17:13,
YEREVAN, 26 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 26 June, USD exchange rate down by 0.55 drams to 386.55 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.79 drams to 421.49 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.02 drams to 4.59 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 1.00 drams to 491.31 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 98.41 drams to 23994.49 drams. Silver price down by 3.88 drams to 277.64 drams.
Kapidani is cataloguing any documents that he can find about his ancestors. “We’ve collected documents and testimonies from the elders, aiming to reconstruct their trip by land and sea,” Kapidani told BIRN.
Back in the 1870s, Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the most culturally diverse parts of the Balkans, was mired in a multisided conflict.
As the Ottoman Empire began to disintegrate, both the Russian and Austrian Empires competed to replace it in the Balkans, along with Serbia, Greece and other local actors.
After the Ottomans were defeated by the Russian Empire in the 1877-78 war, the Great Powers intervened to decide what would be done with several parts of the Balkans.
Legend has it that a group of Bosnian Muslims from the Mostar area in Bosnia decided to emigrate to other parts of the Ottoman Empire, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire took over control of Bosnia.
Kapidani says many took ship for what today is European Turkey, an area where millions of Muslims of various ethnicities settled after emigrating from various former Ottoman lands in the Balkans.
But their ship suffered an engine failure and was obliged to land in Durres instead.
Kapidani says an army officer from Bosnia stationed in Durres urged the immigrants to settle there, instead of going further south in a hazardous journey on the Ionian and Aegean seas.
They settled in a hilly area around the town of Shijak and saw it as very similar to their previous home. For them, the nearby Erzen river substituted for the river Neretva flowing through Mostar in Bosnia.
Locals referred to the arrivals as “muhaxhire”, a Turkish word for “emigrants”. However, relations were good and no conflicts arose. The Albanian state granted them the status of minority in 2017.
Kapidani says the community paid for the lands they settled while learning to communicate in Albanian. “But at home we continued to speak our mother tongue, nashke language,” Kapidani said.
About 80 per cent of the Bosniak community in Albania lives in just two villages, Boraka and Koxhasi. A welcoming placard in Boraka hails visitors in Albanian, English and their own ancestral language: Dobro Dosli! it reads, or, “Welcome!”
Kapidani says the community built a watermill while the tomatoes they planted were later known as “Koxhasi”. They also danced in the old way, in order to preserve their heritage. “They opened the first restaurant in Shijak,” Kapidani notes.
Their entrepreneurial spirit, however, was stifled during Albania’s harsh 45-year-long Communist dictatorship, when private economic activity was more or less banned.
They restarted these activities after the Communist regime fell in 1992. One restaurant along the highway connecting Tirana with Durres is named “Sarajevo”, after the Bosnian capital. Another one is simply called “Bosna”.
Since 1995, they have also formed an association, named “Zambak” – or “Nymphaea”, after a much-loved aquatic plant that grows on the Neretva river mouth back in Bosnia.
Kapidani says the community integrated well with the local population, and marriages with locals were common. However, his parents had another story.
“My father, Ali, went back to Počitelj [a village] near Mostar to seek his future wife from a well-known family in the area. The new couple came back here and raised us with all the difficulties of that era.”
As the Second World War closed, Albania and Yugoslavia, of which Bosnia was now part, became friends for a short period, but then, bitter enemies. The border was closed.
“I still curse the dictatorship each time I remember how my mother passed away without having the chance to met any of her brothers or relatives that remained back in Bosnia,” Kapidani said.
Bosnian families weren’t the only group of foreigners to settle in Durres during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.
Today, near the Municipality of Durres’ central offices, a series of steps on the hillside, built more than a hundred years ago, are still known to locals as “The stairs of the Armenian”.
“The reason for this is simple,” explains Agop Bodikian, a descendant of one of the several families of Armenian origin who settled in Durres.
“My grandfather and his children started a business nearby, so the locals referred to the steps in that way,” he told BIRN.
Millions of Armenians were scattered all over the vast Ottoman Empire, with the largest communities in eastern Anatolia. Some came to Albania while serving in the Ottoman Army. Others came after the notorious genocide perpetrated against them by the Ottoman authorities during World War One [which Turkey denies].
“My forefathers went to Bulgaria hoping to rescue their family members but didn’t manage to find them,” Agop told BIRN, recounting a story passed on by his parents.
Armenian families settled in Durres, Tirana, Elbasan, Korca, Shkodra and Berat.
“Our ancestors, families such as Bodikian, Ballxhian and Zacharian, felt good in Durres,” says Agop, who bears his grandfather’s name and manages the properties built up by his family in 1930s, which included one of the cinemas of that time, which is now closed.
“Our grandfathers started with small stalls at the port entrance but managed to grow the business and later opened shops on the main street,” he added.
The Armenians fared well in Albanian society as tradesmen. However, they are perhaps best known for their contribution to the country’s arts and literature.
In the 1980s, Anisa Markarian, captured the nation’s imagination as a teen actress in a state-produced movie. Her success in the arts was preceded by that of Haig Zacharian, a composer who wrote the music for dozens of movies, songs and symphonic orchestras.
Haig told BIRN that his parents, Lusi and Agop, tried to preserve their traditions and Christian religion and passed them on to their children even under Communism, when a ban on all religion effectively undermined their culture.
“They read a lot and knew several languages and that is how I remember them,” says Haig, who named his son Kyd, which means “wise one” in the Armenian language.
Meanwhile, Anisa Markarian became a doctor after her stint as an actor and now lives in France.
Last year, she became a bestselling author in Albania through her book in which memories of the Armenian Genocide and the life of their community in Albania come alive.
She recounts how her family feared they would lose their heritage when Albania’s Communist authorities started a campaign against “religious names”, which included a list of banned names for children as well as pressure on adults to change names deemed to be the result of “foreign influence”.
Agop Bodikian says that they continue to maintain their Armenian traditions by passing them on to their children the names of their forefathers.
It doesn’t matter to them how good or strange they sound. “We are proud of our heritage,” he declared.
11:23,
YEREVAN, JUNE 24, ARMENPRESS. The Russian Armed Forces received an order to neutralize the organizers of the armed munity, ARMENPRESS reports, citing TASS, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his address to the nation.
“All those who consciously took the path of treason, blackmail and prepared an armed rebellion will suffer inevitable punishment. All those guilty of attempted riots will suffer the inevitable punishment, they will answer before the law and the people,” said the Russian President.
Nathalie Loiseau, chair of the EU Parliament’s defense sub-commission, visited the entrance of Lachin Corridor on June 21
“We saw with our own eyes the complete and illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan,” Member of European Parliament says.
“Blocking the Lachin Corridor is illegal and must be stopped,” said Nathalie Loiseau, the chair of the European Parliament’s security and defense subcommittee, who is in Armenia and joined the EU’s monitoring mission in Armenia on Wednesday visited the Lachin Corridor entrance.
“We approached the entrance to Lachin Corridor and saw with our own eyes the complete and illegal blockade of Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan,” Loiseau exclaimed when speaking to reporters.
“We heard about the increasing number of armed incidents and the invasion of the sovereign territory of Armenia. We learned about the incident in Yeraskh, where civilians were targeted. We also learned about the incident at the entrance to Lachin Corridor, where Azerbaijanis tried to raise a flag,” Loiseau added after her tour of the region with the EU monitors. She was referring to an incident on June 15 when Azerbaijani forces attempted to breach Armenia’s border and plant a flag there.
Nathalie Loiseau during a press conference in Yerevan on June 21
“I would like to send a strong message,” she emphasized. “As much as Armenia is devoted to peace, Azerbaijan is obliged to present evidence that it is also devoted to peace. The European Union is making efforts to facilitate the contacts between the leaderships of Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
“We wanted to make sure and assess the situation ourselves and also see how the European Union’s civilian mission, which has been operating along the border for four months, is working,” the EU parliament member said. “Today we were in Goris, where we met with the governor of Syunik, the head of the community of Goris, residents of Nagorno-Karabakh located in Armenia and talked with them about the 44-day war and the blocking of the Lachin corridor.”
Loiseau said that the European Union is making efforts to reduce tension and the presence of the EU mission in Armenia should contribute to reducing those tension.
“The time has come for a lasting peace to be established. I want to reaffirm the position of the European Parliament: the blocking of the Lachin corridor is illegal and must be stopped,” she said.
“The rights and well-being of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh must be protected and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia must be respected. I will take this message with me to Brussels, I will testify about what we saw and heard while in Armenia,” Loiseau added.
She also called on European ambassadors accredited in Baku to refrain from accepting any invitation from the Azerbaijani government to an illegally located checkpoint, and remain “faithful to the terms of the ruling of the International Court of Justice,”
Loiseau also said that the European Parliament fully supports sending a fact-finding mission to the Lachin Corridor, adding that the matter was discussed during a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
“First, there is a decision of the International Court of Justice regarding the unblocking of the Lachin Corridor, which must be properly implemented. Second, the European Parliament fully supports the idea of sending a fact-finding mission,” said Loiseau.
“The European Parliament also welcomes the idea of an international presence in general to fully protect the rights and interests of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh,” she added.
“We are also completely in favor of a UN Security Council resolution being adopted. And the sooner, the better it will be if the members of the UN Security Council prepare a draft of such a resolution,” Loiseau said.
Earlier on Wednesday Loiseau, along with the EU’s representative to Armenia, Andrea Wikorin, joined the EU mission leader in Armenia, Markus Ritter and toured the border region, including the entrance of the Lachin Corridor.
14:07, 14 June 2023
YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS. President of Russia Vladimir Putin has appointed Mikhail Yevdokimov as the new Ambassador of Russia to Azerbaijan.
Yevdokimov is replacing Mikhail Bocharnikov.
The new ambassador has been serving at the Russian foreign ministry since 1981. He was the Director of the First Department of CIS at the Russian Foreign Ministry since 2011.
The schedule for the signing of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan appears to have again slipped, as Azerbaijan – not long ago regularly complaining about Armenian “delays” in the process – is now expressing a newfound patience for the process to take all the time it needs.
At a May 28 speech in Lachin, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said that Baku was not in a hurry to sign an agreement. “We are the stronger side, we are the ones who have a strong position at the negotiating table, we are the ones who have a strong position on the border,” he said. “Even if the peace treaty is not signed, we will live comfortably and safely.”
This was a notable change of tone from Aliyev’s usual rhetoric, which regularly featured accusations that Armenia was dragging its feet and veiled threats in case the Armenians did not step it up. Just over three weeks earlier, Aliyev had repeated that warning, arguing that delaying a final resolution of the conflict has been Armenians’ longtime practice.
“They can delay; they can use a negotiation format, which already has been established not to come to an agreement, but to make the process endless, waiting for something, waiting for a miracle, waiting for changes. And they will miss the opportunity because almost thirty years of occupation did not give them any advantage,” Aliyev said on May 3.
Two key, interrelated changes took place in between those two speeches that changed the Azerbaijani government’s approach, said Zaur Shiriyev, a Baku-based analyst for the think tank Crisis Group.
One, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won reelection, ensuring that Azerbaijan’s key international patron would remain in office for another five-year term. Second, Azerbaijan managed to erect a border post on the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Karabakh to Armenia. The post is Azerbaijan’s most concrete step yet towards reasserting its control over the territory, which it lost to Armenians in the first war between the two sides in the 1990s.
“Simply put, Baku controls the Lachin road, meaning everything is in their hands, and while it remains a priority, it seems that there is no immediate urgency to reaching a peace agreement,” Shiriyev told Eurasianet. Azerbaijan hastened the establishment of the border checkpoint in part because of uncertainty over the election’s outcome, he said.
“Had Erdogan not been elected and, hypothetically, if [main opposition candidate Kemal] Kilicdaroglu were in his place, Baku would likely have pressed for a more forceful signing of the peace agreement, considering it a non-negotiable priority,” Shiriyev said.
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan had been scheduled to meet in Washington starting on June 12, but Azerbaijan postponed the meeting because Erdogan scheduled a trip to Baku for the same time. (Turkish diplomatic tradition has it that a newly elected leader’s first foreign trip is to Northern Cyprus and the second is to Azerbaijan.)
That meeting has not been rescheduled, but a State Department spokesperson said on June 13 that “we look forward to rescheduling it as soon as we can.”
The postponement of the Washington talks notwithstanding, the pace of diplomacy between the two sides has been brisk. The two foreign ministers met for several days in Washington at the beginning of May; U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at their conclusion that “an agreement is within reach.”
Aliyev met Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Moscow on May 25 and in Chisinau on June 1, and ahead of the Moldova meeting there were some expectations that an agreement could be signed there. Asked in parliament a month ahead of the Moldova event about media reports that an agreement could be signed, Pashinyan said he would be happy for it to happen. Less than a week before that meeting, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to France said she hoped an agreement would be signed there.
In the end that meeting was short and produced no breakthrough. But the fact that negotiations are being conducted steadily and that progress is being made on an agreement has reinforced Azerbaijan’s patience, Shiriyev said.
Baku remains interested in signing a peace agreement as soon as possible, a senior Azerbaijani diplomat told Eurasianet on condition of anonymity. “Azerbaijan is interested in speedy progress” in the various tracks of negotiations including the delimitation of the mutual border, establishment of new transport routes, and the relationship between Baku and Karabakh’s Armenian population.
But, the diplomat added, Baku feels that time is on its side: “At the end of the day, in the worst-case scenario Azerbaijan could afford the luxury of keeping everything untouched as it is: lack of land connectivity from the outside to Armenia, impediments for dialogue with the Armenian community in Azerbaijan, undelimited borders, and finally a missed opportunity to sign an overwhelming peace treaty with Azerbaijan.”
The history of Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiations is littered with expectations for breakthroughs that always broke down before an agreement could be signed.
Low-level fighting has ticked up in recent weeks, and Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned in a June 13 statement that Azerbaijan might be preparing the ground for “another aggressive actions and ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
But even as the fighting continues, and the diplomatic process has downshifted, both sides are continuing to express optimism that a deal could be signed within months.
In Baku, the expectation is now that an agreement could be signed by August or September, Shiriyev said.
In Armenia, the expected date is somewhat later. Armen Grigoryan, the chair of Armenia’s National Security Council, said on June 4 that “the negotiations are being conducted very intensively. If we are able to maintain this intensity, and there is also strong assistance from the international community, then there is a possibility to reach a peace agreement at the end of the year.”
By the end of the year is a “likely” target, said Richard Giragosian, head of the Yerevan think tank Regional Studies Center.
“The outlook for the two sides to conclude a comprehensive peace treaty seems increasingly positive,” Giragosian said. “Such optimism does not include any realistic expectation for a sudden mature breakthrough and is based on a more gradual timetable, with a peace treaty likely by the end of 2023, but not sooner, despite the rhetoric.”
The EU’s foreign affairs chief speaks at the European Parliament on June 13
The European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said Azerbaijan’s checkpoint installed at the Lachin Corridor runs counter to efforts to build trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Azerbaijan’s unilateral decision to install this checkpoint completely contradicts efforts to build trust between the parties,” said Borrell, who was asked on Tuesday by a European Parliament Member Francois Xavier Bellamy about the EU inability to condemn Baku for its action, Armenpress reported.
“The Court of Justice has condemned the blockade by Azerbaijan, but this state terrorism has not led to any sanctions by the Council, and the Commission seems unable to properly condemn this very serious violation of the fundamental rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Bellamy said during a discussion in the European Parliament entitled “Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Lachin Corridor.”
“There are territories, border areas with Armenia, from where it can be seen what is happening in the Lachin Corridor, but the corridor itself is outside the jurisdiction of the mission and their area of responsibility. Now we are trying to find a solution for this specific problem,” Borrell said.
According to Borrell, the current situation in the Lachin Corridor certainly raises the concern of the international community, but the EU does not have access to the checkpoint located in the corridor, therefore it is deprived of the opportunity to carry out a full observation.
“The EU is interested in the establishment of peace in the South Caucasus, and for this purpose it implements initiatives of a humanitarian nature, as well as contributes directly to the negotiations aimed at peace. We are also involved in finding missing persons during the conflict and keeping the conflicting parties away from new clashes,” Borrell said.
In response to Bellamy’s question, Borrell said that efforts are underway to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and the parties have also expressed readiness to continue negotiations.
Borrell emphasized that a very important meeting between the French President, the German Chancellor, the President of the European Council and leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan took place in Moldova recently.
The meeting mentioned by Borrell did not result in a condemnation by EU leaders of Azerbaijan for its illegal breach of agreements and threats to the lives of Armenians in Artsakh.
Yet the EU’s foreign policy chief invoked statements made following recent meetings between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan as signs of progress.
Borrell referred to announcement by Pashinyan and Aliyev to recognize each other’s territorial integrity, as well as Pashinyan’s later remarks where he said that Armenia has accepted Artsakh as a constituent part of Azerbaijan as a signal to Azerbaijan to pay more attention to the rights and security issues of the people of Karabakh.
“We hope that the message of the Armenian side will be an incentive, pushing the negotiation process to a positive direction,” Borrell said.
The EU’s top diplomat also said that the EU mission in Armenia is part of the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but it cannot completely replace the process. The only solution, he said, is within the diplomatic sphere.
“The conflicting parties have expressed their desire to continue the negotiations, and the next meeting will be held in Brussels, from which the EU has high expectations,” Borrell said.
He noted that the socio-economic situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is quite serious, which is why the EU has implemented various initiatives in the last two years to provide humanitarian support to the local residents, explaining that 70 million euros have already been allocated for this purpose.
Borrell said that the humanitarian support was aimed at solving health problems, including providing medical equipment and providing social support to people affected by the conflict. Borrell emphasized that there is still a lot to be done in that area.
11:35,
YEREVAN, JUNE 12, ARMENPRESS. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has launched its annual assessment of the state of armaments, disarmament and international security. A key finding of SIPRI Yearbook 2023 is that the number of operational nuclear weapons started to rise as countries’ long-term force modernization and expansion plans progressed.
The nine nuclear-armed states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel—continue to modernize their nuclear arsenals and several deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2022.
Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12,512 warheads in January 2023, about 9,576 were in military stockpiles for potential use—86 more than in January 2022.
Of those, an estimated 3,844 warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft, and around 2,000—nearly all of which belonged to Russia or the USA—were kept in a state of high operational alert, meaning that they were fitted to missiles or held at airbases hosting nuclear bombers.
Russia and the USA together possess almost 90 per cent of all nuclear weapons. The sizes of their respective nuclear arsenals (i.e. useable warheads) seem to have remained relatively stable in 2022,
In addition to their useable nuclear weapons, Russia and the USA each hold more than 1,000 warheads previously retired from military service, which they are gradually dismantling.
SIPRI’s estimate of the size of China’s nuclear arsenal increased from 350 warheads in January 2022 to 410 in January 2023, and it is expected to keep growing.
‘We are drifting into one of the most dangerous periods in human history,’ says Dan Smith, SIPRI Director. ‘It is imperative that the world’s governments find ways to cooperate in order to calm geopolitical tensions, slow arms races and deal with the worsening consequences of environmental breakdown and rising world hunger.’
11:24,
YEREVAN, MAY 29, ARMENPRESS. 55,000 apartments are currently under construction in Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on May 29.
“Today, fifty five thousand apartments are in the most various stages of construction in the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinyan told lawmakers at a joint committee session for preliminary debates of the 2022 government budget report.
“I believe this to be a highly important social, economic and even political indicator. This means that people have faith and optimism in Armenia’s future, otherwise the investments of this many billions in apartment construction doesn’t have any other interpretation,” he added.
Monday,
U.S. Sanctions Another Armenian Firm
• Robert Zargarian
U.S. -- Department of Commerce sign seal emblem at headquarters building in
Washington, January12, 2019.
The United States has added an Armenian trading company to its long list of
entities accused of helping Russia evade U.S. sanctions imposed since the
Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. Department of Commerce blacklisted the company, Medisar, along with 69
Russian entities on May 19. It accused them of supporting Russia’s military and
defense industry.
Founded in 2001, Medisar is based in Yerevan. It owns a large warehouse located
there.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, a company executive, who did not want to
be identified, acknowledged that Medisar has imported chemicals and laboratory
equipment from the United States and the European Union and re-exported them to
Russia. He insisted that company has not violated any Armenian laws and that the
Armenian authorities have been aware of its operations.
Company representatives said they do not know yet the likely impact of the U.S.
sanctions on Medisar’s continued activities. It was not clear whether they will
stop doing business with Russia.
Medisar, which paid over $1 million in taxes last year, is the second
Armenian-registered entity blacklisted by the United States. The other firm,
TAKO, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC) in April.
TAKO was registered in May last year about three months after the outbreak of
the war in Ukraine. According to the Armenian state registry, it is fully owned
by a Russian national and specializes in wholesale trade in electronic and
telecommunications equipment and parts.
U.S. officials apparently pressed the Armenian government to comply with the
sanctions during a series of meetings held earlier this year.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian admitted on Monday that the issue is on the
agenda of his government’s dealings with the U.S. and the EU. He said that
despite its “strategic” relations with Russia and membership in the Russian-led
Eurasian Economic Union, Armenia “cannot afford to be placed under Western
sanctions.”
“Therefore, in our relations with Russia we will act on a scale that allows us
to avoid Western sanctions,” he said, adding that Yerevan is “in constant
communication with our Western partners.”
In a joint “compliance note” issued in March, the U.S. departments of Justice,
Treasury and Commerce said that third-party intermediaries have commonly used
China, Armenia, Turkey and Uzbekistan as “transshipment points” to Russia as
well as Belarus.
Russian-Armenian trade skyrocketed last year, with Armenian exports to Russia
nearly tripling to $2.4 billion. Goods manufactured in third countries and
re-exported from Armenia to Russia are believed to have accounted for most of
that gain.
Pashinian Defends Arrest Of Fallen Soldier’s Mother
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Protesters demand the release of Gayane Hakobian outside the prime
minister's office in Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian sought to justify on Monday the arrest of a
grief-stricken woman accused of attempting to “kidnap” his son which has sparked
street protests and widespread condemnation in Armenia.
Gayane Hakobian, whose son Zhora Martirosian was killed during the 2020 war in
Nagorno-Karabakh, was detained last Wednesday after an argument with Ashot
Pashinian. Citing the latter’s testimony, Armenia’s Investigative Committee said
that Hakobian tricked the young man into getting in her car after she ran into
him outside a court building in Yerevan.
Pashinian Jr. jumped out of the car shortly after Hakobian drove it towards the
Yerablur Military Pantheon, according to the law-enforcement agency.
Hakobian strongly denies the accusations carrying between four and eight years
in prison. Her lawyers say she simply wanted to talk to the 23-year-old.
A Yerevan court approved her pre-trial detention on Saturday, triggering an
angry demonstration attended by several dozen other parents of fallen soldiers
and hundreds of their sympathizers. The parents announced afterwards a nonstop
sit-in outside the prime minister’s office in the city’s central Republic Square.
Armenia - Protesters stand outside a court building in Yerevan during a hearing
on Gayane Hakobian's arrest, May 20, 2023.
The protest continued on Monday as Nikol Pashinian held a news conference amid
tightened security in and around the building.
The prime minister made clear that he will not tell his son to withdraw the
complaint lodged against Hakobian because they both believe that “in Armenia all
issues must be solved in a legal way.”
“If there was no crime, let them close the case,” he told a news conference. “If
there was a crime, let them finish the investigation and send the case to court
and let the court make a decision.”
Pashinian did not comment on why Hakobian has to be kept under arrest pending
the outcome of her trial.
He also declined to answer a question from the protesters which was put to him
by a reporter. They wanted to know “what you felt when ordering the arrest.”
“Gayane is not guilty and the accusation brought against her is fabricated,” one
of the protesting parents told journalists. “I consider her a political
prisoner.”
“So his son cannot be told to sit in a car so that we just talk to him and they
consider that kidnapping. But who will be held accountable for the deaths of my
and Gayane’s sons and the 5,000 other boys?” said another.
Armenia - People demonstrate in support of Gayane Hakobian, May 20, 2023.
Armenian opposition leaders and other critics of the government claim that
Pashinian ordered Hakobian’s arrest in a bid to muzzle the families of deceased
soldiers who have staged demonstrations over the past year to demand his
prosecution on war-related charges. Several female opposition parliamentarians
visited the woman in custody at the weekend.
Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian also condemned the woman’s arrest, saying
that it is an “even greater disgrace” than a recent incident during which
Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian spat at a heckler in Yerevan.
Ter-Petrosian said that the Armenian authorities are only heightening political
tensions in the country with their “impudent and short-sighted actions.”
“If things continue like this, a much sadder, if not explosive, prospect awaits
our country,” he warned in a statement.
The Armenian Apostolic Church likewise expressed “deep concern” at Hakobian’s
prosecution and called for her release from custody.
Armenian PM, Church Trade Fresh Barbs
Armenia – Catholicos Garegin II leads Easter mass at St. Gregory the Illuminator
Cathedral, Yerevan, April 9, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has accused the Armenian Apostolic Church of
meddling in politics, prompting a scathing response from the office of its
supreme head, Catholicos Garegin II.
“Nothing prevents them [the church] from setting up a party and embarking on
political activities through that party,” Pashinian said during a visit to
Armenia’s Tavush province. “That would be more honest towards voters, and they
would be on the same plane with other political rivals.”
“When the state and the church mix together there is nothing more dangerous than
that. The state must mind its own business, the church must mind its own
business,” he told a group of local schoolchildren in remarks publicized on
Saturday.
The church was quick to hit back at Pashinian, underlining its strained
relationship with the Armenian government.
“If some people want to practice ecclesiology, they can try to get admitted to
the Theological Seminary; of course, if they overcome the educational threshold
set for admission and present convincing arguments about their good health,”
said Archbishop Arshak Khachatrian, the chancellor of the church’s Mother See in
Echmiadzin.
Pashinian’s relationship with the ancient church, to which the vast majority of
Armenians belong, has increasingly deteriorated in recent years and especially
since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Garegin and other senior clergymen
joined the Armenian opposition in calling for Pashinian’s resignation following
Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war.
The Catholicos last month defended those calls and deplored the prime minister’s
statements on the Karabakh conflict condemned by the opposition as
pro-Azerbaijani.
A pro-government parliamentarian responded by accusing the Armenian Church of
interfering in political processes. She also denounced Garegin’s homily read out
during the Easter mass at Yerevan’s Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral on
April 9.
“When justice and truth cease to be the core of our undertakings and activities
in state and public life, we will continue to face manifestations of pilatism,”
Garegin told hundreds of worshippers during the mass.
Pashinian Confirms Readiness To Accept Azeri Control Of Karabakh
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during a news conference in
Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Monday gave the clearest indication yet that
he has agreed to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh through
a peace treaty currently discussed by Yerevan and Baku.
“If we and Azerbaijan correctly understand each other, Armenia recognizes
Azerbaijan’s 86,600-square-kilometer territorial integrity, assuming that
Azerbaijan recognizes Armenia’s 29,800-square-kilometer territory,” Pashinian
said, repeating statements made following his May 14 meeting with Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev.
“The 86,600 square kilometers include Nagorno-Karabakh,” he told a news
conference. “But it must also be noted that we are saying the issue of the
rights and security of Karabakh’s Armenians must be discussed in a
Baku-Stepanakert format.”
Pashinian again stressed the need for the “creation of international mechanisms”
for such talks between the Azerbaijani government and Karabakh’s leadership.
Yerevan, he explained, is specifically seeking international guarantees against
“ethnic cleansing” in the Armenian-populated region which he said is planned by
Baku.
While expressing readiness for dialogue with Baku, the authorities in
Stepanakert have repeatedly rejected any settlement that would restore
Azerbaijani control over Karabakh.
Armenia - Armenian opposition activists rally outside the border village of
Kordnidzor in support of Nagorno-Karabakh, May 20, 2023.
In a joint statement with Armenia’s leading opposition groups issued last week,
the five political parties represented in the Karabakh parliament warned
Pashinian against formally recognizing Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. They
said that such a deal would be “devoid of legal basis.”
Despite this warning, Pashinian made clear that he hopes to sign the
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty “as soon as possible.” He said that Yerevan
presented Baku with fresh proposals regarding the remaining sticking points
after marathon talks held by the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers
outside Washington earlier in May.
“We are now waiting for their reaction,” added the Armenian premier. He did not
disclose those proposals.
Pashinian and Aliyev are scheduled to meet again in Moscow on Thursday. They
will hold on June 1 another meeting in Moldova which will be attended by
European Union chief Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German
Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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