Category: 2023

“A Divine Homecoming”: Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan Celebrates First Divine Liturgy in U.S. Following His Consecration

Garo Vardanian

PRESS OFFICE 

Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) 

630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016 

Contact: Chris Zakian 

Tel: (212) 686-0710; Fax: (212) 779-3558 

E-mail: [email protected] 

Website: www.armenianchurch.us 

 

November 2, 2023

__________________ 

 

ATTENTION EDITOR: Four photos attached, with captions below. Download additional photos at the link (credit Harout Barsoumian):

https://easterndiocese.smugmug.com/St-Vartan-Armenian-Cathedral/Bishop-Mesrops-Return-Badarak-Oct-14-2023/

 

 

 

HEADLINE:

 

By Stephan S. Nigohosian

 

A most blessed and joyous homecoming took place on Saturday, October 14, when newly-ordained Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan returned to New York City’s St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral to celebrate his first episcopal Divine Liturgy as bishop of the Eastern Diocese.

 

The Primate, who had been consecrated as a bishop at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin a week earlier by His Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians, presided over the special badarak before a large gathering of clergy and lay people from near and far.

 

In a time of heartrending events and hardship thrust upon Armenians around the world, embodied in the tragedies in Artsakh and Armenia, Bishop Mesrop’s message of unwavering faith and optimism for the future of the Armenian Church and its faithful instilled feelings of hope and perseverance in all who heard his message.

 

As the heavenly strains of Khorhoort Khoreen (O Mystery Deep) began the service, Bishop Mesrop, accompanied by a procession of clergy and altar servers, entered the sanctuary and bestowed his blessings among the faithful. A gold processional cross, followed by colorful processional banners featuring images of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, were held by the procession of clergy as they made their way through the cathedral. As they reached the altar, angelic strains of the choir reached a crescendo, further adding to the sacred atmosphere of the event about to unfold. 

 

 

* Blessings on the Faithful

 

From the altar, with arms outstretched, Bishop Mesrop faced the congregation and chanted the centuries-old Armenian prayers. Multiple cameras placed throughout the sanctuary provided those participating in the service at home with immersive views, including an intimate, front-facing view of Bishop Mesrop praying on the holy altar. Among the clergy and altar servers assisting him throughout the liturgy were Cathedral Vicar Fr. Davit Karamyan, and Diocesan pastors Fr. Armash Bagdasarian (Wynnewood, PA), Fr. Hakob Gevorgyan (Cheltenham, PA), Fr. Martiros Hakobyan (Houston, TX), and Fr. Avedis Kalaydjian (Racine, WI), along with a retinue of deacons from the cathedral and outlying parishes, as well as St. Nersess seminarians and other altar servers.

 

Members of the St. Vartan Cathedral Choir, who play such an essential role in aural aspect of the Divine Liturgy every Sunday, were conducted by Maestro Khoren Mekanejian. On this occasion, the ensemble was further complemented by choristers from local parishes around the country, as well as by organist Deacon Ari Terjanian from St. Gregory of Narek Church in Cleveland, OH.

 

Among the dignitaries seated in the chancel at the foot of the altar, and in the front of the congregation, were Archbishop Vicken Aykazian and Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian, as well as representatives of various sister churches and the diplomatic corps, clergy from throughout the Eastern Diocese, leaders of Armenian organizations, and members of the Diocesan Council.

 

 

* A Homily from the Heart

 

Following the blessing and distribution of the Holy Eucharist, Bishop Mesrop delivered a heartfelt and uplifting homily. “Today, I am overcome with a spirit of thanks to the Lord, who took my life in His hands, shaped my soul, inspired my heart, rescued me from the shadow of death and guided me step by step to this ministry in His service,” he said.

 

Bishop Mesrop continued by acknowledging the pivotal role his family, friends and colleagues have collectively played in nourishing his spiritual development throughout his life’s journey. “Thank you to my clergy brothers and all our faithful who placed their trust in me, honored me, stood by me in my time of injury and triumph, and shared your strength and love with me,” he said.

 

He expressed special gratitude to Catholicos Karekin II, who the Primate said has encouraged and guided him throughout his ministry. And he thanked Berge Setrakian, the distinguished longtime president of AGBU, who stood as Bishop Mesrop’s godfather during his ordination.

 

Bishop Mesrop then directed attention to the tragic situation that befell our beloved homeland of Artsakh, likening his role to that of a father entrusted with consoling his family experiencing unfathomable loss. “While suffering can sow the seeds of bitterness and resentment, that is not how a Christian should respond to it,” he explained. “God understands our pain and suffering, for He experienced it Himself through the sacrifice of His Son. We must trust that God is always with us, right beside us,” he said, adding, “God will see His justice done.”

 

Bishop Mesrop then looked toward the future and the challenging work ahead, imploring the faithful to assist our brethren fleeing Artsakh and to work together to strengthen our Diocese. Securing a bright future for the Armenian Church will enable future generations to know our Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

The Primate then delineated his vision of three tasks, or “gifts,” that would be his focus for our Diocese: Evangelization (being a witness to the truth of the Holy Gospel); Spirituality (translating the invisible inner reality of the Spirit into the visible); and Love (our relationship with one another and the Heavenly Father). “When I stepped up to the altar today, I was overwhelmed by the feeling of love,” he revealed. “I will rely on your prayers, my beautiful and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ.”

 

The viewing audience for Bishop Mesrop’s special Divine Liturgy included thousands of people from across the Diocese and around the world, sharing in the service as it was broadcast over the Internet. The small, dedicated production team included Yervant Keshishian, who directed the program, Artur Petrosyan on the mobile floor camera, and narrator Christopher Zakian. 

 

Following the splendid badarak, worshippers adjourned to a bounteous reception in the Diocesan Center’s Haik and Alice Kavookjian Auditorium, lovingly sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Berge and Vera Setrakian. The occasion was a welcome opportunity for the large crowd of faithful to congratulate their new bishop, receive his blessing, and wish him well in his leadership of the Eastern Diocese.

 

Click the following links to:

VIEW an extensive photo gallery by photographer Harout Barsoumian.

WATCH a recording of Bishop Mesrop’s homecoming badarak.


–10/20/23

 

* * *

 

PHOTO CAPTION 1:

Diocesan Primate Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan was welcomed back to the U.S. after his episcopal consecration in Armenia, in a splendid liturgy at New York’s St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral. (Photo by Harout Barsoumian.)

 

PHOTO CAPTION 2:

Diocesan Primate Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan holds the episcopal staff as he delivers a sermon during the liturgy on Oct. 14, 2023. (Photo by Harout Barsoumian.)

 

PHOTO CAPTION 3:

Berge Setrakian (at left), longtime president of AGBU, was Bishop Mesrop’s godfather during his ordination, and spoke during the reception honoring the Primate’s return to the U.S. Pictured at right Diocesan Legate Archbishop Vicken Aykazian. (Photo by Harout Barsoumian.)

 

PHOTO CAPTION 3:

A view from the altar of St. Vartan Cathedral, from Bishop Mesrop’s return badarak. (A screenshot from the Internet broadcast.)

 

* * *

 

LINKS:

 

Photo Gallery:

https://easterndiocese.smugmug.com/St-Vartan-Armenian-Cathedral/Bishop-Mesrops-Return-Badarak-Oct-14-2023/

 

Video Recording:

https://www.youtube.com/live/iiShXopspos?si=wkexlcPXouMqe9eO

 

# # #


‘Another genocide’: Armenians in East Texas decry overseas conflict

Garnik Zakarian
Nov 3 2023

  • By Jordan Green Report for America/Longview News-Journal

Laura Agajanian Grimes’ great-grandparents came to America to escape the Armenian genocide in the early 1900s. Catherine James’ great grandfather nearly froze to death after Ottoman Empire soldiers buried him in snow during one of their massacres against Armenians.

Those two East Texas women still pass down the stories of what their Armenian ancestors endured. And more than 100 years after the last Armenian genocide ended, they say they’ve watched another one unfold: the months-long blockade and subsequent military invasion of Artsakh, also called Nagorno-Karabakh, a small region within the borders of Azerbaijan.

The tiny swath of land historically was part of Armenia, and more than 100,000 native Armenians have called it home for centuries. But in September, most of them hurriedly fled their ancestral homes following an Azerbaijani military offensive that led to the dissolution of independent government there.

Agajanian Grimes, who lives in Mineola, and James, who lives in Tyler, are half a world away. But both say they’re pained by what’s happening in the region.

“To intentionally starve people by cutting off their means of getting food and water and needed supplies, children getting starved to death — it’s inhumane,” James said. “I would liken it to another genocide.”

The September military offensive in the Artsakh region, better known by its Azerbaijani name of Nagorno-Karabakh, was the latest chapter in a book-long history of conflict with religious ties.

Armenia once was among the largest empires in the world, but through centuries of war, it’s been reduced to a state 1/23rd the size of Texas. In 301 A.D., it became the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion. Its neighbor, Azerbaijan, is predominantly Muslim.

Beginning in the 1300s, the Turkish Muslim-run Ottoman Empire was among the powers that sought to destroy Armenia. The Ottoman Empire was responsible for the Armenian genocide, carrying out several massacres and starvation campaigns between the late 1800s and early 1920s, according to the Armenian National Institute. Up to 1.5 million Armenians died.

The Soviet Union ruled the region following the Ottoman Empire’s fall, but conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia has flared up several times since the Soviet Union collapsed. Much of it has been centered around control of Artsakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, which both Armenians and Azerbaijanis claim as their own.

Armenians typically call the region Artsakh, while Azerbaijanis typically call the region Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Armenians now like to call it Artsakh,” Agajanian James said. “Armenians are the indigenous people there. They have been living there since the B.C. era, before Azerbaijan was even a country.”

Artsakh was somewhat independent of Azerbaijan for years. However, Azerbaijan imposed “ethno-religious discrimination, economic mistreatment and intentional demographic abuse, in an attempt to eliminate its Armenian Christian majority and replace it with Azerbaijani Muslim settlers,” according to the office of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

“The people there also declared their own independence, similar to the United States,” Agajanian Grimes said. “But unlike the United States, they didn’t have the power, strength or an ally to help them maintain that independence.”

The latest conflict began in late 2022, when Azerbaijani forces blockaded Artsakh, cutting off food, electricity, water and other supplies.

“They were slowly sucking the life out of people in that region,” Agajanian Grimes said. “They wouldn’t let people come in or go out. The people there were slowly starving to death. Women were having miscarriages because they were severely malnourished. People were standing in line for hours for bread. A couple people did starve to death. It was just a catastrophe.”

Then came this September’s military offensive. Armenians fled Artsakh and rushed to Armenia proper, which now is overwhelmed with refugees, according to reporting from NPR and other news outlets.

While Azerbaijan didn’t force Armenians living in Artsakh to flee, “the general understanding is, if you stay, you’re probably not going to make it,” Agajanian Grimes said.

As a result of the attack, the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh will dissolve in January, according to reporting by Reuters.

Hundreds of Armenians have been injured or killed either during the military offensive or while trying to escape the region, according to reports from ABC News and the Associated Press.

“This is not the first rodeo that Armenia has dealt with these types of wars,” James said.

Agajanian Grimes and James are members of what’s commonly referred to as the "Armenian diaspora," the name given to the masses of people who exited the region as a result of the Armenian genocide of the early 1900s. The term also applies to their descendants living abroad.

Agajanian Grimes’ family has lived in California since her great-grandparents arrived there from Armenia. They learned English and started a sanitation company.

During her childhood, Agajanian Grimes’ parents didn’t teach her about the most gruesome details of the genocide. She learned more about the atrocities during high school and college.

“Our people are very strong to have survived this, to have persevered,” she said. “It made me very proud of that history and of the people who came before me to settle in this great country and to make a life for themselves and to be successful so that I can be part of both heritages.”

Agajanian Grimes moved to Mineola with her husband about a year ago. While perhaps only a few people with Armenian heritage are scattered across East Texas, Dallas is home to a sizable number, she said.

James and her husband moved from California to Tyler about two years ago. She visited Armenia and Artsakh in 2018 and toured some of the region’s most historical places — many of which, she said, have been destroyed by enemy attacks.

Politico reported Oct. 25 that a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan could be reached in the near future. However, many refugees from the Artsakh region — who left behind their homes, businesses and more — likely won’t be able to return, according to reporting by the Voice of America news outlet.

The September attack is another step in Azerbaijan’s plan to assert dominance in the region and claim territory that once belonged to the Ottoman Empire, James said. Meanwhile, Armenians only want the years-long conflict with Azerbaijan to end.

“These people have done nothing. They’re innocent people,” James said of Armenians. “And here come these powerhouse bullies, coming in just to be bullies.”

For Agajanian Grimes, watching the destruction of native Armenian lands is emotionally challenging.

“There’s a piece of your heart that’s over there, and it’s breaking for them, and you know your hands are tied, what all you can do for them being here in America,” Agajanian Grimes said. James said she shares the same sentiment.

Armenians, Agajanian Grimes said, are hoping and praying that they can live in peace in their homeland.

“Armenians really just have to lean into trusting God,” she said. “God has power over this situation more than anything does.”

Jordan Green is a Report for America corps member covering underserved communities for the News-Journal. Reach him at [email protected]. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support this kind of journalism.

https://tylerpaper.com/news/local/another-genocide-armenians-in-east-texas-decry-overseas-conflict/article_5d654fe2-bd11-5dd7-aa92-082d9ea96317.html

German FM Urges Armenia, Azerbaijan To Revive Peace Talks

Jane Topchian
BARRON'S
Nov 3 2023
  • FROM AFP NEWS

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday urged arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan to resume internationally mediated peace talks, weeks after Baku recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenian separatists.

The Caucasus neighbours have been locked in a decades-long conflict for control of Azerbaijan's Armenian-populated region, which Baku reclaimed in a lightning offensive in September.

Western-mediated negotiations to broker a wider comprehensive peace agreement between the two sides have so far failed to produce a breakthrough.

On a visit to Armenia on Friday, Baerbock said "the moderation efforts by the president of the European Council Charles Michel are a bridge and the fastest way to peace".

"That is why it is so important that a new round of negotiations takes place," she said, adding that "Germany stands by your side as an honest broker between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

At a press conference in Yerevan alongside her Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, Baerbock said: the "territorial integrity of Armenia and Azerbaijan … is the basis for any negotiations for peace."

"We want to accompany you on this path to a good future in the South Caucasus," she said, urging both sides to "use this window for a negotiated peace."

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have held several rounds of talks under EU mediation and both leaders have said a peace treaty could be signed in the coming months.

But last month, Aliyev refused to attend a round of peace talks with Pashinyan in Spain over what he said was France's "biased position".

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been scheduled to join Michel as mediators at those talks.

On Friday, Baerbock also pledged an additional 9.3 million euros in aid to help Armenia deal with a refugee crisis sparked by the latest hostilities in Karabakh.

Almost the entire Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh — more than 100,000 people — fled to Armenia after Azerbaijani troops recaptured the mountainous enclave.

Baerbock will travel to Baku on Saturday for talks with Azerbaijani foreign minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

dlc-im/jc/pvh

https://www.barrons.com/news/german-fm-urges-armenia-azerbaijan-to-revive-peace-talks-79051d09

Armenia: Yerevan State University launches EU-funded modules on media literacy

Karagyozian Lena
Nov 3 2023

Yerevan State University, with the support of the European Union, is launching modules on ‘Media Literacy and Critical Thinking’. The modules will be funded by the EU as part of the EU’s support to Armenia in building a resilient society and a safe digital space. 

On 2 November, Ambassador Vasilis Maragos discussed the modules to be launched during a meeting with Rector Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, vice-Rectors, as well as students and professors of Yerevan State University.

The comprehensive training will be extended to academic and administrative staff.

“Providing young people with media literacy and high-quality education is the cornerstone of building a society that is resistant to information manipulation,” Ambassador Maragos said at the meeting.

Find out more

Press release

https://euneighbourseast.eu/news/latest-news/armenia-yerevan-state-university-launches-eu-funded-modules-on-media-literacy/

"We are not satisfied with many things" – Armenian Foreign Minister on relations with Russia

Emil Lazarian
Nov 3 2023
  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

On relations with Russia

“We are not satisfied with a lot of things, a lot of things surprise us. As far as I understand, the perception of the situation in the Russian Federation is the same,” Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan commented on the Armenian-Russian relations.

According to him, the existence of problems in the relations is obvious. But Armenia’s position is reduced “to constructive discussion and smoothing of problems, friendly and partner progress”. But the Armenian minister expects results only in case of “bilateral work.”

At the same time, Mirzoyan emphasized that Yerevan will continue cooperation with France and the United States, which is painfully perceived in Russia, judging by recent reports from the Russian Federation.

The Foreign Minister’s statements were made in the parliament, during the preliminary discussion of the state budget for 2024. He also touched upon the normalization of relations with Turkey, the invasion of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces into the territory of Armenia and the acquisition of defensive weapons for the Armenian army.

  • “Apart from Armenia, no one needs the Crossroads of Peace.” Opinion from Yerevan
  • “Entrust Armenia’s security to an American private company” – political scientist
  • “It is not necessary to provide security only with the army” – Pashinyan

When asked by the MPs “how many square kilometers of Armenia’s territory are occupied by Azerbaijan”, the Minister replied:

“I know about almost 200 square kilometers of the territory of the Republic of Armenia, which is now under the control of Azerbaijani forces.”

Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized that there are territories under the control of Azerbaijan since the 1990s, as well as “fresh examples”. Concretizing, he spoke about the invasion of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces into the sovereign territory of Armenia in May 2021 and September 2022.

European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for sanctions against Azerbaijan because of the counter-terrorist operation in Karabakh

The Armenian Foreign Minister recalled that he recently met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Tehran within the framework of the “3+3” format meeting and earlier discussed the normalization of relations between the two countries with former Minister Cavusoglu. He emphasized that the leaders of Armenia and Turkey appointed special representatives to discuss the bilateral agenda at the end of 2021.

“The process of settling relations between the Republic of Armenia and Turkey is very important for us,” Mirzoyan said.

He expects “good news” regarding the opening of the land border between Armenia and Turkey for diplomatic passport holders and third-country nationals in the near future.

Special Representatives of the two countries Ruben Rubinyan and Serdar Kılıç reached such an agreement back in July 2022. They talked about its realization “as soon as possible”, but no practical steps have been taken in this direction until now.

In the Armenian village of Margara, bordering Turkey, they are “cautiously optimistic” about a possible reopening of the border

A deputy from the opposition Hayastan faction Kristine Vardanyan said during the discussions in the parliament that “the current government is not succeeding in acquiring weapons.” To which the EJ minister responded:

“We manage to acquire weapons from many more countries than your political party [while in power] would dare or dream of being able to achieve such deals even in its wildest dreams.”

At the same time, Ararat Mirzoyan assured that Armenia does not pursue “offensive goals” and the acquisition of defensive weapons is the sovereign right of every country.

“We would have imported much more if there were no logistical problems. It is no secret that there are such problems,” he said.

The minister spoke about new areas of cooperation with the EU, in particular, “political and security dialog”. He reminded that the issue of visa regime liberalization is also under discussion.

He announced that Armenia will continue deepening relations with the European Union. In this context he once again emphasized the role of the civilian observer mission in establishing stability on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

According to Mirzoyan, partnership relations with Luxembourg have been established for a long time, in connection with which it is planned to open a diplomatic mission. Armenia also intends to have a representative office in Korea, in Seoul. Mirzoyan said that Korea recently sent an official appeal on its intention to open an embassy in Yerevan in the first half of 2024.

“We believe that Armenian-Korean relations have great potential. And mutual opening of embassies in the two capitals will contribute to its realization,” he said.

https://jam-news.net/ararat-mirzoyan-on-relations-with-russia/

From Armenia to Gaza: War, Crimes, Truth and Denial

Lilit Nahapetian
Informed Comment – Juan Cole
Nov 3 2023
ARMENIA

TOM DISPATCH11/03/2023

By Arnold Isaacs

( Tomdispatch.com) – This month’s catastrophic violence in Israel and Gaza — specifically, the contradictory statements from each side on the other’s war crimes — has taken me back to a revealing personal moment almost exactly 18 years ago, recalling a different war in a different part of the world.

That day in the fall of 2005 I was in Yerevan, Armenia, where I was teaching a post-graduate journalism course at the state university. In class that morning, my six students, all of them young women (as was not unusual in that time and place), began discussing the terrible treatment of young recruits in the Armenian army, where the vicious hazing that had been notorious in the Soviet armed forces was still common practice. I don’t remember how the subject came up, but when it did, one student after another chipped in with chilling tales about male relatives and friends who had been savagely treated by other soldiers and their superiors.

Just a few hours later, in an afternoon class with the same six students, someone mentioned Khojaly, the town where, according to the Azeris, Armenian soldiers massacred some 600 Azeri civilians during the Armenia-Azerbaijan war of 1992. My students insisted the story must be false because, as one of them said, “Our boys couldn’t do something like that.”

Only that morning, I reminded them, they had recalled numerous first-hand accounts of horrible things Armenian soldiers did to their own young recruits. Maybe the Khojaly massacre happened, I said, and maybe it didn’t, as Armenia has long insisted, but given the cruelties you spoke about this morning, how can you say Armenians couldn’t do that? For a long silent moment, they looked at me with stunned expressions. Finally, one of them said, “We can’t think that.”

When I heard her words, I realized they were probably the all-too-literal truth. Those young women simply couldn’t think things that didn’t fit the accepted national story about that war, a feeling far more powerful than facts or logic. In the world they lived in, the threat from the enemy was the potential extinction of the Armenian people — a continuation of the attempted genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Taking the Azeri side on anything, including the “facts” on Khojaly or any Armenian atrocity, would be collaborating with the murder of their own people, and that just wasn’t possible.

Echoes from Gaza

If I were in the Middle East today, I’m quite sure I would see the same dynamic playing out on both sides of the current Israeli-Hamas war. Just as my Armenian students couldn’t think that their country’s soldiers were guilty of a serious atrocity, many Israelis and Palestinians are undoubtedly incapable — not just unwilling, but incapable — of recognizing that their side in that conflict might be violating the laws of war and committing crimes against humanity. (The parallel with Israelis is particularly close, since just like Armenians, they have a collective memory of genocide, of facing an enemy that wanted not just to defeat them on some battlefield but to wipe their whole people off the face of the earth.) It also seems a safe assumption that those feelings will not be changed by additional evidence about specific incidents or the broader conduct of the opposing forces.

The conflicting reactions to the October 17th explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City are an apt example. Palestinians immediately blamed Israeli bombing or missile fire, which they said killed nearly 500 people on the hospital grounds. Israelis argued that the blast was from an off-course Palestinian rocket, while challenging their adversary’s casualty count. (Two days after the explosion, a Jerusalem newspaper reported that estimates from “foreign independent intelligence sources” were far lower — no more than 50 deaths, maybe as few as 10.)

There is no way to know at this writing what additional facts may come to light or if there will ever be a conclusive finding on which side caused the explosion. But even if there is, it’s a safe bet that Palestinians will keep blaming Israel and Israelis will go on accusing Palestinians. Moreover, people on both sides will believe what they’re saying because, like my students in Armenia, they simply can’t think anything else.

The parallels aren’t exact, of course. The Israeli-Hamas conflict is very different from Armenia’s with Azerbaijan — not just geographically but in terms of its history, its circumstances, and most notably its potential to ignite a much wider war with devastating consequences globally.

Another crucial difference is that the world in 2023 is not the world that existed in 2005 when I taught that class in Armenia. Facts carry significantly less weight in public discourse now than they did then. Truth-tellers in the news media, academic institutions, and the scientific world are less trusted and less believed, which gives untruths and those who spread them far more influence.

In the age of social media, people whose emotions (and identity) immunize them against unwelcome facts can easily find support and apparent confirmation for their false beliefs in ways that were only beginning to take shape in the early 2000s. Meanwhile, falsehoods spread much farther and faster to what would have been unimaginable numbers of people 15 or 20 years ago.

One stunning example of that change: when I was teaching in Armenia in 2005, Facebook had been in operation for only a year or so and had close to 5 million users. Today, something like two and a half billion people use that platform. In other words, 18 years ago Facebook was reaching approximately one out of every 1,300 people in the world. Now, it reaches almost one out of every three. Other social media networks have seen similar growth. In the United States alone, the percentage of adults who use social media is estimated to have increased from 5% to 79% between 2005 and 2019.

A New Weapon in the War on Facts

If the explosive growth of social media has meant a larger threat to truth, a more recent trend may pose a new and even bigger danger. Artificial intelligence clearly has the capability to create and distribute fake information that will make it ever harder — perhaps nearly impossible — to distinguish facts from falsehoods. So far, ideas about how to control it don’t exactly seem promising, while rapidly advancing technology is producing ever more effective tools of deception. In a recent column on the Axios news website, two of its cofounders delivered a chilling warning about one of those tools, which, they note, is being wielded by “anti-American actors” in crisis spots globally:

“A new weapon is being deployed in all these conflicts: a massive spread of doctored or wholly fake videos to manipulate what people see and think in real time. The architects of these new technologies, in background conversations with us, after demonstrating new capabilities soon to be released, say even the sharpest eyes looking for fake videos will have an impossible time detecting what’s real.”

Such misinformation is not only harmful when people believe things that are untrue, but possibly even more damaging in making it harder to believe things that are true. When lies fill the air around us, everything becomes suspect. Information becomes guilty-until-proven-innocent and, when people like those Armenian students are already motivated to deny reality, the effect will only be hugely magnified.

There’s a strong case to be made that, as misinformation and artificial intelligence gain ground, the greatest risk of all is that truth will simply lose credibility and facts will matter ever less. Ultimately, that trend won’t just subvert knowledge and understanding on specific subjects but undermine the belief that facts exist at all, that there is an objective reality outside our own consciousness.

That was the thesis of a chilling 2017 online essay by Mary Poovey, an emeritus humanities professor at New York University and author of A History of the Modern Fact. In her essay, she described a “post-fact world” where conventional knowledge sources are no longer trusted, formerly unquestioned assumptions are no longer shared, and traditional checks-and-balances processes no longer go unchallenged as validators of information. In that world, she concluded, “Ordinary citizens and parties with their own vested interests have begun to question the very possibility of facts.”

Reflecting on such thoughts in an interview earlier this year, Poovey noted that, without facts, we have no standard for what to believe, no trusted authority to teach us what’s real and what isn’t, and no way to correct false beliefs. And from that comes a bleak but inescapable conclusion: if facts don’t exist, knowledge doesn’t either.

How Misinformation and Disinformation Are Exploding Globally

The slide into low-fact or fact-free discourse is ominous for numerous reasons and across many areas of public life. In this country, false statements and willful denials of reality in the ongoing debate about fraud in the 2020 presidential election — a completely imaginary issue — have done grave and lasting damage to a fundamental foundation of democracy. (On the very day I drafted this essay, the House of Representatives chose as a new speaker a prominent election denier.) Thousands of Americans, perhaps tens of thousands, died as a direct result of misinformation about Covid-19. Intentional and unintentional falsehoods have seriously obstructed urgently needed policies and practices that could better prepare us for coming catastrophes associated with climate change. And, as always, misinformation and disinformation have exploded, along with rockets and bombs, in wars around the world.

To be sure, throughout human history, wars have generated lies and false beliefs. In the present era, however, those falsehoods seem to spread so much faster and more widely, arguably causing more pain than in the past. That has been visible in the current crisis in the Middle East, as well as in Ukraine, as documented in a list of nearly 100 separate false claims compiled in the early stages of that conflict by the newspaper USA Today.

Almost 80 of those items were fake or falsely captioned videos and photographic images, mostly seen on platforms that had barely existed a decade or two ago. In an ironic twist, one photo, purporting to show an explosion in Ukraine, had, in fact, been taken in Gaza in 2021. Another, that newspaper’s fact-checkers reported, wasn’t an image from any real war but from a video game. Strikingly, though on reflection perhaps not surprisingly, a video clip from the very same game was posted on Facebook recently with a caption claiming it showed Israeli anti-aircraft fire shooting a Hamas fighter plane out of the sky.

That clip was far from the only such deception appearing during the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In one of many examples, after the Al-Ahli Arab hospital explosion, a false posting, presumably by a pro-Israeli source, showed a screen-shot of a tweet supposedly from an Al Jazeera journalist reporting that he had seen “with my own eyes” a Hamas missile causing the blast and that Al Jazeera‘s coverage of the event was untrue. Fact-checkers for the French news agency AFP determined that the tweet was fake, and no Al Jazeera reporter had ever sent such a message.

Rewriting Ancient Times — And Yesterday

One effect of the misinformation epidemic is that rewriting the past has become an easier and more common practice than it used to be. An example — looking at a piece of ancient history but completely relevant to today’s headlines — is recounted in a recent blog post by David Shipler, former New York Times correspondent and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Arab and Jew. When he was based in Jerusalem from 1979 to 1984, Shipler wrote on his blog, “I never heard a Palestinian utter a doubt that Jewish temples had stood on what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, and Jews call the Temple Mount” (the site of the Temple of Solomon, according to Jewish scriptures). But on a visit in the early 1990s, a Palestinian high school student in Ramallah told him categorically that no Jewish temple had ever existed there and that the claim was “a fabrication by Israelis to lay title to Jerusalem.”

“I don’t know how many Christian and Muslim Palestinians have embraced that temple denial,” Shipler went on, “but on subsequent reporting trips I heard it more and more widely until it seemed virtually ubiquitous.” On that and many other realities from ancient times to the present, the two sides have come to teach and believe completely different stories. Shipler calls it “an arms race of memory.” And while he was referring to Arabs and Jews, his term could just as aptly have been applied to countless other contests between facts and falsehoods in our time.

For obvious reasons, the memory arms race is particularly prevalent in remembering wars, which leave passionate and painful emotions that last for generations. Throughout history, those emotions have shaped false visions of reality that tend to endure long after the fighting ends. A maxim said to have been coined more than a century ago (and usually attributed to California Senator Hiram Johnson during World War I) put it this way: “Truth is the first casualty of war.”

That was certainly a valid observation in the past, but I’m not sure it’s accurate in the same way today. Truth wasn’t the first casualty in the present Middle East conflict. It had already been a casualty before that war even began. Today, truth is simply a casualty of our world.

Copyright 2023 Arnold R. Isaacs





Valley Children’s Healthcare signs historic partnership agreement with Armenian hospital

Vanyan Gary
Your Central Valley
Nov 3 2023
ARMENIA

by: Stefani Booroojian

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE) – Valley Children’s Healthcare is now in an official partnership with Wigmore Women’s & Children’s Hospital in Yerevan, Armenia.  

A plan to elevate the healthcare of children on a global level.

“I think we are together in each other’s great company as we focus on healing and easing the pain and suffering of children even if we’re a half a world away,” said Valley Children’s Healthcare’s President and CEO Todd Suntrapak at the signing ceremony.

The connection between the two hospitals began months ago. Three pediatricians from Wigmore spent two weeks at Valley Children’s to learn from local pediatric specialists. Now, the two healthcare networks are taking the relationship to another level.

“To the extent that we are able to work with our new partner to share the knowledge we have,  but also to learn from them; I can’t think of a better partnership,” Suntrapak said.

Wigmore Hospital is Yerevan’s newest provider of pediatric care. Its CEO Dr. Zaven Koloyan here for the signing ceremony pledging to make the facility among Armenia’s premier hospitals while transforming the country’s standard of healthcare.

“Despite the distance between us, and even being on different hemispheres, together we share the same vision and values to make a lasting impact on the lives of our young patients,” Dr. Koloyan said.

The historic partnership– a first for Valley Children’s Healthcare– will promote learning and professional development for Wigmore staff. More visits to Valley Children’s Hospital from Armenia are planned, and some Children’s staff may travel to Armenia to continue their education there.

https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/armenia/valley-childrens-healthcare-signs-historic-partnership-agreement-with-armenian-hospital/

Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian Prime Ministers address Tbilisi Silk Road Forum Areas Georgia

Hambik Zargarian
Nov 3 2023
03/11/2023 -  Onnik James Krikorian

On 26-27 October, the Georgian capital once again hosted the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum, an event to discuss global economic challenges and international connectivity established by the Georgian government in 2015. The fourth edition was attended by around 2,000 delegates representing the governments and private sector from over 80 countries.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili naturally opened the forum, but so did the Prime Ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Montenegro. More significantly, however, not only was it the first time an Armenian leader spoke at such a high-level event in Tbilisi, but it was also the first time that high-level officials from all three countries gathered on the same stage to do so.

Though the main focus was economic, Garibashvili used the opportunity to offer Georgia’s assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan in facilitating or mediating talks. The last time Tbilisi had made this offer was alongside Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev on his visit to Georgia on 8 October. In recent weeks, Baku has increasingly pushed the narrative that the region’s problems should be resolved within and not outside the region.

During that visit, Aliyev even suggested that Armenia and Azerbaijan could hold meetings at various levels in Tbilisi “immediately” if Yerevan agreed. However, in an interview with Armenian Public Television two days later, the Armenian Prime Minister clearly seemed reluctant to so, wary that this could threaten the continuation of efforts by the European Union. Such concerns are not unfounded.

For nearly a year, Baku has become increasingly frustrated with the EU-facilitated platform and what it believes to be French interference in the process. Aliyev had already pulled out of two scheduled EU-organised talks in October, first in Granada and then in Brussels. Moreover, since Aliyev’s Tbilisi visit, many Azerbaijani analysts have publicly advocated for holding the talks in Georgia.

Yet, despite Pashinyan’s concerns, these might now be starting. At the gala dinner  on the first day of the forum, the Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian Prime Ministers sat together on their own, while other guests huddled around tables seating five or more. Asadov, Garibashvili, and Pashinyan also held albeit likely informal but private talks lasting “several hours”. True, Asadov does not hold much power in Azerbaijan, but it was still an unprecedented occurrence.

“We held tripartite meetings yesterday”, Garibashvili said the following day  . “Georgia is interested in being an unbiased mediator and in establishing peace in the region as a friend of Armenia and Azerbaijan”.

After news of the meeting broke, the Armenian Prime Minister’s office said the talks  were “useful in terms of clarifying nuances of the positions of the parties in at least a number of issues”, though no other details were provided. It is quite possible, however, that one topic was unblocking region transportation links. Pashinyan’s address detailed his own idea in this direction – a “Crossroads of Peace” connecting and benefiting all countries in the region.

Asadov's speech made no reference to Armenia, including in future regional projects. After his scripted address, he reacted spontaneously to Pashinyan. Baku had offered Yerevan the chance to sign a peace treaty two years ago and that offer remains on the table. Given Armenia’s regional semi-isolation, however, he did warn that failure to reach an agreement will mean a planned link to connect with its Nakhichevan exclave could go via Iran and not Armenia.

On 7 October, Azerbaijani and Iranian officials had already attended a ceremony to mark the construction of bridges and the necessary customs infrastructure  to do so. Despite the stipulation in the November 2020 ceasefire statement that such a route would pass through Armenia, continued disagreement with Azerbaijan over the modalities of what Baku refers to as the “Zangezur Corridor” has delayed and frustrated those plans for three years now.

Arguably, Pashinyan's address at the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum demonstrated he was aware that Armenia might again miss out on another regional project – the Middle Corridor connecting China through Central Asia and the South Caucasus to Europe. Just as he did in his 17 October address to the European Parliament  , Pashinyan now offers his concept for an “Armenian Crossroads”, now rebranded as the “Crossroads of Peace”.

Recently Pashinyan announced that Yerevan established a special unit in the police force that will specifically provide security on all transit routes running through Armenian territory, likely in response to one sticking point over any Armenian route connecting Azerbaijani with Nakhchivan. The November 2020 ceasefire statement stipulated that it would be overseen by the Russian Border Guard Service. For Pashinyan, this would amount to loss of sovereignty.

Armenian opposition voices, however, remain skeptical  , arguing that such an idea is not new and has been floated by previous administrations. Moreover, they complain, the map that Pashinyan used for this Tbilisi Silk Road Forum omitted any sign of the previous existence of the former Soviet-era Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO). This was not unexpected. Armenia effectively recognised Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity last year and continues to do so.

Though it is uncertain whether Armenia and Azerbaijan are now ready to sign a long-awaited agreement to normalise relations, statements by officials from both sides indicate that such a possibility remains within reach. Meanwhile, at a European Council summit held on 26-27 October in Brussels, EU leaders called “on the parties to engage in good faith and to finalise this process by the end of this year”. Tbilisi, incidentally, has already offered to host  any signing ceremony.

https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Georgia/Armenian-Azerbaijani-and-Georgian-Prime-Ministers-address-Tbilisi-Silk-Road-Forum-227873


Armenia says outline of a peace deal agreed with Azerbaijan

Emil Lazarian
eurasianet
Nov 3 2023
Ani Avetisyan Nov 3, 2023

Over the past week Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and other Armenian officials have been hinting that a peace deal with Azerbaijan could be imminent. 

They say the sides have reached agreement on three core principles of a deal while "details" remain to be settled.

Pashinyan told parliament on October 30 that a peace deal is "realistic" if the sides remain faithful to the principles of mutual recognition of territorial integrity, delimitation/demarcation of the shared border based on the 1991 Almaty declaration and the opening of transport links in a way that respects the two countries' sovereignty and customs laws. 

Later, ruling party MP Gevorg Papoyan echoed the prime minister, saying that only the "details" of the agreement are left to be hammered out.

Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister, Elnur Mammadov, confirmed that "most points" of the peace agreement had been agreed with Yerevan. Mammadov said that reaching a deal had become "easier" thanks to Azerbaijan's takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh after its September 19-20 lightning offensive. 

Following that offensive, several planned meetings between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders failed to take place in a reflection of the sides' differing preferences on who should mediate. 

Baku refused to take part in EU-led peace talks in Granada, Spain and in Brussels, while Armenia's prime minister was a no-show at a CIS summit in Bishkek where he'd been expected to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Armenia was represented at a meeting in Tehran on October 23 that involved Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan.

Armenia's lack of interest in Moscow-brokered peace talks comes as the country looks to the West for new strategic and security allies, signing an arms deal with France and intensifying diplomatic relations with a number of Western states. 

Prior to Azerbaijan's September offensive, which triggered the exodus of the region's entire Armenian population, the Karabakh Armenians' fate had been the thorniest issue in the talks. Baku had rejected the prospect of granting the region autonomous status, as well as Yerevan's calls for an international mechanism that would ensure the Karabakh Armenians' rights and securities under Azerbaijani rule. 

During Azerbaijan's attack on Karabakh on September 19, Pashinyan announced that Armenia's priority was to ensure that Karabakh Armenians could remain in the region and live a "dignified" life there. But now that it has been emptied of Armenians, Yerevan seems to have abandoned this demand and instead started the process of granting them refugee status or Armenian citizenship.

"Our policy is that if those displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh do not, objectively speaking, have the opportunity to return to Nagorno-Karabakh – our wish is that they all stay in Armenia, and live and work here," Pashinyan told a cabinet meeting on November 2. 

Another critical issue is "the opening of transport links," a provision of the 2020 ceasefire agreement that cemented Azerbaijan's gains in the Second Karabakh War. 

Baku long discussed this provision in the context of its "Zangezur corridor" project, which for a time it insisted was to be a seamless corridor connecting mainland Azerbaijan with its exclave Nakhchivan through Armenian territory and beyond Armenian sovereignty. 

Azerbaijan stepped back from the maximalist version of this project in February, and, after the September offensive, began giving assurances that it would no longer insist on a corridor and would instead make do with an alternative route through Iran. 

But Armenians are wary of these assurances, particularly given Russia's apparent interest in the Zangezur corridor project.

Fears persist in Armenia that Azerbaijan will use force to make the corridor a reality, and continued rhetoric from Baku about "Western Azerbaijan" is doing nothing to allay these fears. This is the notion that parts of Armenian territory rightfully belong to Azerbaijan, or that, at the very least, Azerbaijanis have the right to settle in formerly Azerbaijani-populated parts of Armenia. 

These concerns are shared by the EU, which has called on Azerbaijan to commit to respecting Armenian territory and by the U.S., where, according to Politico, Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefed members of Congress in early October on the risk of an Azerbaiajni invasion of Armenia. (The State Department rejected this report.) 

The Lemkin Genocide Prevention Institute issued a "red flag alert" on November 1 over a possible "invasion of Armenia by Azerbaijan in the coming days and weeks." 

On November 2, the US State Department told the Voice of America's Armenian service: "Any violation of Armenia's territorial integrity will have serious consequences." 

https://eurasianet.org/armenia-says-outline-of-a-peace-deal-agreed-with-azerbaijan

Armenia and Azerbaijan vow peace — for now

Emil Lazarian
Nov 3 2023
                                                                Time will tell if the commitments are genuine
Written byArzu Geybullayeva

After passing up on several opportunities to sign a peace deal, first in Brussels, then in Spain at a summit of European leaders on October 5, and later in Kyrgyzstan at the summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Armenia and Azerbaijan's leadership may have finally agreed on a peace deal document to be signed “in the coming months,” according to Armenia's prime minister Nikol Pashinian.

The document is based on a May 2022 peace deal proposed by Azerbaijan, consisting of five principles which include recognizing each other's territorial integrity, the absence of territorial claims, abstaining form threats, demarcating the border, and opening transportation links. At the time, there was no mention of the final status of Karabakh nor of the ethnic Armenian population living in Karabakh. Following Azerbaijan's military offensive into the formerly disputed Nagorno–Karabakh region on September 19, 2023, the status for these last two points changed. On September 28, the government of Nagorno–Karabakh announced it will dissolve itself by 2024 and nearly all of the ethnic Armenians living in Karabakh have fled the region amid fears of living under the government of Azerbaijan. Several former and current officials of Nagorno–Karabakh were detained in the aftermath of the September 19 military operation.

The Nagorno–Karabakh area has been under the control of its ethnic Armenian population as a self-declared state since a war fought in the early 1990s, which ended with a ceasefire and Armenian military victory in 1994. In the aftermath of the first war, a new, internationally unrecognized, de facto Nagorno–Karabakh Republic was established. Seven adjacent regions were occupied by the Armenian forces. As a result of that war, “more than a million people had been forced from their homes: Azerbaijanis fled Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the adjacent territories, while Armenians left homes in Azerbaijan,” according to the International Crisis Group.

The tensions lingered over the following decades. In 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a second war that lasted for 44 days. That war changed the status of the region. Azerbaijan regained control over much of the previously occupied seven regions and captured one-third of Karabakh itself.

On November 10, 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia. Among several points of the agreement, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed that 1,960 Russian peacekeeping forces would remain in the parts of Karabakh “not recaptured by Azerbaijan and a narrow corridor connecting with Armenia across the Azerbaijani district of Lachin.”

Since the signed November 2020 agreement, mutual accusations of ceasefire violations continued unabated. So did mutual hostile rhetoric at the government and local levels, diminishing any prospects for peace.

As such, one question loomed: will there be another war? The most recent events on September 19, 2023, answered that question.

On October 30, 2023, Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan said, “three [out of five] main principles of peace and normalization of relations,” were agreed upon and that if both parties remained faithful to those principles, “the signing of the peace treaty becomes realistic,” reported OC Media.

But it is not just about the peace deal. In the words of Kommersant newspaper journalist Kirill Krivosheev, “If the Armenian presence in the region is no longer a political factor, what is there to argue about?” If anything, the deal would simply be a framework he notes. In addition, there are still a few items on the agenda, including “the fate of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh, and eight Azerbaijani enclaves in Armenia, Azerbaijan's plans to connect Nakhichevan, its exclave that borders Armenia, Turkey, and Iran, to the rest of Azerbaijan, and who would operate this route,” as well as, “whether displaced Karabakh Armenians will be allowed to enter Azerbaijan.”

“Resolving these issues will take years and will depend on the shift of power dynamics in the region. For now, signing a rudimentary peace treaty that deters Azerbaijan from further escalation would be a good result for Armenia. Baku knows this, and will therefore try to squeeze everything it can from the situation before signing any such document,” argues Krivosheev.

Resolving the transportation routes — specifically the one across Armenia to Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan — remains contentious. This specific route is known as the “Zangezur corridor,” which is what Baku calls the route to Nakhchivan — Azerbaijan’s remote enclave sandwiched between Armenia, Turkey, and Iran. The route — albeit not mentioned by its name — was part of a ceasefire agreement signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the aftermath of the 44-day war the two countries fought in 2020. The agreement read:

The Republic of Armenia shall guarantee the security of transport connections between the western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in order to arrange unobstructed movement of persons, vehicles and cargo in both directions. The Border Guard Service of the Russian Federal Security Service shall be responsible for overseeing the transport connections. Subject to agreement between the Parties, the construction of new transport communications to link the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic with the western regions of Azerbaijan will be ensured.

In a recent interview with the local media, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan described the route as “a strategic project”:

True, there is no word ‘Zangezur corridor’ in it because I included the term ‘Zangezur corridor’ in the geopolitical lexicon afterwards. However, it is explicitly stated there that there should be a transport connection between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, and Armenia should provide it.

The corridor is also important for another regional player and Azerbaijan's ally: Turkey.

Now, Azerbaijan claims it is no longer interested in the corridor, not in its current form anyway. On October 25, in an interview with Reuters, Hikmet Hajiyev, a top aide to Aliyev said, “Azerbaijan had no plans to seize Zangezur.” Hajiyev added that the country was working with Iran instead.

Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani prime minister Nikol Pashinyan has unveiled a regional transport proposal — “Crossroads of Peace” —  that would connect Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Georgia through Armenia, describing it as an “important part of the peace agenda in the South Caucasus,” according to reporting by OC Media.

Both Baku and Yerevan have officially made peace pledges before but tensions loomed despite the promises. Whether a deal will be signed by the end of the year will show whether commitments to peace are as genuine as the leaders say they are.

https://globalvoices.org/2023/11/03/armenia-and-azerbaijan-vow-peace-for-now/