Category: 2022

Karabakh: Azerbaijan destroying Armenian heritage in newly-occupied areas

Emil Karabekian
PanArmenian
Armenia – April 2 2022
April 2, 2022 – 13:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Azerbaijan is destroying the Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh territories it has recently invaded, resorting to overt falsifications, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Karabakh said in a statement on Saturday, April 2.

Since March 24, the area around the village of Parukh, the ruins of the settlement of Karaglukh and the nearby height of the same name have been occupied by the enemy, the Ministry said.

“Apart from its strategic significance, the area is also important for its historical, cultural and natural environment,” the statement said, revealing that about 20 monuments are officially registered in said areas, including 2 churches, the famous Shikakar-Karaglukh fortress, cultural monuments with great archeological value, cemeteries, khachkars, tombstones.

The area, however, has not been sufficiently studied, evidenced by research conducted in December 2021, which uncovered thirty other monuments.

“Having the bitter experience of the anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijan, which organizes and encourages cultural vandalism in the occupied territories of Artsakh at the highest level, we confidently declare that the historical and cultural heritage of Parukh and Karaglukh is also endangered under the Azerbaijani occupation,” the Ministry said.

In particular, the Ministry said, the Azerbaijanis have dug out remains from an Armenian cemetery dating back to the 9th-12th centuries and are now claiming that the bones are allegedly from a mass burial site for Azerbaijanis killed in hostilities in the settlement of Ivanyan.

The surface of those bones is smooth, which means that they can not be 30 years old, and in fact go back centuries, while “the nomadic ancestors of the Azerbaijani population invaded these parts of Artsakh only in the 18th-19th centuries,” the Ministry added.

“Therefore, taking into account the systematic and deliberate crimes committed by Azerbaijan against the rich Armenian and Christian cultural heritage in the previous decades, which gained new momentum with the aggression of 2020 and were registered by many international organizations, including the European Parliament in a resolution dated March 9, 2022, we call on the international community, cultural protection and human rights organizations to not remain indifferent and to take measures against the cultural ethnocide committed by Azerbaijan. We regret that to date UNESCO, despite its obligations, has not sent a fact-finding mission to the occupied territories of Artsakh and is not making significant efforts to prevent the commission of new crimes by Azerbaijan.”

Concerns about the preservation of cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are made all the more urgent by the Azerbaijani government’s history of systemically destroying indigenous Armenian heritage—acts of both warfare and historical revisionism. The Azerbaijani government has secretly destroyed a striking number of cultural and religious artifacts in the late 20th century. Within Nakhichevan alone, a historically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani forces destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars (Armenian cross stones) and 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.

Noubar Afeyan talks push to transform Armenia into tech-creating nation

Toneyan Mark
PanArmenian
Armenia – April 2 2022
April 2, 2022 – 16:33 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – As April marks Armenian History Month in LA County, FOX 11 is highlighting an organization and a man who is making a difference in people’s lives.

The publication spoke with Dr. Noubar Afeyan, who is the co-founder and chairman of Moderna and founder-CEO of Flagship Pioneering.

He is also the co-founder of FAST (Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology). Dr. Afeyan traveled to Los Angeles to serve as the keynote speaker for the Advance Armenia Gala, FAST’s inaugural fundraising gala.

FAST is working to transform Armenia from a largely technology-consuming nation to a technology-creating nation. Dr. Afeyan is deeply involved in many philanthropic efforts — many of which involve Armenia. Over the years, he has received many awards for his entrepreneurial and philanthropic contributions, including helping with the formation of 76 healthcare and life sciences companies.

All of these companies have been at the interface between biology, technology science and chemistry. One of the companies, of course, is Moderna, which is now famous for having created the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Afeyan was born in Beirut, Lebanon to Armenian parents. He lived there until the civil war in 1975. As a teenager, he and his family escaped to Montreal, Canada as political refugees.

He attended McGill University, majored in chemical engineering and went on to graduate from MIT. And at 24, he started his own company.

Top Karabakh officials pay tribute to memory of fallen soldiers

Hagop Kamalian
PanArmenian
Armenia – April 2 2022
April 2, 2022 – 17:32 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – On the 6th anniversary of the April 2016 War, the Secretary of the Security Council of Nagorno-Karabakh and State Minister Artak Beglaryan, accompanied by a group of high-ranking officials, visited the Stepanakert Memorial to lay flowers at the memory of the fallen soldiers.

Six years ago this day, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive across the entire line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). Clashes that began in the wee hours of April 2 in 2016 lasted four days and were later dubbed the Four-Day War or the April War.

Throughout the military campaign, 64 soldiers, 13 volunteers and four civilians, including a child, were killed and more than 120 people were wounded. According to information from the U.S. Department of State, the Azerbaijanis lost more than 270 people overall.

Moderna co-founder discusses making a difference, his push to transform Armenia into tech-creating nation

Hovik Karapetian
FOX 11 – Los Angeles
April 1 2022
By Araksya Karapetyan
Published April 1, 2022 7:38PM

LOS ANGELES – As April marks Armenian History Month in LA County, FOX 11 is highlighting an organization and a man who is making a difference in people’s lives.

This week, we spoke with Dr. Noubar Afeyan, who is the co-founder and chairman of Moderna and founder-CEO of Flagship Pioneering. Dr. Afeyan is the co-founder and chairman of Moderna and the founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering. 

He is also the co-founder of FAST (Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology). Dr. Afeyan traveled to Los Angeles to serve as the keynote speaker for the Advance Armenia Gala, FAST’s inaugural fundraising gala. 

FAST is working to transform Armenia from a largely technology-consuming nation to a technology-creating nation. Dr. Afeyan is deeply involved in many philanthropic efforts — many of which involve Armenia. Over the years, he has received many awards for his entrepreneurial and philanthropic contributions, including helping with the formation of 76 healthcare and life sciences companies.

All of these companies have been at the interface between biology, technology science and chemistry. One of the companies, of course, is Moderna, which is now famous for having created the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Afeyan was born in Beirut, Lebanon to Armenian parents. He lived there until the civil war in 1975. As a teenager, he and his family escaped to Montreal, Canada as political refugees. 

He attended McGill University, majored in chemical engineering and went on to graduate from MIT. And at 24, he started his own company.

You can click here for more information on Dr. Afeyan. 

Below is Araksya’s full interview with Dr. Afeyan:

https://www.foxla.com/news/moderna-co-founder-discusses-making-a-difference-his-push-to-transform-armenia-into-tech-creating-nation

Moon Knight Gets Review-Bombed for Acknowledging Armenian Genocide

Emil Lazarian
CBR.com
April 2 2022

The first episode of Disney+’s Moon Knight is getting review bombed owing to a historical reference made by antagonist Arthur Harrow.

BY NARAYAN LIU

Disney+’s Moon Knight series, which only recently saw the release of its premiere episode, has been the subject of review-bombing on IMDb, owing to the fact that the show acknowledged a historical event that the nation of Turkey has consistently denied: the Armenian genocide.

Alongside seemingly legitimate one-star reviews on the site, several viewers have criticized the mention of the Armenian genocide, insisting that no such event took place and that the show is serving as propaganda– some going so far as to call the show “racist.” Similar comments and one-star reviews have appeared on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, though the vast majority of audiences have provided a positive review of the show.

RELATED:Moon Knight’s Oscar Isaac Says Steven Grant Is On The Autism Spectrum

The scene in question featured a confrontation between Arthur Harrow and Steven Grant at the museum he works at. Harrow tells Grant of the Egyptian god Ammit, who was able to judge a life in its entirety– for crimes a person had yet to commit. In his speech, Harrow claims that if Ammit had not been betrayed by gods and avatars, she could have prevented horrors such as Hitler, the Armenian genocide, Pol Pot and more.

The Turkish government’s official stance is that the Armenian genocide, which took place during World War I between 1915 and 1917, is largely fabricated. It should be noted that the genocide, which was committed by the Ottoman Empire (now the Republic of Turkey), was well-documented. Mentions of the genocide are censored in Turkey and several countries have refused to acknowledge it in the past in order to maintain a positive relationship with the country.

RELATED:Moon Knight’s First Episode Has Few Nods To The MCU – And That’s For The Best

It is understood that during WWI, the Ottoman Empire saw between 800,000 to 1.2 million Armenian people sent into the Syrian Desert, where they were placed into concentration camps and subjected to torture and abuse and killed. Furthermore, approximately 200,000 Christian Armenians were forcibly converted to Islam and brought into Muslim households for integration.

While the Turkish government does not outright deny the historical event, it does deny that a genocide took place, stating only that the Ottoman Empire committed atrocities. It is often mentioned that Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term “genocide” and initiated the Genocide Convention of 1948, was prompted to do so after because of the Armenian genocide and the absence of international laws at the time that could be used to prosecute those behind the tragedy. There are currently 31 countries, including the United States, that officially recognize the Armenian genocide.

New episodes of Moon Knight air every Wednesday on Disney+.

https://www.cbr.com/moon-knight-pilot-review-bombed/
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https://www.parisbeacon.com/72416/

Armenia participating in Artozyma International Exhibition of Bakery and Confectionery in Thessaloniki

Alex Nanijanian
Public Radio of Armenia
April 2 2022
April 2, 2022, 13:26

 1 minute read

Armenia is participating for the first time in Artozyma International Exhibition of Bakery and Confectionery which will beheld in the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre from the 2nd to the 4th of April, 2022.

The Exhibition takes place alongside the Detrop Boutique Show, which hosts the major food and beverage companies in Greece. Both shows with their original thematic features highlight the modern trends of food and beverage sectors.

A wide range of Armenian products will be presented at the show, including the legendary brandy ArArAt, the world famous ZULAL, ARMENIA WINE, KARAS, ARAME wines, legendary ZORAH – one of the best 10 wines of the world, according to Bloomberg, the multi-award winning KILIKIA beer, JERMUK and BJNI mineral waters as well as NOYAN Premium juices and sweets. For the first time wine labels ARMAS and OSHIN will be presented to the Greek consumers.

Armenia’s participation is organized by the Hellenic-Armenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as part of an annual series of events dedicated to the 30th anniversary of establishment of the Chamber back in 1992. The event is held under the auspices of the Embassy of Armenia to the Hellenic Republic

Chamber’s staff will be available at the booth to provide important information about doing business with Armenia.

Azerbaijan destroying the Armenian cultural heritage in Parukh and Karaglukh

Emil Lazarian
Public Radio of Armenia
April 2 2022
April 2, 2022, 12:40

 

Azerbaijan is destroying the Armenian cultural heritage in Parukh and Karaglukh and resorting to open falsifications, Artsakh’s Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport said in a statement.

Below is the statement in full:

On March 24, 2022, as a result of Azerbaijani aggression, the area around the village of Parukh in the Askeran region of the Artsakh Republic, the former settlement of Karaglukh and the homonymous height, were occupied by the enemy, and the Azerbaijani Armed Forces immediately proceeded to the well-known script of the destruction of the Armenian historical and cultural heritage in the occupied territory.

Apart from its strategic importance, the area is also important for its unique historical-cultural and historical-natural environment. According to the government list of immovable monuments of culture and history, about 20 monuments are officially registered in the above-mentioned territories, including 2 churches (one of them is the 13th century Holy Mother of God church), the famous Shikakar-Karaglukh fortress, cultural monuments of archeological value, cemeteries, khachkars, tombstones. The Shikakar cave is also located in here, where a research was conducted by the Azokh international archaeological expedition in 2011.

However, the area has not yet been sufficiently studied, which is also confirmed by the research conducted in the area in December 2021, as a result of which thirty more monuments were discovered.

Considering the bitter experience of Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian hatred policy, when that country organizes and encourages cultural vandalism in the occupied territories of Artsakh at the highest level, we can confidently declare that the historical and cultural heritage of Parukh and Karaglukh is also endangered under the Azerbaijani occupation.

Our concerns become more substantive after watching the video released by the Azerbaijani media outlet AZTV on March 30, 2022, which demonstrates human remains exhumed by Azerbaijanis. The Azerbaijani propaganda machine, resorting to a deceitful and insidious method, presents this fact as if a mass burial of Azerbaijanis in the village of Ivanyan (Azerbaijani Khojaly), as a result of hostilities of 1992. However, the reality is completely different. In particular:

1. Although the Azerbaijani side has long resorted to falsification, accusing the Armenian side of the massacre of Azerbaijanis in the village of Ivanyan, there is irrefutable evidence that the Artsakh Armed Forces provided a humanitarian corridor to the civilian population before and during the hostilities, and this massacre took place by the militants of the Azerbaijani opposition in the outskirts of Akna (Azerbaijani Aghdam) which is under their control. They intended to use the massacre in Azerbaijan as a basis for coup d’état, which was acknowledged even by the then President Ayaz Mutalibov. More detailed evidence can be found at the following link:

2. Based on the analysis of sufficient factual, geographical, and cultural data we have, it become clear that the above-mentioned footage is filmed at the Armenian cemetery of Parukh called “Kalen Khut”, which dates back to the 9th-12th centuries (map attached). Therefore, the bones presented are the sceletal remains from an old Armenian cemetery.

A) Experts familiar with the are and the residents of Parukh claim that the video was shot at the “Kalen Khut” cemetery.

B ) One glance of culturologists and archaeologists is enough to fix that the human skulls presented in the video have an brachycephalic (round-headed) structure of armenoid anthropological type typical of Armenians, while the population of Azerbaijan have dolichocephalic (long-headed) structure of Caspian anthropological type skull (photos attached).

C) All the presented bones have smooth surface, which in an archeological sense means that they are not 30 years old, but centuries old, while the nomadic ancestors of the Azerbaijani population invaded these parts of Artsakh only in the 18-19 centuries.

3. Moreover, the Azerbaijani propaganda machine uses such an unfounded and false argument that it can also be sargued that the village of Ivanyan (Azerbaijani: Khojaly) is at least 17 kilometers away from Parukh (map attached). It is clear that the hostilities in Ivanyan could not have anything to do with Parukh.

The above-mentioned facts are so eloquent that we have to record once again not only another episode of the destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage on the Azerbaijani part, but also the anti-Armenian falsification and attempt to deceive its own people and the international community.

Therefore, taking into account the systematic and deliberate crimes committed by Azerbaijan against the rich Armenian and Christian cultural heritage in the previous decades, which gained new momentum since 2020 hostilities and have been registered by many international organizations, including the resolution adopted by the European Parliament on March 9, 2022, we call on the international community, human rights organizations and organizations for the protection of cultural heritage not to show indifference and to take measures against the cultural ethnocide committed by Azerbaijan. We regret that to date UNESCO, despite its commitments and mission, has not sent a fact-finding mission to the occupied territories of Artsakh, and does not exert significant efforts to prevent the commission of new crimes by Azerbaijan.

Baroness Cox, Christian Solidarity International alert UK FM on ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Artsakh

Kajoyan Gevork
Public Radio of Armenia
April 2 2022
April 2, 2022, 16:01

 

Christian Solidarity International (CSI) President Dr. John Eibner signed a joint letter with Baroness Cox and other international officials alerting the British Foreign Minister Liz Truss about the unrest in Nagorno-Karabakh, saying in part: “We may be on the precipice of one of the worst acts of ethnic cleansing in the Caucasus region in a century.”

The joint letter goes further to state that “Azerbaijan has made clear its intention to erase everything Armenian, whether cemeteries, churches, or people, from the territory under its control. And with both Russia and the international community preoccupied by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is now clearly testing the waters to see how much aggression it can get away with.” It also urges the British foreign minister to “raise this matter with the Azerbaijani Government at the highest levels, and to publicly affirm that you will not accept any infringement of the right of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh to live safely in their homeland and determine their own political future.”

Below is the letter in full:

Dear Liz, We write to you with alarm about recent aggressive actions by the Azerbaijani Government towards the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh. We are gravely concerned that the dictatorship in Baku will take advantage of Russia’s disastrous and aggressive invasion of Ukraine to complete its long-intended conquest and ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh. I am sure you will agree with me that it is important for Her Majesty’s Government and the whole of the international community to apply the same principles and standards to all acts of aggression against innocent civilians wherever and whenever such heinous acts take place. 

On 24 March, Azerbaijani forces took advantage of a gap in the Russian peacekeeping presence in Nagorno Karabakh, crossed the “line of contact,” and occupied the village of Parukh in Askeran region. The entire Armenian population of the village was forced to flee. 

If there is no forceful international response to this aggression, Azerbaijan may be emboldened to try to take more territory, or even overrun the entire region. Currently, a small Russian peacekeeping mission is the only force separating local Armenian defenders from the encircling Azerbaijani military. 
The conquest and occupation of Parukh followed a 16-day period in which Azerbaijan had cut off Karabakh’s Armenians from their fuel supply. The main pipeline bringing gas to Karabakh’s Armenians was “damaged” in an area under Azerbaijani occupation. For ten days, Azerbaijani authorities refused to repair it. They finally did on 18 March, only for the gas to be promptly cut off again. This fuel cut-off has forced many schools, hospitals, and bakeriesto stop operating, and deprived tens of thousands of Armenians of heat and electricity in the bitter winter cold. 

Under the Soviet Union, Nagorno Karabakh was an autonomous oblast within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. Its population was overwhelmingly Armenian, as it had been for centuries. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the people of Nagorno Karabakh voted for independence. Azerbaijan responded by sending a military force and attempting to ethnically cleanse the region. With help from the Republic of Armenia, the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh successfully resisted the Azerbaijani assault and set up their own independent republic in Nagorno Karabakh, albeit one unrecognized by the international community. Meanwhile, the hundreds of thousands of Armenians living in Azerbaijan’s cities were forced to flee their homes by a series of murderous pogroms. 

In 2009, as part of the peace process convened by the Minsk Group of the OSCE, both Armenia and Azerbaijan “reaffirmed their commitment to work intensively to resolve the remaining issues, to reach an agreement based, in particular, upon the principles of the Helsinki Final Act of Non-Use of Force or Threat of Force, Territorial Integrity, and the Equal Rights and Self-Determination of Peoples.”

In September 2020, however, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev abandoned this commitment to the nonuse of force and launched a full-scale invasion of Nagorno Karabakh. In 44 days of war, thousands of Armenians were killed, civilian population centres were repeatedly bombed, and 100,000 Armenians fled their homes. Those Armenian civilians unfortunate enough to be caught behind were taken hostage, tortured, and even extrajudicially murdered by Azerbaijani forces. 

When a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement brought Azerbaijan’s war of conquest to an end on 9 November, Aliyev boasted that, “We have proved that there was a military solution” to the conflict. To celebrate its victory, Azerbaijan created a war museum in Baku that was decorated with the helmets of Armenian soldiers killed in the war, and featured dehumanizing wax sculptures of Armenian soldiers with exaggerated facial features. 

The ceasefire agreement turned over large parts of Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan, uprooted around 50,000 Armenians from their homes, and forced the Republic of Armenia to withdraw its military forces from the region, leaving the remaining Armenians totally dependent on a 2,000 member Russian peacekeeping force for safety. Since that time, Azerbaijan has refused to hand over more than 70 Armenian POWs, held wholly unjust and perverse show trials offending even the most basic of human rights fundamentals, and repeatedly attacked Armenia troops and civilians in Nagorno Karabakh, and even the Republic of Armenian proper. It has also demolished or desecrated several Armenian churches and cemeteries, and announced plans to “remove” Armenian inscriptions from Armenian heritage sites in the portions of Nagorno Karabakh under its control. 

Azerbaijan has explicitly embraced a “military solution” to this conflict. It has made clear its intention to erase everything Armenian, whether cemeteries, churches, or people, from the territory under its control. And with both Russia and the international community preoccupied by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is now clearly testing the waters to see how much aggression it can get away with. 

We may be on the precipice of one of the worst acts of ethnic cleansing in the Caucasus region in a century. The destruction of the ancient Armenian community of Nagorno Karabakh would be a humanitarian disaster, an incalculable loss for humanity, and a horrifying precedent for other authoritarians in the region bent on consolidating power over disputed regions through force. 
We urge you to raise this matter with the Azerbaijani Government at the highest levels, and to publicly affirm that you will not accept any infringement of the right of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh to live safely in their homeland and determine their own political future, as stated in the Madrid Principles of 1997. 

Yours sincerely, 
Baroness Cox 
Lord Green of Deddington 
Dr. John Eibner 
Lord Alton of Liverpool 
Feryal Clark MP 
Centre for Armenian Information & Advice (CAIA)

“Days of Crimea” to be held in Armenia

Emil Lazarian
MediaMax, Armenia
April 2 2022

Yerevan /Mediamax/. “Days of Crimea” will be launched in Armenia on April 4.

TASS says this was reported by the Vice Prime Minister of Crimea Georgi Muradov.

“In the coming days we will hold Days of Crimea in Armenia. They are waiting for us there, the public is interested in everything that happens in Crimea. There will be meetings of the Crimean and Armenian businesses, meetings with the public, speeches, conferences, performances by our creative teams. These are full-fledged events,” Muradov said.

Mediamax reports that the organizer of the event is the chairman of the Union of Constitutional Law, head of the Friends of Crimea club Hayk Babukhanyan.

Artsakh women bake bread, cakes for soldiers standing guard on Karaghlukh heights

Hunanian Jack
Panorama
Armenia – April 2 2022

David Ghahramanyan, a photographer from the Artsakh Republic (Nagorno-Karabakh), on Friday posted a series of photos featuring Artsakh women on his Facebook page, writing:

“The neighbors, the women of the Noragyukh community, gathered together and baked zhengyalov hats (flatbread stuffed with a mix of greens) and cakes for the military guarding the villages of Khramort, Parukh, Khnapat and the Karaglukh heights in the Askeran region. Thank you to mothers and grandmothers!”

It is worth noting that another problem was recently added to the social problems facing the people of Artsakh after the war waged by Azerbaijan in 2020.

Because of the actions of Azerbaijan, the people of Artsakh were deprived of gas supply twice in March, being left without heating and hot water amid freezing temperatures. But despite all the hardships, the Artsakh people are not discouraged, they offer a helping hand to each other and take care of each other.

Earlier on March 24, the Azerbaijani military invaded the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh in violation of the terms of the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020 signed also by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

As a result of Azerbaijan’s criminal conduct, the normal life of the Khramort and Parukh communities has been disrupted, affecting more than 400 people, including women, children and the elderly.

Some of the displaced people are temporarily housed in the apartments of their relatives and friends, while others have been provided temporary housing by the government.

“We understand that their goal was to capture the whole of Karaglukh. We should state that the main height of Karaglukh, the highest point, is under our control, but as of today some important hills are under the control of the Azerbaijani troops,” Artsakh President Araik Harutyunyan said at a meeting of the Security Council on Friday.