17:15,
YEREVAN, 30 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 30 June, USD exchange rate down by 0.26 drams to 386.06 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 3.22 drams to 418.95 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.10 drams to 4.34 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 0.87 drams to 488.10 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price down by 125.17 drams to 23578.06 drams. Silver price up by 2.54 drams to 283.37 drams.
11:06, 20 June 2023
YEREVAN, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has revealed the moment he realized in 2020 that the only possible option for ending hostilities was to compromise.
Speaking at the parliamentary select committee probing the causes and course of the 2020 Second Karabakh War, Pashinyan said that the fall of Shushi played a crucial role in signing the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement.
He said what mattered was not only the symbolic but also strategic value of Shushi. After the fall of Shushi, Stepanakert would be targeted, the pressure on Martuni would unavoidably become stronger, and there would be a risk of nearly 25,000 Armenian troops being besieged.
The 9 November 2020 ceasefire agreement was the fifth attempt to end the war, Pashinyan said. The first such conversation took place on October 7, when Pashinyan phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin on the latter’s birthday. Putin attached importance to Pashinyan’s willingness to compromise. Putin told Pashinyan that he wants to mediate for a swift end of hostilities.
“I told him that I agreed and asked under what conditions the hostilities would end. Our understanding was that hostilities had to end without preconditions, the sides had to stop at their present positions, followed by talks on which compromise the parties agree to. I said that this option was acceptable for us. I had a second phone call with the Russian President later on that day, and he said that he had talked with the Azerbaijani President, but the latter had told him that he wasn’t ready to go for a ceasefire, meaning he didn't agree to establish ceasefire,” Pashinyan said.
President Putin told Pashinyan that he’d talk with the Azerbaijani President again the next day.
The next day, Putin told Pashinyan that Azerbaijan had a precondition for a ceasefire: it expects Fizuli to be surrendered without a fight, and that Armenian forces must retreat from along the Araks River to the Khuda Aferin reservoir, so that the reservoir stays under Azerbaijani control to be able to take water for irrigation. In addition, the Azerbaijani leadership expected to repatriate Guliyev and Askerov, the two convicts that were serving prison terms in Nagorno Karabakh for kidnapping and murder, and considering the option of returning prisoners itself.
“Furthermore, and end to hostilities wasn’t being declared for this, but simply a humanitarian ceasefire, to organize the burial of the dead, without any condition or obligation on not resuming the fighting afterwards. I said that the preconditions were unacceptable because we agreed with the Russian President that a ceasefire was to be established without preconditions. And moreover, even if I were to agree to the retreat of troops there was no guarantee that Azerbaijan wouldn’t continue its offensive during the retreat. Nevertheless, I displayed some flexibility, recording that a joint use of water from the Khuda Afering reservoir was possible, meaning, I thought that NK could not obstruct Azerbaijani use of water from the reservoir, the condition on the return of Askerov and Guliyev could be discussed if Azerbaijan were to say how many Armenian captives it was ready to return with Russian mediation, the condition on surrendering Fizuli with the banks of Araks without a fight was unacceptable, while the proposal on a humanitarian ceasefire for burying the bodies of the dead was fully acceptable,” Pashinyan said.
Putin told Pashinyan on October 9 that Azerbaijan was ready to establish a ceasefire starting 9-10 October. The foreign ministers of the two sides were invited to Moscow for discussions, and the exchange of captives and bodies of the dead was also supposed to be discussed. Pashinyan said he agreed to the offer.
The Kremlin then published a statement. A statement was then issued after the foreign ministerial meeting. After this statement, Pashinyan ordered the military to maintain the ceasefire. But after little pauses, Azerbaijan launched a more intense attack, bombarding the territory of the former NKAO, Stepanakert, Martakert and assaulting Hadrut.
“Of course, the troops were ordered to take every necessary action to stop the Azerbaijani attack, but simultaneously diplomatic efforts were underway in the direction of the Moscow document on establishing a ceasefire. The deployment of Russian military observers on both sides of the line of contact for monitoring the situation was being considered. But Azerbaijan was constantly avoiding going for such a solution and was intensifying its military operations,” Pashinyan said.
The Armenian PM said he talked with Putin in the following days several times on how to achieve a ceasefire.
“Analyzing the situation in our internal discussions, my conclusion was the following: Azerbaijan won’t agree to a ceasefire until its advance gets thwarted. This was basically the balanced scenario of ending the hostilities. I realized that if such a scenario was impossible, while the situation on the battlefield wasn’t optimistic, the only possible option was the compromised ceasefire. Other variants were not realistic because days were passing since the rather balanced ceasefire statement but it was impossible to establish a ceasefire,” Pashinyan said.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday shared details of the Russian-mediated ceasefire talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during the 2020 Artsakh war.
Speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary commission probing the war, Pashinyan said he signed a trilateral statement to end the war on the morning of November 9.
“As a result of discussions, we agreed on a text that said nothing about Shushi or the opening of a corridor through Armenia. It was about the cessation of hostilities, return of seven regions and deployment of Russian peacekeepers on the Lachin Corridor and in Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.
“On the morning of November 9, I signed that text. Mind you, not at midnight, but on the morning of 9 November I signed the trilateral statement. However, it turned out that Azerbaijan refused to sign the document and instead laid out a number of new demands. The statement I signed in the morning was no longer valid,” Pashinyan stated, adding he categorically rejected a new version of the statement which envisaged the return of the enclaves in Armenia’s Tavush Province to Azerbaijan.
“Sometime later, it turned out that an agreement had been reached to remove that point from the document. At the same time, at around midnight, reports about intensified hostilities and a large number of drones above Stepanakert began to circulate. Eventually, after difficult and long discussions I signed the document you all know about, which, of course, was worse than the one I had signed in the morning, but was better than the other proposed versions, which envisaged either the creation of a corridor through Meghri or the return of the Tavush enclaves,” he noted.
Tuesday,
Armenian Police Accused Of Beating Up Another Lawyer
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Lawyer Karen Alaverdian speaks at a news conference in Yerevan, June
13, 2023.
Another Armenian lawyer on Tuesday claimed to have been beaten up by police
officers while representing a criminal suspect.
The lawyer, Karen Alaverdian, said he was subjected to “undue physical force,”
handcuffed and detained after trying to stop several officers kicking and
punching his client at a police station in Yerevan last week.
The Armenian police launched an internal inquiry into the incident.
Nevertheless, Alaverdian was charged with “hooliganism” and obstruction of
legitimate police actions.
The lawyer said that he simply refused to leave the police station after
intervening to stop the alleged torture of his client who is currently standing
trial on unspecified criminal charges.
The chairman of Armenia’s Chamber of Advocates, the national bar association,
voiced support for Alaverdian and said the police had no right to evict him from
the police station during the suspect’s interrogation. “The lawyer did his job,”
Simon Babayan told a joint news conference with Alaverdian.
Two other lawyers claimed to have been ill-treated at another Yerevan police
station in February. They said the violence occurred after their teenage client
stood by his allegations that he was beaten up in police custody.
The Chamber of Advocates demanded at the time that law-enforcement authorities
investigate the allegations and prosecute “all guilty persons.” No police
officer is known to have been charged, fired or subjected to disciplinary action
over that incident.
Human rights activists say police torture in Armenia remains widespread despite
police reforms declared by the Armenian government.
A government bill enacted as part of those reforms three years ago called for
surveillance cameras to be installed inside all police stations -- and their
interrogation rooms in particular -- by 2023. Only ten police stations were
equipped with such cameras. They were switched off in last July on then national
police chief Vahe Ghazarian s orders.
The police said the cameras are no longer needed because under another law
enacted last year, suspects detained by police officers must be interrogated by
another law-enforcement body, the Investigative Committee.
Dashnaktsutyun Vows Protests Against ‘Karabakh’s Surrender’
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Dashnaktsutyun party leader Ishkhan Saghatelian speaks during a news
conference in Yerevan, .
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) said on Tuesday that it
will join forces with other opposition groups to stage protests against Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s plans to sign a peace deal upholding Azerbaijani
sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.
“What Pashinian announced is not a peace treaty, it’s a new capitulation,” said
Ishkhan Saghatelian, Dashnaktsutyun’s top leader in Armenia. “If it’s signed, it
will have disastrous and tragic consequences for the Armenian people. The only
way to prevent it is to organize a popular revolt and resistance front.”
“Nikol Pashinian has no mandate to hand over Artsakh to Azerbaijan,” he told a
news conference.
Saghatelian said that his party will try to initiate such a popular movement
together with other opposition groups, including those not represented in the
Armenian parliament. The opposition demonstrations will start this summer, he
said without giving concrete dates.
Saghatelian spoke on behalf of Dashnaktsutyun, rather than the main opposition
Hayastan alliance, of which his party is a key member. Other Hayastan leaders
have also condemned Pashinian for effectively recognizing Karabakh as part of
Azerbaijan. But the alliance headed by former President Robert Kocharian has not
yet announced plans for renewed antigovernment protests sought by Dashnaktsutyun.
Hayastan and Pativ Unem, the other opposition bloc represented in the
parliament, jointly staged daily protests in Yerevan in May and June last year
after Pashinian signaled readiness to “lower the bar” on Karabakh’s status
acceptable to his government. They claim to have delayed a “capitulation
agreement” with Baku despite failing to topple Pashinian.
Saghatelian admitted on Tuesday that the Armenian opposition’s 2022 bid for
regime change did not attract sufficient popular support. But he expressed
confidence that the opposition will pull larger crowds this time around.
“Last year, many people did not quite understand what’s going on and accused us
of fighting for power,” said Saghatelian. “But now, I think, it’s clear to
everyone that the guy [Pashinian] … is going down the path of making Artsakh a
part of Azerbaijan.”
Armenia Also Fears Another Escalation In Karabakh
Russian military vehicles roll along a road towards Nagorno-Karabakh, November
13, 2020.
The Azerbaijani military may be gearing up for another attack on
Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian government claimed on Tuesday.
Tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and “the line of contact” around
Karabakh have been steadily rising despite major progress reportedly made in
peace talks between Baku and Yerevan. The conflicting sides accuse each other of
violating the ceasefire on a virtually daily basis.
Baku regularly claims that Azerbaijani troops opened fire to stop Karabakh
Armenian forces from fortifying their positions. The authorities in Stepanakert
dismiss this as a smokescreen for justifying systematic Azerbaijani gunfire at
Karabakh farmers and their tractors engaged in agricultural work. A senior
Karabakh official said late last week that Baku may thus be plotting another
upsurge in violence.
On Saturday, Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov ordered his troops
stationed in and around Karabakh to be prepared to “thwart provocations at any
moment.” Hasanov’s ministry issued on Tuesday a statement saying that they stand
ready to do that.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry pointed, meanwhile, to the “fake news” about
Armenian ceasefire violations spread by Baku. It said it has “extremely serious
concerns that Azerbaijan’s military-political leadership … is preparing the
ground for carrying out fresh aggressive actions and ethnic cleansing in
Nagorno-Karabakh.”
“We call on the Russian peacekeeping forces to strictly monitor compliance with
the ceasefire regime and investigate all incidents claimed by Azerbaijan,
publicly presenting the actual state of affairs,” the ministry added in a
statement.
It also renewed Yerevan’s calls for the dispatch of an international
fact-finding mission to Karabakh and the launch of an internationally mediated
dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry dismissed the Armenian claims and accused
Armenia of meddling in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs.
“Instead of hindering peace efforts and making false statements, Armenia should
respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, of which the
Karabakh region is a part,” it said.
Baku also demanded Yerevan “immediately withdraw Armenian army units from
Azerbaijan’s territory.” Armenia has repeatedly denied any military presence in
Karabakh.
The rising tensions contrast with a recent series of peace talks during which
Armenia and Azerbaijan narrowed their differences on a bilateral peace treaty
discussed by them.
The foreign ministers of the two states were due to meet in Washington on June
12 for further U.S.-mediated discussions on the treaty. The Foreign Ministry in
Yerevan said last week that the meeting was postponed “at the request of the
Azerbaijani side.”
Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian on Tuesday linked the delay to Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s latest visit to Baku.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
11:25, 8 June 2023
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan has met with the UK minister of culture John Whittingdale to discuss multi-sector cooperation, as well as cooperation in culture between the two countries.
John Whittingdale, Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, a long-time member of the UK-Armenia parliamentary friendship group, said that he is well aware on the situation in Armenia and the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage by Azerbaijanis in Nagorno Karabakh as a result of the 2020 war. Whittingdale said that any encroachment against fundamental human rights is unacceptable, referring to the Azerbaijani military’s continual aggression against Armenia’s sovereign territory. The sides also discussed the need to establish lasting peace in the region, strengthen and develop democratic values.
09:39, 17 May 2023
YEREVAN, MAY 17, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan participated in the opening ceremony of the 4th Council of Europe Summit in Reykjavík, Iceland on May 16.
Heads of State and Government, and heads of delegation from over 40 countries attended the event, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a press release.
Prime Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir and Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić welcomed the visiting leaders.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and others delivered remarks at the opening ceremony.
The Armenian Prime Minister participated in a roundtable discussion on democracy as part of the summit.
The summit is held May 16–17.
MP Tigran Abrahamyan of the opposition Pativ Unem bloc has reacted to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's latest “remarkable” statement on Artsakh claiming Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “is not ready to grant broad autonomy to Karabakh.”
"Pashinyan, in fact, fleshed out his statement made a year ago that he had to lower the bar on Artsakh,” Abrahamyan wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
“The latter admitted that his statement did not refer to Artsakh's right to self-determination or independence, but its AUTONOMY within Azerbaijan.
“In fact, these men [the Armenian authorities] seek Artsakh’s autonomy, but Azerbaijan doesn’t agree to it: that's what negotiations are all about,” Abrahamyan stated.
17:59, 3 May 2023
YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. Security and stability systems in the South Caucasus have been deformed or are being deformed, creating additional security challenges that can be overcome by establishing peace, ARMENPRESS reports, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during parliament-Cabinet Q&A session, answering the question of Sargis Khandanyan, chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly, who asked to present the Prime Minister's assessment of the strategic situation around Armenia and in the region.
"Before assessing the strategic situation in our region, it should first be noted that the international strategic situation has a direct impact on the strategic situation in our region. I must say that the events that took place in our region also had a certain impact on the further development of the international situation, and the strategic assessment is that the security and stability systems in our region have been deformed or are deformed or are being deformed, which means that we are facing additional security challenges. In other words, the system that was originally supposed to ensure security and stability in our region, that system obviously does not work with sufficient efficiency. In this sense, our strategic task is to manage the challenges caused by that deformation or to smooth out the complications brought by that deformation," Pashinyan said.
The Prime Minister presented the methods by which possible security attacks can be overcome.
"There may be a proposal or an approach that new components should be added to that overall security architecture, but it is not a fact that this will ensure strategic security in itself, because the new components can, of course, manage some of the existing risks, but on the other hand can in turn bring new risks.
If we ask the question, what or who can guarantee the security of the Republic of Armenia, the answer is unequivocal: security can be ensured by comprehensive peace”, Pashinyan said.
The Prime Minister also touched on another question whether peace is realistic and possible.
"Yes, of course, peace is possible, but it should also be possible to record in more detail how peace is possible. The problem is that there are two components here. The first is the political will to achieve peace, the second is the details of the parameters for achieving peace. It is obvious that we have the political will to achieve peace. Here the issue is as follows: to what extent we will manage to form such parameters of peace as a result of the negotiation process, which can be acceptable for the Republic of Armenia or the people of the Republic of Armenia. Yes, there is a possibility that peace is realistically possible with parameters that are fundamentally acceptable to the Republic of Armenia and the people of the Republic of Armenia, but there may be parameters that peace is realistically possible with parameters that are fundamentally unacceptable to the Republic of Armenia and the people of the Republic of Armenia .
Therefore, our task is to be able to balance and bring reality, acceptability and the emotional background related to the issue as close as possible to each other, to bring them on the same level and on the same field. I cannot say to what extent it will be possible, but I can definitely say that we will do everything to make it happen," concluded Pashinyan.
Los Angeles has long been home to a thriving community of Armenian artists whose work is infused with passionate visages of people, landscapes and cuisine from the other side of the world. Local creatives like Glendale painter Shahin Mastian and Pasadena musician and sculptor Tigran Martikyan seek to share meaningful stories through their work, which will be showcased in a group exhibit at Napulitanamente Magazine Los Angeles’ Mediterranean Cocktail of Art event on Thursday, May 4.
Born in Iran to an Armenian family, Mastian’s childhood curiosity led him toward the fields of engineering and mathematics, though he always felt a strong connection to the arts. He would often paint watercolor landscapes, using his brush to decode the world around him.
After moving to the United States when he was 22 and settling into his new home, where he now works as a software development consultant, Mastian started to take his passion for painting more seriously. He was inspired by masters like Vincent van Gogh, George Seurat, Paul Signac and Claude Monet, but wanted to find his own “Mastian” style.
“One day, I was looking at a painting … and I’m asking myself, ‘Why is this good?’” he said. “Then it came to me that I felt good about it because the image was not a perfect image. The image gives an abstract, general view of what it should be. It allows the viewer to complete the rest.
“When you look at any painting or you look at the world, you see yourself; you build what you want to see in reality, so what I create is basically the trigger of where to start from for the viewers. … I went back into my own paintings and repainted in a different way.”
Mastian described himself as an impressionistic pointillist who especially loves painting rainy night scenes, where lights and colors dance in mirror-like puddles or waterways.
In the Mediterranean Cocktail of Art exhibition, he will be displaying seven paintings that depict Mount Ararat with the lights of Armenian capital Yerevan in the distance, Rome’s coliseum at night, the canals of Venice, New York City in the rain, Paris’ Champs-Élysées, and two images of flamenco dancers in a nightclub.
“When I want to paint something, the painting is already created in my mind, in my soul, in my emotions, in my view … and so the rest is externalizing, bringing it to the world,” Mastian said. “I love life and happiness. I want to project a happy image in my paintings.”
For Armenian-born Martikyan, whose award-winning career as a pianist and composer has brought him to esteemed venues like Carnegie Hall, his journey into sculpture began when he became a caretaker for his mother.
“I was isolated from the people that I know, friends and relatives,” Martikyan described. “My focus was my mother and I wanted to do something creative. I wanted to make something, and I chose sculpture because the 3D form of sculpture was appealing.
“I wanted to see a piece of art … that I can feel like I’m with people. I wanted to create a face (that) will kind of give me a company so that I’m not alone.”
Martikyan began to explore and study different forms to try to breathe as much life into his sculptures as possible. He had always been interested in the human figure and wanted to give his artworks a “soul” of their own.
He will be presenting four of his sculptures in the Mediterranean Cocktail of Art exhibition. They depict an Armenian grandmother with a cross hanging around her neck, a composer musing over his metallic piano, a tooth whose roots form arms that clean itself with a brush and toothpaste, and a little girl in a ballerina-like dress standing against a wall with her hands opened and a smile on her face.
“This one I wanted to call ‘Peace,’” Martikyan said. “The little girl is … relaxed, and she just wants everybody else to live in peace. That’s the message.”
From abstract paintings to human-like sculptures, Napulitanamente Magazine’s Mediterranean Cocktail of Art will provide a platform for an array of Armenian voices and brushes. Editor Ingrid Pagliarulo described it as a rich combination of cultures and influences.
“There is a strong feeling of being Armenian that they have, and this feeling emits from their artworks,” she said. “Even if (Mastian) paints Italian cities or New York or cities from France, there is always the feeling, like the passion. … That kind of passion, that kind of way to express his feelings, his way to feel a place, to feel a scenery, is like poetry. … (When) you see his paintings, … you see a world. You don’t see just the scene; you can feel the world around it.
“Tigran is like a genius in the piano. He’s able to express it also through his sculptures. He’s very attached to classical shapes … and respect of the shapes, respect of nature and of the nature of shapes. I believe that artists have to be philosophers, and then through their philosophy, their thoughts, there comes the talent to express what they are thinking.”
The multi-art event, produced by Low Pulse Project, will also feature the work of photographers Karine Armen and Flavio Sanguinetti with music by Daniele De Cario and guest soprano Era Kayln. For Pagliarulo, who was born in Naples, Italy, it provides an opportunity to show the similarities between the artworks and cultures of Armenia and South Italy.
“I’ve realized since I came here that we have many things in common with Armenian people,” she said. “There is especially a strong relationship with religion, which is kind of different with the rest of Italy. … Napoli is very attached, very linked to Armenia because in our cathedral, San Gregorio Armeno, we save the skull of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, who is the one that brought Christianity to Armenia.
“(It’s) also the temperament of people because we both have volcanic areas. … Underneath the ground, there is fire. There is always a passion and strong feelings, and it’s different from the rest of the places.”
For the artists, the event is an opportunity to share their work with people across Los Angeles from a variety of backgrounds. Mastian described it as an unprecedented way to connect with others.
“If a collector buys my art, I am extending my wall and my studio to the home or wall of the buyer,” he said. “When a buyer is buying my art, I feel we are sharing feelings; we are sharing our emotions. And the more you share, the more connectedness you create.”
Martikyan added that the exhibit offers an opportunity to inspire people to pursue their passions and express themselves freely.
“(Art) makes me happy; it’s very spiritual, and very fulfilling,” he said. “The most important message that I want to pass on is the love of art and to inspire people so that if they have a passion to do something creative, … use that creativity to make some art.”
Napulitanamente Magazine Los Angeles’ Mediterranean Cocktail of Art
WHEN: 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 4
WHERE: 11405 Chandler Boulevard, North Hollywood
COST: Free with RSVP
INFO: napulitanamente.com