Author: Kevo Kalantarian

With the implementation of the free-trade zone agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenia will receive privileges for a number of products, including food commodities, Armenia’s Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan said on Tuesday.

He noted that it is very difficult to export goods to Iran, but the main reason is not customs duties, News.am reported.

“Iran strives for self-sufficiency in all the main branches of the economy, and this sharply complicates competition. The main direction of cooperation with Iran is the joint production of goods that can be sold all over the world," Kerobyan added.

Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the implementation of the free trade agreement between Iran and the EEU is a priority for Armenia.

“Given the high dynamics of the development of cooperation with Iran, the entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement and its subsequent implementation are priorities for us in the context of a real expansion of trade cooperation with third countries,” he was quoted as saying at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Moscow.

He said continued negotiations with India and Egypt, as well as the development of comprehensive dialogue on the economic agenda and the deepening of trade and economic cooperation with the UAE and Indonesia, will give an additional impetus to the process of integrating the union into the world economy.

The Eurasian Economic Union may strike a deal on a free trade zone with Iran earlier than with other countries, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Overchuk was quoted as saying by TASS.

"We are closest with Iran," he said, when asked which countries the EEU is closest to reaching an agreement with on a free trade zone.

EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission) Trade Minister Andrey Slepnev said earlier that the agreement on a free trade zone between the EEU and Iran could be signed as early as this year.

Overchuk said Russia is negotiating free trade zone agreements with a number of Muslim countries.

"Within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union, we have been negotiating the creation of a free trade zone with a number of Islamic states, including Egypt, Iran, the UAE. We have already started negotiations with them and we are about to begin talks with Indonesia," he told the plenary session of the 14th international economic forum Russia-Islamic World: Kazan Forum on Friday.

"We see our bilateral trade growing and it may indicate that our countries are becoming closer to each other. Our task for today is to reduce trade barriers and simplify contacts, primarily in the economic sphere,” Overchuk said.

According to tradition, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew evangelized the region of Armenia in the first century. In the year 301, it became the first nation to declare itself Christian. Through centuries of warfare and oppression, its Christian identity has endured as part of Armenian culture, despite repeated attempts by neighbors to stamp it out. 

In 1915, the Turkish Ottoman Empire killed an estimated 1.2 million people during what has become known as the Armenian Genocide. Under the pretext that they were insufficiently loyal to the empire, Ottoman authorities shot entire villages, forcibly converted families to Islam, and marched hundreds of thousands of women and children into the Syrian desert to die. The brutal campaign of extermination led to a significant diaspora of Armenians to other countries.  

Even after Armenia emerged from Soviet dominance and declared itself an independent republic at the end of the 20th century, peace has remained elusive. Armenia has faced decades of conflict over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, where some 100,000 Armenian Christians now live but which Muslim-majority Azerbaijan sees as its territory. In 2020, as the world was preoccupied with the global pandemic, Azerbaijan waged war against Armenia. Seven thousand lives were taken, and the region has remained in the shadow of a fragile ceasefire since.  

Today, most Armenians exist in a state of uncertainty. Given their control over the region, it may be that Azerbaijan is poised to commit a second Armenian genocide. According to University Network for Human Rights researcher Thomas Becker, 

Over the past decade, Azerbaijani officials have invoked language used in the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust, referring to Armenians as a “cancer tumor” and a “disease” to be “treated.” More recently, the country’s authoritarian leader Ilham Aliyev has threatened to “drive [Armenians] away like dogs.” 

The situation seems dire with Russia, Armenia’s ostensible security guarantor, bogged down in its own war against Ukraine, and with Iran, Armenia’s southern neighbor eager to fill the security vacuum. However, an unexpected recent development is that a significant number of Armenia’s diaspora population has been returning to their homeland. After a hundred years of exile and living in places like Russia, France, and the United States, an estimated 50,000 Armenians repatriated prior to 2020, with thousands more joining them every year since.  

For some, the motivation to return is economic. For others, it’s about standing with fellow Armenians in the face of war. However, for many, the calling is about their faith. As the dean of Armenian Apostolic seminary put it, “We as a nation are called to witness to Jesus Christ in a very difficult region. … Our very existence is a testimony of Christianity.” 

Lara Setrakian, an Armenian American journalist, moved back with her family at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. In a recent podcast, she put it this way,  

I am doing what I’m called to do … and it is to be a helper like Mr. Rogers would say. It is a catastrophe. There are crises. But I want to be among the helpers. … We’re not interested in not being Christian … For Christians … this country is one big test of faith. And people I see are rising to the occasion. And they are finding strength, and they … have not ever given up. … They haven’t given up the cross; they haven’t given up their language, their love, their dance. They embody the resilience that we’re all looking for.  

Another repatriated Armenian mused, “In America, I had a good life: a big house, a good car. But when I say, ‘good life,’ I mean something else.”
As so many in the West reel from a crisis of meaning, Armenian Christians have found joy in the face of severe hardship. In that way, we have much to learn from our Armenian brothers and sisters, even as we ask God to bless them, to strengthen their faith, and to bring peace to the nation they are rebuilding. 

This Breakpoint was co-authored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to breakpoint.org.

Image credit: ©Getty Images / Scaliger

The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Christian Headlines.

BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.

John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.

Tensions over restive contested region are mounting, with effectiveness of Russian peacekeeping mission a serious concern