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 Nikol Pashinyan says reactions to his interview “at least puzzling”

Emil Lazarian
Public Radio of Armenia
Dec 26 2021
, 20:22

 2 minutes read

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said some of the responses to his December 24 interview are “at least puzzling” for several reasons. The Prime Minister took to Facebook to list the reasons:

  1. In that interview, I spoke about the content of the negotiations formed before I became Prime Minister in 2018, therefore, I could not have any influence on their formation.
  2. In response to a question, I denied Serzh Sargsyan’s assertion at the RPA Congress that the content of the negotiations left by them guaranteed that Nagorno Karabakh would be Armenian. I denied it because the right of Azerbaijanis living in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to participate in the decision on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh as a resident of Nagorno-Karabakh was enshrined in that content of the negotiations. Therefore, if they are residents of Nagorno-Karabakh according to the content of the negotiations, then they had to live in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Armenian side never objected to this content before the 2018 revolution. And if we take into account that according to the content of the negotiations formed before I became Prime Minister, the referendum on the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh could take place 100 years later, it is predictable what changes in the demographic picture of Artsakh would be under the mentioned conditions.
  3. As for the status of Nagorno-Karabakh before the potential referendum on status, I said in an interview that in 2016 the mediators had presented three negotiation packages (one before the April war, two after), where, unlike the 2011 Kazan document, the wording “Nagorno Karabakh gets an intermediate status” was missing. The third of these three packages, presented in August 2016, contains a provision stating that the decision on the legal and practical mechanisms for the organization of life in Nagorno-Karabakh will be made by the UN Security Council in consultation with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. This is what I considered to be a catastrophe in the negotiation process, because it is obvious that the UN Security Council would make all the decisions following the logic of its own resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, where Nagorno-Karabakh was recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
  4. Taking into account these and several other important negotiation issues, I have insisted from the Parliament tribune that under the negotiation content and realities existing before I became Prime Minister in 2018, Artsakh had lost both theoretical and practical opportunities not to be part of Azerbaijan.
  5. Becoming Prime Minister, I did not accept this, but fought against it. And this is one of the reasons why the war started.
  6. People saying that I should not negotiate on behalf of Nagorno-Karabakh have been criticizing me since 2018 for saying that I do not have a mandate to negotiate on behalf of Nagorno-Karabakh.
  7. I understand that many respectable people are now protesting against the negotiation content that is the cause and consequence of the 2016 war. At that time they either did not know or did not have the right to complain. I also complain against that content and I did everything possible to neutralize that content. I am sorry I can not hide the truth.

The comments come in the wake of Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan’s statement, in which he said the full recognition of the right of the Armenians of Artsakh to self-determination is not subject to reservation and concession. Therefore, he said, only the authorities of the Artsakh Republic are authorized to speak on behalf of the people of Artsakh.

Coronavirus: 57% of fatalities in Armenia are men – NCDC

Emil Lazarian

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 11:20,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. 57% of people who died from COVID-19 in Armenia are men, and 43% are women, according to the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC).

However, from all confirmed cases of infections 41% are men while 59% are women, NCDC Director of the Department of Epidemiology of Infectious and Non-Infectious Diseases Romella Abovyan told reporters.

The COVID-19 death toll in Armenia stood at 7942 as of December 25.

More than 90% of health workers in Armenia vaccinated against COVID-19

Emil Lazarian

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 11:35,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. 90,5% of health workers in Armenia are vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC).

NCDC Director of the Department of Epidemiology of Infectious and Non-Infectious Diseases Romella Abovyan told reporters that between 2020 March and December 2021 a total of 7481 health workers were infected with COVID-19 (2297 doctors, 3238 nurses, 893 midwives and 1053 other specialists).

Armenia says interested in peace treaty with Azerbaijan

Emil Lazarian
PanArmenian, Armenia
Dec 25 2021
– 14:00 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Yerevan is interested in signing a peace treaty with Baku and starting negotiations, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a virtual press conference on Friday, December 24.

“We are, of course, interested in signing a peace treaty and starting negotiations on it,” Pashinyan said.

The Armenian PM also recalled the agenda for talks proposed by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, one of the points of which was the peaceful and comprehensive settlement.

“We haven’t refused to talk on the topic, and we are not going to,” he added.

Also Friday, Pashinyan said he will hold an unofficial meeting Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at an informal CIS summit to be held in Saint Petersburg on December 28.

Opposition MP: Pashinyan carrying out duties of Azerbaijani propaganda groups for free

Emil Lazarian
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 25 2021

Nikol Pashinyan is carrying out the duties of the anti-Armenian propaganda teams in Azerbaijan for free, MP Tigran Abrahamyan from the opposition With Honor faction said on Saturday, referring to Pashinyan’s news conference held on Friday.

“The Azerbaijani groups engaged in anti-Armenian propaganda have probably already been dissolved. What is the point of keeping inactive groups if there is no shortage of people doing the same work for them for free at the expense of the Armenian budget? Pashinyan’s press conference yesterday came to confirm it,” he wrote on Facebook.

“In any direction in which Azerbaijanis have worked to inflict damage to the Republic of Armenia, the processes are now proceeding without their active participation, from the destruction of systems to propaganda.

“Incidentally, Pashinyan does not even try to deny my claims, he just presents it all through a remix of emotions and manipulations,” Abrahamyan stated.

Military expert: Isn’t return of Armenian captives in exchange for minefield maps a bargain?

Emil Lazarian
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 25 2021

Military expert Vahagn Saroyan reacted to Nikol Pashinyan’s statement on the release of two Azerbaijani captives without preconditions.

“The exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) and hostages is a common phenomenon in international practice. When asked what the two recently captured Azeri servicemen were returned for, Nikol Pashinyan says they were repatriated “without preconditions”, adding that he does not want to give the impression that Armenia is engaged in ‘bargaining’,” the expert wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

“If we remove the populism, it means that there was no appropriate force and will to hold them or swap them for Armenian prisoners. Expressing their own fears under the guise of humanism is a common practice of the current authorities. If this is true, demand that our POWs and hostages be returned without preconditions! Isn’t the return of our captives in exchange for minefield maps a bargain by the same logic?” he said.

Republican Party spokesperson: Armenia authorities decided to smoothen ties with Turkey after defeat in war

Emil Lazarian
News.am, Armenia
Dec 24 2021
17:36, 24.12.2021

The authorities of Armenia have decided to smoothen relations with Turkey after being defeated in the war. They say unblocking of Armenia will be to the country’s benefit. This is what Spokesman of the Republican Party of Armenia, former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov told reporters today.

Sharmazanov also stated that after all this, the authorities still allow themselves to mock people who have an understanding of geography.

“They [the authorities] say the Meghri-Horadiz railway will link Armenia to Russia. Take a look at the map once and for all — How many kilometers is Meghri far from Yerevan? How many kilometers is Horadiz far from Meghri and from Baku? After all, there is an Ijevan-Kazakh railway. If you’re thinking about cargo transportation, launch the Ijevan-Kazakh railway. Why are you making Armenian taxpayers pay an additional $200,000,000? Is it to make the Turkish dream come true? They also say this railway will make it possible to travel to Iran. Armenia had communication with Iran. Who asked you [the authorities] to transfer a section of the Goris-Kapan motorway to the Turks?” Sharmazanov complained.


Republican Party of Armenia: Authorities are creating barrier between Diaspora and historic homeland with their policy

Emil Lazarian
News.am, Armenia
Dec 24 2021
18:51, 24.12.2021

Today there is a lot of commotion in Armenia with regard to the special envoy who will support Armenia’s position in the negotiations with Turkey. Nevertheless, if the Prime Minister of Armenia is Nikol Pashinyan, it doesn’t matter who will participate in the negotiations and who will represent our country at all. This is what Spokesperson of the Republican Party of Armenia, former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov told reporters.

According to the member of the political opposition, in any case, the envoy needs to lead and advance Pashinyan’s policy.

“In the document, which is currently the foundation for the negotiations, the words “Armenian Genocide” will be brought into compliance with the text of the position that the President of Turkey had previously expressed. It’s unequivocally clear what this document will contain. The document will also state the requirements for the establishment of diplomatic relations, as well as ambiguous statements on the Armenian Genocide. “They killed both the Armenians and the Turks. This is our shared pain” – this is what Erdogan says. They will say something in general and then say “See? Erdogan says this is our shared pain”. Then, an average Turkish official will probably visit Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex and lay flowers, after which these authorities will go and lay flowers at the tomb of Kemal Ataturk, and the ‘brotherhood’ will begin,” Sharmazanov said.

Sharmazanov emphasized that with this policy, the incumbent authorities of Armenia are destroying the whole struggle for the Armenian Cause, creating a barrier between the Armenian Diaspora and its historic homeland.

Armenia PM: I returned from meeting in Sochi with a feeling of satisfaction

Emil Lazarian
News.am, Armenia
Dec 24 2021
21:30, 24.12.2021

If safety is not ensured for cargo transportation, there won’t be cargo transportation, and if Armenian cargo can’t pass through the territory of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani cargo also can’t pass through the territory of Armenia. This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during his online press conference today.

“Obviously, when we discuss these issues, we take into consideration the fact that there needs to be cargo transportation. Imagine how illogical it would be, if Armenia suddenly opened a route and it wasn’t used,” he said, adding that there are talks about construction of the Azerbaijan-Nakhchivan railway costing approximately $200,000,000, which is very close.

Asked if it is likely that the negotiations will lead to the signing of a peace treaty, Pashinyan said the following: “Of course, Armenia is interested in the signing of a peace treaty and the start of talks over the signing of that treaty. If Armenia has declared that it wants to open an era of peace, it would be illogical, if Armenia said it doesn’t want to hear anything about a peace treaty. If we succeed in creating a model of peace that will be favorable for both sides, perhaps there will be an opportunity to understand each other’s viewpoints and form a new scheme,” he said.

According to Pashinyan, in Sochi and Brussels, there were such preconditions, but the events that took place after the meeting in Sochi put the talks in jeopardy. “Fortunately, there were no such events after the meeting in Brussels, and I hope we can move forward. I returned from the meeting in Sochi with a feeling of satisfaction, and I talked about that during a briefing. However, there were statements that made me think that something was misunderstood. In Brussels, there was tension in the beginning of the meeting, but during the meeting, we tried to understand each other’s viewpoints when we saw that it was entering a deadlock. There were practical issues, and I saw opportunities for solutions,” he emphasized.

The Fate of Dadivank: The Heart of the Caucasus

Emil Lazarian
Nigeria – Dec 23 2021

by Admin, 11:07 pm

When Russian peacekeeping forces arrived at Dadivank on November 13, 2020 the abbot of the monastery, Fr. Hovhannes, announced that he and the other clergymen would remain there. “The monastery belongs to us, we can’t leave. During this war our people have lost their loved ones, villages, homes, everything. They reject to lose Dadivank. We must stay here and pray for the protection of our monastery and the whole country,” Fr. Hovhannes, with a long grey beard and a silver crucifix around his neck, said.

“Not only is the monastery holy, like any house of God, it’s also a symbol of our Armenian identity as Christians that stretches back two millenniums,” Fr. Hovhannes says. It is an outstanding point of the Armenian pride to have been perhaps the first Christian country, even earlier than Romans, and is said that this heritage comes from this monastery specifically. Dadivank was founded in the 1st century by St. Dadi, a disciple of Thaddeus, the Apostle who spread the Christian faith to the region. It has persisted through Mongol, Persian, as well as the two more recent Azerbaijani-Armenian wars over Nagorno-Karabakh. When asked whether Fr. Hovhannes planned to organize the return of the precious carved crosses to the city of Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, he answered: “Who am I to remove stones that have been here for over 800 years.”

Currently, the clergymen of the monastery are in complete isolation. There are a large number of Azerbaijani servicemen on all sides of Dadivank. “Despite all this, there is absolutely no fear. The monastery complex is on its feet, nothing has happened to it, we are here at the cost of our lives, trying to not let the enemy touch it or destroy it”, Fr. Atanas said, completing Fr. Hovhannes thoughts.

Armenian people all over the world are extremely concerned about the fate of this unique heritage, despite assurances from the Azerbaijani officials who promise to preserve the historical and spiritual places. “I don’t trust the Azerbaijanis and their Turkish supporters. History shows that every bite they take just makes them hungrier. This is who our enemy is, and that’s why we can never trust them,” Fr. Hovhannes concluded. Meanwhile surrounded by high mountains, dense forests, and gorges, Dadivank monastery remains as one of the unique and wonderful places of the region and can be truly considered the heart of the Caucasus.