Friday,
Pashinian Demands Faster Tax Reforms
• Emil Danielyan
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (C), the newly appointed chief of the
State Revenue Committee, Davit Ananian (L), and his predecessor Vartan
Haritunian meet senior SRC officials, Yerevan, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian demanded a more radical improvement of tax
administration in Armenia on Friday as he presented the new head of the State
Revenue Committee (SRC) to senior officials from the government agency.
Pashinian said reforms carried out by the previous SRC chief, Vartan
Harutiunian, are “not sufficient.” The SRC must avoid “hampering economic
entities” and the at the same time vigorously combat tax evasion and increase
tax revenue, he said.
Pashinian also told Harutiunian’s successor, Davit Ananian, to “root out
corruption” among tax and customs officers that has long been a major source of
complaints by Armenian businesspeople.
“The success of our efforts to transform the positive energy accumulated as a
result of recent political developments into concrete economic results greatly
depends on the work of the SRC, the tax and customs bodies,” he declared.
“Mr. Prime Minister, I can assure you that we will accomplish the tasks which
the country’s government will set for us,” said Ananian.
Ananian worked as a deputy minister of finance from October 2016 until his
appointment as SRC chief. The 46-year-old was a tax inspector in the 1990s and
ran a private tax and accounting consultancy from 2006-2016.
Armenia - A tax office in Yerevan, 8Nov2017.
Harutiunian, who is close to former Prime Minister Karen Karapetian, resigned
on Thursday. He pledged to embark on a major reform reforms after being named
to run the SRC in October 2016.
The total amount of taxes and customs duties collected by the SRC rose by more
than 7 percent last year, helping the government to cut the state budget
deficit to 3.3 percent of GDP. The SRC reported an even faster rise in state
revenue in the first quarter of this year.
At 1.16 trillion drams ($2.4 billion), the Armenian government’s 2017 tax
revenue was equivalent to almost 21 percent of GDP. The proportion is still
quite low by international standards, reflecting the scale of tax evasion in
Armenia.
The tax-to-GDP ratio stood at less than 18 percent in 2012. It rose by 0.5
percentage points in 2017, according to the SRC.
Harutiunian, whom Pashinian publicly thanked for his work, defended his track
record in a farewell statement to the SRC employees issued on Friday. “The
great effort to improve the [tax collection] system and the implementation of
effective projects have borne fruit: relations between business and the state
structure have been moved on to a plane of dialogue and partnership,” he said.
The International Monetary Fund praised the Karapetian government’s “efforts to
improve tax administration” already in June 2017. It said that they have
“contributed to the higher-than-projected revenue collection.”
New Justice Minister Warns Backers Of Jailed Opposition Gunmen
• Artak Hambardzumian
Armenia - Supporters of jailed members of an armed opposition group block a
street in Yerevan, 16 May 2018.
Justice Minister Artak Zeynalian on Friday urged supporters of an armed
opposition group that seized a police station in Yerevan in 2016 to avoid
destabilizing the situation in Armenia in the wake of what he called a
democratic revolution.
In recent days, several dozen people blocked a major street and a court
building in the Armenian capital to demand the immediate release of the three
dozen gunmen standing three separate trials on criminal charges stemming from
their July 2016 standoff with security forces which left three police officers
dead.
They unblocked the street on Thursday following an appeal from Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian. The latter said these and other disruptive protests held
across the country are “not understandable” after the success of his “velvet
revolution.”
Zeynalian, who was appointed as justice minister last week, echoed the
statements by Pashinian as well as former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, saying
that “an atmosphere of lawlessness could ruin the country.”
“Everyone must be conscious of their actions and make sure that they don’t
damage the common interest,” he told a news conference. “This revolution is a
unique revolution for the world and each of us is responsible for it. If
something crosses our mind then we must not exclude that it may contradict
others’ opinions.”
Armenia - Artak Zeynalian of the opposition Yelk bloc at a parliament session
in Yerevan, 12Dec2017.
While unblocking Yerevan’s Arshakuniats Avenue, the radical protesters
continued to surround on Friday a nearby court building where hearings are held
in the ongoing trial of the ten leading members of the armed group. They thus
prevented security forces from transporting the defendants back to their
prisons.
Representatives of the protesters met with Pashinian late on Thursday. Details
of the meeting were not immediately made public.
Pashinian, who was elected prime minister by the parliament on May 8,
reiterated earlier this week that one of his immediate tasks is to secure the
release of all “political prisoners” through solely legal mechanisms. But he
said the case of the gunmen that had seized a police base in Yerevan’s Erebuni
district is “a bit different” because of the three police casualties. He said
it must be resolved as a result of public “discussions” that must involve
relatives of the three slain policemen.
The leader of the gunmen, Varuzhan Avetisian, condemned Pashinian’s remarks as
“buffoonery” and “false humanism” in the courtroom on Wednesday. He again
strongly defended the 2016 attack, saying that casualties are inevitable during
such “rebellions.”
New Anti-Corruption Body Planned In Armenia
• Artak Hambardzumian
Armenia - A government building in Yerevan, 29 March 2018.
Armenia’s new government will set up a new and powerful state body in an effort
to fulfill its pledges to eradicate endemic corruption in the country, Justice
Minister Artak Zeynalian said on Friday.
Zeynalian said Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet will be more “resolute”
than the previous Armenian governments in combatting bribery, cronyism and
other corrupt practices.
“The government is planning to create soon an anti-corruption body equipped
with necessary legal guarantees and instruments,” he told a news conference.
“That body will be empowered to take preventive, operational-investigative and
educational measures. I want to stress that everything will be done to ensure
its complete independence.”
Zeynalian gave no further details, saying that the Justice Ministry is still
working on a legal “concept” for the anti-graft body. Armenian civic
organizations will also be involved in the effort, he said.
Pashinian promised, among other things, to “root out” corruption when he was
elected prime minister by the parliament on May 8 after weeks of massive street
protests led by him. He had for years accused the previous government of not
tackling the problem in earnest.
Armenia has until now had two anti-corruption bodies. One of them has advised
the prime minister while the other has processed mandatory income and asset
declarations from the country’s 600 most high-ranking state officials. Serzh
Sarkisian’s government was due to give the latter body more powers last month.
Sarkisian declared in November that combatting corruption has become “a matter
of national security.” His administration’s declared anti-graft efforts were
for years dismissed as a gimmick by opposition politicians and civil society
members.
Armenia ranked, together with Macedonia, Ethiopia and Vietnam, only 107th out
of 180 countries and territories evaluated in Transparency International’s 2017
Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released in February.
Armenian PM Eyes U.S. Support For Reform Agenda
Armenia - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (R) meets with U.S.
Ambassador Richard Mills in Yerevan, .
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Friday that he would welcome
U.S. assistance to wide-ranging reforms planned by his government.
Pashinian met with the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Richard Mills, to discuss
the political situation in Armenia, U.S.-Armenian relations and regional
security.
“The Armenian government is interested in and attaches great importance to
partnership with the American government and its possible assistance to
democratization, the fight against corruption, human rights protection and
reforms planned in other areas,” he told Mills.
“We are full of energy to achieve our goals and concrete results, taking into
account the positive atmosphere in the country,” he added in remarks publicized
by his press office.
Mills was reported to express Washington’s readiness to support the reform
agenda of the new Armenian government. “The U.S. government is committed to
supporting your stated goals of democracy, human rights, transparency and
accountability, which will improve Armenia’s business environment and make the
country more attractive to U.S. investors,” said the envoy.
In a congratulatory message sent to the new Armenian premier earlier this week,
U.S. President Donald Trump said he looks forward to “working with you on the
many areas of mutual interest for our two countries.” Those include
“strengthening trade ties, democratic institutions, and regional security,”
wrote Trump.
The U.S. State Department issued a similar statement hours after the Armenian
parliament voted to elect Pashinian as prime minister on May 8 following weeks
of massive anti-government protests organized by him. It said Washington will
“work closely” with his government.
Mills met with Armenia’s newly appointed Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan later
in the day. According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, the two men reaffirmed
their countries’ readiness to step up bilateral military cooperation.
Press Review
“Zhamanak” says that recent days’ protests staged in various parts of Armenia
by groups of disgruntled citizens may have been spontaneous or organized by
political circles keen to undercut Nikol Pashinian’s government. The paper
claims that virtually all political forces other than Pashinian’s Civil
Contract party are interested in the failure of his government. “This situation
should not have been unexpected for Pashinian’s team,” it says. “The questions
is which steps have been prepared for that.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” says that what happened in Armenia was a political
struggle not between two rivals groups but between the people and “a small
group that had usurped power.” “And what is happening today is a continuation
of that struggle which has nothing to do with internal political processes,”
writes the paper. It says that Serzh Sarkisian and his clique are now trying to
“again sit on the people’s necks.” Sarkisian is using his Republican Party
(HHK) as a “weapon for achieving that goal,” it says.
“One of the reasons for the revolution is that the authorities suffered a
crushing defeat in the propaganda war,” editorializes “Aravot.” “It emerged
that the [government] propagandists lagged behind modern life and were under
the influence of stereotypes formed in the 1970s.” In particular, the paper
says Sarkisian’s administration for years ordered TV channels to broadcast his
10-minute speeches in full, causing a “negative propaganda effect” on
Armenians. “Now Pashinian appears on air a lot, but nobody is forced to show
him,” it says. “The prime minister is shown because that is of interest to TV
viewers for the simple reason that he became prime minister by the will of the
people.”
“After the victory of the velvet revolution many also expect a change in the
composition of the Central Election Commission (CEC),” writes “Zhoghovurd.”
“This is especially necessary before the fresh parliamentary elections because
the current CEC headed by Tigran Mukuchian is associated with electoral fraud.”
The paper quotes Mukuchian as saying that he has no plans to resign.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org
Category: 2018
TelAviv: ‘Our goal isn’t a jab in the eye’
Arutz Sheva
Thursday
‘Our goal isn’t a jab in the eye’
by Mordechai Sones
Deputy FM says no intention in political establishment to relinquish relations with Turkey despite events of recent days.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said today that Israel does not intend to sever relations with Turkey.
“After many consultations, including with the Prime Minister, it was decided we aren’t going to cut ties with Turkey. It’s a huge and important country in the region, all our flight routes are through Turkey, there’s massive trade with them, and there’s a large Jewish community there that needs Israeli support. We need to protect all this,” Hotovely said in an interview on Reshet Bet.
She said the last steps taken, including summoning the Turkish embassy official to the Foreign Ministry, were required. “Erdoğan is a dictator with blood on his hands, and it was impossible to ignore what happened. We chose to take an intermediate stage, not an extreme one. We paid him back what he dealt us.”
She also referred to initiatives to recognize the Armenian holocaust. “Our goal isn’t a jab in the eye there’s a moral interest regarding the Armenian Holocaust and the Jewish people must be sensitive to it, and this issue needs to be examined carefully.”
The Deputy Foreign Minister also spoke about the problems of Israeli public relations vis-à-vis tension on the Gaza border. “In the last month we’ve done a lot of intensive briefing, and we’ve conveyed a message that Israel is defending itself against terrorists, and in some countries the message has definitely gotten through.”
Conservation works completed on two historic churches in Famagusta
Cyprus Mail
Conservation works completed on two historic churches in Famagusta
File photo: Takis Hadjidemetriou left and Ali Tuncay of Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage in front of St Mary of the Armenians Church-UNDP Kerim-Belet.
A ceremony will be held on Saturday May 26in Famagusta in the north to mark the completion of conservation works in two historic churches, located in the north-western part of the walled city. Works at St. Mary of the Armenians Church and the Carmelite Church were fully funded by the European Commission and were implemented by the UNDP, in partnership with the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage.
The Armenian church is the community’s first monument to be restored with the contribution of the bicommunal Technical Committee, while more projects in the area are expected to finish soon.
The two churches are part of the Martinengo cluster, adjacent to the namesake bastion that was also recently revamped by the Technical Committee.
Takis Hadjidemetriou, the Greek Cypriot Head of the Technical Committee, and Vartkes Mahdessian, the Representative of the Armenians in the House of Representatives, spoke to the Cyprus News Agency, underlining the importance of this project.
Both churches are part of the multicultural fabric that characterised the old city of Famagusta, as well as Cyprus, Hadjidemetriou said, adding that the area was now open to visitors. He noted the presence of various other monuments in the vicinity, like the Martinengo bastion, Tanners’ mosque (the former Jacobite church), St. Anne Maronite church and the Greek Orthodox St. George Exorinos church.
He said the significance of the Armenian church was tremendous, not just for the community, but also for Armenians worldwide, as well as for Cyprus and called on Armenians and the wider public to attend the ceremony.
He said finally that conservation works at Tanners’ mosque and St. Anne are soon to be completed, probably this September.
Mahdessian said the church had a great significance for the small Armenian community of Famagusta and said they hoped to secure a permit, in order to hold a service there soon.
He expressed the wish for the project to mark the beginning of more restorations, underlining in particular the urgent works needed at Sourp Magar Armenian monastery.
St. Mary of the Armenians was probably built after the middle of the 14th century by Armenian refugees from the port of Lajazzo or Aegeae and was part of a monastic complex dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Carmelite Church, also known as St. Mary of Carmel, was part of the same complex, built between 1324 and 1366.
Above Politics, Story of a ReLOVEution
El Vaquero: Glendale Community College
Thursday
Above Politics, Story of a ReLOVEution
by Marian Sahakyan
On March 31, he gathered his thoughts, his soon-to-be revolutionary comrades and embarked on a journey, many believed would fail.
For the next 14 days, the group would walk some 200 kilometers, covering villages and towns stretching between Gyumri and Yerevan, the two largest Armenian cities.
Nikol Pashinyan, 42, believed that people reserved the right to elect their own officials and leaders and for the past 20 years of his career as an investigative journalist and politician, he spoke up against the corrupt, authoritarian leading regime of Armenia.
The fact that Pashinyan was an oppositioner became clear at a very young age. His kindergarten teacher described him as an outspoken young man, who often turned other students against supervisors.
As his father, Vova Pashinyan contested, teenager Nikol organized anti-Soviet rallies in their small hometown of Ijevan, talking about his hopes of one day bringing Armenia to its own free state.
As a journalism student at Yerevan State University, then 20-year-old Pashinyan compiled screeds exploiting the corruption that rich politicians and businessmen often engaged in. As a result, he got kicked out of university in 1995, failing to receive his red diploma.
This did not stop the man’s agenda, as he was setting himself up to change everything.
At war with fraud
Pashinyan’s battle with the Republican Party of Armenia started many years ago, though took its highest peak in 2008, when Serzh Sargsyan ironically earned the people’s vote in a fraudulent election, taking the title of president. The future was not looking too bright for the country, to say the least.
Pashinyan got involved with other opposition leaders and started to organize peaceful rallies against the newly elected president. All of this went downhill on March 1, 2008. The date became a dark day of history in the ex-Soviet country, as 10 people died in clashes between police forces and supporters of the defeated candidate.
Pashinyan’s name became closely related to the tragic events of that day as authorities accused him of seeking to seize power, by the provocation of mass violence. Of course, these were accusations that were not true.
After hiding for months, the activist turned himself in, creating one of the most controversial cases of political imprisonment. From 2009-2011, he spent time in jail, next to criminals and killers, but was let out under a prisoner amnesty scheme.
He was elected into parliament the next year in 2012, and has been fighting against corruption since.
Transparency
As previous administrations spent country money on fancy vacations cars and homes, making it none of the people’s business about where this money came from. Pashinyan came in and took this by storm and proved that people do have the right to know it all.
During the recent movement, which he called a ‘Velvet Revolution’ people donated money to be used for the moment. What Pashinyan was out to do next, left the people nothing short of shocked and surprised. Pashinyan and his team put a list together of all the donated money and where it was spent. They later published these on Facebook and other media outlets.
When he was announced prime minister of Armenia, after the month-long successful peaceful protest movement, Pashinyan got to work. He went live on Facebook and showed the people everything that his new office featured.
This had become a tradition since the early revolutionary days, or rather an expectation that the prime minister would go live on Facebook to talk, announce his plans, tell success stories and catch up with the people.
Tert.am/ Courtesy Photo
The message on Pashinyan’s cap became a favorite among protesters, encouraging them to act with ‘spirit.’
The people’s man
Walking so many kilometers under the sun, he had shed his beer belly quite a bit, gotten a nice tan and a beard. The 42-year-old now rocks a new salt-and-pepper beard, which surprisingly made him more approachable. People even launched a campaign to encourage him to keep the beard, which he did during the past week of his time in office.
His signature camouflage t-shirt, baseball cap and rucksack became a symbol of revolution. His incredible sense of humor allowed for media to take a tour of his backpack. As he described, it had everything he would need. Things like medicine, his laptop and a powerbank phone charger, so he wouldn’t miss a Facebook live with his people.
He walked alongside with the people and didn’t put himself before anyone. Even as a prime minister, he often walks around the city, to make sure he has direct contact with the Armenian citizens.
He used social media to promote the movement and his plans to the younger generations. He told the people when he made a mistake, along with his ups and all the downs.
Pashinyan became the people’s prime minister far before he could get the official title. His charismatic, funny and very simple character, shaped the new Armenian soul, an identity. That of a winner.
The future
As previous administrations came and went, leaving a large negative impact on the people of the country and its economy, Pashinyan is slowly restoring what was lost.
Inviting Daron Acemoglu, a world-renowned economist, to come up with strategies to not only save but to grow the economy.
On multiple occasions, he has addressed the Diasporans, encouraging them to start investing money in the country. He also promised that these people, who were forcibly pushed out of their country, due to economic, political and household instability, will come back home, to a new Armenia.
“I am serving the Republic of Armenia, and the people of Armenia,” he said during his first speech as newly elected prime minister. “Your victory is not that I became prime minister, but the fact that you chose who did.”
All eyes in the world are on Pashinyan, as he makes important changes to the far-too-corrupt system that he was handed. In the past week, he has gotten rid of old ministers and assigned young, innovative and smart individuals to these posts.
As we all sit in our homes and watch what goes on, we must realize that this is just the beginning of the big Armenian revolution and hope for the best for where it is headed.
Immigrant will represent Utah at Miss USA pageant
The Salt Lake Tribune
Thursday
Immigrant will represent Utah at Miss USA pageant
by Scott D. Pierce
On TV • Turkmenistan native Narine Ishhanov wants to win for (legal) immigrants — and to prove a point
Less than 14 years after she arrived in America knowing just four words of English, the immigrant from Turkmenistan was crowned Miss Utah-USA.
On Monday, she’ll compete for the title of Miss USA and the chance to represent her adopted country in the Miss Universe pageant.
“I feel very blessed and grateful for this experience,” Ishhanov said. “It almost feels unreal, I’ll be honest with you. It’s, like, ‘Oh, wow! I’m competing for Miss USA!‘”
The 24-year-old just graduated from the University of Utah, and she’s applying to dental schools. She owns and operates her own trucking company. She’s an ambassador for Utah’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Action Center.
So a little thing like appearing on national television (Monday, 7 p.m., Fox/Ch. 13) doesn’t faze her at all. Ishhanov said she’s not nervous going into the Miss USA competition, “which kind of scares me, in a way,” she said with a laugh. “I feel like I should be nervous, but I’m more excited.
“I want to show who I am to the world,” she said. “And I want to show people that you can be anyone and come from anywhere to represent the state that you love. I want to just explain and show everybody how accepting my state was with me and my family, and how caring and supporting everybody here was.”
Driven to succeed
Ishhanov is clearly driven, and she believes “it comes mostly from my parents. Just watching them work so hard — never taking a break or going on vacations. They don’t even know what a vacation is.”
Ishhanov, whose background is Armenian, was born in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan — formerly part of the Soviet Union. Her father came to the United States in 2000; she, her mother and one of her brothers followed in 2004, when she was 11.
Her mother works in housekeeping at the U. Medical Center; her father is an independent contractor with FedEx.
“Watching them sacrifice so much for me and my brothers has taught me to be really driven. And a little bit harder on myself, maybe,” Ishhanov said. “I am driven, and I never want to complain about how hard life is because of watching them work so hard for us.”
Shattering expectations
Not surprisingly, a good many people are surprised when they learn that Ishhanov is representing Utah at the Miss USA pageant. She is not what they expected.
“It’s interesting to me that people out of state, they always have this certain image of what Miss Utah would be like,” she said. “And they see completely something else. They’re really shocked, for sure.”
Because she’s not blond. She’s not LDS. And she has a bit of an accent.
“The first thing I’m asked, definitely, is ‘Are you Mormon?’ And when I tell them, no, I’m not, they’re really shocked,” she said.
(Ishhanov is Eastern Orthodox.)
“And then the next question I’m asked is if my family is polygamists,” Ishhanov said with a laugh. “Of course that question has to come up. I’m like, ‘No — but I do live in Bluffdale.’”
Representing immigrants
Ishhanov doesn’t shy away from the idea that she’s representing immigrants at the Miss USA pageant — but she makes it clear she’s representing legal immigrants.
“My view on this is we live in America, and I want to represent everyone who wants to follow the law and all the rules in becoming citizens of the United States — just like my parents,” she said. “That’s how I feel about it.”
Ishhanov obtained U.S. citizenship because she was under 18 when her parents were naturalized — just barely.
“I became a citizen of the United States three days before my 18th birthday,” she said. “It’s a long, scary process, and if I would’ve turned 18 before I became a citizen, then I would’ve had to go through that process myself. I got really lucky there.”
No empty-headed model
In addition to everything else, Ishhanov works the occasional modeling job. And, several times, the photographers “did not believe me that I’m studying chemistry and psychology and I want to go to dental school. They’re like, ‘We would never think you’re that type of person.’”
Because, apparently, she’s attractive.
“That made me feel almost aggressive, in a way, to be even more driven,” Ishhanov said, adding it “makes me want even more to become the next Miss USA” and, eventually, a dentist working with Doctors Without Borders.
“We’ll see how the years go by. I need to get into dental school first,” she said with a laugh.
Proud parents
Ishhanov said her parents couldn’t be more excited about her winning the Miss Utah-USA pageant and competing to be Miss USA.
“They would’ve never thought, 10 years ago, their daughter would be competing for the title of Miss USA,” she said. “Coming from where we come from, where there’s absolutely no freedom for women, and now I’m going to do this is a huge deal.”
Ishhanov’s parents first raised the idea of immigrating to the U.S. when their only daughter was just a baby.
“My mother was sitting with my father watching TV and she just said, ‘There is no future here for our children. What are we going to do?’ And then my dad brought up the idea about coming to America,” Ishhanov said, adding that was a “very dangerous” idea in Turkmenistan at the time.
Her father came to the U.S., obtained a green card and began working here in 2000. It wasn’t until 2004 that Ishhanov, her mother and brother came here.
“After 9/11, it was extremely difficult to move or to even visit America,” she said. “We didn’t see my dad for four years before we finally came here. It was an extremely tough process.”
But one that was worth all the struggle.
“They decided to come here for us to have more opportunities, to have equality, to have education and to have an actual future,” Ishhanov said.
She was almost 11 at the time, “so I have memories of everything there. And, truly, I will never, ever take this country for granted because of where we come from.”
She recalled attending high school here in Utah and hearing students complain about “politics or the school lunches or the teachers. And I’m just thinking to myself, ‘At least you guys don’t have teachers slapping you on the hands with rulers,’ which still happens today. It happened to me.”
Warm welcome
Ishhanov, her mother and brother moved into “a cute little house” in Sandy her father prepared for them, and she was overwhelmed by the welcome.
“I was just amazed by how welcoming the whole neighborhood was,” she said. “They visited us. They brought us gifts and food. It was such a warm feeling.
“Not every state is going to be so welcoming like Utah is. You don’t usually come across a neighbor who’s going to come to your house with fresh, warm cookies and welcome you to the neighborhood. We’re really lucky to live here.”
Quick learner
When Ishhanov arrived in Utah, she spoke four words of English — “hi,” “bye,” “boy” and “girl.” Which proved a challenge when she started school here.
“I didn’t understand anything,” she said. “I had to learn English the hard way, by just being in school.”
Well, that and by watching TV.
“You’re going to laugh. I watched a lot of Nickelodeon. I watched ‘SpongeBob,’” Ishhanov said.
She picked it up rather rapidly, however — English is her fifth spoken language — and surprised everyone after she’d been in school here for a year.
“I picked up reading really quick and spelling really quick. That was really easy for me,” Ishhanov said. “And, actually, in about a year, I ended up winning the spelling bee at my elementary school.”
The U.S. Won’t Say ‘Genocide’ But Cares About Armenian Democracy?
Counter Punch
The U.S. Won’t Say ‘Genocide’ But Cares About Armenian Democracy?
by MAX PARRY
“Did Armenia just dance its way to revolution?”
Mass demonstrations that have shut down Armenia leading to the replacement of its prime minister have queued the obligatory western media push for regime change. Already dubbed a ‘Velvet Revolution’ after the 1989 protests that collapsed communist Czechoslovakia, there have been so many ‘color revolutions’ in former Soviet states that they colors are being recycled by the NGOs. The first crowds gathered in April in response to the Republican Party of Armenia’s decision to nominate outgoing leader Serzh Sargsyan as the sole candidate for Prime Minister after having already served as the country’s President since 2008. Despite its constitutional legality, this was perceived by many to be a consolidation of power as he would have retained the same authority since the country just transitioned to a prime ministerial system. Predictably, the western media commentary has framed the protests in the context of the new Cold War by emphasizing the ruling party’s links to ‘Kremlin oligarchs’ and Armenia’s presence within Russia’s sphere of influence. However, they have been forced to admit that the stated aim of the critical mass thus far has been limited to preventing Sargsyan’s interpreted power grab. Otherwise, Putin would nefariously intervene like in Georgia and Ukraine, right? The Washington Post didn’t find it important to mention the enormous political and historical reasons Armenia maintains close ties to Moscow, because presenting an accurate account of a political crisis always takes a backseat to the priority of demonizing Russia.
The genocide of 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians, perpetrated beginning in 1915 by the “Young Turk” (Committee of Unity and Progress) authorities of the Ottoman Empire, has been recognized as an indisputable fact by the vast majority of the world’s scholars and academics. There is overwhelming historical evidence both of its occurrence and premeditated planning. As a result, the governments of many countries have chosen to recognize it as a genocide. In addition to Russia and many countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America, the governments of France, Italy, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and others (a total of 29 worldwide) have all officially acknowledged that what was done to the Ottoman Armenians constitutes genocide. Some like France have even forbidden its denial by legal prosecution with a one year jail sentence as punishment. Although many individual politicians and institutions within America have acknowledged it, the U.S. government to this day has not officially done so and has taken deliberate measures in avoidance of it. The go-to excuse has always been one of ‘realpolitik’ and the complicated dimensions of the U.S. relationship with the government of Turkey, a thinly veiled admittance of its selfish political motivations. The Ottoman Empire’s successor state is a fellow NATO member and longtime strategic ally for the U.S. in the region as the bridge between the Middle East and Europe. Although the U.S. has failed to call it a genocide, the Republic of Turkey and the Turkic state of Azerbaijan are the sole governments in the world who explicitly reject the use of the term. Only American exceptionalism could permit the media to push for regime change in Armenia while letting its own leaders get away with not recognizing the genocide.
The empire’s fourth estate has neglected to take it to task for this controversial policy despite the genocide’s universal confirmation by the world’s intellectuals and historians. A perfect example is the broken campaign promise by candidate Barack Obama in 2008 after he reversed his position on the issue once in office as President, caving into the powerful influence and millions spent by the Turkish government’s lobby. Once the Obama administration became intimately involved in a collaborative intervention with Turkey in transforming Syria’s conflict into an Islamist proxy war, any likelihood he would ever do so vanished. WikiLeaks revealed Hillary Clinton’s email exchanges with advisors on the issue leading up to the 100th anniversary of the genocide in 2015, giving an inside look at the cynical reasoning behind Washington’s denial in the strategic importance of relations with Turkey in the region. Trump’s language has been identical thus far with the Obama administration on the issue, as he attempts to repair recently damaged relations with Turkey which has only prolonged the frustration for the Armenian-American community. To this day a U.S. President has yet to visit the Tsisternakaberd memorial complex in Yerevan.
The Armenian genocide took place during and under the cover of World War I as Russia advanced into Ottoman territory. The predominantly Christian Armenians had lived in the Caucasus of Eurasia for thousands of years and in the fourth century became the first nation in the world to make Christianity its state religion. Mount Ararat is even believed to be the supposed site of Noah’s Ark in the Book of Genesis. Armenia was then incorporated into Ottoman Turkey several centuries later at the peak of the Empire’s power when its territory spread across multiple continents. As Christians living in a Muslim majority society, Armenians did not have full rights and liberties as a minority group. Despite their treatment as second class citizens who faced tax burdens based on religious discrimination, they were able to practice their religion with a degree of autonomy and the community persevered under their rulers. When the Ottoman Empire began to decline towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Armenians found themselves the scapegoat of Turkish nationalists both for their religious differences and their relative prosperity as a minority group. Sound familiar?
In 1908, as the Empire’s power continued to dwindle leading up to WWI, the Sultan Abdul Hamid was ousted and the Committee of Union and Progress, aka ‘the Young Turks’, a secret society turned political organization seized power. While they ushered in liberal, secular reforms that transformed Turkey into a constitutional monarchy during their ten year reign, Talat Pasha and the Young Turks were also Turkish nationalists who wished to restore the empire to its previous status on the world stage. Its nationalism led to Turkification campaigns racially targeting minority groups, especially those perceived to be sympathetic to Russia like the Armenians. Russia had historically been protectors of Christians living within Ottoman territory, and the pretext used by the Ottoman authorities for the ethnic cleansing to construct a homogeneous state was a conspiracy that the Armenians were collaborating with them. The Young Turk authorities blamed the Armenians for the empire’s losses as its defeat in the Italo-Turkish war and the Balkan War of 1912 reduced its power significantly. This left it little choice but to side with Germany and the Central Powers once they declared war on Russia which proved to be an ill fated decision.
The Western jingoist narrative would lead you to believe the world ‘sleepwalked’ into World War I, an attempt by the victors rewriting history to claim the moral high-ground of fighting for ‘liberal values.’ In reality, the Allied and Central Powers both consisted of colonialists guilty of various genocides. Furthermore, preparations had been made for decades by the opposing sides with the buildup of their armaments and the development of naval and armed forces to eventually fight over the re-division of the world’s colonies. The war came as no shock at all to the powers that be, but was only a surprise perhaps to the working class who were used as cannon fodder in the industrial scale slaughter of its battlefields. The Berlin Conference in 1885 partitioned the African colonies and regulated European imperial expansion, resulting in the emergence of a new German superpower that suddenly threatened its British and French rivals. This proved to be the final instance the colonial powers were able to negotiate their territorial disputes without war. The increasingly powerful Germany wanted access to the British and French colonies and when they could no longer settle their festering differences peacefully, world war became inevitable. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo was the mere straw that broke the camel’s back — there had been many assassinations of leaders prior that didn’t lead to the outbreak of war, let alone a global conflict.
Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II had slaughtered tens of thousands from the Herero tribes leading to slave revolts — but were the British any more innocent? The Aborigines and numerous other indigenous populations that were halved under British colonies, not to mention the Irish who starved during the Great Potato Famine, would surely disagree. Perhaps the worst crimes of all committed by one of the Allies was under King Leopold II of Belgium, with its massacres in the Congo famously inspiring Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Or maybe the most extensive slaughter would be that perpetrated by the United States with its large scale ethnic cleansing of Native American tribes and black slaves? Truth be told, the Allies were no moral superiors at all to the Germans or the Ottoman Turks. All of this is important to understand in the context of critiquing the U.S. for failing to recognize the Armenian genocide, because it still has yet to fully come to grips with its own bloody history, let alone what it is subjecting the world to today.
The Armenian genocide was also nearly a successful one in that the Ottomans virtually exterminated the entirety of its Armenian population. It began on April 24, 1915, when hundreds of Armenian political, religious, and intellectual leaders were all rounded up and mercilessly executed. The Turkish government then established Tehcir law and made ethnic cleansing a state policy, ordering the deportation of all Armenian inhabitants in “death marches” to the deserts of Syria and present-day Iraq. Women and children were forced to walk over mountains and deserts, many of them raped and purposefully starved to death by Turkish troops. Some victims of the mass killing were even beheaded and burned alive. Those dispersed who were fortunate enough to survive fled to the Caucuses and Russia, while the refugees scattered elsewhere in the Middle East and those who emigrated to Europe and North America would form the Armenian diaspora that exists today. Any spared in Turkey were assimilated through forced conversion to Islam. Only a small remnant of the eastern-most part of Armenian territory remained to become the First Republic of Armenia. In 1920, it was overrun by the Red Army and absorbed into the Soviet Union in a joint republic with the other caucuses, not gaining its own until the 1930s. Armenia then remained within the USSR until its dissolution whereby it became industrialized and modernized. Presently, it remains a key ally for Russia complicated by the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh with its caucus neighbor Azerbaijan where the Kremlin has played mediator.
The Armenian-American painter and genocide survivor Arshile Gorky famously changed his birth name Vosdanik Adoyan to one after the Soviet writer Maxim Gorky partly because he felt Russia had saved Armenia. In fact, Russia and Armenia’s enduring close ties today are based on Russia having historically given refuge to the Armenians from persecution. Armenians had suffered during all of the Russo-Turkish wars of the previous two centuries for being painted as sympathetic to Russia, but WWI brought unparalleled suffering for them in the form of systematic extermination. During the genocide, the hundreds of thousands of Ottoman-Armenian subjects who were targeted by Turkish authorities were victims after being portrayed as a internal threat and potential traitors while Ottoman troops fought against the Imperial Russian Army on the war-front. The genocide itself had Russophobic origins and was ‘justified’ by the Turks as a militarily necessity, with losses such as the Battle of Sarikamish serving as a prelude to the genocide after Enver Pasha pinned their defeat on Armenians. The Turkish campaign to whitewash the genocide uses the existence of Armenian volunteer units who fought with the Imperial Russian Army as evidence to support their apologist narrative — discounting that the vast majority of the Armenians massacred were Ottoman citizens. Modern Armenia still stands because it was the sole province within its historical territory that was under the protection of Russia — without it, it is possible that no Armenia would remain at all.
Following the war’s end, the Turkish National Movement and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who had led the Ottomans to victory in Gallipoli formed a nationalist government based in Ankara. Concurrently, Britain and France occupied Istanbul (Constantinople), resulting in the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923). In the initial stages of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, some of the Young Turk perpetrators were put to death for what they called ‘crimes against humanity’ in the Turkish courts-martial of 1919–1920 under the last Sultan, Mehmed VI. However, many of the real culprits in the Young Turk leadership were allowed to escape and avoid any real punishment for their heinous crimes. Once the formation of the the Republic of Turkey occurred in 1923 after Atatürk and the Turkish National Movement drove out the Allies, they were given amnesty from their deeds. Denial then became official policy of the state and even the memory of the presence of Armenia was not safe from destruction. Even though the Kemalists were not the guilty parties themselves and the new republic ushered in many reforms such as secular education and socialized medicine, it excessively glorified the country’s military which still held significant power in post-Ottoman Turkey. The former existence of Armenians was outright denied, with maps and history rewritten in schools falsely claiming that Turks had inhabited the region exclusively for centuries. Churches, monuments and all traces of Armenian culture were desecrated and renamed. Armenian children that were not killed were abducted from their parents, then renamed and raised as Turks. Recently revealed genealogy databases show the historical records that as many as 2 million Turks may have Armenian ancestry. The effects of this campaign are so widespread that even the most progressive elements of Turkish society harshly reject use of the term genocide to this day.
While the Turkish government was rewriting history, the Allied powers were preoccupied with more important things than prosecuting the Ottomans for war crimes. After all, the war had been fought for moral reasons, not over the subjugation of smaller nations — or had it? The Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France resulted in the partitioning of the former Ottoman territories for plunder and looting of their markets and raw materials with colonialism now acting under the banner of ‘mandates.’ Britain received Iraq and Palestine, while Syria and Lebanon went to France. Though confirmation of the account is disputed, just prior to the invasion of Poland it is alleged that Hitler remarked in a 1939 speech “Who after all, remembers the Armenians?” Many have said in hindsight that perhaps if the Turks had been held to account for their crimes, the holocaust could have been prevented — but this naive view discounts the fact that the Allies were guilty of many genocides themselves. The Armenian genocide also predates use of the word itself which was not until the 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe by holocaust survivor Raphael Lemkin, nor officially defined prior to the Genocide Convention of 1948. Lemkin coined the term as a hybrid of the Greek word génos (a social group of descent) and the Latin suffix -cide (an act of killing), specifically with the Armenians in mind. Genocide is also a heavily politicized term with regards to the west, which now exploits the word to justify its ‘humanitarian interventions’ abroad, often using it to mischaracterize bloody civil wars and ethnic conflicts (Rwanda, Yugoslavia) while failing to recognize its actual historical occurrences that fit its definition such as that perpetrated upon the Armenians.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia as an independent country has maintained close ties to Russia with the reduced energy prices provided by its Gazprom natural gas giant, military bases and trade relations. Since 1991, its economy has been obliterated by the ‘shock therapy’ of mass privatization by the IMF and World Bank who imposed their own demands as a pretext for their economic bailouts. According to IMF statistics, Armenia’s post-Soviet economy shrank by three quarters during the nineties and it has remained one of the poorest countries in Europe ever since. Armenia is currently a member of Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), from which the other ‘color revolutions’ in Eastern Europe keeping pushing former Soviet states into EU integration. The liberal opposition leader and parliament member who just became the country’s new Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinian, has stated he does not wish Armenia to become a client state in a geopolitical chess game between the west and east. Indeed, the protests have not been become violent on any large scale nor have they been infiltrated by far right nationalists, making any comparisons with the Maidan in Ukraine seem premature. While the full outcome of the protests is yet to be determined, Pashinian is clearly a shameless opportunist who cannot be trusted. Perhaps a comparison with the Orange or Rose Revolutions is a better one.
Washington’s plan to surround Russia installing favorable puppets is part of a larger plan to recolonize Russia and contain China’s growth to maintain its global hegemony. Pashinian has hijacked the legitimate grievances of average Armenians such as rising unemployment (nearly 20%) and economic stratification within the country to advance his own interests, namely re-alignment with the EU and the U.S. plan to undermine Moscow. Pashinian had objected to the Sargsyan government joining the EAEU in 2014, instead favoring a signing of the European Union Association Agreement which was not completed until last year, although with the negotiated term of Armenia not having to enroll as a EU member. The idea that entry into the EU will bring anything but more austerity is a scam, and is Armenia really in a position to move away from Moscow? Unlikely considering they just signed a joint military force agreement. We will have to wait and see what changes a Pashinian term will bring as he is set to meet with Putin in Sochi shortly.
While Armenia is in the grip of infighting amongst its political elites, Turkey is the midst of a power struggle between rival Islamists. The U.S. relationship with Turkey has also been in jeopardy and become increasingly strained since the failed coup d’etat attempt in July of 2016 to remove its Islamist President, Recep Tayipp Erdoğan, who glorifies the Ottoman Empire while supporting terrorism across the region. The failed ouster instantly shifted the world’s geopolitical alignment after Erdoğan responded by accusing the U.S. of involvement. This development may have consequences for any eventual U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide, as Trump balances both trying to win back Turkey’s favor while facing international pressure to condemn Erdoğan’s purges and increasing authoritarianism. While it is possible that Erdoğan staged the coup in a ‘false flag’ power grab considering its poor execution and the small amount of troops involved, the end result further sabotaged the U.S.’s plan to control key resources in the form of oil and gas pipelines from the Persian Gulf to the EU that had been the motive behind its involvement in Syria.
An elimination of Russia’s grip on more than half of Europe’s natural gas market remains the ultimate geopolitical aim of the U.S. On his first day in office, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the trade bloc designed to undermine China, but it has done little to stop what appears to be an increasingly relentless drive toward WWIII. The possibility of a potential global war continues to arise from a deepening global economic crisis and desperation on the part of the U.S. to halt the rise of China and Russia on the world stage that is occurring simultaneously. Obama’s so-called ‘pivot to East Asia’ regional strategy, which concentrated more than half of American armed forces in the continent by taking troops to Australia, the Asian Pacific and Indonesia, had intended to build up America as a Pacific Power encircling China behind a missile defense shield. Just as its attempt to oust Bashar al-Assad was unsuccessful, Obama’s pivot to Asia proved to be a nothing short of a colossal failure.
America’s involvement in the Syrian conflict also took risks in their support for Kurdish proxies that undermined its ally Turkey, with its decision to arm the Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units) in Northern Syria particularly ruffling Ankara’s feathers. The YPG’s role in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces coalition was instrumental in the fight against ISIS, but the U.S. payed little regard to Turkey’s objection to their support for them over the group‘s ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK’s insurgency has been in an armed conflict with Turkey for almost forty years fighting to establish an autonomous Kurdish state. In the aftermath, Erdoğan insisted the failed coup was supported by the U.S. and orchestrated by his former ally, the pro-American Islamic cleric, Fetullah Gülen, who is based in exile in Pennsylvania. Gülen’s large cult-like following within Turkey is believed by the government to have infiltrated institutions, banks and the military. Blame was even placed on Gülen for the assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov in late 2016. Yet Turkey’s suspicion of the Gülen movement being a cover for the CIA is not implausible. It was Russian intervention that crushed the U.S. goal of ousting Assad in Syria — was the coup attempt part of a reset of U.S. policy in the region in an effort to install a preferred puppet? The souring relations between the U.S. and Turkey will likely prolong any potential recognition of ‘the other holocaust.’
The world finds itself in circumstances not unlike when Germany rose as an existential threat to the British and French leading up to WWI. As Germany challenged the already divided world, their imperial ambitions led to what was supposed to be ‘the War to End All Wars’ which facilitated the Ottoman extermination of the Armenians. More than a hundred years later, the world is now facing a similar historical moment to that which preceded the Great War which only ended after the Russian Revolution ousted the Tsar and its autocracy was replaced it with socialism. The only reason capitalism was not overthrown in the rest of Europe was the treachery of the social democrats, but despite socialism’s failure to spread west across the continent, the unrest was enough to frighten the powers that be to end the war — there was no heroic decisive victory on the part of the Allies like the west has depicted. Today, no one can claim the world is ‘sleepwalking’ into WWIII, as it has been given more than ample warning. The only thing preventing its outbreak is the dignified response of Russia to NATO’s expansion, and we can only hope the world wakes up to who the real aggressors are before its patience runs out. It was Russia that had saved Armenia from the expanding Ottoman Empire and provided refuge to its people from the genocide. If the west hopes to drive a wedge between them, it will have a difficult task ahead of it.
