Category: 2020

The panel discussion involving President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia came off on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of global leaders and policymakers, on February 15. During a discussion President Aliyev referred to historical facts and international documents in his remarks.

“In 1921, the Caucasus bureau of the Bolshevik party made a decision to retain Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan, to retain and not to transfer as some Armenian historians want to present,” Aliyev said, referring to a historical document that recognized the region as being part of Azerbaijan, according to the president’s official website.

The Soviet decision mentioned by Aliyev was followed by another that was issued by the leadership of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialistic Republic and sanctioned by the Soviet government in 1923, giving the Nagorno-Karabakh region the status of an autonomous region within the borders of Azerbaijan.

But the region turned into a hotbed of conflict, as indigenous Azerbaijanis over time became displaced as a result of ethnic cleansing by Armenian forces. By the late 1980s, anti-Azerbaijan sentiments reached its climax in Armenia leading to the mass deportation of ethnic Azerbaijanis from the country. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region was invaded by Armenia. The two countries fought a bloody war that lasted until a ceasefire in 1994.

“In the end of 80s, Armenia launched an aggression against Azerbaijan. 300,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from the territory of Armenia. And then in the beginning of 90s, Armenia already launched an aggression against Azerbaijan Republic and as a result of that aggression almost 20 percent of our territories are under occupation and one million of Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs,” Aliyev said.

“Our people were subject to ethnic cleansing and in 1992, previous Armenian regime committed a war crime, genocide of Khojaly. As a result, 613 innocent civilians, among them 106 women and 63 children were brutally killed,” Aliyev noted.

Khojaly was the pinnacle of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis by Armenia during the occupation of Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region. The town of Khojaly, located in Nagorno-Karabakh, was invaded late in the night on February 26, 1992. Reports indicate that the hundreds of civilian Azerbaijanis were scalped, burnt alive, and decapitated.

Speaking on Saturday’s panel, Prime Minister Pashinyan responded to Aliyev’s remarks about Khojaly by noting an interview by Azerbaijan’s first and former president, Ayaz Mutallibov with the Russian newspaper Arguments and Facts. According to Pashinyan, Mutallibov allegedly told the newspaper that provocation in Khojaly was organized by the opposition of Azerbaijan in order to oust him from power.

Mutallibov did not waste any time after the news from the conference spread to hit back.

“A statement by the prime minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, in which he claims that I spoke about the involvement of Azerbaijanis in the Khojaly genocide, is absurd,” Mutallibov said according to 1news.az. “In an interview with a Russian newspaper regarding the events in Khojaly, I talked about the fact that there is an unconditional Armenian trace there.”

"I did not use the phrase that the Azerbaijanis committed the Khojaly genocide, this is ridiculous,” Mutallibov added.

Over the past year especially, Pashinyan has been pushing a plan to have the self-declared illegal regime in the occupied regions of Azerbaijan be a party to any political settlement between Azerbaijan and Armenia – a position that is unacceptable to Baku. President Aliyev said any talks regarding the deep-seated conflict should be held between Armenia and Azerbaijan only, which is a format that is recognized by international arbiters that form the OSCE Minsk Group.

“Armenia stops funding this illegal entity, Armenia pulls back all their military troops from Nagorno-Karabakh and completely withdraws from our territory. And then, we will have arguments to talk to this people,” Aliyev said. “But until then there is no way.”

Noting Azerbaijan’s multiethnic makeup, Aliyev said, “Azerbaijan is a multi confessional and a multi-national country. There are many national minorities in Azerbaijan who live in peace and dignity. And when our territorial integrity is fully restored, Armenians as national minority will enjoy all the rights and privileges as any other representative of any other nation in our country.”

Prime Minister Pashinyan insisted that forces stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh are for “self-defense,” and that resolution to the conflict is not possible without defining the status of the people now living there.

But Aliyev was adamant that there are no "self-defense" forces and the majority of the military stationed in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region is comprised of soldiers from Armenia, and if Armenians living in the region want to be self-determined, they need to do it someplace else.

"Armenian people self-determinated themselves, they have Armenian state. My advice is to find other place on Earth to self-determinate them for the second time, not in Azerbaijan," he said in his closing remarks.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan are still under Armenian occupation, despite four United Nations Security Council Resolutions for Armenian forces to fully withdraw from the region.

Today, February 19, marks the 151st birthday anniversary of renowned Armenian poet, writer, translator, literary and public activist Hovhannes Tumanyan.

The great poet's birthday is annually celebrated in Armenia as the Book Giving Day aimed at increasing people's access to and enthusiasm for books.

Hovhannes Tumanyan was born in 1869 in the village of Dsegh, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lori Province, Armenia). His father, Aslan, was the village priest known by the name Ter-Tadevos. His mother, Sona, was an avid storyteller with a particular interest in fables. Young Tumanyan was the oldest of eight children.

From 1877 to 1879, Tumanyan attended the parochial school of Dsegh. From 1879–1883 he went to a school in Jalaloghly. Tumanyan moved to Tiflis in 1883, where he attended the Nersisyan School from 1883–1887. He wrote his first poem at the age of 12, while studying in Jalaloghly school. He lived at the teacher's house for a while and fell in love with the teacher's daughter Vergine. Since 1893, Tumanyan worked for Aghbyur, Murtch, Hasker and Horizon periodicals and also was engaged in public activism.

In 1899, Tumanyan came up with an idea of organizing meetings of Armenian intellectuals of the time at his house on 44 Bebutov Street in Tiflis (present-day Amaghleba 18, in Sololaki). Soon it became an influential literary group, which often gathered in the garret of Tumanyan's house. Vernatun means garret in Armenian, which was the name the group was referred to. Prominent members of the collective were Avetik Isahakyan, Derenik Demirchyan, Levon Shant, Ghazaros Aghayan, Perch Proshyan, Nikol Aghbalian, Alexander Shirvanzade, Nar-Dos, Vrtanes Papazyan, Vahan Terian, Leo, Stepan Lisitsyan, Mariam Tumanyan, Gevorg Bashinjagyan and many other significant Armenian figures of early 20th century. With some pauses, it existed until 1908.

In 1912 Tumanyan was elected the president of the Company of Caucasus Armenian Writers.

In the fall of 1921, Tumanyan went to Constantinople to find support of Armenian refugees. After months spent there, he returned ill. After surgery in 1922, he started to get better. But in September, Tumanyan's disease started to persist again. He was transferred to a hospital in Moscow, where he died on March 23, 1923.

Tumanyan is usually regarded in Armenian circles as "All-Armenian poet". He earned this title when the Catholicos of Armenia had ordered that Armenian refugees from the west not enter certain areas of his church and house, since he is considered to be "The Catholicos of all Armenians". Tumanyan in response decried that decision claiming that the refugees could seek relief in the Catholicos' quarters under order of "The Poet of all Armenians".

Tumanyan wrote poems, quatrains, ballads, novels, fables, critical and journalistic articles. His work is simple, natural and poetically inspired at the same time. It is not by mere chance that dozens of phrases and expressions from Tumanyan's works have become a natural part of people's everyday language, their sayings, adages, and maxims.

Many films and animated films have been adapted from Tumanyan's works. Two operas –  Anush (1912) by Armen Tigranian and Almast (1930) by Alexander Spendiaryan – were written based on his works.

Armenian grandmaster Karen Grigoryan won Santiago Masters 2020 chess tournament. The Armenian scored 7.5 points at the international tournament after nine rounds played.

Grigoryan also improved his personal rating by 2 points reaching 2662.

The Danish edition of Politiken (leading Danish daily newspaper) has produced a 144-page travel book about Georgia and Armenia – two of the oldest Christian nations in the world. The book provides plentiful insights into the history, geography, culture and traditions of the two countries and is intended primarily for those who plan to travel there. The book also aims to draw attention of Danish citizens to Georgian and Armenian skyrocketing tourism opportunities.

"Politiken now features for the first time a solid guide book on Georgia and Armenia, available in the book stores from early March. The travel guide, written by Tom Trier and Søren E. Hansen, zooms in on the two small countries in the South Caucasus. With short but insightful introductions to society and culture, it provides a wealth of background and also practical information for the traveler and introduces the most important sights, including UNESCO world heritage churches and monasteries, spectacular mountain hiking routes and some of the best restaurants, eateries and wine yards the South Caucasus has to offer", reads the Facebook post by the Embassy of Georgia to the Kingdom of Denmark.

The travel book launch reception is scheduled for March 19 15:00-17:00 and is hosted by the Embassy of Georgia to the Kingdom of Denmark.

