Category: 2023

CYMRU and Armenia are set to lock horns at the Cardiff City Stadium on Friday, June 16. Both teams will be eager to secure a vital victory and boost their chances of qualifying for the prestigious tournament.

Cymru, led by manager Robert Page, started their campaign with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Latvia on March 28. The victory ended their nine-game winless streak, providing a much-needed morale boost for the team. Prior to their win, Cymru had suffered six defeats and three draws, including a 1-1 stalemate against Croatia in their Group D opener.

With four points from two matches, Wales currently sit at the top of the standings, level on points with second-placed Croatia. The Welsh team will be aiming to maintain their winning momentum and consolidate their position at the summit of the group.

Speaking about the upcoming clash, Robert Page expressed his optimism and emphasized the importance of building on their previous victory. He said, “The win against Latvia was a significant step for us. It gave us the belief that we can compete at this level. Now, we need to carry that momentum forward and secure another three points against Armenia. They are a tough team, but we are prepared and ready for the challenge.”

On the other hand, Armenia, managed by Oleksandr Petrakov, are still searching for their first win in the qualifiers. Having played just one match so far, they suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat against Turkey in March. However, Armenia showed resilience in their subsequent friendly against Cyprus, battling to a 2-2 draw.

Armenia’s winless streak extends to nine games, with seven defeats since their 1-0 victory over Ireland in June 2022. Despite the recent struggles, Petrakov remains optimistic and believes his team has the potential to turn things around. He stated, “We have faced some tough challenges lately, but our spirit remains unbroken. The players are determined to give their all and secure a positive result against Wales. It won’t be easy, but we are ready to fight.”

Alexander Chaushian (cello); Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra/Eduard Topchjan (BIS)

Armenian Cello Concertos
Works by Khachaturian, Babajanian, Michel Petrossian
Alexander Chaushian (cello); Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra/Eduard Topchjan
BIS BIS-2648 (CD/SACD)   68:30 mins

Is there such a thing as an Armenian sound? The three concertos gathered here might suggest there is one, if you go by the liner note. Alexander Chaushian makes much of the Armenian and Georgian folk elements in the Khachaturian work, talking of its Georgian dances and its use of the (Armenian) Ashug improvisatory style, while Michel Petrossian, introducing his own concerto, goes on at length to explain how Armenia’s holy mountain – Ararat – has inspired both the work’s texture and its structure.

Its title, he says, refers to the first mention of Ararat in the Book of Genesis, and the proportions of his work correspond symbolically to the proportions of the mountain; he then goes into detail about the contrasts between the writing for each movement, and points to the incorporation of Armenian and Byzantine liturgical chants. But you’d have to listen with extremely close attention to this 12-minute work if you wanted to catch everything the composer says he has put into it. It’s highly condensed, with the cello moving gracefully through thickets of sound created by strings, high woodwind and piano, and it invites us into an interesting sonic environment, but there’s little discernibly Armenian in that sound.

Babajanian’s Concerto does in several ways sound a dark mysteriousness which might be thought Armenian. But its beauty lies in its finely wrought effects, brought into high relief by the refinement of Chaushian’s playing.

Khachaturian – often celebrated as the musical voice of Armenia – is represented by a work which has echoes of his ballet Gayaneh. But essentially it’s a mid-century European work, full-bloodedly tonal, and rich in invention, and Chaushian’s expressive style highlights its many virtues. I immediately needed to listen again, to savour both the effects and the brilliance with which they are knitted together.

Michael Church

The IPI global network is alarmed by a new report by internet watchdogs and digital rights advocacy groups uncovering the use of Pegasus, a controversial spyware developed by the Israeli cyber-arms company NSO Group, to target journalists and other civil society actors during the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The latest revelations are another example of how advanced surveillance tools have been used to violate journalistic privacy and media freedom. They are also understood to be the first documented time that spyware has been weaponized to surveil journalists in the context of an international conflict. IPI continues to push for a global regulatory framework to control the development, trade and use of spyware and urges governments worldwide to halt abuses of state surveillance.

A joint investigation and report released May 25 by Access Now, CyberHUB-AM, the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Amnesty International’s Security Lab, and independent mobile security researcher Ruben Muradyan found that at least 12 Armenian public figures were targeted by Pegasus between October 2020 and December 2022, including two Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalists. 

The report found that the hacks were linked to a territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a disputed territory that most recently led to a war in 2020 and multiple outbreaks of violence since.

The two journalists targeted, Karlen Aslanyan and Astghik Bedevyan of RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, are “well-known for their hard-hitting reporting,” according to RFE/RL President and CEO Jamie Fly. Around the time their mobile devices were infected, Aslanyan and Astghik had been reporting on the Armenian political crisis and snap parliamentary elections that followed in the wake of the 2020 war. The investigation in Armenia began after Apple sent notifications to users warning that they may have been targets of state-sponsored spyware.

The report did not definitively point to a state party responsible for the hacks, but does note that Azerbaijan’s authoritarian government is a documented customer of Pegasus, and has used it in the past to target journalists. However, Armenia too has a history with cyber-surveillance technology, albeit with a different private surveillance group, and would also have reason to want to monitor the targets.

“Revelations about the use of Pegasus spyware to surveil journalists reporting on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are extremely concerning and illustrate the grave threat that abuses of such advanced surveillance technology pose to journalistic privacy and the freedom of the media,” said IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen. “With these findings, we enter a dangerous new chapter in the global abuse of spyware tools against journalists and members of civil society: this is understood to be the first time that advanced spyware has been used to hack into the phones of journalists in the context of an international conflict. State-sponsored spying adds yet another layer of danger to the work of journalists and correspondents covering conflict and will have a chilling effect on the media.”

Griffen added: “IPI urges the governments of both Armenia and Azerbaijan to launch transparent investigations into the abuse of spyware and other hacking tools against journalists by domestic intelligence and military authorities, and to ensure safeguards are implemented to protect members of the press from all forms of unjustified surveillance. We will continue to push for a moratorium on the sale and implementation of digital spyware technology until global safeguards and a regulatory framework that complies with international human rights and humanitarian law can be agreed upon.”