17:21, 31 July 2023
YEREVAN, JULY 31, ARMENPRESS. First President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan has held a meeting with United States Ambassador to Armenia Kristina Kvien, Ter-Petrosyan’s office said in a statement.
The meeting lasted more than an hour and focused mostly on issues related to the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a readout issued by Ter-Petrosyan’s office.
A potential genocide could be brewing in Nagorno Karabakh, putting Armenian Christians at risk, a group of Republican senators wants to know whether taxpayer funds have been used to block Kirk Cameron’s library readings — and is religious freedom at risk across the globe? Billy sits down with Joel Veldkamp, Head of International Communications at Christian Solidarity International to understand the crisis in Nagorno Karabakh. Meanwhile, Washington Times reporter Mark Kellner comes on the show to discuss these stories: No taxpayer dollars to block Kirk Cameron library events, demand GOP senators and European Union nations promote religious liberty abroad, but fail at home, U.S. panel says.
Episode link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/an-impending-genocide-for-armenian-christians-plus/id1401499962?i=1000623142043
Listen to the Podcast at https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/aug/3/listen-there-genocide-horizon-armenian-christians/
The sixth meeting within the framework of the ongoing peace talks series between Azerbaijan and Armenia was held in Brussels between European Council President Charles Michel, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Michel explained the issues discussed by the leaders during the meeting. According to the Azerbaijani press, the issue of the return of Azerbaijanis who were expelled from their native land in Armenia was discussed during the Brussels meeting. Although forgotten for years, this issue was brought up again by Azerbaijan after liberating its lands from occupation in 2020. In the 20th century, hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis living in Armenia were expelled from their lands four times. Three of these expulsions took place after the war between the two nations, and one was Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s decision.
The Azerbaijanis who were deported from Armenia in August 2022 and who define themselves as Western Azerbaijanis have now established a community. Aliyev, who attended the opening of the community’s building on Dec. 24, 2022, said that Western Azerbaijanis’ rights must be restored, and they must be able to return to their native lands. In parliamentary hearings on March 4, 2023, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Khalaf Khalafov said that the return of Azerbaijanis should be one of the components of the peace agenda between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
After the Azerbaijani lands were liberated from the occupation in the 44-Day War in 2020, the Azerbaijan Refugee Society (ARS), which was founded by people fleeing from the occupied territories, was dissolved and, on Aug. 3, 2022, became the Western Azerbaijan Community (WAC). On Jan. 26, 2023, the WAC adopted a “Concept of Return,” that is, “The concept (of) ensuring (the) peaceful, safe and dignified return of Azerbaijanis expelled from nowadays Armenia.” According to this concept’s general goals, the objectives of the community are: obtaining a legally binding international agreement with an appropriate verification and guarantee mechanism ensuring the voluntary return of Azerbaijanis expelled from the territory of nowadays Armenia to their homeland in safety and dignity; securing the return process with appropriate security, humanitarian, socioeconomic and assistance programs; the establishment of international monitoring, accountability, security, intervention, and other necessary activities to prevent renewed expulsion of, discrimination against and harm to the returned population; and ensuring sustainable rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees through the implementation of reconstruction and reconciliation measures under international supervision.
After this concept was announced, the goal was to promote it internationally. On Feb. 22, 2023, the concept document was sent to the U.N. Security Council, the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. The WAC addressed a letter to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and called on the organization to send a fact-finding mission to Armenia to assess the state of Azerbaijani cultural heritage there. Then, on June 18, 2023, the WAC hosted a meeting with a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Azerbaijan. In short, after the “Concept of Return” was announced, the community succeeded within three months in bringing their own issues to the agenda of international organizations and drawing the attention of the Armenian side.
Armenian officials, who remained silent about the fate of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia for many years, had to react when the WAC “Concept of Return” began to circulate in U.N. committees. The Permanent Representative of Armenia to the U.N. sent a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and accused Azerbaijan of pursuing an expansionist policy toward Armenia.
During a visit to Germany on March 2, 2023, Pashinian spoke with the German Council on Foreign Relations (GCFR) and claimed that the Western Azerbaijan initiative means that Armenia does not have its own sovereign territory and that the entire territory of Armenia is referred to as “so-called Western Azerbaijan.” The next day, the WAC issued a statement rejecting Pashinian’s claim. Then, on March 12, 2023, the WAC issued a letter to the Armenian premier that called on him to begin a dialogue on the issue of return. The letter highlighted that the rights of Azerbaijanis in the process of return should be ensured within the framework of an appropriate international mechanism. Pashinian refused the request of Western Azerbaijanis to return and said that Armenia’s archives are full of details of compensation paid to these people, but he didn’t show any documents as proof.
While Pashinian rejected the possibility of the return of Azerbaijanis, Aliyev stated on March 16, 2023, that: “The state of Azerbaijan will guarantee the individual rights and security of the Armenian residents living in Karabakh. Armenia must guarantee the rights and security of the WAC based on the principle of reciprocity.”
On March 17, 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia issued a statement that evaluated Aliyev’s statement as a territorial demand against Armenia. Responding to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia on March 17, 2023, the WAC again rejected these claims, emphasizing that, “Our demands for a peaceful return to our homes should not be misinterpreted or misrepresented as being detrimental to the territorial integrity or sovereignty of Armenia.” The WAC further stated that this is not an issue of territory, it is a human rights issue.
While this debate between Armenia, Azerbaijan and the WAC continued, on April 12, 2023, a group of Western Azerbaijani women sent an appeal to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to support the safe and dignified return of Azerbaijanis to their homes. According to Azerbaijani media, the EU unequivocally affirmed its support for the right of return of all affected populations and acknowledged the significance of this issue within the broader peace process.
To sum up, while the Armenian government demands rights and security for the Armenians living in Azerbaijan within the framework of the international mechanism, it does not want to recognize the right of return of the Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia. Despite the Armenian side trying to present the demand for the return of Azerbaijanis as an expansionist policy, the WAC maintains that returning back is a human rights issue.
Since the Second Karabakh War, President Aliyev has repeatedly stated that the Azerbaijani state and constitution guarantee the rights and security of Armenians living in Karabakh, but a similar statement has not been made by Pashinian about the Azerbaijanis who want to return to their homelands. To set an example and achieve the normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations, the Armenian side can demand rights and security for Armenians living in Karabakh while also ensuring the right of return and security for Azerbaijanis who formerly lived in Armenia.
Since 12 December 2022, Azerbaijan and its ally, Turkey, have blockaded the Armenian Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in an attempt to possess the region by forcing the Armenians to flee their native land. This blockade of the 120,000 Armenian Christians is reaching a critical juncture. Food and medicine are running out, and starvation is beginning to set in. Currently, there is no fuel — which has led to a complete transportation shutdown. The Armenians of Artsakh are thus being forced into submission to Azerbaijan through a policy of starvation.
Luis Moreno Ocampo, the founding prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has called the ongoing Azeri blockade against Artsakh “Armenian genocide 2023.”
Azerbaijan has a long history of ethnic cleansing Artsakh’s indigenous Armenian population.
In 1988, in response to self-determination requests by Artsakh’s Armenians, Soviet Azerbaijan conducted massacres and pogroms. In 1991, in response to Artsakh’s declaration of independence, Azerbaijan launched a violent war which carpet bombed Artsakh and destroyed much of Artsakh’s infrastructure. In 2020, Azerbaijan launched yet another attack against Artsakh in an attempt to seize the region, committing further war crimes by indiscriminately bombing civilian zones.
All of this genocidal violence is taking place, costing tens of thousands of lives, because of Azerbaijan’s obsessed hatred of Armenians and their regressive desire to possess Armenian lands.
Artsakh is located in the northeastern part of the Armenian highlands in the South Caucasus. Since ancient times, it has been a province of historical Armenia. Artsakh has never been part of independent Azerbaijan.
The Armenian sovereignty in Artsakh is historic and therefore legitimate. It should have international recognition and support in the face of ongoing Azeri genocidal violence.
The history of Artsakh as an Armenian entity dates back to approximately the 6th century B.C. Armenian King Tigran Mets (Tigran the Great) attached great significance to Artsakh and built the town of Tigranakert there. Artsakh was ruled under various Armenian monarchs, and even under Persian rulers. Nevertheless, Artsakh has always preserved its Armenian identity.
In the early 4th century A.D., Christianity spread in Artsakh. The creation of the Armenian alphabet by Mesrop Mashtots in the early 5th century led to a tremendous rise of culture in both Armenia and Artsakh. Mashtots also founded the first Armenian school in the monastery of Amaras in Artsakh — a testament to the fact that Artsakh is incredibly important and inseparable to Armenian cultural identity. Artsakh has thus been Armenian for millennia, yet it has been subject to an increase of Turkish and Azeri violence in recent decades.
Today, Azerbaijan falsely claims Artsakh as Azeri land chiefly because Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, as part of the Soviet strategy of divide and conquer, decreed that Artsakh be part of Soviet Azerbaijan as an autonomous oblast although Armenia, one of the world’s first Christian countries, is incompatible with Azerbaijan, a nation of which the population is largely Muslim.
Not only are the two nations culturally incompatible, but they also have two distinct systems of governance — Artsakh being a democratic republic, which has had numerous leaders, free and fair elections, and respects the human rights of their citizenry — while Azerbaijan has been led by the same dictatorial family for 30 years, and boasts a notorious human rights record, even against their own citizens.
For the next 70 years, Soviet Azerbaijan exposed Artsakh to severe ethno-religious discrimination and economic persecution. These policies sought the elimination of the indigenous Armenian Christian majority and substituting it with Azerbaijani Muslim settlers.
The years 1918-1920 saw the Artsakh movement increasingly striving for independence. During this period, Armenians of Artsakh gathered nine national congresses to gain international recognition as a free, independent political entity.
On 22 July 1918, for instance, the first congress was summoned in Shoushi and proclaimed Artsakh an independent administrative-territorial entity and elected its national council. After the gathering of the Congress, however, Soviet Azerbaijan tried to seize Artsakh with the help of Turkish armed forces.
Every time Armenians in Artsakh took a step or made a request to fulfill their right to self-determination, Soviet Azerbaijan (with the help of the Ottoman Turks and later the Turkish Republic) responded with military force and violence. On 15 September 1918, for instance, the Turkish armed forces entered Baku and massacred around 30,000 Armenians.
Massacres, blockades and ultimatums have for decades been used as tools by Azeri forces to try to subjugate Armenians and force them to accept Azeri sovereignty.
The aspiration of the Armenians of Artsakh to realize their right to self-determination was met with Azerbaijani pogroms which saw the brutal murder of Armenians and the plundering of their properties.
The objective of these pogroms was to terrorize the Armenians of Artsakh, forcing them to flee or submit although they had lived there for centuries and formed and constantly protected their national sovereignty essential to Armenian history.
The first victims of Azerbaijan’s policy to suppress the will of the people of Artsakh were the Armenians of the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait located several hundred kilometers away from Artsakh.
The pogroms in Sumgait lasted from 27-29 February 1988 in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. They took place during the early stages of the Artsakh independence movement. On 27 February 1988, Azeri mobs killed Armenians in the streets and even in their apartments, looting Armenian properties. A general lack of concern from Azeri police officers allowed the violence to continue for three days.
The second wave of the Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan started in November 1988. The largest ones occurred in Kirovabad, Shamakhi, Shamkir, and Mingachevir. During the same period, in November and December 1988, Armenians were also displaced from the mountainous regions of Artsakh: Khanlar, Dashkesan, Shamkhor, Getabek and Kirovabad.
The pogroms, mass murders, looting, destruction of property and persecution of the Armenian population in Soviet Azerbaijan culminated with the eventual displacement of Armenians from Baku in January 1990. The pogroms against the Armenians in Baku were the last phase of a bloody ethnic cleansing campaign against Armenians.
The pogroms resulted in hundreds of deaths and the forced displacement of over 500,000 Armenians from Soviet Azerbaijan.
All this genocidal violence against Armenians was further justification for the independence of autonomous Artsakh from Soviet Azeri oppression.
After decades of the Armenian defense of their self-rule, the dissolution of the Soviet Union finally allowed Artsakh to break away from Baku’s oppression in 1988. And in 1991, Artsakh was able to re-establish itself as a free republic.
The referendum on Artsakh’s independence took place on 10 December 1991. Even on the day of the Referendum, however, Azeri forces fired at Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh, and other Armenian locations. 10 civilians were killed and 11 were wounded.
Despite all the pressure, the Armenians of Artsakh voted with near-unanimous consent to declare their independence from Azerbaijan through the 1991 referendum.
The people of Artsakh thus declared their independence in 1991, consistent with their rights under the Declaration of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States (1970) in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. This was further verified in the legal system: in the same year (1991), two legally equal republics – Artsakh and Azerbaijan – were established as a result of the dissolution of the USSR (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).
Although Artsakh declared independence in line with international law, Azerbaijan launched a full-blown conflict against Artsakh, which came to be known as the “First Artsakh War”. During the war, Azerbaijan committed many war crimes and abused human rights, including through the bombing and blockading of cities. Azeri forces targeted civilian populations and recruited terrorists from Chechnya and Afghanistan.
The war ended in 1994 with a cease-fire brokered by the newly formed Russian Federation. The ceasefire ensured Artsakh’s de facto independence from Azerbaijan and initiated a multilateral conflict resolution process under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) ‘‘Minsk Group’’ co-chaired by Russia, the United States, and France.
The OSCE Minsk Group process determined to ensure a final resolution to the conflict based on the Helsinki Final Act (1975) principles of non-use of force, territorial integrity, and self-determination. Azerbaijan has never truly honored these principles.
Artsakh gained international recognition for the basis of its independence from many institutions, as well. On 11 May 1999, for instance, the European Parliament adopted a resolution which stated that Nagorno-Karabakh declared its independence immediately after similar declarations by Soviet Republics.
However, Azeri violence against Armenians has never ended.
During the Four-Day War of in April 2016, in flagrant violation of the 1994 ceasefire agreement, Azerbaijan undertook a large-scale offensive against Artsakh, committing war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law against civilians and soldiers of Artsakh.
The Azerbaijani army shelled a school in Martuni region, as a result of which 12-year-old Vagharshak Grigoryan was killed and two children injured.
In the village of Talish of the Martakert Region, the Azerbaijani troops murdered an elderly Armenian couple and mutilated their bodies when the troops entered and took control over the village. The ears of these civilians were cut off.
According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Artsakh, the bodies of over twenty soldiers of the Artsakh Defense Army were also abused: their heads, wrists, fingers and ears were cut off. At least four Armenian soldiers were tortured while still alive. Posing with cut-off heads, the Azerbaijani soldiers demonstrated them to the residents of the nearby villages of Azerbaijan.
The State Commission on POWs [Prisoners of War], Hostages, and Missing Persons of Nagorno Karabakh announced that all bodies which were transferred to the Armenian side had been mutilated and treated inhumanely by the Azerbaijani side.
On 4 April 2016, it was reported that Azerbaijani forces decapitated a soldier from Artsakh of Yazidi origin, Kyaram Sloyan, 19. The video and pictures of his severed head later appeared on social networks. Azeri soldiers and civilians were shown holding Sloyan’s head as a military trophy and a sign of victory. The Azerbaijani officer who decapitated Sloyan then became a national hero in Azerbaijan, after that country’s president, Ilham Aliyev, awarded him a medal.
Later, reports appeared about two other beheaded soldiers of the Artsakh defense army. In all three cases, families later lodged an application before the European Court of Human Rights.
From 27 September to 10 November 2020, Artsakh was exposed to yet another genocidal assault at the hands of Azerbaijan and Turkey. The entire world watched while the aggressors committed many crimes and indiscriminately shelled the indigenous lands of Armenians.
Turkey also sent Azerbaijan mercenaries from Syria with known affiliations to Islamic radical groups. This was confirmed by a recent United Nations report, as well as by the testimonies of many Syrian mercenaries and reports by international media outlets.
Azerbaijani military forces perpetrated war crimes against Armenians. They murdered civilians, injured journalists and targeted homes, forests, hospitals, churches and cultural centers, among other non-military targets. They used white phosphorus and cluster munitions in violation of international law. At least 90,000 Armenians were forced to abandon their ancestral lands in Artsakh as a result.
The war finally halted after 45 days as a result of the Russia-brokered agreement imposed on Armenia.
However, Azeri military violence against Armenians has not ended.
Since December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan and its ally, Turkey, have blockaded Artsakh. Arman Tatoyan, the former Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia, noted that since January 9 there has been no electricity in Artsakh. Since March 21, there has been no gas and since June 15, no humanitarian aid (including food).
The decades-long Azeri genocidal violence against Armenians is caused by two factors: Their hatred against Armenians in particular and against Christianity in general. And in an attempt to wipe out Armenians from the region, Azeri and Turkish forces committed pogroms, massacres, blockades, starvation and the 1915 Armenian genocide.
A second Armenian genocide is happening as we speak. We can see this reality play out even more so in the last 7 months as every day the Azerbaijani regime has gotten bolder — more brutal. They started the blockade under the guise of a protest, then installed a military checkpoint, then cut off all humanitarian aid, and now they have begun kidnapping Armenians. Their actions have only escalated because their barbarism has gone without response — leaving them with impunity to continue unimpeded as they try to ethnically cleanse the Armenian population of Artsakh out of existence.
Western governments who are purportedly committed to stopping crimes against humanity should urgently cut off their military aid to Azerbaijan, sanction Azeri political leaders and airlift aid over the blockade, because showing “deep concern” and “urging” Azerbaijan to stop, has not slowed them down. In fact, in the absence of punitive measures, it has only emboldened them.
*Gev Iskajyan is the Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Artsakh.
Armenia Resort Struggles To Heal ‘Scars’ After Azerbaijan Attack
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By Irakli METREVELIAugust 2, 2023
Jermuk was Armenia’s busiest spa resort before arch foe Azerbaijan attacked nearly a year ago.
Now only the croaking of frogs and the occasional cry of a solitary swan fill the silence in the small town’s deserted park.
The mountain spa town dotted with hot springs came under artillery fire from Azerbaijan in September 2022.
While authorities insist Jermuk is ready to host tourists again, locals say the wounds are still raw and the tourism industry has been struggling to recover in the aftermath of the assault.
“You can’t see the scars of the war in the streets of Jermuk any more. They are on people’s souls,” said restaurant owner Ovsanna Stepanyan.
She said that the number of tourists visiting Jermuk — which gave its name to Armenia’s most famous mineral water brand — had plummeted after the Azerbaijani attack.
“Hotels and restaurants are nearly empty, we are operating at a loss,” the 42-year-old told AFP.
Stepanyan’s eatery was once so busy people had to book a table days in advance. Now she receives just several customers each day and has been forced to lay off half of her staff.
Tour guide Vazgen Galstyan, 33, said hotels, cafes, schools, and kindergartens were open but stressed that the emotional trauma inflicted by the conflict had not healed.
“Many people here are still suffering from psychological trauma,” he said. “We know that the risk of a new war persists.”
Stepanyan said she had been struggling to forget last year’s attack.
She hid with her toddler son and mother in a basement when Azerbaijani forces shelled the town, an experience similar to that of many residents.
“Those hours were full of fear, like in a horror movie,” she said. “Then women and children fled Jermuk for Yerevan in trucks.”
“The road was full of cars with fleeing people, forests and fields on the outskirts of Jermuk were ablaze. I am still trembling when I remember that terrible night.”
Locked in a decades-long dispute over Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan and Baku have fought two wars for control of the mountainous enclave, in the 1990s and 2020.
Despite a Moscow-brokered ceasefire that ended the latest conflict, there have been near-daily border clashes between the Caucasus neighbours.
In the worst fighting since the end of the war, Azerbaijan captured a pocket of land inside Armenia last year in fierce clashes between the neighbours that claimed the lives of 210 people.
Both sides have accused each other of provoking the hostilities, which erupted on September 13, 2022, and ended with international mediation the next day.
Yerevan said at the time that Azerbaijan attacked the towns of Jermuk, Sotk, and Verin Shorza — located near the two countries’ border — using artillery, mortars, and large-calibre firearms.
“The shelling of Jermuk began at midnight,” said the town’s vice-mayor, Vardan Sargsyan.
