Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 21-12-23

 16:56, 21 December 2023

YEREVAN, 21 DECEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 21 December, USD exchange rate up by 0.08 drams to 405.62 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.17 drams to 444.36 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.08 drams to 4.40 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 0.47 drams to 512.78 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 70.38 drams to 26545.58 drams. Silver price up by 0.84 drams to 312.59 drams.

RFE/RL Armenian Service – 12/22/2023

                                        Friday, 


Karabakh Dissolution Decree Annulled

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Nagorno-Karabakh - Samvel Shahramanian is sworn in as new Karabakh president, 
Stepanakert, September 10, 2023.


Samvel Shahramanian has annulled his September 28 decision to liquidate the 
self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, an aide to the exiled Karabakh 
president revealed on Friday.

A decree signed by Shahramanian disbanded all government bodies and said that 
the unrecognized republic, which had been set up in September 1991, will cease 
to exist on January 1. It came just over a week after Azerbaijan’s military 
offensive that forced Karabakh’s small army to lay down weapons and restored 
Azerbaijani control over the region.

Speaking in Yerevan on October 20, Shahramanian said he had to sign the decree 
in order to stop the hostilities and enable the Karabakh Armenians to safely 
flee their homeland. Karabakh lawmakers likewise said early this month that the 
decision demanded by Baku helped to prevent a “genocide.”

Shahramanian’s adviser, Vladimir Grigorian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that 
the Karabakh leader invalidated the controversial decree on October 19.

“This means that the Republic of Artsakh, its government and other bodies will 
continue to operate after 2023,” he said, adding that all senior Karabakh 
officials will keep performing their duties without getting paid.

“We can consider the September 28 decree null and void,” stressed Grigorian. He 
did not say why its invalidation was not made public earlier.

Residents gather next to buses in central Stepanakert before leaving 
Nagorno-Karabakh, September 25, 2023.

The development may put Karabakh’s leadership now based in Yerevan at odds with 
Armenia’s government. Political allies of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian have 
said in recent weeks that Karabakh government bodies should be dissolved 
following the region’s recapture by Azerbaijan and the resulting exodus of its 
ethnic Armenian population. Parliament speaker Alen Simonian claimed on November 
16 that their continued activities would pose a “direct threat to Armenia’s 
security.”

In its December 10 statement, the Karabakh legislature balked at attempts to 
“finally close the Artsakh issue” while signaling its desire to discuss them 
with Pashinian’s government.

On Tuesday, Pashinian he gave more indications that the Karabakh issue is closed 
for his administration. “As I said, I am the prime minister of Armenia and must 
advance Armenia’s national interests,” he said in televised remarks.




Yerevan Open To Delinking Peace Deal With Baku From Border Delimitation

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - Parliament speaker Alen SImonian chairs a session of the National 
Assembly, November 24, 2022.


Armenia may agree to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan before delimiting the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border, parliament speaker Alen Simonian indicated on 
Friday.

Hikmet Hajiyev, a top foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham 
Aliyev, said earlier this week that Baku believes "the border delimitation issue 
should be kept separate from peace treaty discussions."

“I think that we could consider such a practice because that [delimitation 
process] … could take years,” Simonian said, commenting on Hajiyev’s statement. 
“In my view, a country seeking a real peace will have no problems with such 
things.”

“So I think that yes, such a thing can be done after we settle some issues, sign 
the peace treaty and bring peace to our societies,” he told reporters.

Armen Rustamian, a senior member of the main opposition Hayastan alliance, 
expressed concern over Simonian’s remarks, saying that delinking the peace 
treaty from the border delimitation is “only in Azerbaijan’s interests.”

“We have to make sure that there are no occasions for new tensions and conflicts 
in the future,” said Rustamian. “And the more uncertainty there is in the 
treaty, the higher their likelihood will be.”

Ongoing border disputes have been one of the main sticking points in 
Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on the treaty. Armenia has said until now that the 
peace deal must contain a concrete mechanism for the border delimitation. It 
insists on using late Soviet-era military maps for that purpose. Baku rejects 
the idea backed by the European Union.

Yerevan also wants the treaty to explicitly uphold the territorial integrity of 
the two South Caucasus states. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and other Armenian 
officials have said Azerbaijan should specifically recognize Armenia’s 
internationally recognized area of 29,800 square kilometers.

Eduard Aghajanian, another lawmaker representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract 
party, insisted on Friday that this remains the most important element of the 
would-be treaty for the Armenian side.

“It’s still too early to say whether this will be done parallel to the 
delimitation process … or in another format,” he said.

Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian said 
that Baku is “reluctant to finalize” such a peace deal. Kostanian had suggested 
earlier that it wants to leave the door open for future territorial claims to 
Armenia. Some Armenian analysts believe this is the reason why Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev keeps delaying further negotiations mediated by the 
United States and the European Union.




218 Confirmed Dead In Karabakh Fuel Depot Blast

        • Artak Khulian

A photograph taken and released by the Nagorno-Karabakh Human Rights Ombudsman 
shows a fire at a fuel depot outside Stepanakert on September 25, 2023.


At least 218 people died in the September 25 explosion and fire at a fuel depot 
in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to the latest official figures released by 
Armenian investigators on Friday.

The spokesman for the Investigative Committee, Gor Abrahamian, said that it has 
still not identified three of the victims because of being unable to collect DNA 
samples from their presumed relatives.

Twenty-one other Karabakh Armenians, who may have been at the scene of the 
powerful explosion, remain unaccounted for, Abrahamian told RFE/RL’s Armenian 
Service.

“The Investigative Committee urges all those who had relatives, who were at the 
scene at the time of the explosion, and don’t know their whereabouts … to 
contact the Investigative Committee,” he said.

The deadly explosion, which destroyed the gasoline storage facility outside 
Stepanakert, occurred as tens of thousands of Karabakh residents fled to Armenia 
following an Azerbaijani offensive that paved the way for the restoration of 
Baku’s control over the region.

Videos posted on social media showed hundreds of cars parked near the depot, 
waiting to fuel up and head to Armenia. Fuel had been in extremely short supply 
in Karabakh since Azerbaijan blocked traffic through the Lachin corridor in 
December 2022.

The screenshot of video distributed by Siranush Sargsyan's Twitter account shows 
smoke rising after a fuel depot explosion near Stepanakert, September 25, 2023.

Samvel Shahramanian, the Karabakh president, said recently that Karabakh 
officials continue to believe that the blast was caused by a violation of safety 
rules. He said the underground depot, which reportedly contained 400,000 liters 
of gasoline reserved for Karabakh’s army, was besieged by scores of people 
desperate to leave their homeland.

Erik Yakhshibekian, a Karabakh man, was there together with his wife, who died 
in the resulting fire. He described chaotic scenes preceding the tragedy.

“From five or six locations people threw in buckets and pulled them back from 
the basement,” he said. “It was awful. The air was toxic and you couldn’t 
breathe. Those who could went downstairs to quickly collect [fuel] and get out.”

According to Abrahamian, the investigators have interrogated “many” witnesses of 
the explosion. He would not say whether they will prosecute anyone for the 
massive loss of life.

More than 200 other Karabakh Armenians were killed during the September 19-20 
fighting with Azerbaijani forces.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has acknowledged over 200 combat deaths among 
its military personnel involved in the operation. Its troops greatly outnumbered 
and outgunned Karabakh’s small army that received no military support from 
Armenia.




Russia, Armenia Still Allies, Says Envoy


Armenia - Russian Ambassador Sergei Kopyrkin speaks during an event organized by 
the UN office in Yerevan, July 3, 2023.


Russia continues to regard Armenia as a strategic ally despite unprecedented 
tensions between the two states, the Russian ambassador in Yerevan, Sergei 
Kopyrkin, said in an interview published on Friday.

“We believe that the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia remain 
partners and strategic allies, united by common interests, a common history and 
similar views on international problem, and that this alliance corresponds to 
the fundamental interests of both participants,” Kopyrkin told the official TASS 
news agency.

“Of course, it cannot be denied that there are certain differences in our 
bilateral and multilateral agenda,” he said. “Both the Russian and Armenian 
sides are ready to discuss any contentious topics frankly and in a constructive 
atmosphere, as befits allies.”

Russian-Armenian relations have steadily deteriorated since the 2020 war in 
Nagorno-Karabakh mainly because of what Yerevan sees as Moscow’s failure to 
honor its security commitments. The trend accelerated shortly before 
Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 offensive in Karabakh that was not prevented or 
thwarted by Russian peacekeepers stationed there.

The Russian Foreign Ministry deplored “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by 
the Armenian government earlier in September. It subsequently accused Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian of systematically “destroying” bilateral ties.

Pashinian and other Armenian leaders boycotted high-level meetings held this 
fall within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) 
and other Russian-led alliances of ex-Soviet states. So far they have announced 
no plans to end Armenia’s membership in those organizations.

Earlier this week, Pashinian again accused the CSTO of giving his country “zero” 
support in the conflict with Azerbaijan. Another Armenian official elaborated on 
December 4 on the premier’s assertions that Moscow has failed to deliver more 
weapons to Armenia despite bilateral defense contracts signed in the last two 
years. The contracts are worth $400 million, he said.

Kopyrkin acknowledged “issues” in the implementation of those contracts. He 
implied that Russian defense companies have not fulfilled their contractual 
obligations on time because of having to manufacture more weapons and other 
military equipment for the Russian military.

“But these are working issues that are resolved in the dialogue between relevant 
agencies of Russia and Armenia,” said the envoy.

Kopyrkin added in this regard that the two sides are now “discussing new 
agreements in the field of military-technical cooperation.” He did not elaborate.

Russia has long been Armenia’s principal supplier of weapons and ammunition. 
Yerevan is now increasingly looking for other arms suppliers. Since September 
2022 it has reportedly signed a number of defense contracts with India worth 
hundreds of millions of dollars. In October this year, it also signed two arms 
deals with France.



Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

 

Russian ambassador summoned to Uzbek Foreign Ministry

 18:55,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. On December 21, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipoteniary of Russia to Uzbekistan Oleg Malginov was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan to comment on the statement of Russia official Zakhar Prilepin on the annexation of the territory of Uzbekistan, Kun.uz reports.

At the meeting, it was stressed that such claims voiced by Russian officials do not correspond to the spirit of a comprehensive strategic partnership and alliance between the two countries.

On his part, Oleg Malginov, with full responsibility, noted that Prilepin’s statements had nothing to do with the official position of the leadership of Russia.

As the representative of the Russian Federation in Uzbekistan, the ambassador noted that "the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Uzbekistan have never been questioned in his country."

Malginov also noted that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia plans to comment on this incident soon.

Earlier Zakhar Prilepin, a Russian writer, political and military figure and the co-chairman of the ‘Spravedlivaya Rossiya – za pravdu’ party proposed joining the territory of Uzbekistan to the Russian Federation.

Armenian Foreign Minister receives CSTO Secretary General

 19:04,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on December 21 received Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Imangali Tasmagambetov.

As the foreign ministry said, during the meeting the parties discussed issues related to the CSTO activities.

The Secretary General of the CSTO  briefed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia on the results of the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council held in Minsk on November 2023 and the joint session of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers, the Council of Defense Ministers and the Committee of Secretaries of the Security Council.

According to the source, during the meeting, Ararat Mirzoyan and Imangali Tasmagambetov  exchanged views on the situation in the region, as well as projects aimed at the development of transport and economic interconnectivity, including the "Crossroads of Peace" concept developed by the Armenian government.

Statement on Significance of the Armenian Quarter in East Jerusalem

               Dec 12 2023


December 12, 2023 The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention is deeply concerned by threats to the integrity of the Armenian Quarter in East Jerusalem. We call on the United States and other close allies of Israel to take it upon themselves to guarantee the Armenian community due process in this land dispute. The global Armenian community has already lost one important historical land this fall — Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), which was forcibly depopulated when Azerbaijan invaded, massacred Armenians, and terrorized almost the entire Armenian population into fleeing. The Armenian people cannot lose another.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention is deeply concerned by threats to the integrity of the Armenian Quarter in East Jerusalem. We call on the United States and other close allies of Israel to take it upon themselves to guarantee the Armenian community due process in this land dispute. The global Armenian community has already lost one important historical land this fall — Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), which was forcibly depopulated when Azerbaijan invaded, massacred Armenians, and terrorized almost the entire Armenian population into fleeing. The Armenian people cannot lose another.

The Armenian Quarter makes up about one-sixth of the city of Jerusalem. It is 1,600 years old, dating back to the reign of Roman Emperor Constantine. The first settlement of Armenians in Jerusalem predates Constantine even, with Armenians having settled in Jerusalem as early as the first century BCE when the Armenian Empire controlled nearby territories in Syria. Although the Armenian population in Jerusalem today is very small, the Armenian Quarter remains an important part of the Armenian Diaspora presence as
the oldest remaining living diaspora of Armenians. The Quarter houses a diocese of the Armenian Apostolic
Church.

In July 2021, the Armenian Patriarchate signed an agreement to lease a significant plot of land (called the “Cow’s Garden”) to Australian developer Danny Rubenstein for 98 years at a low annual rent of a few hundred thousand dollars per year. Rubenstein planned to build a luxury hotel on the site, necessitating the destruction of many of the existing buildings. The deal came as a shock to the local community, the greater Armenian Diaspora, and Palestinian authorities, the latter of which felt as if the deal encroached on their own sovereignty. It also raised eyebrows due to its asymmetric rewards.

In response to this opposition, the Patriarchate announced on November 1, 2023, that it would be canceling
the deal. However, Danny Rubenstein’s company, XANA, has refused the Patriarchate’s cancellation. It has brought bulldozers to the site and is beginning construction in the Cow’s Garden area.

Local Armenians have responded to the destruction of Cow’s Garden with peaceful protests in the form of public gatherings and a sit-in where construction had begun. Israeli police and civilians have met these protests with violence, using dogs and firearms to intimidate the peaceful protestors. Danny Rubenstein and George Warwar, Chairman and Director of XANA International, appear to be using force and intimidation to deter the Armenian community from attempting to protect its land.

The cultural heritage of the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem must be safeguarded from the developers and the armed settlers who are enabling them, ostensibly with the aim of creating a homogenized Jewish ethnostate in Palestinian territories. We stand with the Armenian community as they continue to resist the
development of this land through peaceful demonstrations and by refusing to leave the premises. The Armenian community has already lost one significant historical community in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh this year. It must not lose another.

https://www.lemkininstitute.com/statements-new-page/statement-on-significance-of-the-armenian-quarter-in-east-jerusalem 

Greek and Armenian defence ministers sign military agreement in Athens

The Greek Herald
Dec 15 2023
Greece’s Minister of National Defence, Nikos Dendias met with his Armenian counterpart, Suren Papikyan, in Athens on Thursday, 14 December to discuss military cooperation.

According to Ekathimerini, Dendias highlighted that importance of the meeting during a moment of increased tensions, citing the events in the Caucasus, Ukraine, and the Middle East as contributing to the region’s numerous areas of instability.

Dendias also stressed that signing the military cooperation agreement with Armenia would enhance Greece’s military sector, alongside helping to protect Armenia’s territorial integrity.

“We advocate for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all states, firmly opposing any attempt to forcibly redraw borders…we stand by the Armenian people,” Dendias said in the meeting.

Papikyan concurred with the Dendias’ statements, urging the importance of “bilateral military cooperation” and “mutual support” between the two countries.

Source: Ekathimerini

RFE/RL Armenian Service – 12/13/2023

                                        Wednesday, 


Gyumri Mayor Rules Out Resignation

        • Satenik Kaghzvantsian

Armenia - Gyumri Mayor Vardges Samsonian chairs a session of the city council, 
.


The mayor of Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri made clear on Wednesday 
that he will not resign following the collapse of his bloc’s coalition 
arrangement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party.

“It’s the residents of our city that gave us the mandate and only they can take 
it away,” Vardges Samsonian told reporters.

Civil Contract unexpectedly announced on December 6 the end of the power-sharing 
deal struck two years ago following a municipal election in which a bloc linked 
to the city’s longtime former mayor, Samvel Balasanian, garnered most votes but 
fell short of a majority in the local council. Civil Contract finished second in 
what was a serious setback for Pashinian.

Gyumri’s new municipal council appointed Samsonian, who is affiliated with the 
Balasanian Bloc, as mayor and two Civil Contract figures as deputy mayors. More 
than three dozen other members of Pashinian’s party were also given posts in the 
municipal administration. All those officials have stepped down since December 6.

The ruling party has blamed its exit from the local coalition on “shadowy 
governance” on the part of the Balasanian Bloc. But it has still not elaborated 
on the claims which the Gyumri mayor’s political team denied in a carefully 
worded statement issued earlier this week.

Civil Contract members attacked their former coalition partner on Wednesday 
during a tense session of the 33-member local council. But they again announced 
no plans to try oust Samsonian through a vote of no confidence.

Pashinian’s party controls only 11 council seats, compared with 14 seats held by 
the Balasanian Bloc. The eight other councilors represent three opposition 
groups. Two of those groups have explicitly ruled out any cooperation with Civil 
Contract.

They tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday to force a debate on the discord between 
the Balasanian Bloc and Armenia’s ruling party. The latter opposed such a 
discussion.

Despite not facing an imminent no-confidence vote, Samsonian will have trouble 
pushing key decisions, notably the local budget, through the Gyumri council. So 
far the mayor has signaled no plans to try to regain a majority there by teaming 
up with local oppositionists.




EU’s Michel Vows Continued Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Efforts

        • Heghine Buniatian
        • Rikard Jozwiak

Belgium - EU Council President Charles Michel is interviewed by RFE/RL, 
Brussels, December 12, 2023.


The European Union’s top official, Charles Michel, has said that the EU keeps 
“working very hard” to help Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiate a comprehensive 
peace agreement.

“We are determined on the EU side to work with the partners and with them to 
ensure that as soon as possible a peace treaty will be signed between both 
sides,” Michel told RFE/RL in an interview.

In that regard, the president of the EU’s decision-making Council was encouraged 
by last week’s Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement to exchange prisoners reached as a 
result of direct negotiations.

“I would like to say that if it was possible for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make 
some joint announcements a few days ago, this is partially because we help 
them,” he said. “We encourage them. We suggested some options and some ideas to 
bring them closer to each other on the topics that have been announced. And we 
are still working on additional steps to encourage a peace treaty, a 
normalization agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

Michel was scheduled to host Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in October for further talks on the treaty. 
However, Aliyev cancelled the talks. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun 
Bayramov likewise withdrew from a meeting with his Armenian counterpart slated 
for November 20 in Washington.

Michel declined to comment on Baku’s moves. “We are still working on a meeting 
that could take place in Brussels,” he said without giving potential dates.

Michel would also not say whether the EU or other world powers are ready to act 
as guarantors of Yerevan’s and Baku’s compliance with the would-be peace treaty. 
Nor did he clarify whether the treaty will likely make any reference to the 
rights and security of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population that fled to 
Armenia following Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive.

He pointedly declined to use the word “Karabakh,” referring instead to “this 
part of Azerbaijan” until recently populated by an ethnic minority.

“We think that they [Karabakh Armenians] should have the right to return or at 
least to be able to visit this part of Azerbaijan and their security and rights 
must be guaranteed and there are international standards in terms of protection 
of the minorities that must be respected in line with the constitution of 
Azerbaijan, which should be a framework to guarantee those protections of 
minorities,” he said.

Brussels is therefore trying to “convince the Azerbaijani authorities to 
demonstrate that … they want to protect the minorities and to guarantee that the 
international standards are respected,” added Michel.

Even before their mass exodus triggered by the Azerbaijani offensive, Karabakh’s 
leaders and ordinary residents made clear that they will not live under 
Azerbaijani rule. Only a few dozen Karabakh Armenians are believed to remain in 
the territory recaptured by Baku. More than 100,000 others fled their homes 
later in September.




Armenian, Azeri Prisoners Exchanged

        • Artak Khulian

Azerbaijan - Azerbaijani officers escort Armenian POWs to the Armenian border, 
.


Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged over three dozen prisoners on Wednesday one 
week after reaching an agreement to that effect welcomed by the international 
community.

In line with that agreement, Azerbaijan freed 32 Armenian soldiers and civilians 
in exchange for Armenia’s release of two Azerbaijani servicemen. The swap took 
place at the border between the two countries.

As part of the deal, Yerevan also dropped its objections to Baku’s bid to host 
the COP29 climate summit next year. The United Nations officially announced 
Azerbaijan as the summit host on Monday.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian posted the list of the freed Armenians on his 
Facebook page. He said that they will undergo medical examinations before 
reuniting with their families.

Most of them were taken prisoner in Nagorno-Karabakh in December 2020 just weeks 
after a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the last Armenian-Azerbaijani war.

Also repatriated was Gagik Voskanian, an Armenian army reservist who was 
mobilized a few weeks before straying into Azerbaijani territory in August this 
year in unclear circumstances. An Azerbaijani court convicted Voskanian of 
“terrorism” just hours before the announcement of the prisoner swap.

“Up until the last minute we were not sure [about Voskanian’s release] because 
we feared that the Azerbaijanis could do something at the last minute,” his 
mother, Ashkhen Avetisian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “So it really was a 
surprise, a big surprise.”

According to Yerevan-based human rights activists, 23 Armenians remain in 
Azerbaijani captivity after the latest swap. They include eight current and 
former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh arrested following Azerbaijan’s September 
military offensive in the region.

The Azerbaijani soldiers set free by Yerevan were detained in April after 
crossing into Armenia’s Syunik province from Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. 
One of them, Huseyn Akhundov, was charged with murdering a Syunik resident the 
day before his detention. Armenia’s Court of Appeals sentenced him to life 
imprisonment last week.

The 56-year-old murder victim, Hayrapet Meliksetian worked as a security guard 
at a waste disposal facility of Armenia’s largest mining company. Meliksetian ‘s 
daughter has reportedly condemned Pashinian for agreeing to Akhundov’s release.

The United States, the European Union and Russia were quick to welcome the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani deal on the prisoner swap. EU Council President Charles 
Michel called it a “major breakthrough in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations.”




Yerevan Urges Baku To Resume Western-Mediated Talks

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (right) meets his Estonian 
counterpart Margus Tsahkna, Yerevan, .


Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Wednesday urged Azerbaijan to agree to 
restart peace talks with Armenia mediated by the United States and the European 
Union.

“I think that Azerbaijan should return to the negotiation table in the format of 
meetings. We have already said that most of the job has been done, and now we 
need to meet and agree on the final wording of key issues,” he said, referring 
to a peace treaty discussed by Baku and Yerevan.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev twice cancelled talks with Armenian Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian which the European Union planned to host in October. 
The peace accord was due to be their main focus.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov similarly withdrew from a November 
20 meeting with Mirzoyan that was due to take place in Washington. Baku accused 
the Western powers of pro-Armenian bias and proposed direct negotiations with 
Yerevan.

Bayramov reiterated that offer on Monday when he spoke during a meeting in 
Brussels of the foreign ministers of EU member states and several former Soviet 
republics. He did not hold talks with Mirzoyan on the sidelines of the meeting.

Mirzoyan indicated on Wednesday that Yerevan still prefers Western mediation of 
the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiation process.

“Our negotiations in the last two or three years have been bilateral and 
facilitated by international actors. We believe that we should carry on like 
this,” he told a joint news conference with Estonia’s visiting Foreign Minister 
Margus Tsahkna.

“Like I said, most of the job has been done, and if we return and continue with 
the same mechanisms we will succeed in quickly achieving results. The missing 
component … that would complete the whole process and bring it to a logical end 
is the political will of Azerbaijan’s leadership which may and may not be 
demonstrated,” added Mirzoyan.

Baku cancelled the Washington meeting in protest against what it called 
pro-Armenian statements made by James O’Brien, the U.S. assistant secretary of 
state for Europe and Eurasia. O’Brien met with Aliyev and Bayramov in Baku last 
week. He said he told them that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “looks 
forward to hosting foreign ministers Bayramov and Mirzoyan in Washington soon.” 
No agreement on the talks has been announced so far.

Armenian officials suggested earlier this year that Aliyev is reluctant to sign 
the kind of peace deal that would preclude Azerbaijani territorial claims to 
Armenia. The Azerbaijani leader claimed late last month that Yerevan itself is 
“artificially dragging out the process.”


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

 

Pashinyan: Armenia ready to restore railway link with Azerbaijan

Panorama
Armenia – Dec 14 2023

Armenia is ready to restore the railway communication with Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday.

“The first is the northern route, which connects Azerbaijan’s Kazakh region with Armenia’s Tavush Province. The second is the southern route linking the western regions of Azerbaijan to the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic," Pashinyan said, addressing the ministerial meeting of the Landlocked Developing Countries held in Yerevan.

"We believe that Azerbaijan's western regions can be connected with the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic and the outside world also through the northern route,” he added. 

The premier said that highways can have northern, middle and southern routes, which will open up new opportunities for the region.

