Author: Vanyan Gary

On April 5, 2017, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh, the OSCE Mission will conduct a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan, in the direction of Hadrut region, near Karakhanbeyli, Press Service of the Artsakh Foreign Ministry informs.

From the positions of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh, the monitoring will be conducted by Field Assistants to the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Michael Olaru (Moldova) and Ghenadie Petrica (Moldova), as well as staff-member of the OSCE High-Level Planning Group Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Farrelli (Ireland).

The authorities of the Republic of Artsakh have expressed their readiness to assist in conducting the monitoring and to ensure the security of the OSCE Mission members.

Police have identified Khalid Masood as the man who carried out the Westminster attack, as the death toll rose to five, the BBC reports.

Masood, 52, was born as Adrian Elms in Kent and was shot dead by police. He had not been the subject of any current police investigations.

PC Keith Palmer, 48, Aysha Frade and US tourist Kurt Cochran, 54, were killed on Wednesday, while a 75-year-old man died on Thursday evening.

The so-called Islamic State group has said it was behind the attack.

Three women and five men were arrested in London and Birmingham on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts following Wednesday’s attack.

– The Armenian presence in Europe stretches from London to Larnaca, Lisbon to Lviv; the Armenian Catholic Mkhitarian Congregation is among the most impactful examples of that legacy and this year marks a three-century-long presence in one of Europe’s most iconic towns.

The vaporetto leaves from San Zaccaria to one of the most unique corners of Venice, a testament to the centuries of multi-cultural history of that magnificent city. The unique corner is really an island – Isola di San Lazzaro degli Armeni, or the Island of St. Lazarus of the Armenians. This year marks the 300th anniversary of that island becoming home to the Mkhitarian or Mechitarist Congregation.

Mkhitar was born in Sebastia (modern-day Sivas, in central Turkey) in 1676. He joined the Armenian Church at a time when it was facing the challenges of a modernising world. Drawn to Western Christianity and its already-established traditions of education and publishing, Mkhitar ran his own printing house in Constantinople (Istanbul), bringing together other like-minded individuals who longed to rejuvenate and invigorate a community at times struggling in the social and political milieu of the 17th century Ottoman Empire. Facing the resistance of the authorities, Abbot Mkhitar and his followers, who established the congregation named after the founder in 1700, spent some time moving from place to place – first to Greece, then up the Adriatic – before finally establishing themselves on what used to be a leper colony off Venice in 1717.

In the centuries that followed, the Mkhitarian fathers had a profound effect on research, education, and publishing in Europe generally, and for the Armenian world in particular. Still today, the monastery they founded continues to produce books; Venice is one of two cities in the world that can boast having published at least one Armenian book every year for three hundred years or more, with just a few interruptions (the other city being Istanbul). Whether as first-time publications of ancient manuscripts, translations of significant European works, or the other way around, the Armenian legacy has been showcased to the European and broader world through the efforts of these monks, and the doors of Europe have likewise been opened for Armenians thanks to their activities.

“The Mkhitarian Congregation has always served as a bridge,” says Father Serop Jamourlian, “both for tying the Armenian reality to the European world in terms of scholarship and spirituality, and also as a bridge of universal human values: it is a representative of the East in the West and the conveyor of Western ideas to the East.”

Perhaps the most significant impact the Congregation has had involves the development of language and identity. It was the Mkhitarian fathers who first published modern dictionaries of the Armenian language. Modern scientific approaches to research and education also owe much to these Armenian priests in Venice, who once upon a time ran a network of some thirty schools across Europe and the Middle East.

The reputation of San Lazzaro was so strong that Napoleon Bonaparte offered that monastery special permission to continue functioning even after he shut down other religious institutions in Venice in 1810. A few years later, the island’s most famous guest – Lord Byron – spent some months during 1816-1817 studying the Armenian language.

The Mechitarists have suffered some setbacks over the course of their rich history, such as a significant split in the Congregation that led to a second monastery being established in Vienna in 1811. They reunited in 2000. The two had meanwhile carried on Abbot Mkhitar’s mission diligently. Both Venice and Vienna are known as centres of learning for the Armenian world.

Although the Mkhitarian Congregation is not as active as it used to be, with a smaller membership and growing challenges within a generally more secular global environment, it continues to run four schools in places reflecting the footprint of the Armenian Diaspora: Beirut, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, and Istanbul. A school was established in Yerevan, in the Republic of Armenia, in the year 2007 – a good indication of the renewal of Diaspora-Homeland ties since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Special commemorations are planned for September during this 300th anniversary year – celebrations alongside the people of Italy and Venice. Father Serop emphasises that their welcoming and hospitable attitude towards the Armenians is based on the experience of many centuries of deep ties. What lies in store for the Mkhitarian Congregation? Father Serop says that the mission has always been and remains, “Service to the Armenian nation”.

Armenia is open to normalizing relations with Turkey without any preconditions, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said at a joint press conference with visiting Foreign Minister of Greece Nikos Kotzias.

Minister Nalbandian said he hopes Turkey will once adopt a similar stance and will respect the agreements reached.

Minister Nalbandian reminded about the Armenian President’s initiative to normalize relations with Turkey without preconditions, which the latter turned down. “Although two protocols were signed, Turkey refused to ratify and implement those,” he said.

Minister Nalbandian said that “as a nation subjected to the first genocide of the 20th century, Armenia feels obliged to make efforts to prevent new genocides, new crimes against humanity.”

“We are taking steps on different international platforms, including the UN in that direction,” Minister Nalabdnian said, adding that a number of resolutions have already been adopted.

The Minister reminded that the UN recently accepted Armenia’s initiative to proclaim December 9 as the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandisn had a phone conversation with US Secretary of Stae Rex Tillerson.

The parties discussed a wide range of issues on the agenda of bilateral cooperation, expansion of trade relations, a number of pressing regional and global issues.

Secretary Tillerson expressed gratitude for Armenia’s considerable contribution to international peacekeeping missions and praised the country for sheltering tens of thousand Syrian refugees.

Edward Nalbandian and Rex Tillerson exchanged views on the steps towards furthering the Karabakh peace process. The Armenian Foreign Minister  presented the recent developments in the conflict zone.

In this context the interlocutors stressed the need to implement the agreements reached in Vienna and St. Petersburg.

Secretary Tillerson assured of US willingness to maintain active support for the peaceful resolution of the conflict.

President Serzh Sargsyan met with the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini.

The President of Armenia stated that the meeting with Mrs. Mogherini was taking place at an important for Armenia and the EU juncture: a day before President Sargsyan and President Tusk announced the conclusion of the negotiations on the new framework agreement.

The parties discussed a wide range of issues pertinent to the further development and strengthening of the Armenia-EU relations. The President underscored that it is proper indeed to speak of joint accomplishments of the last two years.

The parties spoke about the reforms carried out in Armenia in different areas, large-scale works implemented after the constitutional changes aimed at the developing and strengthening of democratic institutions in Armenia, as well as about the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The interlocutors discussed the Karabakh peace process, existing problems and concerns.

The President of Armenia spoke in detail about the destructive position of Azerbaijan, about the provocations regularly incited by the Azeris at the contact line with Artsakh and Armenia’s state border, their refusal to implement agreements reached in Vienna and Saint Petersburg, which, according to President Sargsyan, challenges the years-long efforts of the international community aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict and the entire peace process.

Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will visit Germany February 16-17 to participate in the Munich Security Conference.

Minister Nalbandian is expected to meet with OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the sidelines of the Conference.

Edward Nalbandian will hold a number of bilateral meetings, as well.

Gagik Tsarukyan has been elected President of the Prosperous Armenia Party at the 9^th Convention of the Party held at the Sports and Concert Complex today.

He has also been elected President of the Political Board.

Naira Zohrabyan, who had been heading the party since February 2015, announced earlier this month se would step down.

The Azerbaijani side resorted to provocative actions hours after failing to lead the OSCE monitoring mission to its frontlines. The rival shelled the military posts located in the eastern direction of the NKR Defense Army between 17:00 and 8:50 today, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The Azerbaijani forces used cannons and mortars of different calibers in the eastern and northern (Talish) directions.

The Armenian side reports no losses as a result of the heavy shelling.

The NKR Defense Ministry has declared that “the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan bears full responsibility for the provocative actions and their consequences.

“Should the provocations continues, the NKR Defense Army reserves the right to take relevant measures to ensure the security of Artsakh’s state border,” the Ministry said.

European Union officials should press President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to free unjustly imprisoned political activists, journalists, and other government critics, said today. EU officials should also urge Aliyev to end the crackdown on independent groups and allow them to operate without undue government interference.

President Aliyev visits Brussels on February 6, 2017, to inaugurate talks on a new partnership agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU to enhance political and economic ties between them. He is set to meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Council Donald Tusk, and other top EU officials.

“Time and time again, the EU has praised courageous human rights defenders, pledging to ‘throw the EU’s full weight behind them,’” said Lotte Leicht, EU director at Human Rights Watch. “As the EU and Azerbaijan forge a new era of cooperation, now is the time to make good on those EU promises and not sweep Aliyev’s crackdown on dissent, and basic human rights under the red carpet.”

In a signed by 76 human rights groups worldwide and sent to top EU officials, the groups said the EU should use the meetings with President Aliyev to secure concrete commitments for urgently needed rights reforms in Azerbaijan.

In recent years, the Azerbaijan government has made concerted efforts to restrict independent activism, critical journalism, and opposition political activity by imprisoning and harassing many activists, prominent human rights defenders, and journalists. Draconian laws and regulations impede the operation of independent groups and their ability to secure funding.

Following pressure by Azerbaijan’s international bilateral and multilateral partners, including the EU, in 2016, the Azerbaijani authorities released 17 human rights defenders, journalists, and political activists. They had been convicted on politically motivated charges, including narcotics and weapons possession, tax evasion, hooliganism, incitement, and even treason, and sentenced to long prison terms.