Armenian figure skating pair Tina Garabedian and Simon Proulx-Senecal are to compete in the 2022 World Figure Skating Championships.
Figure skater Slavik Hayrapetyan will not participate in the tournament due to injury, the Armenian National Olympic Committee reported on Friday.
The championships are set for 21-27 March in Montpellier, France.
20:51,
YEREVAN, 15 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. Within the framework of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan gave an interview to “Anadolu” agency. “Armenpress” presents the text of the interview provided by the MFA Armenia.
Question: What would you like to express about your participation at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum?
Answer: I want to walk you through the highlights of the developments between Armenia and Turkey during the previous months. The leaders of the two countries – Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Ergodan exchanged public statements, expressing readiness to launch talks between the two countries. Later the two countries appointed Special Representatives for the dialogue between Armenia and Turkey.
They have already had 2 meetings respectively in Moscow and Vienna agreeing to continue negotiations without preconditions aimed at full normalization of the relations.
I paid a visit to Antalya to participate in the Antalya Diplomatic Forum to reiterate once again the political will of the Government of the Republic of Armenia to achieve full normalization of relations with Turkey and open the era of peaceful and sustainable development in the region.
Question: How would you evaluate the ongoing normalization process between Turkey and Armenia?
Answer: Overall, we consider it positive. Armenia is ready to establish diplomatic relations and to the opening of the borders with Turkey. I was glad to hear from my Turkish counterpart that there is a political will on their side to lead the process to that end as well. Amid the rapidly developing situation in the world, I do believe we should not hesitate to undertake concrete steps.
Question: What are the benefits of the normalization process for Armenian and Turkish people?
Answer: People are already benefiting from direct flights between Yerevan and Istanbul. Opening of the borders will have its positive impact on the connectivity, trade and economic relations between the two countries, people to people contacts and overall stability in the region.
Question: Are there going to be reciprocal official visits between Turkey and Armenia? Did you extend an invitation to Turkish officials to visit Armenia or received an invitation to visit Turkey?
Answer: Let me emphasize that this is the first visit of a high-level official of Armenia to Turkey in a decade. Needless to mention that if the process of normalization proceeds smoothly and we achieve positive results, mutual visits can take place.
Question: What can you tell us about the Armenian people’s approach to the normalization process?
Answer: Generally, the population of Armenia wants to normalize relations with Turkey. It is reflected in public opinion polls, as well. Of course, both in Armenian and Turkish societies, there are certain groups that, let me say, are skeptical about this process. Officials from both sides should take political leadership to address these issues. During my meeting with Minister Chavushoglu, we have exchanged views on certain sensitivities and I hope that they will be taken into account.
Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov and EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Oliver Varhelyi have discussed the possibility of increasing the supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.
The meeting took place on the margins of the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya, local media reported quoting the Azerbaijani Ministry of Energy.
“Shahbazov and Varhelyi discussed the expansion of energy dialogue between Azerbaijan and the EU, as well as an increase in gas deliveries through the Southern Gas Corridor towards new markets.”
It is noted that the parties also reached an agreement to continue a dialogue with the European Commission and Western Balkan countries to address issues arising from possible deliveries of Azerbaijani gas to the Western Balkans within the expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor.
Azerbaijan started supplying gas to Europe on 31 December 2020. In 2021, deliveries amounted to 8.2 bcm.
13:49,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Experts say the Azerbaijani actions against Armenians, including the pogroms in the Azerbaijani SSR, must be designated as genocide.
On February 28, at the initiative of MP Taguhi Tovmasyan, the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights Protection and Public Affairs, a conference-discussion took place with participation of academics on the occasion of the day of commemorating the memory of the victims of the pogroms in the Azerbaijani SSR and the protection of the rights of the forcefully displaced Armenian population.
“34 years ago during these days, the peaceful Armenian population was being subjected to mass violence, murder, torture, maiming, immolation by armed Azerbaijani gangs. Why were they killing Armenians? Simply for being Armenian, they were killing Armenians because Armenians wanted to live freely and with dignity in their homeland. It is actually difficult to imagine how much hate and Armenophobia the Azeri authorities instilled among Azerbaijanis, how much they aggravated calls for violence against Armenians that hundreds of Azerbaijanis of Sumgait committed such inhumane and cruel actions,” Tovmasyan said, describing the atrocities how armed Azerbaijani gangs, divided into groups, would attack Armenians by using a previously obtained list of their addresses, killing Armenians in their homes and in some cases dragging them outside and publicly humiliating them.
Tovmasyan stressed that these continuous and consistent actions of Azerbaijan constitute a state-sanctioned genocidal policy, based on which Azerbaijan launched the explicit aggression and large-scale war against Nagorno Karabakh in 1991, which continued decades later.
“30 years ago Azerbaijan sowed so much Armenophobia in its society that we witnessed inhumane atrocities during the 2020 war which Azerbaijan launched against Artsakh. Azerbaijan was committing more crimes against humanity and was killing the peaceful population, targeting kindergartens, schools and hospitals. And today, we are calling upon the international community, our international partners, that these criminal actions, crimes against humanity committed by Azerbaijan must receive an adequate response, assessment and treatment,” Tovmasyan said.
Dr. Ashot Melkonyan, the Director of the History Institute at the National Academy of Sciences, noted the importance of reminding the international community about this tragedy from time to time. “The political assessment that has been given so far hasn’t recorded genocide as a final term, I think it is one of our mistakes. I believe that our parliament must definitely address this and give a clear terming, that this is the full chain of the same genocidal policy which begins on February 6 in 1905 when the massacres of Armenians began in Baku, I am referring to the Armenian-Tatar fighting…” he said.
Melkonyan said the Azeri actions must be condemned and designated as genocide.
The damage caused to the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral following the two strikes on October 8, 2020 (Office of the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh)
On February 3, Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan Anar Karimov told local media that they intended to establish a working group of specialists who “know the history, culture and writing of Caucasian Albania.” The group would remove the physical traces of Armenian heritage from religious sites in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh and thus implement the history falsification policy of the Azerbaijani authorities, which concocts an “Albanian” origin of Armenian churches. Earlier this year, during a visit to the Hadrut region of Artsakh, currently under Azerbaijani control, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated at Surb Astvatsatsin Church in the village of Tsakuri (Tsaghkavank), “Armenians have desecrated our mosques as well as the old Albanian temples. But we will restore them. All of these Armenian inscriptions are fake and were added later.”
Commenting on the manifestations of Azerbaijani vandalism, National Assembly of the Artsakh Republic member and Doctor of Historical Sciences Vahram Balayan noted, “Azerbaijan’s ambitions of conquest towards the Armenian territories are not new. Back in the early 20th century, when Musavat Azerbaijan was founded, these ambitions not only grew but also became systemic and continued during the Soviet period.”
In the 1970s, another state program of Albanization of Armenian cultural heritage was launched in Azerbaijan, when an attempt was made to present the historical and cultural monuments of the Nagorno Karabakh Oblast and adjacent Armenian territories as Albanian.
“It should be noted that not only Armenian but also several foreign scholars addressed this issue. Back in ancient times, Greek and Roman historians stated in their works that the right bank of the Kura River was Armenian and therefore Azerbaijan’s claims about the elimination of Albanian traces by Armenians have little to do with the objective reality. The preserved source materials also contain the genealogy of the descendants of the Armenian monastic patriarchs for centuries. All these actions of the Azerbaijani authorities aim to appropriate the Armenian historical and cultural heritage, and it is our obligation to fight against it with all our might,” Balayan said.
According to official data, after the war of 2020, at least 1,456 significant Armenian monuments went under Azerbaijani occupation, including 161 monasteries and churches; 591 khachkars; 345 tombstones, tombs and cemeteries; 208 sanctuaries; and 10 state and 2 private museums.
Adviser to the President of the Artsakh Republic Lusine Gharakhanyan, who held the post of Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports during and after the war, noted, ”Azerbaijan is fighting against the historical and cultural heritage of Artsakh at the highest state level, destroying Christian monuments of Armenian origin on the one hand, and misappropriating them. They attribute them to the Caucasian Albanian culture, and thus to the Azerbaijani one. In other words, as Hamlet Petrosyan [an Armenian historian, archaeologist and anthropologist] says, this is mediated embezzlement. The implementation of such a policy at the state level is a cultural genocide, a far-reaching expansion, ignoring all international laws that stipulate the preservation of the universal historical and cultural heritage. We have called on the relevant international organizations to take practical steps in order to prevent the cultural genocide, perpetrated at the level of the President of Azerbaijan, with renewed vigor in the occupied part of our homeland. Nevertheless, it is a fact is that today the Holy Saviour Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi is vandalized and defaced.”
The damage caused to the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral following the two strikes on October 8, 2020 (Office of the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh)
A few days after the November 9 trilateral ceasefire statement, the Kanach Zham Church in Shushi was found in a state of disrepair, particularly its dome and bell tower. According to the Fact Investigation Platform (FIP) the source of this information is a publication by an Azerbaijani Facebook user named Sevinc Asadullayeva.
Since the ceasefire was established, the Holy Mother of God Church in Mekhakavan and the khachkar in the village of Arakel in Hadrut have been completely destroyed. “This is an ethnocide, a dangerous process. We can say that the war is going on, since to eradicate culture means to completely eradicate all the attributes of identity, national self-consciousness, values, because we have emotional, behavioral and connection with all these monuments,” added Gharakhanyan.
It should be noted that on December 7, the UN International Court of Justice obliged Azerbaijan to “take all the necessary measures to prevent the incitement and promotion of racial hatred and discrimination against ethnic Armenians, including by Azerbaijani officials and state institutions” and to “prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration against Armenian cultural heritage, including churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts.”
Nevertheless, Gharakhanyan does not have much faith in the relevant international structures. “As an academic and as a state official, I am deeply disappointed with the fact that UNESCO voted for Azerbaijan in the midst of the war. This creates an atmosphere of distrust in the organization, which has a mission to preserve the universal cultural heritage,” she said.
Artsakh Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan is not optimistic either. Over the past year, Armenian authorities have used various tools to counter Azerbaijani actions. Reports and letters have been sent to international organizations. Public statements have regularly been made on the issue. A few months after the end of the war, the staff of the Human Rights Defender of the Artsakh Republic published a report on the cases of vandalism of Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh by Azerbaijan. As Stepanyan said, “The purpose of our report was to alarm the international community about the threat to Armenian cultural heritage in the territories occupied by Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, the international community has not taken any clear steps so far, and this is one of the main reasons why the Azerbaijani side freely continues its policy of desecrating our monuments and distorting their history. The statement of the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan that a working group is being formed in Azerbaijan to remove the Armenian inscriptions from the churches shows that Azerbaijan, with its cynical behavior, dares to oppose the decision of the International Court of Justice. The Court will be informed about such a step by Azerbaijan, and we will demand from the Court to use all its tools to implement its own decision. At the same time, we will continue to work on monitoring the situation of cultural monuments and will consistently alert about all the ongoing crimes.”
Kanach Zham after the destruction (Office of the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh)
President of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy Kaspar Karampetian, who for years raised the issues of protection of the rights of the people of Artsakh with the representatives of various European structures, also commented:
“The preservation of the Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh, in particular after the war in 2020 has constantly been in the focus of our attention. During all our recent meetings with dozens of decision-makers in Brussels, both on the EU level and on the national level, we have been emphasizing the Azerbaijani policy of erasure of the Armenian cultural heritage in the occupied territories of Artsakh as well as the necessity to actively fight against it. We intend to undertake concrete steps in this direction in the near future and also mobilize our committees across Europe. The EU and relevant international organizations have the moral obligation to put effective pressure on the authoritarian regime of Azerbaijan to immediately end its destructive policies, including cultural genocide and history falsification.”
Ukrainian Army-owned Bayraktar TB2 UCAV on display during the military parade on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence, Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 24, 2021. (Shutterstock Photo)
Turkey has completely left behind its external dependency on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) technologies and now produces platforms that are among the best in the world, the chief technology officer (CTO) of the drone magnate Baykar said in a recent interview.
Selçuk Bayraktar, in an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera television, commented on Turkey’s domestic technology, the country’s development story of UAVs and its role in the new generation of UAVs.
Bayraktar, who stated that they took the first step with a small project to produce aircraft that can fly automatically, said that they first started the construction of UAVs in a small workshop.
He recalled that the first aircraft they produced were small planes that could stay in the air for one hour and fly a distance of just 15 kilometers (9.3 miles).
Stating that they started the now world-renowned Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) project in 2010, Bayraktar said that this particular drone joined the Turkish Armed Forces’ (TSK) inventory in 2014 as a result of the work of the Undersecretariat of Defense Industry, which has now become the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB).
“The TB2s were successful in the fight against terrorism (within Turkey) and counterterrorism operations outside of Turkey,” Bayraktar said.
The combat drones were used against the PKK terrorist threat within and outside Turkish borders, as well as against Daesh terrorists in Syria.
Another UCAV project by the Baykar company, Akıncı, Turkey’s most advanced drone to date, started in 2016, Bayraktar went on to say. This model is much larger than the world-renowned Bayraktar TB2s.
Akıncı UCAVs have very high power, allowing them to fulfill strategic missions, carry cruise missiles and engage in aerial combat while being operated via satellite, the company’s CTO said.
Commenting further on how the country started its journey to produce UCAVs with domestic resources, Bayraktar said the country used to buy UAVs from Israel, “but planes from abroad could not take off and land automatically, and Israeli pilots used to lift and land the drones with a manual control device.”
Bayraktar said that starting with smaller-volume UAVs, Turkey developed the software within the country that allowed automatic landing and takeoff of planes.
Stating that the TB2 is the most famous UAV model in the world and have been sold to 16 countries, Bayraktar said, “TB2s can stay in the air for 27 hours, have a range of hundreds of kilometers, can carry 130 kilograms (287 pounds) and are equipped with highly sensitive intelligent military equipment.”
Referring to the other features of Turkish UAVs, Bayraktar stated that they are difficult to detect via radar and that they have achieved great success against tanks and defense systems, for example in Syria’s Idlib and Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region.
In massive retaliatory strikes and artillery shelling in Idlib during a regime attack in February 2020 that killed 33 Turkish soldiers and injured tens of others in the area, Turkey used its domestic UAVs to strike everything from tanks to howitzers and Russian-made air defense systems.
At least 2,200 Syrian regime troops, a drone, eight helicopters, 103 tanks, tens of howitzers and three air defense systems were neutralized, according to the Defense Ministry statements at the time.
Domestic drones provided surveillance and Close Air Support (CAS), and destroyed the regime targets with locally produced smart ammunition either being delivered by the drones or from afar with their guidance due to Syrian air space’s being close to Turkish F-16s.
Later, the Bayraktar TB2s were used by Azerbaijan’s army in their fight to retake occupied Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian forces, again leaving no room for heavy military gear, including tanks, howitzers and Russian air defense systems to escape.
The drones were hailed as giving Baku the upper hand in liberating its lands.
Bayraktar further said on “the secret of the transformation of Turkey’s defense industry in the last 20 years” that it is the “dedication to work and willingness to get rid of foreign dependency.”
Underlining that the country was dependent on foreign suppliers for 85% of supplies for the defense industry in the past, Bayraktar stated that Turkey has now become self-sufficient.
All business designs and main components were developed in the country, Bayraktar emphasized, reiterating that Turkey no longer has foreign dependency on securing materials or main components for defense industry products.
Bayraktar pointed out that the world drone industry was previously dominated by the United States, China and Israel, but Turkey is in the top three now.
“Europe does not have platforms comparable to Turkey, currently Turkish UCAVs are being exported to European countries,” he also said.
Export contracts were signed with 16 countries for Bayraktar TB2 UCAVs, while it has already been incorporated into the arsenals of Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Qatar.
Among the European Union member countries that are interested in Turkish combat drones, Poland has already signed a contract for the purchase of Bayraktar TB2s, becoming the first NATO member country to acquire the Turkish drones. First shipments will arrive in 2022.
Latvia later hinted that it could be the second EU and NATO member state to purchase the Turkish UCAVs that have scored high-profile successes in the field.
19:32,
YEREVAN, 24 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. Due to the conflict in Ukraine, some flights from Yerevan to Russia and Ukraine scheduled for February 24 have been canceled.
The Civil Aviation Committee told ARMENPRESS that some flights scheduled for February 24 to Krasnodar, Kyiv and Sochi have been canceled.
10:47, 16 February, 2022
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani government continues the destruction of Armenian cultural monuments and churches in the occupied territories of Artsakh, falsely claiming that the Armenian writings and inscriptions on the churches are fake.
The Azeri authorities flagrantly announced that “Armenians left traces on Azeri monuments which must be cleaned,” and even commissioned a task force to do so.
After it was reported that UNESCO wants to visit Artsakh, the Azeri authorities launched a commission to rewrite history and attempt to mislead the international community as if there are no Armenian monuments in Artsakh.
Speaking to ARMENPRESS, Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan, the Primate of the Diocese of Artsakh of the Armenian Apostolic Church, expressed concern and noted that now they are sounding the alarm in various platforms.
“What else should we do now. What the Azerbaijanis are now doing with our cultural heritage is nothing new. As a nomadic people, they always had an eye on what’s ours. The same continues today. We must come to our senses to understand how to keep our heritage. Why should someone else come and say ‘I’m here to keep it’. The Azerbaijani leadership is already preparing its intentions and plans, they know their national strategy. Regardless of what foreign diplomatic or religious meetings take place, they either maintain a passive stance or they say ‘we’ll think’. As a result they do what they’d planned.”
The trilateral meeting of the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill and the Azerbaijan-based Chairman of the Caucasian Muslims Office (CMO) Allahshukur Pashazadeh took place at the Danilov Monastery, the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow in October 2021. Karekin II voiced the issue of the fate of Shushi’s Ghazanchetsots Cathedral at this meeting. There were hopes that the church would be preserved. But now, the Azeri authorities want to capture and appropriate all cultural monuments in the territories of Artsakh which they have occupied.
Bishop Abrahamyan says the Azerbaijanis ignore these meetings, and even ignore calls from international organizations such as UNESCO.
“They do whatever they want, it’s their signature, they destroy whichever monument they want, change or demolish the others. We are unable to bring back our captives, when did the war end? People have become living monuments in Baku, it’s difficult to imagine the physical and emotional sufferings and torture they are going through. The whole world tells Azerbaijan to release the Armenian captives, but they don’t release them,” Vrtanesyan said.
In a situation like this, the Bishop says Armenians should rely on themselves. He said that the Artsakh authorities are doing everything they can to prevent the Azeri atrocities.
“We must come to our senses, work correctly to preserve our national, religious identity. It is the legacy of our ancestors. We were reckless, and failed to keep them, and now we are getting what we are getting. I can’t say for a fact that the Shushi church will be preserved. During the abovementioned trilateral meeting the Azeri side said that Italian specialists have arrived for renovation. But we all know and we’ve seen what the Azeris mean by saying ‘renovation’, it’s a synonym for destruction for them. Today, our nation must sign a contract with themselves, stipulating that we have nothing else to surrender to the enemy. If every person were to make this clear decision for themselves, this will become a national alliance, a so-called “document” to resolve the future fate and security of the nation. If not, we will stay torn apart like this,” the Bishop said.
Interview by Liana Sargsyan
The Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA has selected Taner Akçam as the inaugural director of its Armenian Genocide Research Program. The program will provide a home for scholarly activities relevant to the genocide, including opportunities for institute-affiliated postdoctoral scholars, graduate students and visiting researchers.
Akçam is the Kaloosdian and Mugar Professor in Modern Armenian History and Genocide at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies of Clark University in Massachusetts. He is widely recognized as one of the first scholars of Turkish descent to write extensively on the Ottoman-Turkish Genocide of Armenians in the early 20th century, according to the institute. Many of Akçam‘s publications constitute an unprecedented examination of secret documents that show the deliberate nature of the Armenian Genocide.
“Taner Akçam has a demonstrated track record of groundbreaking research and mentored some of the most remarkable young scholars in the field of Armenian Genocide studies,” said Ann Karagozian, the inaugural director of the Promise Armenian Institute and a distinguished professor of engineering.
“His dedication and passion for advancing this field make him the ideal person to establish and carry out this new research program at UCLA.”
Read the news release about Akçam’s appointment.