Armenia receives $2.9 million grant to support teachers in providing psycho-social support to displaced children from NK

 15:35, 8 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The World Bank announced today that Armenia has been selected to receive a new grant from the State and Peacebuilding Umbrella Trust Fund to support the mental health and wellbeing of displaced children and adolescents from Nagorno-Karabakh region in over 200 schools across the country. The grant will finance an upcoming project to be implemented jointly by the World Bank and the Teach for Armenia Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, the Republican Pedagogical-Psychological Center, and the Armenian State Pedagogical University, World Bank said in a press release. 

The $2.9 million grant will support the social integration of displaced children and adolescents into Armenian schools, and capacity building and mentoring of school staff to deliver tailored mental health and psychosocial support to displaced children and adolescents, their families, and students from the hosting communities.

It will provide technical assistance to design a comprehensive approach for the integration of displaced children and adolescents into the education system along with a specialized mental health and psychosocial support program through a combination of change-based learning, engagement with local communities, and robust monitoring and evaluation systems in schools. The grant will also support integrating the provision of mental health and psychosocial support into the new curriculum.

The State and Peacebuilding Umbrella Trust Fund (SPF) is a global multi-donor fund administered by the World Bank that works with partners to address the drivers and impacts of fragility, conflict, and violence and strengthen the resilience of countries and affected populations, communities, and institutions. SPF is supported by Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland.

The World Bank is currently financing 10 projects in Armenia totaling $500 million. Since its inception in Armenia in 1992, the World Bank has provided around $2.7 billion from International Development Association (IDA) to which Armenia became a donor in 2023, from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and from trust funds. The World Bank is committed to continuing its support to Armenia in its development path for ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity on a livable planet.

Armenian Christians battle developer to keep control of their corner of Jerusalem

Dec 4 2023

By 

(RNS) — Amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, another battle is playing out in Jerusalem among its small but storied Armenian Christian community, their own patriarch and an Australian-Israeli businessman who is said to be set on taking over the Armenian Quarter of the Old City. 

Last month, things escalated as Jewish settlers aided by dogs and bulldozers disrupted a long-running sit-in in a site known as the Cow’s Garden, currently a parking lot, where businessman Danny Rothman plans to build his latest hotel.

Rothman’s company, Xana Capital Group, made a secret deal in 2021 with the Armenian Christian patriarchate to lease a swath of the Armenian Quarter, including part of the Armenian Theological Seminary and several family homes. When the deal became public, the local community rebelled, a priest who oversees the church’s real estate was defrocked and Patriarch Nourhan Manougian’s leadership came under question.

“This is land that belongs to the Armenian community for centuries,” Levon Kalaydjian, a Jerusalem-born Armenian, told Religion News Service. “This does not belong to the patriarchate, nor is it for him, the patriarch, to do whatever he wants to do with it.”



Armenians have had a presence in Jerusalem since the fourth century, when Armenia became the first sovereign state to convert to Christianity. Some of Jerusalem’s Armenians trace their heritage to pilgrims who came to the holy city nearly that long ago, while others arrived from the former Ottoman Empire, fleeing the Armenian genocide in 1915 and 1916.

Today the smallest of the four divisions of Jerusalem’s Old City, the Armenian Quarter is considered separate from the larger Christian Quarter, where Palestinian Christians speak Arabic and worship in Greek Orthodox or Catholic churches.

The 2,000 or so Armenians, who speak a unique Jerusalem dialect of Armenian and belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, are represented by the Armenian Patriarchate and the monastic order of the Brotherhood of St. James, which acts as a mini-welfare state: Most Armenians live in church-owned property and work in a church or monastery. 

In Jerusalem’s tense cultural politics, the Armenians are widely considered the most peaceful demographic in the Old City, maintaining good relations with both Jewish Israelis and Arab Palestinians. That unique status has been complicated by the fact that they are sitting on one of the Holy Land’s most valuable pieces of real estate. 

“The piece of land we’re talking about is one of the most important in the city, if not in the country and the world,” said Setrag Balian, one of the founders of the current protest movement. “Striking as it might sound, it is a fact.”

The Armenian Quarter occupies the highest point in the Old City and lies along the main path from the Jaffa Gate to the Western Wall and Jewish Quarter. It is also situated on one of the few vehicle-accessible roads in the Old City. The Cow’s Garden is one of the few undeveloped spaces inside the walls.

“The Armenian community used to feed off of that land, and Armenian pilgrims used to come camp there and put up their tents and caravans,” Balian said. “Other than the cultural and historic fact that this is the Armenian Quarter, it had economic importance; our life depended on that land.

“And today, even as parking, it depends on it. In modern times, in municipalities all over the world, one of the biggest problems is the matter of parking, so this should also not be underestimated,” he added. 

It’s not the first time someone has tried to wrest control of land from the Armenian community. Enver Pasha, the Ottoman minister of war who was an architect of the Armenian Genocide, once eyed the Cow’s Garden for a summer home, while Jerusalem’s five-time mayor, Teddy Kollek, also pressed for previous patriarchs to allow construction on the land, along with numerous other potential investors. 

None was successful until the deal with Xana, signed in 2021.

The 49-year lease deal will allow Xana to build a luxury hotel complex over not only the Cow’s Garden but the patriarch’s private garden and the seminary’s main hall, where nearly all of the community’s celebrations are held, some four acres in all. The deal also gives Xana the unilateral power to renew the lease for another half century after the initial term is up, for a total of 98 years.

The return for the patriarchate is a lump-sum payment of $2 million and a yearly rent of just $300,000 — less than previous offers and a paltry sum for one of the world’s most valuable properties, leading to accusations of bribery and corruption in the agreement. 

Exacerbating the community’s concerns is the developer’s profile. Though Rothman, who also goes by Rubinstein, has been involved in tourism in Israel for decades, little is known about his company, which is based in Dubai, making inquiries about its history and holdings difficult. 

The deal also came at a time when both Christians and Muslims in the Old City and east Jerusalem are under pressure by Jewish settler groups, attempting to take control of properties for the explicit aim of ‘Judaizing’ the city.

Patriarch Manougian has claimed that the patriarchate’s real-estate manager, Baret Yeretsian, misinformed him about the deal, and he has defrocked and exiled him. Yeretsian had to be removed from the Old City under police protection in May, due to the community protests outside of the patriarchate.

In October, the patriarch canceled the deal, saying it was illegal because it had not been approved by the Synod of the Brotherhood of St. James, but only after more than two years of internal pressure from the Armenian community.

Since the cancellation, the patriarchate has put out a statement stressing the danger to the Armenian character of the quarter, and the patriarch has at times joined the protesters in the Cow’s Garden. 

“Better late than never,” Kalaydjian said.

The controversy has been compared to a 2005 scandal in the Old City, when the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem was dismissed after signing a deal to give over Christian properties in the city to the far-right Jewish settler group, Ateret Cohanim, which some saw as a concession to Israeli designs on non-Jewish sectors of Jerusalem. Yeretsian pointed out that Rothman is a secular Jew, whose investment partner is a Palestinian Greek Orthodox Christian.

But on Nov. 5 armed settler activists appeared with dogs and bulldozers demanding that construction begin on Rothman’s hotel. Balian accused Rothman and his partner of  “cheap intimidation tactics” using “settler groups that don’t even come from Jerusalem, or the Old City.”

The strategy didn’t work. “We’re a 1,700-year-old presence at least in the Old City. We are not ready to give up just at the presence of armed people or bulldozers,” Balian said.

As important are the internal politics of the Armenian community. He questioned the dismissal of Yeretsian, saying defrocking him only forfeited the patriarchate’s ability to punish him. Before the deal had been formally canceled, Balian said he rejected calls pushing for the resignation of the patriarch, as it would only set a precedent in which the patriarch can walk away from his responsibilities to the community.



Instead he believes the patriarchate, with its power and influence over the lives of Jerusalem Armenians, needs to bring in lay managers and integrate the community into its decision-making process, at least on mundane matters.

“We’re not saying that the community should decide on everything,” said Balian, “because you need that structure, you need that institution. It’s a religious institution, and we all belong to it. But let’s work together as a united front.”

In a divided Jerusalem, Balian said, what’s most important for his community is to stick together, no matter who is trying to encroach on their land. “For us, it doesn’t even matter if it’s settlers or not, or if it’s Jews or Muslims or others. Our goal is to keep that land Armenian,” Balian said. 

https://religionnews.com/2023/12/04/jerusalems-armenians-battle-patriarch-and-jewish-settlers-to-maintain-their-quarter/