Author: Maral Chavushian

UNSC to be authorized to intervene when Azerbaijan’s non-compliance with ICJ ruling becomes contentious – Kirakosyan

Maral Chavushian

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 14:08,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 27, ARMENPRESS. All requests by Armenia for provisional measures in international courts are followed by tit-for-tat requests filed by Azerbaijan, Representative of Armenia on International Legal Matters Yeghishe Kirakosyan said at a press conference. By doing so, Azerbaijan seeks to cause controversy in an attempt to diminish the impact of the requests filed by Armenia, Kirakosyan explained.

“But I can say that Azerbaijan is not succeeding. I am saying this based on concrete results. For example, the latest result, when the International Court of Justice rejected Azerbaijan’s request, while granting Armenia’s request. The decisions adopted by international organizations also prove this,” Kirakosyan said.

The United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan on February 22 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. The Lachin Corridor is blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022. 

However, the Lachin Corridor is still blocked by Azerbaijan.

Although the ICJ ruling doesn’t mention timeframes for fulfilling the order, it does clearly mention that the decision is binding, which means that a country must take action from the moment the ruling is published, Kirakosyan explained.

“Unfortunately, international law doesn’t envisage an institution dealing with enforcement of decisions. The body which has some responsibility in the direction of the fulfillment of the ICJ rulings and decisions is the UN Security Council, which will be entitled to intervene when the issue becomes contentious.  We realize that an intervention by the Security Council is complicated. Although there are many other measures to maximally gain from the legal process,” Kirakosyan said.

The Representative of Armenia on International Legal Matters noted that the Foreign Ministers of various countries, as well as the UN Secretary-General, issued statements citing the ICJ ruling after it was released.

“These are important processes, the pressure must be maximally increased in this direction. By the way, this ruling is highly important in political-legal terms. Now, it turns out that apart from the trilateral statement we also have one more international legal document which stipulates unimpeded passage along Lachin corridor or Azerbaijan’s obligation to ensure it,” Kirakosyan said.

Armenian President sends congratulatory messages to the Emir and the Crown Prince of the State of Kuwait

Maral Chavushian

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 13:05,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. The President of the Republic of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan sent congratulatory messages to the Emir of the State of Kuwait Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah and Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah on the occasion of the National Day.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the President’s Office, the message addressed to the Emir, in particular, states:

 “I believe that the dialogue between Armenia and Kuwait will continue to contribute to the development and deepening of cooperation for the benefit of our peoples.”

The message addressed to the Crown Prince reads as follows,

“Armenia attaches importance to the deepening of friendly relations with Kuwait based on mutual respect and trust.

I sincerely hope that in the near future Armenian-Kuwaiti ties will be strengthened, outlining new directions of interaction”.

“People’s rally” in support of Artsakh to take place in Isfahan, Iran

Maral Chavushian

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 16:30,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. A “people’s rally” will be held in Iran’s Isfahan in support of Artsakh and the Armenians of Artsakh who are currently blockaded by Azerbaijan.

The rally will be organized and led by Bishop Sipan Kechechian, the Prelate of the Armenian Dioscese of Isfahan.

The rally will take place at 11:00, February 24 at the Holy Saviour Cathedral in New Julfa, Isfahan, the diocese announced.

Three factions boycotted Artsakh parliament sitting on Thursday

Maral Chavushian
Panorama
Armenia – Feb 23 2023

Three opposition factions of the Artsakh National Assembly boycotted a parliament sitting on Thursday.

Before the start of the sitting, ARF MP Davit Ishkhanyan said that taking into account internal problems and challenges facing Artsakh, the three political forces held additional discussions and decided not to participate in it, the ARF Artsakh Central Committee reported.

He recalled that the three opposition political forces, the ARF, Democratic Party of Artsakh and Justice Party, issued a joint statement on the domestic political problems in Artsakh and their MPs left the sessions hall on Wednesday.

Armenpress: A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Turkey-Syria border region

Maral Chavushian

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 21:46,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 20, ARMENPRESS. A new earthquake occurred on the border between Turkey and Syria, ARMENPRESS reports, citing RIA Novosti, European seismologists reported that the magnitude of the earthquake was 6.3.

The underground tremors were registered at 21:04 Yerevan time, 9 km from the city of Antakya in Turkey and 75 km from Syrian Latakia. The epicenter of the earthquake was at a depth of 2 km. The tremors were also felt in Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus.

Armenian cultural museum reopens after years of renovation near Old City’s Damascus Gate in Jerusalem

Maral Chavushian
Milwaukee Independent
Feb 18 2023

Posted by Reporter | Feb 18, 2023


A hundred years after taking in scores of children whose parents were killed in the Armenian genocide, a 19th-century orphanage in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter has reopened its doors as a museum documenting the community’s rich, if pained, history.

The Mardigian Museum showcases Armenian culture and tells of the community’s centuries-long connection to the holy city. At the same time, it is a memorial to around 1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottoman Turks around World War I, in what many scholars consider the 20th century’s first genocide.

Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

Director Tzoghig Karakashian said the museum is meant to serve as “a passport for people to know about the Armenians” and to understand their part of Jerusalem’s history.

The museum reopened in late 2022 after a more than five-year renovation project. Before that, the building — originally a pilgrim guesthouse built in the 1850s — served as a monastery, an orphanage for children who survived the genocide, a seminary and ultimately a small museum and library.

Jerusalem is home to a community of around 6,000 Armenians, many of them descendants of people who fled the genocide. Many inhabit one of the historic Old City’s main quarters, a mostly enclosed compound abutting the 12th-century Armenian cathedral of St. James.

But the Armenians’ link to the holy city stretches back centuries, from monks and pilgrims during the late Roman Empire to Armenian queens of Crusader Jerusalem.

The museum’s centerpiece, filling the sunlit courtyard, is an exquisite 5th or 6th century mosaic adorned with exotic birds and vines discovered in 1894 on the grounds of an ancient Armenian monastery complex. It bears an inscription in Armenian dedicated to “the memorial and salvation of all Armenians whose names the Lord knows.”

For decades, the mosaic remained in a small museum near the Old City’s Damascus Gate. In 2019, the Israeli Antiquities Authority and the Armenian Patriarchate undertook the laborious task of removing the mosaic floor and transporting it across town to the newly refurbished museum.

From elaborately carved stone crosses known as “khachkars” to iconic painted tiles and priestly vestments, the museum showcases Armenian material art, while also excelling in telling the Armenian story of survival. While Jerusalem changed hands as empires rose and fell, the Armenians remained.

“Surviving means to not be seen,” said Arek Kahkedjian, a museum tour guide. “We survived without people knowing what or who we are, and today we feel ready to show you and teach about the history and heritage, about the culture, and to show you how we advance and modernize with the times.”

http://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/newswire/armenian-cultural-museum-reopens-years-renovation-near-old-citys-damascus-gate-jerusalem/


‘New tragedy’: Ex-PM warns against signing peace deal without Armenian-Azeri border delimitation

Maral Chavushian
Panorama
Armenia – Feb 17 2023

Armenia’s former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratyan has warned of dire consequences if Armenia’s leadership agrees to sign a peace deal with Azerbaijan without delimitation and demarcation of the border between the two countries.

“The signing of a peace treaty without border delimitation would amount to a new national tragedy. It would untie Azerbaijan’s hands to launch fresh aggression against Armenia,” he wrote on Facebook on Thursday, referring to the latest statements of Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the peace agreement.

“Moreover, Armenia will have to forget forever about the lands in Vardenis, Jermuk and Sisian, as well as the Goris-Kapan-Chakaten roadway it lost in 2020-2022.

“Azerbaijan will take control over the enclaves it has laid claims to and will close the currently operational Yerevan-Meghri highway. Artsakh will cease to exist within a few months if the peace treaty includes no clause about its status,” the former PM charged.

Commerce Secretary Raimondo urged to block U.S. rifle sale to Azerbaijan

Maral Chavushian
Panorama
Armenia – Feb 15 2023

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) national and Rhode Island affiliate called on Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to oppose any consideration of granting a license to permit the export of rifles to Azerbaijan, ANCA reported on Wednesday.

In a February 13th letter, ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian and the local ANC chair from Secretary Raimondo’s home state of Rhode Island, Steve Elmasian, explained, “As you know, from your long friendship with Americans of Armenian heritage in Rhode Island and across the United States, our community is deeply troubled by the U.S. military aid program to Baku, and even more shocked by the possibility that American offensive weaponry may be deployed against Armenians in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and Armenia. The victims of Azerbaijan’s attacks are, very often, the relatives and friends of Armenian American citizens.”

News of a possible sale of U.S. rifles – including assault-style and semi-automatic sniper models – to Azerbaijan broke on February 1st when Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Robert Menendez (D-NJ) announced his “deep concern and strong opposition” to the effort.

In a letter to Secretary Raimondo, Sen. Menendez explained that Azerbaijani atrocities against Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and Armenia are well documented, citing the September 2022 attack on sovereign Armenian territory and the now two-month blockade of Artsakh, which has left the 120,000 indigenous Armenian population without sufficient food, medicine, and rolling gas stoppages in freezing conditions. Sen. Menendez also highlighted Azerbaijan’s ongoing extrajudicial killings, torture, and unlawful treatment of Armenians following the 2020 Artsakh war, as documented in the State Department’s 2021 Country Report on Human Rights.

“The export of weapons to an authoritarian country that wages war against a neighbor, blockades a vulnerable population, and commits rampant human rights violations at home is not consistent with the Administration’s commitment to democracy and human rights,” Sen. Menendez stated. “Further, the consideration of this export license further compounds my dismay that the Administration continues to allow the export of assault-style and sniper rifles abroad – even while supporting an assault-style rifle ban domestically – and deepens my reservations about the Department of Commerce having jurisdiction over such exports,” concluded Senator Menendez.

As Rhode Island general treasurer and later governor, Secretary Raimondo worked closely with the ANC of Rhode Island and the state’s Armenian American community, attending community events and taking a principled position condemning the Armenian Genocide.

During the 2017 Armenian Genocide commemoration, then-Governor Raimondo remarked, “We come together today as a community to remind ourselves of the Genocide and of the atrocities; and also to provide comfort to members of the community who are still struggling with loss and painful memories; but, probably most important, to commit ourselves to the cause of peace and tolerance and diversity – so that it never happens again. And I think now, if you look around at what’s happening in the world, and even in this country, it’s very troubling – it is deeply troubling – when I see, sometimes in this state, expressions of religious intolerance and racism. And as your Governor, I want you to know there is no place for that in Rhode Island. And I reaffirm to you our core value of diversity, of religious freedom, and of tolerance here in Rhode Island. […] Today, we stand shoulder to shoulder to remind ourselves of the Genocide and to recommit ourselves – and remember, every time you hear an _expression_ of hatred, of intolerance, of racism or religious discrimination – don’t be silent, speak out.”

In her 2018 gubernatorial proclamation on the “Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide,” Governor Raimondo wrote, “we must do our best to raise awareness about the Armenian Genocide, not only because it is an undeniable chapter of world history, but also because learning more about this unconscionable tragedy will help us better understand the necessity of eliminating hatred from our own.”

Vayots Dzor Governor, Chinese Ambassador discuss possibility of creating center for teaching Chinese in province

Maral Chavushian

 

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 16:58,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 27, ARMENPRESS. Governor of Vayots Dzor Ararat Grigoryan received on August 26 Ambassador of China to Armenia Fan Yong, the Office of the Governor said. 

During the meeting Governor Grigoryan said that Vayots Dzor province has always highly appreciated the inter-state relations that have good traditions of mutual partnership between the two friendly peoples, trying to contribute to strengthening this friendship within the frames of decentralized cooperation. 

In his remarks the Chinese Ambassador said that all basis of cooperation have been created thanks to the productive diplomatic relations of 30 years, and with joint efforts it will be possible to achieve the implementation of the goals set before the sides.

The priority directions of the province’s economy, the current economic situation and development trends with the focus on winemaking and tourism sectors were presented at the meeting. The sides also considered the possibility of creating a center of teaching Chinese in the province.

The guests visited Areni wine factory to get acquainted with the rich history of winemaking. They also visited the Bird Cave where they were introduced on the world’s ancient winemaking complex.

The Chinese delegation also visited Noravank monastery. 

At the end of the meeting both sides expressed confidence that they will manage to further strengthen the friendly ties between Armenia and China for the welfare of the two nations.

Deputy Minister of Finance, President and Head of International Cooperation Department of the SRC to leave for Indonesia

Maral Chavushian

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 19:04,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. By the decision of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Deputy Minister of Finance Arman Poghosyan, Chairman of the State Revenue Committee Rustam Badasyan and Head of the International Cooperation Department of the State Revenue Committee Harutyun Azgaldyan will pay a working visit to the Republic of Indonesia (Bali) from August 29 to September 3 to participate in a high-level meeting  “Supporting recovery through increased tax transparency”, ARMENPRESS was informed from e-gov.am website.

The Prime Minister instructed the Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia to submit the report on the results of the mission to the Republic of Indonesia within three days after returning from the business trip to the staff of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.