15:07,
YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS. Head of Mission of Armenia to the European Union, Ambassador Anna Aghadjanyan presented on May 11 her credentials to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the Armenian Embassy in Belgium told Armenpress.
During their brief meeting the sides exchanged views on the current situation and prospects of the Armenia-EU relations.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
15:51,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s foreign ministry has extended condolences over a shooting incident in one of the schools of Kazan, which claimed several lives.
“We express our deepest condolences to the families and relatives of the victims of the tragic incident that took place in N175 school in Kazan. We wish speedy recovery to all those injured”, the Armenian MFA said in a statement.
Nine people have died, including eight children and a teacher, in a school shooting in Kazan, in Russia’s Tatarstan Region. At least 32 people were injured. The first signal from a panic button at the school came in at 09:25, and the shooting began at 09:20. At the time, there were 714 children and about 70 employees at the school, including 52 teachers, TASS reported.
Editing by Aneta Harutyunyan
13:14, 6 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 6, ARMENPRESS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov invited Armenia’s caretaker Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian to visit Moscow.
“I have invited the Armenian foreign minister to visit Russia to continue our discussions on various issues”, FM Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Ara Aivazian in Yerevan on May 6.
He noted that during their meeting he and Mr. Aivazian discussed a broad range of issues.
“During our talks we have noted that there is a high-level dialogue between us. The inter-parliamentary relations are developing. The delegation of the Federation Council has visited Yerevan for participation to the Armenian Genocide commemoration events. On May 16-18 the visit of Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan to Moscow is planned”, the Russian FM said.
The Russian minister stated that they highly value the partnership between the two countries in integration processes, such as in the EAEU, CIS and CSTO.
“Russia remains Armenia’s biggest partner. We have also highlighted the importance of military and defense cooperation”, Sergei Lavrov said.
Russian FM Sergei Lavrov has arrived in Armenia on May 5 on a two-day visit.
He is scheduled to meet with Armenia’s caretaker prime minister Nikol Pashinyan on May 6.
Lavrov will also pay a working visit to Baku on May 9-10.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
10:53, 5 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. During an upcoming visit to Armenia, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will have a meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the Armenian foreign ministry said.
Lavrov will arrive in Yerevan on May 5.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian will hold a meeting with Lavrov on May 6.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
It took many years for the White House to officially recognize the Armenian genocide; however, the current American president sends the signal that the United States, after the short break of the last four years, continues to be the main proponent of the Western ethos. Nevertheless, everything in politics has just a single dimension.
First, it is imperative for the US to send a clear message to the rest of the world that the days of MAGA are finally over and that a new era of MARA (Make America Reliable Again, as I argue in my latest book) begins with Joe Biden. The end of the MAGA era is not just a normative formality but a strong message that is directly related to American soft power. After four years of neo-protectionism and generous doses of populism, America has started probing the “Shining City on the Hill” role again. Thus, the recognition of the Armenian genocide must be seen as a reintroduction of American values to the world.
Second, this is a clear message to Turkey that the days where Ankara was free to play with American prestige are over. This is a direct blow to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman agenda and his perpetual efforts to frost Turkey’s past with gallantry and chivalry – e.g. the film “Fetih 1453.” America’s recognition of the Armenian genocide will not affect Erdogan directly but Erdoganism instead. In the future, Turkish historians will admit that while Kemalism managed to avoid such a development, Erdoganism, with its profound maximalism, failed to protect the nation’s prestige. Anyone who understands the Turkish president’s way of thinking can understand that this will be his Sisyphean punishment in perpetuity.
Third, this is a brilliant move by the American side in Central Asia and the so-called Russian geostrategic red zone. Moscow brilliantly played the punishment card of Armenia in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, where the Armenian Army was left all alone to be crushed by the Azeri-Turkish forces. Moscow never liked the “complementarity” approach of Yerevan in international affairs, a sui generis form of neutrality regarding the American-Russian antagonism in the Caucasus or the hesitant striking steps of the country toward Brussels. Before the Nagorno-Karabakh defeat, large parts of Armenian society favored the adoption of the nation taking a pro-Western turn. The recognition of the Armenian genocide sends the message to the Armenians that Washington is not indifferent toward the political developments there and that a return to the days of a Russian monopoly will be no walk in the park.
The recognition of the Armenian genocide will be one of the most notable moments of the Biden administration, while it must also be seen as a triumph of the Armenian lobby in Washington. Furthermore, before someone starts drawing a comparison with the Greek lobby in the American capital, it is essential to comprehend the following. First, we should learn to trust the moves of our lobbyists in Washington, who do an excellent job in promoting the Greek and the Cypriot arguments there. Second, the whole procedure must be seen as a marathon. We have to work strenuously for the recognition of the Greek genocide in Asia Minor by the US and work toward the final resolution of Cyprus’ illegal occupation by the Turkish Army. It is a long way to Tipperary, but the Armenian case shows there are no lost causes in international politics, only wrong or right timing.
Spyros Litsas, PhD is a professor of international relations at the University of Macedonia. He is the author of “US Foreign Policy in the Eastern Mediterranean: Power Politics and Ideology Under the Sun” (Springer Nature, 2020), among others.
16:31, 3 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. The second and final round of voting to elect a prime minister will be held on May 10, Speaker of Parliament Ararat Mirozyan said in a statement.
During the first round of vote, parliament voted down caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in order to trigger early elections.
Pashinyan, the only candidate in the voting nominated by the ruling My Step bloc – received 1 vote in favor, 3 against and 75 voted present. His nomination and failure to get elected was a formality in a maneuver for disbanding the parliament.
Earlier the ruling bloc announced they’d all vote present as agreed before.
The Prosperous Armenia BHK opposition party boycotted the special session and the voting.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resigned on April 25 to trigger the snap election of parliament.
The entire Cabinet also resigned. Holding early elections requires the dissolution of parliament, which in turn can happen when the legislature twice fails to elect a prime minister after the incumbent steps down. Pashinyan said during his resignation that his bloc will formally nominate and subsequently vote him down during both votings in order to maintain the technical requirements to disband the legislature.
Pashinyan had earlier announced that he and his party will again run for parliament in the snap election.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
11:22, 25 April, 2021
YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has resigned today to trigger snap parliamentary elections.
In an address delivered today, the PM recalled that on March 18, based on the results of the discussions with the President of the Republic, the heads of parliamentary factions, he has announced the decision on holding early parliamentary elections on June 20.
According to the Constitution of Armenia, snap parliamentary elections are possible only when the Prime Minister resigns and the Parliament doesn’t elect the PM twice. After that the Parliament is considered dissolved by virtue of law, and snap parliamentary elections take place.
“In order to implement the decision on holding snap parliamentary elections on June 20, today I resign from the position of the Prime Minister of Armenia”, Pashinyan said.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Like every U.S. leader before him, President Joseph Biden issued a commemorative statement on April 24 to mark the annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. But this year’s statement was eagerly anticipated, as the Biden Administration was widely expected to break with the previous position by boldly acknowledging and affirming the Armenian Genocide.
Unlike previous American presidents, those hopes and expectations were met with no political equivocation or use of semantics. Breaking with recent precedence, President Biden fully embraced the suffering of the Armenians by referring to the massacres and forced dispossession in 1915 as clear components of the crime of genocide.
Although with some nuanced language in the statement’s reference to Ottoman Turkey rather than the modern Republic of Turkey, the U.S. president’s commemorative recognition of the Armenian genocide was significant for several reasons.
Clearly, for Armenians both in Armenia and throughout the global diaspora, the moral clarity and moral courage of the Biden statement, which directly and explicitly refers to the Armenian genocide twice, was hailed as a long-sought vindication of a determined campaign to secure official U.S. recognition. And as an emotional vindication, the statement was especially welcome in Armenia, in light of the lingering shock from an unexpected loss to Turkish-backed Azerbaijan in the war for Nagorno Karabakh late last year.
But in real terms, the Biden statement has no legal or even policy implications for Armenia. Nevertheless, it does extend significant credence and political capital to the Armenian quest for recognition and reassurance. It may also help to end the destructive and counter-productive state policy of genocide denial by the Turkish government.
This latter point also offered a second significant factor, whereby other Western countries, such as the UK for one prominent example, will be hard-pressed to follow suit and come under pressure to no longer back or buttress Turkish denial of the genocide. In this way, the Biden recognition only exposes the moral weakness of other Western leaders who may still cling to Turkey’s policy of denial and historical revisionism.
And third, it was a move to not necessarily punish Turkey, but to help Turkey to more sincerely deal with its difficult past. It was not vindicative, but rather, was a vindication of history.
But a fourth factor of significance stems from the decision by the United States to call the bluff of the Turkish government and to face down the bellicose threats from Turkey over genocide recognition. In this way, the U.S. statement demonstrated that geopolitics are no longer an effective excuse for genocide denial.
A child sits on his father’s shoulders holding an Armenian flag as thousands take part in a demonstration to commemorate the anniversary of the Armenian genocide in front of the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles, California. EPA-EFE//ETIENNE LAURENT
From this perspective, the genocide recognition is in part a move to regain some of the United States’ moral standing that was lost under Donald Trump and stands out as an element in a broader strategy to correct the policy mistakes of the past as a course correction. And while it is precedent-setting, making it difficult for any U.S. president to retreat later, it also helps Washington to begin to regain and restore the moral high ground in international relations.
And moving forward, the U.S. statement also makes the genocide issue less confrontational for Turkey and offers a fresh opportunity for Turkey to reengage in the earlier diplomatic effort with Armenia to “normalize” relations.
But most importantly, the Biden announcement is more about defining a principled moral stand to defend the historical veracity of the Armenian genocide and less about Turkish sensitivities or excuses. And its relevance is lasting, for not only affirming the past but to also safeguard the future to deter any future reoccurrence of genocide or related heinous crimes against humanity.
Public Radio of Armenia The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has strongly condemned the damaging and burning of the pedestal of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, a symbol of India’s independence and statehood, peace advocate and humanist. This is a provocation against the centuries-old Armenian-Indian friendship, dynamically developing since the independence, the Ministry said in a statement. “The issue of preserving monuments is an obligation of all of us, and any such act of vandalism and desecration is an encroachment on the universal values, the perpetrators of which must be held accountable within the law,” the statement reads.