“Azerbaijanis were targeting roads and forests; they damaged residential buildings, vital infrastructure, the cemetery.”
But he insisted that “the consequences of the attack were eliminated, and damaged infrastructure was rebuilt”.
“Jermuk is ready to host tourists again,” added the vice-mayor.
Tigran Sargsyan, 20, returned to Jermuk four months ago after completing his military service and is now running a shooting gallery in an amusement park. Targets feature Azerbaijani flags and portraits of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
“The enemy is too close,” he said, referring to Azerbaijani troops stationed about four kilometres from Jermuk.
“If the situation does not change, there will be a fresh conflict and I’ll have to go to war.”
A Russian tourist strolling nearby sounded a more optimistic note.
“I know what happened in Jermuk last year, but I am not scared,” said Yuliya Shtykova, a 51-year-old Muscovite.
“Jermuk is a miracle, it has huge tourism potential.”
Meem Gallery’s current exhibition showcases the work of a masterful artist whose work occupies a special place in the history of Arab culture.
The seventh instalment in a series of exhibitions exploring printmaking in the Arab world is dedicated to the work of Lebanese-Armenian artist, Assadour Bezdikian – known professionally by his first name alone.
Entitled Assadour: Etchings, the show presents 15 works spanning nearly five decades of the artist’s career, revealing not only his dedication and mastery over printmaking and engraving, but also a unique voice with universal appeal.
“Assadour is regarded as one of the master printmakers in the Arab world,” Shad Abdulkarim, Meem Gallery’s deputy manager tells The National.
“What sets him apart is we have very few Arab printmakers in this region. His body of work is primarily focused on printmaking and etchings. While he’s done paintings, what he’s most known for is his print work.”
The 15 works on display, spanning 1976 to 2017, each offer intricate windows into the mind of a meticulous and expansive storyteller.
Assadour was born in Beirut to an Armenian family in 1943. He grew up in the suburbs of Bourj Hammoud; a diverse, culturally rich environment where he was exposed to a number of artistic styles and attitudes.
At 18, Assadour studied engraving and painting at the Pietro Vannucci Academy in Perugia, Italy. While there he also visited Florence and San Gimignano and studied the works of Giotto di Bondone, Paolo Uccello and Cenni di Pepo, also known as Cimabue – Italian Renaissance masters whose distinct perspectives and styles left a mark on him.
In 1964, he received a three-year scholarship from the Lebanese Ministry of Culture to study at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He went on to win a number of awards and be inducted into esteemed French art organisations including the Salon de Mai de Paris, La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine and Les Peintres-Graveurs Francais.
Assadour’s early exposure to a number of different communities and art practices eventually found its way into his own work, which seamlessly blends varying ideas and styles into one plane.
Through thoughtful intricate layering, coupled with the use of universally recognisable symbols and pictorial elements, Assadour’s work deconstructs reality and builds a distinct imaginary world that explores themes such as identity, loss, memory, loneliness and the human experience.
“Assadour looked into his own universe and sculpted his own world,” Abdulkarim says.
“The ideas behind some of his work look into his heritage coming from an Arab-Armenian background. Some of the struggles and plights of the Armenian people and the Arabs are included in the works.”
Assadour’s work is instantly recognisable. While his style has evolved over the years, seeing a wide range of his pieces in one space strikes viewers with the clarity of his voice.
His colour palette, his delicate yet bold use of lines, his skill and perspective have remained steady throughout.
There is the combination of abstract features infused with elements of cubism and even a surrealist sensibility. But it is a voice completely his own. Geometric, balanced compositions are full of space but also packed with detailed shading, graphic lines and delicate renditions of light and shadow.
Multitudes of stories jump out at the viewer. A house drawn in the distance, stylised figures walk and float over crescent shapes and look up at perfect circles, or gaze at the viewer with one unblinking eye.
Fragmented landscapes, maps and details of cracked earth are super imposed with floating letters, numbers, arrows and shapes – each within their own physical planes, but somehow existing simultaneously, through multiple perspectives.
“Assadour says he has an obsession with time and its passage,” Abdulkarim adds.
“Through his regular motifs like the crescent or the triangle, he’s establishing this time frame in which he tackles certain subjects. Whether it’s alienation from society or his own personal traumas, he is, in a sense, barricading from the audience, making it more difficult to read into, or adding layers to the complex making of his universe.”
It is an incredibly difficult task for an artist to combine so much so finely. And yet it seems effortless for Assadour.
“I would invite audiences to see Assadour’s work because you’re looking at an artist of Arab descent who comes from a marginalised background and the Armenian community,” Abdulkarim says.
“You have a prominent Arab artist whose works, I feel, are still not largely appreciated and who makes art that speaks to both international and regional audiences.”
Assadour: Etchings will be on show at Meem Gallery until September 9
Seven Kenyan civil rights groups have united with eight other global organizations to confront the Armenian government for its refusal to ensure the rights of a minority group in the country.
The groups argue that the Armenian government is preventing the minority group, currently residing in Karabakh, a city in Armenia, from relocating to Azerbaijan, where all citizens are granted equal human rights.
This restriction is seen as a violation of the minority group’s rights, prompting the coalition to advocate for their fair treatment and equal opportunities for resettlement.
“Azerbaijan will ensure the rights and security of the Armenians living in the Karabakh region in accordance with its Constitution. All citizens, regardless of their nationality or ethnic origin, are granted equal rights, as provided for in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” read part of the group’s statement.
According to the groups, the foreign government has been impeding the reintegration of the minority group that had been residing in Karabakh.
One of the factors contributing to the conflict between the two nations is the Lachin Road, situated in Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan established a border checkpoint along the Lachin Road, but the Armenian government has been preventing citizens in Karabakh from accessing their daily necessities through the Azerbaijan government.
“The Armenian leadership and remnants of illegal regime exert pressure on the Armenian residents of the Karabakh region, exploiting local inhabitants as a hostage to further their political objectives and prevent reintegration deliberately,” the group argued.
Civil rights groups argued that the checkpoint was constitutional and intended to provide assistance. However, Armenia complained that the checkpoint was adversely affecting their economic activities.
Meanwhile, the Azerbaijan government has taken measures to ensure Armenian citizens in Karabakh get access to transportation, water, and power supply.
“We appeal to international organizations to observe the realities on the ground, respond appropriately, and advocate for the process of reintegration of Armenians of Karabakh into Azerbaijan,” the civil rights group pleaded.
Conclusively, the groups accused the Armenian government of engaging in political manipulation.
Some of the civil rights groups from Kenya include; Wote Youth Development Projects CBO, Consortium of Grassroots, and Twene Mbee Networking and Development Group Organizations in Kenya (CGOK).
https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/91836-7-kenyan-civil-groups-fight-armenian-govt
In the face of a growing humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), ACT Alliance expresses deep concern with the blockage imposed by Azerbaijani authorities to block the Lachin corridor, the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, precipitating a humanitarian crisis.
Over the last seven months, the blockade has severely impacted the lives of the people in the region, especially the most vulnerable. Some 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, including 30,000 children, are suffering from severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel. In addition, this crisis is affecting their ability to access medical care and life-saving services.
On 25 February, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Azerbaijan to ensure free movement of all persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin corridor in both directions.
ACT Alliance is concerned by Azerbaijan’s lack of observance of its ethical obligations and humanitarian principles and urges the Azerbaijani government to end human suffering, giving particular attention to the most vulnerable. Blocking humanitarian aid should not be used as a strategy to resolve a conflict or other disputes.
ACT Alliance calls on the Azerbaijani authorities to immediately lift the blockade of the Lachin corridor and allow for unhindered and safe passage of civilians and goods along the corridor, as well as guarantee unimpeded humanitarian access in line with international law and the order of the ICJ.
ACT Alliance is furthermore calling on the international community to urgently work to end the blockade and to find diplomatic solutions to bring a just peace to the region.
Rudelmar Bueno de Faria
ACT Alliance General Secretary
https://actalliance.org/act-news/act-alliance-calls-for-an-immediate-lift-of-the-blockade-of-the-lachin-corridor-in-nagorno-karabakh-and-adherence-to-humanitarian-principles/