Category: 2021

Armenia’s former Consul General in Saint Petersburg, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Hrayr Karapetyan, who was relieved of his duties as Consul General in July 2019, has recently been removed from office at the Foreign Ministry by the order of Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian, Yerkir.am reports.

For his great contribution to the development of Armenian-Russian relations, Hrayr Karapetyan was awarded a number of medals and orders by the head of Russia’s Federation Council, the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS and the CSTO. He also received letters of commendation from the CSTO secretary general, the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Government of St. Petersburg, the news outlet said.

Recently, Karapetyan has been sharply critical of the foreign policy pursued by the Armenian government and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, especially pointing to the “gross mistakes” in Armenian-Russian relations.

Hrayr Karapetyan, along with a number of other Armenian diplomats, had joined a statement demanding the resignation of the prime minister and his cabinet. 

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has warned U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken about a planned Azerbaijani attack on Armenia’s Syunik Province.

“ALERT Joe Biden and Secretary Blinken: Azerbaijan and Turkey are targeting Syunik, Armenia for their next attack,” the organization tweeted on Thursday, March 11.

ALERT @JoeBiden + @SecBlinken/@StateDept: Azerbaijan and Turkey are targeting Syunik, Armenia for their next attack. #Retweet

— ANCA (@ANCA_DC)

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2021/03/12/ANCA-Biden-Blinken/2467968

Baku and Yerevan show constructive attitude within the activity of the trilateral working group on Nagorno-Karabakh  Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told stat  press briefing on Friday, according to TASS news agency. 

“We notice the overall constructive approach shown by both Baku and Yerevan within the work of the trilateral working group, co-chaired by the vice-prime ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia,”Zakharova said, adding the main aim of the working group is to implement the agreements reached at the highest level by the leaders of the countries aimed at  unblocking of economic and transport links in the region. 

“We hope that the positive attitude and the search for mutually acceptable points of contact will prevail both in the official comments and in the media of Azerbaijan and Armenia,” said the Russian diplomat.

“In certain issues people can come to a compromise but what compromise is possible with a person who led the country to a disgraceful defeat and disrupted everything?” the opposition candidate for the post of Armenia’s prime minister Vazgen Manukyan has told Tert.am news portal. 

“There can be no compromise with Pashinyan. He either leaves or not. i can see no other solution,” Manukyan said. 

As to  snap parliamentary elections, the opposition leader stressed that holding elections at present is an absurd. He insisted that elections organised by Pashinyan will legitimize ‘all disgraceful defeats’ Pashinyan recorded. 

“You see that Armenia is gradually turning into a police state. We were surprised to learn that all criminal cases are initiated through an employee of the Office of the prime minister. In this case what is the guarantee that elections will express the will of people?” said Manukyan, adding if tensions may rise let them happen and solve the issue. The only escalation for him remain the developments around Syunik. 

“Aliyev sees that Nikol can be removed tomorrow and wants to get whatever possible while Nikol is still in power. Internal tensions are initiated by those serving the enemy’s interests, the traitors of the motherland from one side and those devoted to the country. The there is a place for escalation let it happen,” said Manukyan. 

He once again stressed that there is no country in the world with a leader not willing to leave after the disaster brought to the country and even further escalating the situation with staying in power. “This is a war  for the future of Armenia,” Manukyan said. 

Media reports about British HALO Trust allegedly providing Turks with maps of minefields in Artsakh have been sent to the Artsakh National Security Service (NSS) for examination in line with the established procedure, the Artsakh Prosecutor general’s office said in a statement. 

Earlier media citied the Artsakh president’s special representative Boris Avagyan, that the UK’s HALO Trust company, engaged in charitable activities in Artsakh, provided the Turkish special services with maps of the minefields in Artsakh, allowing them to successfully pass through those areas during the 44-day war in 2020. 

HALO Trust denied the reports, naming them ‘absolutely false  statements’.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had telephone conversations with the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. During the calls the implementation of agreements on Nagorno-Karabakh  were discussed,  the Kremlin press service reported.

“It was noted with satisfaction that the ceasefire regime is strictly observed, and the situation in the region remains stable and calm in general. Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan praised the effective actions of the Russian peacekeeping contingent deployed on the line of contact and along the Lachin corridor,” the source said. 

According to the Kremlin release, the interlocutors also touched upon issues related to unblocking of economic and transport links in the region and in this regard highlighted the positive actibity of the working group co-chaird by the deputy prime ministers of the three countries. 

The Harvard University Press has published a book by Turkish author Umit Kurt on the Armenian Genocide titled “The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province.” Renowned Turkish historian and researcher Taner Akçam wrote on Facebook that this was the second PhD of Strassler Center Genocide Program in Armenian Genocide track. “We are going to create “Clark School” in Armenian Genocide Research. Congratulations Umit, well deserved,” Akcam wrote. 

To note, Ümit Kurt, born and raised in Gaziantep, Turkey, was astonished to learn that his hometown once had a large and active Armenian community. The Armenian presence in Aintab, the city’s name during the Ottoman period, had not only been destroyed―it had been replaced. To every appearance, Gaziantep was a typical Turkish city. A Turk’s discovery that Armenians once thrived in his hometown leads to a groundbreaking investigation into the local dynamics of genocide.

Kurt digs into the details of the Armenian dispossession that produced the homogeneously Turkish city in which he grew up. In particular, he examines the population that gained from ethnic cleansing. Records of land confiscation and population transfer demonstrate just how much new wealth became available when the prosperous Armenians―who were active in manufacturing, agricultural production, and trade―were ejected.

The Armenians of Aintab draws on primary sources from Armenian, Ottoman, Turkish, British, and French archives, as well as memoirs, personal papers, oral accounts, and newly discovered property-liquidation records.