Armenia has the first participant in the final of the European Boxing Championship.
Rafael Hovhannisyan, the first Armenian participant to enter the ring on the 6th day of the European Championships in Yerevan, competed in the 86 kg weight category semifinals with Poland’s Tomasz Niedzwiecki and celebrated a brilliant victory, securing at least a silver medal.
In all three rounds, the referees awarded the victory to the representative of Armenia.
15:47,
YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. Today, Deputy Prime Minister Hambardzum Matevosyan visited the “Broken Church” memorial in Vanadzor together with the Governor of Lori Aram Khachatryan, MPs Arpi Davoyan, Armen Khachatryan, as well as the acting Mayor of Vanadzor Arkady Peleshyan on the occasion of the Republic Day, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Offic eof the Deputy Prime Minister.
After the requiem service delivered by Bishop Hovnan Hakobyan. Primate of the Diocese of Gougark, the Deputy Prime Minister delivered a speech, saying,
“Your Holiness,
Dear compatriots,
Dear citizens of Vanadzor,
About a century ago, during these days, when everything seemed to be lost and there was no way out, thank to the glory of the brave Armenians, despair turned into inspiration, as a result of which we had the heroic battles of Sardarapat, Bash-Aparan and Gharakilisa.
Glory and honor to all the heroes who sacrificed their lives for the salvation of the homeland, fought for statehood.
And today, on May 28, it is a great honor for me to be present and participate in this ceremony dedicated to the heroic battle of Gharakilisa and to pray to God for the peace of the souls of our martyrs.
Much time has passed, but the challenges and the formula for facing them have not changed, that is, unity, will and faith.
I think that due to this trinity and tireless work we will have a strong and unbreakable army, a strong state.
long live the Republic of Armenia,
Long live the heroes of all time,
Congratulations to all of us on the Republic Day.”
After MP Arpi Davoyan’s welcoming speech, Deputy Prime Minister Hambardzum Matevosyan laid a wreath at the memorial to the heroes of the Gharakilisa battle and paid tribute to their memory.
PanARMENIAN.Net – Member of the board of the National Democratic Pole Varuzhan Avetisyan has been detained in Armenia, the party said in a statement Saturday, May 28.
“Other prominent members of the Sasna Tsrer rebel group have also been detained, the party said in a small statement.
The group known as Sasna Tsrer (named after the Armenian epic “Daredevils of Sassoun”) stormed a police patrol department in summer of 2016 and took everyone inside hostage. In 2021, one of the members of the group, Armen Bilyan, was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison. The court also handed jail terms to the other members of the group.
Armenia’s third President Serzh Sargsyan issued a congratulatory message on Republic Day celebrated on May 28. His full message is below.
“I congratulate all our compatriots in Armenia, Artsakh, and Spyurk for whom freedom and independence of our Fatherland, the undying memory of our courageous ancestors, who gave their lives for our independent statehood, are above everything else.
I congratulate all those who cherish our national spiritual and cultural values, our language and history, all those who even today, more than one hundred years after the glorious May victories achieved on the battlefields, are ready to protect these values and pass them on to new generations.
On this day in May of 1918, the devoted sons of the Armenian nation at the highest level of the national awareness and historic responsibility, through their selfless and dedicated courage had attained the right to live free and independent in their Homeland.
Eternal glory to all Armenian soldiers, military commanders, servicemen, representatives of the clergy and all those devotees, who led and brought to brilliant victories in May battles, who decided to live with dignity and not submit to the aliens. We bow to the memory of our heroic ancestors.
For our nation, which had appeared on the brink of despair and extinction, the May victories became a new opportunity to live, to create and to achieve pan-national goals.
Painfully, today our nation faces the same dilemma: to defend with our lives our own land, our homes under the enemy’s daily threat, our spiritual and cultural heritage under the threat of demolishment and desecration, our children’s future, or to kneel before our enemy, trusting in its and its Armenian cronies false and dangerous assurances about opening an era of peace?
The worthy and dignified sons and daughters of our nations have made their choice, and I wish them every success in their relentless mission to fight against the internal and external enemies.
Eternal glory to the sons of our nation who created May 28!
Long live all devotees of our Fatherland who through new victories will create the powerful, dignified, free, and independent Fatherland of tomorrow!”
Artsakh’s President Arayik Harutyunyan called on the Armenian law enforcement authorities to release public activist and opposition politician Avetik Chalabyan.
Chalabyan was arrested on May 12 for allegedly trying to pay students of the Armenian National Agrarian University to participate in ongoing anti-government protests in Yerevan. He has denied the charges as politically motivated.
He is also a co-founder of Arar Foundation, a charity supporting the Armenian army as well as border villages in Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
In a statement on Friday, the Artsakh leader highlighted that Chalabyan is a friend of Artsakh, adding a number of important programs are being implemented at his initiative.
“On behalf of the Artsakh people and on my own behalf, I ask the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia to reconsider the measure of restraint as well as to conduct a full, objective and comprehensive investigation,” Harutyunyan said.
Speaker of the Artsakh National Assembly Artur Tovmasyan and ten MPs issued a similar call. The lawmakers’ statement posted on social media noted that Chalabyan was actively involved in numerous programs to restore Artsakh.
“We express concern over Avetik Chalabyan’s arrest and call for his release from custody,” the statement reads.
16:01,
YEREVAN, MAY 27, ARMENPRESS. President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović, who is on an official visit to Armenia since May 26, visited today the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex in Yerevan to watch the quarterfinals of the EUBC Men’s Elite European Boxing Championships.
The Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Armenia Karen Giloyan, the Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan and the Mayor of Yerevan Hrachya Sargsyan accompanied the President.
Team Montenegro’s Cruiserweight Petar Luesevic and Lightweight Edin Alkovich had scheduled bouts during the May 27 quarterfinals and President Đukanović came to cheer for his country’s team.
Collectors Preview of The Future of Things Passed (Photo: Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice Facebook page)
NEW YORK, NY—The future of the Armenian community was on display at the opening reception of “The Future of Things Passed” exhibition in Manhattan on May 19th.
The exhibition features celebrated women artists of Armenian descent Eozen Agopian, Melissa Dadourian, Linda Ganjian and Judith Simonian. It is the first developed by the Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice, co-founded by Christopher Atamian and Tamar Hovsepian. Part of the proceeds from art sales at the exhibition will be donated to the New York Armenian Students’ Association Scholarship Fund.
Eozen Agopian, Christopher Atamian, Judith Simonian and Tamar Hovsepian (Photo: Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice Facebook page)
Atamian and Hovsepian launched the practice to promote representation of contemporary artists from marginalized backgrounds.
“We identified that we want to show marginalized groups—Armenian, women, LGBTQ+, people of color,” Hovsepian told the Armenian Weekly.
Hovsepian has previously worked with all of the artists featured in “The Future of Things Passed” in former galleries she has curated. She laments that while artists like Simonian, who gained renown within the downtown Los Angeles art scene of the 1980s, are internationally acclaimed, they are not as well known among Armenians. Through her joint curatorship with Atamian, she hopes to educate and cultivate a new generation of Armenian art collectors.
“Larry Gagosian is one of the wealthiest, most famous art dealers, and he doesn’t have a single Armenian artist that he represents,” she offered as an example of the absence of support for contemporary Armenian art. “Why is there not a single art gallery in Chelsea that shows Armenian artists?”
Contemporary Armenian artists lack visibility both within the Armenian community and the broader contemporary art world, according to Hovsepian. She recalled the “Armenia!” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which displayed the artistic achievements of Armenian people up until the 17th century.
“You can’t title an exhibition ‘Armenia!’ and stop and then not talk about what’s happening now. Where is the contemporary Armenian art?” Hovsepian asked. “Outside of Arshile Gorky, who do we have at the Museum of Modern Art?”
“The Future of Things Passed” explores how art can “deconstruct and uncover elements of the past through sense memory and found objects, while making lasting statements through these interpretations,” as stated in an essay presented to visitors at the gallery door. The orientation of the gallery toward the future is inspired by Armenian Futurism, defined by Sylvia Alajaji as “a realm in which re-imaginings and re-claimings of queer and otherwise marginalized Armenian pasts give way to futures of possibility and wonder.”
Atamian says that Armenian Futurism, theorized by artists like Kamee Abrahamian, Mashinka Firunts Hakopian and Hrag Vartanian, can inspire creativity and visionary thinking beyond pain and hardship.
“How do we create an inclusive vibrant forward-thinking Armenian community that thinks about its future and being progressive and being at the cutting edge?” Atamian posed.
Atamian, a celebrated writer, editor and translator, noted how the artwork on display repurposes memories and found objects from the past. For instance, Ganjian’s series “Map of Her Prayers, No. 1-6,” incorporates inscriptions from a prayer book her grandmother carried with her through Der Zor during the Armenian Genocide.
Map of Her Prayers #5 by Linda Ganjian (Photo: Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice Facebook page)
“How do you take something from the past and make something beautiful that’s forward thinking and that people want to collect?” Atamian said of the impact of Ganjian’s artwork.
Atamian believes that Armenians should support contemporary Armenian artwork, not only because it is beautiful, but also because it can promote Armenian political causes, such as Armenian Genocide recognition and the peaceful resolution of the Artsakh conflict, by generating an emotional investment in these issues.
“People need to know who Armenians are,” Atamian said. “Americans and people in Europe don’t have a gut reaction to it, because they don’t know about it. If you have a piece of art or a book that is Armenian, you have an emotional connection rather than just a policy paper.”
K Sherbetdjian attended the opening reception and was struck by the emotional intensity of Ganjian’s artwork.
“I’m looking at each individual component, and I’m wondering what the story is behind it and what the significance is for the artist, and then also what the significance is for me. The text that’s incorporated is in Armenian. I don’t speak Armenian. I just wonder what the passages are. It looks like there’s doorbells. I’m wondering if that is a signal to God or a signal for help. I like pieces where there’s a lot to think about,” Sherbetdjian reflected on “Map of Her Prayers.”
As an artist, Caroline Gates recognized her own art studio within Studio Ballou, a painting of an art studio by Simonian. Gates wandered into “The Future of Things Passed” after a painting by Simonian near the door caught her eye.
“Even in the abstraction you can hold onto something concrete. It does a really good job of taking us back through spaces that are familiar, but we could see it through every lens of the different times that we were there,” Gates said while studying Studio Ballou. “I feel very placed. I could stare at this forever.”
Studio Ballou by Judith Simonian (Photo: Atamian Hovsepian Curatorial Practice Facebook page)
Atamian and Hovsepian plan to continue curating exhibitions to place artwork by artists from marginalized backgrounds within institutions like museums and galleries. They hope Armenians will support their fellow artists by collecting contemporary art.
“This is as beautiful as the art you find in any museum and community, so why not represent it?” Atamian posed.
“The Future of Things Passed” will be on display until May 29, 2022 from 11 A.M.-7 P.M. on the ground floor of 138 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10001.
The Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Shogher Margossian as assistant director. Margossian has been working with the Foundation since 2018 as an external consultant.
With a master’s degree in music and culture from London, additional graduate work in Brussels and undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in English and literature from Beirut, Margossian brings interdisciplinary approaches to her work. Multilingual and multicultural, she has worked with international and Armenian organizations in art, culture, history and education, including online publishing and design. She has developed strategies and managed projects that bring new approaches to issues pertaining to contemporary experiences, and specifically, Armenian experiences.
“We are keen to have Shogher Margossian as an inherent part of our team,” said Razmik Panossian, the director of the Armenian Communities Department, adding, “her skills, knowledge and enthusiasm will strengthen our programming and reinforce our holistic approach to Armenian culture and language.”
Margossian will assume her duties on June 1, 2022.
Friday,
Armenian Defense Chief Lauds Russian Peacekeepers
Armenia - Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian meets with the commander of
Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, Major General Andrei Volkov,
Yerevan, .
Defense Minister Suren Papikian praised Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in
Nagorno-Karabakh when he met with their commander in Yerevan on Friday.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said Major-General Andrei Volkov briefed Papikian
on the situation and “current developments” in the peacekeepers’ area of
responsibility. They also discussed broader security in the region, the ministry
said in a statement.
“The interlocutors praised the Russian Federation’s efforts to stabilize the
military-political situation in the region as well as the course and
effectiveness of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh (Karabakh),” read
the statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
likewise noted the peacekeepers’ “decisive contribution” to the security of
Karabakh’s population in a joint declaration released after their talks held
outside Moscow on April 19.
The declaration followed Armenia’s criticism of the peacekeepers’ failure to
prevent Azerbaijani troops from seizing a village in Karabakh and nearby hills
in March. Pashinian repeatedly called on Moscow to investigate the “inactivity”
of its troops.
The peacekeepers were also criticized for refusing to allow Armenian opposition
parliamentarians to visit Karabakh on April 12. The Armenian Foreign Ministry
said the ban ran counter to the terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire that
stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in November 2020.
The Russian Foreign Ministry insisted, however, the Russian soldiers acted “in
strict conformity” with the truce accord.
Aliyev Again Rules Out Status For Karabakh
Russia - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev speaks after a trilateral meeting
with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian, Sochi, November 26, 2021.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev reportedly ruled out on Friday any
negotiations with Armenia on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Aliyev also said that the planned demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border
will uphold Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh.
In March this year, Azerbaijan presented Armenia with five elements which it
wants to be at the heart of a peace treaty between the two nations. They include
a mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity. Yerevan said they
should be complemented by other issues relating to the future of status of
Karabakh and the security of its population.
Baku effectively dismissed the Armenian counterproposals before Aliyev’s latest
meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian held in Brussels on Sunday.
Pashinian indicated on Wednesday that the two sides continue to disagree on the
agenda of talks on the peace treaty.
“Azerbaijan believes that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved while
Armenia believes that it’s not,” he told the Armenian parliament.
The Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Aliyev as saying that “there can be
no talk of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
“This is Azerbaijani territory and the whole world recognizes this,” he said.
“This is why the first session of the commission on the delimitation of the
border between Azerbaijan and Armenia is very important.”
Aliyev claimed that the demarcation process is “automatically and officially
putting an end to the territorial claims made against Azerbaijan by revanchist,
fascist forces in Armenia.”
Some Armenian opposition leaders have likewise said that by demarcating the
border Yerevan will recognize Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. Pashinian and
his political allies deny this, saying that Karabakh’s final status is a
separate issue.
Armenian and Azerbaijani government delegations headed by deputy prime ministers
of the two states held the first round of demarcation talks on Tuesday.
Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian said on Friday that they
discussed “only organizational issues of further joint work.”
“In this sense, I consider the meeting totally constructive,” Grigorian told the
TASS news agency.
He said the two sides have yet to agree on the date of their next meeting that
will be held in Moscow.
Iran Reiterates Support For Armenia’s Territorial Integrity
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - The Armenian flag is hoisted at a military base on the border with
Iran, October 7, 2021.
Following further progress made towards the opening of Armenian-Azerbaijani
transport links, a senior Iranian diplomat reaffirmed on Friday his country’s
opposition to any exterritorial corridors that would pass through Armenia.
“All that should be done by respecting the internationally recognized borders of
the countries,” said Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri, Iran’s ambassador to Armenia.
“Iran will support all initiatives corresponding to international law and norms.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
reportedly reached major understandings on the issue at their May 22 talks in
Brussels hosted by European Council President Charles Michel. The latter said
they agreed on “principles of border administration, security, land fees but
also customs in the context of international transport.”
Aliyev told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan afterwards that he and
Pashinian agreed to open a “Zangezur corridor” that will connect Azerbaijan to
its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province bordering
Iran. Armenian officials denied that, saying that Yerevan and Baku are
discussing conventional transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
Aliyev had publicly demanded earlier that people and cargo using the corridor be
exempt from Armenian border controls. Armenian leaders rejected his demands.
Armenia - Iranian Ambassador Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri visits a section of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border in Gegharkunik province, August 3, 2021.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi backed Yerevan’s position in January, telling
Pashinian that Tehran supports Armenian sovereignty over all roads passing
through Armenia. Zohouri reaffirmed that stance when he visited Syunik early
this month.
Syunik is the only Armenian province that borders Iran. Some Iranian lawmakers
accused Aliyev last fall of seeking to effectively strip Iran of a common border
with Armenia.
Zohouri on Friday called for stronger economic ties between Syunik and Iran’s
East Azerbaijan province bordering Armenia.
“It is obvious that very close cooperation between the two border provinces can
have great advantages,” he told reporters in Yerevan.
The Iranian ambassador also emphasized Russia’s involvement in the efforts to
open the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to trade and other cargo shipments. He
pointed to the work of a Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani task force dealing with
practical modalities of the planned transport links.
Zohouri did not mention the European Union’s separate peace efforts criticized
by Moscow.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
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The prosecution of opposition figure Mikayel Badalyan is politically motivated, his lawyers Erik Aleksanyan and Jirayr Gharagyozyan said in a joint statement on Friday. Badalyan was arrested for one month on May 24. The full statement is below.
“A motion to release Liberation Movement leader Mikayel Badalyan on bail has been filed to the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction.
It is known that Mikayel Badalyan, as a pro-Russian political figure, has always made efforts to ensure that public sentiments do not negatively impact Armenian-Russian relations and to further strengthen the centuries-old warm relations between the friendly states. However, his arrest shows that the Armenian authorities have deviated from the right path and have now stabbed their ally in the back.
The persecution of Mikayel Badalyan is totally politically motivated and is aimed at silencing him and stopping his pro-Russian activities.”