High-ranking Armenian figures argue whether Armenia is party to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Interfax - Russia & CIS General Newswire Thursday 9:05 PM MSK High-ranking Armenian figures argue whether Armenia is party to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict YEREVAN. May 17 Armenia is a party involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said. "Armenia is a party involved in the conflict. We also signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The document was drawn up by Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia joined it later," Kocharyan told journalists. From this viewpoint, "Armenia is an involved party," he said. "The main parties to the conflict are Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan. We have said repeatedly that Armenia cannot hold negotiations instead of Artsakh [the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh]," he said. Former Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan, who stepped down on May 11 after the formation of a new government led by Nikol Pashinyan, said the new prime minister's remarks in which he described Armenia as a party to the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process might pose a danger. This drew objections from first Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who said that, in accusing Pashinyan, Vigen Sargsyan in fact "reveals his absolute ignorance of the essence of the Karabakh settlement process." The international community recognized Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh as parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the Final Document of the Budapest Summit of December 6, 1994 and the OSCE Senior Council Chairman's Summary in Prague on March 31, 1995, Ter-Petrosyan said. Vigen Sargsyan said in response that Ter-Petrosyan's approaches "have been the obvious reason for his resignation as head of state and the total fiasco of the Armenian National Congress he leads in the 2017 parliamentary elections." Va gc iz
Relatives of Sasna Tsrer radicals stop blocking avenue in Yerevan, demand meeting with Pashinyan
Interfax - Russia & CIS General Newswire Thursday 4:37 PM MSK Relatives of Sasna Tsrer radicals stop blocking avenue in Yerevan, demand meeting with Pashinyan YEREVAN. May 17 The relatives and supporters of the armed group Sasna Tsrer, which took over the territory of a police regiment in Yerevan in 2016, have decided to stop blocking one of the main streets of Yerevan, Arshakunyats Avenue. "We have made a decision to stop blocking the road, but the court building, the entrances and exits, will be blocked. We intend to meet with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. All issues should be resolved legally. We are now following his call," protester Pavel Yegiazaryan told reporters. On Wednesday, a Yerevan court declined a motion for a change of the restrictions on members of the armed group Sasna Tsrer. The court found the facts used by lawyers to demand the replacement of their arrest with release with travel restrictions to be ungrounded. Earlier on Thursday, the Armenian prime minister called on the people of the republic to stop civil resistance actions and the blocking of roads in Yerevan. He also said he could not release members of Sasna Tsrer from prison by his own decision. In the meantime, Pashinyan said on May 15 all political prisoners in Armenia needed to be released. In the morning of July 17, 2016 a group of armed men calling themselves Sasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sassoun) seized the territory of a patrol police regiment in Yerevan. They demanded the release of Jirair Sefilian, the coordinator of the Armenian opposition Founding Parliament, who was under arrest on charges of illegal acquisition and storage of weapons. The armed men also demanded the resignation of the president and government and the formation of a government of national confidence. They surrendered in the evening of July 31. Av gc mk
Sports: As World Cup approaches, a budding team has no opponents
Associated Press International / Washington Post
Thursday 9:45 AM GMT
As World Cup approaches, a budding team has no opponents
By DAVID KEYTON, Associated Press
In this Friday, May 11, 2018 photo, an army officer prepares for training as his teammates listen to the coach of the soccer national team of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, in Stepanakert, the capital of the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The ethnic Armenian team has the shirts and the shoes, and even practices five days each week on an artificial field a short distance from the center of Stepanakert. The reason for the lack of opponents has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with politics. UEFA and FIFA have a general policy of not allowing teams into competition if they don’t represent an internationally recognized country or territory. (Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press)
DATELINE: STEPANAKERT
STEPANAKERT (AP) – With the World Cup less than a month away, there is a budding national team in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh with no one to play against.
The ethnic Armenian team in the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh has the shirts and the shoes, and even practices five days each week on an artificial field a short distance from the center of Stepanakert, the territory’s capital. But that’s about as far as the team goes.
“UEFA doesn’t let us participate anywhere,” said Artsakh defender Aram Kostandyan, who wishes he could inspire the younger generation of players and show them “why they are playing football.”
The reason for the lack of opponents has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with politics.
The Nagorno-Karabakh region, as it’s known by its Soviet name, is considered part of neighboring Azerbaijan by the international community, located just north of Iran in the South Caucasus region. But since a six-year separatist war ended in 1994, it has been controlled by the local ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia.
Living in a state of frozen conflict, the de facto Republic of Artsakh – in reference to the name of the region before Soviet times – is unrecognized by international institutions and the people of the region are prohibited from taking part in most international activities under their national flag.
UEFA and FIFA have a general policy of not allowing teams into competition if they don’t represent an internationally recognized country or territory. That policy was weakened when Gibraltar and Kosovo joined FIFA in 2016 despite being only partially recognized.
The Artsakh national team has made several unsuccessful requests for UEFA membership, the last time in 2017.
Compounding political sensitivities is an Azerbaijani team playing under the name of Qarabag which made it to the Champions League this year. The team was previously based in Agdam, a town in occupied territory adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh that was entirely destroyed during the 1988-94 war. Today, they are based in Baku, supported financially by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s government and with a fan base of refugees and their descendants.
“They represent one country, we represent another,” Artsakh coach Slavik Gabrielyan. “We see them using this name as a political statement.”
The reality of life playing soccer in Nagorno-Karabakh is vastly different from the splendor of the Champions League.
A mud road leads to the entrance of the Stepanakert Republican Stadium and an old Lada car is parked on the track circling the field. Metal scraps rust away on the edge of the stands, and a youth team is practicing at the other end.
All the players are professionals, but with a salary of about $120 per month, most cannot survive solely on soccer.
Midfielder Arsen Sargsyan played in the Armenian league for more than seven years, but has now returned to Stepanakert. Besides playing soccer, Sargsyan also has a small business, helps out on the farms, and generally does “every job I can get my hands on.”
Despite the hardship, the team says it is united and holds on to the hope that one day it will be able to make the locals proud.
The few tournaments they can partake in involve other unrecognized states, or the pan-Armenian games which take place every four years. In 2015, they won that tournament by beating a team of Russians living in Armenia.
“The Karabakh spirit is very high,” Sargsyan said with a smile as he spoke about a future where the Artsakh team can “play under our country’s flag.”
That’s something pretty much everyone with the team can agree on.
“We have hope. We believe,” said Gabrielyan, who has spent 18 years as a player and 30 as a coach. “This grassy field is my second home. Look how beautiful it is with its two goals on each side.”