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

PM Pashinyan testifies at parliament select committee probing 2020 war

Emil Lazarian

 09:57, 20 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS. The parliamentary select committee probing the causes and course of the 2020 Second Karabakh War is holding its first open session on June 20. All previous sessions where high-ranking former and present government officials and military commanders testified proceeded behind closed doors.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will testify at the session today.

Pashinyan earlier said he’d want his testimony to be broadcast live at an open session. 

Both opposition factions are boycotting the session.

Controversial land sale puts Jerusalem Armenians on edge

Emil Lazarian
UK – June 20 2023
The Armenian community has had a presence in Jerusalem for centuries
By Yolande Knell
BBC News, Jerusalem

Wearing peaked black headdresses and long robes, a procession of Armenian priests is led along the stone streets of Jerusalem’s Old City by two suited men in felt tarboosh hats with ceremonial walking sticks.

Quietly, apart from the tapping of the sticks, they file into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for prayers.

Nowadays, Jerusalem is at the core of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. But Armenians have been here since the 4th Century, when their country was the first to adopt Christianity as a national religion.

They have a share in the Old City’s holiest Christian sites and their own quarter tucked away in its south-western corner, home to some 2,000 Armenians.

But now the community here feels under threat because of a murky real estate deal by its own Church leaders. Amid angry protests, the Armenian patriarch has hidden himself away and a disgraced priest, who denies any wrongdoing, has fled to California.

“It’s like a puzzle. I mean, we are trying to know what happened, when it happened, and how,” explains community activist Hagop Djernazian.

What has emerged is that some 25% of the Armenian Quarter has been sold on a 99-year lease to a mysterious Jewish Australian businessman for a luxury development.

The land includes a large car parking area – one of the few areas of open land inside the Old City walls – which his company has already taken over. Many Armenians had hoped the site could be used to build affordable housing for young couples from their tiny, shrinking community.

According to plans seen unofficially by Hagop and others, an Ottoman-era building housing five Armenian households, a restaurant, shops and the seminary are all part of the sell-off. Many fear this could affect the viability of living in the quarter in the long-term.

But the controversy extends far more widely.

“It is historical land that we have had for 700 years. Losing it with one signature will affect our cultural daily life, but it will also change the picture of Jerusalem,” Hagop says. “It will change the status quo, the entire mosaic of Jerusalem.”

As the Orthodox Easter celebrations took place in April, panic was spreading among Armenians. The Armenian Patriarch, Nourhan Manougian, admitted that he had signed away the land but said he had been deceived by a local priest who worked for him.

That priest was defrocked and later there were heated scenes as he was banished from the Armenian Quarter, escorted away under Israeli police protection as residents yelled out “traitor”.

Recently, many Armenians have been joining weekly protests, linking arms and singing nationalistic songs below the window of the patriarch who now stays cloistered in his rooms at the convent. They demand that he revokes the land deal.

Amid a recent rise in attacks by extremist Jews targeting Christians in Jerusalem, some Armenians see the sale as an act of self-inflicted harm on the Christian presence here.

“The look of the city, its character is changing very much,” says Arda, who lives in the Old City and complains that religious nationalists already feel emboldened by the drift of Israeli politics.

“Priests walking in the streets find settlers spitting at them, people say they don’t want to see Christmas trees in the city, and restaurants are being attacked for no reason. It’s all going in a certain direction.”

Israel captured East Jerusalem – including the Old City – from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War and went on to occupy and annex it in a move that is not recognised internationally. In the decades since, it has been at the heart of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, claimed by both sides as their capital. Plots of land here are fiercely fought over.

There is a reminder of that near to the Armenian Quarter, at Jaffa Gate – the iconic entrance to the Christian Quarter.

Here, two landmark hotels, run by Palestinians, were secretly sold to foreign firms acting as fronts for a radical Jewish settler group. The Greek Orthodox Church lost a two-decade-long battle to cancel the deal in the Israeli courts and last year settlers moved into part of one of the hotels.

Armenian elders say that in the past, there have been frequent approaches by settlers wanting to buy land in their quarter and increase the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem. The Armenian Quarter is located next to the Jewish one, which makes it especially desirable.

However, a spokesman for the settler group which bought the Jaffa Gate properties told the BBC he had no knowledge of the Armenian land sale.

Meanwhile, in interviews in the US, the cast-out priest, Baret Yeretsian, has dismissed the idea that the buyer of the land lease – named as Danny Rothman but also Daniel Rubinstein in some documents – is driven by ideology.

Nevertheless, Palestinian Christian leaders say the sale has political implications.

“It undermines any future political solution to Jerusalem,” says Dimitri Diliani, president of the National Christian Coalition of the Holy Land. “According to international law, it’s on occupied land that is subject to negotiations and this kind of reinforces the illegal settler presence in Palestinian East Jerusalem.”

He believes that “the diversity” of Jerusalem will also be badly affected.

Highlighting the significance of the Armenian Church’s actions, both the Palestinian President and Jordan’s King Abdullah II – custodian of Jerusalem’s Christian holy sites – have suspended their recognition of the patriarch. This affects his ability to attend ceremonies and sign off on official church business.

Israel’s foreign ministry has said it is aware of the Armenian patriarch’s deal but due to the political sensitivity it refrains from commenting on it.

Meanwhile, in the walled courtyards of St James Convent – which has been home to many Armenian families since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and has its own clubs, school, library and even a football pitch – the talk nowadays is about little else.

Relations have been strained between the residents and clergy members, who act here as the religious and civil authority. On Friday, dozens of Armenian Jerusalemites gathered to hear from a group of international Armenian lawyers who have been visiting and have agreed to draw up recommendations on how to handle the case.

Nearby, in his ceramics shop, Garo Sandrouni paints glaze onto an ornately decorated bowl wondering what the future will bring.

He is from one of the families that brought the colourful tradition of Armenian pottery to Jerusalem a century ago, when they fled from what is widely seen as a genocide by the Turks.

He says that Armenians historically donated money to buy land in this holy city – their spiritual homeland – and that the Church has no right to sell it.

“This is what makes us angry. These lands belong to the Armenian nation. They don’t belong to the Armenian patriarchate of Jerusalem,” he tells me.

“The Armenian patriarchate of Jerusalem has to take care of these lands to keep them to preserve them, to protect them.”

A group of international lawyers say they will make recommendations on what could be done about the case

 

Film: Day one Cannes Lions 2023: Armenia and Nigeria make history by winning their first Lion

Emil Lazarian
June 20 2023
  • Cannes Lions

Jun 20, 2023

Cannes Lions 2023 kicked off the 70th edition of the Festival by announcing winners across five categories on day one. The categories included Outdoor, Print & Publishing, Radio & Audio, Health & Wellness, and Pharma. 

Entrants from Armenia and Nigeria made history by being the first to take home a Lion for their country; Bronze Lions in Radio & Audio and Health & Wellness Lions respectively. 

Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, said, “We’re delighted to honour our first Lion winners who are raising the creative bar on the global stage. Thank you to all of our exceptional Jurors who have given their time, dedication and expertise to define the creative benchmark for the Festival’s 70th edition.” 

The Outdoor Lions received 1938 entries, out of which, 59 Lions were awarded. Around the globe, agencies went with 9 Gold, 19 Silver and 30 Bronze. The Grand Prix went to ‘A British Original’ by Uncommon Creative Studio, London for British Airways.

Commenting on the win, Outdoor Lions Jury President, Javier Campopiano, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer at Grey and Global Chief Creative Officer of OpenX From WPP, Grey/OpenX, said, “Under the surface of a classical OOH campaign, lays a platform that can hold an infinite amount of human truths, stories, desires, emotions, that can be crafted to connect with people wherever they are in their lives, geographically or emotionally.”

The Print & Publishing category received 814 entries and 26 Lions were awarded; 4 Gold, 7 Silver, and 14 Bronze Lions, and the Grand Prix went to ‘Newspapers Inside The Newspaper Edition’ by Impact BBDO, Dubai, for AnNahar Newspaper.

The Print & Publishing Jury said, “The Grand Prix was awarded to a brave piece of work that put into action a publication-based idea to defend the sanctity of a free press, and did it in a way that we hope sends a signal to the industry on how eternally innovative the future of publication can be.”

Radio & Audio Lions awarded 22 Lions out of the 715 entries received. 3 Gold, 7 Silver, and 11 Bronze Lions were awarded and the Grand Prix went to the ‘Phone It In’ campaign by Colenso BBDO, Auckland for telecommunications company Skinny, New Zealand. 

1297 entries were recorded in the Health & Wellness Lions, out of which 37 Lions were awarded: 6 Gold, 13 Silver and 17 Bronze. The Grand Prix went to ‘The Last Performance’ By Special, Auckland, for Partners Life. This disruptive piece of work challenged Kiwis to rethink preconceptions around life insurance, encouraging New Zealanders to take action. 

