Author: Badalian Vardan

FRANCOIS AU PATRIARCHE ARMENIEN : LE SANG DES MARTYRS DOIT UNIR LES CHRETIENS

Vatican-pape-religion-Arménie-Turquie

Le pape Francois a recu jeudi le patriarche des Arméniens Karékine
II, appelant a ne jamais oublier le sang versé par les chrétiens
arméniens au siècle dernier et en soulignant que le sacrifice des
martyrs doit permettre de renforcer l’unité entre leurs différentes
communautés.

Le pape a fait indirectement allusion aux grands massacres des
Arméniens sous l’empire Ottoman au début du XXe siècle : “Le
nombre des disciples qui ont versé leur sang pour le Christ dans
les tragédies du siècle dernier est certainement supérieur a celui
des martyrs des premiers siècles” de l’Eglise.

“Dans ce martyrologue, les enfants de la nation arménienne ont une
place d’honneur”, a-t-il relevé, devant le patriarche de cette Eglise
orthodoxe très ancienne de sept millions de fidèles, dispersés
entre l’Arménie et la diaspora, notamment en Amérique du nord.

Le témoignage des Arméniens “ne doit pas être oublié. Commme dans
l’Eglise antique, le sang des martyrs devient semence de nouveaux
chrétiens, de même que, de nos jours, le sang de nombreux chrétiens
est devenu semence de l’unité” entre les Eglises, a-t-il estimé.

“L’oecuménisme de la souffrance et du martyre est une exhortation
puissante a arpenter la route de la réconciliation entre les Eglises.

Nous ressentons le devoir de parcourir cette route de fraternité”.

Cette notion de “l’oecuménisme du martyre” est revenue a plusieurs
reprises dans la bouche du pape ou de hauts responsables de l’Eglise,
notamment a propos de la tragédie syrienne ou des actions terroristes
de Boko Haram au Nigeria. Des chrétiens de différentes confessions
ayant été tués ou enlevés par des groupes islamistes dans ces pays.

L’appel a l’unité des Eglises, catholiques et orthodoxes, souvent
divisées par des querelles anciennes, devrait être un point fort
du message de Francois, quand il se rendra en Jordanie, Palestine et
IsraÔl du 24 au 26 mai.

Le Catholicos, déja présent lors de la messe d’inauguration du
pontificat de Francois en mars 2013, a ensuite eu un temps de prière
oecuménique avec le pape, dans une chapelle du Vatican.

En 1999, Karékine avait été élu 132e patriarche des Arméniens,
et a eu plusieurs rencontres avec les derniers papes.

Arrivé mercredi pour un séjour de plusieurs jours a Rome avant de se
rendre aux Etats-Unis, il avait au programme une rencontre au Conseil
Pontifical pour l’unité des Chrétiens, et une entrevue avec le pape
émérite Benoit XVI.

AFP

ADDRESS OF POPE FRANCIS TO HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II SUPREME PATRIARCH
AND CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS WITH HIS ENTOURAGE

Thursday, 8 May 2014

Your Holiness, Dear Brothers in Christ,

I gladly offer a most heartfelt welcome to you and to the distinguished
delegation accompanying you. Through Your Holiness, I also extend
respectful and affectionate greetings to the members of the Catholicate
family and to all Armenians around the world. It is a particular
grace to greet you here so close to the tomb of the Apostle Peter
and to share this moment of fraternity and prayer.

With you, I praise the Lord, because in recent years relations
between the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Church of Rome have been
strengthened, thanks to the events which are so dear to our memory.

Here I recall the visit of my sainted predecessor to Armenia in 2001,
and the welcome presence of Your Holiness in the Vatican for the
official visit toPope Benedict XVI in 2008 and for the inauguration
of my ministry as Bishop of Rome last year.

Here I wish to recall another occasion full of meaning in which Your
Holiness participated : the commemoration of the witnesses to the faith
of the twentieth century, which took place in the context of the Great
Jubilee of the Year 2000. In truth, the number of disciples who shed
their blood for Christ during the tragic events of the last century
is certainly greater than that of the martyrs of the first centuries,
and in this martyrology the children of the Armenian nation have a
place of honour. The mystery of the Cross, precious to the memory of
your people and depicted in the splendid stone crosses which adorn
every corner of your land, has been lived as a direct participation
in the chalice of the Passion by so many of your people.

Their witness, at once tragic and great, must not be forgotten.

Your Holiness, dear Brothers, the sufferings endured by Christians in
these last decades have made a unique and invaluable contribution to
the unity of Christ’s disciples. As in the ancient Church, the blood
of the martyrs became the seed of new Christians. So too in our time
the blood of innumerable Christians has become a seed of unity. The
ecumenism of suffering and of the martyrdom of blood are a powerful
summons to walk the long path of reconciliation between the Churches,
by courageously and decisively abandoning ourselves to the working
of the Holy Spirit. We feel the duty to follow this fraternal path
also out of the debt of gratitude we owe to the suffering so many of
our brothers and sisters, which is salvific because it is united to
the Passion of Christ.

In this regard, I wish to thank Your Holiness for the effective support
given to ecumenical dialogue, and in particular to the work of the
joint commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church
and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and for the skillful theological
contributions offered by representatives of the Catholicate of All
Armenians.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all
our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in
any way afflicted with the consolation with which we ourselves are
consoled by God” (2 Cor 1 : 3-4). Full of trust, may we walk the path
that lies ahead of us, sustained by so great a cloud of witnesses
(cf. Heb 12:1), and implore the Father for the unity which Christ
himself prayed for at the Last Supper (cf. Jn 17:21).

Let us pray for each other : may the Holy Spirit enlighten us and
lead us to that day, so greatly desired, in which we can share the
Eucharistic table. We praise God in the words of Saint Gregory of
Narek, “Accept the song of blessing from our lips and deign to grant
to this Church the gifts and graces of Zion and of Bethlehem, so that
we can be made worthy to participate in salvation”. May the all-holy
Mother of God intercede for the Armenian people now and always.

vendredi 9 mai 2014, Stéphane ©armenews.com

CO-CHAIRS TO STUDY ISSUE ON RESETTLEMENT OF SYRIAN ARMENIANS IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH

APA, Azerbaijan
May 8 2014

[ 08 May 2014 14:40 ]

Baku. Anakhanum Hidayatova – APA. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs
will study the issue on the resettlement of Syrian Armenians in
Nagorno-Karabakh, said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov,
APA reports.

The Minister said that the co-chairs would pay a visit to Armenia,
the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the middle of May:
“The co-chairs want to be familiarized with the situation in
Nagorno-Karabakh. Some Syrian Armenians settled in the occupied
territories of Azerbaijan as a result of the crisis in the country. I
sent an official letter to the OSCE Chairman in Office in this regard
and asked him to send a fact-finding mission to Karabakh for studying
this issue.”

ANCIENT ARMENIAN CEMETERY ON PATH OF REVIVAL

The Times of India (TOI)
May 7, 2014 Wednesday

by Mir Ayoob Ali Khan

HYDERABAD: Contrary to popular perception, Abid Evans, the 19th century
businessman after whom the main commercial hub of Hyderabad __ Abid
ki Shop __ was named was not the first Armenian to have arrived and
flourished in the city. Armenians first came to Hyderabad during the
reign of Qutb Shahi Sultans and settled down in Hyderabad somewhere
in the early 17th century, inform historians.

An ancient cemetery which dates back to this period is located in
Uppuguda, on the way to Falaknuma through Lal Darwaza and Chhatrinaka
in the Old City. This Armenian cemetery with its distinct tombs and
arches and lying in utter neglect for decades, is now going through
a restoration process.

Mohammed Ziauddin Ahmed Shakeb, an authority on the history and
culture of Hyderabad said, “Somewhere in early 1970s I was working on
documents in the State Archives and Research Institute with which I
was associated then when I chanced upon a letter written by British
Resident W Haig in Hyderabad to a government official. According to
the letter written in 1907 there existed an Armenian cemetery on the
outskirts of Hyderabad. On an inspection of the area around Falaknuma
Palace the British Resident had seen the cemetery which he found in
a bad shape. He wanted the government to restore the cemetery.”

Dr Shakeb who spoke with TOI from London on phone continued, “After
conducting an initial inquiry through my colleague Somnath Pershad I
found the contents of the letter to be true. I visited the place and
saw the signs of the cemetery hidden under a heap of human waste and
shrubs. I informed the matter to Waheeduddin Khan, the then director of
State Archeology and Museums. Khan was thrilled and immediately ordered
the cleaning of the area and restoration of the cemetery. He also got
a compound wall constructed for the security of the historical site.”

Interestingly, during the restoration work, a deep pit was found
which had six levels. Probably it was a grave where six persons had
been buried, one at each level, Dr Shakeb said.

The department of archeology and museums mapped and documented the
entire area. But as time passed by, upkeep of the cemetery became a
non-priority job and finally got off completely from its attention.

Now, after a long time, the department has taken up the task of
restoration again. Two weeks ago, it cleared the area of filth and wild
shrubs. The compound wall is being repaired using granite, lime and
mortar to keep in tune with the character of the ancient precincts. A
single dome on the premises representing the Qutub Shahi style of
architecture and two mandapa-like structures, one square and the
other octagonal, will be the focus of restoration in the coming weeks.

“The most difficult part of the restoration is to set the graves as
found some 40 years ago. The basalt stones of the graves with unique
engravings are scattered all over the place and some of them broken
into pieces. The department will have to hire experts and refer the
material it has in its archives to complete the task.”

He said that it could take about two months to complete the work
after which the place will be open for tourists and public who can
have a look into another facet of the city’s rich history.

CAN ‘DEVIL’S KNOT’ HELP BRING JUSTICE TO REAL WEST MEMPHIS KILLERS?

The Wrap
May 8 2014

Movies | By Lucas Shaw

Director Atom Egoyan tells TheWrap that the dramatization is “about
showing how we live with doubt, how we navigate in places where there
is no resolution”

Jason Baldwin, one of the members of the so-called West Memphis 3,
credits Hollywood with getting him out of prison.

Now Baldwin hopes a new movie will ensnare whomever is responsible
for the crime he swears he did not commit decades ago. Atom Egoyan’s
“Devil’s Knot,” which opens in theaters Friday, dramatizes the story
of three teens convicted of killing three young boys, with Oscar
winners Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon in key roles.

Also read: Joe Berlinger to Direct Eight-Part Criminal Justice Series
for Al-Jazeera America (Exclusive)

The movie follows three “Paradise Lost” documentaries by Joe Berlinger
about the case, which attracted celebrity interest, and one from Amy
Berg that came out after Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley
Jr. were freed three years ago.

Baldwin told TheWrap that he feels like he owes it to the slain kids
and their families to keep telling the story in hopes justice will
ultimately be served.

“There’s no statute of limitations on murder,” Baldwin told TheWrap.

“We’re saying to whoever did this, whoever is out there, we’re still
paying attention. We’re not giving up on a search for you. You may
think you’ve gotten away with murder, but you haven’t.”

Although a series of appeals and new evidence convinced legal
authorities to ultimately free the three men accused of the 1993
murders, but Baldwin gives Berlinger a great deal of credit for saving
the life of Echols, who had been on death row.

Also read: West Memphis 3 Defendant Jason Baldwin to Executive Produce
‘Devil’s Knot’ (Exclusive)

He served as executive producer on Egoyan’s “Devil’s Knot.” TheWrap
spoke with Baldwin and Egoyan about the film, its potential impact
and how the case influenced their beliefs.

This story has been the subject of several movies and books. Why
did you pick this approach, and do existing materials complicate
your efforts?

Egoyan: I first saw ‘Paradise Lost’ when it came out in Toronto a few
years after the case, and clearly this documentary was instrumental
in keeping the case alive. It also pointed towards another culprit. A
lot of books and documentaries seem to say if only this person had
been pursued or that person. I don’t think it’s that easy; it would
have been another witchhunt.

What’s remarkable about this incident is the mountain of evidence that
one has to wade through because so much of that was dismissed. Once the
system set its sights on these three young men, they felt they found
the culprits and focused on as expedient a resolution as possible.

See video: Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth Hunt for Justice in West
Memphis 3 Drama ‘Devil’s Knot’

It is the most horrifying crime scene imaginable and it happened in a
town deeply rooted in religion. With an action of unquestionable evil,
demons had to be created. Once these three young men were brought
into the system, the resolution was sealed.

Did you draw your own conclusions?

Egoyan: Nothing that I would begin to want to talk about. This movie is
not about saying this is what would have happened, but about showing
how we live with doubt, how we navigate in places where there is no
resolution. Mistakes were made from the get-go. You don’t find a body
and then move it.

How many more ways can you tell this story?

Baldwin: I feel like we owe it to Michael, Steve, Chris, their families
and my family to use whatever tools we can. You may say the case
is closed, but the fact remains there’s no statute of limitations
on murder. We’re saying to whoever did this, whoever is out there,
we’re still paying attention. We’re not giving up on a search for you.

You may think you’ve gotten away with murder, but you haven’t.

And what role will Hollywood play in this?

Baldwin: If it weren’t for the documentaries before the movie showing
the world what happened to us, Damien would have been murdered by
the state of Arkansas. Whoever did this would have escaped justice
forever. Maybe this film is a part of all this. This situation is
not hopeless. Damien is alive.

Jason, how much attention did you pay to all of the media coverage
of the case and the books about your life?

Baldwin: I paid the utmost attention to everything I could grasp
about the real atmosphere of the crime scene. When you are arrested
you expect certain things to occur in the judicial system. A mugshot,
a phone call. When it came time to fingerprinting, I was not surprised
they took my entire handprint or footprint. I figured they must have
some kind of evidence to compare something from the crime scene.

They were convinced I’m the person that did this. I was no longer
looked at as innocent. A dark spell came over people and the
prosecution was allowed to create a fanciful story and overlook facts.

There was biological material that could be tested, but since tests
didn’t lead to us it made no sense for the prosecution to act like
it was there.

Egoyan: For all the talk about dark magic, the only act of magic
was what Fogelman could do in that summation. Here’s a table of
circumstantial evidence, and when you mix it all together you’ve
got demons.

Are either of you spiritual?

Baldwin: I was raised Southern Baptist all my life; I was raised on
the story of the Bible. On a sunny Sunday morning, you don’t want to
sit in the church. When the murders occurred, I had this faith. At
the same time I would rather be spending time with friends. As I’ve
gotten older, I’ve been spending more time with faith.

Egoyan: I was raised in the Armenian Christian Orthodox church,
dealing with an extraordinary act of evil — the genocide against
the Armenian evil. Justice hasn’t been served; perpetrators haven’t
admitted it happened.

What draws me to these types of stories is faith seems to be a very
personal issue. When applied communally, it becomes much more complex.

Did this influence your faith?

Jason: All things can be used for good, and all things can be misused.

Egoyan: When you look at Fogelman’s summation, he says religion
can make people do evil things; he’s talking about it in terms of
Satanism. Yet he is about to do a very evil thing in the name of
religion, and that religion is justice.

As a Christian, the fundamental law you are taught is do as you would
have done unto yourself. There are a lot of people in the world who
don’t want to be treated the way you would treat yourself.

CAPTURING THE SPIRIT OF THE TATTOO

New York Times
May 8 2014

By ELAINE SCIOLINOMAY

PARIS — Tattoos are beautiful; they are crude. They are declarations
of protest, politics, beauty, religion, mourning, hatred or love. They
have been used to identify, cure, honor and subjugate those who wear
or are forced to wear them.

At the Musee du Quai Branly here, an ambitious new exhibition,
“Tattoo” which opened Tuesday and runs through Oct. 18, 2015,
grounds the tradition of tattooing in antiquity, follows its myriad
expressions around the world and showcases a new generation of artists
whose medium happens to be marking human skin.

Tattooing dates back more than 5,000 years. The exhibition notes that
the remains of Otzi, the Neolithic iceman found in the Alps in 1991 was
covered with 57 tattoo marks. Two-thousand-year-old mummies discovered
in Egypt and Syria carried tattoos of mythical monsters and animals.

The museum’s mission is to create a “dialogue of cultures” and the
exhibition follows previous global cross-cultural subjects, such as
the beauty of hair, the seduction of Chinese cooking and the history of
jazz, and their effects on art and literature. The shows are sometimes
messy and gimmicky, always creative. This time, the museum has brought
together 300 historical and contemporary objects related to tattoos
and tattooing, including photographs, prints, paintings, posters,
sculptures, tribal masks, books, clothing, tattoo-making implements
and even mummified body parts.

“We wanted to capture the spirit of tattooing, which is part of the
common heritage of most of humanity,” said the museum’s director,
Stephane Martin. “But it was just as important to showcase it as a
popular artistic movement.”

To that end, Anne & Julien, (they use only their first names) the
exhibition’s curators and the founders of the underground art review
“Hey! Modern Art and Pop Culture,” in Paris, turned to the world’s
foremost tattoo artists to create works for the show. Thirteen
artists from countries ranging from Samoa to Switzerland inked
their inspiration onto disembodied legs, torsos and arms crafted
in silicone that were developed by a studio in the Paris suburb of
Montreuil that specializes in special effects for films. They worked
under the direction of Tin-Tin, France’s rock-star tattooer, whose
clients include Jean-Paul Gaultier and Marc Jacobs.

The body parts are brightly-lit, suspended in space and they can be
viewed from different angles. The silicone looks and feels like human
flesh. The molds were taken from living models and their realistic
rendering — with veined arms and wrinkled joints — gives them an
eerie power. Also created for the exhibition are 19 tattoo designs
painted by contemporary tattooers on body suits, hung throughout the
exhibition. All were chosen by Anne & Julien and lent to the museum for
this exhibition; other works and objects came from other institutions,
private collections and the Quai Branly’s own collection.

Ed Hardy, America’s pioneer tattoo artist with a devoted Hollywood
following, came from his home in San Francisco for the show’s opening.

“It’s the most comprehensive exhibit on tattooing I’ve ever seen,” he
said. “There are still people who recoil from tattoos and here you have
its celebration — with depth and cultural richness. It blows my mind.”

The exhibition devotes considerable space to the long periods of
tattoo repression and stigmatization throughout the world, including
the marking of slaves in ancient Rome and of criminals in Imperial
China. In the United States, tattoo artists were considered “marginal
figures who preyed on drunken sailors,” Mr. Hardy said.

Today, tattoos have gone mainstream. The exhibition notes that almost
25 percent of Americans are tattooed, according to a 2012 Harris poll,
and that 20 percent of the French between the ages of 25 and 34 have
a tattoo, according to a 2010 Ifop poll.

Ateliers of tattoo masters from Tokyo to Paris have been transformed
into chic art galleries. Even Samantha Cameron, the wife of the
British prime minister, has a dolphin tattoo below her right ankle.

The exhibition also shows that traditional tattooing is enjoying a
revival in places like Samoa and the Philippines. In New Zealand,
traditional ornamental Maori tattooing has been given the status of
a national treasure, inspiring contemporary Maori tattoo artists.

Tahiti, New Zealand’s Maori culture, Japan, China, Europe and the
Americas are all represented. Images of tattooed performers at circus
sideshows, prisoners and sailors are juxtaposed with full body Japanese
tattoo paintings.

For the first time, a book documenting tattoos inked on prisoners in
Soviet-era forced-labor camps is on public display. They used tattoos
to trace their time in the camps and to describe their sentences.

There are tattoos identifying membership and rank in the underworld,
anti-Semitic beliefs, political allegiances and sexual preferences.

A stamp that belonged to a family in Jerusalem and dating from the
17th or 18th century was inked, applied to the skin and used as a
stencil for a permanent tattoo. The tattoos were performed on Christian
pilgrims, including Copts, Syrians and Armenians as a permanent mark
of their visit to Jerusalem.

Large black and white photographic portraits of Algerian women during
the nation’s war of independence from France show them in tribal
costume, their foreheads inked in dark blue tattoos. They look into
the camera — and at the French photographer — with defiance.

A 1919 photo of an Armenian woman, her shirt open, shows her face and
chest tattooed. In Syria, Armenian women who had fled the Turkish
genocide often were forced into prostitution and tattooed by their
pimps to identify them and prevent them from escaping.

Even more unsettling is a swath of preserved human skin from Laos that
dates from the 19th or 20th century. It looks like brown shoe leather
and contains colorful tattoos of animals and mythical monsters. And
an undated mummified hand and forearm from Peru sports a tattoo made
with an iron ring.

At the exhibition preview, Anne of Anne & Julien arrived with evidence
of her own tattooing on her body visible at her neckline and wrists.

Asked to describe the look and extent of her tattoos, she balked.

“It’s very private,” she said. “My tattoos are not a subject for
public discussion.”

WITHDRAWAL OF ARMENIAN FORCES IS MAIN CONDITION FOR NAGORNO-KARABAKH PEACE – AZERBAIJAN

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
May 8 2014

8 May 2014 – 1:49pm

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said today, commenting
on the six principles for settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
mentioned by U.S. co-chair of the OSCE MG at the Carnegie Center in
Washington yesterday, that withdrawal of Armenian forces from the
occupied territories was the main condition for settlement of the
conflict, Trend reports.

He noted that Azerbaijan was ready for peace talks to resolve the
conflict. The foreign minister said that peacekeepers should be
deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh because there was no trust between
the sides.

New church opens in Armenian bordering village

May 10, 2014 | 17:12

YEREVAN. ` An opening and consecration of Surb Karapet church took
place in Janfida community of Armavir region.

Minister of Transport and Communication Gagik Beglaryan, MPs from
ruling party, Armavir region governor and numerous guests from Russia
attended the event on Saturday, the Armenian News-NEWS.amcorrespondent
reports.

The construction was sponsored by businessman Artur Karapetyan, a
native of Janfida village who lives in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don.

Governor Ashot Karapetyan thanked the Karapetyan family for
construction of the church.

Seven khachkars (cross stones) were installed near the church.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

ARGRICULTURE-ARMENIE
Suite au gel de fin mars, l’Arménie ne produira que 8 000 tonnes
d’abricots contre 89 000 l’an dernier

La récolte d’abricot sera catastrophique cette année en Arménie. A
peine 8 000 tonnes d’abricots seront récoltées contre 89 000 l’an
dernier. Selon Karnig Petrossian le vice-ministre arménien de
l’Agriculture le gel du 30 et 31 mars ont occasionné d’immenses pertes
avec le gel qui a touché une grande partie des abricotiers de la
plaine de l’Ararat. Ce gel fut très important dans les régions
d’Ararat, d’Armavir ainsi que les régions montagneuses. La production
d’abricot fut toutefois maintenue dans les régions d’Arakadzodn,
Kodayk et Vayots Tsor. Mais la plus importante production d’abricot en
Arménie s’effectue dans la région d’Ararat et d’Armavir. Pour les
autres régions, 6 700 hectares d’abricotiers et 8 900 hectares
d’autres arbres fruitiers furent partiellement touchés par le gel.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 10 mai 2014,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Armenian flag set on fire in Baku on May 8, Shushi liberation day

18:37 08/05/2014 » SOCIETY

Today, on the day of liberation of Shushi by the Karabakh self-defense
forces, the flag of Armenia was set on fire by the participants of the
event at the “Alley of Martyrs” in Baku, Azerbaijani portal
“Minval.az” reported.

It is also noted that “the event was attended by the representatives
of public intelligentsia.” The portal also writes that before the
participants of the event would burn the Armenian flag the police
“protested and urged the citizens to keep calm.” Nevertheless, the
Armenian flag was set on fire.

In its turn, Azerbaijani portal “Haqqin.az” writes that the event was
organized by the so-called “Karabakh Liberation Organization,” and the
flag was burned by one of the women.

On 8-9 May, 1992, the NKR Self-Defense Forces, under the command of
Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan liberated Shushi, city in Karabakh, from where
the Azerbaijani troops were opening fire at the civilians of the
capital city of the republic ` Stepanakert.

Source: Panorama.am

Russian Ambassador to Armenia disappointed at absence of a number of
foreign diplomats from reception dedicated to Victory Day

by David Stepanyan

ARMINFO
Thursday, May 8, 19:48

Russian Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Volynkin expressed his
disappointment at the absence of a number of foreign diplomats from
the reception dedicated to the Victory Day. The reception was
organized at the Russian Embassy in Armenia.

Ambassador Volynkin congratulated the veterans and the guests on the
Victory Day and pointed out that on May 9 the whole world marks the
victory over fascism. In this light, the absence of a number of
foreign diplomats looks strange at least, he said.

To note, mostly the Western countries’ diplomats were absent from the
event dedicated to the Victory Day. It is obvious that they wanted to
demonstrate Moscow their attitude to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.