Author: Ekmekjian Janet

Local nurse helping train people in Armenia while maintaining its culture

Ekmekjian Janet
March 17 2022

(WXYZ) — We’re continuing to celebrate women making a difference in local communities and beyond as part of Women’s History Month.

Nairi Karapetian has spent the last two decades trying to improve the quality of life for people in Armenia. The country has a long history of genocide and unrest.

Karapetian is a nurse at Beaumont Royal Oak and a proud grandchild of four Armenia genocide survivors. Despite being born here, she’s been traveling back for years to bring aid and provide medical care to her people.

Since 2020, they’ve been at war with Azerbaijan, a conflict similar to the one going on in Ukraine.

St. Sarkis in Dearborn is where Karapetian got married. It’s also where two of her kids were baptized. There’s a lot of meaning within these walls, but what she loves most about being there is how connected she feels to her roots.

“Although I wasn’t born there, Armenia was part of my identity, it was part of my soul and we all felt a commitment to honor the survival of our ancestors, of our grandparents,” she said.

An estimated 1.5 million people died in the Ottoman-era Armenia genocide. Turkey, the ultimate heirs of the Ottoman Empire, denied the massacre.

Last year, President Joe Biden declared April 24 National Armenian Remembrance Day. Karapetian and others living in the U.S. waited a long time for that acknowledgment.

“There are more people living in the diaspora Armenians than there are people in Armenia, but all of us are magnetized back,” Karapetian said.

She said that pull got stronger in 2020 when violence erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Republic of Artsakh.

Both ex-Soviet neighbors claim the territory belongs to them. Mind you, this was all happening during the height of the pandemic.

“Ukraine is getting a lot of attention, which is what it should be, but Armenia should have gotten attention too and so should a lot of other countries when they were being brutally attacked in a very similar way. There are lots of parallels,” she said.

As a long-time nurse, Karapetian knew she could help injured civilians. She collected over 280 boxes of medical supplies and headed for Armenia’s front lines

“We’ve got this ongoing genocide right now and our history is just so sad and it just seems to never end. It is just an ongoing trauma,” Karapetian said.

A nation that was once a large empire is now the size of Maryland. Karapetian fears Armenia will one day be no more, which is why she weaves tradition, language and culture into everything she does.

“I told my daughter, whether it’s in my lifetime or yours, if Armenia is gone, it needs to exist in our hearts and we need to keep it going,” she said.

Karapetian is going to Armenia next month to start a pilot program for nurses. She wants to empower them to take more initiative by the bedside and bring them up to date on CPR and other life-support training.

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Armenian Defense Minister and Ambassador of Iran discuss a number of regional and international issues

Ekmekjian Janet

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 19:53,

YEREVAN, 15 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Defense of Armenia Suren Papikyan on March 15 received Ambassador of Iran to Armenia Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri. Military attaché of the Embassy of Iran in Armenia Colonel Bahman Sadeghin also participated in the meeting.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, the sides referred to the prospects of Armenian-Iranian bilateral cooperation, discussed a number of issues related to regional and international security.

The Minister of Defense of Armenia presented the situation at Armenian-Azerbaijani border zone and Artsakh.

Moscow is seeking parity in its relations with Yerevan and Baku, Russian expert says

Ekmekjian Janet
ARM INFO
March 2 2022
David Stepanyan

ArmInfo. Moscow is seeking parity in its relations with Yerevan and Baku. Evidence thereof is the Declaration on Allied Relations recently signed by Russia and  Azerbaijan, Russian political scientist Andrey Areshev said in an  interview with ArmInfo. 

The declaration was signed in Moscow on February 22. Some of its 44  points deal with the bilateral military cooperation.  

“I see the motive behind the signed document, namely, Russia’s desire  to maintain equally close and mutually beneficial relations with both  Armenia and Azerbaijan. And the practically identical documents on  Russian-Armenian alliance and now on Russian-Azerbaijani alliance  form the necessary legal basis for that. And the declaration signed  in Moscow enables Russia to successfully maintain parity in its  military and technical cooperation with both the states as well,” he  said. 

According to Mr Areshev, Russia will seek to make Azerbaijan  increasingly dependent by supplying spare parts for the weapons  Azerbaijan once purchased from it and by ensuring regular  maintenance. On the other hand, by actively and consistently  upgrading Armenia’s armed forces, Russia will continue its own policy  of maintaining parity between the two parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh  conflict over the last to decades. 

In the context of the willingness for peace stated by Armenia’s  ruling force, Mr Areshev does not expect Yerevan to express its  discontent with the Russian-Azerbaijani relations reaching a new  level. On the other hand, at lower levels negative opinions can and  will be voiced. The expert is sure that Baku coordinated the signing  of the Azerbaijan-Russian declaration with Ankara.

In this context, Mr Areshev highlights the importance of the  declaration for Azerbaijan as an element of balance with its close  ties with Turkey. Since the Shushi Declaration was signed the need  for Baku to diversify its relations with Turkey in the context of its  relations with the other centers of power, in particular with Russia,  has become increasingly urgent. And the current political turbulence  in the South Caucasus and Black Sea region only corroborates it.

Dominant faction of Armenia`s Parliament declines proposal to set April 10 as Day in Commemoration of Maraga massacre victims

Ekmekjian Janet
ARM INFO
March 1 2022
Naira Badalian

ArmInfo. The dominant faction of Armenia’s Parliament, Civil Contract, has declined a proposal to set April 10 as Day in Commemoration of the victims in Maraga.  Aregnaz  Manukyan of the opposition faction Hayastan proposed amendments to  the RA Law on Holidays and Commemoration Days.

According to her, the organizers and perpetrators of the atrocities went unpunished, which served as the breeding ground for Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy  that resulted in the war on Artsakh unleashed on September 27. 2020. 

“We must show Azerbaijan has not changed its policy, which  predetermines Artsakh’s fate in case it remains part of Azerbaijan,”  she said.  

In his turn, Vladimir Vardanyan, Chairman of the Standing Committee  on State and Legal Affairs, said that the Maraga pogroms were a crime  against humanity that must be internationally condemned.  “Each event  of Armenian history cannot be a memorial day. Otherwise, we will come  to a situation when each day is a memorial day,” he said. 

According to the 1989 census in Azerbaijan, 4,660 Armenians lived in  Maraga, Martakert region, which borders on the Terter region of  Azerbaijan. The settlement has been under Azerbaijan’s control since  1992.  On April 10, 1992, the Azerbaijani forces invaded Maraga and  killed the remaining residents, 50 to 100 people, with at least 30 of  them being women. The perpetrators have never been punished.

Asbarez: Azerbaijan Continues its State Policy of Aggression, Says Yerevan

Ekmekjian Janet
by Asbarez Staff

 

 

 

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

A house belonging to an Armenian family pillaged by Azeris in Sumgait in 1988

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the 34th anniversary of the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait, stressing that Azerbaijan continues its state policy of aggression and Armenophobia to this day.

Below is the text of the statement.

34 years ago, from February 27 to 29, with the organization of the Soviet Azerbaijani authorities and the connivance of law enforcement, the massacres of the Armenian population in the city of Sumgait were carried out, resulting in the killing of hundreds of Armenians, including women, children, elderly, and forcible displacement of thousands.

Mass killings and tortures against the Armenians, that were aimed at forcibly suppressing the democratic _expression_ of will of the Armenian of Artsakh and the exercise of their inalienable right to self-determination on the basis of existing legal mechanisms, later continued in Baku, Kirovabad, and other settlements of Azerbaijan with Armenian population. Azerbaijan responded to the _expression_ of the will of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to free and secure life in their homeland by carrying out a policy of collective punishment against Armenians, which later turned into full-scale war unleashed against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The massacres of Armenians in Sumgait received a wide international response. A relevant condemnation resolution was adopted by the European Parliament.

In continuation of the same policy, the Azerbaijani armed forces carried out a complete ethnic cleansing of all Armenian settlements that fell under their control during the aggression against Artsakh on September 27, 2020, taking cruel revenge on many detained civilians, prisoners of war, destroying, vandalizing Armenian cultural and religious monuments and sanctuaries.The decision of the UN International Court of Justice on the application of provisional measures within the framework of the “International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination” issued on December 7, 2021, demonstrated the fact that more than three decades after the Sumgait atrocities Azerbaijan continues its policy of racial hatred towards Armenians and the destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage.Today, we pay tribute to the memory of the innocent victims of the mass atrocities in Sumgait and other settlements, and emphasize that Armenophobia and the threat of use of force remain Azerbaijan’s state policy, which clearly contradicts the regional and international efforts aimed at a peaceful, developing and sustainable region.

Budapest Centre for Prevention of Mass Atrocities calls Armenia to "recognize Azerbaijan’s Khojaly genocide" (PHOTO)

Ekmekjian Janet
POLITICS23 February 2022 18:53 (UTC+04:00)


BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 23

Trend:

Armenia must apologize for Azerbaijan’s Khojaly genocide for lasting peace in the region, Chairman of the Budapest Centre for Prevention of Mass Atrocities Gyorgy Tatar said at the OSCE Headquarters on Feb. 23, Trend reports.

Speaking in Vienna, the capital of Austria, at an international event on the theme “Peace and Justice” organized by the Azerbaijani Embassy in Austria, the Center for Analysis of International Relations and Communications, Giorgi Tatar, having provided extensive information about the Khojaly genocide committed in February 1992, called this crime one of the bloodiest tragedies of the end of the 20th century, adding that one of the main obstacles in establishing peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan is connected with it.

“The 44-day Second Karabakh war, putting an end to the Karabakh conflict, created the conditions for the normalization of interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. As a result of the “Justice for Khojaly” campaign, this tragedy is widely recognized in the world as a genocide, and the lack of an adequate assessment of the Khojaly tragedy on the part of Armenia creates serious obstacles to the normalization process in the region. The responsibility for this tragedy lies with the former leadership of Armenia, and Yerevan’s apology for this crime will help both Armenia itself deal with its past and establish sustainable peace in the region,” he said.

Referring to the international experience of peacebuilding in the post-conflict period, the international center headed by Giorgi Tatar announced the launch of the Recognize for Reconciliation initiative with the aim of achieving justice for the victims of Khojaly and establishing peace in the region. The main goals of the initiative are not only to achieve, under the influence of the international community, the recognition of the genocide by Armenia, but also to promote dialogue between Azerbaijani and Armenian societies and provide appropriate conditions for the post-conflict period.

Stressing that in the near future it is planned to create a broad international coalition around the initiative dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy, Tatar noted that the coalition is open to human rights organizations and authoritative experts. Activities under the initiative will continue throughout this year.

Georgy Tatar for many years held various positions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Hungary, the secretariat of the Council of Europe, since 2010 he has been the chairman of the Budapest Center for the Prevention of Genocides and Massacres.

Armenia, France mark 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations

Ekmekjian Janet

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 18:36,

YEREVAN, 23 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and France today, on February 24, celebrates the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, ARMENPRESS reports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia announced ton Twitter.

“30 years ago, Armenia and France established diplomatic relations, thus marking the beginning of our interstate relations based on centuries-old friendship, strengthened by excellent cooperation in a number of areas,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said.

France is one of the closest friends of Armenia, the Armenian people, one of the most reliable partners in the international family of nations. Yerevan – Paris relations are at the highest level. The sides actively cooperate both bilaterally and multilaterally in different dimensions.

Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Armenia and the French Republic were established exactly 30 years ago, on February 24, 1992.

During 30 years, 16 documents were signed between Armenia and France, including the Framework Agreement signed between Armenia and the French Governments on December 9, 1997.

Armenian diplomatic representations in Ukraine working normally – Foreign Ministry

Ekmekjian Janet

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 16:35, 14 February, 2022

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is closely following the developments of the situation in Ukraine, foreign ministry spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan said in a statement.

“The Armenian diplomatic representations in Ukraine (the embassy in Kiev and the consulate-general in Odessa) are working normally and maintain permanent contact with Armenian citizens, who will be given additional guidelines in case of necessity,” he said.

More than 100 dead in Brazil floods

Ekmekjian Janet

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 11:02, 17 February, 2022

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 17, ARMENPRESS. The death toll in the floods in Brazil’s Petropolis reached 104, G1 news portal reported.

Earlier the death toll was reported as 94 after heavy rains caused mudslides and floods through a mountainous region of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state.

The historic city of Petrópolis was directly in the path of the devastating floods when it hit on Tuesday.

Petropolis mayor Rubens Bomtempo warned that the number of victims could rise as rescuers worked through the wreckage.

Rio de Janeiro state governor Claudio Castro was quoted by The Guardian as saying that “the situation is almost like war … Cars hanging from poles, cars overturned, lots of mud and water.”

Civilians joined the recovery efforts on Wednesday.

Forcibly displaced Artsakh residents holding protest in Yerevan

Ekmekjian Janet
ARM INFO
Feb 18 2022
Marianna Mkrtchyan

ArmInfo. People forcibly displaced from Artsakh are holding a protest in Yerevan. Residents of Hadrut and Shushi have gathered at Yerevan’s Republic Square,  indignant at the Armenian authorities’ indifference toward them. 

As a result of the 2020 war Hadrud and Shushi were occupied by  Azerbaijani troops. The residents had to flee empty-handed. 

“We have no housing, work or even cash allowances. The government has  not paid us for two months. We want to return to Arstakh, but we have  neither homes nor sustenance. We have come here, but none of the  government officials is coming out to know why we are here,” the  protesters say. 

One of the protesters, Levon Airyan, said Armenia’s incumbent  authorities “do not even know what hey want.” 

“What peace treaty are you talking about? You did not declare war nor  did Azerbaijan. Such a treaty must never be signed. It will be  further capitulation committed to paper. So the enemy is in a hurry.  And Armenia’s authorities are incompetent and do not know what they  are doing. And the tragedy of the situation is that they are trying  to invoke political reasons,” he said. 

According to him, the Arstakh authorities should declare the  statement on November 9, 2020, groundless.  The protesters marched  toward Armenia’s foreign office for a written answer to their  inquiry.