Author: Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS

Armenia expected to announce singer for Junior Eurovision 2022 soon

Emil Lazarian

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 17:42,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 29, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Public Television (Channel One) is holding hearings to select the Armenian representative for the Junior Eurovision 2022 Song Contest.

More than 100 applications were received from Armenia and abroad. The judges selected the top 30 and held live-performance hearings and interviews.

The judges include the Armenian delegation leader to Eurovision Davit Tserunyan, music producer of Public TV Anushik Ter-Ghukasyan, 2011 Junior Eurovision Armenia representative Dalita, Eurovision 2022 Armenia representative Rosa Linn and songwriter Lilit Navasardyan.

The Public Television said it will soon announce the name of Armenia’s delegate to Junior Eurovision 2022.

Armenpress: Armenian Assembly of America quotes The Christian Post, urging to release POWs and help Artsakh

Emil Lazarian

Armenian Assembly of America quotes The Christian Post, urging to release POWs and help Artsakh

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 21:07,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 29, ARMENPRESS. As the two-year mark approaches of the signing of the November 2020 ceasefire statement that required Armenia and Azerbaijan to “exchange prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons,” Azerbaijan has taken no action to adhere to the requirements of the agreement and continues to unlawfully hold Armenian prisoners as hostages. ARMENPRESS reports, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) urges the Biden Administration and Congress to aid in releasing Armenian POWs, which total over 100 people, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In addition, the Assembly calls for the U.S. to provide significant aid to help post-war Artsakh rebuild, including humanitarian aid to help displaced Armenians, all of which builds upon the recommended $2 million in demining assistance in the Fiscal Year 2023 Appropriations Bill.

In a recent article published in The Christian Post, titled “When Will Christians Stand Up for the Armenians?”, journalist Uzay Bulut warns of yet “another genocide at the hands of Muslim Turks and Azeris” against the Armenians. She highlights the recent “Red Flag Alert” issued by the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention regarding the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey, and their plans of a possible new genocide against the Armenian population.

Bulut highlights the underreporting of atrocities executed against the Armenian people, including the torture and abuse of Armenian POWs, particularly a recent video that triggered the Lemkin Institute to issue the Red Flag Alert against Azerbaijan. In the video, an Azerbaijani soldier allegedly ties an Armenian skull, dug up from a nearby Armenian cemetery, to the back of military truck as soldiers cheer the revolting action.

While Congress and the U.S. State Department have called for Azerbaijan to release all prisoners of war, including in a statement released on May 27, 2021, wherein Spokesperson Ned Price stated that the “United States is concerned by recent developments along the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the detention of several Armenian soldiers by Azerbaijani forces…” and that “Azerbaijan of its obligations under international humanitarian law to treat all detainees humanely,” these calls have fallen on deaf ears.

“Although almost two years have passed since the mandated release of Armenian POWs and captured civilians, which continues to be ignored by Azerbaijan and the Aliyev regime, Armenian Americans must continue to advocate and fight for their release by appealing to the Biden Administration and their elected officials,” said Assembly Congressional Relations Director Mariam Khaloyan. “Enforcing Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act is critical, as is pressing Congress to pressure Azerbaijan to adhere to the trilateral ceasefire agreement, instead of allowing the Aliyev regime to double down on human rights violations.”

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

Three people arrested following blast at Yerevan’s market — prosecutor’s office

Emil Lazarian
 TASS 
Russia – Aug 28 2022
A blast rocked the Surmalu wholesale market in Yerevan on August 14

YEREVAN, August 28. /TASS/. Three people were arrested in Armenia following a deadly explosion at the Surmalu market in Yerevan, Arevik, Khachatryacn, a spokesman for the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office, said on Sunday.

“Three of those detained following the explosion at the Surmalu trade center have been arrested,” he said, adding that they are accused of violating fire safety rules entailing the death of people.

A blast rocked the Surmalu wholesale market in Yerevan on August 14. The explosion at a fireworks storage house was followed by a strong fire. The market’s main building partially collapsed. According to latest update, sixteen people were killed, including a pregnant woman and a child, and more than 60 were taken to hospitals.

When will Christians stand up for the Armenians?

Emil Lazarian
THE CHRISTIAN POST
Aug 23 2022
By Uzay Bulut| Tuesday, August 23, 2022

A man prays in Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shusha, Azerbaijan after it was partly destroyed by shelling in October 2020. | Christian Solidarity International

The Armenian nation is at the risk of yet another genocide at the hands of Muslim Turks and Azeris.

On August 17, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention issued a “Red Flag Alert” warning of a possible genocide by the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey against the Armenian population. The statement came after Azerbaijan ordered the evacuation of the Armenian people of the towns of Berdzor and Aghavno by August 25.  

“We call on all international and state bodies to monitor Turkey and Azerbaijan for genocidal ideology and practices, to place pressure on Turkey and Azerbaijan to cease their genocidal threats against the Armenian people, and to reinforce the security of Armenians and the Armenian identity in the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Artsakh, and in Diaspora communities worldwide.”

Among the developments that urged the Institute to issue its statement was a recent Telegram video circulating through Azerbaijani social media. The video shows an Azerbaijani soldier tying what is allegedly an Armenian skull dug up from a nearby Armenian cemetery to the back of a military truck while fellow soldiers cheer.

The Institute’s warning must be taken seriously. During the past two years, Azerbaijan, and its ally, Turkey, murdered, tortured, and forcibly displaced Christian Armenians in the Armenian Republic of Artsakh.

Artsakh is one of the provinces of historical Armenia and has retained an ethnic Armenian majority for centuries. It has mostly remained a semi-independent entity and was never part of independent Azerbaijan. 

The violent crimes of Azerbaijan against Artsakh, however, are underreported. The indigenous Armenians of Artsakh were exposed to an ethnic cleansing campaign at the hands of Azerbaijan and Turkey in 2020.

Turkey provided weapon supplies and diplomatic support, allowing Azerbaijan to have the upper hand in the war. Throughout their indiscriminate shelling of Artsakh, the aggressors — Azerbaijan, and Turkey, accompanied by Syrian jihadist forces — murdered civilians, burned churches, and tortured and beheaded Armenians.

Despite the trilateral ceasefire agreement, Azerbaijan has not put an end to its aggression. Large-scale escalations are currently taking place along Lachin corridor as the government of Azerbaijan is violating the agreement without informing or negotiating with Armenia.

Azerbaijan has demanded the forceful evacuation of the Armenian people of Berdzor and Aghavno along the Lachin corridor, giving a deadline of August 25. This is yet another attempt at ethnic cleansing.  

According to a recent report by the British-Armenian humanitarian group:

“Azerbaijan continues to hold over 100 Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages, while the fate of hundreds of missing persons remains unresolved. According to the latest official data, almost two years after the 44-day war, 203 people are still considered missing. Almost two years have passed since the war, yet the relatives of soldiers who went missing in the 44-day war have not heard from them.”

Vahram Shemmassian, head of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Northridge, said in 2021 that he sees parallels between what happened 100 years ago during the 1915 Armenian genocide and what happened during the 44-day war in 2020.

“Turkey has been providing Azerbaijan with arms and terrorists from Syria to help dispose of Armenians and, more specifically, to ethnically cleanse the country in order to obtain land. The same resistance against tyranny and extermination that happened in the past is occurring again now, as an attempt to fully dispose of Armenian culture and the people apart of it.

“We are all angry about what’s happening with Armenia and Azerbaijan because they are finishing what Turkey started during World War I. Many war crimes were committed against Armenia last year [in 2020], almost identical to the genocide that was happening a century ago.”

Turkish aggression against Armenians, as well as other Christians, has a long history. Armenians are one of the first Christian nations and the indigenous population of the Armenian Highlands. They were subjected to many massacres since the 11th century by invading Turkic tribes originally from Central Asia. Many of the remaining Armenians were forcibly assimilated through conversion to Islam. Hence, today, almost all historic Armenia within the borders of modern Turkey is demographically Muslim.

It is no coincidence that almost two years after the 2020 war, Azeri aggressions against not only Artsakh but also against the borders of the Republic of Armenia are ongoing, as well as the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage by Azerbaijan, which violates international laws.

As Azerbaijan forcefully evicts Armenians from their homes, illegally holds Armenian prisoners of war, and kills Armenian soldiers, major Western powers continue to tacitly condone Azerbaijan and Turkey by their silence.

What will Christians across the world do in response? Will they choose to ignore such atrocities, or will they stand up for their persecuted Armenian brethren who are facing genocide?

Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara. Her writings have appeared in The Washington Times, The American Conservative, The Christian Post, The Jerusalem Post, and Al-Ahram Weekly. Her work focuses mainly on human rights, Turkish politics and history, religious minorities in the Middle East, and antisemitism.

ANCA calls on Congress to investigate Biden Administration`s aid blockade on Artsakh

Emil Lazarian
ARMINFO
Aug 23 2022
Alexandr Avanesov

ArmInfo.In letters sent this week to Congressional leadership and rank and file members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Chairman Raffi Hamparian called for Congressional inquiries  into the Biden Administration’s effective blockade on humanitarian  aid to Armenian families of Artsakh – an at-risk population facing  aggression, ethnic-cleansing, the obstruction of access to food,  water, fuel, and other vitally needed resources.

 Citing the “Azerbaijani government’s ambition to see Artsakh’s Armenians starved  out of existence,” Hamparian underscored that “the Administration has  sent almost no humanitarian assistance at all to help Armenian  families living in Artsakh.” “America must not be complicit in the  ethnic-cleansing of Artsakh by Azerbaijan,” he stressed.  The ANCA  letter called on legislators to demand answers from the Biden  Administration – via Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S.  Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha  Power – to the following four questions:

What specific actions has the Biden Administration taken to help  at-risk Armenians living within Nagorno- Karabakh? (Please provide  programs, partners, budgets, deliverables and other relevant  information.)

What specific plans does the Biden Administration have to help  at-risk Armenians living within Nagorno- Karabakh? (Please provide  programs, partners, budgets, deliverables and other relevant  information.)

Has the Biden Administration conducted a needs assessment of the  humanitarian crisis facing the Armenian population of Artsakh?

What budget range does the Biden Administration consider sufficient  and appropriate to address the humanitarian crisis facing the  Armenian population of Artsakh?  The full text of the ANCA letter is  provided below.  

ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian’s Letter to U.S. Senate and House   Members 

Dear Senator/Representative:  

I am writing to request that you investigate the Biden  Administration’s refusal to provide meaningful levels of U.S.  humanitarian aid to the vulnerable Armenian population living in   Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).  

As you know, the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh – victims of  ethnic-cleansing and an ongoing genocidal drive by Azerbaijan and  Turkey to drive them from their ancestral homeland – remain at-risk,  isolated and effectively blockaded, seeking to survive without  sufficient food, fuel, energy or other resources.  

The Biden Administration has provided some token aid to Armenians  driven from Artsakh into Armenia, and – as a result of Congressional  leadership -provided modest funding for de-mining and UXO clearance.   Consistent, however, with the Azerbaijani government’s ambition to  see Artsakh’s Armenians starved out of existence, the Administration  has sent almost no humanitarian assistance at all to help Armenian  families living in Artsakh.  

The Administration’s aid blockade stands in sharp contrast to  established U.S. policy, which, since Federal Fiscal Year 1998, has  provided tens of millions of dollars of direct aid to Artsakh,  helping its peaceful inhabitants with maternal health care, clean  drinking water, and life-saving demining.  

In light of the escalating existential crisis facing the Armenian of  Artsakh, I call upon you to ask the Biden Administration – via  Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha  Power – the following four questions.

What specific actions has the Biden Administration taken to help  at-risk Armenians living within Nagorno- Karabakh? (Please provide  programs, partners, budgets, deliverables and other relevant  information.)

What specific plans does the Biden Administration have to help  at-risk Armenians living within Nagorno- Karabakh? (Please provide  programs, partners, budgets, deliverables and other relevant  information.)

Has the Biden Administration conducted a needs assessment of the  humanitarian crisis facing the Armenian population of Artsakh?

What budget range does the Biden Administration consider sufficient  and appropriate to address the humanitarian crisis facing the  Armenian population of Artsakh?

The survival of an ancient Christian nation on its indigenous  homeland is at stake. Congress needs to act now  – demanding answers  and delivering aid.

By all accounts, the Administration – under pressure from Azerbaijan  – has effectively cut off desperately needed U.S. humanitarian aid to  Artsakh. Without this aid, Azerbaijan will starve Artsakh’s at-risk  Armenian population of food, water, and other life-sustaining  resources. America must not be complicit in the ethnic-cleansing of  Artsakh by Azerbaijan, an oil-rich regime that has received over  $164,000,000 in U.S. military aid. Very simply, this dictatorship  does not deserve a veto over U.S. humanitarian aid policy.

Please accept my thanks for your prompt attention to this ANCA  request. I look forward to hearing from you regarding the  Administration’s response to your inquiries and would welcome the  opportunity to speak directly with you on this matter.  

Sincerely 

Raffi Hamparian Chairman Armenian National Committee of America

Oppositionist: Pashinyan, Sargsyan, Tsarukyan and Marukyan organized illegal seizure of power in 2021

Emil Lazarian
NEWS.am
Armenia – Aug 23 2022
19:04, 23.08.2022

There are three scenarios for leaving power, but today we are going to realize only one of them, namely a conscious resignation, former Armenian Ambassador to Poland and former head of the Constitutional Court Office Edgar Ghazaryan said during today’s rally demanding the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Republic Square in Yerevan.

He recalled that more than 40 officers of the Armenian Armed Forces, the Armenian Apostolic Church, Academy of Science, YSU Scientific Council, more than 100 lawyers, numerous political parties and NGOs made such an appeal in 2021.

“But Pashinyan did not resign. Instead, he organized a mock election by creating a criminal group together with Armenian President Armen Sargsyan, Prosperous Armenia party faction head Gagik Tsarukyan, and Bright Armenia party head Edmon Marukyan, knowingly failed the government formed in 2018, organized the mock election, and illegally seized power in Armenia. Let no one think that there were elections in 2021, it was a power grab. Pashinyan will also be tried for this. He is the only Prime Minister in Armenia’s history who remained in office after resigning. Pashinyan has done this several times,” Ghazaryan noted.

He expressed his belief that Pashinyan is using power in Armenia to serve the interests of his enemies.

“Our actions will be exclusively legitimate,” the oppositionist concluded.

Oppositionist: Resistance Movement will resume its activities on September 2

Emil Lazarian
NEWS.am
Armenia – Aug 23 2022
18:43, 23.08.2022

The Resistance Movement will resume its activities on September 2. The former vice-speaker of the parliament, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, said today before the opposition rally in the Republic Square.

So, a rally is scheduled for September 2, and the Resistance Movement, according to the assurance of the oppositionist, pursuing all the declared goals, will continue to fight in full force.

“Rallies will also be held in Karabakh and Diaspora,” Saghatelyan said.

Armenpress: China launches new satellite via Kuaizhou-1A carrier rocket

Emil Lazarian

China launches new satellite via Kuaizhou-1A carrier rocket

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 09:40, 23 August 2022

YEREVAN, AUGUST 23, ARMENPRESS. China on Tuesday successfully launched a new satellite into space from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, Xinhua news agency reports.

The Chuangxin-16 satellite, developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was launched at 10:36 a.m. (Beijing Time) by a Kuaizhou-1A carrier rocket and entered the planned orbit successfully.

The satellite will mainly be used for scientific experiments and verification of new technologies.

Construction of 9 out of 13 houses in new Shurnukh district nearing completion

Emil Lazarian

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 10:44, 23 August 2022

YEREVAN, AUGUST 23, ARMENPRESS. The Chairman of the Urban Development Committee Armen Ghularyan and the Head of the Department of Urban Development Project Implementation Arsen Mirzoyan recently visited the Province of Syunik to inspect the construction project of the new district in Shurnukh.

The new district includes 13 houses. The construction of 9 houses is nearing completion and the remaining 4 are in process, the Urban Development Committee said in a press release.

The construction of engineering infrastructures and gates has also commenced, among other work.

The construction features a new sewage system with a cleaning station, power lines and street lightings, as well as barns for every household.

The 1,2 billion dram construction of the new district in Shurnukh began in April, 2021. The district is expected to be commissioned in Q4 2022.

Armenpress: Robert Arzumanyan named new manager of FC Noah

Emil Lazarian

Robert Arzumanyan named new manager of FC Noah

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 09:17, 24 August 2022

YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, ARMENPRESS. Retired Armenian football player Robert Arzumanyan is the new manager of Yerevan’s FC Noah, the club announced.

“Robert Arzumanyan new Noah manager.

We are pleased to announce that Noah signed a contract with 37-year-old former Armenian National Team player Robert Arzumanyan. His previous club was Urartu, which was headed by Arzumanyan from March 2021 till June 2022. Welcome to the Noah family,” FC Noah said in a statement.