Month: September 2020

Azerbaijani press: Union of Azerbaijani Women of Europe protests against Armenian PM’s wife’s photo shoot with arms in hand

Maral Chavushian
19:15 (UTC+04:00)
592

By Trend

The “Ana Veten” (Motherland) Union of Azerbaijani women of Europe has expressed a protest against the participation of Anna Hakobyan, wife of the Armenian prime minister, in illegal military exercises in the occupied Azerbaijani territories of Nagorno-Karabakh region, as well as the dissemination of photographs in which she aims from a machine gun at the Azerbaijani trenches, the Azerbaijani State Committee on Work with Diaspora, told Trend on Sept. 14.

The issue that Armenia has been holding the Azerbaijani territories of Nagorno-Karabakh region and adjacent districts under occupation for 30 years and the fact that international organizations and the leading countries recognize this, was stressed in the statement addressed to the international community and signed by the Chairperson of the Union, Maisa Agamirzoyeva.

“Yerevan ignores the demands of the world community to withdraw its armed forces from the occupied territories as well as stop provocations on the line of contact and the state border with Azerbaijan, which is trying to resolve the conflict [Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict] peacefully,” the statement said. “During the July clashes, the whole world witnessed Armenia's aggression.”

Following the statement, to conceal the fact that the provocation in the direction of Azerbaijan’s Tovuz district was initiated by the government headed by her husband, disguised as peacefulness, Hakobyan appealed to Azerbaijani mothers.

“The recent photos of Hakobyan, who in 2018, declaring herself to be the defender of peace in the region, invited Azerbaijani women to join the campaign "Women for Peace", her call to the Armenian women to defend the occupied territory of the neighboring country with arms in her hand testifies Armenia's hypocritical foreign policy,” the statement said. “If women in Armenia are already preparing for war, what is the point of this country's peace-loving statements?!”

The Union said that despite the recent calm on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border and the contact line, worrisome moments persist and the messages on social networks and world media only increase this concern.

While demanding the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the territorial integrity and internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, the Union stated that Armenia must stop the attacks on civilians in Azerbaijan and immediately withdraw its armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories under the decisions of the UN Security Council and OSCE.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Azerbaijani press: Bryza: Resettling Lebanese people of Armenian origin in Nagorno-Karabakh is provocation

Garo Vardanian
19:00 (UTC+04:00)
535

By Trend

Resettling Lebanese people of Armenian origin in Nagorno-Karabakh is a provocation by Armenia, former OSCE Minsk Group co-chair from the US Matthew Bryza told Trend.

Bryza said he just viewed a video showing how some ethnic Armenians resettled from Syria have been placed in Shusha.

“The video shows happy people, who understandably are glad to be out of a very difficult place. But it is really unhelpful that the Armenian government shows Shusha as the place of all places to resettle these people, because that is such a sensitive place for Azerbaijan. Anybody who covers this region knows that Shusha is considered one of the cradles of Azerbaijan’s culture. So there is plenty of space in Armenia rather than occupied Azerbaijani territory to resettle these people and to help them have a better life. So to me, it is really a provocation by the Armenian side that makes it much more difficult to consider how negotiations could get back on track for a peaceful and fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he said.

Azerbaijani press: Resettlement of Lebanese Armenians to Karabakh – serious violation of international law – Georgian expert

Emil Karabekian
NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT 18:03 (UTC+04:00)

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept.14

By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:

The resettlement of Lebanese Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh is a serious violation of international law, a well-known Georgian expert on national security issues, Doctor of Political and Military Sciences, Professor Vakhtang Maisaya told Trend.

"Firstly, the factor of the occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan is already a violation of international law, territorial integrity and sovereignty of an independent country that is a member of the UN and one of the main actors of the international community. Secondly, any illegal actions to resettle representatives of one state to the occupied territories of another state are a serious violation of international law," the expert noted.

According to him, the Lebanese state, which itself at one time underwent an attempt at seizure and occupation, must take appropriate measures to stop such illegal acts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Turkish press: Naming the ‘Untitled’: The concept art of Sarkis

Ophelia Vardapetian
 ISTANBUL REVIEWS 
SEP 14, 2020 11:10 AM GMT+3
An exhibition view

In his ninth decade, Sarkis is still on fire. Born of the ashes that provoke nostalgia among his multigenerational kith of old Istanbul, he is, excuse the cliches, a living legend of Duchamp-like grandmaster status, particularly among art world aficionados. For his most recent opening at Dirimart on Sept. 10, titled “Untitled,” he zoomed in for a call with fellow culturati from Paris, delighting collegial curators, publishers and intellectual comrades of all stripes from that city of luminaries where he has lived and belonged to since the 1960s.

Digital patchworks of scannable QR codes are placed at each end of the expansive main gallery floor inside Dirimart, a decidedly commercial outfit earnestly affirming Turkey as integral to the critical establishment of art and the development of its international canon. Situated amid the bustling din of the Dolapdere quarter in Beyoğlu district, the socioeconomic diversity of the overburdened, urban environment contrasts with unequivocal contemporary visions of newly curated art alongside the inner-city freeway’s growing cultural ecology, shared with Evliyagil, Arter and Pilevneli galleries.

A work by Sarkis at "Untitled." (Courtesy of Dirimart)

Not weighed by history, as the local communities appear to be, so many low-income migrants and minorities who endure various manual labor in the surrounding neighborhoods, Sarkis places an everlasting, however virtual, flame within the palms of his venturesome seers. To forego the risks of an ongoing global pandemic that has claimed nearly a million lives and to bear witness to the life of objects and experience firsthand with its spatial dimension, a person essentially takes their life in their hands.

But as the trickster that he is, Sarkis turned assumptions around and has, in place of a purely palpable and immediate course of sense perception, reproduced computer simulation, only site-specifically, as an image beheld within an image, perhaps analogous to the idea of a dream within a dream.

As a concept artist whose primary medium could be said to be that of the installation, Sarkis has made a career out of producing work that defies much of the material objectification that would circumscribe originality and creativity into an intellectualized commodity that while valued abstractly, is still arguably dependent on the industrial complex for its existence. His art perpetuates the postmodern focus on the greater contexts in which works are shown, be it in a gallery, museum, city, community, nation, aesthetic or theoretical movement.

The Persian rug in the front of an original painting by Sarkis, which is enlarged as a video, at Dirimart Gallery, Istanbul. (Courtesy of Dirimart)

A sign for our times

Two of the broadest walls within the interior of Dirimart face each other with blood-red inflammations of visual lore, which Sarkis collected over the years behind the uncanny lens of his distinctive photography. Shot through with beams of light, the past rears its ugly head, blazing like an inferno of the archetypal subconscious, replete with a surrealistic menagerie of skulls adorned with 18th-century wigs and Lakota headdresses, prehistoric goddess statues, German words, African ceremonialists, street life and varieties of architectural perspective.

At the very end of the crimson-suffused smorgasbord of images, a band of neon tubes electrifies the air with a shock of rainbow hues. It is to symbolize the future that awaits, like the mythical pot of gold, before all goes white, and the mystery of the unknown that awaits emerges as a blank slate of unconsciousness. But these pictures are broken, and there are ample glowing forms of the crucifix throughout the show. Only it is not by way of occidental history that Sarkis approaches his subjects.

Inspired by the peculiar craft of cracked pottery in Japan, known as kintsugi, Sarkis did not merely appropriate exotic knowledge like any kleptomaniac Orientalist but instead fused, both conceptually and physically, the Japanese technique with his special adaptation of stained-glass. The result expresses a powerful, and lucid continuity between his materials and the histories and ideas that he has sought to convey with them. Across from the temporal, collagist mural are individuated works of fissured photographic panes.

One of these pieces portrays a man walking through the rubble of Istanbul in the bitter wake of two days, known as the September events of 1955. And beside him, hanging on the adjacent surface is a pictorial arrangement inspired by the tragedies after a painting by the late Turkish artist Aliye Berger, often sharing her reputation with Fahrelnissa Zeid, her sister. Although Berger was middle-aged when she made the piece, it is a bleary-eyed smog of confusion, something primal, child-like or enraged.

A stained glass work by Sarkis at the exhibition at Dirimart Gallery, Istanbul. (Courtesy of Dirimart)

Intermission for the avant-garde

To break up such concerns as that which Sarkis addressed as a public figure and progressive freethinker in his own right, the curation of “Untitled” draped a Persian rug over Dirimart’s gallery floor in the front of an original painting by Sarkis, which he also enlarged as a video work. The eye-shaped smear of orange and white looks over the complex weave with Farsi calligraphy from the “Book of Kings,” which inspired Morton Feldman to notate music, “Spring of Chosroes” (1976), based on its patterns. It resonates with the ideas of Sarkis.

The original Berger painting, titled “Fire” (1955), has been compared to the inimitable 1893 canvas “The Scream” by Edvard Munch for its bewildering coloration. On loan from the personal collection of Sarkis, the mystifying frame of emotional outpouring hangs around the corner in a smaller, contiguous room at Dirimart, where the more intrepid art lovers of the season may wear gloves and handle limited edition publications by Norgunk, a literary cohort of Sarkis and other freethinking artists and writers based in Istanbul.

Among the volumes in reference is one called, “The Treasure Chests of Mnemosyne,” which Sarks edited with art historian Uwe Fleckner, piecing together texts by Plato, Frierrich Nietzsche, Marcel Proust and Jacques Derrida where the cerebral heavyweights have hypothesized on the nature of memory. Mnemosyne, of course, is the Greek goddess of memory, celebrated as the mother of muses. And although the work of Sarkis has practically fallen off the edge of modernity because he is so utterly contemporary, “Untitled” contextualizes his oeuvre more reflexively.

Smack dab in the center of the exhibition is a burned wooden crate. It is a revision of an earlier work that he last showed in 1992, when a Turkish art critic insulted him outright, personally, professionally and intolerably, targeting his identity. Sarkis did not respond in words but by creating art. The neon evocation of his birth year, 1938, with an added 0, made for a bold statement, in which the artist exclaimed his immortality. While the indecorous railing of the art critic is long lost to the paper mill, in the year 19380, Sarkis will live on, on fire, red with life.

Turkish press: Eastern Mediterranean’s Bermuda Triangle: Analysis of the bigger picture

Christine Harutyunian
 OP-ED 
SEP 15, 2020 12:05 AM GMT+3
Turkey's seismic vessel Oruç Reis anchors off the coast of the southern province of Antalya on the Mediterranean, Turkey, Sept. 13, 2020. (AP Photo)

Last week Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote a guest article for the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) in which he presented Turkey as a provocateur in the Eastern Mediterranean and as a danger for the European Union. He portrayed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as someone who would use all means to push through his interests, a characterization the Turkish president does not deserve.

Above all, Mitsotakis addressed the issue of refugees, which is essential for Germans and Europeans and has triggered increased right-wing extremism and Islamophobia in large parts of the EU following the refugee crisis five years ago.

According to the Greek prime minister, Turkey sent refugees to Greece in the beginning of 2020 to blackmail the EU and signed a maritime border agreement with Libya last year with the aim of provocation, which, according to him, is null and void since Turkey is not a geographic neighbor of Libya. He also accused Turkey of occupying the northern areas of Cyprus illegally since 1974.

However, this is the same Mitsotakis who ordered the Greek army to shoot refugees down when crossing the border earlier this year. And it is the same Mitsotakis who is militarizing the Dodecanese and other Aegean islands, which is required to remain demilitarized under the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) and the Treaty of Paris (1947).

It is the same Greek state that allows other global powers, together with its accomplice the Greek Cypriot administration, to set up bases in the region, change Ottoman mosques into sanitary facilities, ban the opening of a mosque in Athens and force Western Thrace Turks to assimilate. However, Western Thrace Turks are under international protection due to the Treaty of Lausanne.

Furthermore, they are the same Greek opinion leaders who treat refugees in migrant camps inhumanely and burn the Turkish flag because of the Hagia Sophia's reopening for Muslim worship.
It must be clearly emphasized at this point that the Turkish operation in 1974 to prevent Greek Cypriots from committing an intended genocide of the island's Turks was declared legal by the Athens Court of Appeals’ decision in 1979.

Also, Turkey opened its borders at the beginning of the year, not to provoke the EU but to draw attention to Brussels' counterproductive attitude in Syria and the one-sided burden of the refugees since the EU has not provided promised funds.

So, after this explanation, it becomes evident that Mitsotakis’ aim is emotional impact and his limited political guest contribution was to gain the support of the German population. Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades did the same a few weeks ago in his contribution to the German daily Die Welt and thus presented the Greek Cypriot administration as victims of crimes in the Eastern Mediterranean, of which they are, in fact, the perpetrators.

Mitsotakis' pretension and use of technical terms – most of which the population will not know and he therefore deliberately used – illustrate the extent of his deception and his leadership style in particular.
Greece has been playing an underhanded game in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially in recent weeks, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, the Greek Cypriot administration, the United States and Israel.

Part 1: Israel and the U.S.

The U.S. was unable to realize its "Greater Middle East" project due to both the failed Arab Spring and the failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016. Washington is now trying to redesign the region with the Trump administration's “deal of the century." For this, U.S. President Donald Trump has even been nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Unfortunately, this news is no longer surprising.

With the new Middle East peace plan, however, the U.S. has officially initiated Palestine's annexation. After this, some states under significant American influence have recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

With its political ambitions and Mossad's help, Israel continues to strive to win over the Balkans, the Gulf region and above all, North Africa. The reason follows later, but it is striking in this context that these areas once belonged to the Ottoman Empire.

After the United Arab Emirates (UAE) initiated the "normalization process" with Israel, other Gulf monarchies, as well as Serbia and Kosovo, are on the verge of following suit.

The Gulf and Balkan states are fulfilling this process as a condition of their client, the U.S., since Washington has gained a great deal of influence in each region after the EU, especially Germany as an opponent to France in the EU, neglected the regions. As they try to acquire more geopolitical power, stability and international recognition in the region, Israel has broader interests in its new strategy.

Through the normalization process with Islamic countries, Tel Aviv wants to legitimize the annexation of Palestine on the one hand. It is because Israel can argue that, despite the peace plan, Islamic countries want to reconcile with Israel and are, therefore, not doing anything wrong.

On the other hand, ironically, the strategy intends to end Turkish influence in the region in former Ottoman territories and push Turkey into total isolation in the region by polarizing other states against Ankara.

This strategy, which Israel is pursuing with its partners Greece, the U.S., partly Egypt and the Greek Cypriot administration, is also clearly evident in Mitsotakis’ above-mentioned guest article in the German daily FAZ.

By reconciling with its neighboring countries, Israel seeks to gain new transportation, air and logistics routes, minimize the threat from neighboring countries and win new sales and procurement markets to reach its regional ambitions for hegemony.

Reconciliation with neighboring states is particularly important, as Israel is looking for new sales markets for its natural gas, which it draws from the Eastern Mediterranean. It can no longer transport the gas to Europe via the EastMed pipeline due to the Turkey-Libya agreement.

If its strategy works, Israel can now emerge as a regional power and expand its influence in Syria and Lebanon. Thus, the main threat it faces directly or indirectly from Iran's presence in these states will be negligible.

Israel wants to establish Iran as the main enemy of the Middle East because of its Shiite orientation and above all, to make Turkey, under the veil of “neo-Ottomanism,” which Erdoğan is accused of by the West and Israel, the new target of geopolitics in the Eastern Mediterranean of the 21st century.

In this regard, Mossad's ambitions are particularly noteworthy. The national intelligence agency continually publishes reports claiming that Turkey wants to besiege some Balkan countries and Egypt – claims that are far from the truth.
France and the Greek sides

France has always been ambitious to make the EU the counterpart of the U.S. Remaining distanced from the English language, France continues to cultivate the habit of behaving like a colonial power, such as in its monetary and financial policy in today's sovereign but formerly French colonial countries in Africa.

France is planning to reshape the EU, as in all common European policy areas, at Germany's expense with the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), a joint military system designed as a counterpart to NATO.

Above all, France has pointed to the unrest in the Eastern Mediterranean for the need for a joint operational and deterrent military alliance that can take action.

Since Turkey is a NATO member state, France knows it cannot take military action against Turkey, primarily since Ankara draws its strength from international treaties and has a robust military.
As it is, Ankara has had to cope with a decadeslong fight against the terrorist organization PKK thanks to the West since this organization is the extended arm of the Western imperialist endeavor.

However, its megalomania has not exhausted. Macron has presented himself in the media like a liberator in Lebanon after the explosion in Beirut's port in August, making recurring French colonial aspirations public once again. However, France plans to continue to expand its influence in the former colonial area of Lebanon to take Israel's archenemy, Bashar Assad, under its wing in Syria, to weaken Hezbollah, to end Iran's influence in the Shiite crescent and to build up pressure on Turkey, through symbolism, but also by stationing its troops in the region.

The first step in this direction is deploying its aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Eastern Mediterranean, joint maneuvers with the Greek Cypriot administration and Greece, and permanently stationing frigates near Cyprus.

Macron's presumptuous desire to isolate Erdoğan, as he stated in his speech last week, is hugely encroaching, misplaced and shows his insuppressible megalomania.

Above all, France is showing off in Cyprus, although it has neither guarantor status nor maritime territory bordering the island. Thus France, just like the U.S., has absolutely no say in the region.
Only the EU would be able to offer input because of its member states, Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration. However, since German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Macron disagree on a common policy in the region, Macron cannot align the EU politically according to his interests. However, these ambitions still work to counter de-escalation in the area.

Ways out?

It is openly stated above that the U.S., France, Israel, Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration intend to politically isolate Turkey in the region, depriving it of all its rights and denying its rights to natural resources in the Mediterranean. This demonstrates the manipulative tactics of the 21st century. Nevertheless, what are the ways out for Turkey? The answer is quite clear. Turkey has three options:

First, Turkey has to sign a maritime border agreement with Egypt. According to President Erdoğan, Egypt is interested in such an agreement and informed him through the Egyptian intelligence service. This agreement would benefit both sides.

Second, a lasting solution in Syria would have to be achieved promptly with Russia and Iran's help, and relations with Damascus would have to be normalized.

Third, Russian-Iranian-Turkish trilateral cooperation would have to be expanded not only with Syria but also in the Eastern Mediterranean and especially in energy and security policy.

If Turkey misses this step, it could face permanent isolation as it did during the 1915 Armenian allegations, which were concocted by the West. But if Turkey is successful, the Greek comedy in the Eastern Mediterranean will be finished forever and replaced by an upcoming Greek tragedy.

*Master of arts at Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
*Doing master's thesis on the geopolitical and economic facets of the EastMed Pipeline project at the Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen

COVID-19: Armenia re-opens schools

Arsine Chaltikian

Save

Share

 09:32,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Schools are gradually re-opening after the COVID-19 shutdown in Armenia as first-graders had their first classes September 14. All other grades will resume schools from tomorrow.

Children are being screened for fever and have their hands sanitized before entering the school.

Coronavirus guidelines issued by the government require children and teachers to wear face masks, and minimize close contacts. The movement of the children inside the school is also restricted as a precaution.

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Second session of Armenia-United States Strategic Dialogue launches September 14

Garo Vardanian

Save

Share

 09:52,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The second session in the framework of the Strategic Dialogue between the Republic of Armenia and the United States of America will launch on , the US Embassy in Armenia said in a statement on social media.

“The meeting will summarize the implementation process of the agreements achieved during the previous session and will outline new priorities for the cooperation.
In compliance with precautionary measures related to COVID-19 pandemic, high level officials will convene virtually.”

The Armenia-United States Strategic Dialogue was launched in May 2019.

Editing by Stepan Kocharyan

Turkey undermines efforts for peace and stability in region, Armenia FM says in Cairo

Samvel Nahapetian

Save

Share

 10:17,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan says that Turkey’s actions in the Caucasus undermine the effort toward peace and stability in the region.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister of Egypt Sameh Shoukry in Cairo in response to Sky News Arabia’s question, the Armenian FM said that during the Azerbaijani attack on Armenia in July 2020 Turkey was the only country that was taking a one-sided, very aggressive approach.

Sky News Arabia: You have spoken about the depth of Armenian-Egyptian relations and the historical and future role of Egypt for Armenia conditioned by the investment of Armenians and the presence of the Armenian community. But there is still tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan. How do you assess the behavior of Turkey in the Caucasus and Eastern Mediterranean? Does this behaviour pose a danger or not?

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: Thank you very much for the question. So far as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is concerned, we have been and remain extremely focused on the most important existential issues of our compatriots – the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Our focus and our ultimate priorities concern the sustainability of the very physical security of our compatriots in Nagorno-Karabakh and the question of status, the recognition of the right to self-determination and implementation of it without limitations. The security is in the heart of this very important priority for Armenia so far as the resolution is concerned. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, which comprises France, Russia, and the USA, has been and remains the only important international platform, format within which we are seeking solution to this conflict. The conflict resolution can be based on compromise and compromise means that each of the parties has to take respective steps towards a balanced, measurable solution, which meets the interests of all. 

It cannot be a “my way or no way” solution. Within this, I think we have the sensitivity of the international community towards this conflict. There is no such thing as bundling conflicts together and viewing them through one single prism. So far as Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is concerned, this conflict has its peculiarities, its history, its nuance, its important differences. Within this we value very much the very careful approach of all our partners towards the strictly peaceful resolution. There is no military solution to this. 

We may insist on that because Armenia has all the capacity to defend itself, Nagorno-Karabakh has all the capacity to defend itself. There is only one guarantor of the security of our compatriots in Nagorno-Karabakh and that is only Armenia. We are resolute in this defence and it is with this confidence and understanding that we deny any attempts to military solution. So within this we have a good understanding of all our international partners, and we have the very careful, responsible approach of our international partners, in respect of the work of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, and in respect of their endeavor for peace and stability in the region. Egypt in that sense is a very important partner for us. 

Now Turkey. During the events in July, Turkey has been the only country that was taking a one-sided, very aggressive approach: one-sided in support of Azerbaijan, and aggressive approach toward Armenia and the Armenian people, in rhetoric at all levels and in action. Of course we see the military build-up that they are attempting. We are hearing about the use of the foreign terrorist fighters to be transferred to Azerbaijan or maybe they are already transferred. We see the heavy military presence, the build-up. These are exactly the moves which undermine the effort toward peace and stability in the region. We are resolute in our defense and we will also resolutely deny any such policies which project power, which are aggressive in their nature and which are of destabilizing nature. We see this power projection from Eastern Mediterranean to North Africa, to the Middle East and to the South Caucasus as well. So these are not welcomed policies at all. 

Editing by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenia, Egypt discuss development of cooperation, regional security

Hovsep Chakrian

Save

Share

 10:52,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is privileged to share time-honored relations with Egypt and with the Arab world, a relationship of trust and friendship between the two peoples. In various parts of history and today as well Armenians have been a part of Egypt, part of its civilization, integral part of the Middle East, Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said in remarks during a joint press conference with Foreign Minister of Egypt Sameh Shoukry in Cairo as part of an official visit.

“It is my first visit to the Middle East and North Africa in my capacity as Foreign Minister of Armenia, and it starts from Egypt. A country, which was the first among the Arab countries to recognize the independence of Armenia and back in 1992 host the first diplomatic mission of Armenia in the Middle East. 

Relations between our countries, our nations are not assessed exclusively through the prism of these past 28 years. We are privileged to share time-honored relations with Egypt and with the Arab world. It is a relationship of trust and friendship between our peoples. In various parts of history and today as well Armenians have been a part of Egypt, part of its civilization, integral part of the Middle East. 

In the very difficult part of our history when the survival of the Armenian people was at stake, Egypt along with other Arab countries received thousands of Armenians fleeing from the horrors of the Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. 

