Category: 2021

Armenia presents its tourism potential at leading Russian travel show

Arpi Talalian

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 12:18,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. Armenia has presented its tourism potential at the Moscow International Travel & Tourism (MITT) trade show which took place in the Russian capital from March 16 to 18, the ministry of economy told Armenpress.

20 tour companies from Armenia participated in the exhibition with the support of the Tourism Committee of the ministry of economy.

The leading international travel and tourism trade show in Russia and the CIS has been attended by 1500 companies from 229 countries.

One of the first visitors to the Armenian pavilion was the head of Rostourism Zarina Doguzova who met with acting chair of the Tourism Committee of Armenia Alfred Kocharyan to discuss the bilateral cooperation prospects.

During those three days the Armenian pavilion managed to attract the interests of the Russian visitors and others with its various offers for tourism – adventure tourism, gastro tours, wine directions, Yerevan and provincial festivals, real experiments, etc.

The Armenian Embassy in Russia had a contribution to the unique presentation of the Armenian pavilion at the trade show.

On March 17 Armenian Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toghanyan hosted the representatives of Armenia on the sidelines of their visit in Moscow. The Ambassador highlighted presenting Armenia’s tourism potential at these difficult times and strengthening the Armenian-Russian ties.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenpress: Armenian FM presents Artsakh humanitarian situation to UN Human Rights High Commissioner

George Mamian

Armenian FM presents Artsakh humanitarian situation to UN Human Rights High Commissioner

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 16:55,

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian and the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet held an online meeting, the foreign ministry said.

“During the conversation both sides were pleased to underscore the close cooperation which exists between Armenia and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,” the foreign ministry said in a news release.

High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet highly appreciated Armenia’s role in advancing the human rights protection agenda.

“The main topics of the discussion agenda were issues of human rights protection in conflict situations. The foreign minister comprehensively presented to the High Commissioner the humanitarian situation in Artsakh and the ongoing steps for solving the urgent issues. The interlocutors expressed concern regarding the politicization of the process of providing humanitarian aid and the creation of artificial obstacles.”

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

The Lebanese Rocket Society

Emil Lazarian
The Wandering Native
Feb 18  2021
Posted on 18th Feb 2021by thewanderingnative

“Yes, it was a tiny country, but Lebanon could have done it.”

Space Exploration and the Middle East

February has been a big month for space exploration. NASA’s Perseverance rover – nicknamed “Percy” – successfully landed on Mars on the 18th of this month, and the UAE’s Hope probe entered Mars’ orbit earlier on the 9th. With the latter achievement, the Emirates Mars Mission counts as one of only five space programs to have reached the Red Planet – the other four include launches by NASA, Russia, the European Space Agency, and India. This has shined a light on the UAE’s trailblazing initiative in the Arab World and the Middle East. Indeed, this is something the region can be proud of.

Nevertheless, and while we celebrate this achievement, it is important to remember that the UAE was actually not the first country in the region to have shown ambition for space exploration. It was, in fact, Lebanon that pioneered space research by designing, producing and launching the very first rockets in the Arab world. And it did this at the height of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960’s.

: From Science Club to National Project

Born in Jerusalem, to an Armenian family, Manoug Manougian developed an interest in space and rockets at a very young age. He won a scholarship to study Mathematics at the University of Texas, and shortly after graduating with his degree, he was offered a position at Haigazian College (today’s Haigazian University) in Beirut to teach Maths and Physics. He was also made faculty advisor for the science club, which he rebranded as the Haigazian College Rocket Society (HCRS). A total of six students initially signed up and the society was officially founded in November 1960. All members, including their instructor, Manoug, were in their early twenties.

The goals of the HCRS were purely scientific and educational. The Society offered an opportunity to actively engage in the global scientific endeavours of the time, and through applied learning, Manoug hoped to nurture in his students a passion for the fields of science and technology.

The Society had to make do with limited means and resources. Manoug often dipped into his personal salary to secure the chemicals and material needed to make rockets. The team first started out with “baby rockets”, as Manoug calls them, which did not exceed half a meter in length. Initial launches were made on a student’s family farm in the Lebanese mountains, and then in a pine forest northeast of Beirut. After a number of trials, these baby rockets eventually flew some distance. With continued experimentation, the rockets grew larger and more effective. In April 1961, the entire student body of Haigazian College drove up to the launching site to witness the flight of the newest rocket. The rocket was aimed to be launched across an unpopulated valley, but the primitive launcher the Society was using fell backwards upon ignition and the rocket flew in the opposite direction. It landed outside the entrance to a church at the top of the mountains, without causing any damages. Despite the mishap, Manoug calculated that the rocket had reached about a kilometer in altitude, which made it the first locally produced modern rocket to be launched in the Middle East.

One of the three-stage rockets produced by the LRS (image source: M. Manougian, after FLArmenians)

An event such as this could not go unnoticed, and the following day Manoug was contacted by the Lebanese Army. The latter required that future launches be carried out under secure and more controlled conditions. A young Lieutenant Youssef Wehbé, also in his 20’s, was assigned to assist the science club in his role as a ballistics expert. The rocket launches continued at the military’s artillery range on Mount Sannine before moving to the coastal site of Dbayyeh. With this joint collaboration, the rockets developed in complexity and size. Two-stage and then three-stage rockets were produced, each flying higher and further than the ones before.

News of the rocket project quickly spread in Lebanon, and it soon became a source of national pride. President Fouad Chehab showed open support for the HCRS and announced at a reception for the Society, that the Ministry of Education would be providing two grants for the years 1962 and 1963 to assist its scientific efforts. With this widespread support and national involvement, the HCRS was renamed the Lebanese Rocket Society, and Haigazian College was nicknamed “Rocket College”. Since the cedar tree is Lebanon’s national emblem, all rockets were called Cedar Rockets (or “Arz”, in Arabic). Launches soon after became public events and drew hundreds of spectators who watched the rockets take off towards the Mediterranean Sea.

Cedar III Rocket – preparing to launch off the coast of Dbayyeh (image source: M. Manougian, after the BBC)

Cedar rockets were launched for the Lebanese Independence Day on November 22, in both 1963 and 1964. The Cedar III and Cedar IV rockets were 7 meters long, weighed 1270 kg and were capable of reaching an estimated 325 km in altitude while covering a range of approximately 1000 km. The rockets were paraded through Beirut’s streets and commemorative postage stamps were issued in those two years.

The final rocket launch by the Lebanese Rocket Society took place in 1966. The rocket, Cedar VIII, was launched from Dbayyeh above the Mediterranean and successfully breached the internationally accepted frontier of space, the Kármán line. However, it landed very close to Cyprus, and narrowly missed a British naval cruiser stationed in Cypriot waters and monitoring the Lebanese launch. The rockets the Society was producing had now reached a whole new level, which drew further international attention. One final Lebanese rocket, Cedar X, was launched by the military in 1967. The Lebanese Rocket program was shut down permanently after that.

Fun Facts:
* Manoug Manougian only held a Bachelor’s degree when he established and led the HCRS. He earned his Master’s degree during the course of the LRS project, and pursued his doctorate upon leaving Lebanon in 1966.
* Starting 1962, radio transmitters were installed in the cone heads of the rockets that broadcast the message “Long live Lebanon”. This is akin to the American Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts, launched in 1977, that carried gold-plated copper records containing the sounds of life on earth.
* Similar to how the Soviets and Americans were launching animals into orbit, the LRS trained a mouse called Mickey to withstand high acceleration. They planned on placing him in the nose cone for his own “space travel”. Manoug asked his wife to make a small parachute for Mickey’s safe landing. Once she understood what the parachute was for, she categorically refused and Mickey never got to be the astronaut he was temporarily destined to be.

Images of the LRS (source: M. Manougian, after FLArmenians, Smithsonian Magazine, BBC, and VICE): (1) M. Manougian (far right) with his students; (2) Members of the LRS, including the military personnel, in front of Cedar III rocket; (3) Cedar VI rocket being prepared for launch at Dbayyeh; (4) Cedar II rocket, also at Dbayyeh; (5) Launching of Cedar II-C over the Mediterranean in 1962; (6) Commemorative stamps issued on the 21st anniversary of Lebanese Independence in 1964, launch of Cedar IV.

Competing with the Big Boys

What the Lebanese Rocket Society achieved between 1960 and 1966 is truly remarkable and awe-inspiring. Haigazian College was a young college, established only five years prior to the creation of the Rocket Society. The college had a small student body as well as limited financial resources to undertake such ambitious projects. Yet, it had a determined and passionate instructor, and eager students who were willing to dream big and to try something new.

The 1960’s space race was also mainly restricted between the USA and the USSR, yet here was tiny Lebanon trying to carve a place of its own in the global space programs. And it came really close in such a short period. The first successful launch of a modern rocket able to reach space took place in Germany in 1942; the first Earth orbiting satellite in history, Sputnik 1, was launched by the USSR in 1957; Explorer 1 was the first American satellite to be sent, in 1958; and Yuri Gagarin became the first man to reach space in 1961. So for Lebanon to be able to produce a rocket capable of reaching low earth orbit with limited human, financial and technological resources compared to the world’s superpowers, is something to be extremely proud of. It is also worth remembering that the Lebanese contingent was comprised primarily of undergraduate students and not of prominent scientists.

Realistically speaking, Lebanon would of course not have been able to reach the scale executed by the larger countries, but the fact that it managed to produce the rockets that it did, speaks volumes to the potential the local space program held had it been allowed to continue.

Lebanon did not willingly abandon its space project, but was pressured to do so. The LRS garnered not only local interest, but also caught international attention. “Cultural attachés” at foreign embassies were closely observing the launches, and Manoug Manougian’s office at Haigazian College was regularly broken into and his papers rummaged through.

The fact that the rockets had a long range concerned neighboring countries and foreign powers, none of which wanted Lebanon to potentially use its scientific advancements for military purposes. In 1967, the governments of the United States, Great Britain and France advised Lebanon to shut down its space program.

Unrealized Potential and Forgotten History

The LRS started out as a scientific project and remained very much so until it was forcibly shut down. Did the Lebanese military have interest in the science generated from its research to potentially develop missiles as well? Yes, it did. And that remained a point of contention with Manoug Manougian who was categorically against transforming the space program into a military one. Despite the fact that the project remained purely scientific and educational, geopolitics nevertheless dictated the fate of this endeavour.

Sure, the science behind the rockets could have been used to create military missiles. But in the process of deterring Lebanon from potentially developing weapons for its army, meaningful scientific research in the country was also crushed. The LRS also represented a national project – a positive movement that citizens collectively rallied around and the government supported. On all levels, the LRS promised local progress and development.

Cedar VII Rocket (image source: M. Manougian, after the Smithsonian Magazine)

Most members of the LRS eventually emigrated, each pursuing successful careers abroad, including at NASA. Manoug Manougian also left Lebanon for the United States in 1966, where he continued teaching. In 2011, a new generation of students at the University of South Florida, learning of the LRS, asked Manoug to head their own rocket society. True to his early convictions, Manoug agreed, on condition that his students adopt a new and innovative approach towards rocketry research that goes beyond what the LRS had already achieved decades earlier. The Society of Aeronautics and Rocketry (SOAR) was thereby created that explores new technologies to aid the advancement of space exploration.

Had matters panned out differently, SOAR could have been based in another university in Lebanon. A victim of international interference, as well as of local circumstances, Lebanon today is a long way from re-initiating any such project. What makes the situation more painful is the fact that this brilliant chapter in Lebanese history was entirely forgotten for almost fifty years. It is thanks to directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige that the Lebanese Rocket Society was brought back to light in 2013. Their efforts were largely supported by Manoug Manougian, who had the foresight to preserve all archival footage, photographs and records of the LRS, knowing full well that this history had to be documented and transmitted to future generations.

Manoug and his students believed that it was only through education and research that peace and stability could be achieved. That group of young scientists in the 1960’s is no different from the emerging local researchers today. Both have dreams and aspirations, and the staple of youth: the eagerness to take risks. As Manoug put it, “Lebanon was a tiny country, but it could have done it”. Perhaps it will again someday.

Sources:

. 2013. Documentary film by Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige.

Chad, S. 2013. The Forgotten Apogee of Lebanese Rocketry. Florida Armenians. https://flarmenians.com/2013/05/24/the-forgotten-apogee-of-lebanese-rocketry/

Hadjithomas, J. & K. Joreige. 2013. On the Lebanese Rocket Society. E-Flux Journal no. 43. https://www.e-flux.com/journal/43/60187/on-the-lebanese-rocket-society/

Hooper, R. 2013. Lebanon’s Forgotten Space Program. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24735423

Schwartzstein, P. 2016. The Bizarre Tale of the Middle East’s First Space Program. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/bizarre-tale-middle-easts-first-space-program-180960808/

Haidostian, P. August 2020 interview in Rising Up to the Challenge of Education During Difficult Times. Business Life. http://www.haigazian.edu.lb/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Rising-Up-to-the-Challenge-of-Education-During-Difficult-Times.pdf

Aqrabawi, R. 2013. Lebanon’s Forgotten Space Race: In 1961, Manoug Manougian Aimed the Middle East at the Stars. VICE News. https://www.vice.com/en/article/pggn4y/lebanons-forgotten-space-race-in-1961-manoug-manougian-aimed-the-middle-east-at-the-stars

Aqrabawi, R. 2013. A Photo History of Lebanon’s Unremembered Space Race. VICE News. https://www.vice.com/en/article/qkkyg5/a-photo-history-of-lebanons-unremembered-space-race-1

Online Interviews & Documentary Snippets:

BBC News – Arabic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxXxZMAbj0M

Documentary Trailer: (EN) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kas41F-MMkE ; (AR) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6deAidrrRJY&t ; (FR) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGf36A_NYD8

Lebanese TV Show Kalam el Nas Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OUmi4EBeFI&t

CivilNet Interview with current Haigazian President Paul Haidostian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6deAidrrRJY&t


The Smithsonian: Travel the Sweetest Route through Vayots Dzor and Syunik, Armenia

Nahapetian Samvel
The Smithsonian Magazine
March 11 2021
March 11th, 2021, 6:00AM / BY My Armenia Program

Master basket weaver Arthur Petrosyan sits and works on a project. (Photo by Narek Harutyunyan, My Armenia Program)

In the summer of 2020, the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage’s My Armenia Program partnered with Armenian publication Yerevan Magazine to publish a special issue highlighting community-based cultural heritage tourism in the country. Over the next few months, the Center will publish English translations of the articles to Smithsonian Voices.

During this difficult time in the region, we hope these stories shine a light on the resilience of the Armenian people by showcasing their vibrant, diverse cultural heritage.

Seeing the Historical and Cultural Monument of Beekeeping in the Yeghegnadzor Regional Museum

The Museum of Yeghegnadzor has approximately 9,000 objects, ranging from prehistoric times to the 20th century. Most of them present the history of the region—the instruments of the Bronze and Stone Ages, jewelry, earthenware, and rugs, among others. The main treasure of the museum is perhaps the 14th-century khachkar (cross-stone) by the renowned Momik. That being said, the beehive (referred to as moloz [Armenian: մոլոզ] in the local dialect) dating to the 19th century is no less magnificent. Made from the fresh branches of a willow tree, this beehive was discovered in Shatin village. This is the very place where it is best to embark on a honey journey.

A nineteenth century beehive at the Yeghegnadzor Local Lore-Museum. (Photo by Areg Balayan, My Armenia Program)

Making a Beehive with your Own Hands in Yegheg

Born and raised in Yeghegnadzor, Arthur Petrosyan started a new brand in the town called Yegheg. The branches of the willow growing on the Arpa River banks get soft and flexible in the hands of Master Arthur, eventually becoming woven baskets. These baskets, made from natural material, can be used both as home decoration and as jug and wine bottle encasements, bread plates, or boxes for storing things.

Arthur also explores some of the history of his craft. After seeing the moloz beehive made from willow branches at the Yeghegnadzor museum, he reproduced it at his workshop. Currently, he helps all workshop visitors so that they also may master that craft. Of course, visitors may take home the baskets that they weave with their own hands.

Enjoying Pakhlava with Honey at Mirhav

Many countries of the region have been proclaiming themselves the birthplace of pakhlava for many years. We think that it does not matter where it was invented, but rather where it is the tastiest. From this point of view, Goris may take the top spot. Using the recipe she inherited from her aunt who lives in the village, the chief manager of the hotel-restaurant Mirhav treats visitors to a delicious pakhlava. It is so successful that many people know Mirhav for this signature desert. One of the keys to this success is the natural honey produced in the mountains of Goris. Most importantly, this pakhlava may not only be ordered, but also prepared with your own hands (and then tasted by all means).

Yeghevnut’s beeswax cream. (Photo courtesy of the My Armenia Program)

Making a Cream with Beeswax in Yeghevnut

Numerous popular traditions regarding beekeeping are associated with the medicinal properties of the use of beeswax. It has been used for a variety of health problems for centuries. Grandpa Grisha, a beekeeper with 50 years of experience, remembers it all very well. Based on the popular tradition using beeswax to wounds and skin cracks, his daughter-in-law, Anush, created a cream that is used very effectively to treat various parts of the feet, and especially the sole.

People used to melt beeswax and apply it on skin cracks, which was rather painful due to its heat. Anush has improved that method. She adds sunflower, olive, sea buckthorn oils, or other essential oils to the melted beeswax. They soften the beeswax and make it viscous. This cream is convenient to use; firstly, it does not hurt the wound, and secondly, it is more effective. The cream can also be used for skin care; it cleanses the skin and gives it a velvety softness.

Anush co-founded the Yeghevnut hotel where you can also try various cooking classes.

Master potter Vahagn holding a clay jug. (Photo by Narek Harutyunyan, My Armenia Program)

Practicing Pottery with the Use of Beeswax at Sisian Ceramics

Pottery master Vahagn Hambardzumyan and his wife, artist Zara Gasparyan, established Sisian Ceramics. Today, they work together in the south of Armenia, developing and preserving Armenia’s cultural heritage of pottery. Sisian Ceramics explores the roots of Armenian pottery, ancient technologies, and types of decorative art. Visitors to the workshop may see how Vahagn heats the clay item at temperatures of 100 to 120 degrees Celsius. He melts the beeswax under the same temperature and applies a thin layer of it to the surface. Then, he fills the interior with the beeswax and quickly empties it. The objective is to make the object waterproof, and not only that: beeswax prevents the clay from absorbing moisture and makes the object more beautiful. Moreover, the works covered in beeswax are easier to wash.

BeeArt Exclusive’s jewelry at the My Handmade Armenia Festival, 2018. (Photo courtesy of the My Armenia Program)

Shopping for Original Bee-like Jewelry

Finally, visitors may return home after a visit to the village of Rind, where they may purchase the jewelry inspired by beehives. The designer and maker of the jewelry is Varazdat Asatryan. It is not surprising that his brand is named BeeArt Exclusive. The collections of BeeArt feature a combination of natural materials such as wood, precious stones, and metals. The result is a harmonious combination of distinctive rings, earrings, and pendants.

About My Armenia
The My Armenia Program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the Smithsonian Institution, works to increase and share knowledge about Armenian cultural heritage and build capacity to support the long-term vitality of Armenian cultural sites and practices. Through My Armenia, the Smithsonian seeks to support cultural sustainability by documenting Armenia’s historic and living cultural traditions, sharing this knowledge with global audiences, and supporting the development of local resources and capacity to safeguard this cultural heritage for future generations.

About Yerevan Magazine (EVNmag)
Launched in 2011, Yerevan Magazine is one of the most popular print magazines in Armenia. Known for its high quality, edgy design, and free distribution at more than sixty hotspots in Yerevan (in cafes, restaurants, pubs, and more), EVNmag has become required reading for many Yerevantis—just like coffee in the morning. Even as print magazines fight to stay relevant in an increasingly digital world, with five to seven editions a year and 4,000 copies each, EVNmag remains a beloved and reliable news source covering life in Yerevan.

The Yerevan Magazine issue covering My Armenia was released Friday, August 14, 2020. Armenian versions of these articles can be found online on their website, Facebook, Instagram, and .

Senators call on Biden to officially recognize Armenian genocide

Markos Nalchajian
The Hill, DC

click

By Celine Castronuovo – 03/19/21 01:09 PM EDT

click

A bipartisan coalition of nearly 40 lawmakers led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez Robert (Bob) MenendezBorder surge scrambles Senate immigration debateDemocratic senators urge Biden to take executive action on ghost gunsBiden holds off punishing Saudi crown prince, despite US intelMORE (D-N.J.) is urging President Biden to become the first U.S. president to officially recognize the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian genocide. 

No U.S. president has officially labeled the actions by the Ottoman Empire, which officially ended in 1922 before Turkey became an independent republic in 1923, a genocide. 

Doing so would provoke a battle with Turkey, and previous U.S. governments, including the Obama administration, decided against doing so to preserve a strong working relationship with Turkey.

The episode sparked sharp disagreements within the administration at the time, with Samantha Power, Obama’s special assistant on human rights and multilateral affairs, personally lobbying Obama to label it a genocide in 2009. Obama declined to do so, as recounted in Power’s memoir “The Education of an Idealist,” because he thought it would hamper efforts at the time to broker peace between Turkey and Armenia.

Biden as a presidential candidate in a Medium post commemorated Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day last April. 

At the time, Biden wrote, “It is particularly important to speak these words and commemorate this history at a moment when we are reminded daily of the power of truth, and of our shared responsibility to stand against hate — because silence is complicity.” 

“If we do not fully acknowledge, commemorate, and teach our children about genocide, the words ‘never again’ lose their meaning,” he said, adding that he as commander in chief would “support a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide and will make universal human rights a top priority for my administration.”

In their letter, the senators wrote that from 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire “systematically sought to eliminate the Armenian population, killing 1.5 million Armenians and driving hundreds of thousands more from their homeland.” 

The senators cited Biden’s 2020 statement, writing Friday that Biden should officially recognize the genocide as president “to make clear that the U.S. government recognizes this terrible truth.” 

“We join the Armenian community in the United States and around the world in honoring the memory of these victims, and we stand firmly against attempts to pretend that this intentional, organized effort to destroy the Armenian people was anything other than a genocide,” the letter continued. “You have correctly stated that American diplomacy and foreign policy must be rooted in our values, including respect for universal rights.”

“Those values require us to acknowledge the truth and do what we can to prevent future genocides and other crimes against humanity,” the senators added. 

The senators urged Biden to follow in their example, citing their unanimous passage in December 2019 of a resolution recognizing the facts of the Armenian genocide, adding that the House that same year overwhelmingly passed its own similar resolution. 

“Administrations of both parties have been silent on the truth of the Armenian Genocide,” the senators wrote. “We urge you to break this pattern of complicity by officially recognizing that the Armenian Genocide was a genocide.” 

When reached for comment, a senior administration official noted Biden’s statement on the Armenian genocide as a presidential candidate, adding in a statement to The Hill, “He said then that we must never forget or remain silent about this horrific campaign. And we will forever respect the perseverance of the Armenian people in the wake of such a great tragedy.” 

The official said the Biden administration “is committed to promoting respect for human rights and ensuring such atrocities are not repeated. A critical part of that is acknowledging history.”

Power has been nominated by Biden to serve as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

Pastor’s Corner: Easter with the Armenians

Boris Nahapetian
The Daily News, MT
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Last updated 3/19/2021 at 8:02am

Holy Week is drawing nearer and nearer! From the excitement of waving palm branches on Palm Sunday to the sorrowful somberness of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to the bright joy of Easter morning, I have always loved Holy Week. Last year, when the first wave of the pandemic crashed over us and forced all of Holy Week online, we felt how jarring it was to wake up on Easter Sunday without a tangible community around us to celebrate our Savior’s resurrection. This year, we’re two weeks away from Holy Week, and I’m already excited. It will be so thrilling to let our Alleluias ring out from behind masks rather than from behind a camera!

There’s been another Easter in my life with particularly thrilling Alleluias. When I studied abroad in Turkey during college, I spent my spring break in Egypt, and Easter fell on the first full day of the trip. One of my fellow travelers from the U.S. was an Armenian Orthodox Christian, and he knew the exact time and place to celebrate Easter, Armenian Orthodox style, in Cairo. He graciously allowed me and another friend to join him, even though much of the service would be foreign to us. I figured we wouldn’t be able to participate in much of the service, but how many chances does a person have of celebrating Easter in Egypt in an Armenian Orthodox Church? Of course we were going!

As our trio of Americans walked up the stone steps of the warm, creamy church, one usher made a beeline for us. In pretty good English, he enthusiastically invited us in and gave us charmingly old postcards of the church. Our Armenian American friend explained a bit of who we were, and then the usher leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially to us two non-Armenians, “Please, take communion with us. You are welcome! You are welcome!”

This man knew that we were not Armenian Orthodox. He knew that we were not baptized members of one of the sister churches of the Armenian Orthodox Church. He knew that officially, we should not take communion. And yet, here in a place where we were clearly the outsider, we were being welcomed in, welcomed joyfully, even gleefully!

I don’t believe I took communion that day, since I wanted to respect the tradition of the place where I was worshiping. But how well I remember the warmth and welcome of that man’s invitation to worship fully with his church. How well I remember the invitation that he extended to taste and see that the Lord is good.

Holy Week usually pulls many people to church, for many reasons. Whether you’re an old-timer or a newcomer, we all have the same role as that gentle and gleeful Egyptian Christian usher: to welcome each other to God’s table of love. We welcome everyone because we know the good news that Christ has died and has risen to save both the folks we know and the folks we don’t know. I hope that the welcome we extend to others this upcoming Holy Week – and every week – can be as gracious as Christ’s invitation to us into the new life of the resurrection. I hope our welcome, be it in words or actions, gestures or smiles, can be as joyful and sincere as the welcome I found in Cairo that blessed Easter morning.

—

Pastor Megan Hoewisch

First Lutheran Church

Canadian drone tech used in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict – report

Arpi Talalian
Jerusalem post
By MICHAEL STARR  

MARCH 19, 2021 14:27
The Canadian government has been selling sensitive drone technology to Turkey last year, which was used by Azerbaijan in its 2020 conflict with Armenia, Ricochet reported.

Internal government documents revealed that the Trudeau government exported the Wescam optics for drones to Turkey in coordination with a defense lobbyist with connections to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party. 
Canada had previously suspended arms sales to Turkey in 2019, but parts were rolled back in 2020 after Trudeau met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 
Baykar, the Turkish defense company that produced the drones which housed the Canadian-made Wescam optics, reportedly has close connections to Erodgan’s son-in-law.
Ken Mackay, a past Liberal donor, has worked for Wescam in the past, and lobbied the Canadian government on behalf of Baykar around the time of the exports.
Turkey has rebuffed attempt to discover how the Canadian tech was used, but Turkish drones were used heavily in the recent 2020 escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. There have been accusations of war crimes and improper conduct by parties of the conflict.
Drones featured heavily in the conflagration. A large Azeri drone arsenal helped them to overpower and outmaneuver their Armenian opponents in 2020. Armed drones and kamikaze munitions were used to suppress anti-air emplacements and destroy artillery positions.
Canada and Turkey are not the only countries that have been criticized for the involvement of their drone tech in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Israeli kamikaze drones such as Orbiter 1K and Harop, also referred to as “loitering munitions,” have been used to effect.
The Azeri military is reportedly quite pleased with the Israeli armaments in its possession. Inversely, Armenian leaders have strongly voiced their displeasure of Israel’s drone sales to their opponents. 
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia centers on disputed territory that is internationally recognized as being Azeri, but was long governed and populated by Armenians. Russia managed to intervene and established a ceasefire in which territories were taken into Azeri possession.
For more on drone warfare, see analysis and writing by Jerusalem Post journalist Seth Frantzman.

Armenian minister punches journalist

Albert Nalbandian
OC Media

Armenia’s Minister of High Tech Industry, Hakob Arshakyan, has been caught on camera punching a journalist in the face.

CCTV footage from a cafe in Yerevan showed Arshakyan walking over to Paylak Fahradyan, who was sitting at a table with his laptop, before launching his attack. 

An official investigation into the incident is underway.

Fahradyan, an editor at Armenian news portal Irakanum.am, reported the attack in a live broadcast on Facebook on Thursday. He said the minister was upset after he asked him why he was at a cafe during working hours.

‘First, Arshakyan told me he works at night and that all hours are working hours for him, after which he asked me to turn the camera off, and when I did, he started telling me that I would remember this day and started threatening me’, Fahradyan said. 

After a short conversation, the footage shows Fahradyan returning to his table. Later, Arshakyan is seen approaching and attacking him, pushing his laptop. 

Fahradyan said his hand was injured and that his phone and laptop had been damaged. 

He urged law-enforcement bodies to accept his video on Facebook as a report of a crime. 

The Prosecutor General has forwarded a case regarding the incident to the Special Investigation Service to look into. 

Shortly after the first footage showing the attack appeared online, pro-government news site Civic.am shared additional footage of the conversation between Arshakyan and Fahradyan prior to the attack. They accused Fahradyan of using ‘indecent language’ and cursing, which they said led the minister to lose control. 

In a post on Facebook on Thursday night, Arshakyan insisted he was against violence. 

‘Any participant in our society, be it an official or a journalist, is first and foremost a person, has emotions, is sensitive especially in any issue related to the family’, Arshakyan wrote. He apologised to anyone in the cafe whose ‘rest he disturbed’. Arshakyan said he was ready to take responsibility for the incident.

Armenian, Azerbaijani militaries hold exercises amid heightened tensions

Antonian Lara
EurasiaNet.org
Joshua Kucera Mar 19, 2021
As tensions around the exercises grew, Russian officials felt compelled to try to tamp down concerns. (Armenian Defense Ministry)

Armenia and Azerbaijan both conducted large-scale military exercises this week, on relatively short notice, amid heightened fears that war was again going to break out.

Azerbaijan’s exercises started on March 15, after having been announced just five days earlier. Armenia’s exercises, meanwhile, started the day after Azerbaijan’s and were announced just two days after Azerbaijan’s were announced, in apparent response.

The exercises themselves were standard issue. At least according to the official description, Azerbaijan’s were almost identical to drills that took place in May 2020, noted Nagorno Karabakh Observer, a blog and Twitter account that closely follows military developments in the region.

But the political context in which the exercises took place gave them an additional piquancy.

On March 5, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev complained that Armenia was dragging its feet on implementing one key part of the November 10 Armenia-Azerbaijan-Russia ceasefire statement: that Azerbaijan would be allowed to use some sort of transportation infrastructure in southern Armenia to connect the Azerbaijani mainland with its exclave of Nakhchivan. “Now Armenia wants to prevent the implementation of the Nakhchivan corridor,” he told a congress of his New Azerbaijan Party. “But they won’t succeed. We will force them.”

(Armenia has been objecting to Azerbaijan’s description of the as-yet-undetermined transportation arrangement as a “corridor,” as that phrase implies some kind of sovereignty, as in the “Lachin corridor” that connects Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, the territory at the heart of the conflict between the two sides. Armenia insists it will retain full sovereignty over the transportation routes. But more on that in a future report.)

Aliyev didn’t help matters by, a day earlier, reiterating his claim that Zangezur – the Azerbaijani name for the territory of current-day southern Armenia – was “historically” Azerbaijani. “The new transport corridor … will pass through the historical territory of Azerbaijan – Zangezur,” he told an economic conference.

Taken together, many Armenians interpreted all this as a threat by Aliyev to continue the fighting into Armenian territory, in the region that they call Syunik and which has been a site of particular tension ever since the fighting ended in November.

Rumors began to spread and were given credence by Armenian officials like Edmon Marukyan, the leader of one opposition faction in parliament, who called on Russia to set up a military base in the region to deter this sort of Azerbaijani/Turkey attack.

The Armenian National Committee of Armenia, a leading lobbying group for Armenian-Americans, warned President Joe Biden and other American officials that “Azerbaijan and Turkey are targeting Syunik, Armenia for their next attack.”

Rumors even spread of an alleged specific date on which the Azerbaijani/Turkish attack would begin: March 16, which fortunately came and went without any major clashes taking place.

As all this was happening, the Armenian government saw fit to reduce funding for the country’s human rights ombudsman, who had been using his post to act as a gadfly calling attention to the many confusing and intimidating developments that Syunik residents are facing now that they find themselves in new proximity to Azerbaijani forces. Many in Armenia saw a political motive to the downgrade of the ombudsman’s office and it even earned the Armenian government a rap on the hands from the U.S.-based human rights watchdog Freedom House.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani officials stepped up their complaints about reports that Armenia was continuing to send its armed forces into Karabakh. Following a skirmish in December in the region of Hadrut, Azerbaijan captured 62 Armenian soldiers and continues to hold them. (It’s not clear whether Armenia is doing anything different from what it has done since the 1990s, which is to heavily support the de facto Karabakh armed forces and supplement them with its own military units. But following the war, Azerbaijan has become bolder in demanding that Yerevan cease its military support for the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.)

On March 13, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General calling attention to the issue, alleging that Armenia was sending troops to Karabakh secretly, in civilian clothing, in order to evade checks by Russian peacekeepers. “Such a misuse of the [Lachin] corridor for military purposes is a gross violation of the trilateral statement. It undermines peace efforts and demonstrates the true intention of Armenia,” Bayramov wrote.

As tensions around the exercises grew, Russian officials felt compelled to try to tamp down concerns. “According to the information we have, the exercises are planned ahead of time, aimed at improving military readiness of the armed forces and don’t constitute a risk for stability and security in the region,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.

After all that, the exercises themselves were a bit of an anticlimax and proceeded without much drama.

Despite the large scale of the exercises – 10,000 troops on the Azerbaijani side and 7,500 on the Armenian side, along with hundreds of pieces of heavy armor and weaponry – they took place amid such secrecy that it wasn’t even clear where they were being conducted. The only media coverage of them was via official releases, photos, and videos from the respective ministries of defense.

Azerbaijani analysts argued that the exercises were aimed at preventing “sabotage groups” like the one Azerbaijanis captured in Hadrut. “These exercises are focused on anti-terror operations in the zone of precious military activity,” analyst Ilgar Velizade told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. “The logic is understandable – there is still a great probability of destabilization from groups that can infiltrate across lines and carry out partisan warfare.”

For Armenia, it appeared to be more about reassuring the public and beginning to restore morale in the military.

“What’s important is the mere fact that these are the first post-war exercises and that they are being conducted parallel to major exercises of the Azerbaijani military,” analyst David Artyunov told Kommersant. “This is a reaction to them and a signal to society that we shouldn’t be afraid of the Azerbaijani exercises. On top of that, the exercises could also be seen as a statement by the military leadership about the restoration of the army’s potential.”

Artyunov added, in another interview with Sputnik Armenia: “After the defeat, one possibility of an exercise of this scale, gathering dozens and hundreds of pieces of hardware is to signal a ‘restart’ of the Armenian army.”

Azerbaijan’s exercises ended on March 18. Armenia’s are scheduled to wrap up on March 20.

 

Joshua Kucera is the Turkey/Caucasus editor at Eurasianet, and author of The Bug Pit.

Bipartisan letter calls on Biden to recognize Armenian Genocide

Emil Lazarian
eKathimerini, Greece

Newsroom

19.03.2021 • 18:45

A bipartisan group of 37 US Senators joined Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez on Friday in calling on President Joe Biden to follow the lead of Congress in fully and formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) said in a press release.

“President Biden – by virtue of his own strong Senate record and the bipartisan House and Senate resolutions he backed as a candidate – is powerfully positioned to reject Turkey’s gag-rule, locking in permanent US government-wide condemnation and commemoration of the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

The view was shared by Hellenic American Leadership Council Executive Director Endy Zemenides. “The Biden Administration has fortunately started on the right foot and spoken to Turkey truthfully and bluntly. Yet the White House still needs to be truthful when it comes to the Armenian Genocide. President Biden’s record as a Senator and his statements as a candidate for the Presidency prove that he is aware of and committed to this truth,” he said in a statement.

“Now that he is the boss, the end of Turkey’s gag rule should be a no-brainer,” he added.