Author: Ekmekjian Janet

Yerevan Has No Intention of ‘Dismantling’ Nemesis Monument

Ekmekjian Janet
by Asbarez Staff

 

 May 9, 2023

 

in Armenia, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

“Nemesis,” a monument dedicated to the heroes of “Operation Nemesis” was inaugurated in Yerevan on Apr. 25


Amid threats from Ankara, including the closure of Turkey’s airspace to overflights by an Armenian airline, over the unveiling of a monument to the heroes of Operation Nemesis, Yerevan city hall on Tuesday signaled that city officials have no intention of “dismantling” the Nemesis Monument.

The Yerevan municipality made the statement in response to a query from Azatutyun.am’s Armenian Service, which had asked for clarification given threats of reprisals from Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Cavusoglu demanded that Armenia demolish the monument, calling it an affront to Turks and Azerbaijanis. He warned Yerevan that if the monument is not removed Ankara will “take retaliatory measures.”

In an interview with Azatutyun.am last week, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the decision to create the monument “wrong.”

Armenia’s National Security chief Armen Grigoryan told reporters on Tuesday that whether or not to have such a monument was a domestic issue for Armenia and “no one has the right to interfere in these issues.” He said that the issue of the the monument was within the purview of local government officials.

Grigoryan emphasized that normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey should proceed without preconditions.

Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan directly corollated the heightened rhetoric from Ankara on the monument to the upcoming elections in Turkey.

“Let’s not forget that there are [presidential and parliamentary] election processes in that country [Turkey] and many statements should be viewed from that point of view,” Hovhannisyan told reporters on Tuesday, saying that election campaigns tend to become “emotional.”

Hamazkayin W.R.L.G. presents Armenian Woman and Mother 5/11/23

Ekmekjian Janet
Hi Everyone,

Hamazkayin Western Region Literary Group presents Armenian Woman and Mother panel discussion and guest speaker Nora Chitilian and Rev. Vatche Ekmkjian on Thursday, May 11, 2023, at 8pm (PST), 11pm (EST), (Armenia, Friday 7am) FREE on Zoom. Contact Vania for information (818)216-9935 or email us at [email protected]

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Armenians ponder a post-Erdogan Turkey

Ekmekjian Janet
May 5 2023
Arshaluis Mgdesyan May 5, 2023

Armenia is watching the campaign ahead of the May 14 election in Turkey with great interest and guarded expectations. 

Most Armenians view Turkey as an enemy and a threat, but the prospect of mending ties with their historical rival and vastly larger neighbor holds undeniable economic opportunities. 

Armenian analysts would prefer to see the defeat of incumbent strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who oversaw Turkey’s extensive military support for Azerbaijan in the 2020 Second Karabakh War.

But they also warn against pinning hopes on a major change in Turkey’s foreign policy should the opposition coalition’s candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, pull off an upset win. 

Turkey and Armenia have never had diplomatic relations and their border has been closed since 1993, when Ankara shut it in solidarity with Azerbaijan during the First Karabakh War.

Azerbaijan’s victory in the second war opened the door to Armenia-Turkey rapprochement talks which got underway in early 2022 and have proceeded fitfully since then. Several rounds of talks produced the resumption of direct passenger and cargo flights, and an agreement, not yet realized, on opening the land border to citizens of third countries and persons with diplomatic passports. 

The Armenian government has already allocated funds for renovating the Margara checkpoint on the border with Turkey. 

But just days ago, Turkey announced the closure of its airspace to some flights from Armenia in retaliation for the erection of a monument in Yerevan commemorating a plot to assassinate the early 20th-century Turkish leaders who orchestrated the Armenian genocide. 

This negotiation process, with its ups and downs, has been overseen on Turkey’s side by President Erdogan and his long-ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). 

Ergodan has close ties to Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s autocratic leader who regularly engages in threatening rhetoric against Armenia. (Aliyev has campaigned for Erdogan, and Azerbaijan’s government-aligned media has shown an unusual amount of enthusiasm for Erdogan’s re-election.)

So naturally Armenians are not particularly optimistic about the prospect of Erdogan staying in power. 

Turkologist Ruben Safrastyan thinks that if Erdogan manages to extend his 20-year rule, Turkey could further boost its support for Azerbaijan and further subordinate Armenia-Turkey rapprochement to the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Turkey, in exchange for opening the border with Armenia, will not only seek to resolve the Karabakh conflict in accordance with the interests of Azerbaijan, but will also require Yerevan to officially recognize the Kars Treaty of 1991, according to which the current border between the two states was determined. Turkey will also demand that Armenia renounce seeking the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and open communication through the Syunik region of Armenia, which is called the ‘Zangezur corridor’ in Azerbaijan and Turkey. Through it, Turkey wants to freely communicate with Azerbaijan, and further with the Turkic countries of Central Asia,” Safrastyan told Eurasianet.

Armenia should not have any problem recognizing its state border with Turkey even though some Armenians, particularly in the diaspora, regard parts of Turkey as traditional Armenian lands. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced in parliament on May 3 that Yerevan had no territorial claims on neighboring states. 

And despite deep historical resentments, particularly in the diaspora, the Armenian state does not precondition setting up diplomatic ties with Ankara on Turkish recognition of the genocide. 

But Yerevan is categorically against providing Azerbaijan an extraterritorial corridor, which could have the effect of cutting off the crucial border with Iran and create a sense of encirclement by rival states.

So what if there is a change of power in Turkey?

“If the Turkish opposition wins, we can expect some softening of Turkey’s pressure on Armenia. This is because the Turkish opposition seeks to strengthen cooperation with the United States and backs the country’s entry into the EU, and the West as a whole is in favor of normalizing relations between Ankara and Yerevan. However, I do not expect any drastic change in relations between Baku and Ankara. After all, the military-political and economic integration between the two countries is very deep. I don’t think that the Turkish opposition will abandon it if it wins the elections,” Ruben Safrastyan said.

Another Turkologist, Nelli Minasyan, agrees. “Erdogan will have left a huge political legacy. It has been beneficial to Turkey and its geopolitical interests. It is unlikely that the opposition will reject this. Some aspects will change, but there will hardly be a sharp reconfiguration. This also applies to Turkey’s relations with Armenia,” she said in an interview with Eurasianet.

Expectations and fears

Armenians tend to have ambivalent feelings about normalizing relations with Turkey. A recent IRI poll found that 89 percent of respondents considered Turkey a major “political threat”. That number was just behind Azerbaijan’s 93 percent. 

Turkey is a historical rival and villain in the Armenian consciousness, but many Armenians are nonetheless willing to buy Turkish goods. Trade turnover is growing dramatically despite the closed border. Overland trade takes place through Georgia.

After Armenia lifted a year-long ban on the import of Turkish goods over Ankara’s support for Azerbaijan during the Second Karabakh War, trade turnover shot up by 4,400 percent from 2021 ($73.5m) to 2022 ($324.5m). Armenia’s chief imports from Turkey are consumer goods, aluminum, and fruits while its top exports are gold and precious and semiprecious stones. 

If and when the border is fully opened, a further increase in bilateral trade is to be expected. While that will be good for Armenian consumers, many fear it will harm local producers, in particular farmers, who will not be able to compete with Turkish government-subsidized produce. 

Meanwhile, the Armenian government has done some initial calculations on the positive effects. The press service of the Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure told Eurasianet that an opening of the border would reduce fuel costs for heavy trucks by an average of $100 dollars and reduce the overland distance between Yerevan and Istanbul by about 200 kilometers. 

The new route would also eliminate the need for cargo companies to pay transit duties in Georgia, the press service said.

Arshaluis Mgdesyan is a journalist based in Yerevan.

Czech Republic supports Armenia’s efforts for peace – PM Fiala

Ekmekjian Janet

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 16:17, 4 May 2023

PRAGUE, MAY 4, ARMENPRESS. The Czech Republic supports Armenia’s efforts aimed at a peaceful solution, Czech PM Petr Fiala said during a joint press conference with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan when asked by a reporter why the government of the Czech Republic isn’t taking actions and sanctioning Azerbaijan for blocking the Lachin Corridor.

“We must continue taking steps which will lead to a peaceful resolution. We’ve created an opportunity for that in Prague, we support Armenia’s efforts aimed at a peaceful resolution,” Fiala said.

“We’ve expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in NK, which is due to the blockade of the Lachin Corridor. The EU released a statement. And we support  this statement. It calls for ensuring security, freedom and safety of movement of the NK residents,” PM Fiala said.

He praised the Armenian Prime Minister’s efforts for peace and said that he can expect support from EU members.

“The common goal of the Czech Republic and EU member states is to achieve stability and lasting peace in the region, which means to guarantee the rights of Armenia, of Armenians. This is important,” Fiala added.

The word "separatism" is not an international legal term and has no definition. Marukyan about Aliyev’s statement

Ekmekjian Janet

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 18:32, 3 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. Edmon Marukyan, Ambassador at-Large of Armenia, in his “Twitter” page referred to the statement of the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, that Armenia removed the wording “condemnation of separatism” from the document proposed by Azerbaijan.

“Today, the president of Azerbaijan complained that Armenia removed the wording “condemnation of separatism” from the document proposed by Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, he did not say that the word “separatism” is not an international-legal term and does not have an international-legal definition of what should be understood under it. He did not say that Armenia asked for an explanation and clarification of what the application or existence of that provision means. Otherwise, the document to be signed in the future can be overloaded with wordings that have multiple interpretations, and then endlessly claim that according to the interpretation of one of the parties, the agreement has been violated,” ARMENPRESS reports, Marukyan wrote.

Former FOX 5 Reporter Jacqueline Sarkissian Joins KTLA

Ekmekjian Janet
by Contributor

 

 

 

in Latest, News, Top Stories
Jacqueline Sarkissian


There is a new Armenian news reporter making her presence on local television. Jacqueline Sarkissian, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, is back at KTLA — the same station where her career in broadcast journalism started 10 years ago.

Born in Diamond Bar, Sarkissian went to Rosary High School in Fullerton and graduated with honors from USC with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.

Sarkissian first started at KTLA as an intern before accepting a position on the assignment desk. In 2015, she made the move to small town Tyler, Texas to report and anchor for the city’s CBS affiliate. She was a “one-man-band” journalist where she shot, edited, and wrote her own stories in addition to being in front of the camera. From there she moved to Austin, Texas and later moved back to Southern California, in March of 2020, to work as a reporter and anchor for FOX 5 San Diego.

Ever since she left KTLA, Sarkissian dreamt of coming back home and telling stories that impact the community she grew up in. She is ecstatic that her dream has now become a reality and she is especially proud to serve as a voice for the Armenian community.

Sarkissian’s heritage has always been extremely important to her, and she couldn’t be happier to be back in LA — home to so many Armenians. Sarkissian would love to connect with her fellow Armenians, who can contact her via email at [email protected] or on Instagram and Twitter. Sarkissian and her husband, along with their 6-month-old baby, live in Orange County.

Memorial for Armenian Genocide victims in Wuppertal [Germany]

Ekmekjian Janet
Kurdish Press –

24 April is International Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. The Wuppertal alliance “Gathe for everyone” is organizing a memorial in Gezi-Gathe-Park.

On the international day of remembrance of the genocide of Armenians, 24 April, the alliance “Gathe for everyone” will organize a memorial in the Gezi-Gathe-Park (Gathe / corner of Markomannenstraße) in Wuppertal.

The organizers said about the memorial that “on 24 April 1915, the deportations and massacres of the Armenian civilian population in the Ottoman Empire began on the orders of the young Turkish Minister of the Interior, Talat Pasha. The crimes happened with the knowledge, toleration and partial support of the German Reich, which was allied with the Young Turk rulers, and culminated in the expulsion of the last Armenian survivors into the Mesopotamian desert, where they died in agony of thirst, hunger and exhaustion.”

The organizers continued: “Most of the Ottoman army’s Armenian soldiers were murdered; Women, children and the elderly were sent on death marches across the Syrian desert. On the way, special units massacred the deportees; the last survivors were killed in camps in the desert near Deir ez-Zor. According to calculations by independent historians, at least one million, probably more than 1.5 million Armenians fell victim to the deportations and mass murders. In addition to the Armenians, around 600,000 Aramaic, Chaldean, Assyrian and Greek Christians were also affected by the murderous measures.”

Regulator to reportedly block MTS Armenia sale

Ekmekjian Janet
Developing Telecom
MANNY PHAM

Armenia’s telecoms regulator the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) will reportedly block the proposed sale of MTS Armenia (Viva-MTS) due to national security concerns.

Local media outlet News.am claimed to have seen a draft of the agenda for the regulator’s next meeting which outlined a letter received from the Ministry of High-Tech Industry, stating concerns over the sale.

The buying company has not been revealed as PSRC chairman Garegin Baghramyan declined to relevel its identity but did disclose the deal does not involve one of the incumbent operators. MTS Armenia is a subsidiary of Russian operator group MTS.

“The petition was submitted also to the Ministry of High-Tech Industry, which shall hold discussions with the National Security Service to find out whether the transaction opposes national security issues,” said Baghramyan at the time.

Armenian media speculated the buyer of MTS Armenia bookmaker 1Xbet and Russian energy giant Gazprom as potential buyers, reported CommsUpdate.

Asbarez: SAVE MY HUSBAND: Wife of Lebanese-Armenian POW Fears He Has Been Killed in Azerbaijani Captivity

Ekmekjian Janet
by Asbarez Staff

 

 April 2, 2023

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

Vicken and Linda Euljekjian


BY JASMINE SEYMOUR
Special to Asbarez

Linda Euljekjian, the wife of Lebanese-Armenian prisoner of war Vicken Euljekjian, who was convicted in a sham trial in Baku and sentenced to 20 years in jail, addressed a heart-breaking cry for help—an open Letter to leaders of the United Nations, European Union, Council of Europe, OSCE, the presidents of United States, France, Germany, Britain’s prime minister and human rights organizations.

“I am writing this letter pleading for your help, because my family and I are extremely concerned that the Azerbaijani authorities could have murdered my husband. We are unable to verify reports circulating on social media that my husband ‘was tortured to death in jail’.”

Armenian POW Vicken Euljekjian is seen in an Azerbaijani court in June, 2021 (Trend.az photo)

“The International Committee of Red Cross, the only organization allowed to visit Armenian hostages in Azerbaijan, has neither confirmed nor denied these allegations,” the letter said.

“The Red Cross said yesterday they are ‘investigating these reports with the Azerbaijani authorities.’ So, I am asking for the help of world leaders and human rights organizations to find out whether my husband is alive or dead, and if he is alive, to demand his immediate release, as he is innocent and in imminent danger,” Linda Euljekjian added.

“We have had no news from my husband for two and half months. The last time I was allowed to speak with him was on 27 January 2023. I have not heard from him since and I am concerned that he is being tortured in the Azerbaijani jail,” she said.

Lebanese lawmaker Paula Yacoubian (left) meets with Linda and Christine Euljekjian

On Saturday morning, unconfirmed messages were posted on social media, simply stating that Vicken Euljekjian was ”tortured to death in prison.” All efforts to check the horrific news turned vain. The weekend seemed painfully long, especially that the Red Cross staff was unable to provide Vicken’s family with an answer. And what if this was not fake news? What if the lives of Vicken Euljekjian and other Armenian hostages were hanging in the balance?

“This afternoon the news came that Lebanese Armenian Vicken Euljekjian, who was sentenced 20 years, was killed by Azerbaijani prison guards after being brutally bitten. Since then, no official statement has been provided by the Azerbaijani government,” member of Lebanon’s parliament Paula Yacoubian, who has been closely monitoring Vicken’s and other POW’s cases wrote in a Facebook post.

“It is obvious that Human rights in Azerbaijan are often criticized by countless international bodies such as Amnesty International, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch,” Yacoubian added.

She adamantly believes that the Red Cross should do more to bring news from Baku prison every month to Vicken’s distraught family.

“Vicken Euljekjian continues to remain in Baku prison extremely poor prison conditions and to this day continuously gets severely tortured. There is not a single statement from Azerbaijan providing information on Vicken’s condition. Everyone, and especially his wife and children deserve the right to find out about his health condition. It is within the rights of a political prisoner to get into contact with their family members. Vicken continues to stay imprisoned and to this day is suffering,” Yacoubian said.

Vicken Euljekjian was born in Lebanon to an Armenian family and holds dual citizenship of Armenia and Lebanon. He was married to his childhood sweetheart, Lebanese beauty Iman Linda in the Catholic Church in 2000 and the couple has two children, 20-year-old Christine and 23-year-old Serj. After the economic crisis in Lebanon, Vicken applied and received his Armenian passport in April 2018, and moved to Armenia. He was planning to start his business, get a house and later to move our teenage children to Armenia to start a new life.

On November 10, 2020, Vicken and Maral were captured by two Azerbaijani soldiers near Shushi, he was in his civilian clothes, after searching his car, there were no weapons found in the car. His car and all his belongings, computers, watch, cash was confiscated by Azerbaijani soldiers. Later in November 2020, in the Baku court hearing, Azerbaijan falsely accused him of “being a terrorist and a mercenary, as well as having illegally entered Azerbaijan”.

The International Committee of Red Cross visited Maral and probably Vicken as well on 10 February 2021. One month later, Maral Najarian was released on 10 March 2020 and returned to Lebanon. Vicken, on the other hand, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by Baku Courts, following sham trials without receiving adequate legal representation by a human rights lawyer on 14 June 2021.

From the latest conversation, Vicken was spending his sentence in solitary confinement in one of the world’s most notorious prisons near Baku. Since his arrest, I have had very limited communication with my husband.

Linda told me during a telephone conversation this weekend she has raised her two beautiful children with Vicken as Armenians.
“Since we got married, I have learned some Armenian and my mother language is Arabic. But when my husband calls from the Baku prison, Azerbaijanis do not allow me to speak in Arabic, and this makes it difficult to communicate because my Armenian is very limited. Vicken is not allowed to speak on the phone more than couple of minutes under strict control. During his calls in November 2022 and January 2023, he was crying and begging me: ‘get me out of here quickly, I can’t take it anymore,’” Linda wrote in her open letter.

Last January the family received only a 50 second video recording from Vicken via the Red Cross, where he looked emaciated and old, and it was evident that he had lost a lot of weight. He had mentioned he was refused medication and treatment and was suffering from severe pain.

Vicken’s daughter and son, Christine and Serj, were too distraught to speak to me this weekend and were waiting for clarification from the Red Cross on Monday.

“I’m appealing to world leaders to help my family to find out whether my husband, Vicken Euljekian is still alive and allow a visit by human rights organisations and family lawyer. I’m also begging you to do everything in your power to secure the immediate release my husband, Vicken Euljekjian and ALL Armenian hostages held illegally in Azerarbaijani jails, before it is too late to save their lives,” Linda said in the conclusion of her open letter.

Silence means indifference. Inaction kills. We must act and make difference now, as tomorrow can be too late…

Jasmine Seymour is an activist who established the British Armenian Group, which focuses on campaigning for the release of Armenian prisoners of war currently being held captive in Azerbaijan. The organization has been circulating a petition on change.org and is urging the public to sign the plea to release Armenian POWs.




Nagorno Karabakh FM warns of illegal Azerbaijani settlements in occupied territories

Ekmekjian Janet

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 15:06, 23 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 23, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan is illegally populating the Armenian settlements of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) under its occupation since the 2020 war, the Artsakh Foreign Minister Sergey Ghazaryan warned Thursday.

“The 9 November statement contains a clause whereby the parties assumed an obligation to create all conditions under the supervision of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to ensure the dignified return of our countrymen. Nonetheless, in this situation, when Azerbaijan is making statements on the use of force or the threat of force every day, this is ruled out. We are saying that the parties must fulfill their obligations, first of all the Azerbaijani side, which is violating the terms of the statement,” Ghazaryan said.