Author: Hagop Kamalian

Armenian PM congratulates Japanese counterpart on National Holiday

Hagop Kamalian

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 11:14,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory message to Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida on the occasion of the National Holiday, Pashinyan’s Office said.

The message reads as follows,

“Your Excellency,

I warmly congratulate you on the occasion of the National Holiday of Japan – His Majesty the Emperor’s Birthday.

This year we mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Japan, in connection with which I convey you my sincere and warm congratulations. During this not long period of interstate relations we were able to establish cooperation based on mutual respect and mutual benefit. We are pursuing establishment of stronger relations with Japan and expansion of the bilateral agenda.

I am full of hope that the pandemic situation will give us the opportunity to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations by holding different cultural events, as well as by high level bilateral visits. In this context, being convinced that such visits will give a new impetus to the comprehensive expansion of our relations, I kindly invite you to visit Armenia.

I wish you good health and new success in all of your initiatives, and peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Japan”.

Where was the outpouring of empathy when my country was at war?

Hagop Kamalian
  Feb 24 2022

As an Armenian, I feel our pain was ignored. And my trauma means I’m struggling to empathise as I should with Ukraine today

Tatev Hovhannisyan
War is a strange thing – it makes you both empathetic and cold-hearted.

As an Armenian, I experienced two huge wars – the first Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988-1994) and the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. Now in my 30s, I still live in a country where people are praying every night not to receive word about a new war and casualties in the morning.

Unfortunately, this morning, we received exactly that. This time, the war is not in Armenia, but in Ukraine.

Ukraine is not far from my country, but this doesn’t change my reaction to it. Ukraine could be in Antarctica and I would still feel the same sharp emotion – like my heart is being squeezed and I want to scream ‘stop’.

As soon as I got the news, I put myself in the shoes of every Ukrainian. I really felt for them. I imagined young people in love, with big plans for the future or for their wedding day, who will not live to see them happen. It is heartbreaking.

But empathy was just the first reaction I had this morning. It was followed by something different: a pang of what I would describe as heartlessness. I suppose this is a product of trauma.

I remembered being in almost exactly the same situation in Armenia, but with a slight difference. The world was not supporting us. It was just watching our pain in silence.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m genuinely happy to see how the international community is supporting Ukraine, how people in different countries are protesting in the streets, how millions are adding the Ukrainian flag to their profiles on social media. But this unity and empathy feels so different from what I experienced in 2020.

Thousands of young people aged 18 to 20 died in Armenia and Azerbaijan barely two years ago. And I don’t recall much international solidarity happening then.

Please, spare me explanations about the differences between wars. War is war. It’s a tragedy. It means being able to smell death. It’s mourning a parent and a partner. It’s an evil that takes away your sleep and your laughter. It’s an invisible pain in your heart. Let’s not talk about geopolitics here.

What really shocks me is the hypocrisy. How can this be the same world, the same society, the same media? Where were they when people in another part of the world were fighting for 44 days during the pandemic?

I don’t care about politics, land, negotiations, economics – I just want to live in a peaceful country where parents don’t have to fear that they will not see their children again

I remember feeling so helpless at the time and trying to throw myself into work. I’m not sure it helped much but at least it alleviated my anger towards the world.

My international friends were silent, too. They didn’t change their profile pictures. Most didn’t text me messages of love and solidarity. There were just two friends (one from Africa and one from Europe) who did so, and I’ll be forever grateful to them. Believe me – when you are in pain, every word of support matters to you. It’s a silver lining. These messages remind you that you are not alone, and can even make you smile.

The 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict turned my life upside down. I am not the same anymore.

I might be silent about it, appear happy and back to normal, but every night I think about the more than 4,000 Armenian families who lost their sons in the 2020 war and the 200 families whose sons are still missing in action. I think about Azerbaijani families, too, who also have losses. I’m sure all human beings mourn and love exactly the same way.

For me, it’s all about humanity. I don’t care about politics, land, negotiations, economics – I just want to live in a peaceful country where parents don’t have to live in fear that they will not see their children again.

There are times I wish I had not been born in this region, where life is so unstable and fragile, where you don’t have certainty in tomorrow.

