Category: 2020

The U.S. Embassy in Baku said on October 24 that it has received credible reports of potential terrorist attacks and kidnappings against U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in Baku, including against hotels such as the J.W. Marriott Absheron, as well as potentially other locations in Baku.  

The Embassy advises U.S. citizens to exercise heightened caution in locations where Americans or foreigners may gather.

A day earlier, a similar announcement from the U.S. Mission in Istanbul, Turkey said credible reports had been received of potential terrorist attacks and kidnappings against U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in Istanbul, including against the U.S. Consulate General, as well as potentially other locations in Turkey.  

A state department spokesperson told CNN that, “The information used to formulate Alerts is collected from a range of sources, such as crime statistics and other publicly-available information, information gathered from U.S. government sources, as well as assessments by our embassies and consulates.”

In both Baku and Istanbul, the U.S. Missions asked U.S. citizens to take the following actions:

 ✓Exercise caution and remain vigilant.
✓Avoid crowds.
✓Keep a low profile.
✓Be aware of your surroundings.
✓Stay alert in locations frequented by foreigners.
✓Monitor local media for updates.

By Michael Krikorian

If you can imagine a priest who was a badass, you’d get Father Varazdat, a priest who wears two uniforms. 

Father Varazdat Najaryan stands – a rock solid 6-foot, two inches –  in front of the Holy Savior Church in downtown Stepanakert dressed in his black priest robe and pulls it aside revealing his army fatigues. He’s heading today to the front lines of the war. He knows war well. He was in two of them as a member of Armenia’s Special Forces Unit.

But, these days he goes to the front in hopes of inspiring the spirituality of the men fighting the invading Azerbaijanis.

“First, we go to the front to inspire the soldiers, to strengthen and encourage their faith, to expel fear from them,” Najaryan says. “But what often happens is the opposite. They inspire us. We see their honor and courage and we are strengthened.”

On the morning of September 27,  Najaryan was at home in Yerevan preparing for service at St. Anna Church when someone yelled out, “They are shooting at Armenia.”

That was the beginning of the Azerbaijani offensive to take Artsakh, the mountainous autonomous region also known as Nagorno Karabakh. Instantaneously, Father Varazdat felt the call of duty. “I knew I had to be here. The earth of Armenia was calling me.”

Soon he was at the church in Stepanakert and then to the front lines, a varying, ever changing battlefield, that has found him in many places and often transforming himself. “You go to the war as a priest, but once you are there, you turn into a soldier. A Kalashnikov is never far away from me.”

Still, having seen so much, he offers his take on war and compares the AK47 to faith. “Yes, you need a rifle, it helps, of course. It is a strong weapon. But, an even stronger weapon is spirituality. Confidence in good faith is an actual physical weapon. It gives you real physical strength. Not only in a spiritual, mental way, but in an actual muscular way. Your arms are stronger. Your legs are stronger. You are more focused. Your determination mounts.”

And, he says, if you’re fortunate to be surrounded by similar fighters – and Armenians are – it only increases your instincts to fight and survive and surmount the odds.  “You are not only fighting for yourself; you are fighting for the 100 around you, behind you and to your sides.”

He talks about the “many miracles” the soldiers in Martouni, in Martakert have told him.  When pressed, he tells of one tale.

“A soldier had a thick New Testament in his breast pocket in front of his heart. He was hit by a projectile and the Bible stopped it from hurting him.”

What book of the Bible, he is asked. Was it Luke? Matthew?

Father Varazdet Najaryan smiles and says “The next time I see him, I will find out.”

Also Read: U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo meets Armenia, Azerbaijan Foreign Ministers

Michael Krikorian is a writer from Los Angeles. He was previously a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and for the Fresno Bee. He writes under the pseudonym “Jimmy Dolan” for the Mozza Tribune. His website is www.KrikorianWrites.com and his first novel is called “Southside”.

By Eric Hacopian

I have spent my adult life as a political professional and a secular leftist living in the United States, and the past four weeks have shattered many of my illusions about the world. What we need to understand, living in this moment, is not political language, but moral and prophetic language. What we need is a modern Sermon of the Mount and the Sermon of the Damned.      

1-  Blessed are the people of Artsakh, who in their resistance, are the true modern heirs of the Spanish Republic and the besieged civilians of Sarajevo.

2-  Blessed are the 18 and 19 year old conscripts who have given their lives defending the graves of their ancestors and temples of their Gods. 

3-  Blessed are the old people and the children living in the basements of Stepanakert refusing the fate of their ancestors to be driven off their land.

4-  Blessed are the women lighting candles and praying in churches every day for the safety of their loved one, who in their fate refuse to believe that evil will have the last word in history. 

5-  Blessed are the Armenian people who in their unity in the world have proven Dostoevsky correct, when he said, “Love in action is a harsh yet beautiful thing compared to love in dreams.”

6-  Blessed are the school mothers who get together all day to weave camouflage meshes every day to protect their children from the evil drones. 

7-  Blessed are the middle school kids who get together every day to pack away boxes of food to be send to the volunteers at the front. 

8-  Blessed is the 60 year old security guard from our building who volunteered to go to the front to fight alongside his son. 

9-  Blessed are the brave journalist from around the world willing to give their lives to cover the aggression against Artsakh despite being targeted to be killed by the regime in Baku.     

10-  Blessed are the volunteers returning to Armenia from around the world to fight fascism in the mountains and valleys of Artsakh. 

1-  Damned are Human Rights organizations who refuse to condemn the beheading of Armenian soldiers and the execution of civilians in Artsakh.

2-  Damned are the Western diplomats and their “both sides” statements.  They are pathetic lackeys, half men, who in their moral blindness see equality between  the demands of the oppressor and the rights of the oppressed. 

3-  Damned the Georgian states pro-fascist neutrality that allows the daily transport of death and jihadists through its air space while lying about it.  They are truly the moral heirs of Stalin.

4-  Damned are the Israeli arms dealers.  A disgrace to their ancestors who long ago taught the world that God is a God of justice.

5-  Damned the United Nations who chooses respecting borders established by Stalin over investigate war crimes being committed against civilians in Artsakh.

6-  Damn the Western Press who in its selective objectivity serves the interests of genocidal oppressors.   

7-  Damned are the moral relativists who don’t believe evil exists in the world. It does; we have seen it for four straight weeks.  

8-  Damn Erdogan, the latest fascist leader barfed up by the last unreformed fascist state in Europe.

9-  Damn the international left, that due to its idiotic identitarian politics refuses to speak up for the oppressed people of Artsakh who don’t necessarily check mark the traditional victim boxes people are used to defending. 

10-  Damn NATO, a front organization for western arms dealers whose second biggest member is the biggest state sponsor of terror in our times. 

I end with a question for the western world. You have told us for years that Russia and Iran are evil rogues states and supporters of terrorism, but let me ask you this: why is it that they are the only ones not doing evil here? Why are the Iranians the only ones to condemn the beheading of Armenian soldiers when none of the  “civilized” leaders of Western Europe have? 

Also Read: On Karabakh Frontline, Faith Remains a Key Weapon

Eric Hacopian is a U.S. political analyst and a CIVILNET commentator.

When American actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier in Monaco in 1956 there was a lot of media covering the wedding. A quarter century later, at the marriage of Lady Diana Spencer to Prince Charles in London there were throngs of press clamoring for photos. And in 2014, the media hullabaloo to get to the marriage of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in Italy reached a feverish pitch.

But, all those weddings – and likely every other wedding in history – can’t compare to the percentage of media present at the wedding of Mariam, 25, and Hovik, 25, in Shushi, Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).

Accompanying the couple were two friends plus the priest. Surrounding them were 60 members of the press from at least nine countries. That works out to 92% of those in attendance were media, a record unlikely to be ever broken.

Sometime before war broke out on September 27, when Azerbaijani forces assaulted the Armenian autonomous region known as both Nagorno Karabakh and Artsakh, Hovik and Mariam, his high school sweetheart from Martuni, set October 24  as their wedding day.

When the bombs started falling, Mariam’s family fled to Yerevan, for safety, but she stayed behind in Stepanakert. Hovik was rushed to the front with his army unit.

Fighting was fierce and he lost many friends. As they lay dying, Hovik thought of his wedding and the Armenian tradition that a soldier should replace his fallen comrades with children of his own.  He was determined not to delay his marriage.  To top it off, it is considered bad luck to postpone a wedding.

So, the plans held. Hovik received permission from his military superiors to have a two-day leave to get married in Shushi at the St. Ghazanchetsots church on the anointed day. Then, on October 8, the church was severely damaged by Azerbaijani air attacks. The church was attacked twice.

But the wedding was bound and determined to happen. Hovik and Mariam had planned to keep it quiet. It would only be them and two friends – the best man and maid of honor. But, as Armenians are apt to do, somebody spilled the beans and word reached the press center in Stepanakert.  

The word was out. A soldier got to leave the battlefield to marry his sweetheart in a bombed-out church. Talk about a fairytale wedding.

Also Read: On Karabakh Frontline, Faith Remains a Key Weapon

Michael Krikorian is a writer from Los Angeles. He was previously a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and for the Fresno Bee. He writes under the pseudonym “Jimmy Dolan” for the Mozza Tribune. His website is www.KrikorianWrites.com and his first novel is called “Southside”.