12:06, 8 May, 2021
STEPANAKERT, MAY 8, ARMENPRESS. 13 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) have been confirmed in the Republic of Artsakh in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 2,699.
174 coronavirus tests have been carried out on May 5-6, the ministry of healthcare of Artsakh said.
Currently, 16 infected patients receive treatment in hospitals.
On April 19 the vaccinations against COVID-19 have launched in Artsakh.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
11:09, 9 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 9, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Ministr of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan issued a message on Victory, Shushi Liberation and Artsakh Defense Army Formation Day.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister, the message runs as follows,
‘’Dear compatriots,
Congratulations on the 76th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. This is a great holiday that we are justifiably proud of. We have always celebrated it and we will continue to mark this day, since the Armenian people made a huge contribution to the fight against fascism in the 20th century.
We suffered huge losses in that struggle. More than 500 thousand Armenians took part in the devastating war in the armies of the Soviet Union and allied nations, in the ranks of the resistance movement. 300 thousand Armenians fell for the sake of mankind’s victory; 107 were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
All this makes us assert that together with other Soviet nations, the Armenian people played a decisive role in bringing about the Great Victory. We went a long way towards halting the destructive war and saving human civilization from the clutches of fascism.
Our military matured during the Great Patriotic War, reaching unprecedented heights and gaining high professionalism in warfare. In the years following the war, thousands of Armenians went to serve in the Soviet Army; many of them joined the top military brass. We are proud of them; we will always keep their memory alive.
Many of them survived the Soviet Union and formed the backbone of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia and the Defense Army of the Artsakh Republic. They liberated Shushi by merging with the heroic spirit of the modern-day Hayduks. Strong with the fighting spirit and the unwavering determination of the Armenian people, they had a decisive say in the struggle for Artsakh’s freedom.
Unfortunately, Shushi is not with us today. We mourn its captivity, but realize that we must celebrate the Shushi Liberation Day. It is one of the glorious chapters in Armenia’s modern history. It has been of great importance for our people. Liberated Shushi was a bulwark to ensure the security of Artsakh. At the same time, it provided preconditions for state-building efforts in Artsakh, made irreversible the fight for the right of Artsakh-based Armenians to self-determination.
We remember all those who gave their lives for the liberation of Shushi the ancient Armenian city. We bow to the memory of our martyrs who perished in the wars unleashed against the Armenian people.
Eternal glory to them!
Our pain is deep, our wounds are incurable. But we know that their sacrifice was not in vain: they fell for the defense of their homeland; they fell for the sake of freedom.
We must keep their memory alive and we must build on their noble cause. We will betray them if we fail to strengthen and develop our homeland. We will betray their memory if we fail to build a strong state to ensure the revival of Artsakh''.
Greco-Roman wrestlers will start competing Sunday at the final qualification tournament, in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Armenia's Armen Melikyan (60 kg), Karen Aslanyan (67 kg), Artur Shahinyan (87 kg), and Davit Ovasapyan (130 kg) will compete for Olympic spots.
But only the finalists in the Sofia tournament will qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
To note, Armenia’s freestyle wrestlers Arman Andreasyan (74 kg) and Hovhannes Mkhitaryan (86 kg) already have competed in Sofia, but they could not qualify for the Olympics.
19:56, 4 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 4, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, Armen Sarkissian, received today executive director of the Fund Haykak Arshamyan, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.
Mr. Arshamyan introduced the President on the ongoing programs and the upcoming activities.
President Sarkissian touched upon his recent working visit to Syunik province and the problems voiced by the locals. He highlighted implementing programs aimed at satisfying the living, socio-economic needs of the communities, the locals, as well as the Fund’s possible engagement to that programs.
Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, has called on both Australia and Israel to recognise the Armenian Genocide of a century ago, the Australian Jewish News (AJN) has reported. “It is our moral duty as Jews and as supporters of Israel to be tellers of truth in matters such as these,” he said.
Mr Leibler’s comments come amidst a raft of calls from the Australian-Jewish community for Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to recognise as genocide the massacre of Armenians and other Christians by the Ottoman Empire.
An AJN editorial published 30 April 2021 stated, “The world recognises the tragedy and horrors of the Holocaust, as it should. But many nations – including Australia and Israel – have stopped short of officially recognising the Armenian genocide.”
Armenian Christians walking to their deaths in the genocide. Syria. 1915
The editorial adds, “One of the reasons we commemorate the Holocaust is to ensure such horrors never happen again – not just to Jews, but to anybody. We cannot insist the world remembers what happened to our people without insisting it also recognises what happened to others.”
Between 1893 and 1923, some 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Ottoman Empire in a policy of extermination of Christian minorities. In addition some 2.25 million Assyrian, Greek and Syriac Christians were also killed within Ottoman territories between 1914 and 1923, making a total of 3.75 million Christians killed.
The increased calls by the Australian-Jewish and Australian-Armenian communities for recognition began even before United States President Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to officially recognise the slaughter in a statement released to coincide with Armenian Remembrance Day on 24 April.
We must “speak out and shine a light”, says Jewish leader
Days earlier, on 20 April, a plenum of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD) pledged its full support for a call by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) that all nations and governments “recognise the reality of these genocides”.
Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of the ECAJ, told the meeting that it was important to “speak out and shine a light … because silence is a form of complicity – the longer it goes on, the more these sorts of atrocities proliferate”.
Speaking later to the AJN, he added, “The mass killings of Armenians [and Assyrians and Greeks] by Ottoman forces was not merely a random by-product of World War One – it was officially ordered, organised and systematic. The evidence produced by historians is overwhelming.”
He labelled threats of retaliation by Turkey to nations including Australia “if they dare to acknowledge the genocide” as “not the behaviour of a government that is confident it has truth on its side”.
During the plenum, JBOD CEO Vic Alhadeff revealed he had received a letter from the Turkish Consulate-General in Sydney days earlier, which expressed “deep disappointment and sorrow” about the plenum’s agenda, and even included a claim that “challenged the definition of genocide”.
Genocide of Christians “swept under the carpet”
Jewish Australian MP Julian Lesser was one of the first MPs to sign the Joint Justice Alliance’s 2020 Memorandum of Understanding that calls on the Australian government to recognise the genocide against the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian people. In a video message screened at the plenum, he said that the slaughter witnessed by journalists and foreign officials had been swept under the carpet.
“As Jews, we have a particular responsibility to call this out – the first genocide of the 20th century – because it is to be remembered that the man that orchestrated the greatest genocide, against our people – Adolf Hitler – justified his actions by saying, and I quote: ‘Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’”
MP Joe Burns, whose maternal grandmother arrived in Australia as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, told AJN, “The time for justice is now.” He welcomed Biden’s recognition, adding, “They’ve acknowledged true history and shown global leadership.”
Assyrian-Australian activist and lawyer Suzy David – who has many extended family members who are generational survivors of the genocide – thanked Australian Jewry for its vital support.
Addressing the plenum, she said, “By urging Australia to formally recognise this genocide, I extend, by pleading with our Jewish brothers and sisters, to endorse this demand – not only upon Australia, but also upon the State of Israel.”
The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) has also called on Prime Minister Morrison to recognise the slaughter.
Armenian Genocide “one of the greatest crimes against humanity”
In an open letter, it urges Morrison to uphold his beliefs expressed in a speech to Parliament in May 2011, when he stated, “Today, as a member of this House, I join others in this place, and in parliaments around the world, to place on record that I believe the Armenian Genocide was one of the greatest crimes against humanity … it is important that we recognise the Armenian Genocide for what it was.”
The committee said this is in stark contrast to Morrison’s most recent statements as Prime Minister, which have excluded the use of the word genocide.
Barnabas Fund is running a petition calling on the governments of Australia, New Zealand and the UK to officially recognise the Armenian Genocide. Among the countries that officially recognise the Armenian Genocide are the USA, Chile, France, Germany and Russia. To sign our petition go to barnabasfund.org/armenian-genocide/
Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund, who wrote to President Biden in February 2021 urging him to officially recognise the genocide, also wrote to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in March asking the UK government to recognise the Armenian Genocide.
Artsakh foreign ministry issues statement on 30th anniversary of operation ‘Ring’
10:10,
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 30, ARMENPRESS. The ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Artsakh has released a statement today on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the operation ‘Koltso’ (Ring), the ministry told Armenpress.
The statement says:
“30 years ago, on April 30, 1991, the Azerbaijani authorities launched the operation ‘Koltso’ (Ring), which can rightfully be called one of the bloodiest and most inhuman operations on the deportation of peoples from their historical lands.
As a result of the operation, in the course of which tanks, combat helicopters and artillery were employed against civilians for the first time, hundreds of Armenian villages in Northern Artsakh, as well as Shahumyan, Hadrut and Shoushi regions were devastated and destroyed, tens of thousands of people were deported, hundreds were killed and taken hostages. The fate of many of them remains unknown so far.
The operation ‘Koltso’ became yet another manifestation of Azerbaijan's genocidal policy and the continuation of a series of Armenian pogroms and ethnic cleansing committed in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad and other Armenian-populated cities and regions of Azerbaijan, as well as in the settlements of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region and Northern Artsakh in 1988-1991.
The operation ‘Koltso’ transferred the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict to a military plane and led to the subsequent full-scale aggression of Azerbaijan against the Republic of Artsakh, which continues up today.
The war crimes and gross violations of international humanitarian law committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces during the operation ‘Koltso’, the 4-day war in April 2016 and the 44-day war in the fall of 2020 imposed on Artsakh by Azerbaijan with the support of Turkey and the participation of mercenaries from various terrorist groups testify that indifference and impunity for crimes against humanity lead to their recurrence”.
U.S. President Joe Biden is reportedly considering an extraordinary break with his predecessors by officially recognising the Armenian genocide of 1915 perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire.
According to U.S. officials speaking to the New York Times, Biden is expected to make the announcement on April 24, the 106th anniversary of the start of events known in Armenian as the Meds Yeghern (Great Disaster).
There is still no guarantee that Biden will acknowledge the genocide as official U.S. policy, but in the run-up to April 24 he has received vocal bipartisan support for the move from the U.S. Congress. The U.S. legislative branch has historically taken a more assertive stance on the issue, formally recognising the genocide, and passing repeated motions calling on the executive to do the same.
U.S. presidents have traditionally resisted these calls for fear of alienating Turkey, whose government continues to reject accusations that it bears any responsibility for events prior to the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has already warned Biden that recognition would harm bilateral relations at a time when ties are already strained.
Speaking to an Ahval podcast, Salpi Ghazarian, director of the Institute of Armenian Studies at the University of Southern California (USC), said it would be “hugely welcome” and “gratifying” if Biden flipped the script on decades of U.S foreign policy in formally recognising the genocide,
However, she cautioned against placing too much stead on the symbolism, rather than what follows it.
“At the end of the day, how much of an effect this has on American foreign policy and Turkey’s actions are what we have to see,”
Ghazarian, an Armenian-American with family members who survived the genocide, said that too often the process of designating a genocide has more to do with political considerations than the facts of the matter.
Contrary to the Turkish government’s insistence that the question is unsettled, there is a widespread scholarly consensus on the events of 1915. But Ghazarian said debates in Washington had for too long been a “political football” depending on the state of U.S.-Turkey relations.
Biden has made a point committing his administration to a more ethical foreign policy and now has the chance to reaffirm this position, according to Ghazarian.
“Human rights have to continue to remain on the foreign policy agenda,” she said.
“This is important because if the U.S. and other powers today in the world are able to consistently say ‘human rights matter’, it would send a message of consistency in American foreign policy’s capacity to prevent these abuses.”
The current moment provides a potentially unique opportunity. There has been a steady drift in recent years between Turkey and the United States over a range of issues, including the latter’s faltering commitment to human right and the rule of law.
The growing gap between the NATO allies has undermined traditionally assiduous efforts by Ankara’s diplomatic corps and well-paid cadre of Washington lobbyists to nurture a belief that recognition of the Armenian genocide would not be worth the damage to the so-called “strategic partnership”.
Ghazarian dismissed these threats and pointed to the example of France, which formally recognised the genocide in 2001, becoming the first major European nation to do so. Ten years later, France went further, criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide, a move Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed as “Turkophobia”. Turkey subsequently went as far as banning French military ships and planes from entering its territory. The countries remain regional rivals but maintain strong trading partners and appear to be seeking a diplomatic detente.
Likewise, the United States, Ghazarian insisted, is too important for Turkey to fully alienate.
“Turkey may make a lot of noise, but Turkey needs the United States relationship,” she said.
The real concern for Ghazarian was the potential backlash in Turkish domestic politics. Faced with a wakening economy, Erdoğan has been looking for means to hold together his electoral base of conservative Islamists and nationalists.
Armenians in Turkey were targeted by Turkish nationalists during last year’s clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, and the community remains fearful of future reprisals.
“I worry about what nationalist sentiments that the (Turkish) government might foment internally will mean for Armenians in Turkey who already with a great deal of insecurity, and knowing full well no one has their back,” Ghazarian said.
However, Ghazarian said she still sees U.S. recognition as a welcome development for Armenia and its global diaspora by signalling Washington is “no longer missing in action” when human rights are violated, a message with the potential to transcend particular contexts.
“Even though I am speaking of Armenia, this is something that the world needs to know,” she said. “It is that right does make might and that authoritarians do not have the right to get away with violence against their citizens.”
Asia Times [Russia seeks Pakistan's support for its Afghan peace initiative but US and Turkey may beat Moscow to the geopolitical punch] By Salman Rafi Sheikh April 13, 2021 When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov landed this month in Pakistan, marking Moscow’s first high-level ministerial visit to Islamabad in nearly a decade, the diplomat’s presence was laden with geopolitical intrigue. While Lavrov’s overt mission was to court Pakistan’s support for Russia’s new bid to promote a political settlement in war-torn Afghanistan, his unspoken agenda focused on indications the US will delay its avowed withdrawal from the war-torn nation. Lavrov arrived in Islamabad with a bag of promises ranging from possible defense, energy and infrastructure development cooperation. While the offers were warmly received by Pakistan, the two sides are still far from developing any type of strategic partnership. Whether Pakistan will support a Russia-sponsored political settlement in Afghanistan, one that no doubt will aim to leave little to no space for the US is still unclear. The US agreed with the rebel Taliban under the previous Trump administration to withdraw all of its remaining troops from Afghanistan on May 1. In exchange, the Taliban agreed to eliminate any al Qaeda remnants it may be sheltering in the growing amount of territory it controls. Al Qaeda has in the past also operated out of Pakistan’s border regions. With the deadline for America’s withdrawal fast approaching, the US has reached out to Turkey to play a key role in the peace process, a move that likely indicates the Biden administration will, at least temporarily, renege on Trump’s troop withdrawal vow. The US is now actively seeking to leverage Turkey’s known influence on both Pakistan and Afghanistan — including Ankara’s ties to the Taliban — to clinch an agreement that allows the US to extend its military presence until a political settlement between President Ashraf Ghani’s government and the Taliban is agreed. Both Russia and China are opposed to an open-ended US military presence in Afghanistan, a country where both have grand infrastructure development designs and security concerns. Specifically, America’s military presence in Afghanistan is seen as a stumbling block for the completion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) trade and integration schemes. Chinese diplomatic officials have recently claimed in press briefings that the US is using its military and intelligence presence in Afghanistan to stir trouble in China’s far-western Xinjiang region, where as many as one million ethnic minority Uighurs have been interned in so-called “vocational” camps. Stability in Xinjiang is crucial for the BRI’s success. Of the BRI’s main six corridors, three pass through Xinjiang, including the US$60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that once completed will provide China an outlet on to the Indian Ocean via a BRI-financed port at Gwadar. With Turkey’s inclusion in the Afghanistan stakes, the possibility of greater trouble for China in Xinjiang and other Central Asian states has by some analysts’ estimation increased manifold. Turkey has recently adopted a tough approach to China’s mistreatment of Uighur Muslims, with reports in pro-government Turkish media linking the future of Turkey’s ties with China to the fate of the Muslim minority population. With Turkey already supporting jihadi elements in Syria, facilitating their relocation to Libya and even exporting some to the Nagorno-Karabakh war, Russia and China will be wary of Ankara’s involvement in Afghanistan. They both no doubt fear Turkey’s possible deployment of these Islamist militias to Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region with a view to destabilize Russia’s historically volatile underbelly and disrupt progress on China’s BRI. Accordingly, Lavrov in his discussions with his Pakistani counterpart emphasized his concern about the “rise in terrorist activities and march of ISIL in the north and east of the country.” Afghanistan is bordered by Central Asian states in its north and China on its northeast. From Russia’s and China’s perspectives, rising instability in these regions can easily spread and wreak wider regional havoc. By tapping Turkey, the US is broadening the scope of talks and adding an actor that can help negotiate a so far elusive Ghani-Taliban settlement. To be sure, Turkey does not specialize in facilitating peace settlements. What Turkey does specialize in is the art of using jihadi elements as geopolitical tools. By involving Turkey in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is bidding to extend US-Turkey cooperation in Syria to the Hindu Kush, a partnership that could convince Pakistan to support a numerically reduced but open-ended US military presence in Afghanistan. Pakistan and Turkey’s mutual support for such an objective could, in Washington’s apparent calculation, convince the Taliban to agree to such an arrangement as well. If the US sees Pakistan as a vital source of support for its long-term strategic objectives in Afghanistan, then that likely motivated Lavrov’s somewhat sudden visit to Islamabad. Both Russia and the US understand that Pakistan — because of its strong links with the Afghan Taliban — has the power to facilitate or complicate a longer-term US military stay in Afghanistan. By visiting Pakistan and offering a “blank check” of cooperation, Lavrov tried to court Pakistan into blocking any path that 1) leads to an extended US military presence in Afghanistan, and 2) allows the spread of jihadi elements to the north and northeast and further into the Caucasus and China’s Xinjiang. While Pakistan, having fought its own “war on terror” for almost 15 years, would not want to see yet another wave of jihadis coalescing next door, it has only limited room to maneuver. With its economy now largely controlled by the International Monetary Fund, any move against US interests in Afghanistan could lead the IMF to refuse to extend its bailout package. It’s a scenario Pakistan can ill-afford at a time when its economy is struggling to break out of last year’s negative growth and while Prime Minister Imran Khan’s incumbent regime faces crucial political challenges that could bring down his government. Indeed, as Pakistani officials have confirmed in the past, one significant reason why Pakistan was able to secure the IMF’s financial support during the Trump era was a promise it made to extend full possible cooperation to the US in Afghanistan to end the so-called “endless war.” With the Biden administration now “reviewing” the terms of the pact Trump signed with the Taliban in February 2020, the US may look to extend its “endless war” as a counter to China and Russia. In that great game scenario, Pakistan’s support would be crucial. At the same time, Russia sees in this strategic recalibration a potential recipe for chaos that spreads jihadis across its southern flank. Whether Lavrov made that explicit point during his visit to Islamabad is still unclear, though his unprecedented offer of bilateral cooperation across a wide range of fields hinted strongly of a much wider geopolitical agenda.
12:51, 16 April, 2021
YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. An Armenian-Georgian inter-governmental commission in charge of coordinating the construction of a new bridge at the two countries’ border held a remote meeting to approve the paperwork and other technicalities.
The 386-meter long bridge called Friendship will be built on the Debed River on the territory of the Sadakhlo-Bagratashen border crossing point.
The commission gave the official launch of the construction during the meeting.
Kristine Ghalechyan, the Armenian Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures and Co-chair of the commission, underscored the need to ensure quality and compliance with international standards in the construction, and highly appreciated the Georgian government’s efforts.
The joint Armenian-Georgian project is funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the governments of Armenia and Georgia. The contractor is the Iranian Ariana Tunnel Dam Co. Technical supervision is conducted by the South Korean Soosung Engineering Co., Ltd և Korea Consultants.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan