Category: 2022

U.S. says recognizes Karabakh people’s role in deciding their future

Arbi Tashjian
PanArmenian
Armenia – May 19 2022
May 19, 2022 – 14:40 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The United States recognizes the role of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh in deciding its future, Ambassador of the United States of America to Armenia Lynne Tracy said in an interview with Armenpress, published on Thursday, May 19.

“We continue to believe that the key to a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous future in the region is a negotiated, comprehensive, and sustainable settlement of all remaining issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Tracy said.

“Self-determination of peoples is a key, though not the only, internationally recognized principle to achieve this goal, and, in the context of a comprehensive settlement of the conflict, the United States, as a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, recognizes the role of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh in deciding its future.”

The ambassador said it is U.S. policy that the status of Nagorno-Karabakh remains to be resolved, and that there is no military solution to the conflict.

“We continue to believe that the issues that led to the fighting in 2020 and are the root of the lasting tensions need to be addressed through negotiation and through a comprehensive settlement, according to internationally recognized principles, including territorial integrity, self-determination of peoples, and the non-use of force. We encourage further peace negotiations and stand ready to engage bilaterally and with like-minded partners, including through our role as an OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair,” Tracy said.

“Let me emphasize that there is no military solution to the conflict. The United States remains committed to promoting a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous future for the South Caucasus region. This includes applying existing mechanisms for direct communication to find comprehensive solutions to all outstanding issues, and to normalize their relations through the conclusion of a comprehensive peace agreement.”

The commission on delimitation did not meet due to technical reasons, Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council says

Tambiyan Samvel
Public Radio of Armenia
Armenia – May 19 2022
May 19, 2022, 15:14

 Less than a minute

The meeting of the Armenian-Azerbaijani commission on delimitation and border security did not take place due to technical reasons, Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council Armen Grigoryan told a briefing today.

“We have not been able to organize the meeting because of lack of a technical agreement,” he said.

“We do hope that the existing technical issues will be solved in the near future, and the working group will meet,” Grigoryan said.

https://en.armradio.am/2022/05/19/the-commission-on-delimitation-did-not-meet-due-to-technical-reasons-secretary-of-armenias-security-council-says/

Armenia to host over 200 boxers from 39 countries for European Boxing Championship

Garo Vardanian
Public Radio of Armenia
Armenia – May 19 2022
May 19, 2022, 16:56

 1 minute read

The government, the Boxing Federation and other partners are doing their best to organize the European Boxing Championship at a high level, Arayik Harutyunyan, Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Interagency Commission for Coordinating the European Boxing Championship, said at a press conference today.

The championship will be held in Yerevan on May 22-30.

Arayik Harutyunyan noted that with the comprehensive support of the government, as well as with all sports-related structures, large-scale work has been done to hold one of the most important sporting events at a high level.

“The assessments we receive from our international partners are very positive. We want to set a new benchmark, at least for the European Boxing Championships,” Harutyunyan said.

Arayik Harutyunyan noted that more than 200 boxers from 39 countries will arrive in Armenia to participate in the championship. The Championship will kick off on May 22 with a “very nice” opening ceremony.

The Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister also noted that the Armenian athletes are determined to achieve one of the best results in the tournament.

Yerevan to host Armenian-Iraqi business forum

Emil Lazarian
Public Radio of Armenia
Armenia – May 19 2022
May 19, 2022, 12:13

 1 minute read

An Armenian-Iraqi business forum will be held in Yerevan on May 20.

Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan, Chairman of the Export-Import Union of the Kurdish Region of Iraq Mustafa Abdulrahman Abdullah, RA Deputy Minister of Economy Armen Arzumanyan, Chairman of the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia Arsen Ghazaryan, Chairman of GB Trading Council Saeed Jamali will make opening remarks at the forum.

The business forum will be attended by more than 50 businessmen from Iraq, who are interested in cooperating with Armenian partners in the fields of agriculture, construction, light industry, tourism and trade.

During the conference, a Memorandum of Cooperation will be signed between the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia and the Union of Exporters and Importers of the Kurdish Region of Iraq.

B2B meetings will be held within the framework of the event.

The event has been organized by the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia and the Ministry of Economy.

Lithuanian President arrives in Armenia for official visit

Emil Lazarian
Public Radio of Armenia
Armenia – May 19 2022
May 19, 2022, 20:04

 1 minute read

The President of the Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nauseda arrived in Armenia today on a two-day official visit with his wife Diana Nausediene.

The high-ranking guest was welcomed at Yerevan Zvartnots International Airport by the RA Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan, the acting Chief of Staff of the RA President Khachatur Poghosyan and other officials.

After the official welcoming ceremony scheduled for May 20 at the residence of the President of the Republic of Armenia, Presidents Vahagn Khachaturyan and Gitanas Nausėda will have a private conversation, which will be followed by an extended meeting with the participation of the delegations of the two countries.

The Presidents of Lithuania and Armenia will make a statement to the press.

The delegation led by the President of Lithuania will visit the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims, and will visit the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

Within the framework of the official visit, the President of Lithuania is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Speaker of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan. In the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Gitanas Nausėda will be hosted by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

The delegation led by the President of Lithuania will also visit Matenadaran.

Russian embassy: “The US and its allies do not explain what they do in Armenia”

Manouk Vasilian
May 19 2022

On May 18, the Russian Embassy issued a statement “On cooperation between Russia and Armenia in the field of ensuring biological safety”, which states:

 

“At the meeting of the leaders of the CSTO member states held in Moscow on May 16, President of Russia Vladimir Putin paid special attention to the problems of ensuring biological safety in the territory of the former Soviet Union.

 

Information about the US military biological program in Ukraine caused a wide response. In connection with the questions addressed to the embassy by the media regarding the cooperation between Russia and Armenia in the field of ensuring biological safety, we would like to note the following:

 

The Russian Federation continues productive mutually beneficial cooperation with Armenia in the field of ensuring biological safety. Its activation was facilitated by the signing in May 2021 of a bilateral Intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding on Ensuring Biological Safety.

 

A number of successful projects are being implemented in the field of combating infectious diseases, as a result of which effective monitoring of the sanitary and epidemiological situation, information exchange, important scientific research, technical and methodological support in improving the laboratory network of Armenia and training of specialized specialists have been ensured.

 

Thanks to bilateral cooperation in the fight against HIV, Armenia became one of the first countries where the transmission of HIV from mother to child has been eliminated. Joint work with the use of mobile laboratories handed over by Russia made it possible to prevent the release of plague and other dangerous infections from natural foci on Armenian territory.

 

At the same time, in the context of the implementation of the mentioned memorandum on biosafety, we still have questions in connection with the incoming information about the interaction of Armenia with the United States and its allies in the biological field, including through the military agencies.

 

The US Department of Defense is targeting center after Lugar in Georgia funded by it to intensify joint scientific research in the field of microbiology and epidemiology with Armenia and other countries of the region. The activities of private Western companies carrying out biological research in the Transcaucasian region in the interests of the Pentagon, and the presence in Armenia of structures participating in bioprojects in Ukraine also deserve careful analysis.

 

The US and its allies do not explain what they are doing in Armenia in close proximity to the Russian borders. This factor, of course, is taken into account by us in the context of ensuring the biological safety of Russia.”

WATCH: Christian groups try to reconcile Israeli-Armenian ties

Markos Nalchajian
May 18 2022
 May 18, 2022
 

Koryoun Baghdasaryan, Chancellor of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem and Elana Watson, director of the Christian Friends of Magen David Adom Israel discuss Israeli-Armenian reconcilation.

Watch the report at https://worldisraelnews.com/watch-christian-groups-try-to-reconcile-israeli-armenian-ties/

Opposition MP brushes off Armenian authorities’ threats to strip them of their seats

Jagharian Tania
Panorama
Armenia – May 19 2022

Opposition MP Hayk Mamijanyan has brushed off the threats of the Armenian authorities to strip opposition deputies boycotting parliament sessions of their seats.

Lawmakers from the opposition Hayastan and With Honor (Pativ Unem) blocs stated the boycott last month ahead of the daily streets protests demanding PM Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation.

The Armenian parliament majority representing the ruling Civil Contract party will discuss the matter of stripping opposition MPs of their mandates next month, Speaker Alen Simonyan said.

The Armenian law provides for the termination of a deputy’s powers in the event of a prolonged absence from parliament sessions for non-legitimate reasons.

“It wasn’t the authorities who gave us the mandates to discuss whether to strip us of them or not now,” Mamijanyan, who represents the With Honor alliance, told reporters at opposition protests in Yerevan’s Avan district on Thursday.

“We received the mandates from the people and are using them exactly the way we are meant to: to oust the capitulant and to restore the dignity of our country,” he noted.

Mamijanyan claims that the parliamentary leadership is “cut off” from the ongoing political processes.

“We are standing by our voters, our compatriots, and the real political processes are taking place in the streets,” the MP said.


ANCA urges Biden administration to nominate new U.S. ambassador to Armenia

Emil Lazarian
Panorama
Armenia – May 19 2022

After more than three years at her diplomatic post, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, Lynne Tracy, has received a final grade of “F” from the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) for her consistently poor performance across a broad array of diplomatic metrics.

“As I have said previously, the ANCA wants every U.S. Ambassador to Armenia to be successful,” said ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian. “Sadly, Ambassador Tracy has compounded her silence during the 44-day war with reckless disregard for over 90,000 displaced Artsakh Armenians and Azerbaijan’s ongoing encroachment on sovereign Armenian territory. Three years into her tenure as Ambassador to Armenia, Ambassador Tracy has continued to fail on issue after issue – falling far short of the most basic professional expectations of a competent American Ambassador to Armenia.”

The ANCA first gave Ambassador Tracy an “F” rating in December 2020, based upon her poor performance in fifteen different issue areas. In the 18-months since this grade was given, Ambassador Tracy has continued to fail across multiple metrics, among them the lack of meaningful U.S. aid to Artsakh refugees, playing favorites among Armenian political forces, further complicating Armenia’s security and regional relationships, and failing to meaningfully address Azerbaijan’s illegal detention, abuse, and murder of Armenian prisoners of war.

Career U.S. foreign service officers, like Ambassador Tracy, usually serve tours of roughly three years before receiving a new diplomatic assignment. With her time in Armenia already past that mark, the ANCA urges the Biden Administration to reset the U.S.-Armenia relationship on solid footing by nominating a new Ambassador to Yerevan. The ANCA looks forward to working closely with the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to ensure a competent nominee reflecting U.S. values is confirmed without delay.

The ANCA Report Card on Ambassador Tracy is here.

Assembly To Honor Distinguished Professors Hovannisian, Papazian & Amb. Hachigian

Ani Kharatian
Los Angeles, CA – The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) will honor Professors Richard Hovannisian and Dennis Papazian, two prominent leaders of the Assembly, with its Distinguished Humanitarian Award, while Los Angeles Deputy Mayor of International Affairs, Ambassador Nina Hachigian, will be the recipient of the Assembly’s George Deukmejian Public Service Award, during the Assembly’s 50th Anniversary Gala on Sunday evening, June 5, 2022 at the Los Angeles Jonathan Club‘s outdoor “Great Lawn.”

As the first holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA and Presidential Fellow at Chapman University, Dr. Richard Hovannisian elevated the quality and breadth of scholarship on modern Armenian history to new heights over a 60-year tenure of teaching, research, and publishing.

A member of the UCLA faculty since the 1960s, he organized both undergraduate and graduate programs in Armenian History. Selected as a prestigious Guggenheim Fellow, he has published more than 30 books, including Armenia on the Road to Independence and The Republic of Armenia (in 4 volumes and in Armenian, Russian, and Farsi translations); 6 volumes on the Armenian Genocide; and 15 volumes on Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces in the Ottoman Empire.


Dr. Hovannisian was a member of the initial steering committee of the Armenian Assembly of America, six-time president of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS), Chairman of the Board of the Armenian Monument Council in Montebello, California, and Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. He has received many honors for his scholarship, civic activities, and support of individual and collective human rights.

As the founding director of the Armenian Research Center (ARC) at the University of Michigan, Dearborn in 1985, Dr. Dennis Papazian has done a tremendous service to academia by facilitating research and publications on all aspects of Armenian history, literature, and culture. ARC’s rich depository of documentation, publications, periodicals, audio-visual collections, and oral histories of Armenian Genocide survivors is first-rate, and serves as an international center for scholars and students focused on the research, dissemination, and publication of all things Armenian.


In addition to his role as an educator and scholar, Dr. Papazian served as Co-Chairman of the Armenian Assembly of America and directed the Washington office in the late 1970s. He has traveled extensively, presenting papers and delivering lectures in several countries. He conducted research on the USSR and personally worked with the U.S. Department of State to coordinate an exchange between the University of Michigan and Moscow State University. In 1976, he received an award from the State Department honoring his work as a scholar and diplomat, which was followed by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1977, and an award from the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1978.


In addition to honoring Dr. Hovanissian and Dr. Papazian, the Assembly will recognize the distinguished service of former U.S. Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and current City of Los Angeles Deputy Mayor of International Affairs, the Honorable Nina L. Hachigian, with the Assembly’s Deukmejian Award for Public Service, named in honor of the late California Governor George Deukmejian.

Ambassador Hachigian’s decades of experience and expertise in diplomacy and national security led to her recent appointment by the Biden Administration to the prestigious Defense Policy Board, a federal advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Defense. The Assembly is thankful to Ambassador Hachigian for assisting in the advancement of U.S.-Armenia and U.S.-Artsakh relations to qualitatively higher levels.


The Assembly’s 50th Anniversary Gala will highlight five decades of the Assembly’s influential achievements in advocacy, education, and awareness on Armenian issues. By representing Armenian American interests in the U.S. and advancing the U.S.-Armenia and U.S.-Artsakh relationships, the Assembly has created a lasting and positive impact.


The Gala will also feature special guest speaker Arturo Sarukhán, the former Ambassador of Mexico to the United States. Anita Vogel, a national news correspondent, will serve as Mistress of Ceremonies.


Tickets and sponsorships to the 50th Anniversary Gala are available for secure purchase here.


Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.


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