Category: News

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French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sign strategic partnership agreement in Yerevan on May 5

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President Emmanuel Macron of France signed a joint strategic partnership declaration on Tuesday as the French leader wound down his state visit to Armenia.

Macron’s state visit coincided with his participation in the European Political Community summit, which was held in Yerevan on Monday.

According to the declaration, the two countries agreed to elevate bilateral relations to the level of a strategic partnership based on sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, democratic values, human rights and the rule of law.

Under the agreement, Armenia and France pledged to expand political dialogue at all levels and hold regular consultations between their foreign ministries. France also expressed support for Armenia’s closer ties with the European Union, efforts to strengthen democratic institutions, resilience and sovereignty, and initiatives aimed at increasing European investment in Armenia.

A major section of the declaration focuses on security and defense cooperation. The two countries agreed to deepen cooperation in defense, military education, military-technical and military-technological fields on a long-term basis. They also pledged to continue high-level strategic dialogue between their defense institutions and expand cooperation in peacekeeping missions, including within the framework of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy.

The declaration also envisages expanded cooperation in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, countering disinformation, internal security, migration and disaster risk management. Armenia and France additionally agreed to strengthen joint efforts against terrorism, organized crime and illegal trafficking.

In the economic sphere, the two countries pledged to deepen cooperation in infrastructure, transport, agriculture, healthcare, innovation, renewable energy, semiconductors, aerospace, environmental protection and financial services. The declaration also supports regional connectivity projects, including Armenia’s “Crossroads of Peace” initiative and the TRIPP project, alongside the EU’s Global Gateway strategy.

In his remarks at a joint press conference, Macron lavished praise on Pashinyan, saying Armenia has “consolidated its democracy” and is now “resolutely and courageously moving towards Europe.”

Macron’s admitted to endorsing Pashinyan ahead of the June 7 elections but insisted that this does not amount to the kind of foreign election meddling which the European Union accuses Russia of resorting to.

“You should distinguish between an interference that manipulates information, disrupts the democratic life of a country in a covert way and openly taking a political position,” Macron said, answering a question from a reporter. “So I commit to full support for a reliable partner of the last eight years as president of the French,” Macron said citing his support for Moldova’s president last year, when the EU deployed similar missions as it is in Armenia ahead of the eletions.

“I totally commit to defend Europe and also defend the interests of Europe and France by coming here,” he went on. “But this is not the same thing as the interference through information manipulation, media ownership, spread of false information and destabilization of the rule of law.”

The French leader said that his support for Pashinyan was not the same as manipulation through the media and falsifications, which aim to destabilize the situation in Armenia.

He added that one cannot talk about interference, because it is “overt interference,” but there is interference by foreign agents acting on the orders of Moscow and they are trying to undermine democracy.

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The works of two world-renowned French-Armenian artists, Karnig Zouloumian (Carzou) and Hovhannes Jean Semerdjian (Jansem), on May 15, 16, and 17 return to Glendale. 

The exhibition is an Apple Art initiative, mounted in collaboration with the Armenian Arts Center gallery. Most of the pieces on view have never before been shown to audiences in Southern California. Together they span more than sixty years of work, from 1943 to 2008, and include originals on canvas, watercolor, and ink, alongside lithographs. 

Carzou and Jansem differ sharply in style and are usually placed in two distant corners of the art world. Yet their lives ran along strikingly parallel lines; lines that, taken together, present them almost as halves of a single whole. 

Both were born outside Armenia, into Western Armenian families: Carzou in Aleppo in 1907, then under the Ottoman Empire, and Jansem in 1920 in Sölöz, one of the villages of Izmir, in Kemalist Turkey. 

Both also witnessed massacres at the hands of the Turks. Carzou saw the caravans of survivors, mothers and orphans who had escaped the Genocide, as they passed through Aleppo or settled there. Jansem witnessed the massacres of Greeks in Izmir and grew up hearing his mother’s accounts of the Armenian Genocide. Each, in his own time, gave voice to those wounds. Carzou spoke courageously about the Genocide in his celebrated 1979 reception speech at the Académie des Beaux-Arts (French Academy of Fine Arts), and returned to the theme when he painted the walls of the cathedral at Manosque, in southern France. Jansem, near the end of his life, donated thirty-one major works on the subject, collectively titled “Massacres,” to the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial Museum. 

Both Zouloumian and Semerdjian lived to ninety-three, and both worked without pause. Each left behind a vast painterly legacy: thousands of works in private hands, hundreds of solo exhibitions, illustrated books, extensive travels, museums bearing their names, and a lasting presence in major art centers around the world. On several occasions, they also appeared together in group exhibitions. 

Their ties to Armenia and to Armenian artists never lapsed. Both opened their Paris studios to Armenian painters, sculptors, intellectuals, and academics. Carzou’s first visit to Soviet Armenia — the reception that greeted him, the unprecedented exhibition that followed, and his encounters with Martiros Saryan, Kochar, Igityan, Minas, and others — remained vivid in the memory of Armenians for years afterward. Jansem’s first visit was no less striking and gave rise to two of his most impressive canvases: Lake Sevan and Ararat. Both painters received high honors from Armenia’s state and cultural institutions. 

In their work, Zouloumian and Semerdjian took up themes that move humanity at large, each through a different prism. Carzou turned to universal questions: a painter who lived through two world wars, his brush traced the consequences of reckless armament and industrialization; devastated cities, emptied villages, abandoned harbors (and how contemporary it all still feels), degeneration, and metamorphosis. Jansem’s vision is realist: barefoot children and women, figures from small markets, fishermen, all rendered in destitution, though a destitution shot through with the search for beauty. Alongside these come religious processions, bullfights, dancers, models, masquerades, and landscapes, all of them images of everyday life. 

The best way to take all of this in is to come to the Armenian Arts Center on May 15, 16, or 17, and meet these works face-to-face. Hours: Friday 7 to 10 p.m., Saturday 2 to 9 p.m., Sunday 12 to 6 p.m.. Admission is free.

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Satellite images show the systematic destruction of the Genocide Centennial bell tower in Stepanakert

Azerbaijan continues is systematic destruction of Armenian sites in occupied Artsakh. The most recent reported case of demolition is a bell tower erected on the Armenian Genocide centennial in occupied Stepanakert, Hovik Avanesov, Artsakh’s Cultural Heritage Commissioner reported.

The destruction was recorded by the Caucasus Heritage Watch, which has consistently reported on Azerbaijan’s policy to destroy traces of Armenian sites since the 2020 Artsakh War.

The bell tower, constructed out of white marble, included relics and remains from Der Zor, which is synonymous with the death marches experience by the victims of the Genocide.

Satellite data from Airbus and Planet Labs clearly demonstrate that the monument and the entire surrounding memorial complex were destroyed between July 14, 2025 and April 25, 2026. This chronology suggests a deliberate and phased operation, aimed at completely “cleansing” the area of any trace of the Armenian presence.

This latest destruction comes a week after Azerbaijan confirmed that it deliberately destroyed the Holy Mother of God Cathedral and the St. Jacob Church both in occupied Stepanakert. The Caucasus Muslim Association said in its announcement that the demolition was in line with Azerbaijan’s policies of destroying buildings that were built during what the group called “Armenian occupation.”

The European Parliament, in a resolution passed last week, condemned Azerbaijan for the destruction of cultural, religious and heritage sites in occupied Artsakh.

“This operation must be viewed in the context of international law and the protection of cultural heritage. The deliberate destruction of cultural property contradicts a number of international conventions, including those adopted under the auspices of UNESCO. However, this case shows that such actions continue, often with impunity, which encourages such acts to continue,” Avanesov said.

“Furthermore, the destruction of the monument is not only cultural, but also clearly political and ideological in nature. It aims to reshape the historical narrative of the territory, erasing evidence of the Armenian presence and creating an ‘empty’ historical space. This is a classic example of the manifestation of cultural genocide, when not only people are destroyed, but also their memory, culture and material evidence of existence,” he added.

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