Address: Kalvebod Brygge 45, 1560 Copenhagen

Justice minister, USAID Armenia Mission Director discuss cooperation development directions

 16:10,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Justice Minister Rustam Badasyan today received USAID Armenia Mission Director Deborah Grieser and her delegation, the ministry told Armenpress.

Minister Badasyan thanked for the productive cooperation and highlighted the operation of the ministry’s fund “Center for Development of Legislation and Legal Research” through the support of the USAID.

Deborah Grieser also highly valued the activity of the Fund, the cooperation with the justice ministry in the anti-corruption fight and reaffirmed the readiness to support the Armenian government in this fight.

During the meeting the Armenian minister introduced the ministry’s priorities, such as the creation of an Anti-Corruption Committee and Anti-Corruption Court, reforms in the Police and discussed the cooperation opportunities with the USAID partners in these areas.

The meeting also touched upon issues relating to supporting the activities of the Corruption Prevention Commission and raising public trust towards the judiciary as a result of the anti-corruption fight.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

 14:42,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan’s State News Agency – AZERTAC – has attempted to fix President Ilham Aliyev’s extraordinary gaffe during the panel discussion with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

When Aliyev began his introductory remarks, at one point he said in an apparent faux-pas “more than 10 countries recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh”. Perhaps the blunder was caused by Aliyev’s nervousness since this was an unprecedented discussion. But this error would’ve gone unnoticed if not for the resolute efforts of the Azerbaijani news media to “make things right”.

AZERTAC has turned to re-voicing, or dubbing if you will, Aliyev’s words, particularly the part “the independence of Nagorno Karabakh”, and switched the words with Aliyev saying “genocide of Khojaly”. The voice is even so similar to Aliyev’s that presumably it was taken from an earlier audio recording of the Azerbaijani president mentioning those words. And so, after turning a blind eye on journalistic ethics, AZERTAC’s edited version of Aliyev’s MSC speech became “more than 10 countries recognized the genocide of Khojaly”, something he didn’t say, something that did not happen.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

See Original video

 15:22,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Consultation was held today in the Armenian government led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over the concept of tax reforms, the PM’s office told Armenpress.

Finance Minister Atom Janjughazyan introduced the goals set by the concept for which the tax reforms are going to serve, as well as the directions and principles under which these changes should be carried out. The main goal is to form a balanced approach that will contribute to creating favorable conditions for economic development, solving social issues and ensuring a balanced attitude towards environment.

PM Pashinyan highlighted the importance of the topic and stated: “We are going to make very courageous decisions in the future starting from property tax up to the next tax changes. The logic and goal of these changes is the following that the state revenues should increase with the logic to give an opportunity to the economy to develop so that they will further increase in the future. And people should change their attitude to paying taxes which exists today. So what we need to do for this purpose? Firstly, the pillar is the anti-corruption fight, in other words each citizen of Armenia should be convinced that there is a government in Armenia which doesn’t rob from them and doesn’t rob from any place, and not only the government, but also the whole public administration system. The citizen should believe that the state leadership is not robbing, and if there are cases of robbery, that people will be found and punished.

The second one is the constant increase of efficiency of maintenance costs of the public administration system, in other words, we must convince our citizens every year that we spend the money paid by them purposefully, effectively and in a right way, including also how the employees of the public administration system are paid, starting from bonuses up to other social guarantees. I think today all the necessary political conditions exist based on the results of 2019 that we should also ensure the high salaries of employees of public administration system, at the same time guaranteeing their high qualification”.

Thereafter, the consultation participants discussed issues relating to the strengthening and spread of culture of paying taxes, providing tax privileges based on sectors, introducing income declaration system, etc.

Pashinyan said the current concept should become the base for the tax reforms strategy.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan

 16:57,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Head of the General Military Investigative Department Artak Krkyasharyan received today the family members of soldier Tigran Manvelyan who was killed on February 12, 2020, the Committee told Armenpress.

The ongoing investigative operations being conducted under the criminal case launched over the soldier’s death were discussed during the meeting.

Manvelyan’s relatives presented their concerns and considerations over the case.

The deputy chair of the Committee assured them that all details regarding this case will be thoroughly investigated.

Soldier of the Defense Army of Artsakh Tigran Manvelyan, born in 2000, received a fatal gunshot wound at a military position on February 12, at around 11:30.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan