11:08,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will meet with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during the Munich Security Conference on February 18, according to the US Secretary of State’s
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1104440.html?fbclid=IwAR3rs61YaQ7McC10zvIzJnf4H76iJyzDbTJpANK2qZCh4RMK_SEWyyxWPbQ
01:17,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Gazprom Armenia said it will suspend gas supply to several Natural Gas Fueling Stations for one or two days as a safety precaution because of the disruptions of the daily volumes of imported gas.
The operator reported a partial blockage in the North Caucasus-Transcaucasia Transit Gas Pipeline, which supplies gas to Georgia and Armenia. The partial blockage happened 16:00, February 14 in Stavropol Krai, Russia, which resulted in significant decrease in the daily volumes of the gas imported to Armenia. It did not mention the cause of the blockage.
Given the interruptions and insufficient quantities of imported gas, as well as the technical conditions and capacity of the underground gas storage facility in Abovyan, Gazprom Armenia said it will briefly suspend gas supply to a number of Automobile Natural Gas Fueling Stations starting 11:00, February 18 as a safety precaution to prevent accidents and ensure the reliable and uninterrupted gas supply to the remaining gas consumers.
Over 90 other Natural Gas Fueling Stations will continue functioning normally with uninterrupted gas supply.
11:44,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU is a committed partner of Armenia and it will develop further the potential in the Economic Investment Plan.
“Good to meet PM Nikol Pashinyan. EU is a committed partner of Armenia. Next week, the EU will send a 100-strong mission contributing to peace and stability. We welcome progress made on democratic reforms and will develop further the potential in our Economic Investment Plan,” Ursula von der Leyen tweeted after meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan within the framework of the Munich Security Conference.
12:14,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Russian President Vladimir Putin promoted Lieutenant-general Rustam Muradov – the Commander of Eastern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces – to Colonel-general, the Kremlin reported.
Colonel-general Muradov was the Commander of the Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno Karabakh from 2020 to 2021.
13:50,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The government of Azerbaijan instituted a toll for the Varanda-Shushi road which is under its control after the war in 2020, sparking outrage in the Azerbaijani society.
The move was announced by Saleh Mammadov, the Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan State Agency of Motor Roads.
Azerbaijan’s Aliyev regime, infamous for its involvement in numerous offshore and corruption scandals, is justifying the decision on instituting a toll for motorists using the Varanda-Shushi road with “the need for maintenance of roads," despite the official propaganda having vowed to protect the rights of refugees and "return them to their homeland".
“Big inflow of foreign tourists is expected in Shushi in the future. That’s why we will institute a toll for that road, so that the collected money is used for its maintenance,” Mammadov announced.
Many Azerbaijanis expressed discontent over the decision online.
“If they continue like this they’ll institute a toll also for air , or they will charge an hourly rate for being in Shushi. Did thousands of boys die for that road to be a toll road? They could’ve found the money in the budget,” one of the Azerbaijani Telegram users said in a post.
The Member for Bradfield, who was Australia's Communications Minister in the previous parliamentary term, utilised a 90-second Private Members Statement to highlight Azerbaijan’s “new wave of aggression, cutting off the only land link between Artsakh and Armenia in an attempt to subjugate the civilian population to a new form of psychological terror”.
The Vice-Chair of the Australia-Armenia Inter-Parliamentary Union (Friendship Group) thanked the Armenian National Committee of Australia and the broader Armenian-Australian community living in and around his electorate of Bradfield, who have highlighted the need for safety for the Armenian people on this issue.
Fletcher, who was the first Federal Australian Member of Parliament to speak up for the rights of Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh in the House of Representatives in 2010, directly called on the Australian Government to “speak up clearly in expressing the principle of the sovereignty of borders, and in raising our clear concerns as a nation about the conflict in Artsakh and the aggression demonstrated by the nation of Azerbaijan”.
The current Manager for Opposition Business and Shadow Minister for Government Services and Digital Economy also delivered a powerful message in September 2022 condemning Azerbaijan’s invasion of the sovereign borders of the Republic of Armenia, and published a statement in late December 2022 on his website over concerns over Azerbaijan’s blockade against Artsakh.
Fletcher, who received the Armenian National Committee of Australia’s Freedom Award in 2021, has demonstrated an unflinching commitment to advocate for issues of concern to his Armenian constituents and the broader Armenian-Australian community.
“Mr Paul Fletcher is currently one of the longest-standing champions of the Armenian cause in our Federal Parliament, and we are honoured to have him by our side and be our community’s voice,” said ANC-AU Executive Director, Michael Kolokossian.
