Monday, U.S., French Envoys Explore Renewed Karabakh Talks Armenia -- The U.S. and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and other diplomats meet with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Yerevan, December 14, 2020. U.S. and French mediators have visited Baku and Yerevan to explore the possibility of resuming Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks following the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The two co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Groups traveled to the region to follow up on a December 3 statement by Russia’s and France’s foreign ministers and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun calling on Armenia and Azerbaijan to “take advantage of the current ceasefire to negotiate a lasting and sustainable peace agreement.” The statement also urged the conflicting parties to meet the U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group and “commit to substantive negotiations to resolve all outstanding issues in accordance with an agreed timetable.” The Russian co-chair, Igor Popov, did not join his French and U.S. counterparts, Stephane Visconti and Andrew Schofer, in meeting with Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s leaders. Moscow gave no reason for Popov’s conspicuous absence. It was represented at the talks by Russian diplomats based in Baku and Yerevan. According to an Armenian government statement, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed with the visiting mediators on Monday ways of restarting peace process more than one month after Russia brokered an agreement to stop the war in Karabakh. The statement cited Pashinian as saying that the United States, Russia and France should resume their joint efforts to achieve a “comprehensive settlement” of the Karabakh conflict. He stuck to the official Armenian line that Karabakh’s predominantly ethnic Armenian population must be able to exercise its right to self-determination as part of that settlement. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met with Schofer and Visconti on Saturday. He reiterated that Baku essentially resolved the long-running conflict during the six-week war which resulted in sweeping Azerbaijani territorial gains. Aliyev again blamed Pashinian for the war, saying that the Armenian leader “ruined the negotiations with provocative actions and statements.” He also lambasted the Minsk Group, saying that it has failed to achieve a peaceful solution to the conflict. IMF Approves $37 Million Loan Tranche To Armenia U.S. -- An exterior view of the building of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with the IMG logo, is seen in Washington, March 27, 2020 The International Monetary Fund has disbursed a fresh $37 million installment of a loan designed to help Armenia cope with the coronavirus pandemic and economic consequences. The loan tranche brought to about $332 million the total amount of funds allocated to the country under the IMF’s Stand-By Arrangement worth $443 million. The IMF approved the lending program in May as the Armenian economy plunged into recession after three years of robust growth. The decision came shortly after the Armenian government announced plans to borrow around $540 million to offset a major shortfall in tax revenues and finance its efforts to contain the pandemic. Armenia’s economic woes were compounded by the war in Nagorno-Karabakh that broke out in late September and was stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire six weeks later. In a weekend statement announcing the disbursement, the IMF said that the Armenian economy is on course to contract by more than 7 percent this year seeing as “the full impact of the twin crises is still unfolding.” “The Fund’s financial support will help Armenia meet these challenges, including the urgent social and economic implications of COVID-19 pandemic,” read the statement. “The authorities have responded proactively to mitigate the socioeconomic and health effects of these shocks,” it quoted Tao Zhang, the IMF’s deputy managing director, as saying. “The authorities’ 2021 budget is appropriate given weak growth and is embedded in a clear medium-term fiscal strategy. The authorities remain committed to taking measures to safeguard debt sustainability as a result of which public debt is expected to fall to around 60 percent of GDP over the medium-term,” added Zhang. In its draft budget debated by the Armenian parliament, the government projected a GDP growth rate of 3.2 percent for next year. The IMF expects the Armenian economy to expand by only 1 percent in 2021. Its statement said in this regard that the country’s economic outlook is “contingent upon the anticipated global recovery and domestic reform implementation.” The Armenian currency, the dram, has weakened against the U.S. dollar by almost 6 percent in the last two months. Pashinian Again Rules Out Resignation Armenia -- Amenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses the nation, Yerevan, November 14, 2020. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian continued to reject on Monday opposition calls for his resignation backed by President Armen Sarkissian, the Armenian Apostolic Church and public figures in Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora. “Rumors are being constantly circulated about my resignation, even though I have made clear that I will give up the status bestowed on me by the people only on the basis of credible results of an expression of the people’s will,” Pashinian said in a televised address to the nation. “As long as there has been no such expression of the will I will continue to perform my duties.” “I want to again emphasize that the number one challenge now is to stabilize the security environment around Armenia, and we are going to consistently follow that path,” he added. Pashinian did not explicitly express his readiness for snap parliamentary elections, also demanded by opposition forces blaming him for the Armenian side’s defeat in the Nagorno-Karabakh war. Instead, he again accused them of seeking “leave the people out” of political processes in the country. One of Pashinian’s close associates indicated last week that the ruling political team is ready to discuss with the Armenian opposition the possibility of fresh elections. Opposition parties said afterwards that they have received no such offers from the government yet. ARMENIA -- A placard with an image of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is seen lying on the ground among coins during a rally to demand his resignation, December 10, 2020. Most of them want of them want the elections to be held within a year by a new and interim government. The idea has also been advocated by Sarkissian. “If you have a crisis, if you lose a war … you have to start anew. Otherwise the defeat will become an ordinary occurrence,” the president told CivilNet.am on Friday. “You don’t need 200,000 or 300,000 [protesting] on the streets to have a crisis. You just need to see it. Therefore, the first step must be the resignation of the government and the formation of a [transitional] government.” Sarkissian met over the weekend with Vazgen Manukian, a veteran politician nominated as a caretaker prime minister by a coalition of more than a dozen opposition parties holding anti-government protests in Yerevan and other parts of the country. The protests were due to continue later on Monday. Manukian was also received by Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Garegin and other top clergymen of the church too have urged Pashinian to hand over power to an interim government tasked with holding the elections. Pashinian came under fresh opposition fire on Saturday as Azerbaijani troops seized two more villages in Nagorno-Karabakh’s southern Hadrut district which was mostly occupied by them during the six-week war. NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Russian soldiers of the peacekeeping force man a checkpoint on a road outside Stepanakert, November 26, 2020 Russian peacekeepers stationed in Karabakh rushed to the scene of the fighting in the following hours. “The situation in that area has been normalized,” their commander, Major-General Rustam Muradov, stated on Sunday. Pashinian discussed the situation with members of Armenia’s Security Council and other officials at an emergency meeting held on Sunday. He accused Azerbaijan of violating key terms of a Russian-mediated ceasefire agreement that stopped the war on November 10. Citing the same agreement, he also said he expects the Russian peacekeepers to help place the two Hadrut villages back under Karabakh Armenian control. In his televised remarks aired the following morning, the Armenian premier accused his political opponents of disseminating false rumors about additional Armenian territorial concessions made to Azerbaijan in a bid to spread panic and discredit his government. He claimed that the anti-government campaign of “information terrorism” is partly “managed from abroad” but did not elaborate. Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Category: 2020
The US can help prevent the destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh. Here’s how.
Medium.com, Cornell University
Dec 14 2020
Cornell University
Dec 14 · 5 min read
The incoming Biden administration must adopt a multi-pronged strategy to prevent the destruction of Armenian monuments.
By Lori Khatchadourian and Adam Smith
In late September, a brutal war broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh — adding another tragic chapter to one of the longest-running conflicts in the world. Cities and villages were routinely shelled, killing scores of civilians, until last month when a ceasefire agreement brought the fighting to a halt. A period of violent devastation is over. But as the parties strive to achieve an elusive, lasting peace, the region’s irreplaceable cultural monuments are in peril. Washington must act. There are steps that the U.S. can take right now to help prevent a heritage calamity.
The terms of the ceasefire were shaped by the results of the latest round of fighting. Azerbaijani forces regained control of seven territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh that had been occupied by Armenian forces for nearly three decades, following victories they secured in the nineties. Armenians have now evacuated these regions, but they left behind over 1500 Christian monuments, including active monasteries and rare treasures of medieval church architecture.
As archaeologists who have worked in the region for decades, we are concerned by what this change of borders may portend. Nagorno-Karabakh’s deep history has been fought over as bitterly as its present status and there is justifiable fear that the conflict’s violence will be transferred from the battlefield to the region’s cultural heritage.
Armenian monuments in the territories that have fallen under Azerbaijani control face the real threat of secretive, state-sponsored demolition. Between 1997 and 2006, Azerbaijan sought to fully erase the traces of Armenians in its southwestern Nakhchivan region, destroying 89 medieval churches, 5840 sacred cross-stones, or khachkars, and 22,000 historical tombstones. Even though this destruction has been documented with satellite and photographic evidence, Azerbaijan has denied it, and has barred international teams from inspecting the sites.
A more subtle tactic of heritage erasure is the falsification of the past. One day after the ceasefire went into effect, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Culture tweeted that a 9th-13th century Armenian monastery called Dadivank, whose long-term jurisdiction is uncertain, was “one of the best testimonies of ancient Caucasian Albanian civilization,” despite the many Armenian inscriptions that adorn its walls. The site was not created by “Caucasian Albania,” a kingdom that fell in roughly the 8th century. Azerbaijani historians have repeatedly drawn questionable linkages between Caucasian Albania and Turkic Azerbaijan in an attempt to establish indigeneity and develop a counter history to the long occupation of Armenians in the region. A few modifications to these churches and monasteries — an erased Armenian inscription here or there — and “Caucasian Albania” will have a new site added to its inventory. Heritage appropriation is just as toxic to our understanding of the human past as its silent demolition. Appropriated sites linger as heritage zombies, neither fully extinguished nor truly alive.
America remained disengaged during the fighting, and Washington was entirely cut out of the ceasefire negotiations in which Russia played the leading role. But the current fate of these monuments poses a test case for President-elect Joseph Biden, who has outlined a policy of global engagement, in stark contrast to President Trump. In 2017, Trump withdrew America from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) — the only multinational state-led agency whose mission includes the protection of heritage. Later, he went further in his disregard for global heritage, famously threatening to bomb Iranian cultural sites.
We believe that the Biden administration can pursue three strategies to begin restoring America’s role as a global leader in the protection of cultural heritage, beginning with the lands under contention in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.
First, America must engage in bilateral diplomacy with Azerbaijan, to clearly communicate that the destruction of Armenian monuments will not be tolerated. It must be made clear that attacks on heritage sites will result in a consequential U.S. response. This would fit with policy objectives that Biden has previously discussed, including his interest in promoting democracy and eradicating corruption in authoritarian countries like Azerbaijan.
Second, Biden must swiftly re-engage America with UNESCO. To be sure, the organization is not a panacea. Its World Heritage Committee is often overseen by the very states that it needs to hold accountable. The organization’s responses are also often marred by political deal-making. But for all its flaws, it has a role to play in protecting imperiled sites. By rejoining, the United States can help shape UNESCO’s priorities in Nagorno-Karabakh and elsewhere. This may also be an area of potential cooperation with Russia. In recent weeks, the Kremlin has recognized the threats to Armenian heritage in the region and has called on UNESCO to intervene. As a party to UNESCO, the U.S. should offer assistance in the training of Russian peacekeepers for cultural heritage protection.
Lastly, the Biden administration needs to help stand up a program of heritage monitoring similar to the Syrian Cultural Heritage Initiative, developed in 2014. That effort focused on tracking physical damage caused by both state actors and looting during wartime. In the case of Nagorno-Karabakh, there is the opportunity to not just document heritage destruction but possibly deter it through regular, highly visible long-term surveillance efforts. We urge the State Department to grant American archaeologists who specialize in this region access to high-resolution satellite imagery. This will allow us to mount the first program of long-term, systematic satellite-based monitoring during peacetime in a region of intense cultural discord. Such work could create a template for heritage protection in other ceasefire agreements around the globe where cultural heritage is imperiled. Protecting cultural heritage sites will be vital to building the kind of trust that will be central to any long-term peace in the region.
On October 13, 2020, as the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh raged, Biden released a strongly-worded statement bemoaning America’s lack of engagement, and calling on the Trump Administration to “tell Azerbaijan that it will not tolerate its efforts to impose a military solution to this conflict.” This January, Biden will be in the White House. Protecting these monuments — objects of historical importance and deep cultural and emotional attachment — may help strengthen the fragile, uncertain pathway to peace.
Lori Khatchadourian, Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies
Adam T. Smith, Professor, Anthropology
Cornell University
In Caucasus War, Russia Succeeded to Demonize Democracy
The National Interest
Dec 15 2020
The United States essentially forfeited its influence over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and allowed Russia’s Vladimir Putin to wield power in the region.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan joined his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on a podium in Baku on Dec. 10 to watch a parade celebrating “Victory in the Patriotic War.” The procession marked Aliyev’s latest celebration as he cements his legacy as the man who returned territories Azerbaijan lost to Armenia in the 1988–1994 Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Aliyev is a short-term thinker. He does not yet understand the tremendous price of his victory: Azerbaijan’s sovereignty. Russia and Turkey have stationed forces inside Azerbaijani territory. Turkey also reportedly controls several thousand mercenaries transported into Azerbaijan from Syria, Libya, and other Arab countries. None of these forces are under Aliyev’s control and both Moscow and Ankara can easily leverage them against Aliyev and his family should he stray too far from Erdoğan or Russian president Vladimir Putin’s dictates.
Armenians displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh fear their medieval churches will be destroyed
The Conversation
Dec 16 2020
December 16, 2020 12.19am AEDT
Professor and Department Chair, Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Professor of Armenian Art and Architecture, Tufts University
A six-week war in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region in the South Caucasus, ended on Nov. 9 after Russia brokered a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Under the deal, several ethnically Armenian provinces in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenians call Artsakh, were surrendered to Azerbaijan in November and December.
This is the latest chapter in a conflict that dates back at least a century. In 1921, the Soviet Union declared Nagorno-Karabakh part of Azerbaijan despite its ethnic Armenian majority. Since that time, the territory has been the site of massive demonstrations, failed international agreements and a brutal war from 1992 to 1994.
The human tragedy has been devastating. In the 2020 fighting alone, over 5,000 soldiers died and more than 100,000 people were displaced. Though the war is over, the rich architectural heritage of the region is still at risk.
Heritage organizations worry that the numerous historic Armenian churches, monasteries and tombstones of the region may face damage or destruction now that they are out of Armenian hands.
The war had already damaged many Armenian monuments. In the fall, Azerbaijani offensives shelled the ancient city of Tigranakert, founded in the first century B.C. by the Armenian king Tigranes the Great.
It also damaged the historic Holy Saviour “Ghazanchetsots” Cathedral in Shusha, one of the largest Armenian cathedrals in the world. Shusha, called Shushi by Armenians, is Karabakh’s cultural capital.
After Azerbaijani soldiers took control of the city, online images showed its 19th-century Armenian cathedral defaced with graffiti. Another 19th-century church nearby, known as the Kanach Zham and dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, also appears to be damaged.
The Armenian monuments of Nagorno-Karabakh form part of the broader architectural tradition of Armenian art and architecture which I study. For over 20 years, I have conducted research and fieldwork in historical regions of Armenia, including Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh forms a remarkable chapter in Armenian art history because of its antiquity and its visual and religious distinctiveness.
The Monastery of Amaras, in the southeast, was founded in the fourth century, when Armenia became the first country to make Christianity its national religion.
It is the burial place of Saint Grigoris, grandson of Gregory the Illuminator, the patron saint and evangelizer of Armenia. It is also the site of the first school to use the Armenian script.
The walled complex houses a large basilica. Underneath it lies Grigoris’ fifth-century tomb – one of the oldest surviving Armenian Christian burial structures.
Recent archaeological excavations show that this tomb could be entered from the east – quite unusual in traditional church architecture. Scholars link the layout to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the place both of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus.
Many other churches in Nagorno-Karabakh date later, from the 13th to 18th centuries, and incorporate carved cross-stones called khachkars into their walls. Khachkars often feature inscriptions written in Armenian that record the donor’s name and family members.
A cross-stone, or khachkar, is built into a church wall in the Armenian village of Sotk. Alexander RyuminTASS via Getty Images
In a church in Takyaghaya, the entrance is a beautiful patchwork of khachkars of various sizes and shapes. To the south, near Handaberd, a khachkar that likely dates to the 12th or 13th century is carved with a rare image of the Virgin Mary breastfeeding the Christ Child.
Meanwhile, the church of Tzitzernavank, in the west, is an extraordinary example of an intact early Christian basilica. It dates from the fifth or sixth century. An upper-level gallery above its sanctuary is an unusual design in church architecture. It is not clear why worshipers would be permitted to stand above the holiest area of the church.
Tzitzernavank also offers evidence of continued Armenian presence through the early modern period. An inscription on the church from before the 10th century asks Christ to “Remember the prayers of your servant, the undeserving Grigor, for his beloved brother Azat.” Another, from 1613, states that “By the will of God … the fortress wall was repaired by the hand of Prince Haikaz…”
Bearing the names of parents, children and other individuals, these inscriptions – and the monuments on which they appear – form a veritable history book of the region.
Nagorno-Karabakh is home to multiple architectural traditions. There are prehistoric caves and petroglyphs, or rock carvings, as well as medieval and modern Islamic tombs and mosques, and bridges, fortresses and palaces. They reflect the layered and diverse communities of the region.
But heritage organizations, museums, scholars, journalists and church leaders are most concerned about the fate of the vast number of Armenian Christian monuments which represent the indigenous Armenian populations – and which may suffer for precisely that reason.
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Scholars worry the monuments could face the same fate as the Armenian sites located in the nearby Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, where soldiers demolished thousands of khachkars between 1997 and 2007.
I believe digital documentation of the Armenian monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh is crucial to record their condition in the immediate aftermath of war. If destroyed, they are gone forever, which scholars like me believe would be a tragic impoverishment of world heritage.
Two men beheaded in videos from Nagorno-Karabakh war identified
The Guardian, UK
Dec 15 2020
Exclusive: Ethnic Armenian men refused to leave their villages before Azerbaijani forces arrived, locals say
Andrew Roth Moscow correspondent
Tue 15 Dec 2020 05.00 GMT
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Two elderly men who were beheaded by Azerbaijani forces in videos widely shared on messaging apps have been identified, confirming two of the bloodiest atrocities of the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ethnic Armenian men were non-combatants, people in their respective villages said. Both were beheaded by men in the uniforms of the Azerbaijani armed forces. The short, gruesome videos of the killings are among the worst of a torrent of footage portraying abuse, torture and murder that has continued to emerge more than a month after a Russian-brokered ceasefire came into force.
The villagers’ testimony in interviews with the Guardian corroborates identifications by a human rights ombudsman for the Armenian-backed local government and two prominent Armenian human rights lawyers preparing a criminal case relating to the murders.
The Guardian also confirmed one of the victim’s identities with a relative, and reviewed a passport application photograph that strongly resembles the other victim.
Human rights groups detail ‘war crimes’ in Nagorno-Karabakh
In videos posted online on 22 November and 3 December, men in uniforms consistent with those of the Azerbaijani military hold down and decapitate a man using a knife. One then places the severed head on a dead animal. “This is how we get revenge – by cutting off heads,” a voice says off camera.
Two residents of the village of Madatashen, in Nagorno-Karabakh, identified the victim as Genadi Petrosyan, 69, who had moved to the village in the late 1980s from the city of Sumgait, in Azerbaijan.
Gayane Petrosyan (no relation), the head of the local school, lived directly across from Petrosyan’s modest, two-room house. She said his father had helped install the village’s electrical system, and he had shown her pictures of a son who had moved to Russia with his ex-wife.
She said of one of the videos: “I could clearly see his face and I could recognise that it was him.” The Guardian has also seen a photograph of Petrosyan that closely resembles the victim in the video.
Genadi Petrosyan, who lived alone, resisted leaving the village as Azerbaijani forces closed in. When a neighbour tried to drive him away, he got out of the car and walked home.
Eduard Hayrapetyan, the village head, said he had known Petrosyan for more than three decades and considered him a close friend of his family’s. He received his last call from Petrosyan on the morning of 28 October, to say he had seen enemy forces in the village. Then, after weeks of silence, the video emerged.
“I feel great sorrow that I took him away from the village and then he came back and this happened,” Hayrapetyan said. “I just can’t find my place.”
Artak Beglaryan, a human rights ombudsman for the local Armenian-backed government, said Petrosyan had been identified by combing 35 missing persons reports for the region and then contacting acquaintances, who confirmed his identity.
He called for greater efforts by the international community to investigate war crimes from the conflict. “Western countries have kept silent and they haven’t taken practical steps,” he said. “They have the duties and levers to speak about this … we don’t see any results, we don’t see any process from them.”
Siranush Sahakyan, a human rights lawyer, also confirmed Petrosyan’s identity and said she and a colleague, Artak Zeynalyan, had prepared a criminal investigation into the murder.
“Emotionally, it is hard to watch the videos. From a professional perspective, it can be very useful evidence,” Sahakyan said, cautioning that they had to carefully vet videos to make sure they were not faked.
Amnesty International has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to investigate videos of the decapitations and desecrations of corpses. The organisation has used digital verification techniques to authenticate the footage reviewed in this article, as well as footage of the murder of an Azerbaijani border guard who had his throat cut. Other videos show soldiers desecrating the bodies of enemy fighters.
While both sides have been implicated, online channels are increasingly dominated by videos of Armenian soldiers and civilians being abused by advancing Azerbaijani troops.
New revelations of torture and abuse mean that for many the violence continues even long after the war was halted. “Armenians and Azerbaijanis are watching those videos day in and day out, and every day there is a new video which is sending a new wave of assault on the public and public sensibilities,” said Tanya Lokshina, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, which prepared a painstaking report on abuses against Armenian prisoners of war, released early this month. “That trauma also results in increased levels of hatred. Even now when the active stage of the fighting is over.”
Some of the most gruesome and widely watched videos have also been some of the most difficult to confirm. A video posted on a Telegram channel on 7 December showed two soldiers in uniforms consistent with the Azerbaijani military pinning down an elderly man near a tree. Another soldier passes a knife to one of the attackers, who begins slicing at the victim’s neck. The victim’s head begins to separate from the neck before the video ends.
Three residents of the village of Azokh identified the victim in this video as Yuri Asryan, a reclusive 82-year-old who had refused to leave the village on 20 October as Azerbaijani forces approached.
“He didn’t communicate with others very much. He just refused to leave,” said Georgi Avesyan, the longtime head of the village until 2019 and one of the people who identified Asryan. He said it was possible Asryan did not fully understand what was happening.
Azerbaijani forces entered the village days later and it has remained under Baku’s control under the ceasefire agreement signed on 9 November.
There was no news of Asryan’s fate until a 29-second video appeared last week on social networks, including Telegram channels that traffic in gory footage from the conflict.
Araik Azumanyan, the current head of the village, said: “I received calls from many people from the village, and even people who had moved from the village to Armenia many years ago saying it looked like [Asryan] in the video.”
A third villager who recognised Asryan said: “I felt terrible after watching it, my blood pressure was high, I couldn’t compose myself for a week after seeing that.”
Beglaryan, the human rights ombudsman, and Sahakyan, the human rights lawyer, also confirmed Asryan’s identity. His closest relative, an elderly sister who occasionally visited him, knows that Asryan has died but has not seen the video. Asryan’s niece also confirmed to the Guardian that it was him in the video.
Azerbaijan’s general prosecutor last month publicly launched an investigation into war crimes by both Baku and Yerevan. On Monday it made its first arrests, detaining two Azerbaijani soldiers for defiling the bodies of dead Armenian troops and two for destroying graves. It has not publicly opened any criminal cases into beheadings.
There are hundreds more videos of abuses online. Sahakyan said she and a colleague were pursuing 75 cases of captive Armenian soldiers and civilians in the European court of human rights, including 35 that included video evidence. On Monday evening, the two government conducted a mass prisoner exchange, media in both countries reported.
In one video, a villager named Kamo Manasyan is kicked and beaten as blood streams from his right eye. “How many more of you are here,” his interrogator yells in heavily accented Russian, aiming a rifle at Manasyan’s head. “Shoot me if you want,” Manasyan replies. The man hits him with the rifle instead.
“It was hard to watch this video with this cruelty,” said Gagik, his nephew, in a video call. “I think they just want to show their success in this war and to humiliate Armenians, to show that they won.”
Manasyan’s sister, Nora, cannot bear to watch the video. “I want the prisoners of war to come back as soon as possible,” she said, crying. “I want peace.”
Asked for comment on allegations of human rights abuses during the war, a spokesman for the Council of Europe’s Commissioner on Human Rights said: “At this stage we can only say that the Commissioner has received videos and other material alleging human rights violations. Before expressing herself publicly, she wants to carry out a mission in order to assess the situation in first person. She is planning a mission to the region soon.”
* Gohar Martirosyan contributed reporting and translating from Yerevan, Armenia
Armenia’s ‘Songs of Solomon’ to Compete for International Feature Film Oscar
Variety Magazine
Dec 15 2020
Armenia has chosen Arman Nshanian’s feature film debut “Songs of Solomon” as its official submission to the 93rd Academy Awards in the international feature film category.
“Songs of Solomon,” written by Audrey Gevorkian and based on “The Past Unsung” by Sirvart Kavoukjian, explores the life of the composer Archbishop Solomon, also known as Komitas, who had a profound impact on ethnomusicology. It centers on a childhood friendship, torn apart by the Hamidian massacres in the 1890s as a brave Turkish woman at a time of dire prejudice risks her own life and the life of her family to save her best friend, who is hunted down for her religious beliefs. The film spans the period from 1881 to 1915, which marks both the Armenian Genocide and Komitas’ final concert.
“Songs of Solomon” stars Samvel Tadevossian, Arevik Gevorgyan, Tatev Hovakimyan, Sos Janibekyan, Arman Nshanian, Artashes Aleksanyan and Jean-Pier Nshanian along with child actors Slava Seyranyan, Iren Ayvazyan and Mery Hovsepyan.
The film, released on Nov. 26 in Armenia, is produced by Nick Vallelonga of Vallelonga Productions, Asko Akopyan of Oscar Gold Productions and Nshanian under his People of Ar Production Company in association with AnEva Productions in Armenia. Karo Kavoukjian serves as Executive Producer. Vallelonga won Academy Awards for best picture and and best original screenplay for 2018’s “Green Book.” “Songs of Solomon” will be opening in the U.S. in 2021.
In light of the September 2020 invasion of Armenian inhabited Nagorno- Karabakh at the hands of Azerbaijan and Turkish forces, the filmmakers hope that the film can be a cathartic experience for all Armenians and serve to educate others to prevent such atrocities from occurring again.
The 93rd Oscars ceremony, originally scheduled for Feb. 28, 2021, will now take place two months later on April 25, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Artsakh Conflict Sparks California Protests in Solidarity with Armenians
Dec 14 2020
https://www.persecution.org/2020/12/14/artsakh-conflict-sparks-california-protests-solidarity-armenians/?fbclid=IwAR2jSW3Q7K541DqkTPAZ4xYzafpQXDaKoRwdPJFLWaGpFf1VXH_Gz_aA0MA#.X9kE2eGzdWw.facebook
Moderna’s co-founder Noubar Afeyan on the growing pushback against a COVID-19 vaccine
GZero Media
Dec 14 2020
“In any debate, if one side has to offer facts and the other side can offer doubts and they’re considered of equal value, then the ones who offer doubts will always have an advantage.” Moderna co-founder Noubar Afeyan isn’t naïve about the pushback that his company’s COVID-19 vaccine will receive when it hits the US market. Disinformation around vaccine safety and efficacy was rampant even before the pandemic began. His conversation with Ian Bremmer was part of the latest episode of GZERO World.
Watch the GZERO World episode: A Shot in the Arm: Moderna’s Co-Founder on the COVID-19 Vaccine
Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan, Armenia exchange prisoners as part of peace deal Access to the commentsCOMMENTS
EuroNews
Dec 15 2020
Azerbaijan and Armenia exchanged prisoners on Monday as part of the peace deal that ended a recent war over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Tigran Avinyan, Armenia’s deputy prime minister, announced that 44 captives had been returned to the country from Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile, 12 captives were handed over to Azerbaijan, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed.
The exchange was facilitated by Russian peacekeepers that have been deployed to the region under the deal, which was brokered by Moscow.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many more prisoners the two countries intend to exchange.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bloody war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s which ended in a truce although sporadic episodes of violence have since taken place.
SONGS OF SOLOMON is Armenia’s Official Submission for the 93rd Academy Awards
Broadway World
Dec 15 2020
by TV News Desk
Amidst a time of war, Armenia has proudly announced that Arman Nshanian’s (in his feature film directorial debut) visually arresting and emotionally stirring historical drama SONGS OF SOLOMON as its official submission to the 93rd Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category.
Written by Audrey Gevorkian, based on the true story “The Past Unsung” by Sirvart Kavoukjian, a film that explores the life of iconic composer Komitas, who’s impact on ethnomusicology still prevails to this day while addressing the first genocide of the 20th century.
Released on November 26, 2020 in Armenia, SONGS OF SOLOMON resonates even louder today in light of the September 2020 invasion of Armenian inhabited Nagorno- Karabakh at the hands of Azerbaijan and Turkish forces. The filmmakers hope is that the picture will not only act as a cathartic experience to all Armenians, but also touch and educate us all to help eliminate such atrocities from ever occurring again anywhere in the world.
SONGS OF SOLOMON stars Samvel Tadevossian, Arevik Gevorgyan, Tatev Hovakimyan, Sos Janibekyan, Arman Nshanian, Artashes Aleksanyan and Jean-Pier Nshanian And introduces three wonderful child actors: Slava Seyranyan, Iren Ayvazyan, Mery Hovsepyan.
The feature is produced by two-time Oscar Winner (for Green Book) Nick Vallelonga of Vallelonga Productions and Hollywood based Producer Asko Akopyan of Oscar Gold Productions. Arman Nshanian Produced under his People of Ar Production Company in association with AnEva Productions in Armenia. Karo Kavoukjian serves as Executive Producer.
Inspired by true events, this is a film about a childhood friendship, torn apart by the horrific Hamidian massacres infiltrated by the Ottoman Empire. A brave Turkish woman at a time of dire prejudice risks her own life and the life of her family to save her best friend who is hunted down for her religious beliefs. This epic portrayal spans from 1881 to 1915, Constantinople, taking us on an emotional journey to the last concert given by Archbishop Komitas. A biographical film which takes place on the backdrop of the sacred and ancient music of Archbishop Solomon, also known as Komitas.
Armenia is proud to put SONGS OF SOLOMON into the Oscar race as its official entry for the 93rd Academy Awards – and thinks it could go the distance this year.
https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/SONGS-OF-SOLOMON-is-Armenias-Official-Submission-for-the-93rd-Academy-Awards-20201215
Dec. 15, 2020