14:06,
YEREVAN, APRIL 28, ARMENPRESS. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna visited the Yerablur Pantheon military cemetery in Yerevan, Armenia on April 28.
Colonna placed a wreath at the monument commemorating Armenian fallen troops in the Nagorno Karabakh wars.
[see video]
Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan accompanied the French Foreign Minister during the visit.
YEREVAN, April 26. /TASS/. Armenia has filed a complaint with the UN International Court of Justice after Baku set up a checkpoint in the disputed Lachin corridor, Hasmik Samvelyan, spokesperson for Armenia’s Office of the Representative on International Legal Issues, told TASS on Wednesday.
"The Armenian side has appealed to the UN International Court of Justice over the establishment of a checkpoint by Azerbaijan near the Hakari River (in the Lachin corridor, on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border – TASS), which is in violation of a relevant court ruling dated February 22, 2023," she specified.
On Sunday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry slammed the installation of the Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor as a blatant violation of the 2020 tripartite agreement.
https://tass.com/world/1609771
Wednesday,
Azeri Soldier ‘Mistreated Before Fleeing To Armenia’
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - A road sign at the entrance to the village of Bnunis, April 10, 2023.
An Azerbaijani soldier detained in Armenia on Monday deserted his unit deployed
on the Armenian border after being systematically ill-treated by his comrades,
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Wednesday.
The young man was apprehended in Ashotavan, a village in Syunik province
bordering Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. According to the Armenian military,
he claimed to have crossed into Armenia together with another Azerbaijani
serviceman.
The two Azerbaijanis were reportedly first spotted in Bnunis, another village
located a few kilometers from Ashotavan.
“The Azerbaijani soldier simply fled their positions together with a fellow
serviceman because of being subjected to hazing and humiliation by other
soldiers,” Pashinian told the Armenian parliament.
Ashotavan’s mayor, Armen Beglarian, managed to talk to the soldier before the
latter was handed over to Armenian security forces. Beglarian said the
19-year-old told him that he and his companion fled to Armenia because of hazing.
The other fugitive soldier’s whereabouts remain unknown. The Armenian military
and security services say they are still searching for him.
Pashinian speculated that he may have gone back to Nakhichevan. “According to
our information, shortly after crossing the border the second soldier, who is
still being searched for, said that he has changed his mind and wants to go
back,” he said without elaborating.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported on Monday that two of its soldiers
serving in Nakhichevan have done missing in heavy fog. It has still not
identified them.
Meydan TV, an independent Azerbaijani media outlet, identified the missing
conscripts as Akshin Bebirov and Huseyn Akhundov. It quoted one of their
relatives as saying that they went missing on April 5.
Armenia’s National Security Service, which is holding the Azerbaijani soldier in
detention, has not released his identity so far.
The two Syunik villages are located about 20 kilometers from the nearest
Azerbaijani army positions. This fact has left many in Armenia wondering how
they managed to walk deep into Armenian territory undetected.
“Of course, this circumstance must be investigated and appropriated conclusions
must be drawn with regard to ensuring border security,” said Pashinian.
Armenian Parliament Allows Prosecution Of Opposition Member
• Anush Mkrtchian
• Astghik Bedevian
Armeina -- Opposition deputy Mher Sahakian (right) attends a session of the
Armenian parliament, .
Armenia’s parliament on Wednesday allowed prosecutors to bring criminal charges
against an opposition lawmaker who punched a pro-government colleague in
disputed circumstances.
The violence occurred during an ill-tempered meeting of the parliament committee
on legal affairs held on March 31. It reportedly followed a shouting match
between Vladimir Vartanian, the committee chairman, and Mher Sahakian of the
main opposition Hayastan alliance.
Sahakian was detained by police but set free three days later. He said he hit
Vartanian because the latter spoke disrespectfully and then stood up and walked
menacingly towards him. Vartanian, who represents Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, denied that, saying the assault was unprovoked.
Vardapetian backed the pro-government parliamentarian’s version of events when
she asked the National Assembly on Tuesday to lift Sahakian’s immunity from
prosecution. The chief prosecutor insisted that there was “no necessary
self-defense” in his violent conduct.
“I have the impression that you only read only Vladimir Vartanian’s testimony
when drawing up the indictment,” Sahakian countered during a parliament debate.
The lawmaker affiliated with the main opposition Hayastan alliance again denied
any wrongdoing and said the criminal case is politically motivated. He said he
is ready to stand trial on “hooliganism” charges that will be brought against
him.
Other opposition parliamentarians voiced support for the 35-year-old. They also
accused the Armenian authorities of double standards, arguing that
pro-government deputies were not prosecuted after assaulting opposition
colleagues on the parliament floor in 2021.
As recently as last week, the authorities faced calls to launch a criminal
investigation into parliament speaker Alen Simonian, who spat at an opposition
heckler, and other pro-government deputies, who shouted verbal abuse and threats
at an opposition candidate for the vacant post of Armenia’s human rights
defender. One of those deputies publicly pledged to “cut the tongues and ears of
anyone” who would make disparaging comments about the 2018 “velvet revolution”
that brought Pashinian to power.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General has not ordered criminal investigations
into either incident.
Sahakian is the third Hayastan deputy indicted in the last two months. The two
others, Seyran Ohanian and Armen Charchian, are facing separate criminal charges
rejected by them as politically motivated. None of them will likely go to jail
if convicted.
Russia Seeks Explanations From Armenia Over NATO Drills
Armenia - Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (right) meets Russian Deputy
Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, Yerevan, .
Russia said on Wednesday that it has told Armenia to explain its participation
in “anti-Russian” military exercises organized by NATO.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the U.S.-led alliance is seeking closer ties
with and stronger influence on Russia’s ex-Soviet allies as part of its ongoing
“geopolitical confrontation” with Russia.
“The United States and its allies are trying to discredit regional countries’
cooperation with our country and draw them into various formats of cooperation
that have an obviously anti-Russian and at times Russophobe character,” said
Maria Zakharova, the ministry spokeswoman. “Such actions by NATO lead to the
destabilization of the situation in various regions, growth of their conflict
potential and creation of new division lines.”
“We have requested official explanations from our Armenian partners with regard
to their participation in NATO exercises. We will formulate our reaction after
receiving a reply,” Zakharova told a news briefing.
The remarks came one week after the U.S. Department of Defense listed Armenia
among 26 nations, most of them NATO members, that will participate in an
upcoming U.S.-led military exercise in Europe. It removed the South Caucasus
country from the list, posted on the Pentagon’s website, the following day.
The Armenian Defense Ministry confirmed on April 6 that will not send troops to
the Defender 23 exercise which the Pentagon says is designed to “deter those who
would threaten the peace of Europe.” The ministry said that Armenian soldiers
will likely participate instead in two other, more small-scale drills that will
be held by U.S. Army Europe and Africa later this year.
Armenia - Russian and Armenian troops hold a joint military exercise, November
24, 2021.
Armenia has long been allied to Russia, which claims to have faced growing
“hostility” from NATO and the United States in particular since the Russian
invasion of Ukraine.
Armenia’s relations with Russia and the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) have deteriorated in recent months due to what Yerevan sees
as a lack of support from its allies in the conflict with Azerbaijan. Earlier
this year, the Armenian government cancelled a CSTO military exercise which was
due to take place in Armenia this year.
Zakharova said Moscow “regrets” the cancellation and believes that it “does not
help to enhance regional security.”
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko met with Foreign Minister Ararat
Mirzoyan and other senior Armenian diplomats during a visit to Yerevan on
Tuesday. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the talks focused on regional and
international security.
EU Calls For Armenian, Azeri Troop Withdrawals
Armenia - European Union monitors patrol Armenia's border with Azerbaijan,
February 20, 2023.
The European Union called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to withdraw their troops
from their border on Wednesday one day after fresh fighting between them left at
least seven soldiers from both sides dead.
“This incident yet again emphasizes that in the absence of a delimited border,
the 1991 line must be respected and the forces of either side withdrawn to safe
distances from this line to prevent any similar incidents from occurring,” an EU
foreign policy spokeswoman, Nabila Massrali, said in a statement.
