Citizens in Vayk of Vayots Dzor also joined the demand for Nikol Pashinyan's resignation.
Here, as in a number of cities in the country, people blocked roads and played patriotic songs dedicated to Artsakh.
For some, comfort food is a grilled cheese oozing with cheddar plunged into ketchup or a bottomless bowl of steaming hot ramen. For others, it’s lahmajoun.
“It’s quote, unquote Armenian pizza,” Mihran Boudakian, owner of Mamajoun in Scarborough, told CTV News Toronto. “Essentially, a flatbread with a meat topping.”
While lahmajoun shares the characteristic of a dough base with Italian pizza, its overlap ends there.
With lahmajoun, the dough is dusted with flour, soft to the touch, but crispy around the edges. Spiced meat is carefully patted across the surface, only leaving the outer edges of the dough naked. To eat, lemon juice is squeezed on top before the dough is butterflied inward.
“It’s in my blood, my father did it, my grandfather did it,” Boudakian said.
His family's lahmajoun recipe dates back nearly a century to two bakeries his grandfather owned in Lebanon and Syria. At the time, the dough was mixed and portioned by hand before it was thrust into a wood-fire oven.
Growing up, Boudakian’s mother mixed the meat while his father opened the dough and evenly spread the mixture across the base. Since they could only fit three or four in the oven at a time, the process was a day-long affair.
At Mamajoun, Boudakian has commercial mixers to expedite the lengthy process, but he still spreads the spiced meat by hand, pressing it with his fingertips until the mixture is evenly distributed. Each movement is a purposeful, artistic act.
The name of his establishment, Mamajoun, is an ode to his late mother by binding “Mama” with the “joun” from lahmajoun.
“If my mom was still alive right now, she would be losing her mind. The last thing she would want me to do is open a restaurant,” he said.
Despite her disapproval, he opened the doors of their space at Warden Avenue and Ellesmere Road in 2014 with his wife Natasha Koumayan.
“When you’re joining a family-run business, all your eggs are kind of in the same basket,” Boudakian said. “This last year has been the toughest because it’s been one after another, every time I go to buy something,” he said.
Before pandemic-era disruptions strangled supply chains, Boudakian said he paid $75 for a pale of tahini. Now, that cost has climbed to $95. He said a bag of flour that once cost him $13 is now $22. “When you go through 25 bags a week,” he said. "It really, really adds up.”
Until three months ago, he resisted hiking his prices but it became impossible to hold them down. “Constantly, prices are going up. I can’t change the price of my food at that same rate,” he said.
To survive, he started venturing outside of his own establishment to showcase his food at other venues like the Oud and Fuzz in Kensington Market to attract new customers.
Some days, he said he questions if he should have travelled down the path his mother warned him against. “[But] then you have a family come in and they have a little kid and they love your food and they tell you that,” Boudakian said.
“You’re touching families and people come together at a table and you are supplying them with the food and they are having their moment and you’re part of it, even though you’re not actually there, but a little part of you is there. I guess that’s what makes it worthwhile.”
14:15, 5 May, 2022
YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. A demonstrator in Yerevan’s France Square died from cardiac arrest, the Yerevan State Medical University Chief of Staff Shushan Danielyan said in a statement.
“A short time ago, an unidentified person with cardiac arrest was hospitalized by ambulance from one of the tents in France Square. All necessary cardiopulmonary resuscitation measures were immediately taken in the hospital, but unfortunately the efforts of the medics failed and the patient was pronounced dead,” Danielyan said.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chair Devlet Bahçeli has criticized Garo Paylan, a lawmaker from the ranks of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), for submitting a bill to the Turkish parliament for the recognition of the 1915 events as genocide.
“Unfortunately, there is an agent of the [Armenian] diaspora under the roof of the Turkish parliament. Proposing a bill over Armenian genocide claims is an insult to our ancestors and treason,” Bahçeli told his lawmakers at a weekly address on April 26.
Bahçeli’s reaction came after Paylan submitted a bill on the recognition of the Armenian genocide to the parliament speaker’s office on April 22. Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop returned Paylan’s bill on the grounds that it was contrary to the provisions of the rules of procedure.
“The fact that such a disgraced, instigator person is a member of the Turkish parliament is a shame for all of us. It’s crystal clear by whom this rotten lawmaker is encouraged and with whom he is in solidarity,” Bahçeli stated.
The Turkish parliament is not a place for those who think Turkey should recognize the Armenian genocide, the MHP leader said while also criticizing the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for not strongly condemning the HDP lawmaker.
Bahçeli also slammed U.S. President Joe Biden for describing the events of 1915 as genocide for the second time since he came to power in 2021. “This is null and void, unlawful and deserves to be condemned. It’s a disaster for politicians to distort the history and put themselves into the position of judges,” he said.
He recalled that the Ottoman Empire had to impose forced migration of Ottoman Armenians in 2015 after scores of Armenian gangs supported by foreign forces started to storm central and eastern Anatolians to kill Muslim Turks in Anatolia.
Yerevan's Cafesjian Center for the Arts announces the opening of the retrospective exhibition, Tereza Mirzoyan 100 in Eagle Gallery of the center on April 22, dedicated to the centenary of the celebrated sculptor, the Cafesjian Center told Panorama.am.
Tereza Mirzoyan (1922-2016) was one the significant artists who had an enormous input in the Armenian sculpture of the 20th century. Unfortunately, her name is not that famous amongst a broader society in Armenia. Nevertheless, not only she left a rich artistic heritage, but also had a priceless impact on the development of Armenian sculpture, being one of the first lecturers at the Fine Arts Academy of Armenia and working there for nearly sixty years.
Summing up Tereza Mirzoyan’s oeuvre, the show gives an opportunity to reveal the wide range of layers in her aesthetical approach, artistic language, varied techniques and media, as well as themes.
“Tereza Mirzoyan was one of the few female sculptors in Armenia in the 20th century, which makes it even more actual today to reveal and present her work,” states Vahagn Marabyan, the Executive Director of the Cafesjian Center for the Arts.
Tereza Mirzoyan 100 retrospective exhibition will be open to the public from April 22 to June 19, 2022. The admission is free.
Lazio have started negotiations with Roma creative midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who will be a free agent in June, Tuttomercatoweb claims.
The Armenia international is under contract only until June 30 and talks to sign an extension are believed to be some way off completion.
According to Tuttomercatoweb, this has prompted Lazio and their coach Maurizio Sarri to approach Mkhitaryan with an alternative offer.
The 33-year-old joined Roma from Arsenal in 2019 and his future had been up in the air last summer too, partly because of his past experiences with Jose Mourinho at Manchester United.
He has four goals and nine assists in 41 competitive games so far this season, but could end up remaining in Serie A and the Eternal City for Lazio instead.
Mkhitaryan wouldn’t be the first to make that switch, as last summer Pedro was effectively released by Roma and found a new lease of life at Lazio.
ArmInfo.The reason for Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Khovaev's new status, Special Envoy of the RF Foreign Minister for Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization, is the desire to present it as a result of the USA and France refusing to work with Russia within the OSCE Minsk Group, the political scientist Stepan Grigoryan said in an interview with ArmInfo.
And it is only Moscow that considers the OSCE Minsk Group's activities ended on February 24. "Otherwise, the U.S. and French co-chairs would not have come to the region to find a solution to the Artsakh problem – let me emphasize, within the OSCE Minsk Group," Mr Grigoryan said.
"Russia is determined to contribute to the signing of a peace agreement between Yerevan and Baku based on the Baku-proposed principles for establishing Armenian-Azerbaijani interstate relations and on Yerevan's response to them," Maria Zakharova, Spokesperson for the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated.
On February 24, 2022, Washington and Paris broke off all contacts with Moscow as OSCE Minsk Group co-chair. However, the real situation in the South Caucasus does not allow intervals in negotiations. It requires further consistent steps to establish long-lasting peace in the region, Zakharova said.
In his context, Ambassador-at-large Igor Khovaev will continue in a new capacity of Special Envoy of the Russian FM for normalization of the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
According to Mr Grigoryan, official cessation of the OSCE Minsk Group's activities and dissolution of the co-chairmanship – the only official international format mandated to deal with the issue of Artsakh's status – is actually Moscow's desire not that of Washington or Paris. In fact, the OSCE Minsk Group has over recent years been a "thorn in the side" of not only Azerbaijan and Turkey, but also of Russia. So it is Russia that is actually seeking dissolution of the co-chairmanship by bringing accusations against the USA and France.
"Igor Khovaev's appointment as Special Envoy of Russia's foreign minister for Armenian-Azerbaijani problems is nothing but an official reorganization of the international format of negotiations over Artsakh – and it is not France or the USA, but it is Russia. And the goal is to sideline the USA and the EU and gain an opportunity to ensure surrender of Artsakh to Azerbaijan as part of its pro-Turkish and, consequently, pro- Azerbaijani policy.
"We, on our part, should fully realize the new reality. Otherwise, Armenia and Artsakh are very soon going to face entirely new threats and challenges," Mr Grigoryan said.
Artsakh Defense Army soldier
Azerbaijani forces again breached the ceasefire on Friday this time violating the line-of-contact in Artsakh’s Martakert region, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
“The command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, in cooperation with the representatives of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, is taking measures to resolve the incident,” the statement said.
On Saturday, Artsakh authorities reported that the Azerbaijani armed forces entirely have pulled back to their initial positions near Seysulan in Artsakh’s Martakert region.
The operative-tactical situation in other parts of the line of contact remain calm, according to Artsakh InfoCenter.
13:57,
YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the issue of the status of Nagorno Karabakh was essentially left out from the dimension of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmanship format talks as of 2016.
Pashinyan was making the comments in parliament when asked by MP Vahagn Alexanyan on what took place in the negotiations process in 2016.
“What was the leitmotif of the 1998 events, Levon-Ter Petrosyan thought that the issue must be solved in a phased option, Serzh Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan and the then-authorities of Artsakh were saying no, they weren’t accepting this, and that the issue must be accepted in a package option. And this became the leitmotif,” Pashinyan said.
According to the PM, the title of the negotiations document on his table was :” О первом этапе и дальнейших шагах Нагорно Карабахского урегулирования” – translating from Russian – On the First Phase and Future Steps of the Nagorno Karabakh settlement”.
“Meaning, the person who said that a phased solution is defeatism left in 2018 a document on the negotiations table that was titled that way. Meaning, the person who was carrying out a regime change against the phased solution again reached the phased solution. But there are so many splits in this phased solution. It is a question whether or not Azerbaijan agrees to this. They say they will solve the Karabakh issue this or that way, so why haven’t you. They forget that they are presenting the ideas in unsigned papers as victory,” the PM said.
Speaking on the role of the Co-Chairs, the PM said: “They take the ideas of the sides, try to refine them and put it on paper. We can have all kinds of ideas. But as of 2018 the entirety of the Karabakh issue was so much split up, it wasn’t a phased option, it was rather a hyper-phased option. Meaning, from the 1998 phased option we reached the 2016 hyperphased option,” the PM said.
Speaking about a brief description of the 2016 events, he said: “In January the Co-Chairs present a negotiations package, the meaning of which is that Nagorno Karabakh will not have an interim status. The Armenian side naturally rejected it. Two months after presenting it the April War began, and then in July the second package is presented, where it is recorded that again Karabakh will not have an interim status. In August, the third package is presented where a new component is added to the negotiations papers – a UN Security Council draft resolution.”
Pashinyan cited former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s narrative during a 2017 interview that the status of Karabakh will be determined by the international community.
“This is what Levon Ter-Petrosyan meant most likely. Meaning, the NK status issue was essentially left out from the dimension of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format talks as of 2016. The issue was left out, that issue must be solved by the international community. But the international community must solve as part of several undeniable principles that in Karabakh as of 1988 there were also Azerbaijanis that left. In the international community’s understanding it is impossible to address this issue without the protection of the rights of the Azerbaijanis of Nagorno Karabakh. And, essentially, this is all in the negotiations package,” the PM said, adding that this is included in the Madrid Principles as well.
Pashinyan said that there hasn’t even been any option that would even be unacceptable for Armenia but acceptable for Azerbaijan.
Speaking about the question addressed to his administration on how they fell into a trap in 2019, Pashinyan said: “What’s falling in a trap? That a negotiations package appears by which Armenia is expected to surrender seven regions to Azerbaijan. Serzh Sargsyan says how come we fell into the trap. We weren’t in a trap, that paper recorded what Serzh Sargsyan announced from this rostrum. That was the result of his last negotiations because as of 2019 we hadn’t even started negotiating. As of 2019 when that document was put on the table we hadn’t yet talked about substantive negotiations at all,” he said.
Speaking on the questions whether or not the war could’ve been prevented, PM Pashinyan said: “We could’ve prevented the war as a result of which we would have had this same situation, without the victims. The same situation, with all questions and nuances.”
I am guilty that in 2018-2019 I did not stand before our society and did not voice that all our friends expect us to hand over the seven known regions to Azerbaijan in this or that configuration and lower the yardstick we set for the status of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)], that the international community unequivocally recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, expects us to also recognize [it]. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this Wednesday during the National Assembly debates on the execution of the 2021 program of the government of Armenia.
"This is not the end of the story because it is one thing to talk about it with the people in time, it is second to convince the people of concessions, and the third issue to bring all that to fruition.
In order to talk to people about it in time, I first had to convince myself that it was the right way. And I confess to myself, I could not convince.
I could not convince myself because we have been telling the Armenian society for 25 years that all the hardships we have suffered have a greater purpose, and that is the freedom of Artsakh. (…)
I could not convince myself because when I was getting familiarized with the negotiation documents, I was becoming convinced that [then-President] Serzh Sargsyan was not exaggerating at all when he said that Armenia was ready to leave the 7 regions, but every time Azerbaijan was positing new demands and that Azerbaijan's expectations are unrealistic and unacceptable to us.
I also could not convince myself also because when I realized that [then-President] Robert Kocharyan was not exaggerating at all when he was stating that Armenia also has an issue of territorial integrity.
It was difficult to become convinced that as a result of 30 years of hardship, one can simply hand over the fruits of victory and get nothing in return. To accept this meant to admit that by declaring a state, we have created a facade and completely and utterly failed the work of institutional establishment of the state," Pashinyan said.
According to him, the situation is the same in terms of content, and he cannot repeat the same mistakes.
"Today, the international community clearly tells Armenia that being the only country in the world that does not recognize—at a bilateral level—the territorial integrity of Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan is a great danger not only for Artsakh, but also for Armenia.
Today, the international community is telling us, ‘Lower our bar on the matter of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh a little, and you will ensure great international consolidation around Armenia and Artsakh.’ Otherwise, the international community says, ‘Do not pin hopes on us—not because we do not want to help you, but because we cannot help you,"’ said the Prime Minister of Armenia.