I live in constant fear of change – either from ongoing war, an earthquake or political tensions. It’s hard to keep up with it all when you are an ordinary person who doesn’t want to be involved in politics and just wants to live a normal life.

The main lesson I learned from the war is not to expect any help or solidarity from outside. You are alone and you need to live with your permanent wounds as there will always be scars. I guess my scars are too fresh and deep – that’s why there isn’t more room to feel others’ pain.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/ukraine-russia-war-armenia-azerbaijan-nagorno-karabakh-where-was-empathy/

Azerbaijan to erect – again – the world’s tallest flagpole

Hagop Kamalian 
Eurasianet
[Baku already held the record in 2010, before losing it to Tajikistan
less than a year later. Now it is aiming to again one-up the current
record holder in Saudi Arabia.]
By Heydar Isayev
Feb 14, 2022
Azerbaijan is planning to erect the tallest flagpole in the world, a
record it already held and lost more than a decade ago.
On February 9, ENKA, Turkey’s largest construction company, posted a
photo of the under-construction pole on Facebook. “Çimtaş, a
subsidiary of ENKA, will build the world's tallest flagpole for Baku,
the capital of Azerbaijan, also known as the ‘Windy City!’” the post
read. It reported that Çimtaş started building the 191-meter pole in
September 2021 and that it is scheduled to be delivered to Baku, via
the Black Sea, the Volga-Don Canal, and the Caspian Sea, in April
2022.
While Azerbaijan’s government has not yet commented on the report,
ENKA’s post has been widely shared in Azerbaijani media and social
media.
This is not Azerbaijan’s first attempt at a world flagpole record.
In 2010, Azerbaijan’s government erected what was at the time the
world’s tallest flagpole in Baku – a mere 162 meters – on a newly
constructed State Flag Square on the Caspian shoreline, at a cost of
$30 million. The land where the square was built had been the site of
hundreds of homes; residents had been given paltry compensation to
move and then forcibly evicted if they rejected the deal.
President Ilham Aliyev attended the inauguration of the pole and
raised the flag himself.
“We are marking a historic and unforgettable event today,” he said at
the time. “I am not talking about this flagpole being the highest in
the world. An even higher flagpole may be installed somewhere else
after some time. This is not the point. The point is that the
establishment of the Flag Square demonstrates Azerbaijan’s strength,
the love of the Azerbaijani people for their state and our respect for
state symbols.”
The next morning, the flag was torn by Baku’s famously strong winds
and taken down for repairs.
Aliyev was soon proven correct. Less than a year later, in May 2011,
Tajikistan bettered Azerbaijan with a pole just three meters higher
than Baku’s. (Both Azerbaijan’s and Tajikistan’s poles were
constructed by the same U.S. firm, Trident Support.)
In 2014, Tajikistan’s record was in turn broken by Saudi Arabia, which
erected a 170-meter pole in Jeddah, a structure that still holds the
world record.
After repeated incidents of flags being ripped by the wind, the
Azerbaijani authorities finally stopped raising the flag there in
2017. Shortly after, the pole itself was dismantled and removed. The
construction of the square, meanwhile, had become embroiled in a
corruption scandal, with the head of the State Flag Square Complex
fired and arrested on fraud charges in 2016.
It’s not clear how the new pole will manage the wind, but ENKA said it
is working on the issue. “The flagpole will draw attention with its
design and engineering works due to the strong winds of the city,” it
said in the Facebook post.
Azerbaijani public reaction was largely dismissive of the news, either
criticizing the new pole as a waste of money or mocking it.
“They should keep a 20-30-meters-long extension under the ground, so
that if somewhere else builds a taller pole, we can raise it and
become the first again,” one Facebook page suggested.

Armenian Defense Minister, French Ambassador discuss cooperation in defense and regional security issues

Hagop Kamalian

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 18:50,

YEREVAN, 16 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia Suren Papikyan received Ambassador of France to Armenia Anne Louyot, Military Attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Frédéric Campos (residence in Tbilisi), ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.

“Highly appreciating the current level of political relations between Armenia and France, the Armenian Defense Minister thanked the French leadership for its support in the repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war, as well as for the establishment of peace and stability in the region,” the statement reads.

At the rquest of Ambassador Anne Louyot, the Defense Minister presented the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

During the meeting, a number of issues related to the Armenian-French bilateral cooperation in the field of defense and regional security were discussed.

Armenpress: Russian, Azerbaijani FMs discuss normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations

Hagop Kamalian

Russian, Azerbaijani FMs discuss normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations

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 21:12,

YEREVAN, 16 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov discussed the process of normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, ARMENPRESS reports the Russian MFA informed.

During the telephone conversation on February 16, the FMs exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues. Special attention was paid to the situation in the South Caucasus, first of all to the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In this context, the importance of the implementation of all provisions of the trilateral agreements between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia of November 9, 2020, as well as January 11 and November 26, 2021 was emphasized.  

The ministers also discussed the prospects for further development of the Russian-Azerbaijani strategic partnership.

Joe Biden says US citizens should leave Ukraine now

Hagop Kamalian

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 12:32,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 11, ARMENPRESS. US President Joe Biden has called on all American citizens remaining in Ukraine to leave the country immediately, citing increased threats of Russian military action, BBC reports.

Mr Biden said he would not send troops to rescue Americans if a military clash happens.

He warned that “things could go crazy quickly” in the region.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that Europe faced its biggest security crisis in decades amid the tensions.

The US State Department urged Americans in Ukraine to leave immediately.

“American citizens should leave now”, Mr Biden told NBC News.

“We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. It’s a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly”.

Opposition has no final decision yet over nominating candidate for President of Armenia

Hagop Kamalian

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 11:27, 2 February, 2022

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. The opposition “Armenia” and “I Have the Honor” factions of the Parliament continue discussions over the issue on whether nominating or not nominating a candidate for the President of the Republic.

“I cannot say anything about the decision yet, but the discussions continue, and we will keep informed about the decision on nominating or not nominating a candidate for the president within the proper timeframes”, MP from the “Armenia” faction Gegham Manukyan told Armenpress.

Asked whether discussions over this matter were held with the “I Have the Honor” faction, the lawmaker said official discussions have not taken place yet.

Secretary of the “I Have the Honor” faction Hayk Mamijanyan said that the faction doesn’t have enough number of lawmakers for nominating a candidate for the President, but added that at this moment they are holding consultations with the “Armenia” faction.

“We will definitely inform about the results”, he said.

Yesterday, on February 1, the ruling Civil Contract party announced that it has nominated minister of high technological industry Vahagn Khachaturyan for the President of Armenia. Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan is currently serving as Acting President of Armenia because President Armen Sarkissian’s resignation took effect on February 1.




Armenia, Greece, Jordan placed 58th in fresh corruption index

Hagop Kamalian
Jan 25 2022
January 25, 2022 – 13:51 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenia has scored 49 points out of 100 (where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean) in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2021, to take the 58th place. Greece, Jordan and Namibia have similar standings.

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories around the world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.

The situation has slightly deteriorated in neighboring Georgia, which has scored 55 to rank the 45th, while Azerbaijan’s score is unchanged at 30, with a ranking of 128.

In the previous edition too Armenia had scored 49 points.

This year, the global average remains unchanged for the tenth year in a row, at just 43 out of a possible 100 points. Despite multiple commitments, 131 countries have made no significant progress against corruption in the last decade. Two-thirds of countries score below 50, indicating that they have serious corruption problems, while 27 countries are at their lowest score ever.

Ameriabank: the largest taxpayer among Armenian banks according to results of year 2021

Hagop Kamalian

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 10:49, 25 January, 2022

YEREVAN, JANUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. According to the data of January-December, 2021, Ameriabank is the largest taxpayer among Armenian banks. It paid taxes to the state budget for the total amount of AMD 8.9 bln (as of December 31, 2021). As compared to the previous year, this indicator has grown by 53.3%. While Ameriabank ranked 23rd on the list of 1000 largest taxpayers in 2020 published by the Tax Service of the RA, it made a significant progress of 6 points in 2021 and currently ranks 17th.

Ameriabank is a dynamically developing bank and one of the major and most stable financial institutions in Armenia with clearly formulated digital agenda. Ameriabank CJSC is a universal bank offering corporate, investment and retail banking services in a comprehensive package of banking solutions. Ameriabank is the largest bank in Armenia according to the latest data, with assets exceeding AMD 1 trillion.