Eurasianet [Baku already held the record in 2010, before losing it to Tajikistan less than a year later. Now it is aiming to again one-up the current record holder in Saudi Arabia.] By Heydar Isayev Feb 14, 2022 Azerbaijan is planning to erect the tallest flagpole in the world, a record it already held and lost more than a decade ago. On February 9, ENKA, Turkey’s largest construction company, posted a photo of the under-construction pole on Facebook. “Çimtaş, a subsidiary of ENKA, will build the world's tallest flagpole for Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, also known as the ‘Windy City!’” the post read. It reported that Çimtaş started building the 191-meter pole in September 2021 and that it is scheduled to be delivered to Baku, via the Black Sea, the Volga-Don Canal, and the Caspian Sea, in April 2022. While Azerbaijan’s government has not yet commented on the report, ENKA’s post has been widely shared in Azerbaijani media and social media. This is not Azerbaijan’s first attempt at a world flagpole record. In 2010, Azerbaijan’s government erected what was at the time the world’s tallest flagpole in Baku – a mere 162 meters – on a newly constructed State Flag Square on the Caspian shoreline, at a cost of $30 million. The land where the square was built had been the site of hundreds of homes; residents had been given paltry compensation to move and then forcibly evicted if they rejected the deal. President Ilham Aliyev attended the inauguration of the pole and raised the flag himself. “We are marking a historic and unforgettable event today,” he said at the time. “I am not talking about this flagpole being the highest in the world. An even higher flagpole may be installed somewhere else after some time. This is not the point. The point is that the establishment of the Flag Square demonstrates Azerbaijan’s strength, the love of the Azerbaijani people for their state and our respect for state symbols.” The next morning, the flag was torn by Baku’s famously strong winds and taken down for repairs. Aliyev was soon proven correct. Less than a year later, in May 2011, Tajikistan bettered Azerbaijan with a pole just three meters higher than Baku’s. (Both Azerbaijan’s and Tajikistan’s poles were constructed by the same U.S. firm, Trident Support.) In 2014, Tajikistan’s record was in turn broken by Saudi Arabia, which erected a 170-meter pole in Jeddah, a structure that still holds the world record. After repeated incidents of flags being ripped by the wind, the Azerbaijani authorities finally stopped raising the flag there in 2017. Shortly after, the pole itself was dismantled and removed. The construction of the square, meanwhile, had become embroiled in a corruption scandal, with the head of the State Flag Square Complex fired and arrested on fraud charges in 2016. It’s not clear how the new pole will manage the wind, but ENKA said it is working on the issue. “The flagpole will draw attention with its design and engineering works due to the strong winds of the city,” it said in the Facebook post. Azerbaijani public reaction was largely dismissive of the news, either criticizing the new pole as a waste of money or mocking it. “They should keep a 20-30-meters-long extension under the ground, so that if somewhere else builds a taller pole, we can raise it and become the first again,” one Facebook page suggested.
1- Armenia Needs Better Counterintelligence
To Deter Foreign and Domestic Spies
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- February 13 earthquake in Armenia strongest after 1988,
followed by 165 aftershocks
3- NSS detects, neutralizes spy network operating in Armenia
4- Damages caused to Armenia, Armenians by 2020 war in Artsakh
estimated at $38 billion
5- Armenia Continues Fight Against COVID-19
************************************************************************************************************************************************
1- Armenia Needs Better Counterintelligence
To Deter Foreign and Domestic Spies
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Last week, we were all shocked by the news that Armenia’s National
Security Service (NSS) arrested 19 members of the Armenian military on
spying charges for Azerbaijan.
The NSS accused the arrested 19 Armenian soldiers of having
transferred classified military secrets to Azerbaijan in return for
money. The NSS explained that Azerbaijani agents had contacted the
Armenian soldiers by setting up fake Facebook pages with photos of
attractive females who communicated in the Armenian language. There
are plenty of Azeris who speak fluent Armenian since they were born in
Armenia and attended Armenian schools before they fled to Azerbaijan
after the civil unrest over Artsakh in the late 1980’s.
There are several serious security issues that the Armenian government
should pay immediate attention to and take special measures to
minimize the repetition of such spying cases. But even with improved
counterintelligence, such problems may not be eliminated, but simply
minimized, since almost all countries fall victim to foreign and
domestic spies.
Here are my thoughts and suggestions:
1) The Armenian government should take immediate steps to appoint
competent experts who know how to run an intelligent service. This
suggestion is made because Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has
appointed to almost all positions inexperienced and incompetent
officials purely based on their membership in his ruling party. The
most recent example of incompetence was the surprising announcement by
the NSS that they learned from reading a newspaper article that the
President of Armenia is a dual citizen which is a violation of
Armenian law. Imagine Armenia’s intelligence services learning about
such a critical issue from a newspaper after the President was in
office for four years, instead of being the first to uncover it.
2) The National Security Service, besides needing expert personnel,
must also have the most advanced counterintelligence technology.
3) The Armenian government must consult with ally governments on how
to improve the training, organization and activities of its
intelligence services.
4) The 19 Armenians who were arrested for spying are accused of
transferring to Azerbaijan secret information about Armenia’s military
personnel, weapons and military facilities. It remains to be seen if
they will be found guilty in a court of law since there have been many
Armenian officials arrested in the past four years for committing
various offenses, but were not convicted.
5) How can the Armenian military allow its soldiers to have Facebook
pages since everyone knows that they are vulnerable to hackers and can
be co-opted by outsiders?
6) Where was the oversight by Armenia’s intelligent services as the
compromised soldiers were transmitting national secrets to the enemy?
It would have been best to prevent the transfer of such secrets before
they happen, not after the damage is done.
7) It is highly concerning that such a large number of soldiers of
various ranks were arrested. The NSS announced that a total of 24
soldiers were involved in these spying activities which means that
there are several other suspects who have not been arrested either due
to a lack of evidence or because their identities and locations are
unknown. We also do not know how long this spy network has been
operating before their arrest.
8) Even if the remaining members of this spy network are arrested and
charged, it does not mean that the 24 suspects are the only ones
involved in this spying Network. There may be dozens or hundreds of
others whose identities and activities are unknown. As opposed to
Armenia, Azerbaijan seems to have a highly competent and experienced
cadre of agents who know what they are doing. They are most probably
trained and aided by the highly skilled Turkish intelligence services,
the MIT (National Intelligence Organization).
9) One serious aspect of this spying scandal is that some of the
arrestees reportedly sold national secrets for a few hundred dollars.
There must be something seriously wrong in Armenia’s educational
system if an Armenian, born, raised, educated, and serving in the
military, is willing to betray his nation to the enemy for a handful
of dollars. It is highly concerning that there seems to be a lack of
national pride and patriotic sentiments among some Armenians,
particularly soldiers.
10) This is not the first time that spies have been arrested in
Armenia. There have been several cases of Armenians spying for Turkey
in the past 30 years. Some of them were Armenian government officials.
11) Azerbaijan announced in the past the arrest of a number of
Armenians and Azeris who had allegedly spied for Armenia. It is not
known if they were really spies or not.
12) I fear that the spying problems in Armenia will get much worse
with the contemplated opening of the border with Turkey and
Azerbaijan. This will allow many more Azeri and Turkish spies to enter
Armenia via air and land as tourists or business people.
13) In addition to actual spies, Azerbaijan and Turkey will collect
valuable information about Armenia by debriefing their citizens after
their return from Armenia. Of course, spying is not limited to these
two countries, as other states are also engaged in gathering
intelligence on Armenia.
14) There have been several cases where Armenians, who have immigrated
to Turkey in recent years due to lack of jobs at home, have been
approached by Turkish intelligence to gather information on Armenia
upon their return home for which they were handsomely compensated.
In conclusion, antagonistic actions are carried out not only during
the war, but also at peacetime by recruiting domestic and foreign
agents. The Armenian government must approach this problem very
seriously and allocate the necessary resources and personnel to
counter such intelligence gathering activities.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
2- February 13 earthquake in Armenia strongest after 1988,
followed by 165 aftershocks
(Public Radio of Armenia)—The earthquake registered in Armenia on
February 13 was the strongest after the 1988 Spitak earthquake, Head
of the Regional Survey for Seismic Protection Sos Margaryan told a
press conference.
He said the 5.2 magnitude quake was followed by 165 aftershocks, the
strongest of which had a magnitude of 3.
According to Margaryan, aftershocks are typical of such earthquakes.
He reminded that in August 2021, an earthquake at the same epicenter
was followed by 69 aftershocks within a day, with the number reaching
223 on the 40th day.
He said the Sunday earthquake on the Armenian-Georgian border is
considered moderately strong, and could be followed by more
aftershocks.
Magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit 16 km northeast of the village of Bavra
near the Armenian-Georgian border on Sunday, February 13.
The quake was registered at 22:25 local time (18:25 Greenwich time)
and was felt across Armenia.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
3- NSS detects, neutralizes spy network operating in Armenia
YEREVAN—The National Security Service (NSS) obtained evidence of a spy
network in Armenia by foreign special services, and the conduct of
inimical activities to the detriment of Armenia’s sovereignty,
territorial integrity, and external security. People serving in the
Armenian Armed Forces were included in this spy network. In exchange
for remuneration, individuals were offered to collaborate with the
aforesaid foreign special services, and provide information related to
the Armenian military.
The persons included about two dozen Armenian citizens in this spy
network. During the investigation, 19 people were detained on
suspicion of high treason, and some of them have confessed.
According to the NSS, recruitment took place via an online dating
service through which Armenian servicemen who possessed classified
data and documents would eventually join the spy ring. Once part of
the operation, the servicemen would receive payments for sending the
secret data to foreign intelligence services from mobile devices.
The statement said that investigators conducted more than 30 searches,
confiscated documents and other items that led to the launching of the
probe and that the spy ring’s activities have been “disrupted.”
**********************************************************************************************************************************************
4- Damages caused to Armenia, Armenians by 2020 war in Artsakh
estimated at $38 billion
YEREVAN (Arka)—By 2020, Artsakh was one of the drivers of Armenia’s
economy, economist at the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan Hrant
Mikayelyan said when speaking in the podcast of the Novosti-Armenia
telegram channel.
According to him, the consequences of the war in Artsakh in the fall
of 2020 and the loss of part of the Artsakh territory have had a
negative impact on the state of Armenia’s economy.
“Due to the defeat in the war, we lost 26% of the wheat crop area, 14
mines, 30 hydro plants and so on. By 2020 Artsakh had already become
the driver of the economy of Armenia, that is, for 30 years Armenia,
the Diaspora and the Artsakh people invested in Artsakh,” said
Mikayelyan.
According to him, in 2019, on average, Artsakh overtook the Republic
of Armenia in terms of economic development and even began to ferry
electricity back to Armenia (now it is no longer so), thanks to the
development of cultivated areas it was instrumental in solving food
security issues in Armenia.
Earlier it was reported that in 2022, the Armenian government will
provide budgetary support to Artsakh in the amount of about 144
billion drams (about $300 million). In 2021 the figure exceeded AMD
100bln.
In January 2021, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Military
Insurance Fund Mesrop Manukyan presented some calculations, according
to which, as a result of the defeat in the 44-day war in autumn 2020,
Armenia and the Armenian people suffered damages worth of at least
$38.4bln.
Particularly, according to his assessments, only the human losses (the
dead, disabled and physically healthy but already incapacitated
members of society) are estimated at $7 billion. The damage to the
defense system is about $2 billion and due to the loss of part of Sotk
gold deposit -about $8 billion. The cost of the lost HPP in Artsakh is
about $600 million.
***********************************************************************************************************************************************
5- Armenia Continues Fight Against COVID-19
Armenia continues the fight against COVID-19, as the country continues
promoting the vaccination phase. Armenia’s Ministry of Health
announced on January 11 new restrictions to curb the fast spreading of
the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. From January 22, people above 18
must present either a vaccination certificate or a negative recent
test result prior to entering restaurants, hotels, cinemas and other
similar venues. As of January 30, 842,212 people have been fully
inoculated against COVID-19, or approximately 28-percent of the
population. About 64-percent of the population, or 1,883,413 people,
has received at least one dose of the vaccine. The highest rate of
inoculation is among people between the ages of 35-60. Only 18 to
19-percent of citizens over the age of 65 have received two doses of
the vaccine. The vaccination mandate for employees might be
responsible for the age disparity in vaccination rates. Since October,
employees have been required to provide proof of vaccination or a
negative PCR test every 14 days to their employer. Employees who
choose not to get inoculated against the coronavirus must take tests
at their own expense. A PCR test in Armenia costs roughly 10,000 drams
(about $20).
The MoH also instituted a coronavirus “green pass” in January to enter
cultural and entertainment venues. As of January 22, people can only
enter restaurants, hotels, gyms, libraries, museums, theaters, cinemas
and other cultural sites if they present proof of vaccination, a
negative PCR test from the previous 72 hours or an antibody test from
the previous 24 hours. The mandate, which was announced on January 9,
excludes children under the age of 18, pregnant women, people who
cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and people who have been
previously infected with the coronavirus.
The U.S. State Department on July 26 warned American citizens to
reconsider travel to Armenia due to the increase in cases of the
Covid-19. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has
issued a Level 3 Travel Health Notice for Armenia due to COVID-19,
indicating a high level of COVID-19 in the country.” The State
Department also urged U.S. citizens not to travel to the
Nagorno-Karabakh region due to armed conflict. “The U.S. government is
unable to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in
Nagorno-Karabakh as U.S. government employees are restricted from
traveling there,” the State Department added.
The Armenian government last week made changes in the COVID-19
response measures, shortening the recommended self-isolation time from
14 days to 7 days for vaccinated people and 10 days for unvaccinated
people starting the day of an administered PCR test. The
self-isolation period for the unvaccinated can be shortened down to 7
days in case of producing a negative PCR test result. The Armenian
government cited the policies of the United States CDC and a number of
European countries. The government changed airport regulations,
allowing visitors to enter the arrival hall by maintaining safety
guidelines. The decision took effect February 1. Armenian health
authorities recorded a peak number of positive COVID-19 cases on
February 2.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) of Armenia reported 3,956 new cases on
Wednesday, the highest number of positive cases registered in one day
since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Coronavirus cases have
been steadily increasing in Armenia since mid-January.
There were 23,276 active COVID-19 cases in Armenia as of February 14.
Armenia has recorded 407,074 coronavirus cases and 8,186 deaths;
375,612 have recovered.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************************************************************************
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Monday, February 14, 2022
Russian, Armenian Officials Again Discuss Talks With Turkey
February 14, 2022
RUSSIA - Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, June 18, 2021.
Deputy parliament speaker Ruben Rubinian on Monday discussed with a senior
Russian diplomat the upcoming second round of negotiations on normalizing
relations between Armenia and Turkey.
Rubinian, who represents Armenia in the negotiations, had already spoken with
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko ahead of his first meeting with
Turkish negotiator Serdar Kilic held in Moscow on January 14. Ankara and Yerevan
described that meeting as “positive and constructive.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Rudenko discussed with Rubinian by phone the
implementation of the latter’s “understandings” with Kilic reached in Moscow as
well as their second meeting that will take place in Vienna on February 24.
“The Russian side reaffirmed its readiness to further assist in the search for
common ground between Yerevan and Ankara in the interests of stability and
sustainable development in the region,” read a statement released by the
ministry.
According to the official Armenian readout of Rubinian’s phone call with
Rudenko, the two men expressed hope that the Vienna meeting will be productive.
Earlier this month, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan voiced cautious
optimism over the success of the Turkish-Armenian dialogue which has also been
welcomed by the United States and the European Union.
Ankara has for decades linked the establishment of diplomatic relations with
Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border to a resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Turkish Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu has repeatedly made clear that his government will coordinate
the Turkish-Armenian normalization talks with Baku.
Armenia Not Evacuating Embassy In Ukraine
February 14, 2022
• Sargis Harutyunyan
UKRAINE -- View on Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky monument and Saint Sophia Cathedral
on Sofia square in Kyiv, 14Mar2016
Armenia indicated on Monday that it has no plans yet to follow the example of
Western nations and evacuate its diplomatic missions in Ukraine despite the
looming threat of a Russian invasion.
It also refrained from urging Armenian nationals to leave the country.
“We are closely monitoring developments in Ukraine,” said Vahan Hunanian, the
Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman.
“Armenia’s diplomatic missions in Ukraine (the Embassy in Kyiv and the Consulate
General in Odessa) work normally, being in constant contact with Armenian
citizens, who will be given additional recommendations, if necessary,” he added
in written comments.
The United States, most European Union member states and other Western nations
have fully or partly pulled their diplomatic staff out of Kyiv in recent days as
they stepped up their warnings of an imminent attack by Russia on Ukraine. They
have also told their citizens to leave the country.
In addition, a number of European airlines have suspended their flights to
Ukraine for security reasons. By contrast, daily flights between Yerevan and
Kyiv, carried out by Ukrainian airlines, are continuing unabated.
Belarus - Multiple rocket launchers fire during the Belarusian and Russian joint
military drills at Brestsky firing range, February 4, 2022.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine but
denies it plans to invade. At the same time, Moscow has demanded far-reaching
“security guarantees” from the West, including a pledge not to admit Ukraine to
NATO and to scale back NATO military presence near its borders. Western powers
reject these demands.
Armenia, which has close political, military and economic ties with Russia, has
been careful not to publicly comment on the deepening international crisis. The
South Caucasus state has become even more dependent on Moscow for security since
the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ukraine is home to an estimated 120,000 ethnic Armenians. Most of them are
Ukrainian citizens.
Boris Yeghiazarian, a Ukrainian-Armenian painter and activist living in Kyiv,
said on Monday that he does not know of any local Armenians who have fled the
country because of the deteriorating situation on the Ukraine-Russia border.
Yeghiazarian said many members of the Armenian community are ready to “take up
arms” and defend the country “just like Ukrainians.” Only a small percentage of
them have pro-Russian views, he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia Jolted By Another Earthquake
February 14, 2022
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - New apartment blocks in Gyumri constructed for people who lost their
homes in the 1988 earthquake, 15Oct2012.
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck Armenia and neighboring Georgia late on
Sunday, causing brief panic among some people.
According to the Armenian seismic protection agency, the epicenter of the
earthquake was at a section of the Armenian-Georgian border about 40 kilometers
north of Gyumri. Tremors were felt in Yerevan and six of Armenia’s ten provinces
as well as Tbilisi and southern Georgia.
The quake did not kill or injure anyone. The Armenian Ministry of Emergencies
reported minor damage caused to buildings in Yerevan, Gyumri and three other
towns.
Many Gyumri residents rushed out of their homes immediate after the quake, which
knocked out power supplies in one of the city’s districts. The supplies were
restored about 90 minutes later.
“Residents can return to their homes,” the Ministry of Emergencies said in a
late-night statement. It urged them not to “succumb to panic,” saying that they
should only expect weaker aftershocks.
The ministry’s seismic protection service recorded 165 aftershocks by Monday
morning. A senior official from the service, Sos Margarian, described the
earthquake as “moderately powerful.”
“It’s probably the strongest since the Spitak earthquake,” Margarian said,
referring to 1988 calamity that killed more than 25,000 people and devastated
much of northwestern Armenia, including Gyumri.
The latest tremors came one year after two quakes measuring at magnitude 4.7 in
their epicenters jolted some Armenian regions in the space of one week. The
authorities urged residents of Yerevan and surrounding communities at the time
to stay outdoors for several hours.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FEB. 15, 2022
CONTACT: RUPEN JANBAZIAN
DIRECTOR, PUBLIC RELATIONS
YEREVAN +374-98-36-15-50
STEPANAKERT +374-94-85-72-20
[ARMENIAN BELOW]
[ARMENIAN BELOW]
The home of the Grigoryan family in Artsakh’s Herher village was severely damaged in Oct. 2020
HERHER VILLAGE, Martuni, Artsakh (TUFENKIAN FOUNDATION)—Another family in Artsakh’s Martuni region was given the keys to its renovated home last week. The home of the Grigoryan family of Herher village had sustained major damage by Azerbaijani shelling during the latest war.
The Grigoryan home was hit three times by Azerbaijani fire in Oct. 2020. Its roof, doors, exterior walls, and windows were severely damaged as a result. “The home was no longer habitable. We are thankful for the Tufenkian Foundation and all its donors for renovating our home and allowing us to stay in our village,” Marat Grigoryan explained during an intimate ceremony on Feb. 8, which marked the completion of renovations. Six members of the Grigoryan family live in the family home. Marat, who participated in the 2020 War, recently got married and hopes to build a family in the home he grew up in. “We intend on putting down roots here,” Marat said.
The ceremony was attended by the village mayor Arman Aleksanyan, representatives from neighboring villages, as well as representatives of the Tufenkian Foundation’s Stepanakert and Yerevan offices.
The residents of Herher and its surrounding villages came under heavy bombardment during the 44-day war against Azerbaijan in 2020. Early in 2021, thousands of families who had fled the region during the intense battles returned to their homes, many of which had sustained substantial damage. Many of these villages are now only a few kilometers from the Azerbaijani border.
“Our priority is renovating the damaged homes in the region. We also do our best to help our wounded soldiers by renovating their homes and making them more accessible,” explained Tufenkian’s Artsakh project manager Edgar Danielyan.
After consultations with Artsakh authorities following the 2020 War, the Tufenkian Foundation decided that it would carry out its work in the Herher cluster Martuni region of Artsakh: in Herher and its surrounding villages, including Tsovategh, Kherkhan, and Machkalashen. The Grigoryan’s home is the ninth home in the region that the Foundation has renovated over the past year.
The Tufenkian Foundation has also assembled an integrated plan composed of complementary initiatives that contribute to meeting the educational, health, economic, and other needs in Artsakh’s Martuni region.
* * *
Established in 1999, the Tufenkian Foundation addresses the most pressing social, economic, cultural, and environmental challenges facing Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh). Since its inception, the Tufenkian Foundation has supported various community initiatives as well as civic activism and public advocacy campaigns to help improve life in Armenia, while providing housing, education, social, health, and livelihood support for the Armenians of Artsakh.
###
Attached Photographs:
1. Members of the Tufenkian staff tour the renovated residence (Photo: ArtsakhPRess)
2. Tufenkian Foundation director Greg Bedian drinking a toast to the Grigoryan family and the newlyweds (Photo: Tufenkian Foundation)
3. Marat, who fought in the 2020 Artsakh War, is interviewed by the local press in his renovated home (Photo: Tufenkian Foundation)
—
Rupen Janbazian
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By Sabina Mammadli
The Azerbaijani Digital Development and Transport Ministry has developed an action plan to prevent the use of geographical maps with distorted toponyms, Trend has reported.
Deputy Minister Rovshan Rustamov made the remarks during the presentation of the Azerbaijani Social Research Center’s report on disinformation and hybrid threats to Azerbaijan.
Rustamov mentioned that Azerbaijan is keeping a close eye on Armenia’s distortion of Azerbaijani toponyms on maps online.
“As a result of the Azerbaijani ministry’s appeals to Google and other companies, thousands of historical Azerbaijani toponyms have been restored,” Rustamov said.
He insisted that the public would be informed as soon as possible.
Earlier, Azerbaijani NGO leaders asked UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay to send an expert group to Armenia to assess the current state of Azerbaijan’s centuries-old cultural and historical heritage.
NGOs said that by pursuing a policy of both ethnic and cultural genocide, Armenia has purposefully erased all traces of Azerbaijanis, the historical and ancient residents of these territories, plundered, destroyed, embezzled and distorted the Azerbaijani people’s cultural legacy. At the same time, ancient place names in these areas were changed with Armenian ones.
“We provided a number of precise facts in our earlier appeals to UNESCO. For example, along with other facts, we have emphasized that the Blue Mosque, the Gala Mosque, the Shah Abbas Mosque, the Tapabashi Mosque, the Zal Khan Mosque, the Sartib Khan Mosque, the Haji Novruzali Bay Mosque, the Damirbulagh Mosque, the Haji Jafar Bay Mosque, the Rajab Pasha Mosque, the Mohammad Sartib Khan Mosque, the Haji Inam Mosque and more than 300 other mosques located in Armenia were deliberately destroyed, appropriated or used for other purposes in the early 20th century. Only the Damirbulagh Mosque functioned as intended until 1988, but it has now been completely demolished and replaced by a high-rise building,” the statement added.
It noted that over 500 Azerbaijani cemeteries in Armenia, such as Aghadada, Ashaghi Shorja, Gullubulagh and Saral have been destroyed. The tomb of great Azerbaijani poet Ashig Alasgar, whose tombstone was erected in his native village in ancient Goycha district, was also destroyed.
ANKARA
A law in Turkiye ratifying the historic Shusha Declaration, signed with Azerbaijan last year, came into force on Monday after being published in the country’s Official Gazette.
“The ‘Shusha Declaration on Allied Relations Between the Republic of Turkiye and the Republic of Azerbaijan’ signed in Shusha on June 15, 2021, has been ratified,” said the Official Gazette entry on the legislation that lawmakers passed on Feb. 3.
Raising relations between Turkiye and Azerbaijan to the level of an alliance, the declaration was inked in a ceremony attended by the two countries’ presidents in the Azerbaijani city of Shusha, liberated in November 2020 from nearly 30 years of Armenian occupation.
It focuses on defense cooperation and establishing new transportation routes, affirming the joint efforts by the two armies in the face of foreign threats, and the restructuring and modernization of their armed forces.
The declaration also emphasizes that Armenia’s groundless allegations against Turkiye and attempts to distort history were damaging peace and stability in the region, stating that the opening of the Zangezur corridor, connecting eastern Turkiye and Azerbaijan, and the Nakhichevan-Kars railway will further contribute to the strengthening of relations.
Turkiye was a key backer of Azerbaijan during the 44-day Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which erupted on Sept. 27, 2020 and ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire on Nov. 10.
– Treaties with US, Albania
Three more agreements with the US and Albania also entered into force on Monday after they were also published in the Official Gazette.
The agreements, signed on cooperation in health and construction works with Albania and on taxation with the US, kicked in after being approved by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In the agreement on health cooperation with Albania, the two countries vowed to “promote cooperation in the field of health and medicine on the basis of equality mutual understanding and mutual benefit.”
It involves cooperation to increase knowledge and experience sharing as part of the fight against pandemics, including COVID-19, capacity building for health personnel, and boosting health investments.
With the memorandum of understanding on construction works, the two countries pledged to increase knowledge, experience, and technology sharing in this field, as well.
Both agreements were signed on Jan. 6, 2021.
The arrangement with the US on country-by-country reporting, inked on Nov. 17, aims to improve the access areas of the two countries’ tax administrations and increase tax transparency.
ANKARA
Turkiye’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) lawmaker Yasar Karadag on Monday called for the closure of the Metsamor nuclear power plant in neighboring Armenia.
“The Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant should be immediately shut down in order not to experience the Chernobyl disaster, which caused the death of nearly 40 thousand people in 1986,” Karadag, the lawmaker from eastern Igdir province, told reporters in parliament.
According to him, Metsamor was constructed with the old Russian technology.
Metsamor is the most dangerous of the 443 nuclear plants in the world, the lawmaker said.
“In a possible major earthquake, the radiation emitted by the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant will make our provinces of Igdir, Kars, Van, Agri, and Erzurum (south of the border) uninhabitable,” he said.
Metsamor, first launched in 1976, is just 16 kilometers (10 miles) from Turkey’s eastern border with Armenia and produces about 40% of the country’s electricity.
Both Turkey and Azerbaijan have repeatedly raised objections to the project as they believe it does not meet international safety standards.
Metsamor continues to draw criticism from Turkish officials as Armenia has decided to extend its operations until 2026.
After a decade of meticulous research in more than 15 archives, Bedross Der Matossian’s book on the Adana Massacres of 1909 has recently been published in paperback, hardcover, and kindle editions by Stanford University Press.
Titled “The Horrors of Adana: Revolution and Violence in the Early Twentieth Century,” the book examines the 1909 twin massacres that shook the province of Adana, located in the southern Anatolia region of modern-day Turkey, killing more than 20,000 Armenians and 2,000 Muslims. Images of Adana after the massacres show unprecedented physical destruction of a once prosperous city. Local Armenian businesses, churches, residences, and living quarters were totally destroyed.
The violence that began in the city of Adana soon spread across the province and poured beyond its borders eastward into the province of Aleppo. In terms of the number of victims, this was the third-largest act of violence perpetrated at the beginning of the twentieth century, following only the Boxer rebellion (1899–1901) and the genocide of the Herero and Nama between 1904 and 1907 in the German colony of southwest Africa.
The central Ottoman government immediately sent investigation commissions and established courts-martial to try the perpetrators of the massacres. However, these courts failed to prosecute the main culprits of the massacres—a miscarriage of justice that would have repercussions in the years to come.
“The Horrors of Adana” offers one of the first close examinations of these events, analyzing sociopolitical and economic transformations that culminated in a cataclysm of violence. Drawing on primary sources in a dozen languages, the book provides an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the rumors and emotions, public spheres and humanitarian interventions that together informed this complex event. Ultimately, through consideration of the Adana Massacres in micro-historical detail, “The Horrors of Adana” presents an important macrocosmic understanding of ethnic violence, illuminating how and why ordinary people can become perpetrators.
Despite the significance of these events and the extent of violence and destruction, the Adana Massacres are often left out of historical narratives especially in the historiographies of Ottoman and Middle Eastern studies. Denialists of the Armenian Genocide continue to propagate the provocation thesis regarding these massacres. They view the “events” or the “disturbances” of Adana as a failed uprising by Armenians to bring in European intervention with the aim of erecting the Kingdom of Cilicia. Furthermore, they normalize the resulting violence as a natural byproduct of Armenian “provocations.”
Der Matossian offers a necessary corrective to these narratives by arguing that outbreaks like the Adana massacres do not occur sui generis; they are caused by a range of complex, intersecting factors that are deeply rooted in the shifting local and national ground of political and socioeconomic life. The book also addresses the question of how better to understand the Adana massacres in relation to the Armenian Genocide, while bearing in mind their individual trajectories rather than simply viewing the first event as foreshadowing the second.
“‘The Horrors of Adana’ is a truly groundbreaking and highly nuanced exploration of intercommunal, sectarian, and nationalist violence in the late Ottoman Empire. A must-read for scholars of the modern Middle East,” said Ussama Makdisi, Rice University, author of “Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World.”
“‘The Horrors of Adana’ is an outstanding analysis of a massacre never before deeply studied. Bedross Der Matossian offers a thorough inquiry into the perpetrators, victims, bystanders, and social-political context, useful to all those interested in understanding processes of mass violence,” said Jacques Semelin, Sciences Po Paris, author of “Purify and Destroy: The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide.”
“With ‘The Horrors of Adana,’ the Adana Massacres get their own story, a story that needs telling. Bedross Der Matossian’s deeply researched and engagingly argued book situates Adana in a longer trajectory of ‘forgotten’ massacres and as part of Ottoman history more broadly,” said Michelle Tusan, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, author of “The British Empire and the Armenian Genocide: Humanitarianism and Imperial Politics from Gladstone to Churchill.”
Copies of the book can be purchases through Amazon or by visiting the Stanford University Press website.
Bedross Der Matossian is the Vice-Chair, Associate Professor of Modern Middle East History, and Hymen Rosenberg Professor in Judaic Studies the at Department of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is also the President of the Society for Armenian Studies.
Born and raised in Jerusalem, he is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He completed his Ph.D. in Middle East History in the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University in 2008. From 2008 to 2010, he was a Lecturer of Middle East History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been appointed as the Dumanian Visiting Professor in the University of Chicago for Spring 2014. He is the author and co-editor of multiple books including the award-winning book “Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire” (Stanford University Press, 2014).
The Youredjian family. From left: Renee, Jack, Zarig, and Haig
Benefactors Jack and Zarig Youredjian have been generous supporters of the American University of Armenia, and in recent years, became AUA Pillars at a time when more students were in dire need of support amidst the global pandemic. Now, their children, Renee and Haig, are continuing the Youredjian tradition of philanthropy by becoming the two most recent AUA ChangeMakers.
As successful entrepreneurs in their own right, the Youredjian siblings have built upon the professional legacy of their father and shaped their own distinctive path of success.
Renee Youredjian Arakelian operates L.A. Medical Wholesale as its President and CEO. She is recognized in Los Angeles County, and nationally, as a notable woman business owner. “Our parents are our role models and our pillars of strength, and have been so instrumental in bringing change to the children of Armenia,” said Renee. “Witnessing their support and everlasting dedication has made me realize the importance of being active in the process of bringing positive change to benefit our culture and our people.”
Her younger brother, Haig Youredjian, operates the family business, Western Drug Medical Supply, succeeding his father as President and CEO of the company. He recalls how, from an early age, his parents instilled in them the importance of giving back to their communities. “We were taught that success lies not only within one’s own accomplishments, but also in one’s ability to assist others in their own accomplishments,” noted Haig. “Today, we carry that standard in our own lives and hope that we can make even the smallest difference in the lives of others and contribute to their successes.”
Haig dissects the process of creating change, enumerating the instrumental components of the system: individuals who participate in change; those who actively contribute to realizing change; and those who benefit from change. “As contributors, we hope to furnish a better opportunity for those who participate and benefit from the robust opportunities AUA offers,” he posited, with Renee reiterating their strong belief in equal opportunity for all those who are “dedicated, determined, and passionate about furthering their education.”
Placing emphasis on the responsible role AUA plays in providing that opportunity for the youth in Armenia, the siblings are eager to see a new generation of innovators and educators rising up to profoundly impact Armenian society and more broadly in the world. “The programs of the University, along with the AUA Open Centers of Excellence, will provide students and youth with the opportunity to stand at the forefront of growth and change, catapulting the country to achieve advancement and long term success,” Haig added.
Their father, Jack, recounted his own academic path that took him from his birthplace Jerusalem to Lebanon, where he attended the School of Pharmacy of the American University of Beirut, then moved to Los Angeles in 1970, where he earned a doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Southern California. “Throughout those years, I received scholarships from AGBU and the Gulbenkian Foundation, without which I would not have been able to continue my education,” said Jack, expressing his heartfelt gratitude and emphasizing the importance of helping the children of Armenia to access higher education.
Trusting in the indomitable warrior strength and historic resilience of the Armenian people, Renee concluded, “I am certain that we will continue to prevail in anything we set our minds to. Excellence is a state of mind and as long as we continue to support one another, there isn’t anything that is impossible to achieve!”
AUA is grateful to have the unwavering backing and sustained support of the new generation of Youredjians and proud to have added their names to the esteemed list of AUA ChangeMakers.
Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.