The moment of the shelling of the village of Khramort in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) by the Azerbaijani armed forces was caught on video camera during the shooting of a report.
The subsequent explosion was recorded by the video camera of 5th Channel television.
Earlier, we reported that one person was injured while working in the yard of his house in Khramort.
18:11, 2 March, 2022
YEREVAN, 2 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. On March 2, the Steering Committee Meeting of the Armenia/Council of Europe Action Plan for 2019-2022 took place in a hybrid format.
Paruyr Hovhannisyan, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and Verena Taylor, the Director of the Office of the Director General of the Council of Europe delivered opening remarks. High-ranking representatives of the agencies of the Republic of Armenia involved in the Action Plan, those responsible for their implementation at the Council of Europe Secretariat and the CoE Armenia Office participated in the discussions, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia.
Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan touched upon the period after the previous session of the Steering Committee in July 2020, noted the humanitarian issues as a consequence of the 44-day war in Artsakh, highlighted the importance of ensuring access to international assistance in Artsakh and the conditions necessary for the full realization of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the population. In this regard, the Deputy Foreign Minister reffered to the statements of the high-ranking leaders and various bodies of the Council of Europe, the resolution on the humanitarian and human rights consequences of the Artsakh war, adopted by the PACE in September 2021, and the Memorandum of the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights, published in November 2021.
On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, the Deputy Foreign Minister expressed the gratitude to the donor countries of the Action Plan, in particular the European Union, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, as well as the Foundation for the Elimination of Violence Against Children and Human Rights Trust Fund.
During the meeting, the results of the programs implemented with the Council of Europe in the fields of protection and promotion of human rights, rule of law and democratic governance were presented. The Armenian side reaffirmed its readiness to continue close cooperation in the implementation of the Action Plan. The participants exchanged views on the projects to be included in the Armenia-Council of Europe for 2023-2026.
ArmInfo. The ongoing Russian-Ukrainian confrontation is, no doubts, a link in a long chain of geopolitical events, the independent analyst Saro Saroyan told ArmInfo. “To start realizing what is going on, we have to go back to the 44-day war, which is, in fact, the first link in this geopolitical chain.
Back on November 9, 2020, it was clear a new geopolitical balance was forming in the South Caucasus, with Turkey entering Russia’s orbit with the latter’s silent consent. It should be stressed what happened was the result of consensus between Moscow and Ankara,” Mr Saroyan said. According to him, the results of the 44-day war were the result of the alliance of convenience between Moscow and Ankara. And the chain of the concerted geopolitical changes has now reached the Black Sea region. As regards the year-and-a-half-long pause in the process, Mr Saroyan believes the geopolitical centers needed time to get ready for this geopolitical configuration. In this context, he considers the South Caucasus and the Black Sea region part of one process aimed at achieving a new balance in the region. Such a programme really exists, and accomplishing the tasks set by certain circles was impossible without war, and such scenario is unfolding in Ukraine now, Mr Saroyan said. According to him, it is too early to speak of the essence and content of the programme.
According to Saroyan, Russia is now carrying out a task of demilitarizing Ukraine. The resultant developments will end in a new type of iron curtain between Russia and the West. The rest depends on the success of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. But the key question is the Ukrainian people’s ability to resist the invasion.
The expert stressed that Turkey should not be expected to attempt to change the status quo in the South Caucasus amid Russia’s rather successful military operation in Ukraine. And the war is controllable now. Mr Saroyan forecasts a radical change in the situation in case of successful resistance by Ukrainians, and the war will become uncontrollable. After that, all the stakes, programmes and decisions will turn into a mess, which could cause new threats to Armenia by Turkey.
18:59,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered the Ukrainian military to take power, ARMENPRESS reports Putin said during the sitting of the Security Council.
“It seems that it will be easier to come to terms with them than with those neo-Nazi-drug addicts,” RIA Novosti quoted Putin as saying.
11:48,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. The official statement of the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan of February 3, 2022 makes it clear that Azerbaijan, with well-planned actions, is consistently implementing the policy of eviction of Armenians from Artsakh, destruction and alienation of Armenian cultural heritage, and this time they openly threaten to remove and delete the inscriptions on Armenian churches in Artsakh, the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia said in a statement.
“The official statement of the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan of February 3, 2022 makes it clear that Azerbaijan, with well-planned actions, is consistently implementing the policy of eviction of Armenians from Artsakh, destruction and alienation of Armenian cultural heritage, and this time they openly threaten to remove and delete the inscriptions on Armenian churches in Artsakh.
It can be inferred from the statement that a special working group has been set up, consisting of specialists in the history, culture and architecture of Caucasian Albania, as well as representatives of state structures. After “study” they must remove “fake writings, inscriptions and traces written or added by Armenians” on “Caucasian Albanian religious/Christian” structures in Artsakh (Karabakh) (https://report.az/en/cultural-policy/working-group-set-up-to-restore-armenianized-temples-of-ancient-albania/). The Christian monuments in the territory of Artsakh and the inscriptions on them have been studied by specialists for more than a century, and their authenticity or nationality has never been problematic (except for the amateurish attempts and statements to falsify historical facts).
Valuable monuments of medieval Armenian architecture in Artsakh, such as Amaras Monastery, Dadivank, Khatravank, Gandzasar Monastery, Gtichavank, a great number of churches, including the famous Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi, are an organic part of Armenian architecture.
With their composition and decorthe monumental structures of High Middle Ages of Artsakh – the churches, gavits (narthex) and bell towers – are closely connected with the similar structures of historical Syunik and Ayrarat of the mentioned period. This was also proven by research carried out by authoritative foreign scholars studying Armenian medieval architecture, including Jean-Michel Thierry (France), Professor Paolo Cuneo (Italy) and others.
Scientific analysis of the lithographic inscriptions and of the data that have reached our days through those inscriptions will not be able to prove that they are Caucasian Albanian, thus the best way to “Albanize” the cultural heritage of the Armenians of Artsakh is to destroy the lithographic data, as was demonstrated by the “Azerbaijani experience” of destroying or distorting the Armenian cultural heritage in the territory of Nakhichevan. There are no specialists in Azerbaijan studying Christian culture and monuments, as evidenced by their own publications, which have been limited to the presentation of Islamic architecture.
First of all, even if they had been added later, according to the accepted standards of preservation of monuments, it would be cultural vandalism to eliminate them, as the additions made in the following centuries are an integral part of the history of the given architectural monument.
It is beyond doubt that the above-mentioned commission has been set up to implement the program of the Armenian cultural genocide, to alienate the cultural heritage of the Armenians of Artsakh from its real owner, to distort the history of the region.
With this statement, Azerbaijan once again declares to the world that it violates the freedom of thought, conscience and religion enshrined in the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, as well as the right to freely value the cultural heritage created by that freedom.
The aim of the theory of Artsakh monuments being Caucasian Albanian is to try to substantiate Azerbaijan’s claims to Artsakh historically, using science to serve their genocidal aspirations, first to justify the destruction of the Armenian presence in the now occupied territories of the Artsakh Republic, and then to create false “historical and cultural” preconditions to infiltrate into the territories currently defended by Russian peacekeepers.
The comprehensive study of the lithographic data of the monuments of Artsakh, which includes archeological, linguistic, artistic, theological, literary-sourceological and particularly historical examination of those inscriptions, clearly proves the Armenianness of those churches and their inscriptions.
It is known worldwide, that not only in the case of lithographic inscriptions, but also in the case of fabrications and falsifications of various literary compositions, it is immediately apparent that they were added later on. It is impossible to find any inscriptions dated earlier or added artificially in Old Armenian in the monuments of Artsakh.
Moreover, linguistically, in the case of both lithographs and manuscripts, it is a common pattern that the linguistic realities of the writing environment i.e., dialects, are expressed in the local written language. The elements of the Artsakh dialect are noticeable in the lithographic inscriptions of Artsakh, while we cannot find any trace of the supposed Caucasian Albanian language. This once again shows that this cultural heritage was created by the Armenians of Artsakh, stamping their local breath on the walls of architectural monuments. Not to mention the existence of hundreds of manuscripts and memoirs that have been inherited from the Artsakh writing centers, the contents of which supplement and reaffirm the source information evidenced in the lithographs.
Later additions to both manuscripts and architectural monuments are usually placed in the wrong place on the structure, since in the general architectural design, as a rule, the inscriptions related to the construction of a monument are usually engraved immediately after construction. From the point of view of the general structural composition and symbolism of a church, we can confidently state that the inscriptions of all the famous monuments of Artsakh are in the exact place where the inscriptions testifying to the construction of the churches were to be engraved immediately after the construction of those monuments.
Nor does historical examination show any record of historical or donation information concerning the construction of monuments in Artsakh, created on a later date but was attributed to an earlier period.
It is generally accepted that monuments are constructed in order to record remarkable events that took place in different periods of history. The monuments of Artsakh are no exception in this respect, and in the case of further repairs, additions of new buildings, donations and other memorable works, the tradition of drawing lithographs has been utilized. The inscriptions of churches in Artsakh refer exclusively to the Armenian environment, which confirms that these monuments were not only part of Armenian art from the day of their construction until the current manifestations of vandalism in Azerbaijan, but also their subsequent history represents an important and integral part of Armenian cultural heritage. This is doubly confirmed by the existence of landmark monuments, thousands of khachkars and tombstones, whose Armenian lithographic inscriptions are also a direct reflection of the existence of the Armenian environment.
Even if an attempt is made to carry out cultural vandalism in the current occupied territories of the Artsakh Republic, the photos, measurements and inscriptions of those monuments with their decodings and translations into Russian and various European languages will constitute substantial evidence for the accusation of cultural genocide conducted by Azerbaijan and remain an intact testament on what and how those monuments looked like before their state-sanctioned destruction by Azerbaijan.
In fact, the policy of destruction and alienation of the Armenian cultural heritage is presented to the international community as a step towards the restoration of the religious rights of the Caucasian Albanian people, using for this purpose the representatives of the Udi people, who are being held as political hostages in Azerbaijan. At present, every effort is being made to implement the project of the newly-created “Udian” church. It has become a powerful tool for falsifying history, a national goal that is anti-Armenian. The Azerbaijani authorities do not miss the opportunity to announce that the “Udian” church, the legal successor of the “Caucasian Albanian” church, has the right to manage the churches declared Caucasian Albanian in Artsakh, historical Utik, and even in present-day Turkey by Azerbaijani manipulator historians.
It is well known from the testimonies of many historical sources that the Caucasian Albanian church has been closely connected with the Armenian Church throughout history. Three centuries after the traditional period of apostolic preaching, it was officially established by Gregory the Illuminator and his grandson Grigoris in the early 4th century, and later throughout history has been a part of the diocesan system of the Armenian Church.
The jurisdiction of the Caucasian Albanian Church originally extended to the territory of the kingdom of Caucasian Albania, which included the territory from the left bank of the Kura River to the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountain range to the Derbent Pass (the episcopate was then located in Kapaghak, the capital of the kingdom). However, in 428, when the King of Kings of Sasanian Iran abolished the Arshakuni Kingdom of Armenia and established an administrative system of three marzpanates (provinces) in Transcaucasia, including peripheral regions of Armenia in neighboring marzpanates (Utik and Artsakh in Aghvank-Aran, and Gugark in Virk-Varjan), the jurisdiction of the Caucasian Albanian Church (in accordance with the principles of the medieval church-administrative division) also extended to the Armenian provinces of Utik and Artsakh, located on the left bank of the Kura River. In 462, after the provincial center was moved to the town of Chogh-Derbent, the seat of the Caucasian Albanian Church (which had already received the status of an archdiocese-Catholicosate) was established there. But soon, in the first decades of the 6th century, the seat of the Catholicosate was moved to the newly-built provincial town of Partav, seat of the marzban (in the region of Uti-Arandznak in the province of Utik), on the Armenian right bank of the Kura River.
At the beginning of the 16thcentury, the seat of the church was finally established in Gandzasar, in the center of Artsakh (in the previous century, Jalet, on the left bank of the Kura River, was also a Catholicosate). After that, it was known as the Catholicosate of Gandzasar, and as one of the dioceses of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and then in the 19thcentury it was transformed into a metropolitanate (archbishopric) of the Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin by the legal acts of the Russian tsarist authorities.
Surprisingly, in the Azerbaijani Caucasian Albanian rhetoric, a central place is given to the Udis – a people who, over the past 200 years, have been subjected to particularly cruel physical and moral persecution. In the 18thand 19thcenturies, the political process of forced Islamization and assimilation of the Udis led to the almost complete disappearance of this most visible representative of the Caucasian Albanian heritage. However, the population of at least 43 Udi villages in the Nukhi district, in particular, in the Sheki, Oguz (former Vardashen) and Gabala (former Kutkashen) regions retained the Udi (Caucasian Albanian) identity and, despite linguistic Turkization and Islamization, continued to venerate Caucasian Albanian historical monuments and sacred places, celebrated Caucasian Albanian holidays, marked their national identity on epitaphs, etc. Perhaps that is why during the interethnic clashes of 1918-1920 the Udiswere subjected to the cruelest physical violence, destruction and expulsion by the Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanis. The population of the last Udi settlements – Vardashen, Mirzabeylu, Sultan Nukhi, Jorurlu and most of the population of the village of Nizh, fleeing persecution, were forced to finally leave their homeland, where their ancestors had lived for hundreds of years. After the expulsion of the Udis, “historical truth was restored” in Azerbaijan: the entire Caucasian Albanian material and cultural heritage was “corrected” or destroyed.
The 2-3 thousand Udis remaining in Azerbaijan are being used today to implement the policy of denial of the Armenian cultural heritage pursued by the Azerbaijani authorities. It is not for nothing that Azerbaijan does not sign the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (French: Charteeuropéenne des langues regionalesouminoritaires) – the European convention for the protection and promotion support of languages used by traditional minorities.
Thus,
15:18,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. The exercise of the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination is inevitable, Member of Parliament of Armenia from the opposition “I Have the Honor” faction Hayk Mamijanyan said at the joint meeting of the committees of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan.
“Creativity is always welcome. Azerbaijan has its brand of creativity, Azerbaijan’s brand of solving the problem is to ignore its existence. According to Azerbaijan, there is no Nagorno Karabakh conflict, there are no prisoners of war, no banned weapons were used during the war, there is no elimination of cultural heritage and it doesn’t continue, there haven’t been terrorists in Artsakh, there haven’t been armed forces and there are no such forces in the sovereign territory of Armenia. This is a very interesting brand of solving the problem – to ignore the problems”, he said.
The lawmaker said ignoring, denying the problems has no future.
“The exercise of the right of the Artsakh people to self-determination is inevitable”, the MP said.
On behalf of former President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, who is currently in Azerbaijan’s wanted list, the lawmaker said that Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan.
10:20,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Composer, Honorary Artist of Armenia, member of the Union of Composers of Armenia, Levon Chaushian has passed away at the age of 75, the Union of Composers said, offering its condolences to the composer’s family, relatives and fans.
In 1969 he graduated from the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, majoring in composition in the class of Edvard Mirzoyan. In 1970 he studied piano with Georgi Sarajev. In 1972 he graduated from the post-graduate studies.
Since 1995, he has served as the chairman of the Armenian Composers Assembly, established by him.
His works were performed in the USA, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Portugal, Bulgaria, Greece.
In 2021, Chaushian was awarded with the Movses Khorenatsi Medal.
17:52,
YEREVAN, 17 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. The opportunities to unblock transport and economic ties in the region, particularly the opening of railways, are visible, the correspondent of ARMENPRESS reports from Vanadzor that Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan said in a briefing with journalists, commenting on the Prime Minister’s today’s speech about the Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, there are no new agreements at the moment, but in any case, the agreements on the issue will formulated in a written form in accordance with the legal requirements.
“There are common symmetrical perceptions that the potential for unblocking, in particular the opening of the railway, are visible”, said Mher Grigoryan.
To the question whether there are concrete agreements at the moment, the Deputy Prime Minister answered that at the moment there have been official statements on all the agreements.
Mher Grigoryan referred to the agreement between the Prime Minister of Armenia and the Azerbaijani side reached in Sochi on November 26, 2021 mediated by the President of Russia and reaffirmed during the December 14, 2021 meeting mediated by the President of the European Council on the restoration of the railway.
“In particular, the Brussels statement clearly states about the agreement, the approaches of the parties regarding the railway,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed hope at today’s February 17 sitting of the government that the agreements reached on the Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway will be registered in the form of a document, and the de jure process will be fully start.
On February 9, Pashinyan announced in the National Assembly that a working group has been set up to organize the construction of the Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway.
Middle East Eye [Michael Ben-Yair agrees with the Amnesty report and urges the international community to recognise apartheid] Feb. 11, 2022 Former Israeli attorney general Michael Ben-Yair said on Thursday that his country is an "apartheid regime" and urged the international community to recognise this reality and hold Israel accountable. In an article published in the Irish newspaper The Journal, Ben-Yair said he agreed with the Amnesty International report last week classifying Israel as an apartheid state. "It is with great sadness that I must also conclude that my country has sunk to such political and moral depths that it is now an apartheid regime," Ben-Yair said. The 79-year-old, who served as Israel's attorney general between 1993 and 1996, said Israeli courts uphold "discriminatory laws" to expel Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which contributes to the "ongoing domination over these territories." "It is the Israeli ministerial cabinet for settlements that approves every illegal settlement in the occupied territories. It was me, in my role as the attorney general who approved the expropriation of private Palestinian land in order to build infrastructure such as roads that have entrenched settlement expansion," he said. Millions of Palestinians between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea are being permanently deprived of their civil and political rights, Ben-Yair added, saying that the "status quo on the ground is a moral abomination." Ben-Yair's remarks have appeared a week after Amnesty became the latest organisation to label Israel an apartheid state, joining a cadre of human rights groups that have used the term to describe Israel's discriminatory treatment of Palestinians. Apartheid is a legal term defined by international law that refers to systematic oppression by one racial group over another. As well as serving as attorney general, Ben-Yair was an acting Supreme Court of Israel judge. Amnesty report In the 280-page-report, based upon research conducted from 2017 to 2021, Amnesty concluded that since 1948 Israel has pursued policies that "benefit Jewish Israelis while restricting the rights of Palestinians". "Israel's system of institutionalised segregation and discrimination against Palestinians, as a racial group, in all areas under its control amounts to a system of apartheid, and a serious violation of Israel's human rights obligations," Amnesty said. "The segregation is conducted in a systematic and highly institutionalised manner through laws, policies and practices, all of which are intended to prevent Palestinians from claiming and enjoying equal rights with Jewish Israelis." This is the case both for Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20 percent of the country's population, and the five million Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Prior to the report's release, Israel urged the rights group against publishing the study and branded the conclusions "false, biased and antisemitic". Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid said Amnesty "is just another radical organisation which echoes propaganda, without seriously checking the facts", accusing it of repeating "the same lies shared by terrorist organisations". "Israel isn't perfect, but we are a democracy committed to international law, open to criticism, with a free press and a strong and independent judicial system," Lapid said in a statement. The United States also rejected the apartheid label. "We reject the view that Israel's actions constitute apartheid. The department's own reports have never used such terminology," US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters last week. "We think that it is important, as the world's only Jewish state, that the Jewish people must not be denied their right to self-determination, and we must ensure there isn't a double standard being applied." Agnes Callamard, Amnesty's secretary general, refuted the criticism of the report as "propaganda and ideological" rather than evidence-based in an interview with Middle East Eye. "Have you done an assessment? Have you considered what is the meaning of apartheid under international law? Have you even tried to check whether the policies or practices of Israel meet that definition? No," Callamard said in response to the US position. "We cannot be held hostage by the government of Israel on those issues. We need to be very clear that our work is predicated on international human rights standards. And those accusations will not detract us."
17:29,
YEREVAN, 11 FEBUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 11 February, USD exchange rate down by 0.10 drams to 478.94 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 2.94 drams to 545.27 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.03 drams to 6.38 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 0.86 drams to 649.25 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 110.38 drams to 28261.23 drams. Silver price up by 1.55 drams to 359.63 drams. Platinum price down by 49.51 drams to 15814.03 drams.