Author: Tambiyan Samvel

Co-Chairs urge not to “put some principles or elements over others”

Tambiyan Samvel
MediaMax, Armenia
March 9 2019
 
 
Co-Chairs urge not to “put some principles or elements over others”
 
 
 
Yerevan /Mediamax/. Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group issued a press statement on the upcoming Meeting of President Aliyev and Prime Minister Pashinyan.
 
“The Co-Chairs, working closely with the two foreign ministers, have been making preparations for this important leaders’ meeting, which will be the first direct contact between the two leaders conducted under Co-Chair auspices”, the statement reads.
 
“The Co-Chairs underline the importance of maintaining an environment conducive to productive discussions and continue to assess positively the recent lack of casualties on the front lines. The Co-Chairs also welcome some initial steps being taken in the region to prepare the populations for peace and encourage the sides to intensify such efforts. At the same time, the Co-Chairs reiterate the critical importance of reducing tensions and minimizing inflammatory rhetoric. In this context, the Co-Chairs urge the sides to refrain from statements and actions suggesting significant changes to the situation on the ground, prejudging the outcome of or setting conditions for future talks, demanding unilateral changes to the format without agreement of the other party, or indicating readiness to renew active hostilities.
 
With reference to some contradictory recent public statements on the substance of the Minsk Group process, the Co-Chairs reiterate that a fair and lasting settlement must be based on the core principles of the Helsinki Final Act, including in particular the non-use or threat of force, territorial integrity, and the equal rights and self-determination of peoples.
 
It also should embrace additional elements as proposed by the Presidents of the Co-Chair countries in 2009-2012, including: return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh providing guarantees for security and self-governance; a corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh; future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding _expression_ of will; the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence; and international security guarantees that would include a peacekeeping operation.
 
The Co-Chairs stress their view that these principles and elements must be the foundation of any fair and lasting settlement to the conflict and should be conceived as an integrated whole. Any attempt to put some principles or elements over others would make it impossible to achieve a balanced solution”, the document says.
 
The Co-Chairs also noted that the “continuous and direct dialogue between Baku and Yerevan conducted under the auspices of the Co-Chairs remains an essential element in building confidence and advancing the peace process. The Co-Chairs will also continue to discuss, as appropriate, relevant issues with the interested parties directly affected by the conflict, recognizing that their views and concerns must be taken into account for any negotiated solution to succeed”, the statement reads.

For immediate release: Teaching Fellowship in the Field of Medieval or Early Modern Armenian History at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Fondation

Tambiyan Samvel 
TEACHING FELLOWSHIP IN THE FIELD OF MEDIEVAL OR EARLY MODERN ARMENIAN HISTORY
AT BOĞAZİÇİ UNIVERSITY, ISTANBUL
FUNDED BY THE CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN FOUNDATION
The Department of History at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey, invites 
applications for a one-year (two semesters) Teaching Fellowship in the field of 
Medieval or Early Modern Armenian History to be funded by the Calouste 
Gulbenkian Foundation starting in September 2019.
The holder of this Fellowship will be expected to teach one undergraduate 
course and one graduate seminar each semester (for a total of 4 courses during 
the academic year). The weekly load for any undergraduate course or graduate 
seminar is three hours. Courses are to be taught entirely in English. 
The Fellowship is funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to the amount of 
34,000 EUR, to be paid directly by the Foundation to the Fellow to cover the 
salary, work permit, visa, health insurance, housing, travel and other expenses.
Candidates with a Ph.D. degree in a relevant area and excellent command of 
English should send in their application to the Department of History before 
April 8, 2019. Applications must include a curriculum vitae, a cover letter 
discussing research and teaching interests, three letters of recommendation (to 
be sent directly by the referees), one article or chapter-length writing sample 
and detailed syllabi for one undergraduate course and one graduate seminar they 
wish to propose for consideration.
Electronic files (in pdf format) must be received by the application deadline 
at [email protected]. Hard copies must be mailed on or before the 
deadline to the address given below.
Armenian History Teaching Fellowship Search Committee
Boğaziçi University
Department of History
Bebek 34342 Istanbul, Turkey
----
Note for editors: Please find above the announcement regarding a teaching 
fellowship at Boğaziçi University funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 
to if possible, be featured in Armenian News.  
Thank you,
Best regards,
Vera R.C
Armenian Communities 
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
Avenida de Berna 45-A, 1067-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Tel  (+351) 21 782 3658
[email protected]  gulbenkian.pt

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 02/20/2019

Tambiyan Samvel 
                                        Wednesday, 
Armenian Growth Rate In 2018 Reported By Government
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia - A supermarket in Yerevan.
The Armenian economy grew by 5.2 percent last year on the back of major gains 
in manufacturing, trade and other services, according to official statistics 
released on Wednesday.
The figure is virtually identical with a growth estimate made by the World Bank 
last month. The bank also forecast that economic growth in Armenia slow down 
this year before accelerating in 2020 and 2021.
Armenian growth reached 7.5 percent in 2017. It hit 9.7 percent in the first 
quarter of 2018, just before the start of weeks of mass protests that led to 
the resignation of the country’s longtime leader, Serzh Sarkisian.
The Armenian Statistical Committee recorded a nearly 9 percent rise in the 2018 
volume of retail and wholesale trade. It said that financial and other services 
were up by as much as 19 percent.
The government agency also registered a 4.3 percent increase in industrial 
output mainly driven by manufacturing sectors. By contrast, the Armenian mining 
industry, a key export-oriented sector, contracted by 14 percent. This seems to 
have primarily resulted from the closure in early 2018 of a large copper and 
molybdenum mine in the northern Lori province.
GDP growth was also dragged down by an 8.5 percent fall in agricultural 
production. Government officials blame it on unfavorable weather conditions.
In its comprehensive policy program approved by the parliament last week, Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government pledged to ensure that the domestic 
economy expands by at least 5 percent annually for the next five years. It said 
rising exports will be the “main engine” of that growth.
The program reaffirms Pashinian’s repeated pledges to carry out an “economic 
revolution” that will significantly reduce poverty and unemployment in Armenia. 
It says the government will improve tax administration, ease business 
regulations, guarantee fair competition, and stimulate exports and innovation.
Mining Giant Becomes Armenia’s Top Taxpayer
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia - A copper ore-processing plant in Kajaran, February 6, 2016.
An Armenian mining enterprise replaced the national gas distribution network 
last year as the country’s largest corporate taxpayer, a senior government 
official revealed on Wednesday.
Rafik Mashadian, the deputy head of the State Revenue Committee (SRC), said 
that the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC) more than doubled its tax 
payments, to 51 billion drams ($105 million), in 2018.
“This company had the largest increase [in tax payments,]” Mashadian told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
The sharp rise contrasted with a 10 percent drop in the combined 2018 output of 
Armenia’s mining and metallurgical companies. They still accounted for more 
than 40 percent of Armenian exports.
Located in Kajaran, a small down in the southeastern Syunik province, ZCMC 
reportedly employs more than 4,000 people. A German company, Cronimet, 
nominally owns 75 percent of it.
The rest of ZCMC is controlled by at least two obscure Armenian firms. 
Ownership of those firms has long been a subject of speculation, with some 
local commentators and opposition politicians linking them to former President 
Serzh Sarkisian or his predecessor Robert Kocharian.
According to the SRC, Armenia’s largest cigarette manufacturer, Grand Tobacco, 
also significantly increased its tax contributions and became the second 
largest taxpayer in 2018. It is followed by Gazprom Armenia, the national gas 
network owned by Russia’s Gazprom giant. Gazprom Armenia had paid more taxes 
than any other local firm in 2017.
The Armenian government’s overall tax revenue was up by more than 14 percent, 
at 1.3 trillion drams ($2.7 billion), last year. Large companies generated 
about three-quarters of it.
Mashadian attributed the increase to economic growth and a tough crackdown on 
tax evasion declared by the government.
Vahagn Khachatrian, an independent economist, said while the figure is 
encouraging he is puzzled by a surge in taxes collected by the SRC in December. 
He wondered if the SRC is continuing to force businesses to pay taxes in 
advance of their anticipated earnings.
“I’m worried that that vicious practice of advance payments [collected from 
companies] may have continued,” Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Mashadian ruled out that. “Media claims that the SRC is meeting its targets by 
pressuring businesses are not true,” insisted the SRC official.
Mediators Start Fresh Trip To Karabakh Conflict Zone
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) meets with the co-chairs of the 
OSCE Minsk Group in Yerevan, .
U.S., Russian and French mediators met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in 
Yerevan on Wednesday at the start of a fresh tour of the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict zone which follows a series of high-level Armenian-Azerbaijani 
negotiations.
A statement by Pashinian’s press office said they “outlined further steps” in 
the negotiation process and discussed ways of creating an “appropriate 
atmosphere” for that. “They stressed the importance of implementing 
understandings on maintaining the ceasefire regime,” it said.
According to the statement, Pashinian also briefed the three diplomats 
co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group on his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham 
Aliyev held in Davos, Switzerland January 22. It was their third face-to-face 
encounter since September.
The Davos meeting came a week after the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign 
ministers met in Paris in the presence of the Minsk Group co-chairs. According 
to the mediators, the ministers acknowledged the need for “taking concrete 
measures to prepare the populations for peace.”
Those developments fuelled Armenian media and opposition speculation about 
far-reaching agreements reached by Pashinian and Aliyev. Some critics claimed 
that Pashinian may have agreed to make significant territorial concessions to 
Azerbaijan.
The prime minister brushed aside these “conspiracy theories” on January 23. He 
stated a week later that Armenia and Karabakh will not agree to such 
concessions to Azerbaijan in return for mere peace in the region. Baku 
criticized that statement, saying that it could undermine the peace process.
On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cautioned against excessive 
expectations of decisive progress towards a Karabakh settlement. “Given that 
the new government of Armenia was formed only recently, additional time is 
needed to understand just how intensively and far it is possible to advance the 
settlement process at this stage,” he told a news conference in Moscow.
“The co-chairs and the OSCE can only help to create conditions for dialogue,” 
said Lavrov. “Decisions will have to be made in direct negotiations between the 
parties.”
Lavrov met with his Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanian on February 16 on 
the sidelines of an international security forum in Munich, Germany.
Tsarukian’s Bodyguard To Stand Trial For Assault
        • Naira Bulghadarian
Armenian - Eduard Babayan (L) attends a parliament session in Yerevan, January 
15, 2019.
A parliament deputy who was until recently Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) 
leader Gagik Tsarukian’s chief bodyguard will go on trial soon on charges of 
violent assault.
Eduard Babayan was arrested in July hours after a 50-year-old man in Yerevan 
was hospitalized with serious injuries. The latter claimed to have been beaten 
up at a compound of Armenia’s National Olympic Committee headed by Tsarukian. 
He said he was hit by Tsarukian before being repeatedly kicked and punched by 
Babayan and another person.
Both Tsarukian and Babayan strongly denied the allegation. The burly bodyguard 
was charged even though his alleged victim later retracted his incriminating 
testimony.
Babayan was freed on bail in August. He was elected to the Armenian parliament 
on the BHK ticket in December.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on 
Wednesday that the criminal investigation into the incident has been completed 
and its findings have been sent to a court in Yerevan.
This means that Babayan will stand trial after all. The accusation brought 
against him carries a prison term of between three and seven years.
Armenia - Businessman Gagik Tsarukian and his chief bodyguard Eduard Babayan 
(R) at an election campaign rally in Hrazdan, 11 April 2012.
The BHK, which is in opposition to the Armenian government and boasts the 
second largest group in the parliament, did not immediately react to the 
development. Tsarukian’s party had defended its decision to nominate Babayan as 
a candidate in the December parliamentary elections.
Armenian media have repeatedly implicated Tsarukian’s bodyguards -- and Babayan 
in particular -- in violence, including against opponents of former 
governments, in the past. The BHK leader, who is also one of the country’s 
richest men, always denied those claims.
In a police video released in July, Babayan’s alleged victim said that he was 
attacked after imploring Tsarukian to help ensure that Armenian law-enforcement 
authorities withdraw an international arrest warrant issued for his son accused 
of draft evasion.
The young man is a boxer and Russian national who was told to serve in 
Armenia’s armed forces after receiving Armenian citizenship in order to compete 
for the South Caucasus country in international tournaments.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” says that parliamentary opposition criticism of the Armenian 
government’s policy program approved by the parliament was not backed up by a 
“comprehensive analysis” of the document’s content. The paper says the program 
has instead been thoroughly examined by two parties not represented in the 
National Assembly: the Armenian National Congress (HAK) and Dashnaktsutyun. “It 
does not matter whether or not points made by these two parties are 
acceptable,” it says. “The important thing here is the very fact [of their 
detailed analysis.]” This is further proof that there are few genuine parties 
in Armenia, concludes the paper.
“Zhamanak” reports that parliament speaker Ararat Mirzoyan has voiced his 
opposition to the idea of restoring the presidential system of government in 
Armenia which has been put forward by former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s 
Armenian National Congress (HAK). The paper welcomes the statement and says any 
major constitutional reform must be based on consensus.
Lragir.am writes on reports that former President Serzh Sarkisian’s embattled 
brother Aleksandr has donated $18.5 million to the state in the face of 
criminal proceedings launched against him. It quotes a human rights activist, 
Artur Sakunts, as saying that the donation was “voluntary.” “We don’t know what 
criminal case has been opened and what accusations have been brought against 
Sashik Sarkisian,” he says. “Nor do we know the estimated value of his 
properties and financial assets. All we know is the publicized information 
about his $30 million bank account.” Sakunts wonders why Sarkisian has not 
transferred the entire sum to the state treasury.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2019 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org

Armenia dispatches humanitarian mission to Syria’s Aleppo

Tambiyan Samvel
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 8 2019
Politics 12:21 08/02/2019 Armenia

A group of Armenian humanitarian experts have headed to Aleppo, Syria on Friday to provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people, Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said in a Facebook post.

The 83-member group, including doctors, sappers, as well as personnel who will ensure their safety, will carry out humanitarian mine clearance activities, raise mine awareness among the population, as well as offer medical aid in Aleppo exclusively outside the zone of military operations.

The Armenian government made the decision to provide humanitarian aid to Syria taking into consideration the war-triggered humanitarian crisis in the country and especially in Aleppo, the UN Security Council Resolutions 2393 (2017) and 2401 (2018), a written request from the Syrian side, as well as the existence of a large Armenian community in Aleppo.

“Issues related to the Armenian specialists’ stay in the territory of Syria, their status, functions and security are regulated by the legislation of Armenia,” the spokesman said. 

Experts decode some data of black box of Armenian Su-25 jet, crashed December 4

Tambiyan Samvel

Experts decode some data of black box of Armenian Su-25 jet, crashed December 4

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14:22, 2 February, 2019

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. Experts have decoded some data of the black box of the Armenian SU-25 jet that crashed in Shirak Province on December 4, but this does not mean that the examination is over, since there is still a lot of data to be decoded, ARMENPRESS reports spokesperson of the Defense Ministry of Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan wrote on his Facebook page.

“The decoding of some data of the black box of the crashed SU-25 jet does not mean that the examination is over. There is still a lot of data. There is a body engaged in the investigation, which will inform about the results of perforce after finishing the investigation”, he wrote.  

The SU-25 aircraft conducting a routine training flight crashed on December 4 at about 10:20 am in the vicinity of Karaberd village located in the region of Maralik town of Shirak Province. As a result of the crash First Class Pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Armen Slavik Babayan and 3rd Class Pilot, Major Movses Gevorg Manoukyan have been killed.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan




State bodies should do exercises – Tevan Poghosyan (video)

Tambiyan Samvel
  • 19:05 | January 24,2019 | Politics
  • Armenian:
  • Rus

President of the International Center for Human Development spoke about the possible developments in the political processes: “The state bodies must do exercises all day long in order to come up what possible scenarios there are, and how we respond to them, where our interests are, and how we bring them into life.”

The political scientist notes that the state should develop tools in the field of information technologies to develop mechanisms in the geopolitical processes to respond to possible challenges.

Speaking about the prominent pro-Azeri behavior of Kazakhstan and Belarus during the April 2016 war, he said that this emphasis was formed earlier.

In response to the question why Armenia-Russia relations are not similar to the Israeli-US relations, and whether Israel’s technically developed state, Jewish diaspora, lobbying have had a great impact on American-Israeli relations, Poghosyan said: “Imagine how many congressmen and senators with Jewish roots there are in America, who are not ashamed to say, ‘I am a Jew and Jewish interests are very important to me.’

When we have such a situation in Duma, we will have the same situation in the world where Armenians will not be ashamed to say, ‘Yes, I am Armenian.’” In this context, the political scientist underlined Charles Aznavour’s activities in France for Armenia and Armenians. According to him, we need to make everyone in the world to understand that as soon as they try to offend the Armenians, they will unite and respond to it in a very strong way.

Music: Tigran brings Armenian jazz genius to Oxford’s SJE Arts

Tambiyan Samvel
Oxford Mail, UK
Jan 24 2019


By Tim Hughes

A master of jazz piano, Tigran Hamasyan is loved around the world for his flights of musical fancy and blending of styles. But the Armenian composer and musician admits his career could have ended up very differently indeed, as his first ambition was to be a heavy metal guitarist.

“I was born and raised in a town which was, at the time, part of the Soviet Union,” he recalls.

“As a toddler I was exposed to a lot of classic hard rock bands that my father listened to. He was really passionate about rock and would pay a fortune for a number of records that were smuggled into Soviet Armenia.

“He would pay his entire month’s salary to get the new Led Zeppelin album and there is this story that he was once taken in by the KGB because he played a Black Sabbath song at a party!”

Metal’s loss was jazz’s gain, however. Under the guidance of his funk and soul-loving uncle, and with the help of a piano at his grandparents’ home, he was initiated in the magic of James Brown, Al Jarreau and Curtis Mayfield as well as jazz stars like Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and Chick Corea.

Tigran recalls: “I remember being so into Herbie that I even transcribed Chameleon.

“As a child, I would also pick up songs by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and try to imitate them on the piano – I loved improvising around what I was listening to.

“At the age of 11, I had an incredible jazz teacher named Vahagn Hayrapetyan, who finally taught me how to improvise within structure, through teaching me bebop.”

Tomorrow Tigran returns to Oxford for a show at St John the Evangelist in Iffley Road. The gig will see him performing favourites from his surprisingly lengthy repertoire (given that he is still only 30) along with tunes from 2017’s An Ancient Observer – in which he reflects on his return to Armenia after more than a decade of living in the United States.

Tigran left his hometown of Gyumri and moved to Los Angeles as a teenager, acquiring his own piano – an upright Yamaha – at the age of 16. There he developed his unique style of Armenian-accented jazz.

He has released eight studio albums and fans include jazz legends Brad Mehldau, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock.

“The category of my music is called Armenian independent soulful punk jazz,” he says. “With a bit of classical and thrash metal spice!”

And what inspires him? “Human beings.” he says.

Tigran has been back in independent Armenia for five years and is one of its greatest cultural ambassadors. His journey inspired latest album An Ancient Observer – on which he reflects on his return to Armenia after more than a decade of living in America. the album will form the basis for tomorrow’s concert.

“Armenia is Eden on earth,” he waxes. “It’s a mountainous country with rich nature from high altitude desert-like places to lush green mountainous regions.

“It is full of ancient and new culture. It’s a place where, up until industrialisation, every single bit of daily life was accompanied by music. It’s the place where people first embraced Christianity – it’s the state religion.

“It is also a country where there are water fountains everywhere for people to drink spring water; a place where numerous poets, musicians and architects created masterpieces that are still standing and are part of our daily life; a place where monasteries were built on unreachable mountain tops and where a poor person will invite a stranger in and offer all he has.

“It’s the place where Noah’s ark landed.”

So is he proud to be putting the country on the musical map?

“I am not putting Armenia on the musical map,” he answers. “It’s the country that’s putting me on the map.”

And that map covers the world. The pianist admits he loves touring and has plenty of stories of life on the road.

So, are there any amusing tales he might care to share? “Well, there are a lot of them,” he says.

“I am the type of person that always spills or drops something. I frequently injure myself accidentally. Really dumb stuff happens to me all the time.

“My band members call it ‘having a Tigran moment’.

“The worst one I can remember now is the occasion that I was so into the moment during one concert with my trio, that I hit my head on the edge of the piano. I started getting light-headed and this giant bump appeared on my head during the song.”

He goes on: “I try to explore on tour too, but the concert the most important thing; that is the reason I travel. I always have to make sure I don’t get too tired and explore too much.

READ MORE: The Vaccines talk scrapping and re-finding their passion for rock

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“Unfortunately, I have not yet had a chance to really explore Oxford. I am looking forward to it though.”

So what little luxuries does he bring with him to make life on the road a little smoother? “Dark chocolate, a computer, some books and my phone – so I can record new ideas and compositions,” he says.

“And every once in a while, some Armenian brandy!”

So does he still daydream about becoming a hard rocker?

“I would love to play the guitar, but I still have so much to figure out on the piano,” he says.

“I love certain metal bands – not just any metal band though.

“I love the that sound; I love metal, but it’s unlikely you’ll get a metal record from me – although I have made several records that have metal influences.”

  • Tigran Hamasyan plays St John the Evangelist, Iffley Road, Oxford, tomorrow (Friday, January 25).
  • Tickets from sje-oxford.org

This week in history – 1990: Baku reverts to ancient hatreds

Tambiyan Samvel

The Independent, UK
January 20 1990, Saturday


This week in history:

1990: Baku reverts to ancient hatreds

by RUPERT CORNWELL in Moscow

THE CITY is magnificent and malign, one that nature herself might have intended as a theatre of splendour and tragedy. Few views in the world are as majestic as Apsheron Bay at night. Yellow refinery flares stream into the sky. An evil moon plays upon the oil derricks miles out into a Caspian Sea twinkling with the lights of one of the great metropolises of the Orient.

Baku is not only built on oil, but swimming in it. The black pitch which even today oozes there from the surface of the earth made it famous in ancient times as a seat of eternal fire. It was one of the first centres of the modern petroleum industry. Crumbling mansions along the seafront bear silent tribute to the magnates who once made their own and the city’s fortunes.

But they are just one part of a stage-set whose character even the grey uniformity of communism has failed to extinguish. After 70 years, the veneer of the Soviet Union is only skin-deep. Baku is the Orient, a place of ghosts and memories – and of a violence which you can almost touch in the air.

Today its Armenian colony which once numbered a quarter of a million has all but vanished. Even in September the trellised houses in their dusty old quarter of Armenikend up on the hill behind the bay were shuttered and empty.

Before the latest pogroms, only 20,000 at most were left, in shanty towns like Khutor on Baku’s northern edge, or in the bleak high-rise blocks which disfigure the outskirts of Baku like those of any other large town in the Soviet Union. Now most of those have gone too, either fleeing by ship or plane to safety or – in the case of a few wretched dozen – dragged from their homes and murdered in the last few terrible days. How many died like this no one may ever know. Their possessions have been commandeered or destroyed, their homes occupied by Azeri refugees who in turn have fled from Armenia.

Like Byzantium or Beirut, Baku has seen everything before – even events like those of this week. In 1905, oil installations and whole areas of the city were set ablaze in another witch-hunt of Armenians. Then it was the Cossacks, crack troops of the Tsar, who were sent in to restore order. In 1990, Soviet Army and Interior Ministry troops are trying, apparently in vain, to perform an identical task.

The city’s natives are warm and friendly to the visitor – their hospitality and generosity can be overwhelming to the Westerner. But well before the present horrors, a sense of impending calamity was almost tangible. On street corners groups of idle youths loiter. Obviously unemployed, they seemed even then the casual guns of a future shoot-out. Talk to an Azeri and within minutes the conversation would revert to Armenians and their supposedly favoured status in Moscow, and the eternal issue of Nagorny Karabakh.

The worst has now happened. Baku’s seafront boulevards are reported blocked by demonstrations. Columns of tanks are prevented from entering the city by crowds of protesters ready to lay down their lives. What comes next is quite unpredictable. All that is certain is that Baku itself, whether run-down or resurgent, will survive. It always has.

Foreign News Page 12