Category: 2022

Armenian violin virtuoso’s concert cancelled in Turkey

Karapet Navasardian
MEDYA NEWS

Spanish citizen Armenian violin virtuoso Ara Malikian’s concert, which was scheduled to be held on 11 June in Turkey’s capital Ankara was cancelled without any explanation.

The concert would be part of a festival to be organised by the Turkish ministry of culture and tourism.

Those who bought tickets for the Ara Malikian concert were informed of the cancellation by e-mail messages.

In Turkey, there has recently been a series of cancellations of music events, and while no explanation has been indicated by the authorities in many cases, there have been only vague explanations in some.

Kurdish musician Aynur Doğan’s concerts in two western cities were earlier cancelled; the one scheduled for 20 May by a local council, and the more recent one reportedly by the company that would be organising the concert.

In Eskişehir, another Western city, a music festival was banned by the city governorate on 10 May. A certain ‘Eskişehir Brotherhood Platform’, a conservative group claimed to have ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), voiced support for the governerate’s ban.

A concert of musician siblings Metin and Kemal Kahraman in the Kurdish-majority city of Muş (Mûş) was cancelled on 16 May by the city governerate.

Musician Niyazi Koyuncu announced that a district municipal council in Istanbul cancelled his concert to be held on 25 May.

Apolas Lermi, who sings almost forgotten Pontic Greek songs, was targeted by a government media columnist who said that Lermi voiced support for the recognisiton of the Pontus Genocide*, Lermi’s two successive concerts were subsequently cancelled on 23 May.

Musician Melek Mosso’s concert, scheduled for 3 June, was cancelled on 26 May by the municipal council in the city of Isparta after she was targeted by conservative groups.

Kurdish musician Mem Ararat’s concert in the western city of Bursa was cancelled for ‘public safety’ reasons.

* Pontus genocide was part of the Greek Genocide that was committed between 1913-22 in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. It began with the defeat and land losses of the Ottoman Empire in the 1st Balkan War. wiping out the entire Greek population in Anatolia and Thrace except for a small community in Istanbul. Pontic Greeks had been a people with a presence in the region of Pontus, on the shores of the Black Sea and in the Pontic Mountains of northeastern Anatolia, since at least 700 BC.

https://medyanews.net/last-one-in-the-row-armenian-violin-virtuosos-concert-cancelled-in-turkey/

Armenia calls for finalizing Iran-EAEU free trade agreement

Boshkezenian Garik
TEHRAN  TIMES
– 16:20

TEHRAN – Armenian Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan has said Yerevan welcomes the finalization of a free trade agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), IRNA reported.

Pashinyan made the remarks at the first meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council which was held in Bishkek on Friday.

“I consider it important to draw attention to Armenia’s interest in concluding a full-fledged free trade agreement between Iran and the EAEU. The experience of the functioning of the interim agreement with Tehran clearly shows the attractiveness of the Iranian market and the prospects for further deepening cooperation… We also want to start negotiations on concluding an agreement between the Union and Indonesia,” Pashinyan said.

The official noted that the union attaches importance to utilizing international treaties in order to minimize the challenges and menaces of unprecedented economic crises, which happened in recent months.

After several years of negotiations, Iran and EAEU finally reached a preferential trade agreement in 2018 based on which about 862 commodity items are subject to preferential tariffs. The PTA came into effect on October 27, 2019.

Iran and the EAEU have listed 862 types of commodities in their three-year provisional trade agreement. As per the deal, Iran will enjoy easier export terms and lower customs duties on 502 items, and the same go for 360 items from the EAEU member countries.

Since the preferential trade agreement is to expire in October this year, the two sides are negotiating to upgrade the preferential trade agreement to a free trade agreement by the end of 2022.

EF/MG

Home Is Better: The Hungary-Ukraine border shows it makes more sense to care for refugees in their own region

David Nargizian
 Center for Immigration Studies

By Mark Krikorian on

When I visited the Hungary-Ukraine border last week, it was much quieter than during the first weeks after the Russian invasion, when thousands of people a day poured out of train cars into the small Hungarian border town of Zahony. But there were still some lessons to be learned.

More than 700,000 Ukrainians have entered Hungary since the February 24 start of the war, of whom some 200,000 remain, according to an embassy source I spoke with this week. Many, of course, moved on to other countries in the European Union. But, as I learned last week, many others have returned to Ukraine.

On the four-hour train ride from Budapest to Zahony, I was seated near a Russian-speaking Ukrainian woman with two obstreperous youngsters and two enormous suitcases. My college Russian has mostly abandoned me, but I was able to ask where she was going and she told me home, to Kiev. With Russian troops having withdrawn from around the capital, and the war focused mainly in the eastern part of the Ukraine, the city is no longer under immediate threat. But when I told her it didn’t seem safe, and she simply said “home is better”.

When we arrived at the station I saw there were many others headed back as well, more than the number arriving from the east. (Poland, which received the largest number of Ukrainians, is seeing the same return flow.) A Red Cross volunteer in Zahony told me about a Chinese student studying in Kiev who returned recently, saying he couldn’t wait any longer because he had final exams to take. And the volunteer said that someone had recently come through who was actually on his way back to Donetsk, the major city in the disputed eastern part of the country. He told the volunteer that while there was still fighting in the villages in the region, the city, firmly under the control of the Russian-backed separatist government, was safe enough for him to return.

An Armenian friend told me that the same kind of thing happened several years ago with Armenians who’d fled Aleppo, the main area of Armenian settlement in Syria, during that country’s civil war. Many spent several months in Yerevan, capital of the Armenian republic, where they’d fled for refuge, but went back even though the war was still raging. As he wrote me, “People want to live in their homes…Even though conditions in Syria were bad, they were returning to their homes. They didn’t need to pay rent at the very least.”

The lesson for U.S. policymakers is that caring for refugees in the region where they’ve found initial refuge is almost always preferable to resettlement thousands of miles away. The Ukrainian woman in Hungary who decided to return to Kiev had only to pack up and buy a train ticket. Her counterparts who have flown to Mexico, crossed the U.S. border, and gone to join relatives in Sacramento, on the other hand, are unlikely ever to return, and even if they wanted to, it would be a long and expensive ordeal.

As the Center’s research has shown, resettling a single refugee in the United States burns through money that could have supported a dozen people in their own region. Whatever funds we spend on refugee protection should be focused almost exclusively on helping people where they are, not assisting them to move permanently across the ocean. Doing so is both less expensive – allowing many more to be helped – and makes it easier for people to return when the emergency is over.

Other observations. The Tisza River marks this section of Hungary’s post-World War II border with Ukraine. Although it’s not especially wide, it’s more “grand” than many stretches of the Rio Grande that I’ve visited. And it can be dangerous – a local journalist told me that a number of people have drowned trying to swim across it to Hungary. That’s not because Hungary prevents the entry of Ukrainians; they’ve long had visa-free access to the EU for up to 90 days, even before the war. Rather, the victims were military-age men, who are barred from leaving by Ukrainian authorities in case the need arises to press them into service. That underlines one of the most noticeable differences between the recent Ukrainian refugee flow and the 2015 crisis – seven years ago, the vast majority of Syrians (and “Syrians”) pouring into Europe were military-age men, while virtually all the Ukrainians are women and children.

On a lighter note, right near the river was a farm with some of the famous Hungarian Mangalitsa pigs – that have fur. They’re also delicious.Since the flow is now mainly back into Ukraine, I asked an Italian aid worker in Zahony whether the humanitarian infrastructure there was really still needed. There was a former school converted into a shelter, that sat empty. The tent dining hall, operated by World Central Kitchen (a project of Spanish-born U.S. celebrity chef Jose Andres), was likewise virtually empty at lunchtime. The Jewish Agency setup in the train station had few takers. The Hungarian Red Cross, and the volunteers from the Spanish Red Cross, had little to do. And in general there seemed to be more aid workers than there were Ukrainians to give aid to. But the Italian aid worker told me that, while the number of volunteers has dropped off, they were keeping the infrastructure in place for now, because the war could still flare up and move west, creating new flows of people leaving.

Turkish press: ‘Turkiye doesn’t consider its fate separate from Azerbaijan’s’

Jagharian Tania
Jeyhun Aliyev   |28.05.2022


ANKARA

Turkiye will never consider its fate to be separate from that of its longtime ally Azerbaijan, the Turkish vice president said on Friday.

Speaking at an event in the Turkish capital Ankara marking the 104th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s Republic Day (May 28) and June 26 Armed Forces Day, Fuat Oktay said that Turkiye and Azerbaijan are two “brotherly countries” that share a common history, culture, sorrow, and joys.

“May Allah always preserve our fellowship, unity, and solidarity,” he said.

Stressing that Turkiye and Azerbaijan share the same spirit today as they did a century ago, Oktay dipped into history, saying: “The spirit we carry is the spirit of brotherhood of the Caucasus Islamic Army, which did not ignore the calls for independence of our Azerbaijani brothers even while the Ottoman Empire was fighting its own national struggle in various fronts of World War I.”

On May 28, 1918, the Azerbaijani National Council declared the independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, also known as the Azerbaijan People’s Republic, at a meeting in neighboring Georgia.

Near the end of World War I, on Sept. 15, 1918, an elite Ottoman force led by Nuri Pasha (Killigil) called the Caucasus Islamic Army was sent to Azerbaijan in response to Azerbaijan’s plea, along with the Azerbaijani National Army and volunteer forces, and liberated Baku from Armenian and Bolshevik occupation, paying the price in the lives of 1,132 people.

Oktay said that with their sacrifices and courage, the “heroes” under the command of Nuri Pasha left a “glorious legacy” in Baku that will be proudly told to generations to come.

On the fall 2020 liberation of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region from Armenia’s nearly 30 year-occupation, Oktay stressed that they see it as their primary duty to erase the scars of the occupation, eliminate poverty, and return everywhere the Azerbaijani flag flies to its glory years.

In 1991, the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

New clashes erupted in September 2020, and the 44-day conflict saw Azerbaijan liberate several cities and over 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

Also speaking at the event, Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Turkiye Rashad Mammadov told the guests, bureaucrats, and representatives of foreign diplomatic missions in the country about the history of Azerbaijan.

Mammadov underlined that after Azerbaijan regained its independence on Oct. 18, 1991, it faced deep political, social and economic problems and that Armenia occupied around 20% of the country’s territory, adding that more than 1 million Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their homes and were subjected to forced migration.

Noting that Turkiye and Azerbaijan support and make each other stronger, Mammadov said: “Turkiye played an exceptional role in the establishment of the current victorious Azerbaijan Army, and our heroic soldiers and officers received high-level education and training together with their Turkish brothers.”

“Therefore, our victory in the 44-day (Karabakh) war can be considered a joint victory of Azerbaijan and Turkiye,” he added.

Mammadov highlighted that Azerbaijan invested $19 billion in Turkiye, and Turkiye invested $13 billion in Azerbaijan, adding that these investments helped consolidate the independence of both countries and reduced foreign dependency.

The envoy also said 2022 also marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Azerbaijan-Turkiye diplomatic relations.

“There is no precedent anywhere in the world for such interstate relations. As representatives of our state, we will make every effort to further consolidate these relations and to constantly raise them to a higher level,” he said.

The event, which started with a moment of silence and the national anthems of both Turkiye and Azerbaijan, offered Azerbaijani cuisine to the guests accompanied by national folk music and traditional dances and performances.

Armenpress: PM Pashinyan issues congratulatory message on the Republic Day

Jhanna Virabian

PM Pashinyan issues congratulatory message on the Republic Day

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 09:47,

YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan issued a congratulatory message on the occasion of the Republic Day. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister, the message runs as follows,

“Dear compatriots, dear people. I congratulate all of us on the occasion of the Republic Day.

Today we mark one of the most important events in our history – the day of founding of the First Republic. Why is this day so important to us? For three reasons. First, because we obtained a statehood after a pause of more than 500 years. The second reason is that for the first time we had a Republic, that is, a state order, where power is formed as a result of the people’s choice. The third reason is that we were able to create the Republic, the state, which is the highest institution of organization of any nation, at a moment of despair, when the deadly wheel of the Armenian Genocide continued to spin.

The First Republic of Armenia was proclaimed on May 28, 1918 after the heroic battles of Sardarapat, Bash-Aparan, Gharakilisa. It was the period when it seemed to be the end, that it was impossible to not only have a statehood, but also to preserve our identity, language and culture.

However, our people were able to act as one fist at a crucial moment, building the First Republic by uniting forces, consolidation. The role of Aram Manukyan, Tovmas Nazarbekyan, Movses Silikyan, Dro, Nzhdeh, Daniel and Poghos Bek Pirumyans, the commander of the Yazidi cavalry division Jhangir Agha, the clergymen with weapons in hands is undeniable.

The sacred independence gained through the efforts of these great men and thousands of other compatriots was lost in just two and a half years. This was preceded by war, tragic territorial and human losses. This happened because for two years the First Republic of Armenia failed, did not manage to achieve political, international, regional institutional resilience, to establish peace around itself.

Today, our country faces similar challenges and we need exceptional flexibility of mind, iron will and faith as a small as a mustard seed to overcome those challenges. The founding fathers of the First Republic did not even have time to make the newborn state resilient to global challenges. We have sadly wasted a lot of time during the Third Republic.

But the heroes of Sardarapat, the founding fathers of the First Republic, inspire us continuously. And the state, independence, sovereignty are another inseparable part of our national self-consciousness. The state, the statehood must become the subject of our daily work, adoration, respect, peace must become the environment in the conditions of which we must pass on the statehood received from the founding fathers of the First Republic to our generations for centuries.

Congratulations on May 28. Happy Armenian state revival day”.

Prime Minister Pashinyan honors the memory of the heroes of the Battle of Sardarapat

Greg Madatian

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 11:37,

YEREVAN, MAY 28 ARMENPRESS. On the occasion of the Republic Day, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan together with President Vahagn Khachaturyan, President of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan, top leadership of the Republic of Armenia and diplomatic missions accredited in Armenia visited the Memorial Complex of Sardarapat Battle, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

Nikol Pashinyan laid a wreath at the memorial to the heroes of the Battle of Sardarapat and paid tribute to their memory.

The Prime Minister also attended the state awards ceremony at the Sardarapat Memorial, Museum of Armenian Ethnography.

Aliyev’s statements seriously question the sincerity of Azerbaijan’s intentions to achieve peace. MFA Armenia

Karagyozian Lena

Aliyev’s statements seriously question the sincerity of Azerbaijan’s intentions to achieve peace. MFA Armenia

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 12:02,

YEREVAN, MAY 28 ARMENPRESS. The statements made by the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on May 27 once again testify to the continuation of the policy of un-constructiveness of the Azerbaijani side, the arbitrary, incorrect interpretations of the agreements, and the aggressive, belligerent policy, ARMENPRESS reports, reads the statement of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia.

“The aspirations for the sovereign territory of the neighboring state, the use of force to achieve these goals are nothing but contempt for the norms of international law, and seriously question the sincerity of Azerbaijan’s intentions for peace in the region.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia considers it necessary to reaffirm the principled position of the Armenian side that the talks on normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be held on the basis of proposals of both sides, which should address the whole agenda of issues, including the final settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict”, reads the statement of MFA Armenia.

According to the Foreign Ministry, “with the speculations of the Azerbaijani side, an attempt is made to present the Nagorno Karabakh issue as a territorial dispute, while it is about the realization of the rights of the Artsakh Armenians and excluding the danger of ethnic cleansing”.

“In this regard, we remind you that the international mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs received in 1995 to support the comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict continues to exist.

We call on the leadership of Azerbaijan not to torpedo the discussions in the existing dimensions with belligerent, maximalist rhetoric.

At the same time, we call the attention of the international community to the statements made by official Baku, expect the unequivocal attitude of international partners, in the conditions of which it will only be possible to achieve stability and peace in the South Caucasus,” the statement reads.

Armenian serviceman injured as a result of Azerbaijani shooting

Manouk Vasilian

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 14:28,

YEREVAN, MAY 28 ARMENPRESS. On May 28, at around 10:40 am, units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces opened fire from various caliber firearms, including sniper rifles, at Armenian positions in the southeastern part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, as a result of which private Davit Vardanyan, a conscript, received gunshot wound.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the MoD, the situation of the serviceman is assessed as severe.

By retaliatory actions, the fire of the Azerbaijani units was silenced.

Paris Mayor visits Tsitsernakaberd memorial and "Yerablur" military pantheon

Chakrian Hovsep

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 14:30,

YEREVAN, MAY 28 ARMENPRESS. The Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo paid tribute to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide and the 44th day war.

ARMENPRESS reports Anne Hidalgo accompanied by the First Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Levon Hovhannisyan, the leader of the “My Step” faction of the Yerevan Council of Elders Armen Galjyan, the leader of the “Prosperous Armenia” faction Michael Manrikyan and the leader of the “Luys” faction David Khazhakyan visited the Tsitsernakaberd monument, laid a wreath at the monument to the victims of the Medz Yeghern and put flowers at the eternal fire.

Afterwards, the mayor of Paris visited “Yerablur” military pantheon. Anne Hidalgo laid flowers at the graves of students of the French University in Armenia killed in the 44-day war and talked with their parents.

By signing the document on November 9, Azerbaijani president acknowledged the existence of Nagorno Karabakh. FM Mirzoyan

Chakhmakhchian Vatche

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 14:49,

YEREVAN, MAY 28 ARMENPRESS. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan referred to the statement of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev that there is no Nagorno Karabakh, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved, there is no OSCE Minsk Group.

Answering the question of ARMENPRESS, the Armenian FM emphasized that they can show a document signed by Azerbaijani president that is still in force, which says that there is Nagorno Karabakh, and that is the trilateral declaration signed on November 9, 2020. Ararat Mirzoyan emphasizes that by signing the document, the president of Azerbaijan acknowledged the existence of Nagorno Karabakh, and this is an irreversible fact.

The Armenian Foreign Minister also referred to Aliyev’s statement that an agreement had been reached in Brussels that a corridor linking Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan will pass through Meghri.

Question – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated on May 27 that there is no Nagorno Karabakh, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved, and there is no OSCE Minsk Group. What can you say about this?

Answer – We can show a document signed by Azerbaijani president that is still in force, which says that there is Nagorno Karabakh, and that is the trilateral declaration signed on November 9, 2020. Ararat Mirzoyan emphasizes that by signing the document, the president of Azerbaijan acknowledged the existence of Nagorno Karabakh, and this is an irreversible fact. We can show the official statements made by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, where they reaffirm their commitment as Co-Chairs. The United States and France made such statements only in the last week. The Prime Minister of Armenia and President of the Russian Federation also emphasized the role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs in their joint statement on April 19. At the December 2021 summit of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Stockholm, the foreign ministers of dozens of countries stressed the exclusive role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The OSCE Minsk Group was not created by Azerbaijan, but by the international community, so Azerbaijan cannot dissolve it or consider its mission over. The same international community states today that the OSCE MG exists. As I mentioned, it also states that there is a Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that needs to be resolved. This is stated in the above-mentioned statement of the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of the Russian Federation. The US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Armenia stated this quite recently, expressing the official position of the USA.

Moreover, in the same statement, it was emphasized that the issue of NK status is on the agenda, the right of Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh to self-determination is also on the agenda. By the way, Armenia has never had territorial claims from Azerbaijan. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a matter of right and is perceived by the international community as so. And that is evidenced from the meeting in Brussels. We have stated that the page of the war is closed for us, there is a problem that must be solved through political and diplomatic means.

Question – Ilham Aliyev also stated that an agreement had been reached in Brussels about a corridor connecting Nakhichevan to Azerbaijan through Meghri.

Answer – We have continuously recorded Armenia’s position. But let us repeat again. The existence of any corridor in the territory of Armenia is ruled out. This is not even a matter of debate. Our discussions are exclusively about opening roads, transport and economic communications, unblocking them. As for the routes, we said that before clarifying the routes, we must first agree on the legal regulations for the passage of Azerbaijani citizens and cargo through our territory and the passage of Armenian citizens and cargo through Azerbaijan (including Nakhichevan). However, it is obvious that one branch of the railway will pass through Meghri, Ordubad, Julfa, Yeraskh. There is no agreement on the route of the highways at the moment.