Macron considers it Europe's responsibility to help establish dialogue between Kyiv and Moscow
19:25,
YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. The President of France Emmanuel Macron considers it the duty of the Europeans to support the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, ARMENPRESS reports, TASS informed, citing his statement.
"It is our duty as Europeans to assist in the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia," Macron told reporters during an extraordinary EU summit in Brussels.
20:10,
YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. From June 1, Italy will lift all Covid-related entry restrictions for tourists, ARMENPRESS reports the Association of Tour Operators of Russia informs.
Vaccination certificates, negative PCR tests, or a certificate for recovery from a coronavirus infection will not be demanded from travelers. Besides, from June 15, the regime of wearing masks will be abolished in cinemas, theaters and private events.
The statement of the Ministry of Health says that the "Green Certificate" of entry into Italy, which expires on May 31, will not be extended. In this regard, entry into the country will be according to pre-epidemic rules, which means that a Schengen visa will be required.
21:10,
YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. The Russian peacekeeping contingent continues to fulfill its tasks in Nagorno-Karabakh, ARMENPRESS reports the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Russian peacekeepers are monitoring the situation around the clock at 27 checkpoints and monitoring the ceasefire.
According to the statement, no violations were registered in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.
The President of Armenia and the Prime Minister of Georgia stress the need to establish lasting peace in the region
21:12,
YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. Today, within the framework of his official visit to Georgia, the President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan met with the Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the President of Armenia, issues related to enriching interstate cooperation anchored on a solid historical basis in new directions were touched upon at the meeting.
Close cooperation and activation of contacts between different departments of Armenia and Georgia were highlighted. The need for speedy establishment of lasting and sustainable peace in the region for the benefit of the peoples of the two countries was emphasized.
The parties touched upon the further development of the Armenian-Georgian relations, as well as the processes taking place in the region and the international arena.
Dzovinar Hatsakordzian, Kristen Bagdasarian, Wixom City Manager Steven Brown and Raffi Ourlian
WIXOM, Mich.—Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Michigan members and activists met with Wixom City Manager Steven Brown on May 26 to discuss issues relevant to the Armenian American community. Residents highlighted the actions of Turkish nationalists in the city of Wixom. In 2019, the Turkish American Cultural Association of Michigan (TACAM), which has its community center located on Beck Road in Wixom, inaugurated a park to Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Atatürk Park was created with the intention to serve as a celebratory hub for Turkish Americans and, according to TACAM’s website, “All over the world, there are several designated areas named after Atatürk. But TACAM’s Atatürk Park is the largest such park in the US and outside the Turkic world.”
The meeting with Brown was held to discuss the dangerous implications of this park created in the memory of a man responsible for the deaths of millions of Armenians, Greeks, Kurds and Assyrians, all of which have diaspora communities in the metro-Detroit area. Beck Road is one of the busiest main roads in Wixom, where Armenian residents have to drive by the sign on their daily commutes. Brown heard the concerns of Armenian American residents of Wixom and was provided with educational materials including articles and books in order to supplement his knowledge on Atatürk’s responsibility in the ethnic cleansing of minorities from the Republic of Turkey.
Brown also promised further steps that can be taken by the city in order to determine future decisions regarding the “Atatürk Park” sign located on the edge of Beck Road, as well as seeking legal counsel regarding the park. He also noted that members of TACAM have been pushing for the space to gain the status of a public park within the city of Wixom and have pressured the local government to pass problematic proclamations.
ANC of MI thanks City Manager Brown for the meeting and welcomes further actions by the city.
Dzovinar Hatsakordzian, Kristen Bagdasarian, Wixom City Manager Steven Brown and Sarkis Arakelian
The Armenian Relief Society of Eastern US Board of Directors has announced the winners of its 2022 Essay Contest. “The ARS of Eastern US Board of Directors extends its heartfelt congratulations to all the students for devoting time and effort to the ARS of Eastern US Essay Contest and sends its continuing gratitude to the principals and teachers for their contribution in this mutually beneficial educational initiative.”
Over 100 students from Armenian schools across the eastern US participated in the annual essay competition. The ARS of Eastern US sponsors the annual event for Armenian daily and one-day school students to encourage them to think about matters of importance to Armenians and how those issues impact their young lives. Since His Holiness Catholicos Aram I proclaimed 2022 the Year of the Diaspora, the ARS Eastern US Board of Directors decided on the following prompt for students: How do you see your role as a young member in the Diaspora?
Students were invited to write about their roles and responsibilities toward their nation, their church, their culture or their dream profession.
Judges were members of the ARS Washington “Satenig” Chapter: Lousin Hovanesian, Sarah Dudek, Elo Tanashian and Lena Damirjian. The ARS Regional Board liaison was Irma Kassabian.
Students from the following Armenian one-day schools participated: Hamasdegh School, Washington, DC; Haigazian School, PA; Nareg School, N.J.; St. Stephen’s Saturday School, Watertown, Mass.; Taniel Varoujan School, Glenview, IL
Students from the following Armenian day schools participated: Holy Martyrs Armenian Day School, Oakland Gardens, N.Y.; Armenian Sisters Academy, Radnor, PA.
All winners will be awarded Amazon gift cards.
Armenian – Day school
3rd & 4th
5th & 6th
7th & 8th
Armenian – Saturday school
3rd & 4th
5th & 6th
7th & 8th
English – Day school
3rd & 4th
5th & 6th
7th & 8th
English – Saturday School
3rd & 4th
7th & 8th
Six new members join the ranks of the ARF New York “Armen Garo” Gomideh
DOUGLASTON, NY—Six members of the Armenian community of New York joined the ranks of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) last week during a celebration commemorating the 104th anniversary of the independence of the First Republic of Armenia.
After successfully completing the ARF New York “Armen Garo” novice program, the new members took their oaths, which were administered by their godfather Vatche Proodian.
Guest speaker Vatche Proodian with Der Nareg Terterian, St. Sarkis Board of Trustees members and New York “Armen Garo” Gomideh members
Following their swearing-in ceremony, the new ARF members joined almost 200 community members to pay tribute to the First Republic of Armenia.
The program began with the singing of the Armenian national anthem and continued with a khosdman araroghootyun during which Homenetmen kayligs received their poghgabs.
The master of ceremonies Armen Caprielian invited Aram Kaloustian, who served on the ARF Bureau from 2019 to 2022, to the podium. During his remarks, Kaloustian stressed the importance of leadership, self-dependence, unity and Armenian nationalism and nationalistic identity. He spoke about how the Armenian nation chose to follow the leadership of ARF leader Aram Manukian and how the Armenians became unified and fought as one. It was this unity that led to victory in the battles of Bash Abaran, Karakilisa and Sardarabad in May 1918. “Unity was also the key three decades ago when the Karabakh movement began and flourished and resulted in an outcome where the unified Armenian side emerged victorious in that bloody war with Azerbaijan, and the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh were established,” said Kaloustian.
Vatche Proodian
Proodian, the keynote speaker, addressed the importance of the Armenian national movement and the generations of Armenians who did not see the independence of Armenia, such as renowned Armenian activist and fighter Tashnagtsagan Ketcho. Shortly after Ketcho’s death, Armenia gained its independence. Proodian read the Declaration of Armenia’s Independence and discussed how just three short years after the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, Armenia declared sovereignty and successfully fought for its independence. He also spoke about Manukian, who was able to unite the people and had one message for them: we cannot rely on others; we are alone, and we should only rely on our power. Through Manukian’s determination and will, the Armenian people were victorious on the battlefield and were able to establish a free country with its own government. Proodian also spoke about the importance of Artsakh and the struggle in Armenia today. He discussed how certain powers, both foreign and domestic, seek to subjugate Armenia and the need to resist these destructive forces. After the keynote speech, Rev. Father Nareg Terterian of St. Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church offered some brief remarks and blessed the table.
Following the program, singer Tro Krikorian and Ara Dabandjian of Element Band took to the stage to perform a series of Armenian national and patriotic songs. Attendees made generous donations to the ACAA Artsakh Fund; the ARF “Armen Garo” Gomideh pledged to match all donations. A total of $24,000 was raised to support Artsakh. The spirit of unity and pride in being Armenian was evident throughout the evening, especially at the end of the program when the youth began waving Armenian and Artsakh flags to the songs “Aryunod Trosh” and “Zartir Lao.”
Tro Krikorian and Ara Dabandjian perform in NYC
Tuesday,
Karabakh Official Objects To EU Mediation
• Narine Ghalechian
Belgium - European Council President Charles Michel, Armenian Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev meet in Brussels, May 22,
2022.
The European Union is unfit to be the lead player in brokering a settlement of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a senior official in Stepanakert said on Tuesday.
“For us, the European Council (the EU’s top decision-making body) is not the
format where issues of the resolution of the Karabakh conflict should be
discussed because it is the OSCE Minsk Group which has an international mandate
to do that and which we believe must be the main format,” said Artak Beglarian,
the Karabakh state minister. “There is also the trilateral format of Armenia,
Russia and Azerbaijan which has demonstrated its effectiveness in practice.”
“I don’t think that the European Council has the potential and interests to play
a very serious role in a final and comprehensive settlement of the conflict,”
Beglarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The EU should focus on other issues such as protection of the Karabakh
Armenians’ “humanitarian rights” and preservation of their cultural legacy, he
said.
The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, has hosted three trilateral
meetings with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the last five months.
After the most recent meeting held on May 22, Michel said that Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev agreed to
“advance discussions” on a comprehensive peace treaty between their countries.
He said he told them that it is “necessary that the rights and security of the
ethnic Armenian population in Karabakh be addressed.”
Karabakh’s leadership denounced the latter remark, saying that the top EU
official undermined the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination by
portraying them as an ethnic minority not eligible for independent statehood.
Beglarian likewise suggested that Michel signaled support for Azerbaijani
control over the disputed territory.
Nagorno Karabakh Sate Minister Artak Beglarian, July 1, 2021
The previous Armenian-Azerbaijani summit held in Brussels on April 6 also raised
concerns in Stepanakert. Pashinian said on April 13 that the international
community is pressing Armenia to “lower the bar” on Karabakh’s status and
recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. He signaled Yerevan’s intention to
make such concessions, prompting strong criticism from Karabakh leaders.
Russia has criticized the EU’s mediation efforts, saying that they are part of
the West’s attempts to hijack Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks and use the
Karabakh conflict in its standoff with Moscow over Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, accused the EU last
week of trying to “wedge” into the implementation of Armenian-Azerbaijani
agreements brokered by Moscow. “We hope that Brussels will help implement them,
and not try to play geopolitical games,” she said.
Russia has co-headed the Minsk Group together with the United States and France
for nearly three decades. Russian officials say Washington and Paris stopped
cooperating with Moscow in that format after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Pashinian Sees Strong Growth Despite Ukraine War Fallout
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks in the parliament, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Tuesday that the Armenian economy should
expand by 7 percent this year contrary to far more modest growth forecasts made
by Western lending institutions following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
The International Monetary Fund insisted as recently as on April 29 that
economic growth in Armenia will slow down to about 1.5 percent due to the
fallout from the bloody conflict. The Armenian Central Bank forecast a virtually
identical growth rate in mid-March, three weeks after the start of the Russian
invasion of Ukraine.
The World Bank predicted an even sharper slowdown in a report released on April
11. The bank pointed to the South Caucasus country’s close economic ties with
Russia, its number one trading partner hit by sweeping Western sanctions.
Pashinian said, however, that he expects the domestic economy to perform much
better in 2022. He cited key macroeconomic data recorded by his government in
the first four months of the year.
According to the government’s Statistical Committee, GDP growth accelerated to
8.6 percent in the first quarter and continued unabated in April on the back of
sharps gains in the services and construction sectors. By contrast, Armenian
industrial output shrunk by about 7 percent year on year in March and rebounded
only marginally in April.
Addressing pro-government lawmakers in Yerevan, Pashinian indicated that he
hopes to keep up the growth in the months ahead with capital projects financed
from the state budget.
“My instruction and mood is that we must concentrate on the execution of our
budget, especially capital spending, so that we manage to meet our target of 7
percent economic growth,” he said.
Tadevos Avetisian, an opposition lawmaker and economist, dismissed Pashinian’s
projection, saying that spillover effects of the war in Ukraine have not yet
reached Armenia.
Avetisian downplayed the significance of official macroeconomic statistics for
January-April 2022. He argued that the Armenian economy contracted in the first
quarter of 2021.
Parliament Majority To Block Opposition Resolution On Karabakh
• Artak Khulian
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - Riot police guard a government building during an opposition
demonstration in Yerevan, .
Parliament speaker Alen Simonian reaffirmed on Tuesday the ruling Civil Contract
party’s plans to block an opposition resolution rejecting any peace accord that
would restore Azerbaijan’s control over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia’s leading opposition forces drafted the parliamentary resolution last
week as they continued daily demonstrations in Yerevan demanding Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian’s resignation. They will try to push it through the National
Assembly at an emergency session scheduled for Friday.
Simonian confirmed that the parliament’s pro-government majority will thwart the
session by boycotting it.
Like other Pashinian allies, Simonian accused the opposition Hayastan and Pativ
Unem blocs of exploiting the Karabakh conflict for political purposes. He also
said that the draft resolution is aimed at reinvigorating what he described as a
failed opposition campaign for Pashinian’s resignation.
“That [opposition] initiative is yet another attempt to find some way out of the
situation,” Simonian told journalists.
Armenia - Parliament speaker Alen Simonian speaks to journalists, .
The speaker, who is a senior member of Civil Contract, insisted that Pashinian’s
government will not cut any peace deals with Azerbaijan that will “not take into
account the opinion of Artsakh and Armenia’s citizens.” But he stopped short of
ruling out Yerevan’s recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
“They are afraid of doing that because they have given [Azerbaijani President
Ilham] Aliyev promises,” said Ishkhan Saghatelian, an opposition leader and
parliament vice-speaker. “They are afraid because one and a half years after the
war [in Karabakh] they have increased only the number of police and interior
troops, while the army has been downsized.”
The opposition accused Pashinian of planning to place Karabakh back under
Azerbaijani rule when it launched the street protests in Yerevan on May 1.
The parliamentary resolution proposed by it not only rejects such an option but
also says Pashinian’s government cannot make any territorial concessions to
Azerbaijan as a result of a planned demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border. It further says that the demarcation process must start only after Baku
frees all Armenian prisoners and withdraws Azerbaijani troops from Armenian
border areas occupied last year.
Armenia - An opposition supporter waves a Karabakh flag outside a goverment
building guarded by riot police, .
The protests continued on Tuesday, with hundreds of people led by Saghatelian
and other opposition lawmakers marching to a government building that houses
three Armenian ministries. The lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to meet with the
ministers of foreign affairs, education and justice and hear their opinion about
Karabakh’s status. They did not attempt to force their way into the building
heavily guarded by riot police.
The oppositionists’ attempt to break through a similar police cordon on Monday
triggered clashes between their supporters and security forces outside the
common building of four other government ministries. More than a hundred
protesters were detained as a result.
Nine of them remained under arrest on Tuesday. Law-enforcement authorities said
they could be prosecuted for participating in “mass disturbances.”
Saghatelian claimed that the authorities are “fabricating” such criminal cases
in a bid to suppress the opposition movement. “In this way they are trying to
isolate participants of the movement and intimidate other citizens,” he said.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
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Azeri military spreads disinformation falsely accusing Armenia in opening fire at border
09:46,
YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense again released disinformation on the border situation.
The Armenian Ministry of Defense said that the Azerbaijani accusations that on May 30 the Armenian military opened small arms fire at Azeri military positions in the eastern direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is disinformation.
The Armenian Ministry of Defense added that the situation on the border is relatively stable and is under the full control of the Armenian military.