Massrali also urged Yerevan and Baku to restart their stalled talks on the
delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The two sides blame each other for the deadly fighting that broke out near the
Armenian border village of Tegh. Azerbaijani army units took up new positions in
the area on March 30 after advancing into what Yerevan regards as sovereign
Armenian territory.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said that its troops came under fire on Tuesday
afternoon as they fortified one of their outposts just outside Tegh. It released
an eight-minute video that shows a large group of Azerbaijani soldiers
approaching Armenian servicemen and then arguing and coming to blows with them.
The scuffle degenerated into warning shots that apparently preceded the
firefight.
Russia said on Wednesday that its soldiers and border guards deployed in nearby
Armenian territory helped to stop the worst Armenian-Azerbaijani border clash in
months. No further ceasefire violations have been reported from this or other
sections of the border since Tuesday evening.
A new Azerbaijani army post near the Armenian village of Tegh, March 31, 2023.
“This provocation is another Azerbaijani attack on the territorial integrity of
the Republic of Armenia,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry charged on Tuesday
night. It urged the international community to stop Baku from further escalating
the situation.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov claimed the following morning that
the fighting was the result of an Armenian “provocation.” He said Yerevan must
refrain from actions “whose consequences could be terrible for Armenia as they
were yesterday.”
The EU statement did not explicitly blame either side for the escalation. But it
did say that Armenia and Azerbaijan must respect their agreements “regarding the
mutual recognition of territorial integrity in line with the 1991 Almaty
Declaration.”
It is not clear whether Tuesday’s skirmishes were witnessed by any of some 100
EU monitors who were deployed along the Armenian side of the heavily militarized
border in late February. The monitoring mission made no public statements.
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the
latest fighting shows that Moscow was right to oppose the EU mission and warn
that it could only heighten tensions between the two South Caucasus nations.
"We had … predicted the inevitable,” Zakharova told reporters in a clear jibe at
the Armenian government.
Senior Prosecutor Becomes Armenia’s Rights Defender
• Anush Mkrtchian
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Deputy Prosecutor-General Anahit Manasian addresses the arliament,
.
The Armenian parliament has voted to appoint a candidate of the ruling Civil
Contract party, who has served as a deputy prosecutor-general until now, as
Armenia’s new human rights defender.
Anahit Manasian pledged to “perform my duties impartially” on Wednesday as she
was sworn in as ombudswoman immediately after the announcement of the vote
results. She was backed only by deputies representing Civil Contract.
Manasian’s election followed a heated debate on the parliament floor that lasted
for three hours on Tuesday. Opposition lawmakers grilled her and rejected her
candidacy, saying that she cannot combat human rights abuses in the country
because of her background.
One of them, Gegham Nazarian, accused the Armenian government of turning the
office of the human rights defender into a “subsidiary of the prosecutor’s
office.”
Manasian’s reluctance to criticize during the question-and-answer session the
authorities’ or the controversial behavior of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
political allies added to the opposition criticism. Gegham Manukian, another
lawmaker from the main opposition Hayastan alliance, denounced her claim that
there are no political prisoners in Armenia.
Civil Contract deputies defended their candidate. One of them, Vigen
Khachatrian, said that Manasian’s work in the Office of the Prosecutor-General
on the contrary makes her fit for the post of ombudswoman.
Manasian, 34, was appointed as a deputy prosecutor-general less than five months
ago. She previously worked as a deputy rector of Armenia’s Justice Academy and
an adviser to two former chairmen of the Constitutional Court. She has also
taught constitutional law at Yerevan State University since 2015.
Armenia - Edgar Ghazarian (right) and pro-government deputy Artur Hovannisian
attend a paliament committee meeting, April 4, 2023.
Hayastan and the second parliamentary opposition force, Pativ Unem, had nominate
their own candidate for the vacant post, Edgar Ghazarian. The latter is a
maverick activist highly critical of the government.
Some Civil Contract deputies shouted verbal abuse and threats at Ghazarian when
he appeared before the parliament committee on human rights and harshly
criticized Pashinian’s administration last week. One of them pledged to “cut the
tongues and ears of anyone” who would make disparaging comments about the 2018
“velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power.
