Author: Talar Tumanian

United States sees ‘real opportunity’ for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make peace

Talar Tumanian

 11:56, 28 November 2023

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS. The United States sees a real opportunity for Armenia and Azerbaijan to make peace, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien has said.

“As I’ve said publicly, we see a real opportunity for Azerbaijan and Armenia to make peace. We’re encouraged that the two sides are speaking with one another directly and with mediators.  And with that, we see a real opportunity for the entire region to benefit.  For example, if trade from Central Asia is able to flow through Azerbaijan and Armenia into Türkiye, then it would be a substantial boost for all the countries on that trade route.  And we’d welcome the opportunity to be part of that. At the same time, if the decision is made not to pursue that by peaceful means, then we would have to use whatever tools we could to avoid having that kind of trade route created.  So we’ve been very clear with the parties about what we hope to see and about the consequences of moving forward otherwise.  So we’ll look forward to seeing where the parties come out.  We know they’ve expressed an interest in concluding a peace agreement very soon, and we would love to see that happen,” O’Brien said at a press briefing.

Key takeaways from Armenia’s participation in 30th OSCE Ministerial Council

Talar Tumanian

 17:02, 2 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has outlined the main takeaways from FM Ararat Mirzoyan’s participation in the 30th OSCE Ministerial Council. 

“Concluding three days at the 30th OSCE Ministerial Council from November 30 to December 1 in Skopje, North Macedonia.

Minister Mirzoyan delivered remarks at the Council, highlighting the challenges faced by the OSCE and the countries in its area of responsibility, including in the South Caucasus: violations of international law in any part of the world must be unequivocally condemned and must not be tolerated, otherwise it causes a sense of impunity, becoming the new “normal” in other parts of the world.

Minister Mirzoyan held over 20 meetings with representatives of international organizations and Foreign Ministers of other countries, including:

the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta, who assumed the OSCE Chairmanship for 2024,

the OSCE Secretary General, the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the High Representative of the EU HR/VP, the Special Representative of NATO SG, the Foreign Ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, from the EU member states France, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, as well as with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Andorra, Liechtenstein and Montenegro.

The Deputy Foreign Minister had a meeting with his Canadian counterpart.

During all meetings, the challenges faced by Armenia, the consequences of the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, as well as Armenia's vision and efforts towards establishing stability in the South Caucasus, the "Crossroads of Peace" project, and the basic principles of the normalization of relations with Azerbaijan, were presented,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ani Badalyan said in a statement on social media.

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 30-11-23

Talar Tumanian

 17:20,

YEREVAN, 30 NOVEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 30 November, USD exchange rate up by 0.15 drams to 402.65 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 2.29 drams to 439.49 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.02 drams to 4.54 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 1.50 drams to 509.03 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 285.50 drams to 26498.78 drams. Silver price up by 4.19 drams to 323.18 drams.

As Russia Relations Sour, Armenians Prepare to Defend Themselves

Talar Tumanian
Nov 28 2023
By Tom J. Bennett

SYUNIK PROVINCE, Armenia — “When I go to bed at night, I don’t think: ‘Is my phone on charge or have I brushed my teeth?’ I think: Do I know where my parents are and is my bag packed to evacuate?”

These are the nightly thoughts of Mariam, a 22-year-old teacher living in southern Armenia’s Syunik province, 10 kilometers from the border with Azerbaijan. She’s standing in the Soviet-era sports hall of Goris State University and has just finished a class on emergency first aid. Next up: Kalashnikov shooting techniques. 

Mariam is undertaking a three-month program run by VOMA, a paramilitary group that has variously been described as a survival school and a civil defense organization — or, if you’re a member of the Azerbaijani government, a terrorist group.

No matter how it is characterized, VOMA’s stated aim is a serious one: to prepare Armenian civilians to defend their country. 

The attendees here seemingly hail from every corner of the community, from young mothers to university students. Along with first aid and weapons training, they’ll also take lessons in mountaineering, a crucial skill in the rugged alpine terrain that flanks the 900-kilometer border with Azerbaijan.  

Of the 22 VOMA branches spread across Armenia, “the location of this branch is significant because of the vulnerability of this border area,” says Vartan, its 42-year-old head instructor. 

VOMA has seen a significant uptick in attendees since Azerbaijan launched its lightning military offensive on the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in September, taking it under in 24 hours and sending its 100,000-strong ethnic Armenian population fleeing into Armenia proper. 

Most, crammed into cars or the back of open-top trucks, passed through this very town, which over the past fortnight morphed into an international crisis center. The Red Cross, The World Food Program and a host of national aid missions, including USAID head Samantha Power, poured in to show support. Tents went up, food packages were delivered, and the international media showed up in droves. 

But for many of the residents of this region who feel abandoned by the international community, this display was too little, too late.

“Of course I’m let down,” Vartan said. “I was waiting for something that didn’t happen. But we just have to have hope.”

NEWSREAD MORE

According to many here, the bulk of the blame lies squarely at the feet of Armenia’s historic ally Russia, who, despite promises to mediate the conflict and the presence of 2,000 Russian peacekeepers in the region, did little to intervene.

Russia’s inaction marks a historic shift in its regional policy. In the past, Armenia has been able to rely on Russia to moderate disputes, supply arms and play politics. Though this hasn’t always been in Armenia’s favor, they’ve generally done enough to support Yerevan. 

To this day, Russian border guards patrol Armenia’s borders with Turkey and Iran. In Armenia’s second city of Gyumri, a vast Russian military base houses an estimated 3,000 soldiers. The vast majority of Armenia’s gas supply comes from Russia. 

These entanglements make any future split from Russia all the more difficult for Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. 

A VOMA first aid training. Participants' faces have been concealed due to concerns about being identified by the Azerbaijani authorities.Tom J. Bennett

Experts say the reasons for Russia’s cold shoulder are complex: the Ukraine war has left Russia internationally isolated, meaning that southern partners that provide a link to global markets — such as Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran — have become much more valuable. 

But it’s also likely that Armenia’s recent overtures to the West have angered the Kremlin. At the start of September, Yerevan carried out joint training drills with the U.S. military and sent an aid package to Ukraine personally delivered by Pashinyan’s wife Anna Hakobian. 

Armenia’s parliament strained relations further when, in a rebuke to Moscow, it voted to join the International Criminal Court — meaning that if President Vladimir Putin were to step foot on Armenian soil, Yerevan would be obliged to arrest him. 

Last week, Armenia was the only member of the Moscow-led CSTO alliance to skip a meeting of alliance leaders in Minsk, and Pashinyan said that Russia had failed to deliver weapons Yerevan had already paid for and accused Russia's media of destabilizing his country's political situation.

“Armenia cannot count at all on Russia in terms of its own security, so this ICC vote is a message to the West from the Armenian government that they are really willing to go further in distancing themselves from Russia,” Stefan Meister, head of the Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia at the German Council on Foreign Relations, told The Moscow Times. 

“But I think it's a very dangerous bet they are doing because I don't see that the West will really support Armenia in a way that it needs. For the West, it’s a question of how you show support. Do you send soldiers? Peacekeepers? Do you build up leverage on Azerbaijan with sanctions?”

Rifles storedTom J. Bennett

According to Meister, that latter option appears unlikely. As a result of Western sanctions on Russia, many EU countries have turned to Azerbaijan as an alternate gas supplier. It’s unlikely that any country would want to sanction a key energy provider, leaving Armenia in a difficult negotiating position. 

As geopolitical moves are played out in capitals across Eurasia, the lack of a firm international response to the Nagorno-Karabakh situation has raised fears that Azerbaijan could attempt to create a land corridor to its exclave of Nakhichevan by capturing parts of southern Armenia.

“What’s worrying from the Armenian standpoint is this convergence of interests between Azerbaijan, Russia, and Turkey to open this corridor. And in the region, the only power kind of opposing it is Iran,” Karena Avedissian, a senior analyst at the Regional Center for Democracy and Security, told The Moscow Times. 

For the VOMA trainees in Syunik province, the specter of war casts a long shadow. 

“I think we will see a growing instability of Armenia, which has lost orientation and has no one who supports it really in a serious way,” says Meister. 

The names of VOMA members have been changed to protect their identities.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/11/28/as-russia-relations-sour-armenians-prepare-to-defend-themselves-a82716

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 24-11-23

Talar Tumanian

 17:07,

YEREVAN, 24 NOVEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 24 November, USD exchange rate down by 0.07 drams to 402.18 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.44 drams to 438.74 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.04 drams to 4.52 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 0.60 drams to 505.34 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 65.27 drams to 25768.32 drams. Silver price down by 2.38 drams to 305.87 drams.

Azerbaijan arrests two journalists investigating political corruption

Talar Tumanian
Al-Jazeera, Qatar
Nov 21 2023

The arrests of the director and editor in chief of Abzas Media come after a series of reports looking into officials’ wealth.

Two journalists have been arrested in Azerbaijan, according to their lawyers, after their media outlet recently published a series of reports looking into the wealth of high-ranking government officials and the family of President Ilham Aliyev.

Sevinj Vagifgyzy, the editor in chief of privately owned Abzas Media, was arrested and her home was searched on Tuesday, her lawyer and Abzas Media said.

A day earlier, police also arrested Ulvi Hasanli, the director of the same media outlet, on charges of “smuggling foreign currency”.

Hasanli pleaded not guilty to the charges, for which he could face 12 years in prison, his lawyer Zibeyda Sadygova said.

Abzas Media reported that Hasanli faced “inhumane treatment” while in custody, including being punched and kicked by officers who asked him about his corruption investigations.

Meanwhile, police also raided the media outlet’s office in Baku and kicked out journalists attempting to document the search from outside, footage from Abvas Media shows.

Abzas Media is one of the few independent media outlets left in Azerbaijan following a near decade-long campaign against independent media and press rights groups, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

Natalia Nozadze, a South Caucasus researcher with rights group Amnesty International, said Hasanli’s arrest “fits into a pattern of critics being arrested by the authorities to stifle their dissent”.

She said Hasanli “has bravely exposed allegations of high-level corruption in Azerbaijan and covered critical issues of public interest” and that he has in the past “faced repeated harassment from the government”.

Signs of dissent are often met with a tough government response in Azerbaijan, an energy-rich nation long ruled by the Aliyev dynasty.

In July, Azerbaijan arrested high-profile political economist and civil activist Gubad Ibadoghlu on charges of various financial crimes, which he has denied.

He has said his prosecution was retaliation for exposing high-level corruption in Azerbaijan.

Amnesty International has said Ibadoghlu has significant health issues, and his life is in danger “due to unsafe prison conditions and denial of adequate healthcare”.

The government of Aliyev, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 2003 after succeeding from his father Heydar, has long faced international criticism over the country’s poor democratic record.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

Benefit concert for Artsakh refugees to be held in Boston

Talar Tumanian
November 9, 2023 Guest Contributor Music, Diaspora, Culture 0

Join Armenian American musicians for a night in support of Artsakh refugees. Co-sponsored by the Zoravik Activist Collective, “The Mountains Remember: Benefit Concert for Artsakh Refugees” will be held on Wednesday, November 22, 2023 at 8 p.m. at the Square Root in Roslindale, Massachusetts. 

The benefit concert will feature John Baboian (jazz guitar), Raffi Semerdjian (folk art guitar), Yalla Hilda (guitar – Laura Zarougian, drums – Michael Alan Hams), Armadi Tsayn Duo (oud – Samuel Sjostedt, upright bass – Filippo Goller) and The Tony Donatalle Jazz Quartet (details TBD).

Weaving a thread between traditional folk songs, electric jazz, twangy songwriting and loop pedals, these artists gather inspiration from their ancestral homeland while exploring new, universal sounds. The evening will showcase five artists who are broadening our definition of what it means to make Armenian music.

On Sept 19, after a nine-month blockade, Azerbaijan attacked the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh. Over 100,000 Armenians were forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands. Proceeds from the show will be donated to Tufenkian Artsakh Refugee Relief, which is providing housing, education and mental health support for the refugees.

Guitarist, composer and educator John Baboian has been on the faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston since 1980. Although best known for his work in the jazz and swing idioms, Baboian has performed in the classical, blues, rock, R&B, Latin and world music genres. 

Raffi Semerdjian is a multimedia artist whose primary mediums are paint and poetry. Weaving imagery into lyrics, his longtime musical project, “Palm of Granite,” has cradled Semerdjian’s songwriting craft between his hometown of Los Angeles and his homeland of Armenia. 

Yalla Hilda is a musical duo comprised of Armenian Cowgirl Laura Zarougian and her jazz-rocker husband, Michael Alan Hams. Together, they blend voices and songs into an eclectic experience, brimming with worldly rhythms and ideas.

Armadi Tsayn is a contemporary folk ensemble led by Samuel Sjostedt and Alek Surenian. The Boston-based group explores the melodies of Western Armenian and blends them with a touch of modernity. 

The benefit concert will be held at the Square Root, 2 Corinth St., Roslindale, Massachusetts, 02131. Admission is $20 at the door, $10 for students.




RFE/RL Armenian Service – 11/06/2023

Talar Tumanian 
                                        Monday, November 6, 2023


Armenian Government Vows To Pay Karabakh Pensions

        • Robert Zargarian
        • Susan Badalian

Armenia - A refugee from Karabakh shows his Armenian passport during a protest 
outside the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Yerevan, November 6, 2023.


In an apparent about-face, the Armenian government has assured refugees from 
Nagorno-Karabakh that it will pay pensions and other benefits received by them 
until their exodus to Armenia.

The government was reluctant to do so until now, saying that all refugees will 
only receive 50,000 drams ($125) each in November and December in addition to 
100,000 drams given to them in October.

Some senior officials indicated that Karabakh pensioners, retired military and 
security personnel as well as other relevant categories will be eligible for 
monthly benefits only if they apply for and receive Armenian citizenship. 
Armenian opposition figures and other critics condemned that stance.

The government sparked another controversy last month when it decided to grant 
the Karabakh Armenians “temporary protection” formalizing their status of 
refugees. It thus made clear that it does not consider them citizens of Armenia 
despite the fact that virtually all of them hold Armenian passports. Government 
officials described their passports as mere “travel documents,” a claim disputed 
by some legal experts.

Over a hundred refugees, many of them retired soldiers and officers, protested 
outside the Armenian Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on Monday. Deputy 
Labor Minister Davit Khachatrian received their representatives.

“He assured us that everyone will get their pensions,” one of them, Armen 
Petrosian, said after the meeting. “Civilian pensioners will get them [for the 
period starting] from October 26, while the military personnel after changes are 
made to the law.”

“He also said that an [official] announcement will be made on Thursday,” added 
Petrosian.

Khachatrian made this clear when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service over the 
weekend.

“We are doing everything to make sure that [the refugees] start getting their 
pensions along with everybody else at the beginning of December,” said the 
official.




Kocharian’s Son Freed After Taking Up Parliament Seat

        • Anush Mkrtchian

Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian's son Levon, February 18, 2020.


Former President Robert Kocharian’s younger son arrested during recent 
anti-government protests in Yerevan was released from custody on Monday after 
taking up a vacant parliament seat reserved for the main opposition Hayastan 
alliance.

Levon Kocharian was dragged away by riot police on September 22 as thousands of 
protesters demanded Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation following the 
Azerbaijani military offensive that restored Baku’s control over 
Nagorno-Karabakh and forced its ethnic Armenian residents to flee to Armenia.

He is among the more than four dozen Armenians accused of assaulting police 
officers or throwing various objects at them during the largely peaceful 
demonstrations. Most of them remain in custody, facing what they and the 
Armenian opposition call politically motivated charges.

Kocharian Jr. also strongly denies the accusations leveled against him. He 
maintains that he himself was beaten up by several officers inside a police car. 
Although their violent actions were caught on camera, Armenian courts have 
refused to free him pending investigation.

Hayastan, which is headed by Robert Kocharian, appears to have decided to secure 
Levon’s release by bringing him to the parliament and giving him immunity from 
prosecution. Like his father, he was on its list of candidates in the 2021 
general elections.

Armen Charchian, a parliament deputy representing the opposition bloc, resigned 
from the National Assembly late last month. Three other Hayastan members who 
were next in line to succeed Charchian refused to take up his seat, giving 
different reasons. They thus cleared the way for the ex-president’s son.

With Armenian law stipulating that a parliamentarian cannot be charged and 
arrested without the parliament’s consent, investigators had no choice but to 
free him for now. The Office of the Prosecutor-General declined to clarify 
whether it will request such permission.

Levon Kocharian insisted that the criminal case against him is “nonsense” when 
he spoke to journalists outside Yerevan’s Nubarashen prison. He called for the 
immediate release of the other protesters regarded by Hayastan and some human 
rights activists as political prisoners.

“I am one of them and hope that they too will be free soon,” he said.

Four of them, including a 16-year-old boy, were arrested just over a week ago. 
They all are natives of Karabakh who took refuge in Armenia following the 2020 
war.




Pro-Western Group Denies Role In Armenian ‘Coup Plot’

        • Naira Bulghadarian

Armenia - Zhirayr Sefilian speaks during a rally in Yerevan, February 26, 2021


A political group increasingly critical of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on 
Monday strongly denied any involvement in what Armenian authorities call a 
botched conspiracy to seize government buildings and “disrupt the work of 
government bodies.”

Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) announced last week the arrests of 
five persons accused of hatching the alleged plot. It said that they planned to 
set off an explosion and assassinate an unnamed “civilian” but gave no other 
details.

The NSS claimed to have found and confiscated not only weapons and ammunition 
but also handwritten texts detailing the planned “terrorist attacks.” A 
purported screenshot of one such document released by it calls for attracting 
members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a pro-Western fringe group 
led by Zhirayr Sefilian, a prominent nationalist figure. He was questioned as a 
“witness” in the case on Monday.

“The investigator’s questions were mainly about whether the NDA can be connected 
with such a thing,” Sefilian told a news conference later in the day. He said 
any he denied any involvement.

Sefilian said that he knows personally two of the arrested men. But he refused 
to identify them, saying only that they are not affiliated with the NDU despite 
having had recent “contacts” with the group over its declared attempts to oust 
Pashinian. Sefilian also questioned the credibility of the accusations brought 
against them.

“The National Democratic Alliance declares that it has nothing to do with the 
‘newly discovered terrorists,’” read a separate statement released by the group.

The statement claimed that Pashinian’s government is deliberately “casting a 
shadow of suspicion on the NDA” in a bid to prevent it from challenging another 
“capitulation treaty with Azerbaijan” planned by him. It also said that despite 
getting Armenia “out of Russian control” Pashinian is not bringing the country 
closer to the West.

“The NDA will continue its public political struggle against Nikol’s defeatism, 
including but not limited to all legal forms of civil disobedience, direct 
democracy and peaceful insurrection,” concluded the statement.

Sefilian and other NDA figures have close ties to the jailed leaders of an armed 
group that stormed an Armenian police base in 2016 to demand that then President 
Serzh Sarkisian release Sefilian from jail and step down.

The three dozen gunmen, who took police officers and medical personnel hostage, 
laid down their weapons after a two-week standoff with security forces which 
left three police officers dead. All but two of them were released from custody 
shortly after Sarkisian was toppled in the 2018 “velvet revolution” led by 
Pashinian. The seven key members of the group called Sasna Tsrer were sent back 
to jail in May 2022.




Armenian Army Chief Tours U.S. Military Facilities In Europe


Germany - Steven Basham (R), deputy head of U.S. European Command (EUCOM), meets 
Armenian army chief Eduard Asrian in Stuttgart, November 3, 2023. (Photo by 
EUCOM)


Armenia’s top general has visited the U.S. military headquarters and two 
training centers in Europe, underscoring Yerevan’s efforts to deepen defense 
ties with the United States resented by Russia.

Lieutenant-General Eduard Asrian, the chief of the Armenian army’s General 
Staff, met with Lieutenant General Steven Basham, the deputy head of U.S. 
European Command (EUCOM), at the EUCOM headquarters in the German city of 
Stuttgart on Friday. They discussed “Armenia’s security environment, defense 
reforms and the defense cooperation with the United States,” read an EUCOM 
statement released afterwards.

“This was a milestone event as we deliberately and incrementally develop our 
defense relationship,” it quoted Basham as saying.

