Category: 2023

Armenian community in Carrollton raises awareness of the humanitarian crisis back home through St. Sarkis Church

Nyrie Kalashian
 Carrollton Leader 
Texas – Feb 16 2023

  • By Arianna Morrison | Star Local Media

The Armenian community in Carrollton has grown substantially over the past decade, thanks to the people who have volunteered their time to make the St. Sarkis Armenian Orthodox Church what it is today.

The church recently won U.S. Building of the Year 2022, which members hope will help bring awareness to the history of the 1915 Armenian Genocide and the current Azerbaijani blockade where 120,000 Armenian people have lived in Nagoro Karabakh with no access to food, medicine, or supplies for over two months.

“I have a family,” said Lusine Meeks, a member of the St. Sarkis Church. “I talked to my family in Armenia this morning and it's amazing how they keep up with the spirit and they smile and chit chat and they plan for the future when they haven't seen a single medical or food truck come their way in 60 plus days.”

The Armenian community in Carrollton has been working to raise awareness on the issue locally and Meeks has even been in contact with the ambassador of Armenia in Washington D.C. to see what they can do to help.

Several members of the Armenian community were staying up late waiting for the news to drop that the St. Sarkis Church had won U.S. Building of the Year 2022 in the hopes to bring awareness to the humanitarian crisis in Armenia.

“We had an inkling that this would happen, but we couldn't post it on our social media or discuss it in group chats because you know, it's still in the works and then finally they published and then the 20 of us who actually stayed up, started posting like crazy,” Meeks said. “It's a big deal. It's a big deal simply because it's in Dallas and having a building of that magnitude that was recognized all over the U.S. is a big deal and it’s Armenian.”

The St. Sarkis Orthodox Armenian Church was consecrated on April 23, 2022 and held its first Sunday service one day later, on April 24, which is the traditional day to commemorate the 1.5 million victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

The U.S. Building of the Year 2022 poll was open during the month of January and St. Sarkis Armenian Church won by a 64% margin of the roughly 8,500 votes cast.

For more information on the St. Sarkis Armenian Orthodox Church, visit https://www.stsarkis.org/.

https://starlocalmedia.com/carrolltonleader/armenian-community-in-carrollton-raises-awareness-of-the-humanitarian-crisis-back-home-through-st-sarkis/article_c1769abe-ac8c-11ed-a6d2-2baa6fdd0ed2.html

Check Point Research uncovers a malicious campaign targeting Armenian based targets

Varazdat Torgomian
Feb 16 2023
  • Amid rising tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Check Point Research identified a malicious campaign against entities in Armenia
  • Malware used in the campaign aims to remotely control compromised machines and carry out surveillance operations
  • CPR analysis shows clear indication of these attackers targeting corporate environments of Armenian targets

The Republic of Artsakh, also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, is a breakaway region in the South Caucasus. With a majority ethnic Armenian population, it is recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan. It is a de facto enclave within Azerbaijan, with the only land route to Armenia through the Lachin corridor, which has been under the control of Russian peacekeepers since the end of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020. The situation in Artsakh is tense, with frequent ceasefire violations and sporadic outbreaks of violence. For more than two decades, this unresolved, highly militarized ethno-nationalist territorial conflict continues to be a source of tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Amid rising tensions since late 2022, Check Point Research identified a malicious campaign against entities in Armenia. The malware distributed in this campaign is a new version of a backdoor we track as OxtaRAT, an AutoIt-based tool for remote access and desktop surveillance.

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, installing web shell, performing port scanning and more.

Figure 1 – The infection chain of the campaign

Compared to previous campaigns of this threat actor, the latest campaign from November 2022 presents changes in the infection chain, improved operational security and new functionality to improve the ways to steal the victim’s data.

The threat actors behind these attacks have been targeting human rights organizations, dissidents, and independent media in Azerbaijan for several years. This is the first time there is a clear indication of these attackers using OxtaRAT against Armenian targets and targeting corporate environments.

Although not widely discussed, previous versions of the OxtaRAT backdoor were used in earlier attacks against Azerbaijani political and human rights activists – or, when the targets were not disclosed publicly, their lures referenced Azerbaijan-Armenia tensions around Artsakh. The older versions of OxtaRAT have significantly less functionality than the new variant but contain similar code and names for most of the commands and the same C&C communication pattern.

Harmony Endpoint provides comprehensive endpoint protection at the highest security level, enriched by the power of ThreatCloud. ThreatCloud, the brain behind all of Check Point’s products, combines the latest AI technologies with big data threat intelligence to prevent the most advanced attacks- crucial to avoid security breaches and data compromises.

In addition, Check Point customers remain protected against the threat described in this research with

Trojan.WIN32.OxtaRAT.A

Trojan.WIN32.OxtaRAT.B

Armenian Foreign Minister Awaits Damascus’ Nod To Visit Quake-Hit Syria – Prime Minister

Ani Tigranian
Feb 16 2023

 Fahad Shabbir

Armenia is planning for Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan to visit earthquake-hit Syria soon pending Damascus' green light, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Thursday

YEREVAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – 16th February, 2023) Armenia is planning for Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan to visit earthquake-hit Syria soon pending Damascus' green light, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Thursday.

Mirzoyan went to earthquake-hit Turkey on Wednesday, despite the two countries lacking diplomatic relations.

"We have planned and are planning a visit of the foreign minister to Syria as well. And if our Syrian partners do not mind, we will organize a visit in the near future as well," Pashinyan said at a government session.

He said High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan should also visit Syria.

"Armenia was one of the first (countries) to send humanitarian aid to Syria," Pashinyan added.

Before the war in Syria, the Armenian community in the Arab country numbered about 110,000 people and was one of the largest minorities.

Syrian Armenians mainly lived in the cities of Aleppo, Damascus, Latakia, Kessab and Qamishli. According to some estimates over 90,000 Armenians left Syria after the crisis began. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the country has given asylum to more than 22,000 Syrian citizens.

On February 6, parts of Turkey and Syria were hit by a series of powerful earthquakes and aftershocks. The death toll from the devastating earthquakes in Turkey exceeded 36,000. The Syrian Health Ministry said late Tuesday that the final death toll from the earthquake had reached 1,414 people. However, this data does not include information on non-government controlled territories. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has estimated the total number of deaths from earthquake in Syria at 8,500.

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/world/armenian-foreign-minister-awaits-damascus-no-1644077.html


Armenia says sent draft peace agreement to Azerbaijan

Meline Chalian
 Mehr News Agency
Iran – Feb 16 2023

TEHRAN, Feb. 16 (MNA) – Armenia has finalized a draft peace agreement with Azerbaijan and sent it to Baku, as well as to the member states of the OSCE Minsk Group, the country’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a government meeting on Thursday.

"Armenia has completed work on a draft agreement on peace and relations with Azerbaijan, and our proposals were handed over to the Azerbaijani side. We also passed them to the countries of the OSCE Minsk Group," he said, TASS reported.

"The document must embody a certain philosophy, a system of checks and balances, which will prevent any scenario where a lasting and stable peace could be violated," Pashinyan noted.

"We hope that we will be able to build on the progress seen in the three rounds of talks. The signing of the document should not turn into a war, but really mean a lasting peace. Once again I stress that I am ready to sign a peace agreement, ready to assume that responsibility," he added.

When touching upon the situation in the Lachin corridor, Pashinyan noted that on Wednesday Azerbaijan opened, and then cut off the gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh for two hours, adding that by doing so Baku demonstrated its bad intentions towards the local population.

MNA/PR

"Yerevan has already submitted its proposals to Baku" – Pashinyan on the peace treaty

David Nargizian
Feb 16 2023


  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

Peace treaty between Armenia-Azerbaijan

“Yesterday Armenia completed the next stage of work on an agreement for establishing peace and relations with Azerbaijan, and our proposals were sent to the latter,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on February 16 at a government meeting. Pashinyan said that Yerevan sent the entire draft document, inclkuding Armenia’s proprosals, to the co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group — the United States, France and Russia, which mediated peace talks between the parties before the 2020 war.

The day before, Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan also mentioned a peace treaty planned to be signed with Azerbaijan, and said that Nagorno-Karabakh is also mentioned in the text under discussion.

Azerbaijan immediately reacted to Grigoryan’s statements, in particular to the possibility of “creating an international mechanism for negotiations between Stepanakert and Baku.” A spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that attempts to include such a clause in the agreement are “completely groundless”, and would be regarded as “territorial claims against Azerbaijan.”

  • “Azerbaijan has occupied the territory of Armenia” – European Parliament report
  • Outcome of the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Turkey
  • “There might not have been a conflict”: opinion on the Karabakh problem

Talking about the peace agreement, Pashinyan said that the document should contain a working system of deterrence “to rule out any scenario of violating a lasting and stable peace.”

“The point is that the signing of the document should not be transformed into a war already on the basis of a peace treaty (it sounds absurd, but such a scenario is also possible), but on the contrary should ensure a lasting peace,” he stressed.

Pashinyan also talked about progress being observed in the negotiation process:

“We are working on a project according to logic – to get a document that we are ready to sign at any time. It is clear, of course, that this document should be acceptable for Azerbaijan as well.”

The international human rights organization has published results of its study on the situation in NK

This was stated by Armen Grigoryan, who emphasized the need to create an “international mechanism” for this dialogue. According to him, the peace agreement between the two countries may mention this mechanism, and Armenia continues to work in this direction with international partners.

Grigoryan said that the important task Armenia is not the format, but the creation of a mechanism.

He also confirmed that Nagorno-Karabakh is mentioned in the discussed text of the agreement, but added that “the document is not yet final, negotiations are ongoing.”

Peace Treaty Armenia-Azerbaijan




Armenia offers peace treaty project to Azerbaijan

Hovik Karapetian
Feb 16 2023

The agreement would provide for monitoring mechanisms designed to prevent war in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Armenia has presented Azerbaijan with a project for a full peace treaty to end the decades-long dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

The two former Soviet republics have been locked in a state of conflict over the mountainous area, which lies in Azerbaijan but whose population is largely Armenian.

list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3list 2 of 3list 3 of 3end of list

An agreement would provide for monitoring mechanisms by both sides to prevent breaches of the peace deal, said Pashinyan.

He told a cabinet meeting on Thursday that Yerevan had completed “another stage of working on a project of a peace treaty and on establishing [diplomatic] relations” with Baku.

“A project of a comprehensive agreement had been handed to Azerbaijan,” he said.

“The document has to be acceptable to Azerbaijan … its signing must bring about a lasting peace.”

Copies were sent to Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) members Russia, the United States and France. These countries are co-chairs of the Minsk Group set up by the OSCE in 1992 to seek a peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict.

The two Caucasus neighbours have fought two wars for control of Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated enclave that have claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Internationally-mediated peace talks between the countries have since produced little result.

Last month, Russia blamed Armenia for a breakdown in peace talks with Azerbaijan, in the latest sign of friction between Moscow and Yerevan over the conflict.

Thursday’s announcement came after Yerevan accused Baku of conducting a “policy of ethnic cleansing” and forcing ethnic Armenians to leave the breakaway region.

Since mid-December, a group of self-styled Azerbaijani environmental activists has barred the only road linking Karabakh to Armenia to protest what they say is illegal mining.

According to Yerevan, the blockade has led to a “full-blown humanitarian crisis” in the mountainous region which faces shortages of food, medicines, and fuel.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ethnic Armenian separatists in Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan. About 30,000 people were killed in the ensuing conflict.

Another flare-up in violence in 2020 killed more than 6,500 people and ended with a Russian-brokered truce that saw Armenia cede territories it had controlled for decades.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/16/armenia-offers-peace-treaty-project-to-azerbaijan

Fluffiest member of Armenian SAR team in Turkey credited for crucial support

Ani Kharatian

Save

Share

 15:42,

ADIYAMAN, FEBRUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. Hours after the catastrophic earthquakes devastated parts of Turkey, an Armenian search and rescue (SAR) team was already on its way to the southeastern part of the country to assist in the earthquake response efforts in Adiyaman, one of the worst-hit cities. 

On 6 February 2023, a catastrophic and destructive Mw 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Turkey, as well as northern and western Syria. It occurred 34 km west of the city of Gaziantep with a Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). A Mw 7.7 earthquake occurred nine hours later centered 95 km to the north–northeast in Kahramanmaraş Province. 

More than 36,000 were killed in the earthquake in Turkey, according to latest information. Over 100,000 people were injured in what was described by the World Health Organization as the "worst natural disaster" in 100 years in the region. 

Today, 10 days since the catastrophe, the SAR teams sent by various countries and organizations in Adiyaman are the last hope for tens of thousands of local residents.

The highly acclaimed 27-man Armenian SAR team actually has its 28th member – Jack, a highly trained Belgian Shepherd SAR dog who was praised for his work. 

With 8 years of SAR experience, Jack gained popularity and authority among the international rescue teams in the southeastern Turkish city. The Armenian SAR team rescued two survivors from the rubble in Adiyaman, and it turns out that Jack had his life-saving contribution in the work.

 

Jack waits for instructions 

“Jack did a very good job, he got adjusted to the terrain. He completed every objective. One time the Pakistani rescuers deployed here asked our command for Jack’s help. Naturally we said yes, and with Jack’s help they were able to save a survivor from under the rubble,” rescuer Onik Vardanyan from the Armenian SAR team told ARMENPRESS. 

We saw that Jack gets instant attention from everyone on February 15, during the Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan’s trip to Adiyaman where he visited the Armenian SAR team and supervised the delivery of the second batch of humanitarian aid. Armenia’s Special Representative for normalization with Turkey, Vice Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan and his Turkish counterpart Serdar Kilic were also in Adiyaman.

Minutes after arriving in Adiyaman, Ambassador Kilic started petting the dog and playing with him. “He’s a good boy,” said Ambassador Kilic, and posed for a photo with Jack.

 

Ambassador Serdar Kilic posing for a photo with Jack

The full scale of the destruction in Adiyaman is difficult to fathom. Rubble is all that remains from hundreds of buildings. Thousands of people are now sheltered in tents set up in streets in temperatures nearing 0 degrees Celsius.

A damaged building in Adiyaman

“We are rescuers, we must be here if our help is required,” said Captain Vahe Gevorgyan, the commander of the Armenian SAR team, when asked how he felt when being deployed to a country which has historically unresolved and painful issues with Armenia. “Of course, there are some psychological moments, but we try to suppress them. On many occasions, citizens of Turkey, Turks and Kurds, approached us and thanked us for coming here to help. There were also ethnic Armenian citizens of Turkey who came to express gratitude,” the captain said, adding that they successfully cooperated with foreign rescue teams, including Turkish rescue teams.

 

Chief Corporal Aghas Avetisyan

Mountain para-rescuer, Chief Corporal Aghas Avetisyan said that the internationally-qualified Armenian SAR team is ready to fulfill any objective. He said that there were problems during the mission but it wasn’t impossible to overcome them. “Our work was difficult because we don’t speak Turkish, we couldn’t freely speak with everyone. But we excellently completed our mission and we are impatiently waiting to return home,” he said.

[see video]

Danger of renewed escalation by Azerbaijan remains high, says Armenian Foreign Minister

Emil Lazarian

Save

Share

 15:30,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. The danger of Azerbaijan instigating new escalation remains high, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said.

“We live in a region full of security threats. It’s more than two months that the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno Karabakh continues as a result of Azerbaijan’s blockade of Lachin corridor,” Mirzoyan said in his speech at the opening event of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia 2023-2026 in Yerevan.

FM Mirzoyan said that Azerbaijan continues to keep Armenian prisoners of war and civilians captive and the fate of many missing persons and victims of forced disappearances remains unknown. Sovereign territories of Armenia are under Azerbaijani occupation as a result of the Azerbaijani attacks in May and November of 2021 and September of 2022. “And the danger of Azerbaijan instigating a new escalation remains high,” the Armenian FM said.

ICRC again facilitates transfer of patients from blockaded Artsakh to Armenia

Emil Lazarian

Save

Share

 16:40,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. Due to the blocking by Azerbaijan of the only road connecting Artsakh with Armenia, 8 patients from the Republican Medical Center the Republic of Artsakh with serious diseases of the oncology as well as pathologies requiring emergency surgical interventions and post- implantation correction have been transported today, on February 16, to specialized medical institutions of the Republic of Armenia with the mediation and escort of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Ministry of Health of Artsakh said in a press release.

4 patients, who had been transferred to Armenia for medical treatment, returned to Artsakh together with an accompanying persons.

Scheduled surgeries continue to be suspended in the medical centers of the Republic of Artsakh.

3 children remain in the neonatal and intensive care units of the Arevik medical centre.

8 patients remain in the intensive care unit of the Republican Medical Centre, 5 of them in critical condition.

A total of 105 patients have been transported so far from Artsakh to Armenia with the mediation and support of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

EU Mission to Armenia will Kick Off on Feb. 20; Germany to Participate

Hovsep Chakrian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

The EU deployed a mission to the Armenian border in October

Germany will participate in the European Union’s Mission in Armenia. The German government made the decision on Wednesday.

The aim of the mission, which is initially mandated for two years, is to contribute to stability in the border areas of Armenia and thus create the conditions for normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. That is why the federal government is sending police officers to monitor the existing ceasefire with Azerbaijan. In addition, Germany has offered to send civilian experts to Armenia.

At Armenia’s request, EUMA will carry out routine patrols and report on the situation. The situation has worsened in recent weeks due to the obstruction of traffic on the Lachin corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The Federal Government, together with its partners in the EU, is closely monitoring the situation and, together with the European Union, is trying to find a peaceful solution to the conflict,” the German Government said.

On February 20, 2023, EUMA will start its work as a civilian, non-executive and unarmed CSDP mission in Armenia. The decision was made on January 23, 2023 by the Council of the European Union based on an invitation from the Armenian government. The mission will include a total of 100 people, of whom a maximum of 15 will be German civil servants.

The German government has strongly supported the establishment of the mission. It played an active role in the planning process, as the mission shows that the EU has an effective and flexible security policy instrument in civilian CSDP that can make a substantial contribution to solving crises and conflicts in its neighborhood. With the federal police officer Dr. Markus Ritter, the Federal Republic of Germany also provides the head of the mission.