14:38,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been named Footballer of the Year in a vote organized by the Football Federation.
The Inter Milan midfielder garnered 81 points in the vote and won his 11th Footballer of the Year title.
Eduard Spertsyan, the Armenian national team midfielder, who also plays for the Krasnodar FC, and Lucas Zelarayán, the Armenian national team midfielder and Al-Fateh midfielder, were the runners-up with 48 and 21 points respectively.
An armed mob attacked the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem on Dec. 28
Karekin II, Aram I Condemn Attack, Voice Solidarity with Patriarchate
After a mob of some 30 people attacked the Jerusalem Patriarchate compound on Thursday community leaders are asserting that the group, which was allegedly hired by an Israeli development company, attempted to forcibly seize land in what is commonly referred to as the “Cow’s Garden.”
“The attackers, who were sent by the [development] company, attempted to seize land, but fortunately, our youth who were on site were able to resist and drive out the attackers. Unfortunately, two of our young Armenians were arrested,” Hagob Jernazian, a representative of the Armenian community in Jerusalem, told Azatutyun.am.
“They are trying to resolve the issue by force,” Garo Nalbandian, another community leader told Azatutyun.am.
“We tell them that if they are insisiting that they have rights [over the area] let them bring court documents that backs their claim,” Nalbandian added.
At around 12:40 p.m. local time on Thursday, a group of 30 armed bandits approached the grounds known as “Cows’ Garden” with sticks, stones, and tear gas grenades in yet another attempt to violently remove the Armenian community from the area.
Armenian community members fought off the attackers until police arrived.
“This is the criminal response we have received for the submission of a lawsuit to the District Court of Jerusalem for the Cow’s Garden, which was officially received by the Court less than 24 hours ago. This is how the Australian-Israeli businessman Danny Rothman (Rubenstein) and George Warwar (Hadad) react to legal procedures,” the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statement.
According to the Armenian Patriarchate, bishops, priests, deacons, and Armenian Theological Academy students were among those seriously injured during the attack. A number of local Armenian community members were injured, as well, and two were taken into police custody.
His Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, in separate statements, condemned the attack and expressed their solidarity with the Armenian community of Jerusalem.
“It is obvious that the provocateurs are once again trying to achieve the appropriation of the ‘Cows’ Garden’ estate through terror, threats and violent actions, violating the procedures defined by the law,” Etchmiadzin said in a statement on Friday.
“We condemn the incident and express hope that the Israeli authorities will respond legally to the criminal actions manifested against the Patriarchate and the Armenian community [of Jerusalem], the guilty will be held accountable, and the recurrence of similar incidents will be ruled out,” the statement added.
Catholicos Aram I said that the Cilician Catholicosate is following the incidents and condemned the attack.
“As always, the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, expresses its complete solidarity with the Armenian Patriarchate and the Armenian community and calls on our brethren to defend the rights and security of the Patriarchate,” a statement by Aram I said on Friday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has said that Iran will defend Armenia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
He made the remark during a press conference with his Armenian counterpart in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. Amirabdollahian added that Armenia and Azerbaijan Republic are capable of reaching a lasting peace.
He further said that Armenia will set up a consulate general in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz.
In other comments, the Iranian foreign minister spoke about the Gaza war. He slammed the US for supporting the Zionist regime. Addressing the US, Amirabdolalhian said, “I warn them to immediately stop their vast military support for the Zionist regime”.
He urged Washington to not continue the failed experience of the past and to return to their own country.
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev has met Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan for bilateral talks in St Petersburg
Azerbaijani officials have said the country could be closing in on a peace agreement with Armenia to end their decades-long conflict following its lightning offensive in September to take control of its Nagorno-Karabakh region.
In face of a decisive military advance, more than 100,000 people fled the mountainous south Caucasus enclave, which, following a war in the 1990s, had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by Armenia.
The show of force left the region largely deserted, leading the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, to allege the advance was an act of ethnic cleansing, which Azerbaijan denied. It was followed by the two countries speeding up talks on a peace agreement to stabilise relations and recognise one another’s borders.
In a rare sign of good will, the two sides swapped prisoners of war on 13 December and have issued a joint statement, one of the first not to be mediated by a third party.
The Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev, met Pashinyan on 26 December for bilateral talks in St Petersburg, the first such encounter between the two leaders since the mass exodus. Little has emerged from the meeting so far.
The two sides have now exchanged seven drafts of a potential relatively short peace agreement. Elchin Amirbayov, the special ambassador to the Azerbaijani president, said the country is now waiting for Armenia’s response to its comments on the latest draft proposals.
“What is important to understand is that at this crucial stage in negotiations, where apparently we’re not that much far away from the final agreement, [is that] we do need a result-oriented exercise,” he said. “I know that that after three decades of negotiations and without no major result, there is a certain kind of fatigue and also frustration in both parties for how long we will continue just to see to meet each other without any reasonable results.”
Nagorno-Karabakh has been internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory, but efforts to end the conflict have been complicated by Turkey, Russia, Iran, US and the EU all jostling for diplomatic influence in a strategically critical area. Russia has a significant military presence in Armenia. The area is of geostrategic importance due to the proposed “middle corridor”, the transport corridor that would link China to Europe through central Asia, the Caspian Sea and the south Caucasus.
Amirbayov said the five principles in the draft agreement are “mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of international recognised borders, rejection of any territorial claims to each other, now and in the future, rejection of any acts that would run counter to UN charter, like the use of force or threat of use of force, but also delimitation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which has never been done. And, last but not least, opening of communication routes and ties between Armenia and Azerbaijan, because we’ve been without any connection because of the conflict for 30 years.”
In practice the issue of the border demarcation might be settled at a later stage since the negotiations are deemed so complex.
Azerbaijan also wants some kind of dispute mechanism for the agreement. “Our preference would be to have peace agreements. An article which would speak about some kind of bilateral commission, which needs to be set up in order to address all those misunderstandings or differences in interpretations between us,”
One of the unresolved issues is the link between the main part of Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhichevan. As part of a ceasefire agreement signed in November 2020 following a previous flare-up between the two countries, Pashinyan agreed to open a land transportation link through Armenian territory probably along an old Soviet rail track between the main part of Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan.
“The linkage between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan between two parts of Azerbaijan is crucial for us, in terms of national security, but also in terms of ensuring alternative route for the middle corridor,” Amirbayov said. “We cannot waste any more time. After three years Armenia has not even started a feasibility study for the 42km leg.
“Of course, we cannot force Armenia to implement what they had committed to, and it is nonsensical to suggest we would invade to impose this corridor through force or such like. So we have reached out to Iran as a plan B to build a link by road and rail through Iran.”
He said if it is possible the existence of the alternative route might make Armenia to realise how much they may lose by continuing to resist the link going through its land.
Much could yet go wrong. On 26 September the leader of Armenian separatists in Karabakh rescinded his own previous decree ordering the dissolution of separatist institutions on 1 January, and marking the end of the three decade separatist rule.
Displaced ethnic Armenian separatists have now spoken of forming a government in exile and Azerbaijan is insisting that if ethnic Armenians displaced in September are to have a right of return then those Azerbaijanis previously evicted from their homes in Karabakh should have their rights recognised.
In addition, Russia, the previous guarantor, is trying to regain influence, which waned when it did not intervene to help Armenia on the day of the decisive 19 September assault, as it had done in previous military assaults by Turkey-backed Azerbaijan.
Russia regards Pashinyan as too pro-European, particularly after he refused to participate in some recent meetings of the Russian-led regional bodies. But Russia has not abandoned its role, and it was significant that the two leaders met on Russian soil given the large number of countries offering themselves as mediators.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/27/azerbaijan-close-to-peace-agreement-with-armenia-officials-say
17:24,
YEREVAN, 28 DECEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 28 December, USD exchange rate down by 0.03 drams to 405.15 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 2.84 drams to 450.85 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.07 drams to 4.49 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 2.55 drams to 518.47 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 358.84 drams to 26955.74 drams. Silver price down by 5.50 drams to 313.14 drams.
19:52,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan continued to provide humanitarian aid to Ukraine in 2023, said the press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, according to the Azerbaijani media.
According to the source, the humanitarian aid, as well as the aid for restoration and reconstruction purposes provided to Ukraine by the Republic of Azerbaijan amounted to the total of 57 million Manats (about 34 million US dollars), half of which has been provided in the current year.
18:29,
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. A massive and coordinated physical attack was launched on bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians and other Armenian community members in Jerusalem, Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem said in a statament.
"Several priests, students of the Armenian Theological Academy and indigenous Armenians were seriously injured in the attack.
Over 30 armed provocateurs in ski-masks with lethal and less-than-lethal weaponry including powerful nerve-agents that have incapacitated dozens of our clergy broke into the grounds of the Cow’s Garden and began their vicious assault. We stress again, several priests, deacons and students of the Armenian Theological Academy along with indigenous Armenians are seriously injured. Armenian clerics in Jerusalem are fighting for their lives against impune provocateurs," the Patriarchate said.
“This is the criminal response we have received for the submission of a lawsuit to the District Court of Jerusalem for the Cow’s Garden, which was officially received by the Court less than 24 hours ago. This is how the Australian-Israeli businessman Danny Rothman (Rubenstein) and George Warwar (Hadad) react to legal procedures.
The Armenian Patriarchate’s existential threat is now a physical reality. Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, and indigenous Armenians are fighting for their very lives on the ground. We are calling on authorities around the world and the International Media to help us save the Armenian Quarter from a violent demise that is being locally supported by unnamed entities,” the statement reads.
The Patriarchate calls on the Israeli Government and Police to start an investigation against Danny Rothman (Rubenstein) and George Warwar (Hadad) for organizing their continuous criminal attacks on the Armenian Patriarchate and Community, attacks which seem to have no end in sight.
“Israel is a State of law and order and such criminal behavior cannot be tolerated and go unpunished,” the Patriarchate noted.
By Christian Edwards, CNN
CNN —
Standing on the deserted streets of Nagorno-Karabakh on the 20th anniversary of his inauguration, Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev said he had achieved the “sacred goal” of his presidency: reclaiming the land taken from his father.
Azerbaijan had for decades been haunted by the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, a tiny Caucasian enclave home to one of the world’s most protracted conflicts. Armenians herald it as the cradle of their civilization, but it lies within Azerbaijan’s borders, like an island in unfriendly seas.
As separate Soviet republics, Azerbaijan and Armenia played nice under Moscow’s watchful eye. But as that empire crumbled, Armenia, then the ascendant power, seized Nagorno-Karabakh from its weaker neighbor in a bloody war in the 1990s.
The defeat became a “festering wound” Aliyev promised to heal. But he grew frustrated by diplomatic talks that he believed aimed only “to freeze the conflict.” After decades of “meaningless and fruitless” summits, from Minsk to Key West, he changed his tack.
Brute force stepped in where diplomacy had failed. While the conflict remained frozen, Azerbaijan had transformed. Now oil-rich, backed by Turkey and armed to the teeth, it reclaimed a third of Nagorno-Karabakh in a 44-day war in 2020, stopped only by a Russian-brokered ceasefire.
But the agreement proved brittle and, in September, Azerbaijan struck again. Unable to resist its military might, the Karabakh government surrendered in just 24 hours. The region’s ethnic Armenian population fled within a week, an exodus the European Parliament said amounted to ethnic cleansing – an allegation Azerbaijan denies. “We brought peace by war,” Aliyev told a forum this month.
Whether that peace will be a lasting one is unclear. In Azerbaijan, many fear that the ethnic nationalism and vow of territorial reunification on which Aliyev built his legitimacy is more likely to find new targets than to dissipate.
And in Armenia, which was left exposed by its weak military and absent allies, the state is struggling to absorb more than 100,000 Karabakh refugees, many of whom say they cannot adjust to their new lives.
Life in limbo
Nonna Poghosyan fled her home in Stepanakert, Karabakh’s capital, with her husband, twin children and elderly parents. They now rent a small apartment in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. But Poghosyan, who worked as the American University of Armenia’s program coordinator in Stepanakert, said her mind is still in Karabakh.
“I’m just dying to know what’s happening there in Stepanakert. What’s happening with my house? I envy everybody who breathes the air there,” she told CNN.
Aliyev said the abandoned houses had remained “untouched,” but videos on social media show Azerbaijani troops vandalizing homes.
“I don’t want to imagine it’s been taken by someone else. That’s the house we built for our kids,” said Poghosyan.
Her children were walking home from school when Azerbaijani rockets struck Stepanakert on September 19. Her husband found them on the roadside and took them to a bomb shelter. When they woke the next day, the government – the self-styled Republic of Artsakh – surrendered. Their lives had unraveled overnight.
They fled their home the next week, along with almost all of the population. By then they were starved and exhausted: Nagorno-Karabakh had been blockaded for 10 months after Azerbaijan cut off the Lachin corridor – the only road linking the enclave to Armenia proper – preventing the import of food, medicine and other supplies.
Now, the road along which necessities were stopped from entering was opened to allow the population to flood out. As tens of thousands fled at once, it took Poghosyan four days to drive from Stepanakert to Yerevan, she said – a journey that ordinarily took four hours.
As Armenian citizens, the government in Yerevan welcomed the refugees. But the support it can provide is meager. Poghosyan received a one-off payment of 100,000 Armenian dram (about $250), but she pays 300,000 dram (about $750) in rent. Her family lives off the savings they had put aside for their children’s education, money that will only last a few months.
The dissolution of the Karabakh government has left Poghosyan without child benefits, her parents without their pensions, her husband – a former soldier – without his salary. But she considers herself lucky to have an apartment. “There are people living in cars. There are people living in school basements, playgrounds,” she said.
‘We left our souls there’
Gayane Lalabekyan said she wakes every morning to her new apartment in Yerevan and asks herself if she did the right thing. Many Karabakh Armenians, struggling to come to terms with their new lives, wonder what, if anything, they could have done differently.
“I ask myself, ‘Was it the right move?’” Lalabekyan, an English teacher, told CNN. She is often overcome with guilt for abandoning her homeland, but then remembers the “primitive fear” she felt while fleeing.
“When I see my daughter, her little son; when I see my mother, she’s 72; when I see my son and his wife, they married in July; I see that, if we stayed there, maybe I wouldn’t have them,” she said.
Aliyev said Armenians wishing to remain in Karabakh would have to accept Azerbaijani citizenship. “They had two chances: Either to integrate with the rest of Azerbaijan or to go to history,” he said.
But, after generations of violence, few Armenians believed they could live safely in Azerbaijan and almost none would submit to rule by the government in Baku, despite Azerbaijan’s insistence that no civilians had been harmed in what it called its “anti-terror measures” in the territory.
“Aliyev isn’t a real man, he’s a devil. We can’t trust their promises,” said Lalabekyan. “We can’t live together.”
Karabakh Armenians were supposed to be protected by Russian peacekeepers, which deployed to the region under the terms of the Moscow-brokered ceasefire in 2020.
But the attack came on the heels of a rupture in Armenia’s relations with Russia, after Yerevan grew frustrated that its longtime ally was failing to defend it against Azerbaijani aggression. Feeling it had no choice but to diversify its security apparatus, Armenia began to forge fledgling partnerships with Western countries.
To Russia, the move was a betrayal. It used the opportunity to wash its hands of its needy neighbor. Unable to funnel resources from its military campaign in Ukraine, and unwilling to anger Azerbaijan and Turkey, Russia stood by as the ceasefire it negotiated was shattered – though the Kremlin later rejected criticism of its peacekeeping contingent.
With Russia’s protection absent and Western support merely rhetorical, Karabakh Armenians felt they had no choice but to flee. But accepting this offers scant consolation to Lalabekyan, who said she feels like a stranger in her own country.
“What will we do next? We don’t know who we are. Are we Artsakh citizens or Armenian citizens? We can’t answer this question. We left everything there. We left our souls there.”
The prospect of peace
Some cold-eyed observers argue the plight of the Karabakh refugees may be the tragic price of regional peace. As Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, Armenia’s relinquishment of the enclave was a prerequisite for reconciliation.
But Aliyev has shown little magnanimity in victory. On his first visit to the enclave, he trampled on the Karabakh flag and mocked the Karabakh politicians he had imprisoned as they attempted to flee.
Among those detained is Ruben Vardanyan, former State Minister of Artsakh. Vardanyan’s son, David, described to CNN the “opaque justice system” in which his father is now ensnarled, having been charged with “financing terrorism” and “illegal border crossings,” among other things. Azerbaijan and Armenia have no diplomatic relations, so Vardanyan has been denied consular access. David has only been able to speak to his father once since his arrest on September 27, via a prison phone. “He just said he might be there for a while,” David said.
“If we really want peace in the region between Azerbaijan and Armenia, you can’t have political prisoners still being in jail while a peace agreement is signed,” he said.
In the weeks after the reconquest of Karabakh, Baku canceled peace talks in Brussels and Washington, citing Western bias against Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, its rhetoric around its territorial ambitions has sharpened. Government documents have referred to Armenia as “western Azerbaijan,” a nationalist concept alleging Armenia is built on Azerbaijani land.
Some hope, however, came on December 7 when Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to a prisoner exchange – a deal brokered without Brussels or Washington, but which was welcomed by both. The US said it hoped the exchange would “lay the groundwork for a more peaceful and prosperous future.” Armenia also removed its block on Azerbaijan’s candidacy to host the COP29 climate conference next year.
Azerbaijan and Armenia agree to prisoner swap and to work towards peace deal
The biggest sticking point, however, will likely be Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave separated from the mainland by a sliver of southern Armenia. Aliyev hopes to build a “land corridor” that would slice through Armenia, connecting Nakhchivan to Azerbaijan proper.
Aliyev described the so-called “Zangezur” corridor as a “historical necessity” that “will happen whether Armenia wants it or not.”
Armenia is not wholly opposed to the idea, but is refusing to relinquish control over parts of its territory. Last month, it presented a plan to revive the region’s infrastructure, restoring derelict train lines to better connect Armenia with Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Iran and elsewhere. It hopes to benefit from trade that could not happen during the lengthy hostilities, calling the project the “Crossroads of Peace.”
But Armenia’s preferences may count for little. Aliyev said in December “there should be no customs duties, no checks, no border security, when it goes from mainland (Azerbaijan) to Nakhchivan,” adding that the Armenians should begin construction “immediately at their own expense.”
Aliyev said he had no plans to occupy Armenian territory, stressing “if we wanted, we would have done it.” But, at the same event, he said that the territory had been “taken” from Azerbaijan in 1920 under Soviet rule, and warned Armenia “we have more historical, political and legal rights to contest your territorial integrity.”
Anna Ohanyan, a senior scholar in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Aliyev’s rhetoric had been tempered since the announcement of the prisoner exchange, but “this is largely due to a strong pushback from the US.”
“His aims have not changed: He still needs a rivalry or conflict with Armenia, even after he recovered full control of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Ohanyan told CNN. “Hosting COP29 may keep Aliyev on his best behavior for perhaps a year, but this is not a guarantee that he will play by the international rules. Russia hosted the Winter Olympics in 2014, and annexed Crimea right after.”
Diplomacy may again prove fruitless. Analysts warn of Azerbaijan’s growing military presence around southern Armenia. Olesya Vartanyan, Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the South Caucasus, told CNN “in one of the areas where Azerbaijani forces are located along the border, it would take them very little to cut Armenia into pieces.”
Karabakh Armenians always knew they were caught in the crosshairs of great-power conflict. But, after 30 years of relative peace, they were not expecting things to fall apart so quickly. As a new year beckons, they look ahead to an uncertain future, bereft of homes, possessions, and livelihoods.
“I understand it’s a big game with big countries involved: Russia’s interests, Turkey’s interests, Azerbaijan being a player between all these, Armenia being too weak to withstand. I understand it globally,” said Poghosyan. “But on the level of 100,000 people, it’s a tragedy.”
TEHRAN, Dec. 27 (MNA) – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian left Tehran for Yerevan on Wednesday morning to hold bilateral talks with Armenian officials.
The top Iranian diplomat is set to discuss ways of expanding bilateral relations between Tehran and Yerevan in the fields of politics, economy, and culture during his stay on Armenia.
He will also hold consultations regarding the important issues related to the South Caucasus region in the 3+3 framework.
On Tuesday night, Amir-Abdollahian held separate conversations with his Azerbaijani and Russian counterparts, discussing the developments in the Caucasus and the establishment of peace between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia by taking advantage of the capacities of the regional countries.
MP
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/210009/Iranian-FM-departs-for-Armenia-for-bilateral-talks
Mihaela Lica Butler
The festivities commence on December 30th, as the illustrious “Akunq” ensemble sets the stage aglow with their mesmerizing melodies, followed by the soul-stirring jazz compositions of the Vahagn Harutyunyan Jazz Quartet and the vibrant rhythms of the Lav Eli Band. The evening crescendos with the captivating sounds of Garik Sona and the pulsating beats of DJ Guevo. As the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, the Tezerk Band takes centre stage, regaling the audience with their captivating tunes, followed by the evocative strains of the Hogh Artun Project.
Amidst this musical extravaganza at Jermuk Warm New Year, the Christmas Market beckons, offering an array of exquisite artworks and locally crafted products, infusing the air with an ambrosial blend of warmth and festivity. Immerse yourself in the artisanal treasures while revelling in the convivial atmosphere as the spirit of the season weaves its magic throughout this vibrant gathering.
The Jermuk Mineral Water Gallery, an impressive colonnaded structure erected in 1956, stands as a testament to Armenia’s architectural grandeur. Five majestic stone urns brim with mineral water within its hallowed halls, coursing through pipes embedded in the ancient walls. The temperature of this enchanted elixir ranges from a balmy 30°C to a sultry 53°C, each vessel purportedly imbued with distinct healing properties. From alleviating stomach and liver afflictions to combatting heart disease and cancer, these sacred waters hold the promise of restoration and rejuvenation.
Welcome 2024 in style in Armenia while revelling in the vibrant atmosphere of the concert available to the public with free admission.