“Mr Fletcher has always stood up for what is just and right, no matter the heights he has risen to in Australian politics. He takes a principled stance and does not shy away from voicing the truth to power,” added Kolokossian.
Over the last two weeks, statements have been delivered by Senator for Victoria, Janet Rice and the Member for Bennelong and Chair of the Australia-Armenia Inter-Parliamentary Union, Jerome Laxale MP.
Miran Krikorian never thought his restaurant Taboon & Wine, located at the New Gate leading into the Old City’s Christian Quarter, would be targeted by a bunch of young Jewish hooligans. But that is exactly what happened on the eve of January 30 when his employees sent him an urgent message describing the attack and destruction caused by a group of extremist Jewish boys while customers, some of them Jewish, were sitting there.
“I was surprised that the Christian Quarter near the New Gate [about 50 meters from Safra Square], favored by the mayor as a favorite and safe place to hang out on weekends, when almost all the entertainment places in the west of the city are closed on Shabbat, turned out to be a not very quiet and safe place!” Krikorian said ironically.
“I was surprised that the Christian Quarter near the New Gate [about 50 meters from Safra Square], favored by the mayor as a favorite and safe place to hang out on weekends, when almost all the entertainment places in the west of the city are closed on Shabbat, turned out to be a not very quiet and safe place!”
Miran Kirkorian
Christians in east Jerusalem have complained of increasing attacks by Jewish extremists on their sites in recent months. Earlier this month, Jewish attackers desecrated a Christian cemetery on Mount Zion, where Christians believe Jesus’s Last Supper took place.
Harassments that include spitting, cursing and pushing Armenian priests in the alleys of the Old City have already become routine. Young boys with an ultra-Orthodox appearance come in groups to identify the priests and harass and humiliate them. This has been an almost daily occurrence for several years, but the police have so far failed to provide even a minimal response. The Armenian residents claim that they do not receive an adequate response; there is no follow-up to the complaints submitted to the police; there are no updates; and, most importantly, there is no sign of this harassment abating. The opposite is the sad reality.
Another case of harassment happened on January 31st, when two Jewish extremists tried to obstruct traffic on the street where the Armenian Patriarchate is located in the Old City.
Father Aghan Gogchian, chancellor of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, told the foreign press that two Israelis also struck a car in which a group of young Armenians were traveling on their way home from work. Gogchian added in a Facebook post that the young Armenians were verbally attacked by the two when they tried to ask why their car was hit.
“You don’t have a neighborhood here. This is our country. Get out of our country.”
One of the Israeli extremists
“You don’t have a neighborhood here. This is our country. Get out of our country,” one of the Israeli extremists shouted at the chancellor. The two young Armenians filed a complaint with the Israeli Police, who arrested and interrogated the two extremists. One of them was released, while the other is still in custody.
Another group of Israelis also attempted to climb onto the roof of the Armenian Patriarchate to remove the flags of the Patriarchate and the Republic of Armenia but were prevented from doing so by young Armenians standing outside the monastery.
THE LIST is very long, causing growing concern among the Armenian public, mainly because of the authorities’ failure to deal with the situation. “We no longer want to file complaints with the police every time there is an attack because it’s clear to us that they won’t do anything about it anyway,” Krikorian explains.
Krikorian points out that while he and his wife and son, who run the restaurant, received many expressions of support and even practical help in cleaning and tidying up the restaurant after the attack, “this stands in stark contrast to the inaction of the police. People who don’t even live in Jerusalem told us that they decided to come to show support. People who came to help told me they were ashamed of these actions. It’s very touching. It helps us feel that we’re not alone. But it’s disheartening to see that the police are powerless or not really trying to solve the problem. We understand that this is a difficult time. There are attacks, people are murdered, but still, nothing? That’s why we are considering not filing complaints to the police anymore.”
Amnon Ramon, senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Studies and expert on the Christian communities in Jerusalem, says that this is a general attack on all Christians in the city. “It’s not just the Armenians, although the fact that the Armenian Quarter is closest to the Jewish Quarter, where most of the offending youths come from, exposes them more. But really, in recent years, the attacks have been directed against Christians, against what these youth call pagan worship, and a strong desire to remove them from the Land of Israel and that, of course, is exactly what is worrying the Christian communities. On the other hand, the Armenian Quarter is located between the Jewish Quarter and the Kishleh, the police inside the Old City. This should be the most secure section in the area, so how does this happen under the nose of the police”?
“It’s not just the Armenians, although the fact that the Armenian Quarter is closest to the Jewish Quarter, where most of the offending youths come from, exposes them more. But really, in recent years, the attacks have been directed against Christians, against what these youth call pagan worship, and a strong desire to remove them from the Land of Israel and that, of course, is exactly what is worrying the Christian communities. On the other hand, the Armenian Quarter is located between the Jewish Quarter and the Kishleh, the police inside the Old City. This should be the most secure section in the area, so how does this happen under the nose of the police?”
Amnon Ramon
THE ARMENIAN people were the first to convert to Christianity as a nation in 301 CE (even before Constantine’s recognition of Byzantium). By the end of the fourth century, there was an Armenian community in Jerusalem that has remained to this day. The community included many clerics who founded churches and monasteries whose purpose was to protect the holy sites in the holy city.
In the Byzantine period, the Armenians maintained a large presence until the Persian conquest in 615 CE, after which time they were mainly limited to the area of the Armenian Quarter which exists today, and Mount Zion nearby.
Throughout the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, the community maintained its presence in the city. Since it is a national church, it also retained its own culture and language.
In the 19th century, they expanded their activities and went outside the walls of the Old City. They purchased a lot of land in the northwest of the Old City. In fact, many parts of Jaffa Street, including the historic city hall, are owned by them.
Until the 20th century, the Armenian community in Jerusalem consisted mainly of monks and a small number of secular families who provided various services to the monks. However, following the Armenian holocaust in World War I, a wave of approximately 20,000 Armenian refugees arrived in Jerusalem, many of whom stayed permanently. Many of their descendants still live in the city today. Some communities also settled in Jaffa, Haifa, and the village of Rama.
The massacre of the Armenians came in response to the demand for autonomy among the Armenians who lived in Turkey. With the support of the German government, the Turks continued with their extermination during WW I from 1917-1915. Of the two million Armenians who lived in Turkey, more than a million were massacred, drowned in a river or starved to death.
The leaders of the Zionist movement expressed their support for the Armenian community and treated them sympathetically. Armenians living in the Old City are not citizens of Israel; they have Israeli identity cards but Jordanian passports. In some ways, it is an advantage, since the Jordanian passports allow Armenians to travel freely throughout the Arab world, which they would not be able to do with Israeli passports.
ARMENIANS IN Jerusalem have tried to maintain good relations with Arabs and Israelis since 1967, but clearly their community has been affected by tensions in the city. In the past two decades, Armenians have been leaving Jerusalem in record numbers because of the economic and political woes that trouble the city.
They numbered around 15,000 in 1948; but today in all of Israel, there are only 4,000 Armenians remaining in the country, with about 2,000 of them living in the Armenian Quarter in the Old City.
When asked what brought about the change in attitudes in the city toward Armenians in particular and Christians in general, Ramon says that it is part of a wider change that originated in haredi circles. The Har HaMor Yeshiva, for example, sees Christianity as a much more serious threat than Muslims. “They consider Christianity as idolatry; therefore, it requires a response,” Ramon explains.
One particular rabbi (who asked not to be identified) says he is no less worried than the Armenian or Christian community members. “I know from where and on what soil grows the ideology that activates these young people. They are subject to the increasing influence of national haredi rabbis, who are becoming more and more extreme and mainly point the finger of blame at the Christians. For them, the greatest threat to the Jews in the Land of Israel are the Christians, whom they see as merely idolaters who must be removed from the holy Land of Israel. They are young, usually lacking any knowledge in the field, and subject to the influence and manipulation of those rabbis, while the eyes of the state and its institutions are focused away from this dangerous arena.”
LAST WEEK, Armenia expressed its serious concern about the latest reports of attacks on the Armenian community in Jerusalem, all of which were blamed on Jewish extremists. “We are deeply concerned by recent acts of violence and vandalism targeting Christian religious institutions in Jerusalem, including the Armenian Patriarchate and Armenian residents of the Old City,” tweeted the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Vahan Hunanian. Hunanian did not say how Israeli authorities should respond to such incidents, however.
Krikorian says that the young people who bully are very young. “They look like children of youth movements, except that they are probably connected to extremist elements, perhaps those who follow Benzi Gopstein. And, as such, they don’t really know what Christians are or what Armenians are, but they are incited and think they are doing a worthy religious act.”
Ramon says that this is a very tense and even dangerous time. “For now, these persons have the feeling that now they have their own minister. After all, Itamar Ben-Gvir was the one who years ago supported such acts of hooligans against Christians, and now he is the minister of police, which means they are not afraid because for them, this is Ben-Gvir’s police… They feel that they can afford to go wild and no one will stop them.”
Ramon warns of the extensive damage caused to the State of Israel as a result of these actions. “This is not only spitting on a priest or cursing in the alleys of the ancient city, shameful as it could be. The desecration of the Christian cemetery on Mount Zion that preceded the attack on Krikorian’s restaurant was much more significant and worrying and caused serious damage to the State of Israel.” ❖
Azerbaijan voices its disapproval of the EU's decision to deploy the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA)
Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Sahiba Gafarova commented on the scheduled deployment of an EU mission on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border, saying that this decision may impede normalization between the two countries.
In order to promote additional stability in the Nagorno-Karabakh border areas, EU foreign ministers approved on January 23 the creation of a civilian European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA). The mission, according to the EU, is meant to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and foster stability in the border areas.
"Sending an observer mission from Europe to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border may hinder the process of normalization of relations [between Baku and Yerevan]," Baku's Speaker said, adding "I have voiced my position regarding the deployment of the EU observation mission in Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan at meetings in Russia."
Russia's Foreign Ministry had earlier in January voiced its disapproval regarding the EU decision, saying that it could lead to geopolitical confrontation and exacerbate tensions between the countries involved, noting the presence of Russia's peacekeeping contingent on the borders.
Read more: Peace talks underway between Armenia, Azerbaijan
Six weeks of violence in the autumn of 2020 between Baku and Yerevan claimed over 6,500 lives and ended with a ceasefire accord sponsored by Russia. Russia sent 2,000 peacekeepers to monitor the truce, but tensions remain despite a ceasefire deal.
Armenia delivered a peace proposal to Azerbaijan on Wednesday that aims to end the decades-long dispute between the neighboring nations and normalize bilateral relations.
"Armenia completed the next stage of work on a peace treaty and the establishment of relations with Azerbaijan yesterday, and our proposals were submitted to the Azerbaijani side," said the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday, adding that the document was also handed over to co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group: Russian ambassador Igor Khovaev; Brice Roquefeuil of France, and Andrew Schofer of the US.
Pashinyan also confirmed that negotiations with Azerbaijan are witnessing progress.
A malicious campaign conducted against entities in Armenia in November 2022 has been spotted by security researchers at Check Point Research (CPR). According to a Thursday advisory, the campaign relied on a backdoor tracked by the security firm as OxtaRAT.
“The newest version of OxtaRAT is a polyglot file, which combines compiled AutoIT script and an image,” reads the technical write-up.
“The tool capabilities include searching for and exfiltrating files from the infected machine, recording the video from the web camera and desktop, remotely controlling the compromised machine with TightVNC, installing a web shell, performing port scanning, and more.”
According to CPR, the malicious campaign was executed amid rising tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Lachin corridor in late 2022.
“All of the samples from this campaign and earlier ones are related to Azerbaijani government interests; they either targeted Azerbaijani political and human rights activists or, if the targets were not disclosed publicly, reference tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh,” CPR wrote.
However, the company clarified that the new campaign represents the first instance of these attackers using OxtaRAT against Armenian individuals and corporations. Further, CPR added that the November 2022 campaign differed from previous activity conducted by the threat actors.
“[It] presents changes in the infection chain, improved operational security, and new functionality to improve the ways to steal the victim’s data.”
In the advisory, CPR provides defenders with indicators of compromise (IOCs) connected with the recent OxtaRAT attacks. The company also warns them that these attacks are likely to continue.
“All the details indicate that the underlying threat actors have been maintaining the development of Auto-IT based malware for the last seven years and are using it in surveillance campaigns whose targets are consistent with Azerbaijani interests.”
The CPR advisory comes weeks after a separate remote access Trojan (RAT) malware dubbed "SparkRAT" was spotted targeting
Both sides stressed the importance of making efforts and working comprehensively to resolve all issues peacefully through dialogue and negotiations.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Saturday met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Friday evening, on the sidelines of the Munich Security conference in Germany.
The Kurdistan Region's Presidency (KRP) said the discussions focused on "Armenia’s relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in all fields, emphasizing the need to expand trade exchanges between the two countries and highlighting job and investment opportunities."
Moreover, the two sides also highlighted the situation of the Kurdish Diaspora in Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora in the Kurdistan Region.
The ancient relations between the two sides, as well as the challenges facing Kurdistan, Armenia and the wider region were also discussed, the KRP said.
Moreover, the President of the Kurdistan Region and the Prime Minister of Armenia stressed the importance of making efforts and working comprehensively to resolve all issues peacefully through dialogue and negotiations.
According to Armenia's Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, around 7,000 to 8,000 Armenians live in Iraq.
At least 3,000 of these Armenians live in the Kurdistan Region, with the majority, between 850 to 900, living in Duhok province.
In May 2019, the KRG opened the first Armenian Orthodox church in Erbil's Christian-majority Ankawa district.