Our compatriots made an important contribution to the establishment and development of the state institutions of Egypt and we take great pride in that. Armenians, my compatriots, are provided with all the opportunities to maintain their national identity, their language and traditions. They are proud citizens of Egypt, they are proud Egyptians, and they are provided with every opportunity to also manifest and celebrate their national identity as Armenians and of course, we are deeply grateful to the Government and the people of Egypt for these efforts and the protection of our people. 

It is a community of about ten thousand people here, and they are, of course, the bridge through genuine deeply-rooted friendship between our nations. 

With Egypt we have very firmly established friendship and very practical relations and this visit is also an opportunity in manifesting, assessing our present state of play in our relations and also we share similar interests in peace, security and development. We know that we have been doing best when we were working together and closely cooperating with each other.  

We had a very good discussion in our bilateral agenda, and here we see a good and interesting potential; we are keen to take practical steps in this direction. We have enhanced political dialogue with Egypt, we have trade-economic, cultural relations between our countries. We believe that in the IT sector, in e-governance, in pharmaceuticals, in tourism and education we have interesting potential to further expand, and we will certainly continue doing that. 

We have the respective platforms for that: we have the platform of political consultations, the Intergovernmental Commission, and of course the dialogue between the leaders. We do absolutely look forward to welcoming the President of Egypt in Armenia, and I personally also look forward to welcoming my good friend Sameh in Armenia. The visit of the President, that we have in mind and look forward to working very closely together, is an important deadline in our mind to work to consolidate all those important issues of bilateral cooperation. 

Within the context of bilateral cooperation, we also value the interest of Egypt in working closely with the Eurasian Economic Union. There is an ongoing negotiating process to sign the free trade agreement and Armenia is very interested to have this process successfully concluded and to have this agreement signed. We will work closely with Egypt and with our partners in the EAEU to achieve this objective. 

We have had very extensive discussion on many issues of regional and global security. We’ve exchanged views on recent developments in our respective regions. And we see as never before specifically those developments do underline the need for security and for peace in the region. As we see the serious challenges, the security challenges are expanding from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Middle East, to North Africa -we see the same challenges in the South Caucasus. They are interrelated, characterized by the same sources of destabilization. 

We have been following closely the developments in the East Mediterranean, we are in solidarity with Greece and Cyprus on their inalienable rights to economic activities in the exclusive economic zone in line with international law. I want to also emphasize our solidarity and support to Egypt in the same way. 

Any attempt to export instability and escalation to different regions as part of power projection is deplorable whether it is in North Africa or in the South Caucasus. Transnational threats, including that of movement or transfer of foreign terrorist fighters to conflict areas are of great concern, they are deplorable and they should be addressed. 

I also briefed my colleague on the developments in our region and the recent escalation due to the aggression of Azerbaijan on the state border of Armenia. We are fully committed to this approach that conflict situations are different; if there is any commonality, it is that there is no military solution to any of them. Only peaceful dialogue, peaceful process, involvement of all stakeholders and ability to move towards a compromise are the important ways of resolving conflicts. We need peacemakers who are able to draw red lines to war. In this regard, Armenia appreciates the strong commitment of Egypt to peace and stability everywhere, including in Libya. We very much welcome your efforts in this regard.

Once again, thank you for a very warm welcome, this is an extremely important visit that I appreciate, I value and especially value that very warm hospitality that is very much extended to me, to my colleagues, to my friends. In fact that I represented here by a very strong delegation,
I mean the company of three ambassadors – the current and two former ambassadors of Armenia to Egypt, who have had very important, strong professional contributions to promoting our bilateral agenda and our broader agenda in regional and multilateral format,” FM  Mnatsakanyan said.

COVID-19: Armenian CDC reports 107 new cases

Albert Nalbandian

Save

Share

 11:10,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. 107 new cases of COVID-19 were registered in the past 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total number of confirmed cases to 45969, the Armenian Center For Disease Control reported. 34 patients recovered, raising the number of total recoveries to 41693.

2631 tests were conducted over the past 24 hours.

3 people died from COVID-19, increasing the death toll to 919. This number doesn’t include the deaths of 282 other people infected with the virus who died from other pre-existing conditions, according to health authorities.

As of 11:00, September 14 the number of active cases stood at 3075.

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan