root stocks and methods like fermenting the grapes in karas.” Indeed, ownership at Voskevaz has a foot in both the past and future: The former Soviet winery was founded in 1932, “reborn” through an acquisition by the Hovhannisyan family in 1997 and “born again” in 2013 with a significant restoration that includes a castle-like folly set up for enotourism.
And at Van Ardi, a winery at 3,356 feet in Aragatsotn, Varuzhan Mouradian, repatriated from Los Angeles to start what is widely considered Armenia’s first boutique winery. His mission, he said, is “to put Armenia on a fine-wine map and to reeducate Armenians about [their] wine heritage.” Certified organic, Van Ardi employs methods often found in biodynamic vineyards, such as farming by a lunar calendar and playing music for the vines and constructing a bell tower that gives off vibrations on the “do” note. “We consider the vines communicate with each other and have feelings,” he says. “We are always experimenting and adapting: It’s a process.”
Finding a market. All this bodes well for a nascent wine market in which consumers value stewardship and authenticity, though Sarkissian says it’s not without its challenges.
“They are twofold: One is that the grape varieties are unknown, the other is that Armenia is not known as a wine producer due to the break during Soviet times,” he said. “Armenia is behind Greece and Georgia by about 15 years in terms of the ability of U.S. consumers to have a basic understanding of [its] wine personality.”
However, it is his job, along with the new generation of winemakers, to suss out a narrative that will attract consumers who, increasingly, are interested in off-the-beaten path wines.
“While currently the market potential rests among consumers willing to venture beyond, say, Chardonnay and Bordeaux varieties, the value and quality of Armenian wines should allow them a toehold in the growing demand for ancient varieties from ancient wine growing areas,” says Granik.
But if Greece and Georgia, both with similar challenges can surmount them, so can Armenia with its backstory still in development.
“Areni has been shown to be the grape variety that was vinified in the Areni-1 cave, making it the oldest continually used grape variety that we know of. This certainly helps the story,” Sarkissian says.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanabortolot/2023/12/26/in-armenia-whats-old-is-new-again/?sh=299935487cdd
The following remarks were delivered at the AYF Washington DC “Ani” Chapter’s “Service to the Community and Homeland” event, marking the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Youth Federation, held on December 9, 2023. Sune Hamparian recently completed a summer internship at the Yerevan office of human rights lawyer Siranush Sahakyan, organized through the Armenian Legal Center.
Sune Hamparian
It was in this church, this very hall, among so many of you gathered here today, that I first heard the human rights lawyer Siranush Sahakyan. The 44-day Artsakh War still fresh in my mind, I felt at that time what I think a lot of us felt—hopeless. As larger and more powerful forces attacked our lands, we watched the rest of the world stand silent to the atrocities our people faced. Each day brought knowledge of new tragedies, unable to prevent the crimes we were presented with each and every day.
Siranush seemed to be the light in the darkness. A candle in the night. In this hall, hearing Siranush talk, I felt for the first time that someone was answering my midnight questions. How could justice possibly be found? She talked about the prisoners of the Artsakh War. For the first time, I heard all the facts, the cruel truth, the reality on the ground. I remember listening, enraptured by her words, jotting down each and everything that she said. Not only did I see the problems more clearly, but I saw a course through which action could be taken—international courts. Siranush, with the support of the Armenian Legal Center, was not one of the people who idly stood by and watched. She stepped up to the plate and found a way to change the situation.
The opportunity to work with Siranush was the highlight of summer and will continue to inspire me throughout the rest of my life. During the war, she started the process of taking human rights violations to the international courts. She collected evidence, from video recordings to individual accounts, sifting through and purposefully putting herself in front of the cruelest aspects of humanity, each day hearing the painstaking accounts and visuals of tortured, mutilated and murdered individuals.
In the time between that first meeting and the internship, Siranush became my idol—and not some distant icon, a movie superhero—but a real hero, a human hero, an Armenian hero. I hoped to be just like her, but that’s easier wished for than accomplished.
When I first began the internship, reading through the collections of evidence tore me down. Some nights I didn’t know what to do but cry. The stories of each soldier stayed with me. Their lives stayed with me. Their service, their sacrifice, their suffering. Their age, the same as mine, but their lives so vastly different.
Siranush’s strength, her power and her perseverance pushed me to continue the work, to understand that while it was hard, getting to know each soldier was necessary to deliver the justice they deserved and that each of their families so desperately needed.
I’m not a lawyer. But through the internship, working with Siranush, and with the help of law students, I was able to play a part in that justice. I learned to turn the evidence I had spent so much time reviewing into structured evidence and draft case summaries. I studied laws here in the U.S. to learn about sanctions as a possible remedy.
Through the entire process, I learned there are ways. There are countless ways we can help, whether that is through going to a protest, pressuring members of Congress, doing service projects or writing a case summary. Because each of us is part of the solution. Each of us a single candle that together lights the night. And when the path ahead is not clear, when there is no way, we make a way.
Because Երբ չի լինում ելք ու ճար, խենթերն են գտնում հնար.
Armenia and Azerbaijan on Wednesday exchanged prisoners of war, in line with an agreement announced last week that also promised the two countries would work towards a peace treaty and was hailed by the European Union as a major step toward peace in the tumultuous region.
Azerbaijan brought back two servicemen, while 32 soldiers returned to Armenia, officials in both countries reported.
Azerbaijan waged a lightning military campaign in September in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The offensive ended three decades of rule there by ethnic Armenians and resulted in the vast majority of the 120,000 residents fleeing the region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
In their joint statement last week, the two countries said they "share the view that there is a historical chance to achieve a long-awaited peace." They said they intend "to normalize relations and to reach the peace treaty on the basis of respect for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity."
They also promised to continue discussions "regarding the implementation of more confidence building measures" and called on the international community for support "that will contribute to building mutual trust between two countries."
The joint statement came after the two countries spent months bitterly arguing on the outline of a peace process amid mutual distrust.
As part of the deal, Armenia also agreed to lift its objections to Azerbaijan hosting next year's international conference on climate change.
European Council President Charles Michel praised the agreement as a major breakthrough, saying on X that he particularly welcomes the deal to release detainees and make an "unprecedented opening in political dialogue."
Michel called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to finalize a peace deal as soon as possible.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/armenia-and-azerbaijan-exchange-pows-in-line-with-agreement-announced-last-week-1.6685747
14:03,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Defense of Armenia Suren Papikyan has met with his Cypriot counterpart Michalis Giorgallas during an official visit to the island country on December 12.
The one-on-one meeting was followed by enlarged-format talks.
“During the meeting, a number of issues related to Armenian-Cypriot cooperation in the defense field were discussed,” the Ministry of Defense said in a readout. “The parties conducted a comprehensive review of the ongoing cooperation and delineated the new opportunities for its advancement, expressing a shared commitment to cooperation across a broader spectrum: encompassing training programs, the exchange of expertise in various domains, military-technical cooperation, and other matters of mutual interest.
Suren Papikyan thoroughly presented the Crossroads of Peace project developed by the Government of the Republic of Armenia to his colleague.
Concluding the meeting, the Defense Ministers of both nations issued a joint statement for the media, reaffirming their dedication to cooperation with a comprehensive agenda,” the defense ministry added.