Armenia normalization talks are being conducted in tandem with Azerbaijan, said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
The Armenian government approved a job-finding program for unemployed veterans of the 2020 Karabakh war
1,000 new apartments are being constructed or made available in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Political analyst Stepan Danielyan says Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan will step up crackdown on dissidents in an effort to maintain his grip on power.
“Nikol has to resort to repression which will further intensify in the future because he has no other choice. It’s a matter of life and death for him; if he loses power he will lose everything else, while he has no other tool to maintain his grip on power,” he wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
“We have no civil society, human rights activists and the like. This bubble burst long ago, let's make it clear too.
“The situation in which the Armenian people have now found themselves is not about politics, but a crisis of values, and it can be settled through a social movement which must bring about a change of values framing them in advance,” he said.
Judge Arusyak Aleksanyan of a fist instance court in Yerevan, who ordered the arrest of film producer Armen Grigoryan, has decided to quit the Union of Judges, its spokeswoman Elen Arakelyan confirmed to Panorama.am on Thursday.
"Arusyak Aleksanyan submitted an application to terminate her membership this afternoon. The application gives no reasons," she noted.
Armen Grigoryan collapsed and died during his trial in Yerevan on July 15 nearly two months after being arrested on charges of “inciting ethnic, racial or religious hatred” under Article 226 of the Criminal Code.
Grigoryan, who was critical of Armenia's government, rejected the accusations as politically motivated.
Armenia’s High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs sought by the National Security Service.
Under the new bill, Diaspora Armenians must spend at least 60 days in Armenia within two years in order to become eligible for citizenship.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Sinanyan said at the same time the new measure would not impact repatriation of Armenians.
“People who want to move to Armenia and haven’t stayed in the country for 60 days in two years can apply for citizenship after spending 60 days in the country,” he noted.
Sinanyan said that his agency does not back the change and has expressed its stance on the matter. He urged reporters to reach the NSS for further comments on the new legislation.
ArmInfo.The Azerbaijani military detained a convoy of Russian peacekeepers in Aghdam on Tuesday evening. This was reported on Wednesday evening by pro-government sources. The Turan agency writes that it has received confirmation of this information from military sources.
It is reported that a convoy of one armored personnel carrier and 3 Ural vehicles followed the Askeran- Agdara route. During the check, five Kalashnikov assault rifles were found in the cargo compartment of one of the cars. After that, the convoy was sent back. Where the convoy came from and what else it was transporting is not reported.
The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan does not comment on this incident. According to Turan, the newsletter of the Russian peacekeepers dated July 19 says that no violations were recorded in the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.
ArmInfo. "Opening of Zangazur Corridor will create new opportunities for Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Pakistan, said Speaker of Turkish National Grand Assembly (TGNA) Mustafa Sentop at the second trilateral meeting of Speakers of Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Pakistani Parliaments in Istanbul, APA's correspondent in Istanbul reports.
According to Sentop, peoples of three countries are connected with close historical and cultural ties.
Speaker has also added that justice, which was established in Karabakh war, will also find its place in the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
ArmInfo.Prospects for peace and an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace agreement are hardly optimistic, expert in national security Hrachya Arzumanyan said in an interview with ArmInfo.
"In the context of Baku's entirely different approaches peace can hardly be talked about. [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev continues building up thee country's military forces, issuing threats to Armenia and Artrakh. And I am not going to regard such 'shotgun peace' as a real settlement of problems. By signing such commitments we will not receive peace, but rather a direct way to a new war," Mr Arzumanyan said.
The recent regular sniping of Armenia's territory by Azerbaijan is evidence of threats and pressure as well. This policy is evidence of Azerbaijan defending its position on Armenia over the last two decades – positions aimed at destroying the Armenian state.
Baku is not at all concealing that, while the Armenian leaders' optimistic talks about achieving peace sound strange. Baku could change its position only if the key geopolitical actors – Moscow, Tehran, Ankara and the Collective West – change theirs.
"It is quite clear, geopolitical centers of power are decision-makers – not Nikol Pashinyan or Ilham Aliyev – – both in our region and in others. So real changes in the region depend on changes in the relations between the centers in question. It is possible, but calling these processes peace processes, much less expecting Pashinyan or Aliyev to push ahead with them, is somewhat unserious," Mr Arzumanyan said.
Key takeaways:
The UCLA Division of Humanities has received a $1.2 million bequest from the estate of siblings George and Alice Kachigian to support the Armenian studies program in the department of Near Eastern languages and cultures. As part of the gift, the department created the Kachigian Family Lectureship in Armenian Language and Culture.
The inaugural holder of the lectureship will be Hagop Kouloujian, a UCLA scholar and instructor who specializes in Western Armenian, a language that since the Armenian Genocide of the early 20th century has been spoken almost exclusively by people in the diaspora. Kouloujian was instrumental in having it designated an endangered language by UNESCO in 2010.
“We are grateful for the kindness and visionary support of the Kachigian family,” said David Schaberg, dean of humanities and senior dean of the UCLA College. “Their generosity will contribute to the vitality of this endangered language and culture.”
Los Angeles, with the largest Armenian-speaking population outside Armenia itself, and UCLA are natural settings for such scholarship. Since the launch of the Armenian studies program in 1969, UCLA has been a destination for students interested in the field, and the creation of the UCLA Promise Armenian Institute in 2019 cemented the university’s leadership role in Armenian research and public impact programs.
Kouloujian’s ongoing Language in Action project at UCLA, funded by the Portugal-based Calouse Gulbenkian Foundation, exemplifies his “creative literacy” approach, which focuses on teaching students by encouraging their own creative output. His students have produced hundreds of pieces, ranging from creative works to nonfiction, with the goal of contributing to the vitality of Western Armenian language and culture.
In May 2022, for example, the department of Near Eastern languages and cultures held an event to celebrate the publication of “Girkov useloo, inchoo hos em?” (“To Say With Passion, Why Am I Here?”), a full-length volume of poetry written in Western Armenian by the late Tenny Arlen, a 2013 UCLA comparative literature graduate who learned the language and wrote most of the collection in Kouloujian’s courses.
Donors George and Alice Kachigian, for whom the lectureship is named, were active members and generous supporters of the Los Angeles Armenian community. Although they moved to Oregon 30 years ago following the deaths of their parents and brother Harold, they continued to support UCLA’s Armenian studies program throughout their lives, providing research funding for faculty in the divisions of social sciences and humanities.
Alice died in 2017, and after George’s death in 2019, the siblings’ estate left generous funding to the Armenian studies program and the department of neurology at UCLA.
“The Kachigian family were friends to all, donated to many causes and counseled anyone who requested their help. They lived lives of goodness and kindness,” said Rafe Aharonian, trustee of the Kachigian Living Trust. “George, Alice and Harold wanted to help the youth learn more about Armenian heritage, and courses like Dr. Kouloujian’s encourage connections between UCLA students of Armenian heritage who might otherwise not have met.”
The Kachigians’ legacy will live on in all those at UCLA and elsewhere who, through the family’s generosity, have developed a deep connection to and appreciation for Armenian culture and language, said Kouloujian, who will hold the lectureship for five years.
“My aspiration for this lectureship is to continue to enhance UCLA’s Armenian work with forward-looking activities and community impact projects that will help invigorate the future of this language and culture,” he said. “I want to share the enduring, evolving beauty and power of Armenian with as many people as possible.”
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/bequest-establishes-ucla-lectureship-in-armenian-studies
PanARMENIAN.Net - Nine Armenian Greco-Roman wrestlers will take part in the Warsaw-hosted 2022 Poland Open international tournament on July 20-24, the press service of the national team reports.
The event will feature Rudik Mkrtchyan (55 kg weight category), Gevorg Gharbyan (60 kg), Hrachya Poghosyan (63 kg), Slavik Galstyan (67 kg), Shant Khachatryan (72 kg), Karapet Chalyan (82 kg), Gevorg Tadevosyan (87 kg), Artur Alexanyan (97 kg), David Hovasapyan (130 kg), all representing Armenia.
Armenian freestyle wrestler Arman Andreasyan (70kg) became the winner of the 2022 Poland Open international tournament in Warsaw.
The representative of Armenia beat USA’s Alec Pantaleo 3-2 in the final to clinch the gold.
Arman Avagyan won a silver medal in the 79 kg weight category, Hrayr Alikhanyan (74 kg) won the bronze.