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

ARMENPRESS arts journalist acknowledged by Union of Writers

Emil Lazarian

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 16:50,

YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. ARMENPRESS’s arts journalist Angela Hambardzumyan is among the distinguished reporters who were recognized by the Union of Writers for their coverage of the cultural events organized by the organization during 2021.

Union of Writers President Edward Militonyan presented certificates to ARMENPRESS’s Angela Hambardzumyan, Public Television’s Nune Aleksanyan, RFE/RL Azatutyun’s Gayane Danielyan, Aravot’s Vova Arzumanyan, Irvunk’s Nune Zakaryan, Grakan Tert’s Shake Yeritsyan and writer, reporter Hovhannes Avdaryan. The Third Armenian Channel, Shant TV, Zinuzh Media and Public Radio were also given certificates of acknowledgment.

Notable events organized by the union in 2021 include the Book Giving Day and the World Poetry Day events and the 125th anniversary of birth of Charents.

President Vahagn Khachaturyan receives President of the Armenian General Benevolent Union Perch Sedrakyan

Emil Lazarian

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 18:33,

YEREVAN, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan received President of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) Perch Sedrakyan and AGBU Armenia President Vazgen Yacoubian.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the President’s Office,  AGBU President Perch Sedrakyan presented the current programs, priorities and forthcoming activities of the Union.

President Khachaturyan praised the activities of the Armenian General Benevolent Union aimed at preserving the Armenian heritage through educational, cultural and humanitarian programs.

During the meeting, the sides touched upon Armenia-Diaspora relations, the need to use the potential of the Diaspora more effectively, the consolidation of Diaspora and Armenians around national goals, the preservation of the Armenian identity, as well as the joint implementation of strategic goals.

This endless succession of losses must be put an end to – Ishkhan Saghatelyan

Emil Lazarian
ARMINFO
Armenia –
Marianna Mkrtchyan

ArmInfo.This endless succession of losses must be put an end to, Armenian Parliament  Vice-Speaker Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a member of the Armenian  Revolutionary Federation (ARFD) party and opposition parliamentary  faction Armenia, wrote in a Facebook message.  

“I know you are greatly concerned. I know you are awaiting actions. I  know this treachery is impossible to put up with. Our worst  predictions are coming true. But all is not lost yet. We must stand  up and put an end to this endless succession of losses. Believe,  please, the opposition is up and doing. Of many questions I am going  to inform you in the coming days. Everything is bad, but we have a  chance. So w must use every moment in the right way. We have no right  to wrong steps. I say again, be ready. We have much work to do, and  wee are going to do it together. It is our mission, and we will carry  it out with honor,” Mr Saghatelyan wrote. 

Speaking in Parliament on April 13, 2022, Armenia’s premier said:   “The international community is telling us straightforwardly now:   being the world’s only country refusing to recognize Turkey’s ally   Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is a great threat not only to   Artsakh, but also to Armenia. The international community is telling   us again now: request a lower status for Nagorno-Karabakh,  and you   will enjoy international unanimity on Armenia and Artsakh.    Otherwise, we request you not to hope for us not because we are  unwilling to help, but because we are unable to.”  

Pashinyan: “We are speaking about Armenia and Artsakh’s being or not being”

Emil Lazarian

“Back in 1997, it was planned to divide the issue into parts, first was the Karabakh issue, then the peace agreement, and so is with the 2018 and 2016 packages. This package very clearly states that these initial principles are agreed upon, and then negotiations between the governments begin with the participation of the representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh.

 

This is where by saying NK representatives the Armenians and Azerbaijanis of Nagorno-Karabakh would have been meant. And it is here that with this settlement proposal the Azerbaijanis of Nagorno-Karabakh would have sat at the table of negotiations and there would not have been any settlement until the issue of Shushi, which was on the table of negotiations since 1996, was resolved.

 

Would Serzh Sargsyan hand over Shushi? No, he would not. A war would have broken and not only Shushi but a part of Karabakh would have been handed over. A new stage was added to the stage-by-stage option. The NK status or the ongoing status was to be determined at the Security Council session,” Pashinyan said.

 

He stressed that “if we wanted to hand over Karabakh and take the logic of the negotiations left by Serzh Sargsyan to the end, we would have handed over Karabakh.”

 

“Even if a referendum was to take place, it should have been within the timeframe agreed between the parties. Azerbaijan was very clearly saying that there would be no referendum in the next 50 years: let the Azerbaijanis return to Karabakh, live side by side for 50 years, the Azerbaijani settlements be returned, and in hundred years we will see, we do not agree to any other conditions,” Pashinyan said.

 

The premier said he is speaking about not handing over Karabakh.

 

“If we follow other path, we will hand over Karabakh. The developments over Parukh village are bright example – piece by piece. Let’s stop lying to each other.”

 

Politics | 2022-04-13 11:57:04

Commenting on his yesterday’s speech, he said that with it “he opened space for Armenia and Artsakh.”

 

“Through the whole negotiation process of the previous period, Armenia and Artsakh were deprived of political and diplomatic space. We open the way for Armenia and Artsakh to preserve the statehood. Armenia is a sovereign state, and we must return the right to decide something. We need to bring issues to the agenda, fill the regional agenda with content. It is enough for others to impose agendas to us all the time. We are talking about Armenia and Artsakh’s being or not being. There is a great deal of aggression around us and it is not just where we see it. We have to manage that aggression,” he said.

EU special envoy calls Pashinyan’s speech ‘important and forward-looking’

Emil Lazarian
Panorama
Armenia –

Toivo Klaar, the European Union’s special representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, has praised Nikol Pashinyan’s speech in the Armenian parliament on Wednesday as “important and forward-looking”.

“An important and forward-looking speech by Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan in the National Assembly today,” he said in a tweet.

“Many challenges remain on the road to a comprehensive settlement but it is important to move forward. Armenian has the EU’s support in the search for a just peace,” Klaar noted.

Man arrested for vandalizing Leonid Azgaldyan monument in Yerevan

Emil Lazarian
Panorama
Armenia –

LAW 17:01 14/04/2022 ARMENIA

Armenian police officers have arrested the man, who vandalized the monument to legendary Armenian commander and Artsakh war hero Leonid Azgaldyan.

“The 58-year-old man, a resident of Mashtots Avenue in Yerevan, was taken to the Central Police Station and confessed to the crime. The preliminary investigation is underway,” the police said on Thursday.

Earlier, artist Ara Shahumyan shared photos of the damaged bust of Leonid Azgaldyan on social media, calling for immediate punishment of the vandals.

The monument to Leonid Azgaldyan was unveiled at the intersection of Mesrop Mashtots Avenue and Movses Khorenatsi Street in central Yerevan on December 11, 2002. The 2.2-meter-high monument is crafted from granite.

Forecast: As a chain of Western geopolitics, the Brussels meeting turns the Caucasus into a second Ukraine

Emil Lazarian
ARMINFO
Armenia –
David Stepanyan

ArmInfo.The Michel-Pashinyan-Aliyev Brussels meeting, as a chain of Western geopolitics, leads to turning the South Caucasus into a second Ukraine. Political  scientist Stepan Danielyan expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.

“In fact, the initiators of the Brussels meeting of the leaders of  Armenia and Azerbaijan did not at all prepare a peace treaty between  the two countries, but pushed them to a new big war, technologically  very similar to the war that is now going on in Ukraine.  To put it  simply, the EU today needs to create a situation in which the Russian  military will first leave Artsakh, and then Armenia, which will give  them the opportunity to start moving into Central Asia through NATO  Turkey,” he said.

According to the forecasts of the political scientist, such a  scenario, no doubt, will be met with hostility by Russia and Iran.  The latter, in his opinion, is already seriously considering the  prospect of turning the South Caucasus into another Ukraine.  Danielyan is convinced that the organization of a “second front” in  the South Caucasus with the participation of Russia, Iran and Turkey,  in general, is a desirable scenario for the West. The implementation  of which, among other things, will make it possible to drive Turkey  back into the zone of its own influence. And, of course, further  weaken the ambitions of Moscow and Tehran.

Such a desire of the West, taking into account the great interests in  the implementation of this scenario, the political scientist  considers natural. According to him, the desire of the West to  compress the zones of Russian influence specifically in the Caucasus  rests on the Russian military presence in Artsakh and Armenia. In  light of which, the only way to remove it is the recognition of  Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, followed by the deportation of Artsakh  Armenians. Which will completely deprive the Russian Federation of  the justification for its own military presence in Artsakh.

“In this light, the attempts of the West to oust the Russian  Federation from the OSCE Minsk Group co- chairmanship also look quite  logical and expected. The task of the MG was to keep the Karabakh  conflict in a frozen state until the start of an acute phase of  geopolitical rivalry between the West and the Russian Federation in  Ukraine. And we see that this rivalry is already spilling over into  the South Caucasus. Let’s accept a simple fact – the West is  absolutely not an enemy of the Armenian people. It just so happened  that at this stage our interests do not coincide. By its very  existence, Artsakh prevents the displacement of Russia from the South  Caucasus. Accordingly, the task of the West in Brussels was to force  Yerevan to recognize Baku’s jurisdiction over Artsakh. With all the  ensuing and planned geopolitical consequences in Washington and  Brussels,” the political scientist summed up.

Armenia premier: It’s not peace as long as there is soldier standing on border

Emil Lazarian
News.am, Armenia
16:10, 14.04.2022

A very important question was raised. They say, “bring back the conscripts, take the contract soldiers out.” But I’m sorry, if a war starts, those conscripts, everyone shall go to the frontline. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this Thursday during the National Assembly debates on the execution of the 2021 program of the government of Armenia.

“We do not want to take the conscripts, bring the contract soldiers, then take the contract soldiers. We want to bring everyone back because we want to have borders and border guards.

Dear people, today they [i.e., the former Armenian authorities] say, ‘We ensured peace.’ As long as there is a soldier standing on the border, it is not peace. Peace is when there is a border guard standing at the border, and the issues are settled through border signs—and not through positions, fortifications, heights, being cautious of snipers. We have had about 1,000 casualties—some in non-combat conditions—during the period called ‘peace.’ It’s not peace,” he said.

“Much has been said about this speech, and now the names of the casualties, our martyrs, are also being inappropriately, much speculated. I just want to end the speech, the discussion of this matter with a minute of silence, standing in honor of our martyrs and our homage to them because the agenda we propose is the most important way to honor their memory and to show due respect for their sacrifices,” the Armenian PM emphasized.


NK status issue was left out from OSCE MG Co-Chairmanship talks in 2016, says Pashinyan

Emil Lazarian

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 13:57,

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the issue of the status of Nagorno Karabakh was essentially left out from the dimension of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmanship format talks as of 2016.

Pashinyan was making the comments in parliament when asked by MP Vahagn Alexanyan on what took place in the negotiations process in 2016.

“What was the leitmotif of the 1998 events, Levon-Ter Petrosyan thought that the issue must be solved in a phased option, Serzh Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan and the then-authorities of Artsakh were saying no, they weren’t accepting this, and that the issue must be accepted in a package option. And this became the leitmotif,” Pashinyan said.

According to the PM, the title of the negotiations document on his table was: “On the first phase and further steps of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement” – translating from Russian – On the First Phase and Future Steps of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.”

“Meaning, the person who said that a phased solution is defeatism left in 2018 a document on the negotiations table that was titled that way. Meaning, the person who was carrying out a regime change against the phased solution again reached the phased solution. But there are so many splits in this phased solution. It is a question whether or not Azerbaijan agrees to this. They say they will solve the Karabakh issue this or that way, so why haven’t you. They forget  that they are presenting the ideas in unsigned papers as victory,” the PM said.

Speaking on the role of the Co-Chairs, the PM said: “They take the ideas of the sides, try to refine them and put it on paper. We can have all kinds of ideas. But as of 2018 the entirety of the Karabakh issue was so much split up, it wasn’t a phased option, it was rather a hyper-phased option. Meaning, from the 1998 phased option we reached the 2016 hyperphased option,” the PM said.

Speaking about a brief description of the 2016 events, he said: “In January the Co-Chairs present a negotiations package, the meaning of which is that Nagorno Karabakh will not have an interim status. The Armenian side naturally rejected it. Two months after presenting it the April War began, and then in July the second package is presented, where it is recorded that again Karabakh will not have an interim status. In August, the third package is presented where a new component is added to the negotiations papers – a UN Security Council draft resolution.”

Pashinyan cited former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s narrative during a 2017 interview that the status of Karabakh will be determined by the international community.

“This is what Levon Ter-Petrosyan meant most likely. Meaning, the NK status issue was essentially left out from the dimension of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format talks as of 2016. The issue was left out, that issue must be solved by the international community. But the international community must solve as part of several undeniable principles that in Karabakh as of 1988 there were also Azerbaijanis that left.  In the international community’s understanding it is impossible to address this issue without the protection of the rights of the Azerbaijanis of Nagorno Karabakh. And, essentially, this is all in the negotiations package,” the PM said, adding that this is included in the Madrid Principles as well.

Pashinyan said that there hasn’t even been any option that would even be unacceptable for Armenia but acceptable for Azerbaijan.

Speaking about the question addressed to his administration on how they fell into a trap in 2019, Pashinyan said: “What’s falling in a trap? That a negotiations package appears by which Armenia is expected to surrender seven regions to Azerbaijan. Serzh Sargsyan says how come we fell into the trap. We weren’t in a trap, that paper recorded what Serzh Sargsyan announced from this rostrum. That was the result of his last negotiations because as of 2019 we hadn’t even started negotiating. As of 2019 when that document was put on the table we hadn’t yet talked about substantive negotiations at all,” he said.

Speaking on the questions whether or not the war could’ve been prevented, PM Pashinyan said: “We could’ve prevented the war as a result of which we would have had this same situation, without the victims. The same situation, with all questions and nuances.”

Armenian, Russian Economy Ministers discuss issues of restoration of volume of trade turnover between Armenia and Russia

Emil Lazarian

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 18:39,

YEREVAN, 13 APRIL, ARMENRPRESS. In the framework of the visit to the Russian Federation, Minister of Economy of Armenia Vahan Kerobyan and deputy minister Narek Teryan met with Minister of Industry and trade Denis Manturov of Russian Federation.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, the sides discussed the state of the trade cooperation between Armenia and Russia, as well as priority directions of common activities.

“In 2021 the mutual trade between Armenia and Russia increased by 12.7%, amounting to 2.5 billion dollars. The export of Russian industrial production on a yearly basis increased by 14%, and the import of Armenian goods also increased by 10%.

During the meeting Vahan Kerobyan gladly emphasized the fact of the significant increase of trade turnover and expressed concern with the noticeable decrease of indicators in March, offering to carry out work on urgently eliminating the reasons for the decrease and restore growth”, the message says.

The interlocutors referred to a number of common programmes in different fields. Denis Manturov highlighted the development of cooperation in mining, metallurgy, chemical industry and agricultural machine building.

At the end of the meeting Denis Manturov invited Vahan Kerobyan to participate in the upcoming “INNOPROM. Central Asia” international industry exhibition in Tashkent.