Friday,
Yerevan Links Armenian-Azeri Peace Deal To Karabakh’s Security
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Acting Foreign Minister Armen Grigorian speaks at a news conference in
Yerevan, August 16, 2021.
Armenia will not sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan without negotiating
security guarantees for Nagorno-Karabakh, a senior Armenian official said on
Friday.
“There is no question that agreements to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh issue need
to be reached,” Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council,
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “And our understanding with our international
partners is that the peace treaty could be finalized if there is progress on the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue, if there are guarantees of ensuring [the Karabakh
Armenians’] security and rights, and if Armenia is certain that there will be no
ethnic cleansing in Karabakh.”
Grigorian said that such guarantees could include the establishment of a
“demilitarized zone” around Karabakh or “international presence” in the
Armenian-populated territory. He indicated that Baku and Yerevan have reached no
agreements on that so far.
The two sides have exchanged in recent months written proposals regarding the
peace treaty which Baku hopes will help to restore full Azerbaijani control over
Karabakh. Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian said late last month that
they continue to disagree on “three or four” elements of the would-be treaty.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke of “progress” in Armenia’s position on
the issue after holding U.S.-mediated talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
in Munich on February 18. Still, his foreign minister, Jeyhun Bayramov, accused
Yerevan of obstruction.
Grigorian insisted that it is the Azerbaijani side that is not interested in
negotiating in good faith. He pointed to the March 5 armed incident near
Stepanakert which left three Karabakh police officers and two Azerbaijani
soldiers dead.
Pashinian on Thursday described the incident as an Azerbaijani “terrorist act”
aimed at torpedoing dialogue between Azerbaijani and Karabakh officials. He said
that Baku is preparing the ground for a “new military provocation.”
Earlier this week, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry threatened to “disarm and
neutralize” Karabakh Armenian forces as it accused Armenia of continuing to send
military personnel and weapons to Karabakh. The authorities in Yerevan and
Stepanakert strongly denied the allegations.
The deadly shootings occurred four days after a meeting between Azerbaijani and
Karabakh officials organized by the commander of Russian peacekeepers. During
that meeting, the Karabakh representatives refused to discuss the
Armenian-populated territory’s “integration” into Azerbaijan demanded by Baku.
Moscow Raps Armenian Travel Ban On Another Russian Media Figure
Russia - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov listens during Russian President
Vladimir Putin's annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, December 19, 2019.
Russia criticized Armenia on Friday for imposing a travel ban on another
prominent Russian media figure highly critical of the Armenian government.
Aram Gabrelyanov, the ethnic Armenian head of the Saint Petersburg-based Baltic
Media Group, was barred from entering the country on his arrival at Yerevan’s
Zvartnots international airport on Tuesday. He was due to deliver a lecture at a
training course for Armenian journalists organized by Victor Soghomonian, a
former spokesman for ex-President Robert Kocharian.
Immigration officers at Zvartnots reportedly told Gabrelyanov that his name is
on a list of “undesirable individuals” drawn up by the Armenian government. The
government has not commented on his inclusion on the blacklist.
Gabrelyanov, who is a staunch supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on
Thursday blamed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for the entry ban. In a Facebook
post, he pledged to sue Pashinian’s government and “force them to let me into
Armenia.”
Russia - Russian-Armenian media figure Aram Gabrelyanov.
Gabrelyanov has for years harshly criticized Pashinian and supported Armenian
opposition attempts to topple him.
At least two other prominent Russians -- pro-Armenian lawmaker Konstantin
Zatulin and RT television network chief Margarita Simonyan -- were banned from
entering Armenia last fall. They too are very critical of Pashinian’s
administration.
Simonyan is one of the most influential figures in the Kremlin-controlled media.
A senior Armenian official accused her and other prominent Russians of Armenian
descent in October of disrespecting the South Caucasus country’s leaders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Moscow’s reaction to the
travel bans is “negative.”
RUSSIA – Russia's President Vladimir Putin awards an Order of Honour to RT and
Rossiya Segodnya editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan at the Moscow Kremlin,
December 20, 2022
“Armenia is our great friend, ally, strategic partner,” Peskov told reporters.