Manasian also attended the committee meeting. Unlike the Armenian opposition and
human rights groups, she pointedly declined to criticize those threats.
The previous ombudswoman, Kristine Grigorian, unexpectedly resigned in January
after less than a year in office. She too had been installed by the parliament’s
pro-government majority. Unlike her outspoken predecessor Arman Tatoyan,
Grigorian rarely criticized the government and law-enforcement bodies.
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.
10:40,
YEREVAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. The opposition Hayastan faction of parliament called for a parliamentary discussion with the leadership of the military or other authorized officials over the situation resulting from the April 11 Azerbaijani attack on Armenian troops.
“Although some of our Members of Parliament are now in Syunik province, we have an offer to the leadership of the parliament, summon the leadership of the military or authorized officials to have a discussion with lawmakers during the day, in order to also understand the situation in terms of what the parliament ought to do,” Hayastan faction Secretary Artsvik Minasyan said.
Vice Speaker Ruben Rubinyan told Minasyan that if they prefer an open format discussion, then their questions can be addressed to the Cabinet members during the upcoming question time. Rubinyan said he will speak with the relevant agencies if the opposition wants a closed-format meeting.
Rubinyan and Minasyan agreed to discuss the matter.
On April 11, Armenian troops carrying out engineering works near the village of Tegh close to the border with Azerbaijan came under heavy gunfire in an unprovoked attack. Four Armenian soldiers were killed and six wounded.
Friday, April 7, 2023
Confusion Over Armenia’s Participation In U.S.-Led Military Drills
POLAND - U.S., Polish and French soldiers stand near their armoured vehicles
during Defender Europe 2022 military exercise of NATO troops at the military
range in Bemowo Piskie, May 24, 2022.
The U.S. Department of Defense removed Armenia on Thursday from the list of
participants of an upcoming U.S.-led military exercise in Europe released by it
on Wednesday.
Armenia was initially listed among 26 countries which the Pentagon said will
take part in the Defender 23 exercise designed to “deter those who would
threaten the peace of Europe and defend the continent from aggression.”
“Approximately 9,000 U.S. troops and about 17,000 troops from 26 allied and
partner nations will participate and portions of the exercise will stretch
across 10 different European countries,” Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman,
told reporters late on Wednesday.
The Armenian Defense Ministry did not confirm its participation in the two-month
drills that will begin on April 22.
A report on Singh’s announcement posted on the Pentagon’s website was edited on
Thursday evening to exclude Armenia from the list. No official explanation was
given for that revision. The Armenian government did not comment on it either.
It was thus not clear whether Yerevan had initially agreed to join the war games
before deciding to pull out of them.
The Armenian military was reportedly close to sending troops to the U.S.-led
drills held in 2021 but opted out of them at the last minute. It said at the
time that Armenian soldiers join only those NATO drills that simulate
international peacekeeping operations and train military personnel for them.
Armenia’s relations with Russia, its traditional ally, and the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have deteriorated in recent months due to
what Yerevan sees as a lack of support from its allies in the conflict with
Azerbaijan.
Earlier this year, the Armenian government cancelled a CSTO military exercise
planned in Armenia and refused to appoint a deputy secretary-general of the
Russian-led military alliance It also rejected other CSTO member states’ offer
to deploy a monitoring mission to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The unprecedented tensions have called into question Armenia’s continued
membership in the CSTO. A senior Russian diplomat said last week that Moscow
hopes to end the South Caucasus country’s growing estrangement from its CSTO
allies.
Tensions between Russia and NATO have escalated dramatically since the Russian
invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin said recently that the U.S.-led alliance is
increasingly “hostile” to Russia and more and more involved in the war in
Ukraine.
Armenia Confirms Non-Participation In U.S.-Led Drills
• Anush Mkrtchian
POLAND - Polish and American soldiers stand during Defender Europe 2022 military
exercise of NATO troops at the military range in Bemowo Piskie, May 24, 2022.
The Armenian military confirmed on Friday that it will not take part in a
U.S.-led military exercise in Europe that will start later this month.
The U.S. Department of Defense listed Armenia on Wednesday among 26 nations that
will send troops to the Defender 23 exercise designed to “deter those who would
threaten the peace of Europe and defend the continent from aggression.” It
removed the South Caucasus country from the list, posted on the Pentagon’s
website, on Thursday without any explanation.
The Armenian Defense Ministry declined to comment on that. The ministry
spokesman, Aram Torosian, said only that Armenian soldiers will likely
participate instead in two other, more small-scale drills that are due to be
organized by U.S. Army Europe and Africa later this year.
One of those drills will involve multinational troops making up KFOR, the
NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, Torosian said in written comments. A
small Armenian military contingent has been part of KFOR for nearly two decades.
It thus remained unclear whether Yerevan had initially agreed to join the
Defender 23 war games before deciding to pull out of them.
Hakob Badalian, an Armenian political analyst, suggested that Armenia’s initial
inclusion on the list of participants was hardly the result of a U.S.
“technical” error.
“I don’t think it’s a technical issue,” Badalian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“The question of why that happened is very important.”
Armenia has long been allied to Russia, which claims to have faced growing
“hostility” from NATO and the United States in particular since the Russian
invasion of Ukraine.
Armenia’s relations with Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organization
(CSTO) have deteriorated in recent months due to what Yerevan sees as a lack of
support from its allies in the conflict with Azerbaijan.
Earlier this year, the Armenian government cancelled a CSTO military exercise
planned in Armenia and refused to appoint a deputy secretary-general of the
Russian-led military alliance. It also rejected other CSTO member states’ offer
to deploy a monitoring mission to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Russia Reaffirms Support For Turkish-Armenian Normalization
• Aza Babayan
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a news conference in
Ankara, April 7, 2023.
Russia supports Turkey’s and Armenia’s efforts to normalize bilateral relations,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated during a visit to Ankara on
Friday.
“We welcome the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey
which began with our support,” Lavrov said after talks with his Turkish
counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. “We welcome efforts to unblock transport links and
communication routes.”
Russia, which has thousands of troops deployed along Armenia’s border with
Turkey, hosted in January 2022 the first meeting of Turkish and Armenian envoys
held as part of that process. They held three more rounds of negotiations in the
following months.
The two neighboring states agreed last July to allow mutual air freight traffic
and to open the Turkish-Armenian border to citizens of third countries.
Turkey has for decades made the full opening of the border and the establishment
of diplomatic relations with Armenia conditional on an Armenian-Azerbaijani
peace deal acceptable to Azerbaijan. Turkish leaders have reaffirmed this
precondition since the start of the normalization talks with Yerevan.
Speaking at a joint news conference, Cavusoglu said Turkish-Armenian relations
and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were on the agenda of his talks with Lavrov.
He said Armenia should sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan as soon as possible.
Lavrov stuck to the official Russian line that agreements brokered by Moscow
should serve as a blueprint for the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani
relations.
“We hope that our non-regional partners will not interfere in this process and
instead will prod the parties to strictly implement the trilateral
[Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani] agreements,” he said in a clear reference to the
West.
Over the past year, Moscow has repeatedly accused the United States and the
European Union of trying to hijack those agreements and squeeze Russia out of
the South Caucasus. The Western powers have denied that.
Armenian Official Wants Probe Of Azeri Advance
• Ruzanna Stepanian
• Tigran Hovsepian
Armenia - Andranik Kocharian, chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on
defense and security, is interviewed by RFE/RL, January 11, 2022.
A senior Armenian lawmaker on Friday called for an official inquiry into fresh
territorial gains made by Azerbaijan last week along the border with Armenia.
Azerbaijani army units advanced on March 30 into what Yerevan regards as
sovereign Armenian territory adjacent to the Lachin corridor connecting Armenia
to Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the National Security Service (NSS), they
crossed a section of the border just outside the Armenian village of Tegh. The
community lost a large part of its agricultural land and pastures.
The NSS claimed on April 1 that the situation in that border area “improved
significantly” after negotiations held by Armenian and Azerbaijani officials.
Tegh residents countered, however, that the Azerbaijani troops did not retreat
from any of their newly occupied positions.
Andranik Kocharian, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian parliament
committee on defense and security, essentially acknowledged that.
“There have been no major positional changes so far,” Kocharian told reporters.
He expressed hope that as a result of ongoing negotiations the Azerbaijani
troops will withdraw from Tegh’s community lands occupied by them.
Echoing statements by opposition leaders, Kocharian said that the Armenian army
or border guards should have taken up positions along the Armenian side of the
Tegh border section ahead of the Azerbaijani advance. There must be an internal
inquiry into their failure to do that, he said.
“Why did it not happen? We must find answers to this question because … it was
avoidable,” Kocharian went on.
“I presume that we failed. If we did, those who failed continue to run some
structures in the lower or middle echelons, local governments,” he said.
The Armenian opposition has blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for the latest
loss of Armenian territory, saying that he failed to issue necessary orders to
the military and other security forces.
Pashinian said on Thursday that Armenia should continue to exercise caution and
avoid another escalation even after the fresh Azerbaijani gains. He reaffirmed
his commitment to his “peace agenda.”
According to the mayor of Khnatsakh, an Armenian border village about 10
kilometers northwest of Tegh, later on Thursday, Azerbaijani forces opened fire
at Khnatsakh residents cultivating their land.
The official, Seyran Mirzoyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that none of the
villagers was wounded by the cross-border fire witnessed by him. But they had to
stop their work, he said.
The Armenian Defense Ministry did not report any shooting incidents from that
area.
Pashinian Again Phones Putin
Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir
Putin attend a CSTO summit in Yerevan, November 23, 2022.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian again telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin
on Friday to discuss Azerbaijan’s continuing blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh’s land
link with Armenia and Russian-Armenian relations that have soured in recent
months.
According to the official Armenian readout of the call, Pashinian raised with
Putin the “humanitarian crisis” in Karabakh resulting from the four-month
blockade.
“In the context of overcoming the crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian prime
minister emphasized the importance of consistent steps by the Russian
peacekeeping mission,” said the statement.
The Kremlin reported that the two leaders “continued the discussion of various
aspects of the current situation in Nagorno-Karabakh” and reaffirmed their
commitment to Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow during and
after the 2020 war. It was their fourth phone conversation in two months.
Armenian leaders have repeatedly accused Russian peacekeepers of doing little to
unblock the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia. Moscow has rejected the
criticism. It has called for an end to the blockade.
Azerbaijan has ignored such calls also made by the West. Its troops tightened
the blockade on Mach 25 when they seized a hill overlooking a dirt road that
bypasses the blocked section of the Lachin corridor. The Russian peacekeepers
accused Baku of violating the 2020 ceasefire.
Putin and Pashinian spoke on Friday eleven days Moscow warned the Armenian
parliament against ratifying the International Criminal Court’s founding treaty.
Armenia’s Constitutional Court gave the green light for such ratification on
March 24 a week after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin over war crimes
allegedly committed by Russia in Ukraine. Pashinian’s domestic critics claimed
that he engineered the court ruling in order to further undermine Armenia’s
alliance with Russia.
The Kremlin said Putin and Pashinian also “touched upon topical issues of
bilateral relations.” It did not elaborate.
Pashinian’s office likewise said that they discussed “Armenian-Russian relations
and other developments taking place in them.”
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.
The "We Are All Armenian: Voices of Diaspora" book, edited by writer Aram Mrjoian, is a compelling collection of essays that explores Armenian identity and belonging in the Diaspora. Published on March 14, 2023 by University of Texas Press this contemporary anthology includes contributions from both established and emerging Armenian authors.
The book elevates the voices of individuals from historically silenced communities who share personal experiences of displacement, assimilation, inheritance, and broader definitions of home.
“In a century since the Armenian Genocide, Armenian survivors and their descendants have written of a vast range of experiences using storytelling and activism – two important aspects of Armenian culture. Wrestling with questions of home and self, Diaspora Armenian writers bear the burden of repeatedly telling their history, as it remains widely erased and obfuscated. Telling this history requires a tangled balance of contextualizing the past and reporting on the present, of respecting a culture even while feeling lost within it,” says the preface of the book.
Mediamax.am had an interview with the editor, writer Aram Mrjoian.
Why was the book called "We Are All Armenian: Voices of Diaspora"?
The title for the anthology evolved with the project. When I was first receiving drafts from contributors, the manuscript was untitled, but eventually, I began seeking out a title from somewhere in the essays provided. At first, it was titled “Imagining and Seeing: Voices of Diaspora”, which refers to the contribution of Chris McCormick, an American novelist and short story writer, but after some discussion with my editor and team at the press we decided “We Are All Armenian” really captured the spirit of the collection. The anthology is intended to be intersectional and inclusive, so my hope is that the title makes that evident.
Can you please talk about the book, how the idea came about, and what the purpose of this book is?
The book came together from a mix of personal interest and seeing what I felt was a need in the community. I was reading a lot of Armenian writers and was interested in developing some kind of collaborative project. Then the University of Texas Press sent me an anthology of voices from the Iranian Diaspora that I found really well done. It gave me the inspiration to propose a similar project, one I am very lucky and grateful they accepted. I think I was mostly in the right place at the right time and had space while I was working toward my Ph.D. to make it happen.
Photo: Raffy Boudjikanian
It is hard for me to imagine a book having any specific purpose because I like to see art as something that changes over time and can have different meanings as it ages, but for the moment, I am mostly interested in how this anthology can open up conversations within and outside of Armenian communities.
What were the principles the authors of the book were chosen based on, and who are the authors?
The authors are a blend of emerging and established Diaspora Armenian artists writing today. It was important to me to reach out to both writers I really admired and whom I saw as mentors, as well as those who were at the beginning of their careers. The selection process was part of the proposal, so I had to figure out who would contribute very early on before I had even signed a contract with the publisher. This meant doing a lot of reading and research on the front end and having to be fairly methodical in my curation.
How long did the authors write the book, and what are the main points of the book?
From start to finish, the book took about three years to be put together. Only a small portion of that was writing time, but there were several rounds of collaborative revision and then a long lead time to proof and prepare the anthology for publication. Again, I do not necessarily want to be too prescriptive in what the essays are about, especially since I am not the author of them, but a few common themes emerged, including imposter syndrome, definitions of home, and activism. I would say these themes function as a kind of conversation between contributors and develop a larger arc to the project.
How important is it to have this kind of publication, and is this also an idea to unite and gather in one place the Armenian writers who are in Diaspora and whose life has been put in different directions over time?
Well, again, I hope the publication is useful in the sense that it opens up conversations and perhaps even inspires other collections, not only by Armenian artists but also others. I never expected this anthology to be comprehensive, so I had to accept that I could only gather so many contributors, even if I wished I could include more. I guess I mean I am cognizant that I could only accept and curate a relatively small number of essays, and so that is limiting in some ways, but I hope it is fairly representative and that readers hear some perspectives they might not have elsewhere.
What kind of ethnic nuances appear in the book, and what is revealed to the reader in that regard?
The main nuance I hope is revealed is that every experience is different, even if we share some similarities.
In my introduction, I argue: “Diaspora Armenians cannot be pinned to a number of essays that is any smaller than the total Diaspora population, and even that is problematic, only a brief and glancing representation of each person and community at a singular moment.” Getting past problematic tropes and generalizations is important to me, so I hope that is revealed to the reader from the introduction all the way until the end of the collection.
In some places in the book, the Armenian Genocide is mentioned, is that done to draw the reader’s attention to the history of the Armenian Genocide?
I left the decision to discuss the Genocide or not to each of the contributors individually since one of my editorial goals for the project was to allow the writers as much creative freedom as possible. Truthfully, I imagined many of the readers that would pick up the anthology would already have some familiarity with the Genocide, and so it is not so much to draw attention as it is part of the context of the entire collection. I can not necessarily control what a reader takes from this book, but I hope they are willing to explore the contributions with thoughtfulness and a curiosity to learn more.
And at the end, I want to ask you, is the mentioning of all the beautiful details about Armenia and Yerevan aimed to inspire the Diaspora Armenians to visit their homeland at least once and get to know Armenia?
That is a great question, but it is hard for me to know. Intentionally, both in the anthology and outside of it, I try not to speak too much in generalizations about Armenians, and I do not want to assume one experience would universally appeal to everyone. I have never visited Armenia, at least not yet, though I have always wanted to and hope to at some point in the future: that is a personal decision rather than a collective one. In the same way that each writer has his/her own story, each person has to make his/her own decisions about how to relate to their heritage and how to choose to explore it.
Tallar Kallougian
The Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF), a state-owned enterprise, and Deputy Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan have filed a lawsuit against Pastinfo, demanding that the media outlet refute its reports allegedly “damaging the business reputation.”
Pastinfo says its staff has not yet received a copy of the suit, stressing it has never received any requests for refutation in connection with its reports accusing Avinyan, who leads the ANIF Board of Directors, of illegal appointment as deputy mayor.
In its reports earlier, the media outlet cited Article 48 (Clause 8) of the law on local self-government in Yerevan which bans deputy mayors from engaging in entrepreneurship, holding any other post in state, local self-government bodies and for-profit organizations or carrying out other paid work, except for scientific, pedagogical and creative activity.
Before the release of reports, Pastinfo had submitted queries to both Tigran Avinyan and ANIF to find out whether salaries were set for the ANIF Board of Directors members and whether Avinyan gave up his salary, however the latter failed to respond to them in violation of the law on freedom of information.
ANIF also refused to say who sets the staffing table and salaries of the company, what legal or normative acts they are based on, whether the board director and its members receive fixed salaries, whether there is a salary waiver in the Board of Directors and whether the board director is planned to be replaced in the near future.
The fund also refused to provide a copy of its charter, but Pastinfo gained access to it from the Agency for State Register of Legal Entities in the manner prescribed by law.
"It’s confirmed that Tigran Avinyan is the ANIF Board of Directors chairman and is responsible for organizing its activity. He chairs the board and general meetings, signs both the decisions of the General Meeting and the Board as well as the documents approved by them under Clause 16.2 of the Charter,” the report said.
“Incidentally, it remains unclear whether Avinyan was appointed full-time deputy mayor, because it turns out that he performs the duties of ANIF board chairman at the expense of his working hours as deputy mayor, but receives a salary from the Municipality,” Pastinfo said.
“Crucially, neither Avinyan nor ANIF provided explanations over the issues raised, also refusing to reveal how many hours a day he spends on performing the duties of ANIF board chairman.
“The competent authorities avoid providing information on the issues raised and answering questions. Instead, they sue the media outlet, which we regard not only as a manifestation of political corruption, but also as an attempt to silence the media,” it stressed.
17:08, 13 March 2023
YEREVAN, 13 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 13 March, USD exchange rate up by 0.26 drams to 388.44 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 3.47 drams to 414.47 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.06 drams to 5.17 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 3.77 drams to 468.65 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 388.09 drams to 23244.47 drams. Silver price down by 0.20 drams to 250.90 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams.
The planned mining at the gold deposit in Amulsar mountain near Armenia’s southern resort town of Jermuk poses major environmental risks, Lusine Taslakyan, a mater policy and management expert and a doctoral research assistant in the Department of Soil and Water Systems at the U.S. University of Idaho, said on Saturday.
Armenia’s Ministry of Economy, the Eurasian Development Bank and Lydian Armenia, a subsidiary of the U.S.-British Lydian International, on February 22 signed a memorandum for $250 million to complete construction work at the Amulsar gold mine and purchase the necessary equipment.
“The Amulsar mining project poses major risks. Specialists have repeatedly warned about it, we are not “inventing the wheel” now, but everyone should know about it,” she said in an interview to Panorama.am.
The expert particularly warned the development of the gold mine would put Armenia’s water resources at risk given a high probability of acid mine drainage. It could pollute the groundwater of Jermuk and its springs and even Lake Sevan.
“The mountain positioning makes it impossible to avoid threats to water resources, as it is close to the Arpa, Vorotan, Darb Rivers, let alone Jermuk’s mineral waters,” Taslakyan said.
“The mining operations in the area would force Jermuk residents to leave their homes as it would make life impossible there,” she stressed.