Author: Elizabeth Jabejian

Bomb explodes in Afghanistan during memorial ceremony for Taliban official

Elizabeth Jabejian

 13:12, 8 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. A bomb exploded Thursday in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province during a memorial ceremony for a deputy governor who was killed in another blast two days earlier, Associated Press reported citing a Taliban official.

The latest explosion occurred near Nabawi mosque during a funeral for Mawlavi Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, the deputy governor of Badakhshan. He was killed by a car bomb on Tuesday alongside of his driver in Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan.

Moazuddin Ahmadi, the provincial director of information and culture, confirmed the explosion but couldn’t provide other detail. He said there are casualties and an investigation is ongoing.

Local media reports said at least 16 people were killed in the blast.

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 07-06-23

Elizabeth Jabejian

 17:16, 7 June 2023

YEREVAN, 7 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 7 June, USD exchange rate down by 0.29 drams to 386.75 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.20 drams to 414.33 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.02 drams to 4.75 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.95 drams to 481.50 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 48.12 drams to 24337.03 drams. Silver price up by 1.90 drams to 294.01 drams.

Exclusive: Priest Says He Became ‘Scapegoat’ for Controversial Armenian Land Deal [in Jerusalem]

Elizabeth Jabejian
June 1 2023
NICOLE JANSEZIAN

Armenian Patriarchate tells TML that the patriarch was deceived by the priest

The Armenian priest recently defrocked by the patriarchate said that he is being made the scapegoat in a controversial property deal involving a large swath of land in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter.

My signature doesn’t mean anything. Nobody’s signature means anything, just the patriarch, because the patriarch is the legal owner of the property.

Father Khachik (Baret) Yeretzian—former real estate director of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem—signed the contract but said his signature is only one of three.

“My signature doesn’t mean anything. Nobody’s signature means anything, just the patriarch, because the patriarch is the legal owner of the property,” Yeretzian said.

The deal in question—details of which have neither been confirmed nor denied by the Armenian Patriarchate—is supposedly a 99-year lease to a Jewish developer who will build a luxury hotel on the land.

Though signed in 2021, the deal became reality in April when Xana Capital took over the parking lot and placed signs announcing its ownership, sparking protests in the Armenian Quarter against the patriarch and Yeretzian himself.

I have done nothing illegal and nothing wrong. That decision (to laicize me) was based on personal vendettas. For them to do this kind of act, to break somebody whose signature doesn’t even mean anything … there is another signature more important. The patriarch used me as a scapegoat.”

“I have done nothing illegal and nothing wrong. That decision (to laicize me) was based on personal vendettas. For them to do this kind of act, to break somebody whose signature doesn’t even mean anything … there is another signature more important,” Yeretzian added, referring to Archbishop Sevan Gharibian. “The patriarch used me as a scapegoat.”

In response to Yeretzian’s statements, the Armenian Patriarchate told The Media Line that the former priest deceived the patriarch, Nourhan Manougian.

“He has been appointed as a real estate director to explain the details of every contract and deal to His Beatitude and the Holy Synod,” the Armenian Patriarchate told The Media Line. “However, former Fr. Baret not only didn’t do it but also deceived His Beatitude that it is a very good deal for our Patriarchate. In other words, former Fr. Baret exploited His Beatitude’s trust, in order to implement his fraudulent and deceitful dealings.”

The Synod voted unanimously in May to defrock Yeretzian “for his disloyalty and especially the series of frauds and deceptions he committed regarding” the real estate transaction. The vote came after the Hashemite Kingdom and the Palestinian Authority announced their refusal to recognize Manougian as patriarch.

Yeretzian alleged that Manougian signed the 99-year lease without seeking Synod approval. However, the Patriarchate said it was Yeretzian who “asserted that Holy Synod in the past has already given its approval to such a deal and there is no need to bring it to the Holy Synod or to the General Assembly.”

The contract has not been made public, and Yeretzian would not say what is in it, but he told this reporter that the concept of building a hotel in the parking lot which abuts the Old City walls between Jaffa and Zion gates predates the current patriarch. As far back as 1994, a map in the Armenian Patriarchate shows “Goverou Bardez—Future site of the hotel,” Yeretzian said.

Danny Rubinstein, an Australian developer who is believed to have closed the deal, is one in a long line of potential buyers who negotiated with the Patriarchate including a Jordanian hotel owner, Armenian businessmen from Russia, and a Palestinian, Yeretzian said.

Land transfers in Jerusalem are sensitive because they can upset the status quo and final status arrangements of the city. During the Camp David Summit in 2000, Israeli negotiators proposed that the Armenian Quarter remain under Israeli sovereignty and administrative control. However, the late PLO Chairman and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat demanded it fall under Palestinian sovereignty. No agreement was reached, and talks failed.

In their statement last month, the PA and Jordan noted that the patriarch’s “dealings constituted a clear violation of relevant international covenants and decisions, which aim to preserve the status quo in Jerusalem and protect the authentic Jerusalemite Armenian heritage.”

However, Yeretzian vouched for the deals made under his watch, even this latest one which he believes “is in the best interests of the Patriarchate.”

Other deals involving Armenian property in the Old City occurred before his time and under different patriarchs, Yeretzian said. He also insisted that residents who are now protesting the deal knew about the hotel project for a long time.

“Everybody knew about the projects,” but nobody objected at the time, he said. “When this Jordanian (hotel owner) came, nobody spoke about it.”

A 2021 article in which Yeretzian was interviewed about the deal was sent to every priest at the time, he said, “Also members of the synod—why they didn’t argue then?”

He also contends that Jordan and the Palestinians were aware of the deal.

“The king and the Palestinians had a copy of the contract before. We sent the contract to his majesty. They knew it a long time ago,” he said.

The Armenian Patriarchate countered this as well.

“Even the Brotherhood did not know about this deal except a few clergymen; how do you expect the Jordanians and Palestinians to know?” the Patriarchate said.

Yeretzian, calling from the United States, said he has no documents with him to support his claims because he left them in the Armenian Patriarchate. When he was moving out of his home in the convent, Armenian residents there chased him to a waiting taxi with shouts of “traitor” for his part in signing away the land.

“I don’t know politics. I’m a clergyman. I did in my good heart for the interests of the patriarchate and what they did (to me) is totally wrong and what the people did was totally wrong. They were like gangsters, like a mob. They thought they were going to find millions of dollars,” he said. “I never received a single dollar.”

https://themedialine.org/top-stories/exclusive-priest-says-he-became-scapegoat-for-controversial-armenian-land-deal/

Slovenia’s National Assembly President visits Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

Elizabeth Jabejian

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 14:59,

YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. Slovenia’s National Assembly President Urška Klakočar Zupančič visited the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on May 30.

Urška Klakočar Zupančič and her delegation were accompanied by Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Hakob Arshakyan, the head of the Armenia-Slovenia Parliamentary Friendship Group MP Seyran Ohanyan and MP Mariam Poghosyan.

Slovenia’s National Assembly President Urška Klakočar Zupančič and members of her delegation laid flowers at the Eternal Flame and observed a moment of silence in honor of the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

The delegation then visited the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute to view the documents and materials on the Armenian Genocide. Slovenia’s National Assembly President Urška Klakočar Zupančič then signed the honorary guestbook.

Urška Klakočar Zupančič is on an official visit to Armenia.

An Open and Shut Case

Elizabeth Jabejian

Maxinne Vlug walks through the “open door” to consider how American public opinion swirled around the ratification of the Lausanne Treaty.

Maxinne Vlug is a History student at Utrecht University.

Although the United States sought to limit its involvement at the Lausanne Conference, it was also keen to protect its political and economic interests in the Middle East. Due to fuel shortages during the Great War and the increasing use of automobiles, many Americans feared a post-war “gasoline famine”, fears stoked by US oil majors as part of a fictional US-UK “Oil War”. Notorious for the oily Teapot Dome scandal, Republican President Warren Harding’s administration viewed the so-called Open Door Principle, championed by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, as a means of escaping the tentacles of a “British oil octopus” allegedly intent on cornering the United States’ oil supply. The Principle held that no single power should enjoy special economic privileges, drawing a line under the pre-war system of “spheres of influence”. It was assumed that the new Turkish Republic’s interests would align with this policy. After all, the Turks not only sought international recognition at Lausanne, but curbs on the Capitulations and other economic controls imposed under the terms of successive French, German and British loans to the Sultan.

NEW YORK AMERICAN, 30 OCTOBER 1921.

It was unclear, however, how such support of Ismet’s beloved “sovereignty” could be squared with other American concerns, not least humanitarian ones. Neither Lausanne nor the provisional bilateral treaty of amity between the United States and Turkey intended as a stop-gap made any mention of the Armenian Genocide or the prosecution of those who might be held responsible. The establishment of diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Republican Turkey thus aroused considerable debate within the American society. Many Americans sympathized with the Armenians, contributing to missionary activities and the work of Near East Relief. For a short period in 1919 it had seemed that energy security and humanitarianism might be reconcilable, as the borders of a proposed US-administered League of Nations mandate for Armenia were drawn in such a way as to include territories then believed to hold large oil deposits. Unfortunately Congress proved to have no appetite for such an open-ended foreign entanglement.

At Lausanne, by contrast, the Turks revived a dormant 1910 railroad and oil concession granted to retired US Admiral Colby Mitchell Chester. This served as a means of luring the American delegation to put oil (the Chester Concession) before humanitarian concerns (punishment of genocidaires, creation of an Armenian National Home within Anatolia), pitting the American observers at Lausanne against their British and French allies. For the Armenians themselves, a people that already suffered so greatly, hopes invested in a Wilsonian notion of self-determination and a better future within the generous borders of a Wilsonian Armenian mandate were crushed.

NEAR EAST RELIEF, ADVERTISEMENT IN A LOCAL NEWSPAPER FROM MERIDIA, IDAHO, 4 JANUARY 1921.

The American Committee Opposed to the Lausanne Treaty and church leaders such as the Episcopalian bishop of New York, William Thomas Manning, sought to rouse public opinion against the treaty, which the Committee described as “a purposeless and humiliating surrender to a red-handed, faithless military despot,” ratification of which would “reflect upon American honor and self-respect.”[1] During the course of the 1924 presidential campaign the Democrats argued that the treaty and the Open Door Principle betrayed the Armenian people. At the same time Democratic senator William H. King of Utah actively pleaded before the Senate against ratification. The Senator argued that Turkey’s past record did not indicate that she could be trusted to abide by treaties. “A few business men and the Turkish Government are carrying on an extensive propaganda in the United States to secure recognition,” King claimed. “Turkey wants to borrow money and hopes that the ratification of the Lausanne treaty will enable her to negotiate a loan in the United States.” [2] Secretary of State Hughes was singled out for criticism in much of this press coverage:

Obviously, Secretary Hughes went to Lausanne fully prepared to make any and all sacrifice to clinch this oil concession, and he betrayed Christian Armenia and his own country to attain his purpose.

The Atlanta Tri-Weekly Journal, 4 August 1924.

The headline of a Chicago blue-collar newspaper The Daily Worker put it more bluntly: “Turks given liberty to kill Armenians for big concessions.”[2] Other political figures and businessmen sought to minimalize the Armenian Question. Admiral Chester and his son Arthur Tremaine Chester claimed in the New York Times’ Current History that the massacres of the Armenians were a direct result of their own alleged “treachery”. “It is safe to say,” the latter wrote, “that no massacre of any importance has occurred that was not the direct result of traitorous or threatening acts by the victims.” [3] Chester Jr. then sought to ram his point home by inviting his American readers to imagine what he claimed was an analogous hypothetical:

Suppose that Mexico was a powerful and rival country with which we were at war, and suppose that we sent an army to the Mexican border to hold back the invading enemy; suppose further that not only the negroes in our army deserted to the enemy but those left at home organized and cut off our line of communication. What do you think we as a people, especially the Southerners, would do to the negroes?

Arthur Tremaine Chester, “Angora and the Turks”, Current History 17.5 (Feb. 1923): 758-64 (763).

The Senate did not vote on ratification until January 1927. While the vote was favourable (50-34 in favour of ratification), this was six votes short of the requisite two-third majority. Admiral Bristol, the United States’ High Commissioner in Constantinople, was left having to reassure Ankara that the vote did not signal any desire to break off good relations, and attempting to secure another extension of a bilateral treaty of amity between the two countries. Despite this unhappy “modus vivendi”, later that year President Coolidge sent Joseph Grew to Ankara as ambassador. “Whether the Senate declares this legal or not,” noted the New York Times, “it was contended the President does not require an act of Congress to send an Ambassador to any country he chooses.”[5]

Meanwhile the Chester Concession proved to be a damp squib, even after being formally confirmed by the National Assembly in Ankara in 1923. By that point the Ottoman American Development Corporation which had taken over management of the Concession had fallen apart, thanks to disagreements among the shady characters now at the helm, which caused State Department officials such as Allen Dulles considerable embarrassment.

As for the Open Door, when it came to Middle East oil it only remained open long enough to enable a consortium of American oil companies to bluster their way (with the help of officials like Dulles) into the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC), whose claim to the oil of the Ottoman vilayets of Mosul and Baghdad derived from another pre-war concession, secured from the ancien regime in June 1914. This international (English, Dutch, French) condominium thus gained a fourth partner. Once inside TPC, American oil executives lost interest in the Open Door, and made sure that the State Department did, too. Here again, idealism had lost out to dollars.

[1] “Atrocities Laid to Turkish Rulers”, New York Times, 17 May 1926.

[2] “Urges the Defeat of Lausanne Treaty”, New York Times, 12 April 1926.

[3] The Daily Worker, 11 June 1924.

[4] C. Chester “Turkey Reinterpreted” and A. T. Chester “Angora and the Turks”,  New York Times Current History 17.5 (1923) and 16:6 (1922).

[5] ‘Turkish Relations Upheld”, New York Times, 29 November 1927.

https://thelausanneproject.com/2023/05/26/an-open-and-shut-case/

Azerbaijan, Armenia close to reach agreement, Lavrov says

Elizabeth Jabejian
MEHR News Agency 
Iran –

TEHRAN, May 20 (MNA) – Armenia and Azerbaijan are close to agreeing on an end to a blockade of transport links but more work is needed to seal a peace deal between the warring neighbors, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Lavrov spoke after he brokered a meeting between the foreign ministers of both nations. Russia helped secure a truce to halt a six-week conflict in 2020, but the agreement has not led to lasting peace, and armed clashes are common along the border, according to Reuters.

Armenia and Azerbaijan were due to discuss the unblocking of transport links at a meeting next week, where Russia will also be present.

“We hope the outcome will be positive. The parties are already close to a final agreement,” Lavrov said in a statement but did not give details.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday he had agreed to peace talks in Moscow on May 25 with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin mediating, the Interfax news agency reported.

But during Friday’s talks, the two nations confirmed that without progress on settling disputes over borders and transport links, as well as improving the security situation in and around Karabakh, “it is difficult to move forward on specific aspects of the peace treaty”, Lavrov said.

MNA/PR

https://en.mehrnews.com/news/200928/Azerbaijan-Armenia-close-to-reach-agreement-Lavrov-says

Armenia Claims Azerbaijan’s Attack On Its Territory With Mortar Fire

Elizabeth Jabejian
ALASKA COMMONS

Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of launching mortar attacks on its territory while peace talks are taking place in Moscow. The aim of the meeting between the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, and the Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, is to normalize relations between the two countries. The talks are being organized in the context of recent deadly clashes that have occurred along the border demarcation which has remained unresolved since the two countries gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

This meeting follows two major conflicts between the two South Caucasus nations, fought in the early 1990s and in 2016, over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Nagorno-Karabakh is an internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenian separatists since the end of the 1988-1994 conflict. The violent separatist movement has affected both countries, claiming thousands of lives and displacing more than 1 million people.

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has been mediating the preparatory talks between the Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are former Soviet republics and still have close relations with Moscow. Russia is also a key mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and has regularly taken part in talks alongside the United States and France.

The latest escalation of tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan highlights the need for a lasting solution to the ongoing conflict. Both countries need to find a way to live in peace with each other and establish mutual respect to ensure a peaceful future for future generations. Therefore, it is an encouraging sign that they are willing to participate in peace talks and work towards a peaceful resolution. It remains to be seen if the Moscow talks will lead to any substantial change in the status quo but both parties must persevere with peaceful dialogue for the sake of their people.

https://www.alaskacommons.com/armenia-claims-azerbaijans-attack-on-its-territory-with-mortar-fire/

Turkish Press: Armenian premier’s son escapes kidnapping attempt by mother of soldier killed in 2nd Karabakh war

Elizabeth Jabejian
Turkey –
17:09 . 18/05/2023 Thursday
AA

An attempt has been made in Armenia to kidnap the son of the country’s prime minister, with a grieving mother whose son was killed in a 2020 war with Azerbaijan allegedly behind the plot, local media has reported.


A woman claiming to be the mother of a soldier who died in the war over the Karabakh region, allegedly lured Ashot Pashinyan, son of Premier Nikol Pashinyan, into her car for a conversation in the capital Yerevan, according to a Wednesday report by the state-run Armenpress news agency, which cited the Investigative Committee of Armenia.


Pashinyan said that while in the vehicle, the woman told him about her son and that he had been taken to fight in the war without her consent, as she accelerated the car past the legal speed limit.


The woman reportedly expressed her desperation to Pashinyan, saying she had nothing to left to lose and intended to take him to the Yerablur Military Memorial Cemetery on the outskirts of the city, where she would decide whether or not to kill him.


Pashinyan recounted that he was able leap out of the vehicle’s front seat as soon as the woman slowed down at an intersection but was hit seconds later by a vehicle driven by other parents of soldiers killed in the war.


He was able to escape the ordeal with light injuries, fleeing into a nearby supermarket, the report said, adding that the woman was later arrested and criminal proceedings launched on the matter.


In the fall of 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a 44-day war that ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement that opened the door to normalization.


Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan and seven adjacent regions.

Armenpress: The EU expressed regret regarding the resumption of air traffic between Russia and Georgia

Elizabeth Jabejian

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 21:33,

YEREVAN, MAY 15, ARMENPRESS. The European Union expresses regret that Georgia did not join the European sanctions against the Russian aviation sector and restores air communication with the Russian Federation, ARMENPRESS reports, “Interfax” informs, citing Peter Stano, Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

“The decision of the Georgian government causes concern on the way to joining the European Union, in terms of compliance with decisions in the field of foreign policy conducted by the EU,” he said at the briefing.

Georgia followed about 40 percent of EU decisions on foreign policy and security, which, according to Stano, is not enough. This year, that figure was 31 percent.

“We are sorry about that,” he added.

According to Peter Stano, this week the UN’s specialized body, the International Civil Aviation Organization, contacted the Georgian authorities to discuss the topic of the Russian aviation sector and the safety of Russian aircraft.

Turkish Press: New border clashes erupt between Armenian, Azerbaijani troops

Elizabeth Jabejian
DAILY SABAH
Turkey –

New border clashes took place between Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers on the border on Friday, amid faltering EU-led attempts for peace talks between the two neighbors.

The Caucasus neighbors are locked in a decadeslong territorial dispute of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh, over which they have fought two wars.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said, “Armenian armed forces opened fire from trench mortars on Azerbaijani positions” at the border.

On Friday morning, “Azerbaijani Armed Forces violated the cease-fire in the direction of Sotk (eastern part of the state border) using UAVs (drones),” claimed a defense ministry statement from Yerevan, which appears to be in retaliation to Armenia opening fire and killing an Azerbaijani soldier the day before.

Two of its soldiers had been wounded and one was in critical condition, Armenia added.

Reports indicate clashes continued later on Friday.

The previous day, an Azerbaijani soldier was killed and four Armenian troops were wounded when Armenia opened fire.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian are scheduled to meet Sunday in Brussels for talks led by European Council President Charles Michel.

According to the European Union, the rival leaders have also agreed to jointly meet the leaders of France and Germany on the sidelines of a European summit in Moldova on June 1.

On Thursday, Pashinian accused Azerbaijan of seeking to undermine the talks in Brussels. He warned there was “very little” chance of signing a peace deal with Azerbaijan at the meeting.

A draft agreement “is still at a very preliminary stage and it is too early to speak of an eventual signature,” Pashinian said.

The EU-led diplomacy comes after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers to Washington for talks in early May.

The West has stepped up mediation as the influence of Russia, historically the major powerbroker between the former Soviet republics has waned since its invasion of Ukraine.

Armenia, which has traditionally relied on Russia as its security guarantor, has grown increasingly frustrated with Moscow.

It has accused Russia of having failed to fulfill its peacekeeping role when Azerbaijani environmental activists blocked Karabakh’s only land link to Armenia last December over illegal mining.

The two countries went to war in 2020 and in the 1990s over Karabakh. In 2020, Azerbaijan liberated Karabakh and several adjacent regions from three decades of illegal Armenian occupation in a war triggred by incessant Armenian cease-fire violations.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the two wars over the region.