Author: Jagharian Tania

Armenia, Azerbaijan agree to a humanitarian ceasefire starting from October 18

Jagharian Tania

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 22:23,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan have agreed to a humanitarian truce as of October 18th, 00:00 local time, ARMENPRESS reports the Foreign Ministry of Armenia announced.

”This decision was taken following the statement of the Presidents of the French Republic, the Russian Federation and the United States of America, representing the Co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, of 1 October 2020, the Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group of 5 October, and in line with Moscow Statement of 10 October 2020’’.

On October 10 the sides had again reached an agreement on humanitarian ceasefire, but the Azerbaijani side never respected the agreement, starting to violate it immediately after it entered into effect.




Photo essay | Armenia rallies

Jagharian Tania
EurasiaNet.org
Oct 16 2020
Photos by Winslow Martin Oct 16, 2020

Volunteers prepare Yerevan’s Yerablur Cemetery for multiple burials a day.

Photographer Winslow Martin has been watching Armenia rally since war with neighboring Azerbaijan restarted on September 27: the mobilizations, volunteer efforts, and funerals.

Fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories – internationally recognized as belonging to Azerbaijan but populated by ethnic Armenians – is the worst since a ceasefire in 1994. By some accounts, half the civilian population has fled to Armenia.

In Yerevan and surrounding towns, families are housing the refugees as they send their own sons off to war. 

Martin, who has been photographing in Armenia for 21 years, has been impressed with the “spirit of cooperation and unity” he has seen: “food, a place to stay, dentistry, even volunteer gravediggers.”

Though in recent days “people are starting to get really scared, their determination is stronger than sorrow.”

A volunteer says goodbye to his girlfriend and grandmother during a mobilization event in Yerevan.

Veterans from previous wars review volunteers’ qualifications. These men belong to an organization called the Armenian National Army, which helps organize the mobilization. The group should not be confused with the Armed Forces of Armenia, which operate under the Defense Ministry.

In late September, a general tells volunteers that the army does not yet need them at the front lines. They have since departed. Now men in their 40s are being sent into combat.

A refugee from Nagorno-Karabakh shows a video of an explosion on his phone.

Women light candles in Etchmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian church, during a national hour of prayer on October 3.

Catholicos Karekin II, the head of Armenia’s church, offers his blessings in Etchmiadzin during a national hour of prayer on October 3.

People pray in St Sarkis Cathedral in Yerevan.

Yerablur Cemetery

Soldiers stand at attention during a funeral at Yerevan’s Yerablur Cemetery. The military cemetery holds multiple burials every day.

Two refugee boys from Karabakh are living with a family at an apple orchard in Karpy, a village near Ashtarak.

These Karabakh refugees are among 50 families being hosted at a hotel in Ashtarak. Karabakh’s de facto president, Arayik Harutyunyan, appealed to residents on October 15 to return home: “Today our homeland needs our protection more than ever before. First, you have no moral right to leave your homes, grandfathers’ graves, and your children’s future unprotected,” Civilnet quoted Harutyunyan as saying. “Come back before it’s too late, because your actions will be assessed by the people and by history.”

A refugee sorts through clothing donations in the Massis town hall.

At the Astghik Medical Center in Yerevan a woman donates blood for soldiers.

A family in Yerevan celebrates the matriarch’s birthday. In the foreground her daughter speaks about her son on the frontlines.

A military marching band performs during funeral services for fallen servicemen at Yerablur Cemetery.

 

Winslow Martin is a photographer based in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Florida Armenians protest in West Palm Beach

Jagharian Tania
WPTV (NBC), FL
Oct 11 2020
 
 

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida Armenians gathered to protest in downtown West Palm Beach on Saturday.

There is currently a temporary cease-fire in place between Armenia and Azerbajian.

The two sides have been fighting over a disputed region for the past two weeks.

The BBC reports more than 300 people have died in the latest fighting.

 

Azerbaijani, Armenian top diplomats sign joint document after talks in Moscow – Lavrov

Jagharian Tania
TASS, Russia
Oct 10 2020
A ceasefire agreement in Nagorno-Karabakh starting on October 10 has been reached after trilateral consultations in Moscow

MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. A ceasefire agreement in Nagorno-Karabakh starting on 12:00 on October 10 has been reached after trilateral consultations in Moscow between foreign ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday.

“A ceasefire is declared to begin on October 10 at 12:00 with the humanitarian aim of exchanging prisoners of war and other captured persons as well as to exchange bodies of victims with the facilitation of the International Committee of the Red Cross and in line with its regulations,” Lavrov stated early on Saturday citing a joint statement, signed by the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“Detailed parameters of the ceasefire regime will be agreed upon in the near future,” the Russian minister stated citing the signed document.

The document also states that Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to begin practical talks with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group representatives on the peace settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The Republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia, with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and based on the principles of conflict settlements, begin practical negotiations with the main task of reaching the peace settlement as soon as possible,” the statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry reads.

“All involved parties have confirmed their adherence to the invariability of the negotiating process,” the statement added.

Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to begin practical talks with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group representatives on the peace settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh, a joint statement, adopted by the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, said.

The Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers – Sergey Lavrov, Jeyhun Bayramov and Zohrab Mnatsakanyan correspondingly – held talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement for more than 10 hours. Their meeting started at 16.30 Moscow time and Foreign Minister Lavrov appeared to journalists to read out provisions from the adopted statement late after 2:00 a.m. on Saturday.

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians.

Heavy fighting continues between Armenia and Azerbaijan despite ceasefire talks

Jagharian Tania
FOX News – Los ANgeles
Oct 3 2020
Published 1 hour ago
World
Associated Press

Armenia and Azerbaijan said heavy fighting is continuing in their conflict over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh also known as Artsakh.

Azerbaijan’s president said late Saturday that his troops had taken a village.

Fighting that started Sept. 27 is some of the the worst to afflict Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas since the end in 1994 of a war that left the region in Azerbaijan under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces.

Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Shushan Stepanian said intensive fighting was “taking place place along the entire front line” on Saturday and that Armenian forces had shot down three planes.

Officials in Armenia said the capital city of Artsakh, Stepanakert, was under heavy attack Saturday by Azerbaijan. 

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Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied any planes being shot down and said Armenian personnel had shelled civilian territory. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said his country’s army ”raised the flag” in the village of Madagiz.

Nagorno-Karabakh officials have said more than 150 servicemen on their side have been killed so far. Azerbaijani authorities haven’t given details on their military casualties but said 19 civilians were killed and 55 more wounded.

Vahram Poghosyan, a spokesman for Nagorno-Karabakh president’s, claimed Saturday on Facebook that intelligence data showed some 3,000 Azerbaijanis have died in the fighting, but did not give details.

Nagorno-Karabakh was a designated autonomous region within Azerbaijan during the Soviet era. It claimed independence from Azerbaijan in 1991, about three months before the Soviet Union’s collapse. A full-scale war that broke out in 1992 killed an estimated 30,000 people.

By the time the war ended in 1994, Armenian forces not only held Nagorno-Karabakh itself but substantial areas outside the territory’s formal borders, including Madagiz, the village Azerbaijan claimed to have taken Saturday.

LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 30: Protest by the Armenian Youth Federation outside the Azerbaijani Consulate General against Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia and Artsakh on Wednesday, September 30, 2020 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Keith Birmingham

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RELATED: Thousands gather in West LA to protest Azeri aggression, attacks on Armenia

Several United Nations Security Council resolutions have called for withdrawal from those areas, which the Armenian forces have disregarded.

Families run to buses for their evacuation to Yerevan after increasing the azeri shelling over the city of Stepanakert during the conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, on October 3, 2020. (Photo by Celestino Arce/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Aliyev said in a television interview the Armenians must withdraw from those areas before the latest fighting can stop.

In the interview with Al Jazeera, a transcript of which was distributed Saturday by the presidential press office, Aliyev criticized the so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has tried to mediate a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

One reason behind the current fighting is that “the mediators do not insist or exert pressure to start implementing the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council,” he said.

“We have no time to wait another 30 years. The conflict must be resolved now.” Aliyev said.

Armenia has repeatedly claimed over the past week that Turkey sent Syrian fighters to Azerbaijan and that the Turkish military is aiding Azerbaijan’s.

“Turkey and Azerbaijan are pursuing not only military-political goals,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Saturday in an address to his nation. “Their goal is Armenia, their goal is continuation of the genocide of Armenians.”

Some 1.5 million Armenians died in mass killings in Ottoman Turkey beginning in 1915, which Armenia and many other countries have labeled a genocide. Turkey firmly rejects that term, contends the total number of victims is inflated and says the deaths were the consequence of civil war.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry released a statement Saturday alleging that thousands of ethnic Armenians from abroad were being deployed or recruited to fight for Armenia.

“Armenia and Armenian disapora organizations bear international legal liability for organizing these terrorist activities,” the statement said.

___

Associated Press writers Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, and Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

Pashinyan confirmed ‘secret talks’ with Azerbaijani leader

Jagharian Tania
Tert.am, Armenia
Sept 25 2020
Pashinyan confirmed ‘secret talks’ with Azerbaijani leader
With his statement made at the meeting with the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) parliament speaker in Yerevan, Nikol Pashinyan practically confirmed that he is in secret negotiations with the Azerbaijani leader, political analyst Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan said on Facebook today, commenting on the remarks voiced by the prime minister.

“Nikol Pashinyan actually confirmed the reports released by the Azerbaijani media since yesterday that there are secret talks between him and [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev. [He reaffirmed] that he asked for Aliyev’s help in the domestic political campaign in Armenia …

“That man stated plainly that the Azerbaijanis expose ‘confidential information’. And then he recommended that the Azerbaijani colleagues abandon the scenario because ‘once we enter into that domain,  I am afraid the domestic political situation in Azerbaijan will deteriorate dramatically.’

“Do you see now what Pashinyan is afraid of? Lest the situation in Azerbaijan should deteriorate dramatically …” reads the statement on his public profile.



Warsaw Stock Exchange intends to acquire 65% of Armenia Securities Exchange

Jagharian Tania
ArmBanks, Armenia
Sept 18 2020

18.09.2020 18:18

YEREVAN, September 18. /ARKA/. The  Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW) Management Board and the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) signed today  a term sheet concerning negotiations to purchase 65% majority interest in the Armenia Securities Exchange (AMX) by GPW, the regulator reported.

It said the agreement is not binding. The final terms of the acquisition will depend among others on results of due diligence and necessary corporate approvals.

“The relations established between GPW and the Central Bank of Armenia spell good news for both parties of the agreement. Many sectors of Armenia’s economy are looking for quality investments so the country has a huge growth potential. Investments are a driver of economic growth, especially in the emerging markets. In my opinion, GPW’s acquisition of AMX would put the Armenian capital market on fast track to growth while the Warsaw Stock Exchange could make satisfying returns on the investment. It is relevant, as well, that Poland is promoting emerging markets. This is a good direction,” said Jacek Sasin, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Assets.

The term sheet signed by GPW and CBA defines the framework conditions of further negotiations aiming at a potential investment agreement. In the next step, GPW will carry out a due diligence, draft a five-year development plan for the Armenia Securities Exchange in partnership with CBA and AMX, and define the final terms of the investment agreement, which may be different from the framework conditions.

“GPW is a stable and steadily growing company at the heart of Poland’s capital market and the leader of the CEE stock exchange industry. I am certain that the extensive experience and competences gained by the Warsaw Stock Exchange in the last 30 years will ensure a close and fruitful relationship with Armenia’s financial market,” said Dominik Kaczmarski, Head of Analysis and Reporting Department at Poland’s Ministry of State Assets, President of the Warsaw Stock Exchange Supervisory Board.

As a part of its analyses preceding the execution of the term sheet, GPW has defined a list of more than a dozen potential strategic projects geared at long-term development of the Armenia Securities Exchange. The key areas of development include the implementation of innovative solutions based on state-of-the-art technology, the organisation of trade in commodities, support for dual listing of GPW and AMX issuers, and the provision of a modern trading platform.

“We can see many areas where we could advance the development of Armenia’s capital market. The primary areas include digitisation and process automation, which are now the key pillars of stock exchanges in developed economies. Potential acquisition of AMX would help us expand our services and step up the implementation of the strategy #GPW2022. On the other hand, it would open the GPW Group’s know-how to the Armenia Securities Exchange,” pointed out Marek Dietl, President of the GPW Management Board.

The AMX Group’s consolidated revenue stood at PLN 6.4 million (USD 1.71 million), EBITDA at PLN 2.0 million (USD 0.53 million), and net profit at PLN 1.3 million (USD 0.35 million) in 2019. The AMX Group’s total assets stood at PLN 6.5 million (USD 1.73 million) as at 31 December 2019. The preliminary non-binding estimated valuation of 100% of AMX equity is equal to the company’s book value as at 30 June 2020, i.e., approx. PLN 5.8 million (USD 1.6 million). The potential purchase price of interest in AMX to be paid by GPW will be confirmed after the completion of the due diligence.

“We are glad to have reached an agreement on the base framework of our future cooperation with the Warsaw Stock Exchange. This mutually beneficial deal is of a long-term strategic importance to both sides and we are also glad to state that we see the WSE as the partner sharing our vision for future development of capital markets. WSE leadership in this venture provides an opportunity for bringing their experience and know-how and transform AMX into a robust, innovative and convenient platform, serving as gateway for investors to new markets. This will also lead to fulfilling our joint aspirations for regional expansion,” said Martin Galstyan, the Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia.

The core business of the AMX Group is to organise trade in financial instruments and to operate a clearing house and a settlement institution for transactions in financial instruments in Armenia. The company has its seat in the Armenian capital city Yerevan. The Central Bank of Armenia holds 85% of AMX. The remaining 15% are AMX’s treasury shares. Under the memorandum, CBA will raise its stake to 90% and GPW will subsequently buy 65% of AMX from CBA. After the deal, CBA will hold 25% of AMX and the remaining 10% will be acquired by a third party to be named by GPW. -0-

CivilNet: Lebanese Armenians Became the Target of Azerbaijani Attacks

Jagharian Tania
CIVILNET.AM

11:18

In a statement, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh Masis Mayilian said that Lebanese Armenians families who have resettled in Nagorno Karabakh were an unacceptable target of Azerbaijani Attacks. 

“We consider it inadmissible for the victims of the Beirut humanitarian catastrophe to become the target of attacks and political manipulations by the Azerbaijani authorities.

The comments come in the wake of a recent complaint of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry submitted to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen, in which an attempt was made to present the decision of several Lebanese Armenian families to settle in Artsakh as a violation of international humanitarian law.

“The authorities of the Artsakh Republic are interested in the preservation of the Armenian community in Lebanon, but at the same time, within the framework of their sovereign right, we will provide the necessary support to our compatriots in a difficult situation, who will wish to come and settle in our republic,” Mayilian said.

Artsakh has joined the global effort to assist the Lebanese Armenian community since the August 4 blast in Beirut, which has left hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.  More than 1300 Lebanese-Armenians have flown to Armenia and Karabakh since early September, 850 intend to stay long-term, according to the Armenian High Commissioner of Diaspora  Affairs Zareh Sinanyan. Several more Lebanese-Armenian families have moved to Nagorno-Karabakh, according to the President Arayik Harutyunyan. 

COVID-19: Armenia re-opens schools

Jagharian Tania

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 09:32,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Schools are gradually re-opening after the COVID-19 shutdown in Armenia as first-graders had their first classes September 14. All other grades will resume schools from tomorrow.

Children are being screened for fever and have their hands sanitized before entering the school.

Coronavirus guidelines issued by the government require children and teachers to wear face masks, and minimize close contacts. The movement of the children inside the school is also restricted as a precaution.

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan