Author: Hovhannisian John

The bill on Armenian Genocide to be voted on in the German Bundestag on Thursday is very important to us, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said n an interview with He added that the measure is important not only for our country, but also for prevention of such crimes anywhere in the world.

“No German politician, even the ones who oppose the bill, denies that the events that happened 101 years ago were genocide, the first genocide of the 20^th century. I think that the values German politicians share should be more important than the short-term political interests. Many other countries, including France, have recognized the Armenian Genocide,” President Sargsyan said.

Speaking about the Germany responsibility, the President said: “There are numerous documents in German archives, reports by German diplomats and missionaries that prove the extermination of the Armenian people. The German Empire was historically an alley of the Ottoman Empire, and  might have to do something to prevent the crime. But it did nothing.”

President Sargsyan said he can’t understand the fear of German politicians of Erdogan’s sharp reaction. “Germany is a powerful state and the voice of the German Bundestag is heard all over the world. That’s why Germany has a special moral responsibility in defending the values without making any compromises. When you make a compromise out of a short-term political interests, you do it again and again. And that is bad for Germany, bad for Europe and the world,” he said.

The Armenian President said the possible failure of the Turkey-EU migrant deal has nothing to do with the adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution. “It won’t be fair if you refuse calling the killing of the Armenian people “genocide” just because it will anger the head of state of another country. I am sure that the politicians in the Bundestag think the same way and will not be intimidated.”

Can Europe ever trust Erdogan in any form? “I cannot speak for Europe, but I can tell you from my own experience: No, we do not trust Erdogan! It is not only because of his refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide. We have tried for years to establish diplomatic relations. There were for example, the Zurich protocols that had to be ratified by the Turkish Parliament. But Erdogan has blocked everything. I wonder: Why did we ever negotiate?” President Sargsyan said.

Europe should not blindly trust Erdogan, but find its own solutions for the refugee problem, he added.

Referring to the Karbakh conflict, President Sargsyan said: “At the moment the situation is calm, there is no shooting. However, when Azerbaijan unleashed a military aggression, there was lack of international solidarity. We would like to make it clear what happened there: an attack by Azerbaijan.”

Asked what he expects from the international community, President Sargsyan said: “Armenia is a small country. We realize that we are economically perhaps less interesting. We want the wrong to be called wrong.  First of all. Europe should have criticized the actions of Azerbaijan. If that is not enough, sanctions would be conceivable as a next step.”

John Fisher, the musical director of one of the leading opera theatres in the world – the Metropolitan Opera House, will arrive in Yerevan on June 4 at the invitation of the “Aram Khachaturian Competition” Cultural Foundation. The musical director of one of the most prestigious opera stages is the special guest of the 12^th Aram Khachaturian International Conducting Competition held in June 6.

The event will be attended by a number of outstanding musicians, art-managers, who will get an opportunity to discover young talented people in the framework of the contest.

The international competition will kick off on June 6, Aram Khachaturian’s birthday. Fifty-seven conductors from dozens of countries applied for participation in the contest. Only 14 of them have been selected to fight for a trophy from June 6 to June 14.

The Aram Khachaturian International Competition is the member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions. The Khachaturian Competition has is conducted thanks to joint efforts of the Ministry of Culture of RA, “Aram Khachaturian – Competition” Cultural Foundation and the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan and is held under the high patronage of the spouse of the President of RA Mrs. Rita Sargsyan – the honorary president of the Board of Trustees of the competition.

Today, at the Yerevan Expo Exhibition Complex President Serzh Sargsyan attended the opening ceremony of the New Perspectives for the Syrian Armenians exhibition which is being held in the framework of the Week of Economic Opportunities business forum.

The exhibition presents over seventy companies and individuals entrepreneurs of the Armenian descent who have fled war in Syria and relocated to Armenia.

The President of Armenia familiarized with the results of the activities of the Syrian Armenians in different areas, observed goods and services presented at the exhibition, learned about existing problems and programs of development. At the exhibition, private companies of Armenia present to the Syrian Armenians existing jobs and services, while state and international institutions present their programs of assistance. President Serzh Sargsyan assessed as inspiring the efforts of our compatriots working in the area of publishing, printing, jewelry making, wood processing, tourism, embroidery, equipment and machinery production, as well as in other areas and highly praised the quality of the exhibited goods. The President discussed with the Syrian Armenian entrepreneurs issues related to the sales and export opportunities for their production.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier today issued the following statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict:

“The situation along the line of contact continues to be tense. I deeply regret the reported recent loss of life, and I urge the sides to respect the ceasefire in full.

In this context, I welcome the initiative by my colleagues from the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and France, the co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, who held a meeting with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan on 16 May. I am encouraged by the renewed commitment that both Presidents have expressed to the ceasefire and to the peaceful settlement of the conflict, as well as their readiness to have a new round of talks in June.

Germany’s 2016 OSCE Chairmanship remains fully committed to supporting the work of the Co-Chairs. We will actively support efforts to establish an investigative mechanism. We will also work on expanding the team of my Personal Representative, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The escalation of hostilities in April was a reminder to us all that re-doubled, sustained efforts are now needed to break the deadlock. The consolidation of the ceasefire is a matter of high priority, not least with a view to creating favourable conditions for resuming negotiations on a comprehensive settlement.”

By Raffi K. Hovannisian

Stepanakert, Mountainous Karabagh — I no longer know what to do on April 24—or where to go. This is the day Armenians across the globe commemorate the genocide in 1915 that destroyed the Armenian people and its homeland of thousands of years.

Those killing fields, the homes of my grandparents, are located in historic western Armenia—now eastern Turkey. But a century later, this very region has erupted in all-out war. Turkish forces are on the offensive again, this time, Armenians having been eliminated, against an empowered Kurdish majority. For an Armenian, it is a difficult place to travel to on April 24—to assert our memory amid the bombshells and havoc of another people’s national struggle.

In Washington earlier this April, I was taking several meetings with the Department of State and at other offices. As it is known, official Turkey still denies that genocide was ever committed. And it expects its “strategic partners,” such as the United States, not to call it by that name.

In the past week, respected national newspapers shamefully published Turkish ads denying the Armenian Genocide. Denialist billboards went up, too. And in his address this April, President Obama called the events of 1915 everything but “genocide.” You can see why Washington, too, is also a difficult place to be on April 24.

So I decided to return to Yerevan, Armenia, for April 24. To be clear this is modern-day Armenia—just a sliver of the great homeland which survived 1915, was absorbed into the Soviet Union, and eventually declared independence in 1991. This is the Armenia, whose foreign minister I was and whose flag I raised at the United Nations. Here millions of Armenians and their guests—this year George Clooney, Charles Aznavour, and others—march up to the Eternal Flame of 1915 and lay flowers every April 24.

But even Yerevan, this year, was a difficult place to be on April 24. Because the minds of Armenians were elsewhere. They were drifting a couple hundred miles southeast—where, even as we commemorated the victims of the Armenian Genocide, the groundworks of a new genocide against us were being laid.

A lot has been written about Nagorno (Mountainous) Karabagh, or Artsakh; people have different opinions of it. But the simplest and most irrefutable narrative is this: For as long as we know, since the ancient Armenian kingdoms, Mountainous Karabagh has been an Armenian cultural cradle. Even when Josef Stalin and his Bolshevik entourage, in order to placate nationalist Turkey, unilaterally transferred these lands from Soviet Armenia and subjected them as an autonomous region to Soviet Azerbaijani rule in 1923, Mountainous Karabagh—unlike Nakhichevan to its west—managed to keep its majority Armenian population.

As the USSR collapsed and the people of Artsakh voted by lawful referendum to declare their own independence from Azerbaijan, Baku in turn unleashed all-out war—and lost. As sovereign Armenia’s foreign minister, I helped launch the peace process in Helsinki in March 1992.

Twenty years later, this April, Turkey-allied Azerbaijan launched its largest campaign of racist aggression since the Russian-brokered ceasefire that had been signed in 1994 among Azerbaijan, Mountainous Karabagh, and Armenia. For four days, Azerbaijan’s drones and helicopters bombed peaceful Christian Armenian civilians. Soldier and villager alike were taken captive and, ISIS-style, beheaded alive in such inhumanity that even transcends the definition of a war crime.

From Stepanakert, the capital of Mountainous Karabagh, I can now report the following. Azerbaijan’s belligerent conduct, a hell-bent design developed over the years to wipe out not only Karabagh but Armenia in toto, renders a negotiated settlement no longer possible, and it is imperatively time for the international community to take a stance in equivalent application of international law and, yes, in pursuit of guaranteeing strategic security interests.

The United States, Europe, and their partners to the east and south must officially recognize the Mountainous Karabagh Republic within its constitutional frontiers.  It is no less deserving of recognition, under the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, than Kosovo, East Timor, Eritrea, or South Sudan.

It gives no consolation that Azerbaijan is a blatant clan-based dictatorship or that official Ankara is in the throes of realizing xenophobic rhetoric domestically and in foreign affairs, but it would help along the way if the Republic of Armenia itself, naturally among the first to recognize, put its own democratic house in order, rooting out the corruption of its own authorities, systemic fraud and falsification, stolen elections and political prisoners.

This is a complicated issue indeed; let us not pretend otherwise. But on the verge of a new genocide this April, let us also not mince words and find pretext for inaction.

Armenians living peacefully in Mountainous Karabagh were murdered this April. They will be murdered again. Do you recognize a genocide when you see it?

Following a meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Bureau in Copenhagen, Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) and the OSCE PA Special Representative on the South Caucasus, Kristian Vigenin (MP, Bulgaria), reiterated the Assembly’s hopes for a sustained ceasefire and willingness to contribute to efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“My colleagues and I are united in our hope for a complete cessation of hostilities. The human toll that continued fighting – not only in the past week, but over more than 20 years – is having on the people in the region is simply not tolerable. We owe it to those who regularly suffer from this violence to take a forward-looking approach on ways to find a peaceful settlement,” said President Kanerva.

The OSCE PA Bureau, consisting of the President, Vice-Presidents and Committee Officers of the Assembly, heard a report by Special Representative Vigenin on recent developments in the zone of conflict.

“The very significant increase in violence last week underlines the need for a rapid return to the political process. While immediate efforts are understandably concentrated on halting hostilities, I intend to continue working at the parliamentary level to encourage increased political will from the sides in the region to engage in serious efforts to negotiate a comprehensive settlement within the framework of the Minsk Group. The rapid agreement on confidence building-measures to reduce the risk for further hostilities can be an important first step in this direction, and we stand ready to contribute to all these efforts,” said Special Representative Vigenin.

The President and Special Representative expressed their support for the continued work of the Minsk Group and its Co-Chairs to facilitate a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Vigenin reported to the OSCE PA Bureau that he would maintain contact with parliamentary colleagues from Armenia and Azerbaijan, and intends to continue discussions during the Assembly’s 25^th Annual Session, to be held in Tbilisi from 1-5 July.

The OSCE PA Bureau meets each year in April, to discuss ongoing work and to plan for the Assembly’s Annual Session.

On April 10th, 2016, Armenians gathered in front of the Azerbaijan’s embassy in Brussels, Belgium, to protest against the military aggression Azerbaijan unleashed against the Armenians in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) from April 2nd to April 5th.

The main objective of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs is to ensure the prevention of reoccurrence of military actions, Russian Co-Chair Igor Popov told a press conference in Yerevan. According to him, they have no mandate to investigate who started the recent hostilities.

Popov said one of the most important issues today is the return of the bodies of the killed soldiers, and the ICRC, as well as Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk’s team are engaged in the search works.

Referring to the issue on the negotiating table and the so called “Lavrov initiatives,” Popov said “it has been mentioned on many occasions that there is no new document on the table.” “There are proposal of the Co-Chairs, which have been discussed over the past few years. They are based on three principles and six elements,” Popov said.

“These principles include non-use of force, the right of peoples to self-determination and territorial integrity. As for the elements, the two most important ones are related to the determination of the status of Nagorno Karabakh and the return of territories. Other elements are related to return of refugees, determination of the width of the corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno Karabakh and peacekeeping mission,” the Russian Co-Chair said.

Popov added, however, that the issue of peacekeepers should be discussed at the final stage, after the conclusion of a peace deal.

Asked about the atrocities committed by the Azerbaijani side against the civilian population, the brutal killings and even beheadings, US Co-Chair James Warlick said: “We’re deeply distressed by the reports of human right violations, with the photos and videos we’ve seen. We’ve asked our partners at the ICRC to investigate what happened exactly. We’re deeply troubled by any human right violation.”

As for the perspectives of Nagorno Karabakh’s return to the negotiating table, Popov said “we’ve said on many occasions that Karabakh should return to talks at a certain stage. “Conclusion of a framework agreement preceding the preparation of a peace deal could be a starting point,” he added.

French Co-Chair Pierre Andrieu said they’re not authorized to investigate who’s responsible for the resumption of military actions. “What’s important for us is to ensure that the agreement on ceasefire reached in Moscow is maintained as long as possible, and to resume the political negotiations,” he added.

As for Turkey’s biased attitude, its support for Azerbaijan, and the possibility of the country’s exclusion from the Minsk Group, Warlick said “no changes in the Minsk Group are expected.” “As you know we met in Vienna for the first time in years and adopted a strong statement. Turkey joined this statement and endorsed it. We’re looking forward to working with all Minsk Group members, including Turkey,” he concluded.

On 7 April Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov (Russian Federation), Pierre Andrieu (France), James Warlick (USA), personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The meeting addressed issues related to the large-scale military operations launched Azerbaijan against the Artsakh Republic.
President Sahakyan called the treacherous aggression of Azerbaijani as one of the greatest perils to stability and peace in the South Caucasus and the neighboring regions, qualifying it a serious challenge to the civilized world too.

Bako Sahakyan underlined that the Artsakh Defense Army averted and would always rebuff any encroachment on our republic’s independence, sovereignty and security, adding that he expected from OSCE Minsk Group tough and targeted response and steps towards the destructive policy of Azerbaijan.

The Armenian Defense Ministry declares that that the Azerbaijani reports on invasion of settlements in Nagorno Karabakh, destroyed combat equipment and hundreds of human losses on the Armenian side comprise obvious misinformation and have nothing to do with reality.

The Azerbaijani side is thus trying to justify its own losses, Spokesman of the Armenian ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan said in a Facebook post.

The Defense Ministry advises to publish only official information.