Category: 2023

The development of Armenian Properties, located in Genoa, Ohio, is a unique project that pays homage to Armenian heritage and architecture. Created by Ohio entrepreneur Ty Safaryan and his family, this project aims to showcase Armenian history and traditions.

Construction of Armenian Properties began over two years ago and has recently gained attention with the completion of two impressive houses and a pool house on the 20-acre property. The entrance is marked by a large sign and a gate adorned with statues of Armenian historical figures such as King Tigran and Vardan Mamikonian, among others. These statues are replicas of those found in Armenia and serve as a reminder of the rich history of the Armenian people.

The two houses in the development are inspired by Western and Middle Eastern architectural traditions. With their white masonry exteriors, flat roofs, and formal entrances with a portico crowned by a terrace, these houses convey a formal and symmetrical appearance. The design also incorporates rows of rounded windows, further contributing to the Armenian aesthetic.

Ty Safaryan, who immigrated from Armenia in the mid-1990s, emphasized that the main goal in designing the property was to give it an authentic Armenian look. Working closely with interior and exterior designers, architects, and contractors from Granville’s Terra Nova Builders, Safaryan achieved a distinctive design for each house while maintaining a cohesive overall theme.

Each of the two houses has over 12,000 square feet of living space with additional spaces on the lower level and finished garage areas. The interiors feature formal and majestic entrances with curved double staircases, enhancing the grandeur of the houses.

In addition to being a physical representation of Armenian heritage, Armenian Properties also aim to be a gathering place for the Armenian community. Safaryan plans to build two more houses in the development that will be used for Armenian events, reaffirming the importance of preserving and celebrating Armenian culture.

As Safaryan stated, “Armenian Properties were built as a gathering place for the Armenian community, with the hope of strengthening and growing in the future.” Through this remarkable development, Armenian heritage and architecture are preserved and honored in the heart of Ohio.

Sources:
– Jim Weiker, The Columbus Dispatch

The humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, has reached a critical point after a prolonged blockade of over eight months. Food and medical supplies have become severely limited, with daily bread rationed to one loaf per family and essential medicines depleted. The blockade is the harshest strategy yet from the Azerbaijani government in its effort to reclaim control over Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as Azerbaijani but largely populated by Armenians and controlled by them since the late 1980s.

Azerbaijan’s strategic encirclement of the region has left Armenia’s Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, open to acknowledging Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh. However, he hopes to secure assurances for the rights and safety of the ethnic Armenian inhabitants. Azerbaijan, eager to expedite diplomatic proceedings, has intensified the blockade, further straining the Armenian people it purports to welcome back.

Azerbaijani government-supported protesters initiated the blockade of the only access route, known as the “Lachin corridor,” in December, hampering civilian movement and the import of essentials. Although some supplies managed to get through, the situation worsened in April when Azerbaijan established an official border checkpoint and halted traffic in June.

While Azerbaijan proposed opening its own supply route, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh view this as a ploy for Azerbaijani control and have created their own blockade on the new road. International efforts, led by the European Union, are underway to find a compromise, but the two governments disagree on the sequence of opening the roads.

The situation inside Nagorno-Karabakh remains unclear due to limited independent information. However, there are indications of a bitter power struggle among ethnic Armenian leaders. Meanwhile, border clashes continue, with three Armenian soldiers reportedly killed in early September. The prospect of peaceful cohabitation between the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan seems increasingly unlikely.

https://gvwire.com/2023/09/05/armenian-enclave-in-azerbaijan-on-the-brink-of-starvation/

MOSCOW, Sept 5 (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected a suggestion by Armenia's prime minister that Russia had failed to protect Armenia in its standoff with neighbouring Azerbaijan and was winding down its role in the wider South Caucasus.

In an interview with the Italian paper La Repubblica published on Sunday, Nikol Pashinyan accused Russia of failing to ensure Armenia's security against what he said was aggression from Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Yerevan has repeatedly complained that Russian peacekeepers have for nine months allowed Azerbaijanis to blockade the "Lachin corridor", the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, causing shortages of food, medicines and other essentials.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that Russia, which has a military base in Armenia and has sent peacekeepers to uphold a ceasefire deal, would continue to be a "guarantor of security" in the region.

Pashinyan had said Armenia felt Russia was pulling back from the South Caucasus, which includes Azerbaijan and Georgia. He also suggested that Moscow was unable to meet all Armenia's security needs because of its own requirements for the war in Ukraine.

"We cannot agree with these [Pashinyan's] theses," Peskov said. "Russia is an absolutely integral part of this region … Russia plays a consistent, very important role in stabilising the situation in this region … and we will continue to play this role."

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, in a separate briefing, called Pashinyan's comments "public rhetoric verging on rudeness" and said that, rather than blaming others, Yerevan should take responsibility for its own actions.

She also said that Moscow wanted humanitarian aid to reach the enclave unhindered.

Nagorno-Karabakh, a source of tension between Yerevan and Baku for decades, is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but its 120,000 inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Armenians.

It broke away from Baku's control in a war in the early 1990s, although Azerbaijan recovered control of some areas in heavy fighting in 2020, when Russia brokered a ceasefire.

Peskov said all sides must obey the terms of that deal, even if there had been changes in the situation since.

The Russian defence ministry said on Monday it had replaced the head of its peacekeeping forces in the South Caucasus, the second change in the space of a few months.

While the world’s attention is focused on Ukraine, another humanitarian crisis on the edge of Europe is unfolding due to an oil-rich dictatorship: the starvation of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan.

It is here, in this enclave of 120,000 ethnic Armenians, that one of the worst crises in the wider European neighbourhood is taking place. Under siege for more than eight months, the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh has now been reduced to starvation rations – for most families, just a piece of bread a day – as Azerbaijan seeks to force the population into submission.

Nestled in the South Caucasus, the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been the subject of conflict for more than 30 years. As the Soviet Union collapsed, the overwhelmingly ethnic Armenian population’s demand for unification with neighbouring Armenia was met with pogroms and eventually war by Azerbaijan.

While Armenia triumphed in the first war in the early 1990s, Azerbaijan returned in 2020, winning a victory that gave it control of much of the land Armenians had held. The remainder of Karabakh has since led a tenuous existence, connected to Armenia and the outside world by just a single road, the Lachin corridor, ostensibly protected and guaranteed by Russian peacekeepers.

Last December, Azerbaijan put an end to that. Government-organised protesters deployed on the Lachin road, blocking all traffic except for a handful of Red Cross vehicles with humanitarian aid. On 15 June, Azerbaijan cut even that, closing the road entirely via their newly established checkpoint. Since then, not a single shipment of food or medicine has entered Nagorno-Karabakh.

The situation has now become critical. Deaths from starvation have been recorded – the region’s health ministry announced that one-third of all deaths in the territory are the result of malnutrition owing to the blockade. With no fuel available, the meagre crops available can rarely be transported to the capital Stepanakert or the other population centres, not that they can easily be harvested: Azerbaijani soldiers regularly fire at Karabakh Armenian farmers in their fields.

International organisations and actors have long been in agreement that the present crisis is entirely of Azerbaijan’s making. In February, the International Court of Justice issued a ruling demanding that Azerbaijan open the road and restore the free movement of people and goods along the road. The US, EU, Canada and others have regularly urged Azerbaijan to open the road and lift the blockade. Baku remains obstinate, not only ignoring the demands but insisting, farcically, that the road is open, there is no starvation in Karabakh, and that one international statement after another is simply the result of “pro-Armenian corruption”.

More and more observers are now going further, declaring that the actions of Azerbaijan, directed by President Ilham Aliyev, constitute genocide. In August, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, stated in a report that there is “reasonable basis to believe that genocide is being committed against Armenians” in Nagorno-Karabakh. “There are no crematories and there are no machete attacks…starvation is the invisible genocide weapon,” Mr Ocampo wrote. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention similarly called the blockade “genocidal in its intent, which is to eliminate the Armenian population of Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh]”.

One actor conspicuous in its inaction across the entirety of this drama is Russia. Moscow was the third signatory to the November 2020 deal that ended the Second Karabakh War. While its 2,000 peacekeepers were tasked with maintaining the peace and keeping control of the Lachin road, they have stood idly by as Azerbaijani troops enact their blockade. Sapped and distracted by its increasingly difficult war in Ukraine, Russia has lost almost all influence in a region it had long been the most powerful actor in.

In this environment, there are also few hopes for any peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two sides have met regularly for US- and EU-brokered intensive talks over the past year, with mediators from Washington and Brussels regularly expressing confidence in the progress and stating that peace is within reach. Yet far from any conciliatory measures, Azerbaijan has only tightened its blockade of Karabakh Armenians in this period, bringing them closer to their physical destruction.

Most glaring is the fact that Azerbaijan has already openly ignored the terms of the ceasefire it signed with Armenia not even three years ago, by which it agreed to ensure the free usage of the Lachin corridor. If Baku so openly breaks its word here, what will stop it from simply doing the same in another treaty?

It is clear that the present situation cannot continue for long. The population of Karabakh continues to grow weaker; as winter approaches, their chances of surviving it under current conditions seem negligible. International pressure is growing sharply on Azerbaijan to lift the blockade, but it is similarly evident that only tangible actions, not mere words, by the international community can possibly compel Baku to halt its genocidal path. One way or another, the fate of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will soon become clear.

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/armenia-families-starve-azerbaijan-genocidal-blockade-nagorno-karabakh-2593573

GEORGE MENESHIAN 5th September 2023

MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. Moscow disagrees with remarks by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who accused Russia of distancing itself from the South Caucasus region, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We cannot agree with these statements by Mr. Prime Minister [of Armenia Pashinyan]. Russia is an inseparable part of this region, so it simply cannot turn its back and walk away from anywhere in the region. Russia simply cannot walk away from Armenia," he emphasized.

"There are more [ethnic] Armenians in Russia than there are in Armenia itself, and the majority of them are absolutely model citizens and patriots of our country," Peskov added. He noted with confidence that Russia would continue acting as a guarantor of security and stability in the region, particularly in Nagorno-Karabakh, and that Moscow would keep working toward aiding the process of deconflicting the tense situation there.

Earlier, Pashinyan said in an interview with Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper that Russia had become estranged from the South Caucasus. According to the Armenian premier, Russian peacekeepers are either reluctant to or incapable of controlling the disputed Lachin Corridor.