Author: Greg Madatian

Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople blesses the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey

Greg Madatian
Jan 22 2022
Saturday,

Istanbul (Agenzia Fides) – The process of relaxation and normalization of relations, underway between Turkey and Armenia, is supported with decision and hope by authoritative representatives of the Armenian community on Turkish soil, starting from the Armenian Apostolic Patriarch of Constantinople, Sahag Mashalyan. The Head of the Armenian community in Turkey defined the measures “that strengthen relations between neighboring countries, both in terms of investments and cultural exchanges” as “precious”. For Turkish citizens who belong to the Armenian Church – added the Patriarch in the statements relaunched by the national press – “it is also extremely important that relations improve day by day so that the two communities get to know each other, work together, make investments and in this sense rich cultural values meet on common ground”.

The relations between Turkey and Armenia, tormented by the lack of a shared memory regarding the atrocious events of the Armenian Genocide, have registered a turning point after the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which in 2020 returned to inflame the Caucasus in a new, bloody phase of the historic dispute over Nagorno Karabakh, a region with an Armenian majority now included in the borders of Azerbaijan. The signing of the ceasefire, which took place on November 9, 2020 with the mediation of Russia, saw the clear affirmation of the Baku army, and ended six weeks of fierce fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops sent from Yerevan. It provided for the withdrawal of the Armenian military forces from Azerbaijani territory, the return of the displaced to their respective areas of residence and the deployment of Russian troops as “peacekeepers” in Nagorno Karabakh for the next 5 years.

In Armenia, the end of the conflict, perceived as a defeat, triggered a heavy political crisis: the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey was triggered on the developments of that uncertain phase, also favored by the pressure exerted by Russia to Vladimir Putin, who continues to act as an energetic “mediator” between Yerevan and Ankara. Diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia have been frozen since 1993, the year in which the Turks closed the border with the former Soviet republic precisely because of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict around Nagorno Karabach, a conflict that has always seen the Turkish government firmly alongside Azerbaijan. Now, the first Turkish-Armenian bilateral meeting to bring about the relaxation of relations took place on January 14 in Moscow, in a climate defined as “constructive” by official Armenian sources. In the Russian capital, the President of the Armenian Parliament, Ruben Rubinyan, met Turkish ambassador Serdar Kilic, exchanging “preliminary opinions on the process of normalizing the dialogue between Armenia and Turkey”. The parties agreed to continue the negotiations without preconditions. After the meeting in Moscow, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, also reiterated that the goal of the negotiations started is the “full normalization”, adding that “even the Armenians are very happy with this”. Turkey is also interested in the reopening of international flights between the two countries, scheduled for early February.

In addition to the statements of Patriarch Mashalyan, the Turkish daily Hürriyet also released the statements of Armenian entrepreneur Dikran Gülmezgil, President of the School Council of the Karagözyan Foundation, according to whom from now on Turkey “should act as the elder brother of Armenia”, while Yetvart Dantzikian, director of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, declared that he considered the reopening of the borders between the two countries with optimism. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 22/1/2022)


 

Turkey, Armenia hold first talks on normalising ties in years

Greg Madatian
Reuters
Jan 14 2022
By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber

ANKARA/MOSCOW, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Turkey and Armenia on Friday said a first round of talks in more than ten years was “positive and constructive,” raising the prospect that ties could be restored and borders reopened after decades of animosity.

Turkey has had no diplomatic or commercial ties with its eastern neighbour since the 1990s. The talks in Moscow were the first attempt to restore links since a 2009 peace accord. That deal was never ratified and relations have remained tense. read more

The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries said on Friday the talks were held in a “positive and constructive” atmosphere, adding both sides were committed to a full normalisation without any pre-conditions. They said special envoys had “exchanged their preliminary views regarding the normalisation process”.

The neighbours are at odds over several issues, primarily the 1.5 million people Armenia says were killed in 1915.

Armenia says the 1915 killings constitute a genocide, a position supported by the United States and some others. Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but contests the figures and denies killings were systematic or constitute genocide.

Tensions again flared during a 2020 war over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Turkey accused ethnic Armenian forces of occupying land belonging to Azerbaijan. Turkey has since called for a rapprochement, as it seeks greater influence in the region.

In separate but similarly worded statements, the foreign ministries said a date and location for the next round of talks would be finalised later.

Turkish diplomatic sources said the discussions between the delegations lasted for about 1.5 hours.

Russia’s TASS news agency cited Armenia’s foreign ministry as saying on Thursday it expected the talks to lead to the establishment of diplomatic relations and opening of frontiers closed since 1993.

Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow with Carnegie Europe, said in November opening borders and renovating railways to Turkey would have economic benefits for Armenia, as the routes could be used by traders from Turkey, Russia, Armenia, Iran and Azerbaijan.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last year the two countries would also start charter flights between Istanbul and Armenia’s capital Yerevan under the rapprochement, but that Turkey would coordinate all steps with Azerbaijan.

The flights are set to begin in early February. read more

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday Armenia needed to form good ties with Azerbaijan for the normalisation effort to yield results.

NO EASY BREAKTHROUGH

Despite strong backing for normalisation from the United States, which hosts a large Armenian diaspora and angered Turkey last year by calling the 1915 killings a genocide, analysts have said the talks would be complicated. read more

Emre Peker, a London-based director at Eurasia Group, said a cautious approach focusing on quick deliverables was expected on both sides due to the old sensitivities, adding the role of Russia, which brokered the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire and is the dominant actor in the region, would be key.

Cavusoglu has also said Russia contributed to the process of appointing the special envoys.

“The bigger challenge will come from the question of historic reconciliation,” Peker said, adding that the fate of talks would depend on “Ankara’s recognition that it must right-size its ambitions.”

Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber in Moscow; Editing by Robert Birsel and Frank Jack Daniel

 

Turkish-Armenian Man Faces Persecution if Deported Back From Greece

Greg Madatian

Jan 9 2022


01/09/2022 Turkey (International Christian Concern) – A Turkish-Armenian outspoken blogger, Sevan Nisanyan, is facing deportation from Greece after fleeing from a Turkish prison to the island country in 2017. Greece did not extend Nisanyan’s residency permit, although he has since married a Greek woman. His permit expired on December 29 and he was subsequently arrested on December 30.

Nisanyan now faces potential deportation to Turkey, although Greek courts usually refuse to extradite people to Turkey who say they would face persecution. Nisanyan began a 17-year prison sentence in 2014 for illegal construction. He claims the charges were a result of his activism against freedom of _expression_ restrictions and the Armenian Genocide, both of which Turkey denies. He also was convicted of blasphemy in Turkey regarding a 2012 blog post that defended an anti-Islam film. The Armenian Embassy in Greece is assisting with supporting and resolving Nisanyan’s case.

Christianity is often viewed as a foreign and western ideology and therefore a threat to the established “Turkishness” that the country boasts of and pursues. Armenians, as a historically Christian people, are included in the perceived threat to the country.

And yet, there are Turks who still convert to Christianity. One Turkish citizen, who was baptized on Epiphany, said, “I felt this faith closer to me. I decided to choose a religion because it is a religion, compatible with the soil of this place and because this faith has a very deep-rooted history.”



CSTO agrees to intervene in Kazakhstan unrest

Greg Madatian
EurasiaNet.org
Jan 5 2022
Joshua Kucera Jan 5, 2022

A Russia-led security bloc has agreed to intervene in Kazakhstan’s spiraling unrest, the first time in the organization’s 30-year history that it has done so.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) acceded to a request by Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on January 5 to send military assistance, which he said was needed “to help Kazakhstan overcome this terrorist threat.”

A few hours later Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan – the current chair of the CSTO’s Collective Security Council – announced that the organization had agreed.

“In light of the threats to national security and sovereignty to the Republic of Kazakhstan, including from external interference,” the CSTO agreed to send the organization’s collective peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan “for a limited period of time with the aim of stabilizing and normalizing the situation,” Pashinyan wrote in a Facebook post.

No details were provided, and it wasn’t immediately clear where the forces would be coming from or what their mission would be. Russian media reported that an aviation regiment in the city of Orenburg, close to the Kazakhstan border, was “on alert to be deployed to Kazakhstan.”

The CSTO is effectively led by Russia; its other member states are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Article 4 of its charter states that: “In the case of aggression (an armed attack threatening safety, stability, territorial integrity and sovereignty) against any Member States, all other Member States at request of this Member State shall immediately provide the latter with the necessary aid, including military.” In his statement, Pashinyan said the CSTO forces were being sent under the provisions of Article 4.

There is no indication that the popular unrest in Kazakhstan has any external origin – it began over fuel prices in the far west of the country before quickly spreading nationwide – but that is the line that Kazakhstan’s beleaguered authorities have been pushing. “Kazakhstan is facing armed aggression from terrorist groups trained outside of the country,” its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement early in the morning (local time) January 6.

This is the first time that the CSTO has agreed to deploy military forces to support an ally. It has refused requests on at least two other occasions: from Kyrgyzstan, during massive ethnic unrest in 2010; and from Armenia in 2021, as Azerbaijan pushed its post-war advantage by carrying out military incursions into Armenian territory.

In the latter case, the CSTO took three months to respond, and ultimately turned down the request.

“It needs to be understood that the CSTO can act only in the case of aggression or attack,” the CSTO’s Secretary General Stanislav Zas told journalists in August 2021. “But here we’re dealing with what is in essence a border incident.”

The CSTO was formed shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union but has gradually been expanding its capabilities. It held its first joint peacekeeping exercise in 2012, and has carried out a variety of joint military exercises – most often under an “anti-terror” scenario – since then.

But it has often been accused of being a paper tiger because of its repeated failure to come to member states’ aid when they request it. It also has failed to engender much enthusiasm from the non-Russian member states, who mostly have seen it as a means of getting discounted Russian weaponry.

Why the Kazakhstan situation is the one that finally moved the CSTO to action is still unclear. But despite Pashinyan being the man to formally make the announcement, the decision was undoubtedly made in the Kremlin. Just hours before, however, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitriy Peskov, said there would be no need for Russian assistance. “We are confident that our Kazakhstani friends can solve their internal problems by themselves,” he told the news agency RIA Novosti.

The peacekeeping forces are not the only military tool that the CSTO has in its kit. It could have chosen more forceful options, including rapid reaction forces. According to the CSTO’s official information, its peacekeeping forces total about 3,600 troops from the various member states (it does not break those down by country), and its mission is not combat but post-war tasks like ceasefire monitoring and deconfliction.

Whatever the mission, the prospect of external military intervention vexed many Kazakhstanis. “Tokayev called for the CSTO help – horrible decision!!” wrote Nargis Kassenova, a political scientist and senior fellow at Harvard, in a tweet. “We don’t know what the situation with the Kaz military/security services is at the moment, what the level of confusion and the situation with loyalty are, but this appeal undermines his chance to gain legitimacy big time.”

Added Vyacheslav Abramov, the head of independent media outlet Vlast.kz: “An absolutely wrong decision, to call in the military of a neighboring country. It’s very difficult to imagine now the full consequences of this mistake.”

In Armenia, meanwhile, that it was Pashinyan who made the announcement was seen as a bitter irony, given the organization’s recent refusal to come to Armenians’ assistance. Under the prime minister’s initial announcement that he had spoken to Tokayev about his request, opposition leader Edmon Marukyan mockingly compared the situation to Armenia’s appeal last year, in which (under apparent Russian cajoling) Yerevan held off on making a formal request.

“I think we should wait for the written request according to the CSTO procedure,” Marukyan wrote in a comment that as of press time had garnered more than 4,000 likes.

Joshua Kucera is the Turkey/Caucasus editor at Eurasianet, and author of The Bug Pit.



Charges pressed against Israeli kamikaze drone maker suspected of attacking Armenian positions

Greg Madatian
Public Radio of Armenia
Dec 30 2021
, 12:01

 1 minute read

Israeli drone-maker Aeronautics and three of its senior employees were charged on Wednesday with violating the law regulating defense exports in its dealing with one of its most prominent clients, Haaretz reports.

A gag order issued by the Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court prevents the publication of further details.

The firm has been under investigation for the past several years. In 2018 the Justice Ministry said prosecutors intended to press charges against its employees for aggravated fraud and violations of the defense export law.

In an unusual announcement in August 2017, the Defense Ministry said that it had suspended the marketing and export license for one of the firm’s attack drones to a significant customer in a foreign country. Police later launched an investigation into the matter.

That same month it was reported that the Defense Ministry’s Security Agency opened a probe into a complaint alleging that Aeronautics representatives demonstrated the use of a kamikaze drone in Azerbaijan by attacking a manned position of the Armenian army.

The company denied the claim at the time and said that any operational use of the aircraft was only carried out by the buyer of the drone. Aeronautics Defense added that it never carries out demonstrations against live targets, as was the case in this instance.

Founded in 1997 under the name NETS Integrated Avionics Systems, Aeronautics manufactures UAVs for military surveillance and defense and for the commercial sector. The company nearly collapsed in 2011, but was rescued by private equity investors Viola, Beresheet and KCPS, which today hold a combined 36 percent of its shares.

Former mayor Hayk Marutyan, three other city councilors quit ruling My Step faction

Greg Madatian

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 11:22,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The former Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan and three other members of the My Step bloc of the City Council relinquished their mandates.

Mayor Hrachya Sargsyan announced at a City Council session on December 28 that Hayk Marutyan, Pavel Mazmanyan, Lilit Pipoyan and Ruben Hayrapetyan tendered their resignations as My Step councilors.

Another city councilor from My Step, Vahe Gevorgyan, also left the ruling faction but will continue serving as councilor.

Normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations

Greg Madatian
eureporter
Dec 23 2021

Last week’s Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels facilitated constructive talks between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, marking a milestone for lasting peace in the South Caucasus region, writes Dr. Ceyhun Osmanlı, co-founder of the Azerbaijan Green Movement, former MP and analyst on international relations and political economy.

European Council President Charles Michel’s peace initiative was seen as a significant contribution towards the normalization of relations between the two neighbours, which may lead to a comprehensive peace agreement, the delimitation and demarcation of their borders (which the EU will support through an EU expert mission and technical assistance), strengthened confidence-building measures, establishment of people-to-people contacts and the construction of crucial transport infrastructure, especially the railway connection from Azerbaijan through Armenia to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic also known as the Zangazur Corridor.

Michel commended steps taken by both leaders to ensure the de-escalation of tensions following recent armed clashes along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In particular, the successful establishment of a direct communication link between the Ministers of Defence of both countries, facilitated by President Michel, was acknowledged while the recent release of ten Armenian detainees by Azerbaijan and the handover of all remaining mine-maps by Armenia were welcomed.

Following the 44-day war, which ended the-30-year-long Armenian occupation of the internationally recognised Azerbaijani region Karabakh, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia had signed a tripartite agreement on 10 November 2020 but sporadic skirmishes have been reported until recently at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and unresolved issues have continued to constitute a threat to regional stability. The normalisation of relations was also supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), where President Aliyev met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as well as the North Atlantic Council with all 30 Allies this month. Underlining the “importance of dialogue and understanding in NATO’s partnership with Azerbaijan”, Stoltenberg stated that “Azerbaijan made important contributions to our former mission in Afghanistan. And Azeri forces played an important role providing security at Kabul Airport during this summer’s evacuation”.

These recent positive developments in Brussels as well as a redefined OSCE Minsk Group in accordance with the new geopolitical reality to support the resumption of direct dialogue between the two countries could help creating a peaceful atmosphere in the South Caucasus in the near future. This is good news for the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, whose popularity reached its peak during the war. By de-occupying the ancestral lands of Azerbaijan, he restored historical justice – not only for 1 million Azerbaijani IDPs and refugees, who were displaced during the prolonged conflict, but for the entire nation, which had been decrying the Armenian violation of international law despite several resolutions by the United Nations (UN), the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) calling for the immediate withdrawal of the Armenian army from Nagorno-Karabakh and its 7 surrounding regions. Now, he is about to become a symbol of peace, stability and security in the region.

Guided by its national interests, including the principles of good neighbourliness, peaceful coexistence and equal cooperation, Azerbaijan has been implementing a multi-vector foreign policy since its independence from the Soviet Union. The Republic of Azerbaijan is a full-fledged member of all leading international intergovernmental organisations, such as the UN, the OSCE and the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS). While being anchored to Europe through its membership of the Council of Europe and other cooperation mechanisms, Azerbaijan is also a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which unites the countries of the Islamic world. The wisdom and pragmatism of this policy is reflected in the fact that Azerbaijan is not represented in military alliances, preferring multilateral cooperation rather than bloc confrontation, as evidenced by Azerbaijan’s membership in the Non-Aligned Movement. Azerbaijan is also host to numerous cultural, sports and social initiatives, including the first European Games “Baku-2015” and the Islamic Games in 2017, as well as forums on multiculturalism, interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance.  

President Aliyev, who will turn 60 on 24 December, took over as President from his father Heydar Aliyev (also known as the founding father of the nation) in 2003. Since the early 2000s, Azerbaijan has seen a major transformation. It has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty and increasing shared prosperity. High economic growth rates, rising employment and high real wage increases all contributed to this decline in poverty and to the expansion of the middle class. According to the World Bank “Following a period of economic volatility in 2015 after a dramatic fall in oil prices, Azerbaijan embarked on an ambitious programme of economic diversification and has subsequently reported continued economic growth”, including an increase in gross domestic product (GDP) from $5.3 billion in 2000 to $42.6 billion in 2021.

The international rating agency Moody’s has affirmed Azerbaijan’s credit rating at Ba2, predicting that the situation has changed from “stable” to “positive”. This reflects the ability of the Azerbaijani leadership to increase the stability of the country’s credit profile. In addition, according to the Economic Freedom Index 2021 compiled by the Heritage Foundation, Azerbaijan rose by 6 places, ranking the 38th just below Belgium and Spain. Azerbaijan’s position in the World Bank’s Doing Business report has been also improving year by year. Whereas the country occupied the 71th place in the World Bank Doing Business ratings in 2012, then it ranked 34 among 190 economies in the ease of doing business in 2021.

In addition, Azerbaijan implements a state programme on education of Azerbaijani youth abroad, which is partly financed by the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The country has also made significant progress in implementing gender policy and protecting the rights and legitimate interests of women while embarking on important environmental initiatives implemented by the International Dialogue for Environmental Action (IDEA). The normalisation of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations is expected to improve Azerbaijan’s record further in the area of foreign policy as well as in economic, social and environmental spheres.

Armenia Has Continued To Lose Land To Azerbaijan Since 2020 Ceasefire Declaration – OpEd

Greg Madatian
Dec 24 2021
 

By Paul Goble

Many people assume that the 44-day war in 2020 ended with a new ceasefire line that both Azerbaijan and Armenia were committed to observing, Grant Mikhaelyan says. But in reality, Baku has continued a low intensity conflict that has allowed it to take control of land along that line; and official Yerevan has not even denounced what is going on.

This pattern began almost immediately, the analyst at Yerevan’s Caucasus Institute says, when Azerbaijan began a unilateral demarcation of the borders on the basis of Soviet maps from the 1970s. Apparently fearful of even more forceful actions by Baku, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not react (kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/83781/posts/51255m).

In the months since, Mikayelyan says, this pattern has been repeated again and again with Azerbaijan imposing borders sometimes by using force and sometimes by exploiting Armenian withdrawal and with Pashinyan acting as if there is nothing to be concerned about or that Moscow will somehow intervene to help Yerevan.

Most of Azerbaijan’s advances at Armenia’s expense, the analyst says, were very small; but in May 2021, Baku’s forces occupied without a fight some 110 square kilometers to the north of Goris and to the northwest of Dilidzhan. Again, he continues, Pashinyan said nothing. And Azerbaijani forces have taken advantage of the situation.

Today, Mikayelyan says, the most serious of these advances concerns the M-2 highway which connects Armenia with Iran. Before December 2020, Armenia controlled all of it; but now, Azerbaijan controls 22 kilometers. That has led to talk in Yerevan about building another road further from the Azerbaijani border. But prospects for that are not good.

According to the Yerevan analyst, “for the last 15 years, Armenia hasn’t found the money needed for the construction” of this alternative route. And the estimated cost is “far beyond the limits of the Armenian border.”

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at [email protected] .

https://www.eurasiareview.com/24122021-armenia-has-continued-to-lose-land-to-azerbaijan-since-2020-ceasefire-declaration-oped/

Turkish press: Famous “brothel streets” in Beyoğlu to turn into culture center

Greg Madatian
  • 07:00:00

The three famous streets in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district hosting the “brothels of the city” for more than a century will convert into a “culture and art zone” of the metropolis after a two-year renovation.

“As the municipality of Beyoğlu, we are bringing a new function to the streets of Zürafa [Giraffe], Alageyik [Fallow deer] and Kadem [Foot],” Haydar Ali Yıldız, the mayor of the district, said in a press conference held in the ruins of the streets on Dec. 20.

The first brothel in Zürafa Street was opened during the era of the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamit II for “serving the Europeans living in Beyoğlu” in the late 19th century. In the middle of the 20th century, some 120 escorts were working in 18 houses located in Zürafa and the streets nearby.

The brothels were officially closed with the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.

“Civilizations can be determined with people, time and place. It is our responsibility to shape the future by analyzing the soul of the time,” the mayor said.

“Today I announce that all the houses in the Zürafa Street will convert into art and culture centers. As of today, Zürafa, Alageyik and Kadem will be seen as a cultural zone,” he added.

He especially thanked the three heirs of the Turkish-Armenian businesswoman Matild Manukyan, who own most of the 42 properties in the streets, for helping the municipality.

Born in 1914 and died in 2001, Manukyan, famously known as “brothel boss,” was a tax champion, owning some 37 brothel houses. She also was the owner of some 500 properties, more than 200 taxi plates and dozens of buildings in Istanbul.

During the pandemic, the municipality officials contacted Manukyan’s three heirs, Dora, İlda and Edvin Çilingir, and told the plan.

“Within the scope of the Beyoğlu Culture Road project, these streets will become landmarks of the city in a cultural way,” the mayor highlighted.

According to the project, a board with experts and owners of the properties in the streets will be established. This board will analyze the culture and art zones globally and form an archaeological plan.

The cost of the urban renewal will be taken care of by Manukyan’s heirs and other property owners. According to the officials, the three heirs “accepted to pay for the renewal costs willingly.”

The first thing to do will be to pick garbage and clean the streets.
There is no official renewal plan at the moment, but the mayor underlined that the zone would host cafes, bookshops and cultural activity centers.


Armen Grigoryan, Stanislav Zas discuss programs to be implemented during Armenia’s chairmanship at CSTO

Greg Madatian

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 15:07,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 22, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan met today with Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Stanislav Zas, who has arrived in Armenia on a working visit, the Office of the Secretary of the Security Council reports.

The sides discussed the programs to be implemented during Armenia’s chairmanship at the CSTO. In this regard the sides attached priority to the joint activity of the CSTO member states in drafting a policy against terrorism, extremism, migration security, biosafety and drug trafficking.  

The officials also discussed contributing to the ease of tension on the Armenian-Azerbaijan, Tajik-Kazakh, Tajik-Afghan borders. Here the CSTO Secretary General emphasized the increase in probability of migrant flows by Afghanistan to the member states of the CSTO, calling this as a migration challenge.

Armen Grigoryan also presented the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, stating that it’s a key challenge for Armenia. In this context both sides attached importance to ensuring conditions for the quick launch of the Armenian-Azerbaijan border delimitation and demarcation process.