Author: Vicken Chmshkian

Wine expert: Georgia is creating problems for export of certain sort of Armenian wines to Russia

Vicken Chmshkian
News.am, Armenia
March 9 2021
15:36, 09.03.2021

Georgia is creating problems for the export of a certain sort of Armenian wines to Russia. This is what President of the National Wine Center of Armenia Avag Harutyunyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

According to him, there are problems with the import of wines made from the Armenian sorts of the “Kakhet” and “Mskhali” grapes into Georgia which have to be transported to Russia later.

Harutyunyan clarified that he doesn’t know if the problems are being solved or not, but there are problems linked to inspections.

“Georgia thinks the potential customers are misled and says the Armenian wines allegedly look like wines made from Georgian sorts of grapes. However, neither “Kakhet” nor “Mskhali” is a Georgian sort. The Georgians think we Armenians are violating their laws. This can’t be referred to as positive in any way,” the wine expert noted.


No corridor issue being discussed – PM’s spokesperson denies Meghri corridor rumors`

Vicken Chmshkian

No corridor issue being discussed – PM’s spokesperson denies Meghri corridor rumors

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 20:16, 9 March, 2021

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, ARMENPRESS. The agreements reached between the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan about unblocking the region does not involve any issue about creating ‘’corridors’’, Mane Gevorgyan, spokesperson of the Prime Minister of Armenia, told ARMENPRESS, commenting on the rumors about ‘’Zangezour or Meghri corridor’’.

‘’At the moment the specialized sub-groups are focused on evaluating the physical capacities and technical situations of the infrastructures in all possible directions. No issue of corridor or status of corridor is under discussion. The November 9 joint declaration mentions only one corridor – the corridor of Lachin. There is no point about a corridor passing through the territory of Armenia in the November 9 declaration. It’s about reopening the regional transport communications which was further clarified by the joint statement of January 11’’, Mane Gevorgyan said.

Azerbaijan and Turkey must be held accountable: Armenia’s Justice Minister presents war crimes against Artsakh

Vicken Chmshkian
Public Radio of Armenia
March 7 2021  

Armenia’s Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan is participating in the 14th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (UNODC) in Kyoto, Japan from March 5 to 11, 2021.

In his speech on March 7, Minister Badasyan thanked Japan for organizing the event UNODC Secretariat, noting that this UN platform is a good opportunity for governments to discuss crime prevention, criminal justice issues, as well as the necessary mechanisms and tools.

According to the Minister, since the Velvet Revolution of 2018, Armenia has embarked on an ambitious reform agenda with new determination, made significant progress in promoting a culture of legality, preventing crime and improving the legal framework for criminal justice.

Referring to the process of judicial reform, Rustam Badasyan stressed that the primary goal is to ensure the independence of the judiciary and strengthen public confidence in the system through the introduction of balanced mechanisms for checking the conduct of judges and other tools.

Minister Badasyan touched upon the issues of hate speech, noting that this issue is urgent for Armenia, as the Armenian people have been victims of discrimination, persecution, hate crimes and genocide throughout history.

“In this context, the Armenian delegation has initiated the inclusion of a separate paragraph on hate crime in the Kyoto Declaration,” said Rustam Badasyan, emphasizing that hate crimes based on identity are the first step that can lead to serious crimes against humanity, including war crimes. crimes և ethnic cleansing.

“I think that impunity for past crimes, their justification and denial pave the way for a resurgence of violence and new atrocities,” he said, citing the example of the Turkish-Azerbaijani aggression in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone in September 2020,  the involvement of mercenaries from Libya and Syria in the fight against Nagorno-Karabakh, emphasizing that the causes of the first war in Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s were due to hatred for Armenians, discrimination, and denial of fundamental human rights.

“Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy, which has been promoted for decades, has found its most inhuman _expression_ during the recent aggression against the people of Artsakh, which was accompanied by crimes against humanity. One of the most notable examples of such crimes is the use of cluster munitions against civilians, targeting, destroying Armenian cultural heritage, and using banned phosphorous weapons, causing enormous damage to both humanity and the environment,” Rustam Badasyan said, citing as another evidence Azerbaijan’s attempts to grossly violate the UN Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War by refusing to return Armenian prisoners of war to other prisoners, including women.

“The recruitment of foreign terrorists by Turkey, their subsequent deployment in the ranks of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces for hostilities against Artsakh, is another serious crime committed by Azerbaijan and Turkey in gross violation of all international norms. Numerous pieces of evidence from relevant sources show that Turkey and Azerbaijan supports and contributes to the spread of the terrorist threat in our region. Therefore, we believe that the international community should join efforts to counter this threat, to bring to justice the perpetrators of this crime,” said Rustam Badasyan.

The Minister once again thanked the organizers for the warm reception and wished all the participants an effective discussion.

https://en.armradio.am/2021/03/07/azerbaijan-and-turkey-must-be-held-accountable-armenias-justice-minister-presents-war-crimes-against-artsakh-at-tokyo-meeting/

Art: Syrian-Armenian artist Kevork Mourad’s new installation at Holy Cross

Vicken Chmshkian
The Telegram & Gazette, MA
March 4 2021
Richard Duckett   | Telegram & Gazette

WORCESTER —  Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad's immersive installation "Memory Gates" will be on view at The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross from March 4 through April 11.

Mourad has been at Holy Cross in February as an artist in residence in collaboration with the college’s Arts Transcending Borders program.

Using his signature style of spontaneous drawing and printmaking techniques, Mourad has been creating “Memory Gates," a work imagined as a series of doors and passageways that visitors can pass through. The work explores themes of cultural plurality and collective memory. 

During Mourad’s residency, students have been invited to work alongside the artist, assisting in the execution and installation of the work as it unfolds. Meredith Fluke, director of the Cantor Art Gallery, said "Our goal is for Holy Cross students to be involved directly in Kevork’s process, and to benefit from Kevork’s deeply collaborative and generative practice." 

More content will be added on as the exhibition continues to be created on site.

All related programs will be available to the Holy Cross campus community as well as the general public.

Mourad has lived and worked in Brooklyn, N.Y., since 1998. He was born and grew up in Syria to a family of Armenian heritage, his ancestors having sought refuge there from the Armenian Genocide. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts in Armenia, an institution which places an emphasis on cultural traditions in addition to its intensive studio curriculum.

He has visited Holy Cross before as the sole visual artist of the Silkroad, the acclaimed music ensemble that has had a multi-year residency at the college.

Mourad will give an artist's talk on YouTube at 4 p.m. March 4. Visit https://memorygates.holycross.edu.  

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in-gallery visits from off-campus visitors will take place by appointment only. Hours are Tuesday through Friday noon – 5 p.m., with limited Saturday availability. To book an entry time, email [email protected] or call (508) 793-3356. Masks and social distancing practices are required.

(This story has been amended to correct the web address for the artist's talk.) 

Armenia develops electronic warfare station to deceive satellite positioning systems –

Vicken Chmshkian
Public Radio of Armenia
March 3 2021

Minister of High-Tech Industry Hakob Arshakyan has presented the Armenian-made X-100 electronic warfare (EW) station to pressure satellite positioning systems.

The purpose of the station is to influence GPS, GLONASS and other types of satellite positioning systems in order to disrupt the operation of positioning systems for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other devices at a distance of up to 100 km

The solutions developed by the Armenian military-industrial complex will be displayed at ArmHiTec International Exhibition of Defense Technologies at Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex from March 25 to 27.

Rep. Pallone commemorates the 33rd anniversary of Sumgayit pogroms

Vicken Chmshkian
Public Radio of Armenia
March 2 2021

His full statement in the Congressional Record below.

On February 27, 1988, hundreds of Armenian civilians living in the city of Sumgait in Azerbaijan were indiscriminately killed, raped, maimed, and even burned alive because of their ethnicity. Hostile, anti-Armenian rhetoric from Azerbaijani citizens and officials instigated this tragedy.

Similarly, on January 12, 1990, a seven-day pogrom broke out against the Armenian population in Baku during which Armenians were beaten, murdered, and expelled from the city. Over 90 Armenian civilians were killed, over 700 were injured, and countless others were permanently displaced by the ethnic violence that ensued.

For over three decades, Azerbaijan has taken steps to cover up these crimes against humanity and dismiss the atrocities at Sumgait and Baku.

Even more disturbing, the Azeri government lauded the perpetrators of this event and similar violent attacks.

Tragically, the Azerbaijani government’s approach toward Armenians has changed little since the Sumgait and Baku pogroms. We saw similar rhetoric right before Azerbaijan’s attacks on Artsakh last fall. Azeri forces, Turkish drones, and Turkish-backed mercenaries conducted an indiscriminate bombing campaign against large population centers that killed thousands of Armenians and displaced tens of thousands more civilians. It also included appalling war crimes against Armenians at the hands of Azerbaijani forces and foreign mercenaries that included beheadings, torture, and other abhorrent acts of violence.

I continue to stand with the Armenian people in condemning the horrific pogroms and in mourning the loss of those who were senselessly killed in the recent Artsakh attacks. It is critical for the United States to recognize and denounce violent assaults against any civilians. If we do not condemn or punish crimes against humanity and ethnic violence, we become passive bystanders, failing to live up to the lessons of the 20th Century and the rights of all human to live free from violence and persecution based on race, ethnicity, or religion. These lessons are especially important as we prepare to commemorate the 106th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in April.

I will continue to work with my colleagues on the Congressional Armenian Issues Caucus to honor the victims of the Baku and Sumgait pogroms and the recent victims of Azerbaijani aggressions in Artsakh. I will continue to condemn all acts of violence against people who are targeted simply because of who they are. I hope my colleagues will join me in rejecting violent rhetoric and intimidation. In doing so, we renew our commitment to achieving a lasting peace in the Caucasus.

A defeated Armenia descends into turmoil

Vicken Chmshkian
The Spectator, UK
Feb 26 2021
, 6:37pm
(Photo by KAREN MINASYAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Ever since its disastrous military defeat at the hands of Azerbaijan last year, Armenia has suffered from a wave of political unrest, with rallies and protests continuing sporadically. The principal demand of the protestors has been the resignation of the incumbent Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, whose agreement to a ceasefire favourable to Azerbaijan following his country’s defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh was viewed as a national betrayal.

However, the most serious declaration of opposition to the Prime Minister came on Thursday, when the general staff of the armed forces, Onik Gasparyan, joined in the calls for Pashinyan to resign. Gasparyan was prompted by Pashinyan's dismissal of his deputy, who had publicly ridiculed the Prime Minister's claim that his country’s military had been failed by faulty Russian missiles. Moscow, too, weighed into the dispute with the deputy chairman of the Duma defence committee attacking Pashinyan for ‘trying to absolve himself of the blame for the failings in the Karabakh war’.

General Gasparyan's stated demands — which have been co-signed by other senior military officers — are considered a coup by the Prime Minister, who held a rally of his own to counter the protests by opposition factions. Pashinyan has demanded that the military return to its duties and not attempt to interfere in politics.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia has been entirely dependent on Russian support

While the Prime Minister has warned the protestors that those breaking the law will be arrested, if a concerted effort is made to remove Pashinyan from power it is not abundantly clear how he would attempt to retain his position. In the immediate aftermath of the Russian-brokered ceasefire with Azerbaijan, the country's parliament building was seized and the president of the national assembly hospitalised by furious civilians. Law enforcement was either powerless to stop them or disinterested in trying. It is reasonable to conclude that any military-supported takeover of government would encounter even less resistance. Pashinyan and his government are not popular.

Although the Armenian government still enjoys the support of its own party loyalists, the administration has taken more of the blame for the country's defeat than the military. The armed forces have the support of the parliamentary opposition, who have declared that Pashinyan's dismissal of Khachartyan and threats to force out Gasparyan are attempts ‘aimed at decapitating the army’. The Prime Minister does not have the backing of his president, Armen Sarksyan, who in November described Pashinyan's resignation as ‘inevitable’, and refused to sign Pashinyan's order dismissing Gasparyan from his post.

Inevitable is perhaps the right word, since Pashinyan's government has never been completely stable. Having come to power in the so-called ‘velvet revolution’ of 2018, the Prime Minister incurred the ire of Moscow early on, having ousted a set of prominent Kremlin allies and hinting at closer ties to the West. It is a matter of geopolitical curiosity that a region as small as South Caucasus has historically had (and retains) such strategic importance; doubly interesting is the fact that the three countries of the region have chosen drastically different foreign policy paths, the only common element being the high level of dependence each has on its international partner of choice.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has bolstered ties with Turkey (a country with which it shares cultural and ethnic ties), while Georgia continues to stumble and stagger on the long road to EU and Nato membership. Armenia, however, has been entirely dependent on Russian support, and the Kremlin's negotiation of the recent peace has only reinforced this. Armenia's minister of defence even discussed the possibility of a relocation and expansion of the Russian military base in northern Armenia.

The notion that Pashinyan's replacement by a more overtly pro-Russian leader would be pleasing to the Kremlin is perhaps best demonstrated by Moscow's uncharacteristically muted response to the unrest in the capital Yerevan. Past disturbances in Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia have resulted in Russian calls for calm and ostensible professions of hope that democratic processes be respected — by contrast, Armenia's current crisis has led only to the decidedly ambivalent Kremlin response that ‘this is purely an internal affair for Armenia’.

Whether Pashinyan survives the crisis, is removed forcibly or via elections, Armenia's future as a Russian client state is effectively guaranteed and Moscow's strategic foothold in the South Caucasus secured. Pashinyan's 2018 idea to deepen ties with Europe and the wider West, therefore, is not likely to be one that resurfaces in Armenian politics any time soon. 

President Sarkissian holds meetings with heads of parliamentary blocs

Vicken Chmshkian

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 16:51,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 26, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian held separate meetings with representatives of all three parliamentary factions.

Sarkissian’s office said he held meetings with ruling My Step bloc leader Lilit Makunts, opposition Bright Armenia (LHK) leader Edmon Marukyan, and the Secretary of the opposition Prosperous Armenia (BHK) Arman Abovyan.

“During the meetings views were exchanged around the crisis situation in the country. Issues relating to de-escalating the tension and the ways for a peaceful resolution of the situation were discussed. The representatives of the parliamentary forces presented their approaches and viewpoints to the president,” Sarkissian’s office said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan



ANCA Welcomes Alex Manoukian as Newest Addition to DC Team

Vicken Chmshkian

February 24,  2021



Alex Manoukian

New Director of Programs Will Oversee Internships, Job Placement, and Youth Programming

WASHINGTON—The Armenian National Committee of America welcomed Alex Manoukian as a new and powerful addition to its professional staff in the nation’s capital.

“The ANCA is proud to have Alex Manoukian join our team of professionals in Washington, DC,” shared ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian. “Across many ANCA programs, we offer ladders of success for emerging Armenian American professionals. We are confident that Alex is going to build on these ladders to help young leaders reach their full potential,” Hamparian added.

Manoukian, who is studying toward a Bachelors in Government with a Minor in Arabic at Georgetown University, will serve as the organization’s Director of Programs. He will steward the expansion of the ANCA’s signature youth initiatives – the Leo Sarkisian Internship and the Hovig Apo Saghdejian Capital Gateway Program, as well as Rising Leaders, an innovative multi-day series of interactive seminars to introduce college-age Armenian Americans to Washington, DC.

“I’m excited to join the ANCA Washington DC team as Programs Director,” said Manoukian. “I look forward to working with students and recent graduates across the U.S. to share the incredible resources that the Hovig Apo Saghdejian Capital Gateway Program and Leo Sarkisian Internship have to offer – both in terms of career development and pro-Armenian advocacy.  Whether it’s expanding the Armenian American presence professionally in politics, policy, and media or increasing our collective voice in Congress and State Capitols across the U.S. – today’s Armenian youth are the game changers who will take Armenian advocacy to new heights. And the ANCA is ready to work with them every step of the way,” concluded Manoukian.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Manoukian attended Mesrobian Armenian Catholic High School and the Melankton & Haig Arslanian Djemaran, prior to moving with his family to Montebello, Calif., where he studied at Armenian Mesrobian School in Pico Rivera. He belongs to his local Armenian Youth Federation AYF DC “Ani” senior chapter, serves as a member of the AYF Eastern Region Central Executive, and is active in the Armenian Relief Society, the Armenian General Athletic Union (Homenetmen), Hamazkayin Armenian Cultural Association, Georgetown Armenian Students Association, and Soorp Khatch Armenian Apostolic Church. He is fluent in Armenian and Arabic.

The ANCA’s Hovig Apo Saghdejian Capital Gateway Program, Leo Sarkisian Internship Program, and newer initiatives like ANCA Rising Leaders and the Maral Melkonian Avetisyan Fellowship empower the next generation of Armenian Americans by training university students as effective advocates and helping recent graduates start promising policy, political, government, and media careers in Washington, DC.

Now in its 35th year, the Leo Sarkisian Summer Internship has trained hundreds of community leaders during annual intensive eight-week programs designed to give them the tools necessary to effectively advance issues of concern to the Armenian American community on the federal, state, and local level. Former interns hold leadership positions in the ANCA and across the Armenian community.  The Summer 2021 program will take place virtually from June 14th to August 6th.  For more information and to apply, visit anca.org/internship.  The application deadline is March 31st.

Established in 2003, the Hovig Apo Saghdejian Capital Gateway Program (CGP) has placed hundreds of recent college graduates in full-time positions in the White House, Congress, Federal agencies, World Bank, think tanks, media outlets, and other influential organizations.  Alumni give back through the CGP Advisory Committee, which leverages the ANCA’s influential political network to assist program fellows. Mentorship, enrichment seminars, and networking events featuring alumni and Washington DC’s seasoned public policy professionals are staples of the program.  The Spring session of the Gateway Program is set to begin on March 31st. To learn more and apply, visit anca.org/gateway.

Defense Ministry, General Staff, NSS are ensuring security environment in Syunik – government says

Vicken Chmshkian

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 13:27, 18 February, 2021

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The third meeting of the Syunik Task Force dealing with the province’s issues will be held on February 19. The task force is headed by PM Pashinyan’s advisor Robert Ghukasyan.

Ghukasyan said at the Cabinet meeting that right now the main issue of concern for the population in the province is the security environment. He said that the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Defense and the National Security Service Border Troops are working to ensure it.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations is also engaged in the works, namely for the installation of civil protection positions in communities.

“A new district is being built in the village of Shurnukh for the families who lost their homes, and at the same time they will receive state support until their homes are constructed,” Ghukasyan said.

 

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan