11:32, 8 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. Arsen Makvetsyan was appointed as Director of the Sports and Youth Affairs Department of the Yerevan City Hall.
Mayor of Yerevan Hrachya Sargsyan announced the appointment during an August 8 consultation at the City Hall.
11:34, 8 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. The city of Yerevan will acquire 30 new trolley-buses.
The acting director of the Department of Transportation of Yerevan City Hall Hayk Sargsyan said at a meeting that the tender for the procurement of 15 of these vehicles is already completed.
Mayor of Yerevan Hrachya Sargsyan tasked the department to submit a bid for procuring another 15 vehicles.
“I think it’ll be good to change 30 out of the 51 trolley-buses,” the mayor said.
11:35, 8 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. Armenia won 4 medals in the 7th Children of Asia International Sports Games held July 27-August 8 in Vladivostok, Russia, the ministry of sports reported.
Sambist Mher Ohanyan won the gold medal at the 7th Children of Asia International Sports Games in the 64kg division of sambo tournament.
All other three medals were won by marksmen: Nare Melkumyan won silver and Gagik Nikoghosyan won bronze in the rifle shooting tournament. Both marksmen won another bronze with a score of 17:13 in a team competition.
In the handgun competition, Armen Gevorgyan finished 6th with a score of 536, 186.1, while Edita Manucharyan finished 5th with a score of 534, 137.7. The duo again finished 5th in a team competition.
The Armenian breach volleyball team, which included Milena and Elizaveta Tonoyans, won the 5th place after having 3 victories and 4 losses.
More than 1300 athletes aged 13-16 from Armenia, Afghanistan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Lebanon are participating in the championship.
Yan'an – the Chinese city considered the birthplace of revolution and example of poverty alleviation
11:39, 8 August 2022
YAN’AN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. Yan'an is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. This city has an important role in the Chinese revolution is considered the birthplace of the revolution.
As part of a program organized by the China International Press Communication Centre, international journalists were taken on a tour to Yan'an.
Located near the mid of the legendary Yellow River, the city is best known for its iconic 44-meter pagoda dating back to the Tang dynasty on the Baota Mountain. It is a tourism hotspot given the spectacular view of the city from the heights. Ever since 1937, when Mao Zedong visited the city, the pagoda became a “lighthouse” of joining the revolutionary forces among the youth.
A few kilometers from the city is the village of Liangjiahe, where the current Chinese leader Xi Jinping worked in his early life. Committed to the One Town One Product idea, the village is now best known all across China for a unique, flavorful type of apple, which is being exported all over the world. The village has been numerously recognized as the best village community in the country and is an example of China overcoming poverty and hunger.
The locals of Yan’an cherish the memory of their ancestors and respect the present.
In the past, the city was in a desert, but through diligence and commitment, now the 2,5 million population of the city is living surrounded by rich forests and cultivated gardens.
Varvara Hayrapetyan
12:00, 8 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the announcement of the ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.
“The Secretary-General welcomes the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel,” Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General said in a statement.
“He is deeply saddened by the loss of life and injuries, including children, from airstrikes in Gaza and the indiscriminate firing of rockets toward Israel from population centers in Gaza by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other militant groups.
He extends his deepest condolences to the victims of the violence and their loved ones.
The hostilities have contributed to a humanitarian emergency. Crossings into Gaza have been closed and power shortages are affecting essential facilities and supplies. Hundreds of buildings and homes have been destroyed or damaged, leaving thousands of Palestinians homeless.
The Secretary-General commends Egypt for its efforts carried out, in close coordination with the UN, to help restore calm.
The Secretary-General calls on all sides to observe the ceasefire.
He reaffirms the United Nations’ commitment to the achievement of the two-State solution based on relevant United Nations resolutions, international law, and prior agreements and the importance of restoring a political horizon. Only a negotiated sustainable political solution will end, once and for all, these devastating cycles of violence and lead to a peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
12:24, 8 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. The Geghard Vocal Ensemble just recently returned from the prestigious Salzburg Festival in Austria, where it performed Komitas, medieval monodies and spiritual songs by contemporary Armenian composers.
The artistic director of Geghard ensemble, Professor Mher Navoyan told ARMENPRESS that this is the second time they participated in the Salzburg Festival.
“This is one of the most prestigious festivals of classical music,” he said. “If I am not mistaken, we are the first Armenian ensemble to ever take part. This year’s program had the following principle: one evening – three concerts. The first part was Luigi Nono’s works, Tigran Mansurian’s Requiem was played in the second part, and the third part was dedicated to Komitas,” Navoyan said.
As a result of negotiations with the organizers of the festival, it was decided to include also modern spiritual music of Armenia in addition to Komitas’ Patarag – Yervand Yerkanyan, Daniel Yerajisht, Eduard Hayrapetyan, Davit Halajyan, Vache Sharafyan, Artur Aharonyan.
The concert was concluded with young composer Vahram Sargsyan’s Luys Zvart.
The ensemble received the invitation “by name of Komitas”, in other words to perform Komitas.
“The time of Komitas is just coming, he is returning once again with very surprising approaches. He is considered to be a phenomenon of a very innovative culture which is very modern in present days as well,” Navoyan said.
12:32, 8 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. A plurality of American voters think that a second presidential term for either incumbent United States President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump would be “the worst thing that could happen,” Yahoo News reports.
A Yahoo News-YouGov poll found that 37 percent of registered voters in both parties said reelection for Trump would be “the worst thing” for the country, and 35 percent thought the same if Biden ran again 2024.
Given the scale of five other options — unsure, “best thing that could happen,” “mostly good,” “a mix of good and bad,” “mostly bad” — to call the potential second-term wins, most respondents chose the pessimistic extreme.
Eighty-five percent of Democrats and 25 percent of Republicans are against a Trump bid in 2024, compared to 43 percent of Democrats and 84 percent of Republicans who are against Biden.
If Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the earthquake that has triggered geopolitical realignments around the world, the South Caucasus nation of Armenia may be suffering one of the aftershocks.
The country of nearly three million is again slipping into the international spotlight since the Ukraine war erupted in February. Its traditional alignment with Moscow appears to be cooling, and a long-running conflict with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region is flaring, with three killed in a skirmish early this month.
Armenia is facing economic challenges, including record inflation and lingering post-COVID problems, compounded by political troubles.
Between April and June, there were protests over Armenia’s loss of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war to Azerbaijan and demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan related to the terms of the peace. They echoed earlier demonstrations blaming him for Armenia’s defeat in the 44-day conflict.
It is easy to pay little attention or to even ignore regional conflicts, but they can hold the key to understanding larger political currents in the world. Often, small nations become proxies for competition among stronger powers.
In the post-Ukraine world, alignments are moving quickly. Events in Armenia can tell us a lot about how the West, Russia, Turkey and Iran will act in this new geopolitical landscape.
While bubbling hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh are regional in nature, the stakes for U.S.-aligned European nations and Russia are global.
Europe needs more energy since it must replace its reliance on Russian natural gas, which Moscow has been more than willing to withhold for political leverage. In July, the European Union proposed a natural gas deal with Azerbaijan.
Russia, meanwhile, needs all the support it can get from other nations. Armenia, which is sometimes described as a hostage of Moscow, is wary that Azerbaijan may take advantage of the fact that all eyes are on Ukraine to press its conflict with neighboring Armenia again.
It will be instructive to see what Turkey — a NATO nation often seen as attempting to reassert its Ottoman Empire influence in the Muslim world — and Iran do.
Another nation to watch is Israel, which has been closely aligned with Azerbaijan since the Soviet Union collapsed. Israel shares military technology with Azerbaijan, in return for what amounts to about 40% of Israel’s oil supply. With its ties to Azerbaijan, Israel has a good perch from which to watch Iran, especially since part of the territory disputed in Nagorno-Karabakh borders Iran.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, a little more than a year had passed since the declaration of a Moscow-brokered ceasefire in the second war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The 44-day conflict killed 6,000 and saw Azerbaijan, with state-of-the-art weaponry paid for by its oil wealth and the help of Turkey and Syrian mercenaries, defeat Armenian forces.
At issue is a long-running dispute in which the majority-ethnic Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh claimed territory inside Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders as its own, leading to the first Nagorno-Karabakh war from 1988-1994.
Despite nearly 30 years of diplomacy by Russia, France and the United States, which brokered that ceasefire under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, there has been no lasting solution.
The still-brewing hostilities — and Armenia’s difficult choices — are emblematic of its centuries-long history of being thrashed around by competing empires.
Armenia’s ancient cultural history as a kingdom and the first nation to adopt Christianity underpins fierce ethno-national pride and a strong diaspora. But its history is scarred by memories of a World War One genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. In the modern era, the perpetrator is the antagonist on Armenia’s Western border, NATO member Turkey.
Bounded by Iran to the south, Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to the east, Armenia’s geographic location has put it, by turns, at the mercy of the Persian, Russian and Ottoman empires.
Those same factors manifested themselves after the Soviet Union collapsed. A client state of Moscow then and for decades after, Armenia has remained part of Russia-led regional organizations and has been a reliable diplomatic ally at the United Nations. Russia is Armenia’s largest trading partner and officially guards its borders and airspace.
What does Ukraine have to do with all of this?
When Russia seized Crimea in 2014, Armenia backed Moscow publicly and did not cooperate with the EU’s diplomatic efforts. Now, Armenia’s silence over the current war in Ukraine speaks volumes. It abstained from a United Nations Security Council vote demanding Russia withdraw from Ukraine, and from a Human Rights Commission vote to begin an urgent debate on a Ukraine war crimes inquiry.
While Europe has raced to recalibrate its relationships following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Armenia’s peace talks have become another arena for the post-Ukraine geopolitical realignment. Although Russian peacekeepers are on the ground enforcing the ceasefire, France has taken a much more public and active role in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, to Moscow’s frustration.
For some Armenians frustrated with the status quo and Russia’s apparent indifference to the last Nagorno-Karabakh war, it is time to look for different alliances, especially with the strong possibility that the sanctions on Russia will hurt the Armenian economy.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s March phone call with Pashinyan included a barely veiled threat that if Armenia did not comply with sanctions against Russia, it would face Washington’s wrath: “The Secretary highlighted the U.S. commitment, alongside other partners, to continue to hold Moscow and its supporters, including the Lukashenka regime in Belarus, accountable for the Kremlin’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine.”
So, Armenia now faces:
“We only have two choices here. North or West,” a businessman friend of mine recently told me by phone from Armenia, referring to Russia and the U.S.-European alliance.
“We need the West. If the West wants us, we can do something about it,” he said, referring to calls in some Armenian political quarters for new elections. The West has been silent on the matter, but its default position toward elections is, by and large, to follow the laws of the country in question.
Whether or not there are elections, Armenia will have to walk a fine line as the geopolitical forces around it shift. That is often the story for nations, like Armenia, whose history and geography have been both uplifting and imprisoning.
Bryson Hull is vice president of strategic communications and advisory at the HBW Resources consulting firm. He spent 17 years in journalism, reporting on politics, business and wars in nearly 20 countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and North America. He has also taught journalism and public speaking at Loyola University-Chicago.