Pharma Lions gave out 13 awards; 2 Gold, 4 Silver, and 6 Bronze Lions. The Jury awarded the Pharma Grand Prix to ‘Scrolling Therapy’ for Eurofarma by Dentsu Creative Buenos Aires / Dentsu Creative New York / Dentsu Creative Chicago. 

The Lions Health and United Nations Foundation Grand Prix for Good was also announced and the Grand Prix went to ‘Working with Cancer’ for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), by La Foundation Publicis Chicago / Publicis Conseil Paris / Le Truc New York / Digitas New York / Saatchi & Saatchi Health, New York / Publicis Groupe UK, London. 

Special awards also awarded: 

The Healthcare Network of the Year

Rank: 

  • 1. FCB Health
  • 2. Klick Health
  • 3. PUBLICIS 

Healthcare Agency of the Year

Rank:

  • 1. AREA 23, an IPG Health Network Company, New York, USA
  • 2. KLICK HEALTH, Toronto, Canada
  • 3. 21GRAMS, Part Of Real Chemistry, New York, USA

https://www.socialsamosa.com/2023/06/cannes-lions-2023-armenia-nigeria-first-lion/

Chess: Armenia wins European Pairs Chess Championship 2023

Emil Lazarian
June 20 2023

The 1st European Pairs Chess Championship, an official side event of the European Games Krakow-Malopolska 2023, concluded yesterday in Poland!

The event was held in two phases: qualification and playoffs, and the individual medalists were determined by the playoffs in each section (Open and Women’s). The combined Pair medals were decided by the final position of the players of each team after the playoffs in each section (sum of points): 1st 8-points, 2nd 7–points, 3rd 6-points, 4th 5-points, 5th 4-points, 6th 3 points, 7th 2-points, and 8th 1-point. 

The team of Armenia, represented by GM Shant Sargsyan and IM Elina Danielian, emerged as the Winner of the event scoring 15 points. The Netherlands clinched silver with 14 points with GM Benjamin Bok and IM Eline Roebers in the team, while Azerbaijan came third with 13 points, represented by GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and IM Gunay Mammadzada.

After a good performance in the qualification stage, GM Benjamin Bok entered the playoffs as the lowest rated player to fight for the top. With two convincing 2-0 victories against GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and GM Shant Sargsyan, Benjamin Bok clinched the individual gold medal. GM Shant Sargsyan came second and GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won bronze.

GM Elina Danielian emerged as the Winner in the Women’s event defeating IM Marsel Efroimski and IM Gunay Mammadzada with perfect 2-0 result in both matches. IM Gunay Mammadzada claimed silver and IM Eline Roebers came third.

All results can be found here, and the final standings can be seen below.

The 3 winners of the Open, Women’s and Combine Pair sections received gold, silver and bronze medals, the same as the European Olympic Games medals.

The Closing ceremony of the event took place after the games with the presence of the deputy CEO of the 2023 European Games Mr. Janusz Koziol, the ECU Deputy President Mrs. Dana Reiznece-Ozola, ECU Vice Presidents Mr. Alojzije Jankovic and Mr. Gunnar Bjornsson, ECU Secretary General Mr. Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou, FIDE Secretary General Mr. Lukasz Turlej, and head of the Malopolska Chess Association Ms. Kamila Kałużna-Turcza.

The event was broadcasted live through the ECU YouTube channel with commentaries by WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni.

https://www.europechess.org/armenia-wins-european-pairs-chess-championship-2023/

Kansas Guardsmen join Armenian counterparts in national cyber training

Emil Lazarian
June 19 2023
Back row, Left to Right: Sgt. James Pennington, Sgt. Johnathon Lenfestey, Sgt. Seth Hinkle, Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Sampson, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jared Meier, Col. Aram Gevorgyan (Head of Cybersecurity, Armenia), Master Sgt. Jeremy Armstrong, Capt. Matthew Sevcik. Front row, Left to Right: Sgt. James Tyrell, Cpl. Desirea Smith, Capt. Angela Stevens, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Scott Sackrider, Maj. Misha Asatryan (Chief of Cybersecurity Division Armenia), Capt. Aram Maggakyan (Cybersecurity Ddivision Armenia), Senior Lt. Albert Avetisyan (Cybersecurity Division Armenia), Gevorg Hayrapetyan (interpreter Armenia). Not pictured: Maj. Benjamin Gruver, Sgt. Maj. Jeremy Byers, Sgt Ruth Williams.(Kansas National Guard)
By Sarah Motter

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – A handful of Kansas National Guardsmen joined their Armenian counterparts for a national cyber training exercise that marked the two decades of the partnership.

