Category: 2023

Tbilisi, Nov 25 (EFE).- Armenia and Saudi Arabia have established diplomatic relations, the foreign ministry the country in the Caucasus said on Saturday.

A foreign ministry statement said the signing of the corresponding protocol took place on Friday in Abu Dhabi by the ambassadors of the two countries to the United Arab Emirates.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Friday that Armenia and Saudi Arabia were in touch with each other for the past few years.

“Our foreign ministers have met twice, phone calls have taken place, contacts have taken place during various multilateral working discussions,” Pashinyan told reporters before the government formally announced diplomatic ties with the kingdom.

“I think the process is advancing, and I hope that Armenia and Saudi Arabia will soon establish diplomatic relations, which would be a very important and significant event,” he said.

After several disagreements with Russia, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced his intention to diversify the country’s foreign relations.

Saudi Arabia supported Christian Armenia in its conflict with Muslim Azerbaijan in the war for control of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, causing great discomfort in Azerbaijan’s main ally, Turkey.

Armenia, which gained independence in 1991 after the Soviet dissolution, maintains good relations with Iran, which opposed from the beginning the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

According to some experts, it was one of the triggers for the current war between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, which is backed by Tehran. EFE

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The war between Hamas and Israel war has triggered strong anti-Israel sentiments in the region and heightened fears of a broader conflict engulfing actors such as Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Worried that the conflict in Gaza could escalate into a regional confrontation, the US has dispatched two aircraft carrier strike groups within range, including additional troops and military advisors.

But alongside tough rhetoric, the violence in Gaza has renewed apparent pragmatism by important regional states such as Iran and Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has openly slammed Israel's bombings of the Palestinian coastal enclave. On the other hand, Ankara has avoided issuing direct threats against Tel Aviv and, in an apparent unusual move, allegedly distanced itelf from Hamas in the aftermath of the Palestinian movement’s surprise attack on Israel last month.

Iran and its regional allies such as Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Ansarullah movement—better known as the Houthis—have adopted more hostile stances. Both Hezbollah and the Houthis have directly attacked Israel. However, Tehran itself has focused on the political track, pushing for Muslim countries to embargo Israel amid its campaign to galvanize anti-Israeli sentiment in the region. The call for an embargo has gained momentum in light of some Muslim countries’ decisions to downgrade ties with Israel—raising fears among some of Israel’s regional partners.

Gaza war puts pressure on Israel’s partners

The mounting criticism of Israel in the region has boosted fears among Tel Aviv’s main Muslim partners, including Azerbaijan. The conflict in Gaza is particularly relevant for Baku, as Tel Aviv’s top energy and military associate in the South Caucasus.

Some 40% of Israel's oil imports of around 300,000 barrels per day were sourced from Iraqi Kurdistan in the first quarter of 2023. That trade has been halted following Turkey's decision to stop oil flows through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in March over a dispute with Baghdad. To fill the gap, Israel has reportedly turned to African producers and Brazil. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan meet more than half of Israel's demand for oil.

Propelled by military cooperation, the partnership between Azerbaijan and Israel gained a new level of momentum in 2020, when Azerbaijani forces heavily relied on Israeli-made weaponry to regain control over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Baku continues to rely on such arms to maintain military superiority over Armenia.

Following the recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Baku-Tel Aviv partnership has morphed into a new geopolitical alliance. Important political steps have been taken, such as Azerbaijan’s opening of an embassy in Israel in March. This has raised eyebrows in neighboring Iran, particularly as an attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran earlier this year led Baku to shutter its diplomatic mission amid broader tensions.

In parallel with strengthening ties with Israel, Azerbaijan has developed strategic partnerships with leading Muslim countries—including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. While this is mainly due to Baku’s desire to pursue a balanced foreign policy strategy, Tehran has been wary of the deepening relations between its northwestern neighbor and a widening array of its regional rivals.

Continued cooperation despite pressure

Unlike Azerbaijan, the Christian countries in the South Caucasus—namely Armenia and Georgia—generally do not have strong ties with Muslim states. Armenia’s strong relations with Iran are an exception to this broader trend. Indeed, the ruling Georgian government has strongly criticized the Palestinian surprise attack on Israel. Tbilisi has also expressed its unwavering support for Tel Aviv—largely mirroring the pro-Israeli public sentiments in Georgia.

To avoid possible criticism from Muslim countries, Azerbaijan has denounced the harm inflicted on civilians in the Gaza Strip, underlining its full support for all relevant UN resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian issue—including the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state. This stance is not new; Azerbaijan has insisted on these principles since the early 1990s. Perhaps surprisingly, this balanced approach has never been a catalyst for tension in the bilateral relationship with Israel.

Amid the fighting in Gaza and Iran’s resulting calls for an embargo on Israel, Baku has continued to maintain a close partnership with Tel Aviv—albeit while keeping a lower profile on the regional stage.

For instance, at the end of October, Azerbaijan reportedly shipped a tanker loaded with over one million barrels of crude oil to Israel's southern Red Sea port of Eilat. This was after the Ashkelon port on the Mediterranean Sea came under rocket fire from Hamas. Moreover, on Oct. 30, Israel awarded a consortium consisting of BP, NewMed Energy, and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) a license to explore offshore natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean. The move notably came shortly after the Israeli government temporarily shut down the Tamar offshore gas field amid rocket attacks launched by Hamas from Gaza.

Looking ahead

The authorities and state media in Azerbaijan have not highlighted the recent significant milestones in the bilateral partnership with Israel for several reasons.

Undoubtedly, Azerbaijan believes that explicit deep engagement with Israel and praise of such an approach in state media amid the ongoing war in Gaza may provoke a reaction from Iran, a staunch supporter of Hamas. Conversely, the Israeli military campaign against Hamas and the ongoing domestic political turmoil in Israel may have geopolitical ramifications, such as a revival of assertive Iranian policy in the South Caucasus.

The bigger picture is that the violence in Gaza is diverting the west’s attention. As a result, regional powers like Iran and Russia may maneuver to fill the vacuum in places like the South Caucasus. To Azerbaijan, the potential strengthening of Iranian influence is hardly a positive factor, particularly amid Baku’s efforts to ink a peace agreement with neighbouring Armenia.

In addition to the regional power dynamics, the Hamas-Israel war puts the Azerbaijani government in an uncomfortable position at home. As recently as Nov. 17, Azerbaijani security forces arrested an armed suspect near the Israeli embassy in Baku who reportedly planned an attack. As a Muslim country, Azerbaijan is expected to demonstrate more profound solidarity with Palestine. However, Baku is—as in the past—acting on the basis of realpolitik, with a focus on relations built on shared interests.

Hence, even though Iran may adopt bellicose rhetoric against Azerbaijan for maintaining strategic ties with Israel amid the Gaza war, it is unlikely that Tehran will deliberately jeopardize its relationship with Baku, which is slowly recovering after years of mounting tensions. The recent diplomatic thaw between Azerbaijan and Iran has renewed the intraregional partnership and paved the way for new forms of cooperation, such as a new transit route linking Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave via Iran.

All in all, while Azerbaijan is not likely to concede to any renewed pressure from Iran, a lengthy war in Gaza may diminish Israeli influence in the South Caucasus to some extent. In the meantime, Baku appears poised to steer clear of active diplomacy on the regional turmoil, maintaining a low profile and avoiding antagonizing Muslim countries.  

Women gathered in Yerevan to discuss violence against women, ways of organising and struggling against violence on the occasion of 25 November.

Lianna Mihoyan, a member of the Free Women's Union, read a statement on the meaning of 25 November, stressing that the day is based on the struggle of the Mirabel sisters and that this struggle continues today.

Mihoyan commemorated the resistance of many women from Jeanne d'Arc to Sakine Cansız and stated that women's struggle is growing.

In the speeches made at the meeting, political violence against women was discussed and the need to come together against the male system and the state was emphasised.

Lianna Mihoyan said, "We have the power to protect ourselves and take care of ourselves. We must feel each other's pain and create our own organisation so that we do not accept any kind of violence and injustice done to us."

Larisa Alaverdyan, a human rights defender in Armenia, stated that violence against women is not only physical but also mental, and that work should be done to change the mentality of society.

Syriac parliamentarian Zemfira Mirzoyev stated that they live in a world where strong men have a say and women have a great responsibility in every field.

Kristine Vardanya, President of the National United Social Organisation, said that women in every country in the world are subjected to male violence.

"Our actions should not be limited to today. Because women are subjected to violence every day, it exists in all nations and religions."

Maria Karapetyan, MP for the Party of Civil Contract, said that the ongoing wars in all parts of the world have caused many women and children to suffer and be subjected to violence.

"All states are run with a male mentality and these wars are also being fought with a male mentality," Maria Karapetyan said.

https://anfenglish.com/women/kurdish-armenian-syriac-and-georgian-women-came-together-in-yerevan-70485

It’s almost midnight and a group of people nervously talk among themselves on Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate Road in Jerusalem’s old city. One man holds a muzzled dog, while another speaks anxiously on a phone. The group becomes agitated as an Israeli police car drives down the narrow street towards the car park that lies on land owned by the local Armenian church.

Inside the car park, about 200 local residents of the Armenian quarter are gathered at the site that they say is under threat from an Israeli-Australian property developer. Known as the Cow’s Garden, the site includes a seminary, community hall, five homes and represents 25 per cent of the Armenian quarter’s land in the old city. Surrounded by historic ramparts, the car park is an important space for the 1,000 Armenians who still live within the old city and a possible site for affordable housing.

Many protesters are descendants of those displaced by the Armenian genocide committed by Turkish Ottomans more than a century ago, although the Armenian presence in Jerusalem dates back more than 1,600 years. “There were contacts between Armenia and Palestine even before Christ, and the Cathedral of St James – which stands today at the heart of Jerusalem’s Armenian community – was founded around 420 AD,” says Matthew Teller, author of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem. Like Palestinians in the old city, Armenians are technically stateless and deemed residents rather than full citizens of Israel, after its forces occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967.

The Armenian community’s future is under threat after its local religious leader, known as a patriarch, Nourhan Manougian, entered into a controversial deal in 2021 to lease church land to Xana Capital, a United Arab Emirates company owned by an Israeli-Australian property developer who plans to build a hotel. The developer did not respond to a request for comment sent on LinkedIn.

Local resident Kegham Balian says the deal undervalued the old city site and should never have been agreed to without the community’s consent. One priest who was heavily involved in the deal has since been defrocked and after significant backlash, Manougian says he cancelled the deal with Xana Capital last month – although members of the community have not yet seen the letter cancelling the lease.

Despite the deal supposedly being cancelled and no court order enforcing the lease, armed Israeli settlers turned up at the car park on November 5th with dogs and pepper spray; while diggers remain at the site, after arriving earlier this month and knocking down one wall and digging up in one section of the car park. The Armenian community rallied in response and set up a 24-hour watch to prevent further demolition, which senior church leaders in Jerusalem criticised as “illegal actions”.

On this night, those gathered at the car park were joined by patriarch Manougian – who arrived in a black Mercedes and refused to speak to these pages – and several priests who led locals in prayers. “We’re peaceful and we get on with our Jewish and Palestinian neighbours,” says Balian, “but if we don’t make a stand here, the entire Cow’s Garden will be gone.”

Earlier that evening, Setrag Balian says the Israeli police arrived with a private security company and told them that if they didn’t leave the site, they would be forced to by Israeli soldiers. The next day armed settlers arrived again, accompanied by Israeli police who arrested three Armenians while demanding they produce evidence that the land is theirs.

An Israeli military spokesperson referred The Irish Times to the Israeli police for comment, who said: “The Israel Police is not a party to civil or contractual disputes and it is not part of its role. Upon receiving reports or complaints in suspicion of a criminal offence, they are dealt with by the police accordingly.”

The Armenian Quarter sits beside the old city’s Jewish Quarter and includes one of the main routes to the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites.

Israeli lawyer Daniel Seidemann, who founded Terrestrial Jerusalem which tracks development that harms the status and stability of the contested city, says that “settlers are interested in creating an uninterrupted bridge between Jaffa Gate and the Jewish quarter of the city” and describes this as dovetailing with a wider strategy backed by the Israeli authorities to encircle the old city with settlements and biblically-inspired settlement projects. As examples, he cites Israeli encroachment in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheik Jarrah and proposals for a settler-run national park on the Mount of Olives.

Multiple properties in Jerusalem’s Muslim and Christian neighbourhoods have become embroiled in opaque transactions often involving shell companies which sometimes lie dormant for years before groups aligned with settlers take legal action to force possession through the Israeli courts.

With media attention focused on the war in Gaza and in the West Bank, Seidemann believes settlers see an opportunity to quickly take possession of the strategic Armenian site. “What is happening there is not only a threat to the community, it is a threat to the integrity of the city,” he says. “Jerusalem would not be Jerusalem without a vibrant Armenian community.”

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2023/11/26/disputed-land-deal-threatens-future-of-jerusalems-armenian-community/