“And, of course, the level and nature of bilateral relations requires us to
protect our bilateral relations from such cases. We hope that our bilateral
relations will be free from such cases in the foreseeable future.”
Armenia’s traditionally close relationship with Russia has soured lately because
of what Yerevan sees as a lack of Russian support in the continuing conflict
with Azerbaijan.
At least four Armenian Diaspora activists from France and the Netherlands have
also been denied entry to Armenia over the past year. They all are affiliated
local chapters of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). The
party’s organization in Armenia was at the forefront of antigovernment protests
staged by the country’s leading opposition groups in Yerevan last spring and
summer.
Armenia Spurns Leadership Position In Russian-Led Bloc
ARMENIA - The leaders of Russia, Armenia and other CSTO member states pose for a
picture during a summit in Yerevan, November 23, 2022.
Armenia has refused to name a deputy secretary-general of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in a further sign of its estrangement from
the Russian-led military alliance.
An Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to give any reason for the
rebuff on Friday.
The development comes two months after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian called off
a CSTO military exercise that was scheduled to take place in Armenia this year.
He again accused the alliance of refusing to defend Armenia against Azerbaijani
military attacks in breach of its statutes.
Late last year, Armenia also turned down other CSTO member states’ offer to
deploy monitors along its volatile border with Azerbaijan, citing their
reluctance to acknowledge and condemn the “Azerbaijani aggression.”
Yerevan appealed to the CSTO for support during the September 2022 border
clashes which left at least 224 Armenian soldiers dead. Armenian leaders
afterwards accused the alliance of ignoring the appeal in breach of its statutes.
Pashinian went as far as to question on January 11 the need for close military
ties between Armenia and Russia. He said that they may be putting his country’s
security and territorial integrity at greater risk. The Russian Foreign Ministry
dismissed the claim as “absurd.”
These tensions have fuelled speculation about a pro-Western shift in Armenia’s
geopolitical orientation. Armenia’s leading opposition groups are seriously
concerned about such a prospect.
Tigran Abrahamian, an opposition parliamentarian, criticized Yerevan’s refusal
to fill one of the three posts of CSTO deputy secretary-general. He said
Pashinian is thus downgrading Armenia’s membership in the alliance uniting six
ex-Soviet states.
“I have the impression that with this step Armenia is starting a process of
dissociating itself from the CSTO or giving new impetus to a course that started
earlier,” Abrahamian wrote on Facebook.
U.S. Insists On ‘Immediate’ Reopening Of Lachin Corridor
Armenia - U.S. Ambassador Kristina Kvien visits an Armenian border checkpoint
leading to the Lachin corridor, .
The new U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Kristina Kvien, called for the immediate
reopening of the Lachin corridor on Friday as she visited an Armenian province
adjacent to the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
Kvien posted on Twitter photographs of her and Syunik province Governor Robert
Ghukasian standing at an Armenian border checkpoint leading to the corridor that
has been blocked by Azerbaijani government-backed protesters for the last three
months.
“Syunik governor Ghukasian reported the effects of the ongoing blockage,
including the impact on hundreds of separated families,” she wrote. “The Lachin
corridor should be opened immediately.”
The United States has repeatedly called on Baku to lift the road blockade that
has caused serious shortages of food, medicine and other essential items in
Karabakh.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted on the restoration of “free and
open commercial and private transit through the Lachin corridor” when he hosted
talks between Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s leaders in Munich on February 18.
The Azerbaijani side has dismissed such calls, also made by the European Union
and Russia, claiming that the lifeline road is not blocked and that the
protesters are right to demand an end to “illegal” mining in Karabakh.
“We will continue to press this matter,” Louis Bono, the U.S. special envoy for
South Caucasus peace talks, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Tuesday.
But he made clear that the U.S. is not considering imposing sanctions on
Azerbaijan. “Sanctions would be counterproductive,” he said at the end of a
visit to Yerevan.
Bono met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku earlier this week.
The U.S. State Department spokesman, Ned Price, reiterated on Thursday that
Washington will do “everything we can” to support a peaceful settlement of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
“We’re going to continue to do that by working bilaterally with these countries,
trilaterally with Armenia and Azerbaijan, supporting their own efforts at
dialogue and diplomacy, but also through all appropriate mechanisms to help
these countries themselves conduct the diplomacy and reach the agreements that
we hope that they will be able to make,” he said.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
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Author: Toneyan Mark
Azerbaijani demands Artsakh to accept the integration policy, otherwise there will be tougher and sharper steps
17:37, 6 March 2023
YEREVAN, MARCH 6, ARMENPRESS. On March 6, President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan convened an extended meeting of the Security Council with the participation of the political forces of the National Assembly and heads of regional administrations, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the President’s Office.
Before starting the meeting, the attendees observed a moment of silence to honor the memory of the policemen of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Artsakh Republic who died as a result of the Azerbaijani sabotage on March 5, after which President Harutyunyan made a statement.
According to the Head of the State, the Artsakh side met with the Azerbaijani side on February 24 with the mediation and presence of the command staff of the Russian peacekeeping contingent deployed in Artsakh in order to discuss the humanitarian and infrastructural issues arising from the situation. An agreement was reached regarding the second meeting, which took place on March 1 under the leadership of Security Council Secretary Samvel Shahramanyan. Four issues were on the agenda of the meetings: unblocking of the Lachin Corridor, restoration of electricity supply from the Republic of Armenia to Artsakh, uninterrupted supply of natural gas, and re-exploitation of the Kashen mine.
"During the second meeting, the representative of Azerbaijan attempted to discuss political topics using the word "integration", but Mr. Shahramanyan prevented that, saying that if they should discuss political issues, it should be the topic of recognition of the independence of Artsakh by Azerbaijan. He added that they are not authorized to discuss political issues and cannot discuss such issues at this meeting," A. Harutyunyan noted.
According to the Head of the State, after that, the Azerbaijani side conveyed through its channels that either we accept the integration policy, or there will be no solution to the existing problems, on the contrary, there will be tougher and sharper steps.
"We did not accept, we do not accept and today I want to state again that it is not only a decision of the Security Council, but the overwhelming majority of our people accept that we will not deviate from our right to independence and self-determination. And that means that in the near future we will have various developments, situations that we have to face. We choose to either continue the struggle that we have embarked on, or if there are such moods in the public that we should accept the proposal presented by Azerbaijan, then they have the opportunity to speak up within the scope of their civil rights and say that the path we have chosen is wrong, try to shape those moods, and form a new government in the country. But since we have chosen the path of struggle, please first of all respect our decision and do not react to any such phenomena and do not attach any internal political implications," said the President.
Touching upon the tragic case of the killing of police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Artsakh Republic as a result of an Azerbaijani sabotage on March 5, the President of the Republic noted that, unfortunately, such provocations are not excluded in the near future.
"We must realize the fact that we have to struggle for a long time and within the framework of that struggle there will be such situations, and we should take preventive measures. I have discussed our problems with the State Minister and today I want to instruct the Government by the decision of the Security Council to develop a program in the directions of food security and energy security, as we have to calculate all scenarios," said Arayik Harutyunyan.
At the meeting of the Security Council, Defense Minister Kamo Vardanyan delivered a report on the operational situation. Subsequently, there was an exchange of ideas, and a number of decisions were made as per the agenda.
Vice Speaker Rubinyan meets with new U.S. Ambassador, voices need to suppress Azerbaijan’s aggressive policy
17:27,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. Vice Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan held a meeting with the new United States Ambassador to Armenia Kristina Kvien.
The Vice Speaker congratulated the Ambassador on taking office and expressed certainty that her work will contribute to the deepening of the Armenian-American cooperation.
Issues related to the bilateral collegial and friendly relations were discussed, the parliament’s press service said in a read-out. It was mentioned that the inter-parliamentary cooperation format has an important place in the Armenian-American relations.
Presenting the situation in the region, Rubinyan said that it is imperative that Azerbaijan stops its illegal blockade of Lachin corridor and that Azerbaijan’s aggressive and belligerent policy must be restrained.
The Ambassador valued the deepening of the Armenian-American cooperation and establishment of peace in the region.
Ideas were exchanged around the Armenia-Turkey normalization process.
PM Pashinyan meets with Croatian PM during Munich Security Conference
14:55,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with Croatian Prime Minister Andrei Plenkovic within the framework of the Munich Security Conference.
PM Pashinyan said that the recent visit by the Croatian Foreign Minister to Armenia has “historic significance”, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a read-out.
PM Pashinyan expressed hope that the meeting with PM Plenkovic will intensify the development and strengthening of the Armenian-Croatian relations.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrei Plenkovic said that his government is also interested in enhancing partnership with Armenia in various sectors.
PM Pashinyan and PM Plenkovic also discussed the current situation in South Caucasus and the developments around Nagorno Karabakh.
Prime Minister Pashinyan said that the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan caused a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno Karabakh, and that Azerbaijan has also blocked electricity supply to Nagorno Karabakh for over a month now, and serious problems related with gas supply exist. PM Pashinyan noted that this is causing not only a humanitarian but also an environmental crisis. The Armenian Prime Minister attached importance to the targeted and consistent reaction by the international community for the solution of the issue. The EU civilian mission in Armenia was also discussed and the importance of strengthening stability and peace in the region was emphasized.
Prime Minister Pashinyan invited the Croatian Prime Minister to pay an official visit to Armenia, and the invitation was gladly accepted.
Time for Armenia to Abandon the Sinking Russian Ship
Sept 30 2022
Armenia needs to urgently rethink its foreign policy or the country will end up on the wrong side of history. Dependent on Russia both defensively and economically, Yerevan must understand the world is facing for a second time since 1991 the disintegration of the Russian Empire and Moscow’s loss of control over Eurasia.
For three decades, Russia has demanded the West recognize the former Soviet world as its exclusive sphere of influence. The Kremlin manufactured frozen conflicts in Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Georgia and installed its own so-called “peacekeepers,” blocking UN involvement. NATO, EU, Turkey, and China were all viewed as hostile competitors for influence in the region.
The West now has an opportunity to expand its influence into the power vacuum that is emerging in Eurasia. Russia is now viewed regionally as a declining great power mortally wounded by military failures in Ukraine. Nowhere is this more evident than in Russia pulling its troops out of its bases throughout Eurasia and Syria.
Last week, on the side lines of the UN General Assembly in New York, the GUAM group of countries – Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova – signed a protocol that enables the establishment of a free trade area, another sign of Russia’s loosening grip over Eurasia. The recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting revealed Central Asia as China’s sphere of influence, as countries almost exclusively align behind Beijing’s diplomatic positions, with Russia as junior partner. Then on Monday, the leadership in Kazakhstan – where Russia intervened earlier this year to help put down a protest movement – explicitly stated it will not recognise Moscow’s pseudo referendums to annex of parts of Eastern Ukraine.
In Eurasia, only Armenia and Belarus remain firmly within Russia’s sphere of influence. But for how long.
Self-declared Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has nowhere else to go. Since the 2020 fraudulent presidential elections, his fate is tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia materially backed his brutal crackdown against protests over massive election fraud. Russia’s likely militarily defeat by Ukraine will lead to regime change in Belarus and Lukashenko’s replacement by democratic opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Armenia has greater room for maneuver. Its leader Nikol Pashinyan came to power four years ago on the back of a bona fide popular uprising. He will not lose power if Putin is removed following Russia’s military defeat. Nevertheless, Yerevan has little time left to adjust its foreign policy to the reality of the sinking Russian ship.
Armenia can send a signal it understands the writing on the wall in three ways. The first would be to announce its intention to withdraw from the Russian-led security alliance, the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organisation), declaring it has proven unable to provide security assistance to Armenia. In a recent breakout of hostilities with neighbor Azerbaijan, Russia rejected Armenia’s calls for assistance.
Second, it should withdraw from the Eurasian Economic Union and advise the EU it is interested in signing an Association Agreement, obtaining an DCFTA (Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement) and securing a visa free regime – three compacts Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have all achieved. Nearly a decade ago, Russia pressured Armenia and Ukraine to drop their planned Association Agreements with the EU and instead join the Eurasian Economic Union. This was a strategic mistake undertaken by the pro-Russian regime that ruled Armenia before the 2018 democratic revolution that brought Pashinyan to power.
Third, it should declare a readiness to join the GUAM free trade zone, a step that would economically integrate the entire Southern Caucasus.
There would be three benefits to readjusting Armenia’s foreign policy from its traditional pro-Russian uni-directional to multi-vectorism. The first would be a boon to Armenia’s economy and trade, benefiting from access to the EU, the biggest customs zone in the world with which the Eurasian Economic Union cannot compete. Armenia could look at how Ukraine successfully re-oriented its economy from Russia to the EU after the 2014 crisis, boosting its trade and investment.
Second, ending pro-Russian unilateralism would encourage the peace process between Armenia and its neighbours. Moscow has no interest in seeing a settlement to the three-decade frozen dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. A deal would remove the need for Russian peacekeepers in the region and diminish its projection of power. Shifting foreign policy would reinvigorate the parallel EU peace process and lead to a resolution.
The third would be the modernization of Armenia’s armed forces by greater interaction with NATO and Europe. Armenia’s reliance on outdated Soviet Russian military training and armaments have not served it well.
Three decades since the disintegration of the USSR, the Russian empire is again losing its control over Eurasia. The Kremlin must compete with the EU, Turkey, and China. Unlike Belarusian dictator Lukashenka, Armenia’s democratically elected leaders are not irrevocably tied to Moscow. Now is the time for Armenia’s leaders to abandon the Russian ship and reorient its foreign policy.
Taras Kuzio, Taras Kuzio is a Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Science, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, and author of Russian Nationalism and the Russian-Ukrainian War.
The views expressed in this article belong to the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of Geopoliticalmonitor.com
An Ancient Hate: Why Armenia Will Never Know Peace From Surrounding Islam
Sept 30 2022
In late 2020, war broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Two months later, peace was achieved on condition that the Christian nation cede its ancestral lands in Artsakh, internationally known as “Nagorno-Karabakh,” to its Muslim neighbor.
The peace bought by such Armenian appeasement has been fickle at best. Two weeks ago, Azerbaijan launched yet another attack on Armenia — one just as, if not more, savage than in 2020, as seen by one particularly grotesque atrocity.
The fact is, no amount of appeasement short of total capitulation will ever satisfy Armenia’s powerful Muslim neighbors, namely Azerbaijan and its “big brother,” Turkey.
Appropriating Nagorno-Karabakh was only the first step of a larger project. As Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, once openly proclaimed, “Yerevan [the capital of Armenia] is our historical land and we Azerbaijanis must return to these historical lands.” He has also referred to other ancient Armenian territories, including the Zangezur and Lake Sevan regions, as “our historic lands.” Taking over those territories “is our political and strategic goal,” Aliyev maintains, “and we need to work step-by-step to get closer to it.”
This unrelenting history of hate makes one thing perfectly clear: all modern day pretexts and “territorial disputes” aside, true and permanent peace between Armenia and its Muslim neighbors will only be achieved when the Christian nation has either been conquered or ceded itself into nonexistence.
To this, Tigran Balayan, spokesman for Armenia’s foreign ministry, said: “The statement about territorial claims of the president of Azerbaijan, a state appearing on the political map of the world only 100 years ago … yet again demonstrates the racist character of the ruling regime in Baku.”
This is a rather restrained and diplomatic way of saying that, not only are these claims absolutely false; they are — as most falsehoods nowadays tend to be — the exact inverse of the truth.
Armenia is one of the world’s oldest nations. Armenians founded Yerevan, their current capital, in 782 BC — exactly 2,700 years before Azerbaijan came into being in 1918. And yet, here is the president of Azerbaijan waging war because “Yerevan is our historical land and we Azerbaijanis must return to these historical lands.”
Armenia was also significantly bigger, encompassing even modern day Azerbaijan within its borders, over two thousand years ago. Then the Turks and their offshoots (e.g., Azeris) came riding in from the east, slaughtering, enslaving, terrorizing and stealing the lands of Armenians and other Christians of the region in the name of jihad.
Anyone who doubts this summation should consult the Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa (d.1144). According to this nearly thousand year old chronicle, which is near coterminous with the events it describes, it was only in 1019 that “the first appearance of the bloodthirsty beasts … the savage nation of infidels called Turks entered Armenia … and mercilessly slaughtered the Christian faithful with the sword.”
Three decades later the raids were virtually nonstop. In 1049, the founder of the Turkic Seljuk Empire himself, Sultan Tughril Bey (r. 1037–1063), reached the Armenian city of Arzden, west of Lake Van, and “put the whole town to the sword, causing severe slaughter, as many as one hundred and fifty thousand persons.”
Other contemporaries confirm the devastation visited upon Arzden. “Like famished dogs,” writes Aristakes (d.1080) an eye witness, the Turks “hurled themselves on our city, surrounded it and pushed inside, massacring the men and mowing everything down like reapers in the fields, making the city a desert. Without mercy, they incinerated those who had hidden themselves in houses and churches.”
Eleven years later, in 1060, the Turk’s laid siege to Sebastia (which, though now a Turkish city, was originally Armenian). Six hundred churches were destroyed, “many and innumerable people were burned [to death],” and countless women and children “were led into captivity.”
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Between 1064 and 1065, Tughril’s successor, Sultan Muhammad bin Dawud Chaghri — known to posterity as Alp Arslan, one of Turkey’s unsavory but national heroes — laid siege to Ani, then the capital of Armenia. The thunderous bombardment of Muhammad’s siege engines caused the entire city to quake, and Matthew describes countless terror-stricken families huddled together and weeping. Once inside, the Muslims “began to mercilessly slaughter the inhabitants of the entire city… and piling up their bodies one on top of the other…. Innumerable and countless boys with bright faces and pretty girls were carried off together with their mothers.”
Not only do several Christian sources document the sack of Armenia’s capital — one contemporary succinctly notes that Muhammad “rendered Ani a desert by massacres and fire” — but so do Muslim sources, often in apocalyptic terms: “I wanted to enter the city and see it with my own eyes,” one Arab explained. “I tried to find a street without having to walk over the corpses. But that was impossible.”
Such “was the beginning of the misfortunes of Armenia,” Matthew of Edessa concludes his account: “So, lend an ear to this melancholy recital.” This has proven to be an ominous remark, for the aforementioned history of blood and tears was, indeed, just “the beginning of the misfortunes of Armenia,” whose “melancholy recital” continues to this day.
But what was the reason the Turks invaded and so ruthlessly attacked Armenia? What “grievance” did they have? Simple: Armenia was Christian and the Turks were Muslim — and Islam makes all non-Muslims enemies to be put to the sword, until and unless they embrace Islam.
Incidentally, Islam’s animus for Christianity was on display then no less than now. Thus, during the aforementioned sack of Ani, a Muslim fighter climbed atop the city’s main cathedral “and pulled down the very heavy cross which was on the dome, throwing it to the ground,” wrote Matthew. Made of pure silver and the “size of a man” — and now symbolic of Islam’s might over Christianity — the broken crucifix was sent as a trophy to adorn a mosque in, ironically enough, modern-day Azerbaijan. Fast forward nearly a millennium to Azerbaijan’s war on Armenia in 2020, a Muslim fighter was videotaped triumphantly shouting “Allahu Akbar!” while standing atop an Armenian church chapel where the cross had been broken off.
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Such is an idea of what Muslim Turks did to Christian Armenians — not during the Armenian Genocide of a century ago, when some 1.5 million Armenians were massacred and even more displaced — but one thousand years ago, when the Islamic conquest of Armenia first began.
This unrelenting history of hate makes one thing perfectly clear: all modern day pretexts and “territorial disputes” aside, true and permanent peace between Armenia and its Muslim neighbors will only be achieved when the Christian nation has either been conquered or ceded itself into nonexistence.
Nor would it be the first to do so. It is worth recalling that the heart of what is today called “the Muslim world” — the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) — was thoroughly Christian before the sword of Islam invaded. Bit by bit, century after century after the initial Muslim conquests and occupations, it lost its Christian identity, and became lost in the morass of Islam, so that few today even remember that Egypt, Iraq, Syria, etc., were among the first and oldest Christian nations.
Armenia — the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity — is a holdout, a thorn in Islam’s side, and, as such, can never know lasting peace from the Muslims surrounding it.
Note: Quotes from Matthew of Edessa were excerpted from the author’s book, Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West. Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
CoE: Launch of HELP roll-outs on Key Principles on Bioethics
Council of Europe
Sept 30 2022
YEREVAN, ARMENIA 30/09/2022
On 30 September HELP specialised course roll-out on Key Principles on Bioethics was launched for three more groups of legal and healthcare professionals of Armenia, including the representatives from the Ministry of Health, National Institute of Health as well as medical doctors and other healthcare professionals, lawyers, and advocates.
The HELP specialised course on Key Principles on Bioethics aims at addressing the ethical issues of consent to medical intervention, the right to know one’s health data, matters related to medically assisted procreation, recourse to organ or tissue donation and transplantation, etc. All of them in certain aspects may fall into the scope of application of human rights law.
The main purpose of the course is to assist both legal and medical professionals to understand the key human rights principles in the biomedical field.
The training session was opened by Laurence Lwoff, the Head of the Human Rights and Biomedicine Division of the Council of Europe and Anna Sahakyan, the Project Officer of Council of Europe’s Department of Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals (HELP) Armenia and EAP.
Following the general presentation of the Oviedo Convention and its Additional Protocols and the work of the Council of Europe in the field of healthcare and biomedicine, the participants were introduced to the HELP programme and HELP in Armenia, as well as HELP online training platform.
Substantial presentations on international and national standards in the fields of ‘‘Transplantation of Organs and Tissues’’ and ‘‘Ethical rules for healthcare professionals’’ were made by Samvel Grigoryan, national consultant of the CoE Project on ‘’Protection of Human Rights in Biomedicine’’ and Izabel Abgaryan, the Advisor of the Rector of the Yerevan State Medical University and national consultant of the CoE Project on ‘’Protection of Human Rights in Biomedicine’’.
The HELP roll-outs will be tutored by three Armenian HELP certified tutors: Karine Abrahamyan, Laura Gasparyan and Yevgenia Muradyan. Successful participants of these training sessions will receive certificates after completion of the Course.
The HELP roll-outs were organised under the framework of the Council of Europe’s Project on ‘‘Protection of Human Rights in Biomedicine’’ in Armenia.
Commentary: Armenians are crying out, and it’s time to act
Sept 21 2022
Published:
Yet again, my family in Armenia woke up Sept. 13 to the news that Azerbaijan is firing at them. Despite similarity to any other dark morning, these particular attacks are so close that at any moment I might hear the worst news of my life. For many decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been at war for the Republic of Artsakh because Azerbaijan claims that Artsakh, a state where Armenian cultural buildings are older than Azerbaijan itself, belongs to them. Armenians tried everything: revolutions, fighting back harder, giving up land and trying to come to peace to address this issue with Azerbaijan and Turkey throughout our very long history. However, Azerbaijan and Turkey have resorted to violence once again.
Around September 2020, Azerbaijan started a 44-day war to capture Artsakh, during which thousands of 18 to 20-year-old teenage soldiers and many civilians were murdered, including four of my friends. Later on, with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interference, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gave most of Artsakh’s land to Azerbaijan for “peace,” which angered Armenian society because no one wanted to give up on our land. But did the war ever stop? Shockingly, no! It has become standard for people in Armenia to wake up to more attacks. However, it got worse. The morning of Sept. 13 changed everything when undisputed central Armenian land was bombed.
Throughout these two years, my fellow Armenians and I tried everything to reach the attention of international people and governments, yet most of the time our calls were futile. Since 2020, I have shared many pieces of important information on my social media about how non-Armenians can help, talked about this ongoing catastrophe in class, but all I get is “sorry to hear about that.” I ask people to help and give them directions on how to be helpful and supportive, but lately I have come to realize that my cries are not heard. I scream that my childhood home is burning and notice that many around me aren’t reacting.
To my understanding, there are two major reasons for people’s ignorance. First, many people I have met in Ithaca and other foreign cities and countries do not bother worrying about issues that are not trending. People only show sympathy when there is something in return, like being considered caring and smart. So people go around lying to themselves that they shared a fresh opinion that has been tweeted a million times but don’t bother caring for countries like Armenia, Yemen or Ethiopia. Secondly, it relies on how the media and government talks about the issue. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the media covered the news of the attacks correctly, showing the actions of the real aggressors. However, during the Armenian attacks, there is not much coverage that tells the true story. A great example is the headline from the Washington Post: “Azerbaijan and Armenia exchange fire in Nagorno-Karabakh border zone.” It’s not in the Nagorno-Karabakh border zone, it’s not just exchange of fire, but attacks on my home. Media doesn’t cover the truth when they cannot profit from the plights they highlight.
I’ve been far from home throughout this conflict and the loneliness I feel is alarming. It’s very disappointing knowing that some people in my classes wouldn’t care if my family was harmed. Although, I would say that I have some amazing friends and professors who honestly care for me and other Armenians. Unfortunately, they are a significant minority within our community.
Now I’m calling upon you. Please, don’t let me feel alone. Take action. You can follow me on Instagram where I share news and how others can help (@hakobyan__n). Share awareness in your community, but make sure your information is correct. Contact your representatives to block military aid to Azerbaijan (ANCA, Armenian Assembly of America). Reach out to me if you have any questions or comments ([email protected]). We, Armenians, are tired of screaming alone. The time has come to raise your voices with us.
Armenian parliament releases MPs’ attendance data
Panorama
Armenia – Sept 3 2022
The Armenian National Assembly on Saturday released data on MPs’ attendance at the 3rd session.
The figures show that the opposition Hayastan faction had the lowest attendance. Hayastan’s Ishkhan Saghatelyan had 198 unexcused absences, Anna Grigoryan – 158, Vahe Hakobyan – 194, Armen Gevorgyan – 150 and Seyran Ohanyan – 149.
Lawmakers from the other opposition faction, Pativ Unem, also had unexcused absences. In particular, Taron Margaryan had 150 absences, Hayk Mamijanyan – 151, Taguhi Tovmasyan – 88, Tigran Abrahamyan – 148, etc.
Ruling Civil Contract faction MPs Khachatur Sukiasyan and Gurgen Melkonyan had 38 and 54 unexcused absences, respectively.
Speaker Alen Simonyan had 3 unexcused absences.
The two opposition blocs were boycotting parliament sittings to attend street protests.
Armenian delegation visits construction site of Kursk II Nuclear Power Plant
16:13, 1 September 2022
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Armenian government officials visited the Kursk II Nuclear Power Plant construction site on August 30, 2022.
The Armenian delegation included representatives from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures and the executives of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant.
The Armenian delegation was led by Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan.
The purpose of the visit was to get acquainted with the Russian advanced technologies in constructing nuclear power plants and the “ВВЭР-ТОИ” technical solution (VVER-TOI : Water-Water Energy Reactor Universal Optimized Digital generation III+ nuclear power reactor ).
The delegation examined the construction site, visited the reactor building, the turbine building, viewed the cooling towers and visited the manufacturing plant of armored metal units and other facilities.
Kursk NPP Director Alexander Uvakin welcomed the delegation.
“The construction of VVER-TOI power units in Kursk 2 is of strategic significance for nuclear industry. The capacity of every new power unit surpasses the capacity of any active power unit in Russia and is 1255MW. The launch of Kursk 2 will provide energy security of the central federal region, which comprises more than 39 million people,” Uvakin said.
Minister Sanosyan thanked Rosatom for the opportunity to visit the construction site.
“For Armenia, which considers atomic energy one of the primary areas of development of energy industry, it is very important to get acquainted with modern technologies and solutions and we are grateful that the global nuclear industry leader Rosatom organized this tour for us during which we got acquainted with construction and conceptual solutions for a turning point project like VVER-TOI,” Sanosyan said.