Azerbaijani representatives do not show up to talks set to resume today regarding the Syunik crisis.
Armenia’s government pledges to hold free and transparent elections.
Former president Levon Ter Petrossian will head his party’s list in the elections.
By Mark Dovich
The recent incursion by the Azerbaijani armed several kilometers deep into Armenian territory has underscored the urgent need for both sides to delimit and demarcate their roughly 1000-kilometer-long shared border, following last year’s war in and around Nagorno-Karabakh. No clashes or injuries have been reported since the incursion. Azerbaijani troops remained stationed in Armenian territory as of this writing.
On May 12, the Armenian government confirmed that about 200 Azerbaijani troops had crossed the border into Armenia and advanced 3.5 kilometers into Syunik, Armenia’s southernmost province, near Sev Lake. Soviet-era maps of the region show that the Armenia-Azerbaijan border runs directly through the mountainous lake, whose name in Armenian means “Black Lake.” Though the maps contradict each other, all show that the majority of the lake lies in Armenian territory.
The border between Armenia and Azerbaijan officially remains undelimited and undemarcated, as does the Armenia-Georgia border. In Soviet times, these borders were internal, and so officially defining the borders between the union republics was not an issue of concern for Moscow. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, defining the borders of a newly independent state was not a priority for Armenia, which was instead preoccupied with the first Karabakh war, a joint Azerbaijani-Turkish economic blockade, and civil war in Georgia, among other pressing issues.
By contrast, the Armenia-Turkey and Armenia-Iran borders, which in Soviet times formed part of the USSR’s external borders, have long been delimited and demarcated. Delimitation refers to the process by which a border is legally defined, while demarcation refers to the process of physically marking a border, such as by building a fence or wall, according to the OSCE.
On the same day that the Azerbaijani troops invaded, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan chaired an emergency session of the Security Council to discuss the events in Syunik. At the meeting, the embattled prime minister called the situation “unacceptable,” condemned the “encroachment on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia,” and committed to resolving the issue “through diplomatic means.”
From 1994, the end of the first Karabakh war, to 2020, the end of the second war, the territory to the east of Syunik was controlled by Armenian forces and organized as the Shahumyan and Kashatagh provinces of the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh. During that time, the border, essentially, did not exist, and people and goods traveled freely between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
But by the time the Russia-brokered ceasefire of November 10 was announced last year, the map had changed considerably. Currently, Azerbaijani forces are in control of all the territory ringing the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, as well as parts of Nagorno-Karabakh itself. As a result, Syunik now directly faces Azerbaijani-controlled territory, stationed by Azerbaijani troops, for the first time in over 25 years.
Two days later, Pashinyan triggered Article 2 of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) founding treaty, which commits signatories to “immediately launch the mechanism of joint consultations” when a member state is faced with a “menace to safety, stability, territorial integrity and sovereignty.” The CSTO is a military alliance founded in 1994 among Russia, Armenia, and four other post-Soviet states: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Before last week, Article 2 had never been triggered by a CSTO member.
The CSTO foreign ministers’ council convened in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, on May 19 to discuss the issue. At the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed establishing a joint Armenian-Azerbaijani commission to delimit and demarcate the border, possibly with Russian participation as a consultant or mediator. In response, Armen Grigoryan, the head of Armenia’s Security Council, stated that “before starting demarcation work, Azerbaijani forces must leave the territory of the Republic of Armenia.”
Negotiations between representatives from the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments to resolve the issue, slated for May 19, fell apart after the Azerbaijani side failed to attend. As of now, the situation remains unchanged.
The day before, the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory warning citizens to “exercise caution on roads near Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan” and urged travelers to reconsider visiting “the Nagorno-Karabakh region and surrounding territories due to recent hostilities.”
In addition to the undelimited and undemarcated border, Armenia and Azerbaijan must also contend with a number of de jure enclaves that each country has in the other. Officially, Armenia has jurisdiction over one village, called Artsvashen in Armenia, that is entirely surrounded by Azerbaijani territory. Azerbaijan has three such enclaves within Armenia. But since the collapse of the Soviet Union, all four enclaves have been de facto occupied by the surrounding power.
The route to the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem
An Armenian priest suffered injuries on Tuesday when he was attacked by a group of Jewish youth in Jerusalem.
According to the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Reverend Arbak Sarukhanian was attacked by a group of young Jews when he was walking toward the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
Rev. Koryun Baghdasarian, Chancellor at Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said that Sarukhanian was injured in the attack. He was rushed to hospital and was discharged after receiving the necessary treatment.
The Patriarchate has filed a formal complaint with the police, after which three of the attackers were arrested.
The Patriarchate demands that the police conduct a fair investigation and punish the perpetrators in compliance with the law, in order to avoid a recurrence of such incidents in the future.
“We demand that law enforcement conducts a fair investigation and that the perpetrators are punished in accordance with the law in order to avoid a recurrence of such incidents in the future,’’ Rev. Baghdasarian said in a statement.
“A New Day” Exhibition at Tufenkian Fine Arts
LOS ANGELES—Tufenkian Fine Arts is honored to present “A New Day,” an exhibition featuring bright uplifting works by Julia Couzens, Richard Hoblock, and Farzad Kohan. The exhibition opening reception will take place on May 15, from 2 to 6 p.m. and will be on view through June 26.
It’s A New Day, with Thanks to Nina Simone
BY CAROLE ANN KLONARIDES
Reconsideration, repurposing, recalibration, call it what you like, for artists Julia Couzens, Richard Hoblock, and Farzad Kohan, it is an ongoing process. Layering, marking, moving the paint (the eye never rests), weaving, wrapping, scraping (the hand keeps active), a cyclical loop of rediscovery. An inspiration, perhaps, is to reconstruct a new consciousness from the salvage of our yesterdays. Sometimes the old is reinvented yet the roots remain, and new growth appears, and as cliched as it sounds, a new day begins.
For Richard Hoblock, it began with writing screenplays commissioned as portraits; each portrait was an imagined cinematic scene, the patron as the protagonist with underpinnings of personal details they provided. As a skilled writer, he could have several subplots at variance with each other all happening at once. After a series of screenplay portraits, he began to make abstract drawings while looking at Baroque paintings, focusing on a gesture or detail. Referring obtusely to the act of writing, his leftover pencil stubs would be ground down using a Cuisinart into a fine carbon powder which was used as a ground and drawn into. When finished, they were photographed using an 8 x 10 camera, a digital file is created, and the original drawing was then destroyed (unintentionally so was the Cuisinart!) Each photographic print was unique as part of his “Baroque Series.” This practice of layering materials and procedures, several times removed from the original, began a cycle of deconstruction and improvement, a reauthoring with each transitional stage. Yet, it was not quite an appropriation as the original source of inspiration is not apparent. It is more a process of cite and re-citing.
Farzad Kohan’s “Blue Blossom,” Mixed media, 60×48
According to the artist, he started painting seriously after seeing the Willem deKooning painting “Excavation” at the Art Institute of Chicago. An obsession with the work inspired many revisits to view it. The painting has an intensive build-up of surface that has been scraped to reveal underlying layers of paint and gesture, hence the title of the work. Starting with a color or off-white ground of paint, Hoblock also would build up layers and then scrape the surface with a palette knife or kitchen utensils, leaving the residue of previous layers along the edges as a visage of the process. Not quite a revival of gestural abstract painting, Hoblock puts it, “I went from concrete as a language to abstract as a gesture.” With such a calligraphic gesture, perhaps a screenplay is hidden within. However, it is up to the viewer to project their own, as his is not revealed with the exception of an occasional hint hidden within the title.
The most recent incarnations are vertically oriented abstract paintings that have dramatic virtuoso paint strokes of discordant colors. These seemingly would not go together but with his deft precision are found to abide on the same canvas. Fleshy pinks, cranberry reds with lipstick orange, and dull browns. Acid Green! White cutout shapes are held in front of the canvas to help the artist’s eye create the blank space needed to find the relationships within and around the gestures and forms—there can be no signature image as there is always contingency in the shifting relationships. The trajectory of this thought process finds a way for intuition to play; the outcome is not set. The work “Champion” was painted listening to the Miles Davis’ recording “Bitches Brew,” which similarly gives dead air and timing to punctuate each note creating a jarring, yet magnificent composition of discordant sounds. Replace sound with color and form and the same can be said about these gnomic paintings–what shouldn’t work comes together in a harmonious celebration of defiance.
Farzad Kohan prides himself as a self-taught artist always in-flux. His signature process of building up bits of ripped paper collaged on board or canvas, then distressed by sanding the surface, exposes layers of the passage of time and history of application like the age rings of a fallen tree. Ghostly bits immerge; gestures of automatic drawing, cursive lines of Farsi or Persian, the edges of torn magazine pages come forward and recede, much like distant memories. Having left his family and country of Iran at the age of eighteen, escaping first to Pakistan, then migrating to Sweden and later, settling in California, he weaves all of his past into the layers that make up his paintings and drawings with gradual transformations that sometimes hide the stories or hint at untold truths. As an émigré, a desire to be part of something bigger than himself drew him to art making; his work is imbued with a desired sense of belonging and new beginnings. The use of repellent materials, such as oil and water, perhaps metaphorically reflect the difficulties of assimilation, and his labor intensive procedures, the process of migration.
An art instillation from the “A New Day” exhibition
Inspired by a homeless man who creatively repurposed found objects, Farzad found his own economy of artistic material by using everything in his studio and surroundings. He taught art to children and learned from them, made his own paper, repurposed regional maps, created drawings and then ripped them to shreds along with discarded magazines (most commonly the local Iranian magazine Javanan), and then adhered them with water and glue in layers. For an additional pièce de résistance, in which an occasional fragment of fabric would be woven.
Lately, a series of works has turned more recognizably figurative. In each, he has firmly rooted a blossoming tree in a pot, with branches appearing to reach out of the confines of the perimeter of the rectangle. The arrangement of the carefully orientated strips of paper and the use of color is driven by form and texture. Slowly, he stopped sanding the surface, letting the paper bits layer like the bark of a tree. Underneath is evidence of the artist’s personal history, tangled lines that appear like the roots of many years of drawing automatically from the subconscious. As we walked out of his studio, he pointed to a cypress tree so tall it looked like it touched the sky. “See that, it was here the whole time and I never noticed it until recently.” I immediately thought of Van Gogh’s painting of cypress trees reaching to the sun and moon, with signature swirls and whorls in the heavy impasto. Van Gogh painted many trees, and in retrospect, the trees influenced by Japanese woodcuts are the ones that Farzad’s trees most resemble, with their minimal canopy and heavy outlines, a mastery mix of many historical and cultural influences. Not rooted in the ground but in a vessel, they are ready for transport to a new home.
As she approached the Little Flower Café in Pasadena, Julia Couzens eyed and then scooped up a doggie toggle pull toy left behind, a tight bundle of many colored strings that actually resembled some of her own sculptures. “Oh, this is so perfect for what I am working on!”, she exclaimed to me as she quickly stuffed it into her bag, a catchall for similar urban detritus she finds as she walks about. Her sculptures, which she calls “bundles,” are obsessively wrapped asymmetrical masses of rope, wire, string, yarn, bungee cord, fabric, and plastic, that have a textural physicality that gives the _expression_ “tightly wound” a whole new meaning. Gathering, twisting, weaving, sewing, tying, all make up the form. The resulting structure, in its solidity with an occasional sharp angle, seems architectural, but is actually derived from a long history of drawing from the model or nature. Each sculpture begins like a drawing, starting with a line and continues until the intuited end with an aim to visually and physically build up layer after layer of contained energy. Like the Japanese tsutsumi (“wrapping”), used as protection for precious temple objects, one wonders if something worth protecting is contained within the sculpture’s inner core, but the contents (if there are any) are safely secured and hidden.
In making the bundles, process and materiality is something Couzens privileges over the conceptual. Whether conscious or not, her work counters the historical patriarchy of monumental sculpture. Sculptors Eva Hesse and Jackie Winsor, process and materials artists a generation before, offered a more organic approach in comparison to the minimal and conceptual work of Donald Judd and Robert Morris, whereas Couzens’ work is closer aligned to the work of Michelle Segre and Shinique Smith. Replacing the chisel with a needle, and casting with weaving, each work has a sculptural monumentality that comes out of craft traditions. They are light of weight, and if I were to wax poetic, I could see them strapped on the body as one’s total belongings carried on a nomadic sojourn. The use of color is as a force, one different from contemporary sculpture primarily made of wood, stone, and metal, with a simultaneity of color combinations that express the ineffable.
Given a rotation of 360 degrees, each side of the sculpture provides a new vantage point with a new face. There is no totality or instant read, they operate in the space like alien forms whose origins one can’t quite define and are so self-contained that they seem natural on the floor, hung from the ceiling, or protruding from a wall. It is the bringing together of these repurposed and disparate materials tightly bound in all their brilliant splendor that sends off a charge like a bundle of electrical circuitry ready to combust.
To paraphrase Couzens from a recent online response to our times, “Art’s nature is exploratory, peripheral to linear progress and predetermined order. I think its meaning sprouts from the cracks in life.” A bundle titled, “Sweet,” has a long shoot of bright green yarn that escaped and at its end is hanging a smaller bundle as if to say from the entanglements we make, there is always the possibility of something new thriving from the mess.
Air raid sirens sound in southern Israel, army says
09:34,
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. Air raid sirens sounded early on Tuesday in southern Israel, warning citizens about new rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on its Telegram channel, reports TASS.
“Sirens sounded in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip”, the IDF reported, noting that this was in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, located near the border with the coastal enclave.
An exchange of missile strikes between Israel and the Palestinian radicals from the Gaza Strip began on May 10 following an outbreak of violence near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City in early May. According to the latest data, at least ten Israelis were killed, hundreds were injured. The Palestinian side lost 200 people and over 1,300 others were injured only in the Gaza Strip during the week of bomb attacks.
‘Military movements near un-demarcated borders are irresponsible and provocative’ – Jake Sullivan tells Aliyev
10:07,
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. US President’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke separately with caretakter Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, the White House reported.
Mr. Sullivan conveyed the commitment of the United States to peace, security, and prosperity in the South Caucasus.
He expressed concern over recent tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and emphasized that military movements near un-demarcated borders are irresponsible and provocative. He welcomed the ongoing communication between the two sides and both leaders’ commitment to resolving this issue peacefully.
In addition, he underscored the need for the two countries to conduct formal discussions to demarcate their international border. Finally, he conveyed the commitment of the United States to achieving regional reconciliation through bilateral engagement and as a Minsk Group Co-Chair.
11:02,
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s caretaker minister of education, science, culture and sport Vahram Dumanyan has addressed a congratulatory message on the occasion of the International Museum Day, the ministry told Armenpress.
“Dear Museums and the persons working in the field,
On May 18, 1977, the International Council of Museums has declared this day as the International Museum Day during its 11th grand conference. This year the slogan of the Day is “The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine”, which is more than relevant in our today’s technology and digital world. Walking in accordance with the demands of the time, today museums are using numerous forms and ways of communication for presenting their collections to the public in new approaches and formats. The museums of Armenia and Artsakh are also part of this important process of responding to the latest constantly changing challenges”, the Minister said, wishing productive work and new achievements to the persons working in the sector.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
11:06,
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. Macroeconomic developments are outlining more positive trends compared to central bank assessments in the direction of both economic activity and domestic demand, Central Bank governor Martin Galstyan said at the parliamentary committee on financial-credit and budgetary affairs while presenting the cenbank’s annual report.
Galstyan first spoke about the difficulties and the cenbank’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the period when martial law was declared in 2020. He noted the significant increase of inflation environment in Armenia’s main partner countries and in international commodity markets.
He said that a low economic activity and weak demand environment is maintained due to the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties over economic prospects.
According to 2021 Q1 projections, a slow recovery of aggregate demand will continue.
“It is noteworthy that current macroeconomic developments outline more positive trends in the directions of both economic activity and domestic demand compared to central bank assessments,” Galstyan said.
Positive developments were mostly observed in the industry and services, while the faster recovery of the domestic demand was mostly contributed by more positive developments in financial transfers from abroad and crediting of the economy.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
11:09,
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. The Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) has revealed the top three of its electoral list in the upcoming June 20 snap election.
BHK leader Gagik Tsarukyan will top the list, followed by lawmakers Mikayel Melkumyan and Iveta Tonoyan, BHK MP Arman Abovyan said in a statement.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
11:21,
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. Former minister of transport and communication and the former mayor of Yerevan Gagik Beglaryan was arrested by police on May 17 at the Yerevan airport upon his arrival on board a plane from Moscow.
Beglaryan was on the wanted list on charges of embezzlement and abuse of power since March 2020.
He was transferred into custody of the national security service, police said.
Other details weren’t immediately available.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan