12:06, 8 May, 2021
STEPANAKERT, MAY 8, ARMENPRESS. 13 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in the Republic of Artsakh in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 2,699.
174 coronavirus tests have been carried out on May 5-6, the ministry of healthcare of Artsakh said.
Currently, 16 infected patients receive treatment in hospitals.
On April 19 the vaccinations against COVID-19 have launched in Artsakh.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
11:52, 9 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 9, ARMENPRESS. On the occasion of Victory and Peace Day, Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan joined several top lawmakers and government members for a visit to Victory Park.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister, Armenia’s top leadership laid flowers at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier and paid tribute to our heroes who fell in the Great Patriotic War and in the fight for Shushi liberation.
A festive parade was held, after which Nikol Pashinyan talked to the veterans and the freedom-fighters who had arrived at Victory Park. The acting premier congratulated them on the holiday and wished them robust health.
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Opposition Parties Confirm Alliance With Kocharian
May 06, 2021
• Naira Nalbandian
Armenia -- The Armenian Revolutionary Federation holds a rally in Yerevan's
Liberty Square, May 23, 2019.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) and another opposition
party officially confirmed on Thursday that they will join forces with former
President Robert Kocharian to participate in snap parliamentary elections
expected in June.
“We will soon make a joint statement on the formation of the alliance, its name,
electoral list and other tasks,” Ishkhan Saghatelian, the head of
Dashnaktsutyun’s governing body in Armenia, said in a video address posted on
Facebook.
Saghatelian said the Dashnaktsutyun leadership has decided to team up with
Kocharian and the newly established party called Resurgent Armenia because they
have similar “visions for Armenia’s future.”
Dashnaktsutyun, which also has branches in Armenian Diaspora communities around
the world, was allied to Kocharian when he ruled the country from 1998-2008. It
is not represented in the current parliament, having garnered only about 4
percent of the vote in the last elections held in December 2018.
Resurgent Armenia announced the creation of the alliance in a separate
statement. It said the alliance will be led by Kocharian.
The party, which held its founding congress earlier this week, is led by Vahe
Hakobian, a former governor of Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province. Most of
its senior members are elected local government officials and other well-known
residents of the region sandwiched between Iran, Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan
exclave.
They have angrily challenged Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in recent months,
blaming him for Armenia’s defeat in the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh which
left Syunik facing serious security challenges.
The Resurgent Armenia statement said the “grave situation in Armenia and
Karabakh” is what necessitates the party’s electoral alliance with “like-minded
political forces.”
Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian meets with supporters, Yerevan,
April 21, 2021.
Kocharian did not immediately comment on the announcements made by the two
parties. But he did say last month that he will lead a bloc comprising at least
two opposition parties. He expressed confidence that it will be Pashinian’s main
election challenger.
The announcements came the day after Levon Ter-Petrosian, who had served as
Armenia’s first president from 1991-1998, publicly urged Kocharian and another
ex-president, Serzh Sarkisian, to team up with him and try to unseat Pashinian
in the upcoming polls. Ter-Petrosian said the incumbent prime minister’s
reelection would be “much more dangerous for Armenia than even possible or
hypothetical threats emanating from Azerbaijan and Turkey.”
Both Kocharian and Sarkisian were quick to turn down the proposal. Sarkisian
reaffirmed his Republican Party’s decision to form an alliance with another
opposition group led by Artur Vanetsian, a former head of Armenia’s National
Security Service.
Russia Vows No Letup In Karabakh Peace Efforts
May 06, 2021
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian meets with his Russian
counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Yerevan, May 6, 2021.
Russia will keep doing its best to ensure the full implementation of the
Russian-brokered agreement that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a visit to Yerevan
on Thursday.
“We are not reducing our efforts at returning all detainees to their homes,
demining, preserving cultural and religious heritage as well as launching the
work of relevant international organizations in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Lavrov said
after talks with his Armenian counterpart Ara Ayvazian.
In that context, he stressed the importance of Russian efforts to get Armenia
and Azerbaijan to open their transport links after decades of conflict. He said
a trilateral working group formed by the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani
governments for that purpose is helping to further stabilize the situation in
the Karabakh conflict zone.
“The success of this work will be decisive for normalizing the overall situation
and laying the groundwork for creative cooperation in the post-conflict period,”
added Lavrov.
He further stated that Armenia and Azerbaijan are now also engaged in a
demarcation and delimitation of their internationally recognized border. Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian and other Armenian officials have repeatedly made
statements to the contrary.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Lavrov, Ayvazian reiterated the
official Armenian line that the conflict cannot be deemed resolved until the
conflicting parties agree on Karabakh’s status, the main bone of contention.
Yerevan says such an agreement must reflect peace proposals made by the OSCE
Minsk Group co-headed by Russia, the United States and France.
Armenia - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lays a wreath at the Armenian
genocide memorial in Yerevan, May 6, 2021.
Lavrov, who is due to visit Baku early next week, said the group’s chief
priority now must be to create an atmosphere of mutual trust.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, the Minsk Group co-chairs called for
“concrete steps to create an atmosphere of mutual trust conducive to
long-lasting peace.” They urged the parties to “fully and expeditiously complete
the exchange process for all prisoners, detainees, and remains, and to respect
their obligations to ensure the humane treatment of detainees.”
The statement came the day after Azerbaijan released three more Armenian
prisoners of war.
Baku remains reluctant to set free more than 100 other Armenian POWs and
civilian captives believed to remain in Azerbaijani captivity. Yerevan regards
this as a gross violation of the November 9 truce accord brokered by Russian
President Vladimir Putin.
Meeting with Pashinian later on Thursday, Lavrov said Russia will spare no
effort to secure the release of the remaining Armenian prisoners. “We are
confident that we will manage to solve this issue soon,” he said.
Lavrov also assured Pashinian that Moscow remains “committed to ensuring the
security of our ally, Armenia.”
Latvia Also Recognizes Armenian Genocide
May 06, 2021
Latvia – Latvian and European Union flags fly in the capital Riga.
Latvia’s parliament voted on Thursday to pass a resolution recognizing the
Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey and honoring its 1.5 million victims.
The resolution was drafted by the parliament’s foreign affairs committee and
approved by 58 votes to 11, with 7 abstentions.
It says that the mass killings and deportations of Armenians, which began with
the April 1915 mass arrests of Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople,
constituted a genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman government. It notes that the
European Parliament first recognized the genocide in 1987.
The resolution also says Latvia believes that condemnation of all crimes against
humanity is important for preventing a repeat of such tragedies in the future.
Armenia’s outgoing ambassador to the Baltic state, Tigran Mkrtchian, hailed the
development and thanked Latvian lawmakers for “addressing this issue extremely
important for the Armenian people.”
“What was hard to imagine years ago became a reality today,” Mkrtchian wrote on
his Facebook page.
Predictably, the Latvian resolution was condemned by Turkey, which continues to
strongly a deny a premeditated government effort to exterminate the Ottoman
Empire’s Armenian population. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said it is devoid of
“any legal basis.”
The vehement Turkish denials are dismissed by most scholars outside Turkey.
The Armenian genocide has also been recognized by the parliaments and/or
governments of three dozen other countries, including Latvia’s Baltic neighbor
Lithuania as well as the United States, Russia, France, Germany and Italy.
U.S. President Joe Biden used the word “genocide” in his April 24 statement on
the 106th anniversary of the World War One-era slaughter of Ottoman Armenians.
Pashinian’s Party Not To Form New Election Bloc
May 06, 2021
Armenia - Campaign posters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's Civil Contract
party are displayed in Yerevan, May 5, 2021.
A senior member of Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party said on Thursday that
it will not form an alliance with other political allies of Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian to participate in upcoming parliamentary elections.
“The Civil Contract party will participate in the elections as a separate party,
rather than in an alliance,” Lilit Makunts, the leader of the party’s
parliamentary group, told journalists.
Pashinian set up such an alliance ahead of the last elections held in December
2018. The bloc dominated by his party and called My Step won 70 percent of the
vote at the time.
Makunts refused to shed light on the list of Civil Contract’s candidates for the
snap polls expected in June. “I will just say that there will be new people on
our electoral list,” she said without naming any of them.
Pashinian pledged in March to call the vote amid renewed anti-government
protests staged by opposition forces blaming him for Armenia’s defeat in last
year’s war with Azerbaijan and demanding his resignation. He and his cabinet
stepped down for that purpose on April 25.
Under the Armenian constitution, early elections must be held within two months
if the prime minister resigns and the National Assembly twice fails to elect
another head of the government.
In what was the first step towards its dissolution, the parliament controlled by
Pashinian did not reelect him or install another premier on Monday. It is due
vote again on May 10.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
10:54, 6 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 6, ARMENPRESS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited today the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on the sidelines of his working visit in Armenia.
He was accompanied by Armenia’s caretaker foreign minister Ara Aivazian.
FM Lavrov laid a wreath at the Memorial, flowers at the Eternal Flame, honoring the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.
Thereafter, the Russian FM watered the tree he had planted in the park of the Memorial back in 2007.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
12:00, 5 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. Vice Speaker of Parliament Lena Nazaryan got vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine.
“Friends, today I got my first shot of the CoronaVac vaccine against COVID-19,” Nazaryan, who is also the head of the Armenia-China parliamentary friendship group said on social media.
100,000 doses of the vaccine were supplied to Armenia by the Chinese government on May 2.
Armenia is also using the Sputnik-V and AstraZeneca vaccines.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
13:41, 5 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan says there are the first signs that the world is at the stage of overcoming the coronavirus pandemic.
“These signs are first of all connected with the production volumes of vaccines. In fact, based on the data of at least the past week we can state that we have some decline in daily coronavirus cases in Armenia”, Pashinyan said during a consultation in the ministry of healthcare.
He thanked all healthcare workers, noting that from the very first days Armenia properly resisted the pandemic. “But today the content of our problems must gradually change, and our goal must be to carry out mass vaccinations. I would like to highlight that there is first of all the healthcare component here, but I also want to highlight the economic and civilizational component. We can record that there is a little activeness in the tourism sector. And I also want to note that there are all grounds to think that getting vaccinated against coronavirus will soon be required for traveling. Today we have prepared in Armenia the electronic platform of the so-called green passports so that our citizens will have information in their mobile phones verifying their vaccination which will enable them to travel during the restrictions”, Nikol Pashinyan said.
He noted that those countries where the vaccination percentage is high, are considered as a desirable place for tourism.
Pashinyan added that all efforts must be made for the vaccination to become massive in Armenia.
He informed that as of today the number of citizens who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Armenia is a little over 5,000. “I want to note that this is not a sufficient figure at all, and we must at least double the daily rates and must do it very quickly”, he added.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Summarizing the results of the campaign dedicated to Women’s Holidays
17:14, 3 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. Converse Bank has summarized the results of the campaign dedicated to Women’s Holidays. The bank offered its female customers an opportunity to make non-cash purchases with Woman’s Card payment cards from March 15 to April 7 and benefit from cashback, as well as the opportunity to use some banking products on preferential terms, and receive a Visa Pay Sticker or Visa mini-FOB (with its accessory).
“We would like to thank the Converse Bank Woman’s cardholders for their interest in our offer and for the active participation they demonstrated during the campaign. As part of the campaign, the female community of Woman’s Card holders was replenished with thousands of new cardholders, many of whom used cashback when making non-cash purchases which meet the criteria set for the campaign. In general, the amount of cashback exceeded AMD 5 million”, as reported by the Bank.
It was noted that since 2016, the amount of cashback within the framework of various campaigns to promote non-cash purchases amounted to AMD 130 million.
Converse Bank constantly develops its card products, organizes various promotion campaigns for clients and will come up with new exciting offers in the near future.
The oversight of the Bank is performed by the Central Bank of Armenia.
[ The writer works at the Baku-based think-tank Center of Analysis of International Relations (AIR). He is the head of a department that focuses on Azerbaijani foreign policy, geopolitics in South Caucasus, internal and external policy of Turkey, Azerbaijan-Turkey relations.]
BAKU, Azerbaijan
The use of the term “genocide” by US President Joe Biden to describe the events of 1915 has sparked a slew of legal and political debates. Legal experts believe that this is a political statement and has nothing to do with international law, while political experts believe the statement is not even in favor of the regional politics of the US, much less Turkey-US relations and the situation of Turkish citizens of Armenian descent. On the contrary, the declaration risks seriously damaging the post-conflict peacebuilding process in the South Caucasus.
According to the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, international courts, not political leaders or parliaments, have the authority to determine whether or not the term genocide can be applied to a situation. In this regard, there is as yet no court decision labeling the 1915 events as a “genocide”. In this case, however, the courts have reached the exact opposite conclusion. According to a 2013 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), for example, the events of 1915 are a matter for courts of law to authoritatively speak on, not politicians.
Although there are disagreements about its legal implications, this statement will undoubtedly have political repercussions. This declaration will almost certainly have negative consequences, especially in terms of cooperation opportunities in the South Caucasus region following the Second Karabakh War. Biden’s declaration has been particularly described as a show of support for Armenian revanchists, who suffered a heavy defeat in the Second Karabakh War, and as a damaging step toward regional cooperation. President Biden reportedly told President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the phone the day before the announcement that this had been his position for the past twenty years and that he must keep his word. This, however, appears to be a simplistic explanation that does not ring true. For example, before 2008 US presidential elections, Barack Obama had also promised to the Armenian diaspora and lobby organizations that he would define the events of 1915 as “genocide.” But he never uttered that word during his time in the office in order to avoid damaging US-Turkey relations.
Biden’s statement came at a time when Azerbaijan and Turkey were making statements about post-war cooperation in the region, causing deep disappointment in the region. Azerbaijani Presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev called President Biden’s declaration a “historical mistake”. During a recent telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev expressed strong support for his country’s strategic ally by stating that Turkey had been playing a critical and positive role in the region in the post-conflict period and that the US president’s statement was met with concern by both Azerbaijan’s leadership and public.
Following the Second Karabakh War, Azerbaijan made three concrete offers in the region: the opening of railway communication lines between Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, and Turkey, the emergence of a six-party cooperation format in the region, and the integration of Armenians living in Karabakh into Azerbaijan. The goal, according to President Ilham Aliyev, was to reduce regional tensions and prevent future wars.
Recently, there has been some support in Armenia, albeit at a low level, in response to Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s proposals for regional cooperation. Some Armenian politicians, including Pashinyan, recognize that without regional cooperation, Armenia’s future is in danger. Pashinyan’s statement that Armenia should review its relations with its neighbors is remarkable. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian also acknowledged this reality during a visit to Georgia, stating that Armenia should improve relations with Georgia and Azerbaijan.
The resolution of the Karabakh issue has also created new opportunities for Turkey and Armenia to establish diplomatic relations and open the border between them. Statements by both countries’ authorities indicate that they are willing to go in that direction. One of the main issues between the parties in this case is one of trust. Mutual trust must be established in addition to diplomatic relations between the two sides in order to achieve normalization of relations between the peoples of both sides. Biden’s statement, on the other hand, undermines trust between the two peoples and jeopardizes the normalization of relations. “The tension caused by the use of the issue in parliamentary agendas for decades has not served the rapprochement of the two nations; on the contrary, it provokes hostile feelings and delays peace,” said Sahak Mashalian, head of Turkey’s Armenian Patriarchate.
As a result of Biden’s statement, there’s a possibility that the demand for the “genocide” to be recognized will resurface on the bilateral agenda. Turkey has a clear proposal in this regard: establish a joint commission to investigate the events of 1915. Armenia, however, rejects this proposal and opposes an objective examination of the events. Therefore, Biden’s statement undermines the possibility reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia.
Furthermore, there are also revanchist and radical nationalist opposition groups competing against Pashinyan ahead of the June snap parliamentary elections announced after Pashinyan’s resignation. Although these groups have been trying for a long time to gain support in Armenia, they have remained weak against Pashinyan. Because of Biden’s statement, however, these radical groups in Armenia now have the chance to become more active and increase the number of their supporters. Therefore, Biden’s statement negatively affects regional cooperation opportunities as well as Armenia’s pre-election process, playing into the hands of radical nationalist groups.
Biden’s statement does not appear to be in the best interests of Turkish Armenians, either. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s condolence messages to Turkish Armenians have served to build a climate of trust in Turkey for the past 18 years. Therefore, Armenians living in Turkey are expressing their discomfort with Biden’s statement. They believe that third parties are exploiting the Armenian issue for political gain. “The US and the EU are involved in the issue with political motives,” Bedros Sirinoglu, the head of the Armenian Foundations Union in Istanbul, said last Friday, criticizing political authorities for instrumentalizing the 1915 incidents, which happened between the Turkish and Armenian nations. He stated that “the prerequisite for empathy with the Armenian people is to not play with the dignity of the Turkish people or adopting a hostile attitude towards Turkey.”
As we have seen, Biden’s statement pleased neither Turkey nor Azerbaijan, nor all Armenians, but rather some radical nationalist elements in the diaspora and in Armenia. This declaration jeopardizes regional peace while confining Armenia’s future to events that occurred over a century ago. Instead of making such provocative statements, the Biden administration should seek ways to support the region’s post-conflict peacebuilding and cooperation process. This would help to increase the chances of a lasting peace between Turkey and Armenia, as well as between Azerbaijan and Armenia peace, by following through on the November 10 declaration.
* Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu Agency.
President Biden recognized the mass killings of Armenians more than a century ago as genocide, in a test of America’s somewhat strained relationship with Turkey. For more on the significance of Biden’s statement, Alex Hinton, Director of Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights and author of “It Can Happen Here: White Power and The Rising Threat of Genocide in the U.S.” joins.
Hari Sreenivasan:
For more on the significance of President Biden’s statement, I spoke with Alex Hinton, Director of Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights.
He is also the author of “It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the U.S.”
Professor Hinton joined us from Newark, New Jersey.
Alex, the big picture question is, why does it matter that President Joe Biden makes this declaration that what happened decades ago was, in fact, a genocide?
Alex Hinton:
So in one sense, this is absolutely momentous for the victims. But I think more broadly, it’s something that’s momentous for all of us, you know, in terms of human rights. One of the principles that guides us and guides our countries, it’s centered around respect for the dignity of the person. So if we talk about dignity and respect, that starts with, if lives are lost, massive human rights violations take place, we need to acknowledge, that the descendants need truth, and there needs to be more broadly an acknowledgment that, sort of looking ahead, also is a signal to other potential leaders that this can’t be happening. You can engage in a campaign of denial that will, again, sort of perpetuate this.
Hari Sreenivasan:
This is at a time when the United States is grappling with the plight of Black Americans at the hands of police and we have been all summer and in the wake of a different administration that had perhaps a different set of values.
Alex Hinton:
You’re pointing to something that’s absolutely key, that in the U.S., there’s also this demand that we recognize the truth and we think about the disempowerment of certain groups we consider structural racism, but we consider the atrocities of the past and what led us to the current moment. And in Turkey, and sort of the point is, if we think about this reckoning with the past, it’s never taken place for Turkey, WWI, with the formation of the modern Turkish state, you know, that moment which is intertwined with genocide, is the beginning of the nation.
And so from the very beginning, the narrative in Turkey has been that Armenians rebelled and they sort of legitimate what took place with that canard. In addition, they minimize the numbers or a number of moves they had made. But again, if you sort of think about it, it’s paradoxical, because perhaps if the Turkish government recognized the genocide, people wouldn’t be talking about it. It wouldn’t be as big of an issue. And so in some sense, they add fuel to the fire.
Hari Sreenivasan:
What does this do strategically to our relationship with Turkey, who has been an important ally?
Alex Hinton:
Yeah, certainly historically they’ve been an important ally. In recent years that relationship has definitely frayed in terms of geopolitical interests. It’s no longer quite as central. So that strategic partnership is one that I think needs to be reimagined and reinvented.
You know what might happen? No doubt there will be at least a public protest, a diplomatic protest. There might be some sort of sanction, something or another that’s mentioned along those lines. But if you actually look, I really think in the long term, this will be something that passes by. And again, in areas where there are common interests, the United States and Turkey will continue to collaborate.
You know, the one difference is that the U.S., you know, in terms more broadly, its recognition of the genocide is significant for many other countries. And there are other countries such as Israel and Britain who have not recognized it. And so hopefully this may serve as a catalyst for other countries to recognize anyone who has a commitment to democracy and human rights needs to acknowledge a massive human rights violation, one of the first that took place at the beginning of the 20th century.
Hari Sreenivasan:
What is President Erdogan likely to do?
Alex Hinton:
I think in the short term, he’s likely to speak out to say it was a mistake, perhaps to make some warnings of steps that will be taken and the long term, it’s not in Turkey’s interest and certainly not in the U.S. interest to have a long-standing conflict. So there will be some noise that’s made initially, but after that, I’m confident that both partners will continue their relationship. Maybe it’ll be slightly different, but maybe in the long term, perhaps it could even strengthen the relationship of the two countries.
Hari Sreenivasan:
Alex Hinton from Rutgers, thanks so much.
Alex Hinton:
Thank you.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — President Joe Biden is preparing to formally acknowledge that the systematic killing and deportation of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in modern-day Turkey more than a century ago, was genocide.
The anticipated move, something Biden had pledged to do as a candidate could further complicate an already tense relationship with Turkish leadership.
It it happens, it would make President Biden the first U.S. president to acknowledge the situation as genocide.
Rep. David Valadao was one of more than 100 lawmakers to send a letter to President Biden urging him to make an announcement.
In a statement, Rep. Valadao said:
“Formal recognition of the Armenian genocide is long overdue in the United States where so many Armenian-Americans continue to feel the pain of this tragedy. I urge President Biden to formally honor those affected by this atrocity and offer the Armenian-American community this validation they deserve.”
The National Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide is observed each year on April 24.