Author: Samvel Nahapetian

Ethnic cleansing an ‘existential threat’ to Jerusalem’s Armenians, patriarchate warns after violent attack

Samvel Nahapetian
Morning Star, UK
Dec 29 2023

THE Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem said ethnic cleansing poses an “existential threat” to the city’s ancient Armenian community, following an attack blamed on Israeli settlers.

Masked men stormed the Armenian Quarter in occupied East Jerusalem, attacking residents and throwing rocks at Orthodox clergy. Police later cleared the area, but patriarchal authorities say they are not punishing those responsible. Settler attacks on Palestinians have multiplied in East Jerusalem and the West Bank since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7.

“Bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians and indigenous Armenians are fighting for their very lives,” a statement from the Patriarchate said.

“We call upon the Israeli government and the police to start an investigation against Danny Rothman and George Warwar for organising their criminal attacks on the Armenian Patriarchate and community.”

The named pair are accused of involvement in commercial deals of disputed validity which would acquire land in the Armenian Quarter, and residents blamed Mr Warwar for organising Thursday’s assault.

Warmest December in 100 years recorded in Armenia

Samvel Nahapetian

 12:49,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. December of 2023 has been the warmest in 100 years, with the average temperature being 5-6 degrees higher, meteorologists have said.

“If we look at the statistical analysis of the past 100 years, we see that December of this year has been the warmest both in terms of the average monthly temperature and the daily daytime maximum temperatures,” said Gagik Surenyan, the Deputy Director of the Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Center of the Ministry of Environment.

The weather is warm because of warm tropical air currents, which will remain for the next five days.

Temperature reached 17,5 degrees Celsius in the Ararat Plain in the second half of December.

No clear path forward for Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks after prisoner swap

Samvel Nahapetian
eurasianet
Dec 15 2023
Ani Avetisyan Dec 15, 2023

On December 13 Armenia and Azerbaijan conducted a prisoner swap on the rival states' common border, with Armenia handing over two Azerbaijani captives in exchange for Azerbaijan releasing 32 Armenian prisoners. 

The handover had been announced in a surprise joint statement by the two countries' leaders six days earlier. That statement said the sides were resolved to "continue their discussions regarding the implementation of more confidence-building measures … and call on the international community to support their efforts that will contribute to building mutual trust between the two countries and will positively impact the entire South Caucasus region."

It also announced that Armenia would support Azerbaijan's ultimately successful bid to host next year's COP-29 climate conference. 

The two Azerbaijani soldiers released had crossed into Armenia in April. One of them was convicted of murdering a security guard at a copper-molybdenum mine in southern Armenia and had been serving a life sentence in prison.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan posted the names of the freed prisoners on Facebook hours before they arrived in Armenia. The prisoners were mostly from the north-western Shirak region. While there is no information about when and where the released soldiers were captured, 57 soldiers, mainly from the Shirak region, were taken captive from the Hadrut region of Nagorno-Karabakh about a month after the end of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in late 2020. Some of them had been released earlier through Russian and Western mediation at different times.  

The joint statement between the countries was the first of its kind not to bear the signature of any mediators. Though there was speculation about behind-the-scenes mediation, possibly by a top U.S. diplomat who visited Baku the day before the statement was issued. 

Until now, all statements and agreements reached had been mediated by Russia, the EU, or the U.S., and, in one case, Georgia. 

Russia and the West have praised the bilateral deal, with the US calling it an "important confidence-building measure" as the "sides work to finalize a peace agreement and normalize relations." EU Council president Charles Michel called it a "major breakthrough in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations," and the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the agreement was in line with Russia-mediated agreements since 2020 to "further" the relations between the two countries. 

Amid the excitement in the international community, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on foreign relations, Sargis Khandanyan, urged caution. The statement's importance should not be "overestimated," as no understanding has been reached on the future of the bilateral format beyond the one-off prisoner swap deal. 

According to Armenian human rights defenders, there are still 23 Armenians in Azerbaijani captivity, including high-ranking military officers and politicians from Karabakh. 

The issue of the Armenian prisoners has been a heated one in the peace talks between the two countries that followed the 2020 war, with Azerbaijan refusing to acknowledge some of its detentions. 

The issue gained importance with Azerbaijan's capture of eight former high-ranking officials of the de facto Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The detainees include the NKR's last three presidents and the region's former state minister, Russian-Armenian billionaire Ruben Vardanyan. They face charges including terrorism. None of their trials has begun yet.

Yerevan has for the most part not been using public channels to call for their release. 

The talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan have largely been at a standstill in the past months, particularly after Azerbaijan's military conquest of Nagorno-Karabakh, which resulted in the displacement of the region's Armenian population and the dissolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Yerevan and Baku have failed to meet on several occasions since September, with Yerevan pulling out of Moscow-led talks and Baku refusing to participate in the EU and U.S.-mediated meetings. 

While the first bilateral statement was a milestone, the future of the peace talks – either with or without mediators – remains unclear. Both countries had previously expressed hopes of signing the deal by the end of this year. Armenian PM Pashinyan said that the peace deal's "main principles" had been agreed upon while Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said he needs firmer guarantees that Armenia won't embark on "revanchism." 

The sides still have to agree on the details of the demarcation of common borders and the opening of transport links, particularly the "Zangezur corridor" sought by Azerbaijan. Baku would like to see a corridor overseen by Russian troops running through Armenia connecting mainland Azerbaijan with the Nakhchivan exclave while Armenia envisages a simple road link with the usual customs and border checks. 


Lemkin Institute Calls on U.S., Israel’s Allies to Guarantee Due Process for Jerusalem Armenians

Samvel Nahapetian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

A Jerusalem police officer engages with representatives of the Armenian community


The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention said Tuesday that it is deeply concerned by threats to the integrity of the Armenian Quarter in East Jerusalem.

“We call on the United States and other close allies of Israel to take it upon themselves to guarantee the Armenian community due process in this land dispute. The global Armenian community has already lost one important historical land this fall — Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), which was forcibly depopulated when Azerbaijan invaded, massacred Armenians, and terrorized almost the entire Armenian population into fleeing. The Armenian people cannot lose another,” said the Lemkin Institute in a statement.

The Armenian Quarter makes up about one-sixth of the city of Jerusalem. It is 1,600 years old, dating back to the reign of Roman Emperor Constantine. The first settlement of Armenians in Jerusalem predates even Constantine, with Armenians having settled in Jerusalem as early as the first century BCE when the Armenian Empire controlled nearby territories in Syria. Although the Armenian population in Jerusalem today is very small, the Armenian Quarter remains an important part of the Armenian Diaspora presence as the oldest remaining living diaspora of Armenians. The Quarter houses a diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

In July 2021, the Armenian Patriarchate signed an agreement to lease a significant plot of land (called the “Cow’s Garden”) to Australian developer Danny Rubenstein for 98 years at a low annual rent of a few hundred thousand dollars per year. Rubenstein planned to build a luxury hotel on the site, necessitating the destruction of many of the existing buildings.

The deal came as a shock to the local community, the greater Armenian Diaspora, and Palestinian authorities, the latter of which felt as if the deal encroached on their own sovereignty. It also raised eyebrows due to its asymmetric rewards.

In response to this opposition, the Patriarchate announced on November 1, 2023, that it would be canceling the deal. However, Danny Rubenstein’s company, XANA, has refused the Patriarchate’s cancellation. It has brought bulldozers to the site and is beginning construction in the Cow’s Garden area.

Local Armenians have responded to the destruction of Cow’s Garden with peaceful protests in the form of public gatherings and a sit-in where construction had begun.

Israeli police and civilians have met these protests with violence, using dogs and firearms to intimidate the peaceful protestors. Danny Rubenstein and George Warwar, Chairman and Director of XANA International, appear to be using force and intimidation to deter the Armenian community from attempting to protect its land.

The cultural heritage of the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem must be safeguarded from the developers and the armed settlers who are enabling them, ostensibly with the aim of creating a homogenized Jewish ethnostate in Palestinian territories.

“We stand with the Armenian community as they continue to resist the development of this land through peaceful demonstrations and by refusing to leave the premises. The Armenian community has already lost one significant historical community in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh this year. It must not lose another,” said the Lemkin Institute.

Armenian, Lithuanian FMs discuss regional security and stability

Samvel Nahapetian

 18:24,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Monday  had a meeting with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis in Brussels.

During the meeting, the Armenian-Lithuanian bilateral agenda, as well as key issues related to the Armenia-EU partnership  were discussed. Both sides emphasized their readiness for close interaction on the EU platform and for bringing Armenia closer to the European integration structure, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said.

According to the source, following the discussion in the format of the Council of EU Foreign Ministers held on the same day, Ararat Mirzoyan with his Lithuanian counterpart exchanged ideas on regional security and stability issues.

It is noted that FM Mirzoyan emphasized the importance of strong support from international partners for Armenia's efforts to implement the peace agenda.

Citibank employees called them ‘Armenian bad guys’ and canceled their accounts. Now they’re suing

Samvel Nahapetian
Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Nov 27 2023

  • Laurence Darmiento – Los Angeles Times (TNS)

When Mary Smbatian started hearing rumors a few year ago that Citibank was closing the accounts of Armenian Americans in California's San Fernando Valley, she thought it impossible the giant Wall Street bank would ever shutter hers.

A residential loan broker who also runs an apartment management business, the Encino, California, resident had been a Citibank client for more than a decade, with both company and personal accounts, as well as credit cards issued through the bank.

Then, on Feb. 1 of last year, she got a letter from Citibank informing her that all of her accounts and cards were being closed — without any reason provided. What ensued was chaos, as Smbatian scrambled to get her money back, open new accounts elsewhere and save her businesses.

"This was a mess. This was horrible. This was so depressing," said Smbatian, 42, a mother of five who said she was still shaken by the events. "I was so stressed out, I literally started crying."

Smbatian and others whose accounts were closed suspected discrimination was at play — and say they were proven correct when Citibank signed a consent order Nov. 7 with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, agreeing to pay $25.9 million to cover alleged violations of fair lending laws from at least 2015 to 2021.

The agency alleged that a unit responsible for issuing store-branded credit cards from Home Depot, Best Buy and other retailers had discriminated against applicants whose surnames ended with "ian" or "yan," and particularly those who lived in and near Glendale.

The bank suspected that applicants seeking new cards or credit increases would be more likely to commit fraud and not pay their charges, with some employees referring to them as "Armenian bad guys" or the "Southern California Armenian Mafia." The applicants were subjected to higher scrutiny and many were turned down, approved credit on less favorable terms or subject to possible account freezes and closures, according to the order.

The agency also also found that the bank took "corrective action" against employees who failed to identify and deny the applications. Employees were ordered not to tell customers the real reasons for their rejections or to discuss it in writing or on recorded lines.

The bank agreed to set aside $1.4 million for victims of the discrimination, but the vast share of the penalty is going into a pool that compensates all consumers harmed by violations of federal consumer financial protection laws.

Now, Smbatian is a lead plaintiff in a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Nov. 17 in Los Angeles federal court on behalf of victims of Citibank's discriminatory practices. The suit alleges far greater harm than is detailed in the CFPB's order.

"The fine is actually minuscule compared to the damage done, and it's very significant from what we are hearing from our clients," said attorney Tamar Arminak, whose Glendale firm filed the lawsuit. "It really wrecked them."

Los Angeles County is home to nearly 190,000 people of Armenian descent, according to the 2020 census, making it the largest diaspora community in the country.

The lawsuit seeks to compensate the plaintiffs due to losses suffered from a wide range of alleged injustices, including damage to credit scores and the financial hardship arising from account closures and the inability to access their money. It is also seeking punitive damages due to "the indignity of discrimination."

Arminak said she had heard from Smbatian, a friend, and others in the Armenian community about the closed accounts and decided to proceed with the lawsuit after the CFPB action was announced earlier this month. After advertising the class action on social media and her firm's website, she said she was deluged with responses and has signed up more than 100 clients who want to participate.

The attorney said clients have told her that they didn't just have store accounts closed but checking, savings and business accounts, with the money tied for up weeks or months. Some business people told her their SBA loan funds were frozen for years. Meanwhile, they had trouble accessing their banks records and couldn't get a straight answer about what was happening.

"People suffered far more than a Macy's account not being approved," she said. "And I don't think the fine addresses the humiliation involved."

Despite the consent order focusing on a period through 2021, Arminak said, the stories she has heard from clients indicate account closures actually accelerated last year.

Smbatian's lawsuit is the second proposed class action arising from the fallout surrounding the CFPB's order. It follows a narrower lawsuit filed Nov. 13 by a law firm on behalf of a Grenada Hills, California, woman of Armenian descent who held a Citibank Costco-branded card and alleges she was turned down for a credit line increase this year. A New York law firm announced it is looking into potential breaches of fiduciary duties by the bank's officers and directors.

Citibank did not respond directly to request for comment regarding the lawsuit but directed The Times toward a statement it previously issued about the CFPB settlement, in which it did not deny or admit the agency's findings.

"Regrettably, in trying to thwart a well-documented Armenian fraud ring operating in certain parts of California, a few employees took impermissible actions. While we prioritize protecting our bank and our customers from fraud, it is unacceptable to base credit decisions on national origin. We sincerely apologize to any applicant who was evaluated unfairly by the small number of employees who circumvented our fraud detection protocols," it said.

The alleged Citibank credit denials and account closures follow decades of increasingly tough "know your customer rules" that aim to reduce financial crimes. They were first imposed in 1970 and strengthened after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. Banks violators have been subjected to sometimes huge fines totaling in the billions of dollars domestically and abroad.

Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center, said banks have a responsibility to look out for illegal activity such as accounts being used by drug cartels and for money laundering and perpetrating fraud — but it has gone beyond that.

"What we are seeing right now is that some are overreacting or indiscriminately freezing or closing accounts based on supposed red flags, catching innocent people in the process and without giving them any clear procedure or remedy or timeline to get their money back when they, in fact, are not criminals," she said.

Among the most high-profile recent example, she noted, was that of Bank of America, which froze the debit-card accounts of Californians receiving unemployment benefits at the height of the pandemic using a crude algorithm to detect fraud — and then holding on to the money as customers fruitlessly called for weeks. The bank paid fines totaling $225 million to two federal agencies last year.

Saunders said that regulations need to be strengthened to require banks to provide a reason for shutting accounts and to have a consumer dispute process in place. "I think we need to make sure that banks aren't closing accounts for discriminatory reasons. And right now, they are not being required to give any reasons, and that can be a cover for discrimination," she said.

The consent agreement prompted Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, to call for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the bank's regulator, to revisit an "outstanding" performance rating Citibank received in 2021 for its compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act. The 1977 law encourages banks to take steps to improve access to credit and other banking services in minority communities.

The CFPB would not comment on what prompted it to investigate Citibank, but the consent order states that it discovered the alleged discrimination through a statistical analysis of credit applications in the retail services unit from 2015 to 2021. Citibank must now develop a plan to identify and compensate harmed customers, who will not have to apply for compensation.

Under federal rules governing proposed class actions, any related lawsuits would be combined and a lead counsel appointed. The cases also would have to meet certain criteria to be certified and proceed, a process that could take at least six months to a year. Successful class actions typically result in settlements.

Karl Asatryan, a real estate agent and developer, is the other named plaintiff in the case. The lawsuit alleges he received a letter from bank in May of last year stating his accounts would be closed in 30 days. No reason was given and his line of credit also was shut down.

He said he had been a Citibank client for some 20 years and had even refinanced his home mortgage with the bank.

"That's disrespect toward the customer," said Asatryan, 44, of Valley Glen, California. "And for a customer like myself, that's ridiculous."

©2023 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ap_news/business/citibank-employees-called-them-armenian-bad-guys-and-canceled-their-accounts-now-theyre-suing/article_19675101-b4af-5909-9e61-4484415dfe1e.html

Economic activity index grows 9,2% in January-October 2023

Samvel Nahapetian

 12:36,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The economic activity index grew 9,2% in January-October 2023 compared to the same period of 2022, according to data released by the Statistical Committee.

Industrial production output dropped 0,5%.

Construction grew 16,4%.

Trade turnover grew 23,3% while the volume of services grew 12,1%.

The consumer price index grew 2,5%, while the industrial product price index grew 1,6%.

Electricity production dropped 3,5%.

Foreign trade grew 41,2% in the reporting period (exports grew 38,5% and imports grew 42,9%).

X may lose up to $75 million in revenue after Musk’s ‘antisemitic’ remarks

Samvel Nahapetian

 13:18,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. Elon Musk-run X could lose as much as $75 million in advertising revenue by the end of the year as dozens of major brands pull out their marketing campaigns after the tech billionaire endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory this month, The New York Times reported on Friday.

According to the internal documents seen by The New York Times this week, over 200 ad units of companies from the likes of Airbnb, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and others have halted or are considering pausing their ads on X.

Musk's support for an antisemitic message on the platform last week prompted numerous firms, including Walt Disney and Warner Bros Discovery, to halt advertising on the X.

On Friday, X said in a statement that $11 million in revenue was at risk and that the exact figure fluctuated as some advertisers returned to the platform and others increased spending. The company said the numbers viewed by The Times were either outdated or represented an internal exercise to evaluate total risk.

Meanwhile, a new report has revealed that some super-spreaders of misinformation on X, who are verified premium users with blue badges, are sharing Musk’s ad revenue even after making conspiratorial claims about the Israel-Hamas war.

Azerbaijan says France laying ground for new regional war by arming Armenia

Samvel Nahapetian
MSN
Nov 20 2023
Story by By Nailia Bagirova

By Nailia Bagirova

BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev accused France on Tuesday of creating conditions for a new war in the South Caucasus by supplying arms to Armenia.

France said last month it had agreed new contracts to supply military equipment to Armenia.

"France destabilises not only its past and present colonies but also our region, the South Caucasus, by supporting separatist tendencies and separatists," Aliyev told a conference on decolonisation in Azerbaijan's capital Baku.

"By arming Armenia, it implements a militaristic policy, encourages revanchist forces in Armenia, and prepares the ground for the start of new wars in our region."

There was no immediate reaction from Paris to his comments.

Baku and Yerevan have fought two wars in the past three decades but Aliyev scored a major victory in September by recapturing the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de facto independence since the early 1990s. More than 100,000 of them have since fled to Armenia.

Azerbaijan is now in a strong position to secure an advantageous peace deal with Armenia and has taken an increasingly tough line towards Western countries, especially France and the United States, which have large ethnic Armenian communities and have been sympathetic towards Yerevan.

A French diplomatic source said last week that France had asked Baku for clarification after its cyber defence unit uncovered a disinformation campaign emanating from Azerbaijan that aimed to undermine Paris’ capacity to hold next year's Olympic Games.

Highlighting the deterioration of relations, Aliyev said in Tuesday's speech that France was responsible for "most of the bloody crimes in the colonial history of humanity".

CONCERNS

A European diplomat voiced concern that Azerbaijan, after taking back the Karabakh region, might try to capture territory in southern Armenia with the aim of opening a corridor to its exclave of Nakhchivan, which borders Turkey, Iran and Armenia.

"We are really worried about Armenia's territorial integrity," the diplomat told Reuters.

Azerbaijan says such worries are unfounded, and that it is working with Iran on creating a transport corridor to Nakhchivan across Iranian territory.

Azerbaijani presidential adviser Hikmet Hajiyev told Reuters that Baku wants bilateral peace talks with Armenia and believes they can reach an agreement quickly without the need for Western mediation.

"A peace agreement is not nuclear physics. If there is good will, the fundamental principles of a peace agreement can be worked out in a short time," he said.

On the question of Western involvement, he added: "We need peace in our region, not in Washington, Paris or Brussels."

Years of mediation by the European Union, the United States and Russia have failed to get Armenia and Azerbaijan to sign a peace deal. They have yet to agree on the demarcation of their shared border, which remains closed and highly militarised. Border skirmishes, often fatal, remain a regular occurrence.

Azerbaijan, which has close ties to Turkey, has in recent months repeatedly backed out of peace talks brokered by the U.S. and the EU, both of which it has accused of pro-Armenian bias.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan this week credited the EU with helping to bring a peace deal closer, but said the two sides were still "speaking different diplomatic languages".

(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova, writing by Felix Light and Mark Trevelyan; additional reporting by John Irish; Editing by Gareth Jones)