“The Armenian armed forces are currently undergoing significant reforms and 
transformation and we are interested in receiving support and learning about the 
best practices from our partners, and especially the United States.” Asrian said 
for his part.

According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, Basham expressed the U.S.’s 
readiness to help the South Caucasus nation “professionalize” its armed forces, 
modernize their command-and-control structures and train military personnel on a 
larger scale. There was no word on potential U.S. arms supplies.

Asrian visited the U.S. military’s Joint Multinational Readiness Center and 
Non-Commissioned Officer Academy in Germany before his talks with Basham.

Armenia - U.S. and Armenian troops start a joint exercise at the Zar training 
ground near Yerevan, September 11, 2023.

His trip came less than two months after Armenia hosted a U.S.-Armenian military 
exercise criticized by Russia as well as neighboring Iran. Asrian and Armenian 
Defense Minister Suren Papikian watched the exercise together with two U.S. 
generals.

The drills added to the Armenian government’s unprecedented tensions with 
Moscow, its longtime ally. The Russian Foreign Ministry listed them Yerevan’s 
“unfriendly” actions in a note of protest handed to the Armenian ambassador in 
Moscow on September 8.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted late last month that his government is 
determined to “diversify” Armenia’s foreign and security policies because the 
Russians have failed to honor their security commitments to his country. But he 
again made clear that it is not considering demanding the withdrawal of Russian 
troops from Armenia even if it sees no “advantages” in their presence.



Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Charges dropped against suspended Malta Philharmonic conductor – lawyers

Talar Tumanian
Times of Malta
Nov 3 2023

Sergey Smbatyan was arrested on fraud charges in his native Armenia in summer

The suspended principal conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra has been acquitted of fraud charges, his lawyers have said. 

Sergey Smbatyan was suspended from his role in the orchestra in July, after international media reported that he and his father – a former Armenian ambassador to Israel – were arrested on charges related to real estate fraud in their native Armenia. 

In a statement, Smbatyan’s lawyers said the Armenian prosecutor’s office had decided to stop pursuing the charges against him.

“Herewith we inform you that by the decision of the Prosecutor of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Armenia dated October 27, 2023, Maestro Sergey Smbatyan was acquitted, and the criminal prosecution against him was ceased on the basis that he did not commit the guilty act,” the statement said. 

At the time of the arrest, the acting CEO of the orchestra Christopher Muscat said that the MPO was “suspending” its relationship with Smbatyan until “the relevant facts and circumstances are ascertained”. 

In Armenia, Smbatyan also serves as the artistic director and principal conductor of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. 

In a statement on Facebook, Smbatyan said that the outcome of the legal proceedings against him could only have “one resolution”. 

“That was to clarify unnecessary public misunderstandings and denial of the accusations made against me,” he said. 

“Thank you to everyone who has stood by me over the past months and waited with me in faith for this day. Your faith inspires and keeps me moving.”

Times of Malta asked the MPO and the Culture Ministry whether there were any plans to reinstate Smbatyan as the principal conductor of the orchestra. 

https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/charges-dropped-suspended-malta-philharmonic-conductor-lawyers.1065363

Germany backs the expansion of EU Mission in Armenia – German FM

Talar Tumanian

 18:48, 3 November 2023

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS. Germany wants to create conditions for negotiations in order to achieve stable, secure relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Annalena Baerbock said during the press conference held in Yerevan after the meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.

“Germany defends the territorial integrity of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, and this is the basis of all negotiations aimed at reaching peace. Especially numerous difficult issues arise regarding boundaries, which maps should be used as a guide. Finding a solution to this problem is a big task for Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said German FM.

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, the EU and Germany have acted as honest mediators between Armenia and Azerbaijan for years. Baerbock is convinced that the efforts of the President of the European Council Charles Michel  can become a bridge to establish peace between the two countries.

“That is why it is important to organize a stage of negotiations again. Through the EU mission, we are trying to provide concrete support to Armenia with our presence, to achieve stability and reliable peace through contacts with people.

I would like to emphasize that we want to strengthen the activities of the EU mission and within the EU we would like to achieve the expansion of this mission,” German Foreign Minister said.