The Kansas National Guard announced that guardsmen recently completed Cyber Shield 2023 – the nation’s premier unclassified cyber training exercise – between June 2 and 16 at the Army National Guard Professional Education Center, Camp Joseph T. Robinson Maneuver Training Center, in North Little Rock, Ark.

The National Guard noted that the exercise included more than 800 soldiers, airmen, sailors, civilian experts and other military services from across the globe. Interagency partners from all levels of government and cyber leaders – ranging from high-tech corporations to local utilities – were also in attendance.

According to the Guard, the focus of the exercise was on the National Guard’s role in responses to attacks on critical infrastructure including U.S. transportation systems. The mission was to develop, train and exercise cyber forces in computer network internal defensive measures and cyber incident response.

Officials indicated that the capabilities learned included teams’ abilities to coordinate, train and aid federal, state and industry network owners threatened by cyberattacks. The exercise was conducted at the unclassified level to allow for more participants.

The Guard said 2023 marked a significant milestone as members from five state partnership programs joined forces with National Guard Cyber Teams for the first time during the exercise. The effort coupled Kansas with Armenia, Illinois with Poland, Iowa with Kosovo and North Carolina with Moldova.

“The Kansas Defensive Cyberspace Operations Element team was thrilled to partner with our Armenian partners for the Cyber Shield 2023 exercise,” said Capt. Matthew Sevcik, team lead. “Discussing tactics and techniques in the realm of cyber with our Armenian counterparts helps inform our team’s capabilities and strengthen the partnership.”

Officials noted that Kansas’ partnership with Armenia began through the State Partnership Program in June 2003. This year marks the 20th anniversary of that relationship.

https://www.wibw.com/2023/06/19/kansas-guardsmen-join-armenian-counterparts-national-cyber-training/

Lukashenko describes Armenia’s claims to the CSTO “justified”

Emil Lazarian
Armenia – June 20 2023

Yerevan /Mediamax/. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko described Armenia’s claims to the CSTO as “justified”.

“Kyrgyzstan asks us, demands that we somehow help them in resolving the conflict on the border with Tajikistan. It is very justified. Sometimes Armenia makes claims against us. There are problems, and very serious problems. If we fail to solve these problems, we will always blame each other, express dissatisfaction with the functioning of the organization as a whole. Problems exist to be solved.

Therefore, no matter how we twist or roll, we must be immersed in the problems that are being solved today by CSTO member Armenia and CSTO members Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan,” Lukashenkao said at a meeting with the foreign ministers of the CSTO member states in Minsk.

 “There are problems, there are tasks, they must be solved, no matter how difficult and complex they may be. Based on the fact that decisions are made by consensus, and sometimes due to the complexity of problems, we bypass them, we do not want to solve them,” the president of Belarus added.

Pashinyan reveals details of 2020 ceasefire talks

Emil Lazarian
Panorama
Armenia – June 20 2023

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday shared details of the Russian-mediated ceasefire talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during the 2020 Artsakh war.

Speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary commission probing the war, Pashinyan said he signed a trilateral statement to end the war on the morning of November 9.

“As a result of discussions, we agreed on a text that said nothing about Shushi or the opening of a corridor through Armenia. It was about the cessation of hostilities, return of seven regions and deployment of Russian peacekeepers on the Lachin Corridor and in Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.

“On the morning of November 9, I signed that text. Mind you, not at midnight, but on the morning of 9 November I signed the trilateral statement. However, it turned out that Azerbaijan refused to sign the document and instead laid out a number of new demands. The statement I signed in the morning was no longer valid,” Pashinyan stated, adding he categorically rejected a new version of the statement which envisaged the return of the enclaves in Armenia’s Tavush Province to Azerbaijan.

“Sometime later, it turned out that an agreement had been reached to remove that point from the document. At the same time, at around midnight, reports about intensified hostilities and a large number of drones above Stepanakert began to circulate. Eventually, after difficult and long discussions I signed the document you all know about, which, of course, was worse than the one I had signed in the morning, but was better than the other proposed versions, which envisaged either the creation of a corridor through Meghri or the return of the Tavush enclaves,” he noted.

Terms of 9 November 2020 agreement were best available choices compared to other proposed conditions, says Pashinyan

Emil Lazarian

 12:30, 20 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS. Talks over what would become the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement had begun on 6 November 2020, Prime Minister Pashinyan told lawmakers on Tuesday.

“I agreed to start negotiations on this topic with one condition, that it won’t contain clauses relating to Shushi and a corridor through territory of Armenia, as well as offered to return Aghdam in exchange of Hadrut, which Azerbaijan had captured. This was the beginning of the process aimed at signing the trilateral statement. I understood that we had reached a turning point. If we were able to keep Shushi, it would be a turning point, if not, again it would be a turning point. But as of 8 November, as much as I was being told that a part of Shushi was still under our control, I realized that we were unable to completely bring it back. The President of Nagorno Karabakh was warning that Stepanakert was becoming vulnerable, and there was a risk that the Azerbaijanis, after solving the issue of Shushi, would attack Stepanakert from the direction of Shosh village, continuing towards Askeran and hitting the Defense Army defensive lines from the rear and invading into Haterk and Sotk. The talks were proceeding through the Russian President, I had over 20 phone calls with him on 8 October, and a total of 60 phone calls during the entire 44-day war. And very quickly it became known that Azerbaijan was not accepting the formula of exchanging Aghdam for Hadrut, and eventually as a result of discussions were reached a text where nothing was said about Shushi, nothing was said about a corridor through Armenia’s territory, but was stipulating the end of hostilities, the return of the seven regions, the creation of the Lachin Corridor and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers there and in Nagorno Karabakh,” Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan said he signed the text in the morning of 9 November but Azerbaijan refused to sign it and put forward new demands.

“The culmination was the evening of 9 November when it turned out that Azerbaijan was offering new amendments to the text that had been practically finalized. This meant that the text I had signed in the morning was no longer valid. But the moment the Russian President said that Azerbaijan wants to add a clause on the return of the enclaves of Tavush province, I declared that I rule out signing such document. And it was officially noted that we are not signing a document. Sometime later it turned out that an agreement was reached to remove that clause. At the same time, around midnight, we started to receive news about intensified military operations and that there were a large number of drones above Stepanakert. After all, after difficult and long discussions I signed the document you all know about, which, of course, is worse than the option I had signed in the morning on that same day, but was better than the rest of the proposed variants, one of which envisaged the Meghri corridor and the other the return of enclaves of Tavush province.”

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 21-06-23

Emil Lazarian

 17:15, 21 June 2023

YEREVAN, 21 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 21 June, USD exchange rate down by 0.92 drams to 386.16 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 1.47 drams to 421.65 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.01 drams to 4.59 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 3.61 drams to 490.58 drams.

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

Gold price down by 314.71 drams to 23967.18 drams. Silver price down by 2.95 drams to 295.11 drams.

Russia to Azerbaijan: Unblock Road Between Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh

Emil Lazarian
Voice of America

Reuters: Russia urged Azerbaijan to fully unblock the Lachin corridor on Friday, the only road that links Armenia with the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave where more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians live and rely on it for vital supplies.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but its inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Armenians. The enclave broke away from Baku’s control in a war in the early 1990s.

After heavy fighting and a Russian-brokered cease-fire, Azerbaijan in 2020 took over areas that had been controlled by ethnic Armenians in and around the mountain enclave, and Baku is now pushing for ethnic Armenian government and military structures to be dissolved and for the population to accept Azerbaijani passports.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Friday that the entrance to the corridor had been blocked by Azerbaijan in a move she said increased tensions at a time when Baku and Armenia are trying to agree to a peace treaty.

There have been reports that the road was totally closed after June 15, when shots were fired in an incident in which the South Caucasus countries said in separate statements that one Azerbaijani and one Armenian border guard had been wounded.

“Such steps lead to increased tension and are not conducive to maintaining a normal atmosphere around the ongoing process of normalizing relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia with Russian assistance. We call on Baku to unblock the Lachin corridor in its entirety,” said Zakharova.

Baku has denied imposing a blockade but has said it has taken what it called “relevant measures to investigate the reasons for this provocation, as well as to ensure the security of the border checkpoint.”

Azerbaijan in April established a checkpoint at the entrance to the corridor following months of disruption caused by people who called themselves Azerbaijani environmental activists, a step it said was essential due to what it cast as Armenia’s use of the road to transport weapons.

Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire banker who was a top official in Karabakh’s separatist government until February, on Thursday accused Baku of trying to “ethnically cleanse” the enclave by imposing what he called a goods and energy blockade — allegations that Azerbaijan denies.

Azerbaijan’s foreign minister told Reuters in an interview that Baku was rejecting a demand from Armenia to provide special security guarantees for the enclave’s ethnic Armenians ahead of a new round of peace talks, saying they were sufficiently protected.