Category: 2023

Nikol Pashinyan says the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine has distracted it from its peacekeeping duties

Armenia’s prime minister has accused the Kremlin of failing to defend Armenia against Azerbaijani aggression partly because it did not back its war in Ukraine.

Nikol Pashinyan said that the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine has distracted it from its peacekeeping duties and that there is no point in striking security deals with Russia.

“Armenia’s security architecture was 99.999 per cent linked to Russia,” he told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper. “Dependence on just one partner in security matters is a strategic mistake.”

Since a war in 2020, Russian soldiers have been deployed as peacekeepers between Azerbaijani and Armenia forces but Mr Pashinyan has accused them of being disinterested in stopping rising tension.

Armenia has traditionally maintained strong ties with the Kremlin and looked to it for military support. It hosts one of the Kremlin’s largest overseas bases.

Mr Pashinyan’s frustrations with the Kremlin are typical for leaders of ex-Soviet countries in the South Caucasus and Central Asia whose economies, militaries and societies are tightly entwined with Russia.

The Kremlin has pressured them to back its war in Ukraine and reacted with trade boycotts and threats when they haven’t.

And although Mr Pashinyan has been careful not to criticise the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine and Armenian companies have helped Russian companies skirt Western sanctions, he said this was not enough for Russia.

“In Russia, they do not consider Armenia to be pro-Russia enough because Armenia does not provide enough assistance to them in the Ukrainian issue,” he said.

Mr Pashinyan also said that the Kremlin had lost interest in the region and was planning to leave. The Kremlin has withdrawn soldiers from Armenia to deploy to Ukraine.

This year, Armenia has cut arms deals with Russia and started buying more weapons from India. It has also hinted it wants to leave the Russia-dominated CSTO security group.

YEREVAN. Sept 4 (Interfax) – Nobody in NATO has called on Armenia to join the alliance, while Yerevan stands ready to continue cooperation with the organization, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan said.

"As for the partnership between Armenia and NATO, it has been implemented for quite a few years. We cooperate with NATO in various formats and are willing to continue this process," Kostanyan told journalists on Monday.

Earlier, Gunther Fehlinger, chair of the European Committee for NATO Enlargement called on Armenia to join the alliance. "I call Armenia to join NATO, [Armenian Prime Minister] Nikol Pashinyan. Protect Armenia, President of the United States," Fehlinger wrote on his social media account.

Commenting on this, Kostanyan said that Fehlinger is "not a NATO representative." "He is just the leader of a non-governmental organization whose name contains the word NATO," he said.

https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/94231/

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statements about Russia in an interview with Italian media are unacceptable in tone and Moscow is extremely dissatisfied with them, a diplomatic source has told TASS.

"Moscow is extremely dissatisfied with the latest public statements by the Armenian leadership, including the Armenian prime minister's statements in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica and the Armenian Foreign Ministry's commentary released on August 31. Both are regarded as unacceptable both in tone and content. Their aim is to shift responsibility for one’s own miscalculations and mistakes onto Russia," the source said.

For instance, earlier Pashinyan mentioned the possibility of Russia's estrangement from the region. "In fact, they (Western countries – TASS) are trying to artificially push Russia out of the South Caucasus and are using Yerevan as a means to achieve this goal. Russia, as Armenia's closest neighbor and friend, has no intention of leaving the region. However, it should be a two-way street: Armenia should not become the West’s instrument to push Russia out," the source said.

He added that Russia views its relations with Armenia in the security and economic spheres "not as one country’s dependence on another, but as an equal, mutually beneficial and time-tested partnership."

That said, he noted that the fall 2020 armed standoff in many ways was the result of thoughtless and provocative steps by the Armenian leadership. "This significantly devalued the agreements reached by the sides along the line of the OSCE Minsk Group. Had it not been Russia's intervention and President Vladimir Putin personally, the outcome of military actions would have been even more lamentable," the diplomat pointed out.

He also branded the remarks about Russia’s purported indifference to Azerbaijan’s "aggression against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia" as baseless. The diplomat reiterated that relevant consultations had taken place along the tracks of the foreign and defense ministries of the two countries and high-ranking representatives from the CSTO had visited the region.

Sunday,

GoLocalProv News Editor Kate Nagle

Rhode Island native Victoria Atamian Waterman said she knew the exact moment she had to write a book. 

For Waterman, who grew up in Warwick and now lives in North Smithfield, it was a visit to her aunt’s grave in the North Burial Ground in Providence in 2015.

“I have the exact photo of finding flowers, old white silk flowers on her grave,” Waterman.

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What made the discovery somewhat mysterious is the fact her aunt Vicky never had children, so how they got there was puzzling to Waterman. 

“In my heart, I knew that maybe they simply blew over, and someone picked them up and thought they belonged there,” said Waterman.

But the seeds were sewn for Waterman to write a book, with the catalyst being her aunt.

“She was a maid during the Armenian Genocide,” said Waterman, who was raised in a close-knit Armenian family — and Armenian was her first language. 

“I grew up in a multi-generation house,” said Waterman.  “And I’m really the last generation to tell this story with not just my voice, but their voice.” 

“Who She Left Behind” is the first book from Waterman, who had a career in banking and non-profits before “semi-retirement.’ 

“I’m too young to truly retire,” laughed Waterman, who soon embarked on the start of her second career. 

Intertwining Fact and Fiction 

Waterman said that while the graveside visit — and her aunt’s story — prompted her to write a book, she said she realized she could make the main character “anyone I wanted to.” 

“When the war was over, all those girls like my aunt were maids in Turkish homes,” said Waterman. “My mother would say by the grace of God, none of your aunts were raped. But from what we know of what happened there, it was pretty typical.”

So in Waterman’s book, the protagonist, a maid, is raped by the “man of the house” before the wife of the house kidnaps the child and leaves. 

“I wanted to make the character based on my aunt a bad-ass,” said Waterman. “This could have been her story. She comes to the United States but she never forgets her daughter, or the other maids.” 

For Waterman, who serves as a trustee of the Soorp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Apostolic Church in Whitinsville, Massachusetts and was a presenter at the 2023 AGBU Women Shaping the World Conference, keeping the stories alive — particularly of what women endured during the Armenian Genocide — was particularly important to her. 

“My kids don’t know these stories. To them, this is reading about medieval times,” said Waterman. 

Waterman says the book will be available for pre-order on October 1, and she will be kicking off with an event in Worcester, which is home to the first Armenian church in the Western Hemisphere.

“There’s a lot of Worcester in the book, and there’s a lot of Providence,” said Waterman. 

And for Waterman, she is now working on her second novel.

“There is a lot of Providence in this one,” said Waterman. 

The policy conducted by Azerbaijan is the same as the policy of the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide at the beginning of the twentieth century. Yaron Weiss, an Israeli expert on the South Caucasus affairs and a columnist for "Davar", stated this in an interview with the "Orbeli" analytical center.

– Respectable Yaron Weiss, thank You for accepting interview invitation. So, despite the 2 resolutions of the UN Court of Justice, the many calls of the international community, including the member states of the UN Security Council, Azerbaijan has been blocking the Lachin Corridor for about 8 months, keeping Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) under siege. Baku has stopped the flow of natural gas and electricity to Artsakh, and in recent days it has banned even humanitarian cargo transportation. All this has caused a deep humanitarian crisis in Artsakh, and the President of Artsakh has declared the country a disaster zone. According to You, what is the ultimate goal of such a policy conducting by Azerbaijan?

– There is all the evidence that Azerbaijan wants to erase the Armenian presence in Artsakh. I've been saying this for years. Unfortunately, everything that many people warned and feared of is happening right now.

The ethnic cleansing, the rewriting of history, the Armenophobia, this is an Azeri policy that has been going on for years. The policy is the same as the policy of the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide at the beginning of the twentieth century.

That is why it is important to stop the ethnic cleansing while it is happening. The civilized world excels at holding commemorative ceremonies, but excels less at preventing events that are followed by commemorative ceremonies. This is precisely the reason why it is now necessary to increase the explanatory effort and open the eyes of world leaders.

– How do You assess the impact of the crisis in Artsakh and the aggressive actions of Baku on the region at all?

– When a large amount of modern weapons is in the hands of a dictatorship, especially when it comes to a dictatorship ruled by one family with a dubious reputation for violating human rights, the result of this is the destabilization of the region. That is why we are now witnessing the deliberate starvation of the people of Artsakh.

– According to You how what can the international community, as well as Israel, do towards the solution of this catastrophic crisis?

– A few weeks ago, a group of academics, journalists, religious leaders, activists and intellectuals urged the President of Israel (who recently visited Baku) to leverage his excellent connections with the dictator Aliyev to influence him to open the Lachin corridor. Israel is an influential factor in the region. It is most needed that all the friends of Armenia around the world, as well as all lovers of freedom and democracy should take a similar step in their countries.

– I would like to touch on the Armenian-Israeli relations as well, how would you characterize them? It is obvious that there are some gaps in bilateral relations. Will you list them and their reasons?

– The short-sighted Israeli policy sees the improvement of relations between Israel and Azerbaijan as an Israeli interest. It is well known that the government of Azerbaijan considers any Israeli approach to Armenia a step that hurts Azerbaijan. For this reason, Israel is very wary of getting close to Armenia.

We also see this in the Israeli public media, which is influenced by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the private media, which is influenced by those with interests in the industrial sector who refrain from attacking Azerbaijan and refrain from covering the crisis in Artsakh.
In recent weeks, we have been exerting a lot of effort convincing foreign news editors to ensure that there will be coverage of the situation in Artsakh, as is covered in other countries of the world.
Unfortunately, Israel has not yet opened an embassy in Yerevan. This is directly related to the desire not to anger the Aliyev family.

The Embassy of Armenia has been operating in Tel Aviv for three years. It seems that Ambassador Doctor Arman Akopian works tirelessly to develop the relations between Armenia and Israel.
I know that efforts are being made to increase tourism ties between the countries, direct flights between Yerevan and Tel Aviv, relations between academic institutions and of course attempts to connect potential investors.

Dr. Akopian has a big challenge to serve as ambassador to a country that is afraid to over-cultivate ties with Armenia.

– I’m sure You know, that Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited Azerbaijan. As it became clear from the meetings, in Baku, Galant discussed ways to strengthen strategic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel. Gallant also referred to threats from Iran. How do You feel about the Azerbaijani-Israeli strategic cooperation? Does it have more benefits or are the challenges often overlooked?

– The censorship in Israel prevents citizens from information about the nature of relations with Azerbaijan. Officials point out that there is strategic importance in relations with Azerbaijan because it is a Shiite country bordering Iran. It is implied that the tightening of relations is necessary for Israel's national security.

I believe that this official policy is intended to be a smokescreen and legitimize massive arms sales to a country that is considered by most of the Western countries as a dictatorship.
Israel is known for massive arms sales to dictatorships. When Israel sells weapons to dictatorships in Africa or East Asia, the government cannot justify this with national security considerations. because these countries are not in the immediate circle of the threat to Israel. But in the case of Azerbaijan, the government justifies the sale of weapons by national security considerations to avoid public criticism.

We have learned from history that when Israel strengthened its ties with dictatorships such as Iran during the Shah's regime and South Africa during the apartheid, this caused great hostility towards Israel from the citizens of those countries immediately after the change of power. The same will happen in Azerbaijan after a change of government takes place in it or after the oil runs out. Hence, Israel's policy is short-sighted.

https://orbeli.am/en/post/1177/2023-08-29/Azerbaijan%20wants%20to%20erase%20the%20Armenian%20presence%20in%20Artsakh.%20Israeli%20expert

India and Armenia continue to rapidly expand their ties with Yerevan maintaining its deep interest in not just acquiring the latest Indian military hardware but also exploring “possible joint projects” in the field of space industry post Chandrayaan-3 mission success.

On Tuesday, Armenian Security Council chief Armen Grigoryan travelled to New Delhi – his second visit to the Indian capital in last 10 months – and held discussions with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval on issues related to regional security developments.

Grigoryan’s office said that both security chiefs spotlighted with satisfaction the development process of Armenian-Indian bilateral relations and discussed the prospects of developing new partnerships in a number of fields.

“Congratulations on the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission on the moon. Within the framework of the above, we discussed the implementation of possible joint projects in the field of space industry,” Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia wrote on his Facebook page after the meeting with NSA Doval.

Both top officials also met in November last year when Grigoryan travelled to New Delhi to meet NSA Doval and held talks on the “rapid implementation” of the agreements reached in the field of security between the two countries.

The meeting was also attended by the then Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Samant Kumar Goel.

The significant visits have taken place amid the military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan due to the decades-long dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Right from the beginning of the hostilities, India has maintained a consistent position with regard to the disturbances in the Caucasus region and called for a peaceful resolution of the issue through diplomatic means.

“I presented (to NSA Ajit Doval) the humanitarian crisis of Nagorno Karabakh and highlighted the importance of the international community’s involvement in overcoming it,” said Grigoryan on Tuesday.

With Turkey and Pakistan backing Azerbaijan to the hilt, Yerevan has been keen on building a strong strategic partnership with New Delhi. It all began with India supplying Armenia with four Swathi Weapon Locating Radars (WLRs) developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at a cost of $40 million in 2020.

Since then, from indigenously-developed Pinaka Extended Range multi-barrel rocket launchers and laser-guided Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) to the New Generation Akash (Akash-NG) missile, the government led by Nikol Pashinyan has shown keen interest in getting latest defence equipment from India.

As reported by IndiaNarrative.com, Armenian Deputy Defence Minister Karen Brutyan visited Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and BrahMos stalls during the ‘Army 2023’ International Military-Technical Forum in Moscow earlier this month and held discussions on the defence systems being showcased.

Interestingly, Brutyan showed keen interest in all three variants of the BrahMos missile.

A high-level delegation from the South Caucasus country, led by Armenian Defence Minister Suren Papikyan, has also visited DefExpo with an aim of expanding bilateral military and military-technical cooperation between the two countries.

The collaborative partnerships have been taking many other forms as both countries work on enhancing trade through the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) by utilization of the Chabahar port in Iran which is being developed by India.

Landlocked Armenia is a key member of the project to establish the vast pan-Eurasian transport network and has shown keen interest in the utilization of Chabahar port which India is pushing to include in the INSTC framework.

On Wednesday, Papikyan received a 17-member delegation from India’s National Defence College (NDC) which is on a three-day visit to Armenia.

Led by NDC Commandant Lieutenant General Sukriti Singh Dahiya, the delegation consists of senior military and civilian representatives from India, France, Brazil, Nigeria, Mongolia and Sri Lanka.

As part of the visit, the touring party – along with India’s Ambassador to Armenia Nilakshi Saha Sinha – has already met with Armenian Armed Forces chief Lieutenant General Edward Asryan and other high-ranking representatives at the defence ministry headquarters.

Welcoming the delegation on Wednesday, Papikyan highlighted the current course of development and prospects of Armenian-Indian cooperation in the field of defence.