Author: Markos Nalchajian

The Worldwide Movement for Human Rights (FIDH) has studied comprehensively both Armenian and Azerbaijan sources and, based on the figures and facts confirmed by both sides, has publishes a situation note denouncing the violations of international humanitarian and human rights law during the April clashes along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact.

“Whereas some of the human losses reported might have occurred as a result of failure to take precautionary measures and assess the effects of the attack towards the civilian population, at least three elderly civilians, residents of Talish village in Nagorno-Karabakh were reportedly killed deliberately and their bodies mutilated when the Azerbaijani troops entered and took control over the village16. Ears of the above-mentioned three civilians were cut off,” FIDH said.

It reminded that “the killing of civilians is prohibited both in the Geneva Conventions and as a norm of customary international humanitarian law.”

“Arbitrary deprivation of life and murder of civilians are prohibited under international human rights law and this prohibition is non-derogatory and therefore applicable at all times. On 4 April 2016, it was reported that Azerbaijani forces decapitated a soldier from the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh of Yezidi origin, Kyaram Sloyan, who had been killed in combat. The video and pictures of his severed head later appeared on social networks. Soldiers and civilians were shown as holding up his head as a military trophy and a sign of victorious act. Later, reports appeared about two other beheaded soldiers of the army of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh. In all three cases families later lodged an application before the European Court of Human Rights,” FIDH said.

FIDH quotes Nagorno-Karabakh Ombudsman as saying that Kyaram Sloyan’s head was returned and buried next to the soldier’s body while no action was taken by the Azerbaijani authorities with respect to returning the heads of the two other soldiers. “Additionally to being absolutely prohibited by national and international law, such inhumane treatment reinforces the inter-ethnic hatred and contributes to further conflict escalation. On April 8, 9, 1020, and 2021, 2016 the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) facilitated a handover between the sides, of the bodies of those killed in combat along the Line of Contact. According to information provided by the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, bodies of at least 18 soldiers of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh were transferred to Armenian side. There were reports that the bodies were handed over mutilated. For the time being, there is no possibility to confirm the reports of mutilation by an independent source, neither is it possible to affirm independently whether they were subjected to torture when alive. The Azerbaijani media reported similar crimes by the Armenian forces referring to the refusal of the Armenian side to return a slain body of an Azerbaijani soldier. It was not possible to independently verify these reports, neither was this information publicly confirmed by the ICRC. Non-verified and non-reliable information actively spread during the military conflict feeds the escalation and is a further show of the urgent need for an independent international monitoring and investigation,” the report reads.

If accurate and confirmed, these reports amount to war crimes. Torture, ill-treatment and mutilation of the dead is strictly prohibited under both conventional and customary international humanitarian law. FIDH urges both sides to impartially investigate these allegations, to bring those responsible to justice and to cooperate with international mediators ensuring the handover of soldiers’ bodies to their families. FIDH calls on all parties to the conflict to:

• Respect and apply the provisions of the international humanitarian law and human rights law; · Ensure full respect to the right to life and security of people affected by the conflict;
• Hold accountable those responsible for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and fight impunity;
• Respect the 1994 ceasefire, refrain from using force, not promote the use of force, and end the arms race in the region;
• Refrain from promoting hate and war propaganda;
• Accept an independent fact-finding mission into the conflict zone and provide the members of the mission with full access to places and persons affected by the conflict.

FIDH urges Azerbaijan and Armenia to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

FIDH calls on Azerbaijan to ratify two Additional Protocols (1977) to the Geneva Convention (1949).

Read the situation note .

– A stray bullet has killed 16-year-old Syrian-Armenian Krikor Minasian in Aleppo on the night of July 15. Aleppo-based Armenian news outlet Kantsasar news reported that celebratory gunfire as a result of the attempted military coup in Turkey may have been the cause of the stray bullet, which fatally injured Minasian.

Minasian was laid to rest the following day, on July 16, after a funeral service in the Surp Asdvadzadzin (St. Mary) Armenian Apostolic Church in Aleppo.

Less than a week earlier, Panos Aghazarian (b. 1994), an ethnic Armenian member of the Syrian Armed Forces, was killed in military clashes in Aleppo on July 10. Two other Syrian-Armenians—Hripsimeh Chazarian and Sosi Ghazarian-Hekimian—were also injured on July 9, according to Kantsasar.

The Azerbaijani side has been operating training flights 30km away from the line of contact with NKR Armed Forces starting from 08:26 today.

The NKR Defense Ministry reports that 12 planes and 41 helicopters are involved in the training.

The NKR Air Defense forces are controlling the training flights of the Azerbaijani forces and closely following their actions through the radiolocation, shooting and monitoring systems.

Paul Pogba may stay put at Juventus despite talks about the French midfielder’s possible move to England or Spain, his agent Mino Raiola has said, Reuters reports.

The 23-year-old Pogba, who played a pivotal role in France’s run to the Euro 2016 final, has been strongly linked with a return to English Premier League club Manchester United with Champions League winners Real Madrid also eyeing him.

However, a fee touted to be around a world record 100 million pounds ($130.65 million) could see Real priced out of a move for Pogba, according to British media reports.

“There is a lot of talk about Paul’s future, but maybe he will not leave Juventus,” Raiola told The Times.

“He is in no rush to leave, and Juventus do not want him to go. They want him to renew his contract. Paul is not desperate to move. We are very happy at Juventus and they are a club that want to keep their star players.”

Pogba’s contract at Juventus runs until 2019, while Raiola has worked closely with United during the close season as he wrapped up deals for his clients, midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan and striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Photo: AP

 

Microsoft has agreed to pay a Californian woman $10,000 (£7,500) after an automatic Windows 10 update left her computer unusable.

Teri Goldstein said her Windows 7 computer had automatically tried to update itself to Windows 10 without her permission.

She said the update had made her machine unstable, leaving her unable to use it to run her business.

Microsoft said it had dropped its appeal to save on legal costs.

Microsoft has been aggressively pushing the latest version of its widely used operating system, which is currently available as a free download for computers running Windows 7 and 8.

However, many people have chosen not to upgrade, because they are running old hardware, have software that does not run on Windows 10, are concerned over the software’s tracking features, or simply do not want it.

–  On the morning of  Saturday 25th of June during his homily at an open air Holy Mass in the north eastern Armenian city of Gyumri badly hit in 1988 by a massive earthquake Pope Francis highlighted the figure of St. Gregory of Narek. These are his exact words:

“All the same, we might ask ourselves: how can we become merciful, with all the faults and failings that we see within ourselves and all about us?  I would like to appeal to one concrete example, a great herald of divine mercy, one to whom I wished to draw greater attention by making him a Doctor of the Universal Church: Saint Gregory of Narek, word and voice of Armenia.  It is hard to find his equal in the ability to plumb the depths of misery lodged in the human heart.  Yet he always balanced human weakness with God’s mercy, lifting up a heartfelt and tearful prayer of trust in the Lord who is “giver of gifts, root of goodness… voice of consolation, news of comfort, joyful impulse… unparalleled compassion, inexhaustible mercy… the kiss of salvation” (Book of Lamentations, 3, 1).  He was certain that “the light of God’s mercy is never clouded by the shadow of indignation” (ibid., 16, 1).  Gregory of Narek is a master of life, for he teaches us that the most important thing is to recognize that we are in need of mercy.  Despite our own failings and the injuries done to us, we must not become self-centred but open our hearts in sincerity and trust to the Lord, to “the God who is ever near, loving and good” [ibid., 17, 2), “filled with love for mankind … a fire consuming the chaff of sin (ibid., 16, 2).

In the words of Saint Gregory, I would like now to invoke God’s mercy and his gift of unfailing love: Holy Spirit, “powerful protector, intercessor and peace-maker, we lift up our prayers to you…  Grant us the grace to support one another in charity and good works…  Spirit of sweetness, compassion, loving kindness and mercy…  You who are mercy itself… Have mercy on us, Lord our God, in accordance with your great mercy” (Hymn of Pentecost).

All the same, we might ask ourselves: how can we become merciful, with all the faults and failings that we see within ourselves and all about us?  I would like to appeal to one concrete example, a great herald of divine mercy, one to whom I wished to draw greater attention by making him a Doctor of the Universal Church: Saint Gregory of Narek, word and voice of Armenia.  It is hard to find his equal in the ability to plumb the depths of misery lodged in the human heart.  Yet he always balanced human weakness with God’s mercy, lifting up a heartfelt and tearful prayer of trust in the Lord who is “giver of gifts, root of goodness… voice of consolation, news of comfort, joyful impulse… unparalleled compassion, inexhaustible mercy… the kiss of salvation” (Book of Lamentations, 3, 1).  He was certain that “the light of God’s mercy is never clouded by the shadow of indignation” (ibid., 16, 1).  Gregory of Narek is a master of life, for he teaches us that the most important thing is to recognize that we are in need of mercy.  Despite our own failings and the injuries done to us, we must not become self-centred but open our hearts in sincerity and trust to the Lord, to “the God who is ever near, loving and good” [ibid., 17, 2), “filled with love for mankind … a fire consuming the chaff of sin (ibid., 16, 2).

In the words of Saint Gregory, I would like now to invoke God’s mercy and his gift of unfailing love: Holy Spirit, “powerful protector, intercessor and peace-maker, we lift up our prayers to you…  Grant us the grace to support one another in charity and good works…  Spirit of sweetness, compassion, loving kindness and mercy…  You who are mercy itself… Have mercy on us, Lord our God, in accordance with your great mercy” (Hymn of Pentecost).”

To afford a little background already on the 12th of April 2015 Pope Francis had highlighted the figure of this 10th century Armenian monk St Gregory of Narek proclaiming him Doctor of the Church. Please find below a selection of the Popes words relating to St Gregory of Narek on this occasion which coincided with the 100th anniversary of ‘Metz Yeghern’:

“Today is a propitious occasion for us to pray together, as we proclaim Saint Gregory of Narek a Doctor of the Church. I wish to express my deep gratitude for the presence here today of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, and His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, Patriarch of Cilicia of Armenian Catholics.

Saint Gregory of Narek, a monk of the tenth century, knew how to express the sentiments of your people more than anyone. He gave voice to the cry, which became a prayer, of a sinful and sorrowful humanity, oppressed by the anguish of its powerlessness, but illuminated by the splendour of God’s love and open to the hope of his salvific intervention, which is capable of transforming all things. “Through his strength I wait with certain expectation believing with unwavering hope that… I shall be saved by the Lord’s mighty hand and… that I will see the Lord himself in his mercy and compassion and receive the legacy of heaven” (Saint Gregory of Narek, Book of Lamentations, XII)”….

And again further on in this message Pope Francis referring to the sorrowful anniversary of the ‘Metz Yeghern’ goes on to say:

“May this sorrowful anniversary become for all an occasion of humble and sincere reflection, and may every heart be open to forgiveness, which is the source of peace and renewed hope. Saint Gregory of Narek, an extraordinary interpreter of the human soul, offers words which are prophetic for us: “I willingly blame myself with myriad accounts of all the incurable sins, from our first forefather through the end of his generations in all eternity, I charge myself with all these voluntarily” (Book of Lamentations, LXXII). How striking is his sense of universal solidarity! How small we feel before the greatness of his invocations: “Remember, [Lord,]… those of the human race who are our enemies as well, and for their benefit accord them pardon and mercy… Do not destroy those who persecute me, but reform them, root out the vile ways of this world, and plant the good in me and them” (ibid., LXXXIII).”

Pope Francis travels to Armenia June 24-26 in the footsteps of John Paul II who came here in 2001. Ahead of the visit the Vatican Radio remembers an earlier pope connected in a special way to this nation, to its darkest chapter.

By Veronica Scarisbrick

He’s Benedict XV elected to the See of Peter in 1914, so Roman Pontiff at the time of the Great War. And as historian Professor John Pollard, in his book ‘Benedict XV and the Pursuit of Peace’ writes:

“The Vatican’s relations with the Ottoman Government in Istanbul, had not been good for a long time, but they deteriorated further during the course of the war, due to the Turk’s treatment of Christian populations in their empire and most particularly, the massacre of the Armenians, who were considered disloyal. In April and  May 1915 a campaign of what would now be called ‘ethnic cleansing’ was launched against the Christian, mainly Armenian, populations of Anatolia. In July the Apostolic delegate in Constantinople, Monsignor Dolci was instructed to protest against the massacres; the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary were also asked to bring pressure to bear on their ally to stop the killings, and Benedict himself sent an autograph letter on the 10th of September to the Sultan who in his role as Caliph of Islam, was like the Pope a world- wide religious leader. By the end of the war it was estimated that over a million Armenians had died, either killed outright by the Turks or as a result of maltreatment by starvation”.

For the record on March 12, 1918 Pope Benedict XV sent a second letter to Sultan Muhammad V. But while his diplomatic endeavors may have fallen on deaf ears his humanitarian efforts in assisting Armenian refugees did not it seems. According to the Jesuit magazine ‘La Civiltà Cattolica’ at the time the Holy See: “mobilized a continual flow of financial aid and supplies in an era when there were no other international humanitarian organizations beyond the Red Cross and the Near East relief.” Significantly too, at the time Benedict XV opened the doors of his summer residence, the Apostolic Palace of Castelgandolfo, to young orphaned refugees from Armenia.

Proof of this is that on Saturday 25th of June when Pope Francis pays tribute to the fallen at the ‘Tzitzernakaberd’ Memorial complex dedicated to the fallen during the massacres of the Armenian population under the Ottoman Empire, which the people of this nation refer to as the ‘Medz Yeghern’ (Great Evil), he’ll be meeting with ten descendants of these same Armenian refugees. In the very place Armenians travel to in great numbers each year as Fr John Barker who heads the tiny Anglican community in Armenia tells Philippa Hitchen.

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed today the third review of Armenia’s performance under a three-year arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The completion enables the release of SDR 15.65 million (about US$22.01 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 50.87 million (about US$71.53 million). The extended arrangement for SDR 82.21 million (about US$115.60 million) was approved on March 7, 2014.

In completing the review, the Executive Board also approved the authorities’ request for waiver of non-observance of the end of December 2015 fiscal deficit performance criterion (PC), modification of the end-June 2016 fiscal deficit and budgetary domestic lending PCs, as well as shift from a net domestic assets (NDA) PC to monetary policy consultation clause (as of end-June 2016).

Following the Executive Board’s discussion on Armenia, Mr. Mitsuhiro Furusawa, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, said:

“Despite difficult external conditions, program performance has been broadly satisfactory, with most targets met. The weak global and regional conditions have, through lower commodity prices and remittances, contributed to declining domestic demand. Moreover, bank credit growth and inflation have been negative. Nevertheless, real GDP growth has held up moderately, primarily due to export-related supply-side factors in mining and agriculture. Monetary conditions have stabilized and pressures in the FX market have diminished.

“The authorities remain committed to fiscal consolidation and debt sustainability, along with a greater focus on revenue gains to protect and increase capital and social spending. The new tax code (recently submitted to the national assembly) provides a major opportunity to broaden the tax base by reducing exemptions and addressing gaps and thereby supporting both consolidation and increases in growth-enhancing spending.

“The central bank’s actions have helped ensure orderly market conditions and financial stability. Going forward, exchange rate policy will continue to limit intervention and sustain buffers. Further normalization of the monetary conditions will help bring inflation closer to the target and support a resumption of bank lending, while the use of macro- and micro-prudential regulations and further strengthening of the crisis preparedness framework will help maintain orderly financial markets conditions.

“Pursuing further structural reforms to enhance competition, competitiveness, and regional and global integration remains critical to reduce vulnerabilities and support medium-term growth. Ensuring that the state budget does not absorb losses or liabilities or make payments on behalf of utilities or other companies will be needed to safeguard the prudent use of the limited budgetary resources.

“The outlook remains challenging, but the risks to the program are manageable. Steadfast implementation of the agreed set of measures going forward will keep the program on track, rebuild buffers and policy space, and accelerate achieving key reform agenda objectives.”

 

 

 

Fr. Shahe Ananyan, Director of the Inter-Church Relations Department of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin met with reporters today to present the details of the Pope’s upcoming visit to Armenia.

The visit of Pope Francis to the Republic of Armenia will start on 24 June. The official welcoming ceremony will be held upon his arrival at the Zvartnots International Airport, following which the Pope will travel to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, where a welcoming service will be offered in the Mother Cathedral.

In the evening, Pope Francis will meet with President Serzh Sargsyan, of the Republic of Armenia; then with the authorities and community leaders and representatives of diplomatic missions accredited in Armenia. The first day will conclude with a meeting at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, with His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

On the morning of 25 June, His Holiness Pope Francis will visit Tsitsernakaberd, the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex and Museum in Yerevan. Pope Francis, along with His Holiness Karekin II, will visit the city of Gyumri, where a Divine Liturgy will be offered in Vardanants Square. The Pope will also visit Our Lady of Armenia Convent of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Gyumri; then the Seven Wounds St. Mary Church of the Diocese of Shirak of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church and the Holy Martyrs Armenian Catholic Cathedral. In the evening, an outdoor Ecumenical Service and Peace Prayer will be held in Yerevan – in Republic Square.

On 26 June, in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Pope Francis will meet with Armenian Catholic bishops, and then participate in a Divine Liturgy and an Ecumenical dinner, along with the Catholicos of All Armenians, the Archbishops and Bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, Armenian Catholic Archbishops and Bishops and the Papal delegation. Pope Francis will also meet delegates and benefactors of the Armenian Church. His Holiness Pope Francis and His Holiness Karekin II will sign a joint declaration.

The Spiritual leaders will offer their prayers at the Khor Virap Monastery, following which Pope Francis will depart for Rome.

 

 

 

The Bundestag will most probably adopt the resolution on the Armenian Genocide, but there are no guarantees that it will be ratified by the German Chancellor, Director of the “Arevelk” Research Center, historian Gevorg Melkonyan told reporters today.

“Armenians still demonstrate an emotional attitude towards the events of 1915. The issue here is not about the word “genocide.” What’s more important is to understand what stands behind all this. By bringing the bill to the Bundestag floor Germany acknowledges its complicity in the Armenian Genocide and commits itself to contributing to the establishment of Armenian-Turkish relations,” Gevorg Melkonyan said.

How will Armenia benefit from the adoption of the bill? According to political technologist Vigen Hakobyan, we’re wise enough to understand that Germany is not guided by pro-Armenian motives.

Hakobyan links the issue of Armenian Genocide recognition to certain geopolitical factors. “The Armenian, Kurdish and other factors are simply tools of pressure in the hands of important geopolitical circles,” he said.

According to him, Merkel’s reputation is “at stake.” Besides, the sentiments in Europe have seriously changed, the West reacts harshly to domestic developments in Turkey. Considering all of these factors, the adoption of the bill on Armenian Genocide recognition is quite probable, Vigen Hakobyan said.