Category: 2020

Police accumulate massive forces in Syunik province amid Pashinyan’s visit

Lara Chatinian
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 21 2020

Police have deployed massive forces at the entry to Goris town in Syunik province to prevent citizens from protesting against PM Nikol Pashinyan's scheduled visit to the town. Earlier, the local authorities called on the city residents to shut down the main entry to the town – Syunik gates. According to report by Tert.am, incidents of scuffle between law enforcement officers and demonstrators took place. Some 6-7 buses with security officers are deployed at the scene.  

In a Facebook post, Goris Mayor Arushan Arushanyan had called on locals to prevent the entry of the prime minister, 'who gave away the Armenian lands and disrupted the inviolability of Syunik.' Shortly after the call, Arushanyan was arrested. 


Goris-Davit Bek road is secure – Defense Minister

Tatoyan Vazgen

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 12:09, 21 December, 2020

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Defense Vagharshak Harutyunyan says the safety of the Goris-Davit Bek road is guaranteed.

“Russian peacekeeping troops are taking the Goris-Davit Bek road under control. Our border guards are deployed in our territory and are visually supervising this road – ensuring a second-layer security. Our army stands behind our border guards, and an agreement is reached that no troops will be stationed in between our border guards and this road. The same refers to Azerbaijan: the Azeri border troops are under visual supervision, with their troops behind them. Again, no armed units should be in between the border guards and the road there. In this situation the safety of road traffic is guaranteed,” Harutyunyan told Zinuzh media.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Clergyman in Syunik refuses to shake Pashinyan’s hand

Arbi Tashjian
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 21 2020

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is visiting southern Syunik province on Monday, accompanied by numerous security officers. Since early morning, the locals have blocked number of roads leading to Goris town, protesting against the PM's visit.

After attending the Sisian City Pantheon, Pashinyan enter the local church, lit a candle and approached a clergyman. The latter appeared to snub Pashinyan's offered handshake and instead showed the exit door. 

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Past.am: Armenia PM Pashinyan instructed throwing clergyman down National Security Service basement

Ani Tigranian
News.am, Armenia
Dec 21 2020
 
 
 
14:46, 21.12.2020
 
Past.am of Armenia writes: Former acting director of the NSS [National Security Service], Mikayel Hambardzumyan, confirmed in an interview yesterday that during his tenure [in the aforesaid capacity] there were cases when he refused to fulfill the Prime Minister's instructions.
 
According to our reliable sources, [PM] Nikol Pashinyan gave such an order to Colonel Hambardzumyan regarding Bishop Arshak [Khachatryan], Chancellor of the Mother See [of Holy Etchmiadzin], which Hambardzumyan did not carry out.
 
According to our sources, Pashinyan literally instructed to "throw” the clergyman “down the [NSS] basement, ‘break’ his head so that he could be disciplined."
 
Hambardzumyan told the Prime Minister that he could not give an order to raise a hand against a clergyman, after which he [Pashinyan] proposed [Hambardzumyan] to write a petition [for dismissal], leave, which was met.
 
To note, in his addresses and interviews Bishop Arshak Khachatryan has repeatedly sharply criticized the incumbent Armenian authorities.
 
 
 

Armenia Ombudsman: Citizens’ call to threaten or use violence against pastor in Sisian is absolutely

Karlen Baghdasarian
News.am, Armenia
Dec 21 2020
 
 
Armenia Ombudsman: Citizens' call to threaten or use violence against pastor in Sisian is absolutely inadmissible
15:19, 21.12.2020
Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan has issued the following statement:
 
“The calls and news of a group of people about the threats and violence against pastor of the St. Gregory the Illuminator Church of Sisian are absolutely inadmissible.
 
The monitoring conducted by the Office of the Human Rights Defender attests to the fact that this dangerous phenomenon has been recorded a few times in the past.
 
These manifestations must be immediately prevented. This is first and foremost dangerous from the perspective of tolerance and solidarity in society.
 
The Armenian Holy Apostolic Church has had and still has an exceptional mission in the lives of the Armenian people and for preservation of national identity. The Armenian Holy Apostolic Church has always played a role in human rights protection and in the establishment of an atmosphere for solidarity in the country.
 
It is the duty of state bodies to take immediate steps to verify the news and rule out any tension and especially any potential act of violence.
 
A little while ago, I talked to the Chief of Police of Armenia who fully assured me that the Police will urgently take the necessary steps to prevent tension or violence.”
 
  
 

Yerevan State Medical University representatives say they will join workers’ strike tomorrow

Kevo Kalantarian
News.am, Armenia
Dec 21 2020
 
 
 
Yerevan State Medical University representatives say they will join workers' strike tomorrow
18:13, 21.12.2020
 
Professors and scholars of Yerevan State Medical University have informed that they will join the workers’ strike on December 22. They have also highlighted the fact that the current situation in Armenia is still extremely dangerous and critical.
 
The representatives of the University call on assessing the situation with sobriety at this dangerous moment and being in solidarity. Taking into consideration the fact that among the participants of the student strike are medical workers, Yerevan State Medical University has implemented procedures to take relevant actions and organize medical treatment properly in order to not put the lives of citizens at risk.
 
On December 12, several employees of Yerevan State Medical University joined the call of more than 300 medical workers from Armenia and abroad to demand the resignation of those who are responsible for the current situation in Armenia and the voluntary resignation of cabinet members without turbulence.
 
 
 

Mayor of Armenia’s Goris Arush Arushanyan at Investigative Committee, human rights activists

Meline Chalian
News.am, Armenia
Dec 21 2020
 
 
 
Mayor of Armenia's Goris Arush Arushanyan at Investigative Committee, human rights activists standing outside
16:11, 21.12.2020
 
A little while ago, Arush Arushanyan, the mayor of the Armenian city of Goris, was brought to the main building of the Investigative Committee in Yerevan.
 
Earlier, we reported that the mayor of Goris was detained within the framework of a criminal case launched by the police, this criminal case was sent to the Investigative Committee of Armenia, but the Committee informed that they had not received this criminal case yet, and therefore they cannot provide details on which Criminal Code article this criminal case was launched under and on Arushanyan's status of detention.
 
To note, Arush Arushanyan had announced Sunday that they will be at the gates of Goris Monday morning and will not allow Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to enter Syunik Province, after which Arushanyan was detained.
 
 
 
 

Armenians take to streets of Yerevan to call for PM’s resignation

Lilit Nahapetian
France 24
Dec 22 2020
 
 
Armenians take to streets of Yerevan to call for PM's resignation
 
 
Thousands of people took to the Armenian capital's streets again Tuesday, demanding the prime minister's resignation over his handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.
 
 
Armenian opposition politicians and their supporters have been calling for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to step down for weeks since he signed a peace deal that halted 44 days of deadly fighting at the cost of territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.
 
Crowds of protesters on Tuesday besieged government buildings in Yerevan, chanting “Nikol, go away!” In other parts of Armenia, protesters were reported to have blocked several major roads. Several hours into the rally, opposition supporters erected tents on Yerevan's main square.
 
“We have pitched the tents and intend to stay as long as possible, including overnight. Pashinyan needs to resign," Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a member of the opposition Dashnaktsutyun party, was quoted by the Russian state news agency Tass as saying.
 
The opposition also called on Pashinyan's My Step coalition, which currently has the majority of seats in the parliament, to sit down for talks on Tuesday. My Step so far has not commented on the proposal.
 
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.
 
 
Heavy fighting erupted in late September in the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, killing more than 5,600 people on both sides.
 
>> The human cost of Armenia's defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh
 
A Russian-brokered peace agreement that took effect Nov. 10 stipulated that Armenia hand over control of some areas it holds outside Nagorno-Karabakh’s borders. Azerbaijan also retained control over areas of Nagorno-Karabakh it had taken during the conflict.
 
The peace deal was celebrated in Azerbaijan as a major triumph, but sparked outrage and mass protests in Armenia where thousands repeatedly took to the streets. Pashinyan has defended the deal as a painful but necessary move that prevented Azerbaijan from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.
 
(AP)
 
 
 

Armenian prime minister rejects 25,000 protesters’ calls to resign

Liana Toganian
Deutsche Welle, Germany
Dec 22 2020

Opposition supporters have started a nationwide strike and set up tents in the capital. They claim they'll stay until the PM steps down, but he said he has no intention of leaving office.

    

Tens of thousands of workers answered the opposition ARF's calls for a nationwide strike and are demanding the PM resign

Some 25,000 Armenians descended on the capital, Yerevan, on Tuesday to set up encampments outside government buildings where they plan sustained protests to force the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. 

Citizens are enraged at Pashinyan, who came to power in a peaceful revolution in May 2018, for what they said has called his dreadful handling of the recent six-week conflict with Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. His signing of a Russian-brokered peace deal that saw Armenia forfeit large territories to Azerbaijan has turned the people against him. 

Opposition politicians and their supporters are now pitching tents adorned with Armenian flags around the capital amid chants of "Nikol is a traitor!"

"The government no longer represents us. Its decisions are illegal and, therefore, it must go," Ishkhan Sagatelyan, a leader of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) or Dashnaktsutyun party, told fellow demonstrators. He told those gathered: "We've already set up tents, we intend to stay as long as we have to, including sleeping here. Pashinyan must resign."

Another ARF leader, Gegham Manukyan, announced Tuesday that city transportation workers, as well as members of the Yerevan State University trade union and other business organizations, had joined the nationwide strike called by ARF. Manukyan said the strike.

Pashinyan is not without supporters. On Saturday, thousands of them marched alongside him on his way to the capital's Yerablur Military Cemetery to honor soldiers who died in the recent conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Television outlets showed the event but also the large crowds that lined the streets to jeer him as a traitor.  

On Monday, protesters forced Pashinyan to cut short a three-day mourning tour for the country's 3,000 war dead by blocking his route to the border town of Goris. The town's mayor orchestrated the defiant act and was later arrested. 

Although the frequency, scale and intensity of demonstrations have grown continuously since Pashinyan signed the peace deal, he said he has no plans to step down. On Tuesday, he took to Facebook to declare, "I will continue to perform my functions as prime minister."


Film: Official Trailer for Armenian Religious Music Epic ‘Songs of Solomon’

Jack Hunanian
First Showing
Dec 22 2020

by Alex Billington
December 22, 2020
Source: YouTube

"Come with me, my child. Take my hand." A new trailer has been released for an international film titled Songs of Solomon, made by Armenian actor Arman Nshanian. He was initially going to make it as a short film, but turned into a full feature instead thanks to the push of producers. Inspired by true events, this is a film about a childhood friendship, torn apart by the horrific Hamidian massacres infiltrated by the Ottoman Empire under the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1894-1896). This epic portrayal spans from 1881, to 1915, Constantinople, taking us on an emotional and epic musical journey to the last concert given by Archbishop Komitas. A musical and biographical film which takes place on the backdrop of the sacred and ancient music of Archbishop Komitas, also known as Solomon. The film stars Samvel Tadevossian, Sos Janibekyan, Tatev Hovakimyan, Artashes Aleksanyan, Arman Nshanian, Arev Gevorkian, as well as Jean-Pier Nshanian. This looks like a cliche and obvious historical epic, without much of any style or substance.

Here's the official trailers (+ posters) for Arman Nshanian's Songs of Solomon, direct from YouTube:


A film about a childhood friendship torn apart by a horrible empire set out to destroy everything in its path. A brave woman at a time of dire prejudice risks her life and the life of her family to save her best friend who is hunted down for her religious beliefs. This epic portrayal takes place at the turn of the century in Constantinople, taking us on an emotional and musical journey. A film of love, hope, courage, deceit and pain – And music, a film just as much about music… Ancient pagan music. Music that would bind an entire people to the heavens and the earth, to the rivers and the stars. The music of Komitas, also know as Solomon. Songs of Solomon is directed by Armenian actor-turned-filmmaker Arman Nshanian, making his feature directorial debut after one short film previously. The screenplay is co-written by Audrey Gevorkian and Sylvia Kavoukjian. This hasn't premiered at any festivals, as far as we know. The film opened first in Armenia in November of this year. Stay tuned for release news. Anyone interested in watching this?


See trailers at the link below