Muhammad Irfan  Published | 07:50 PM

This article was originally published in Slovo Magazine in June 2023. Global Voices has permission to re-publish an adapted version of the text.

Imagine a giant monument at a landmark location of a capital city, and yet, practically no one knows about it. Passersby are as puzzled as the guides on a city tour bus who apologetically say they cannot help when questioned about the structure. The monument itself is only open one day of the year and remains locked for the other 364 days. Searching for the monument on Google Maps shows only a silhouette of the memorial, missing a name as well as a description.

The monument known as the Cascade Memorial to the Victims of Political Repression was designed by Jim Torosyan, Yerevan, Armenia’s chief architect between 1971 and 1981. At the time, its construction aligned with the government’s agenda of de-Stalinization in a period of relative thaw and was dedicated to Armenia’s victims of Soviet repression. The monument formally opened in 2008.

The Cascade Memorial sits at the top terrace of Yerevan’s Cascade complex — a landmark stairway that connects Yerevan’s downtown center with Victory Park above the city. It stands next to an obelisk that is visible from afar. The Cascade’s broad limestone band, over 300 meters long and 50 meters wide, marks the city’s north-south axis that runs through the pedestrian Northern Avenue and the imposing Opera building, the focal point of Yerevan’s culture.

Like the history of the Soviet repressions itself, this Cascade Memorial remains largely neglected, which is something a handful of Armenians are now trying to change. 

They see proper commemoration as a step Armenians must take on their path to democracy. And so, for a few years, on June 14, the local activists, led by the researcher Gayane Shagoyan with some support from the Eurasia Partnership Foundation, have been organizing a ceremony to remember the victims of purges and deportations of the Soviet period. In Armenia, June 14 marks the “Day of Remembrance of the Repressed.” The scale of the repressions remains staggering: several thousand were executed, and tens of thousands were deported.

The Cascade Memorial, designed in the shape of a rectangular box with a slit as a window, resembling a bunker, provides the commemoration ceremonies an evocative setting — containing and preserving a painful memory in a brutalist style that accurately conveys rupture.

In 2022, about 25 people gathered at the Cascade Memorial to remember the victims of these deportations and purges. Participants read the names of some victims, following an approach of remembrance by the well-known Russian human rights organization, Memorial Society. Memorial Society launched this “Return of the Names” in 2007, which involved reading out the names of people who were unjustly prosecuted under the Soviet Union. As a ritual, this approach reasserts people’s individuality in the face of totalitarian erasure.

This year, the activists were back at the Memorial, where they laid flowers and also attended a talk by Hranush Kharatyan, an ethnographer and former deputy mayor of Yerevan. The event was organized within the framework of an Armenian-US conference on the Soviet Experience and its aftermath. In her talk, Kharatyan highlighted that genocide survivors were particularly targeted in Soviet repressions, as many of them had relatives outside the Soviet Union. 

The commemorative events are a rare moment when the Cascade Memorial opens; otherwise, it remains locked. It is an orphaned monument covered in dust. Even people who regularly pass it do not know what the big concrete building stands for. 

That the Monument is only accessible one day a year is, in many ways, symbolic. As scholars and activists have pointed out, major parts of the Soviet past remain neglected. As they argue, in the absence of redress or at least acknowledgment of the wrongs done through the state authority, it will be hard to build a society that respects the rule of law. 

This nexus between the past and the present is a particular emphasis for Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan and Isabella Sargsyan, who work at the Eurasia Partnership Foundation. They think that the past needs to be more directly faced to create opportunities for genuine change. Their view is shared by historians such as Gerard Libaridian, who has argued that an “evaluation of the impact of Soviet rule on the economy, political culture, morals, and intellectual health of the society” is overdue.

In its landmark setting, the Cascade Memorial can help recover the marginalized memory of Soviet repression — but more needs to be done. Even basic information remains buried. For instance, much of the recollection of Torosyan’s creation of the Cascade Memorial remains personal. Ter-Gabrielyan’s publications provide some context: his father had been friends with Torosyan and witnessed when Torosyan’s father was arrested in 1937, never to be seen again.

Such recollections deserve a more central place. Local universities could do more: Wikipedia, through its online participation, can be a “unique space […] for the construction of knowledge, memory, and culture,”  argue scholars Jutta Haider and Olof Sundin. The media scholar Christian Pentzold has also argued that Wikipedia “provides an ideal example of the discursive organization of remembrance and the different observable steps of memory work as they evolve online.” Students, through micro-contributions to knowledge, can be authors and not just consumers of knowledge. Right now, there is not yet an English-language Wikipedia entry for the Cascade Memorial, nor one for Jim Torosyan, its architect. 

Remembrance ties into broader urban issues in Yerevan. For example, various attempts at replacing the statue of Lenin on Republic Square have struggled. The space stands empty. As Diana Ter-Ghazaryan has pointed out, Republic Square is “a place that represents the ambivalence Armenians have about their collective identity and one that shows vividly the discord between the official narrative of identity and its contestations by the residents of Armenia.”

Most immediately, a task is to come up with a better way of creating access to the Cascade Memorial. One could think of an automated system in which visitors read out the name of one victim of the repressions to gain entry. With access through remembrance, each visit would connect to one fate and invite individuals to reflect. The process of discussing such ideas could offer citizens the opportunity to engage in how they want their past to be represented. As Shagoyan has documented, a previous discussion on placing a statue provoked a spirited debate.  

The commemoration of June 14 and the Cascade Memorial arguably connect to the country’s broader political identity. One surprise as you walk up the Cascade staircase is that a stretch below its top part remains unfinished — a huge hole you only discover as you level with the yawning gap unseen when looking up from below. Rudimentary foundations are visible, with rebar sticking out from concrete. In ascending towards the Cascade’s highest platform, you have to take a major detour.

From the outside, at least, it appears that there remains a gap as well in how Armenians remember their past. Here, too, it may be time to build on the already existing foundations and connect more directly with the past as a way of charting a way toward a more viable and inclusive future.

https://globalvoices.org/2023/08/03/the-loneliest-monument-how-activists-in-armenia-are-trying-to-draw-attention-to-the-victims-of-soviet-repression/

Over the last month, Armenians living in the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh say they are suffering from a shortage of basic necessities. 

The Lachin Corridor is the only road connecting them to Armenia, and that’s where Azerbaijan has set up a military checkpoint, essentially cutting them off and isolating them. 

“The life for the past month it is disastrous, the situation is close to starvation,” said Nina Shahverdyan, a schoolteacher in her 20s who lives in Stepanakert, the largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh. 

“We don’t have any medicine, we don’t have any fuel, we barely have electricity, when we don’t have electricity we don’t have internet as well. We don’t have any food supplies coming in. People right now are struggling with what to put on the table,” she said.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought for decades over the disputed territory of  Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenians who live there are now calling on the US and EU to step in to assist with a growing humanitarian crisis. 

Last week, thousands of people in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, came out to protest Azerbaijan’s blockade.  

They chanted, “Artsakh,” the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh.

The next day, Armenia tried sending humanitarian aid to the region, but a convoy of dozens of trucks filled with food and other goods were stopped by Azerbaijan at the Lachin Corridor checkpoint. They’ve been held up there for a week, still waiting to enter.

Shahverdyan said that a big portion of her day is spent trying to get some food.

“There are huge lines in the city, like, to buy just one or two loaves of bread, and my brother yesterday, he stood for 1 1/2 hours and it’s only just to get the bare minimum bread,” she said. 

Shahverdyan said that people who have gardens have begun growing fruits and vegetables themselves to supplement their diets. During the last six weeks, she said she has lost nearly seven pounds, and her brother has lost nearly nine pounds. 

“If measures are not taken in the coming weeks or months, an actual famine could start,” said Tigran Grigoryan, head of the Regional Center for Democracy and Security based in Yerevan.

He said that Russia and Azerbaijan share responsibly here.

In 2020, Russia brokered a ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, where Russian peacekeepers were supposed to manage the Lachin Corridor.

In the years since, Azerbaijan has taken control.

“This is a direct consequence of the war in Ukraine, because of which, the influence of Russia has significantly decreased in the region, and also the interest of Russia has been shifting. That’s why Azerbaijan has been testing Russia’s red lines on the ground,” he explained. 

Azerbaijan considers Nagorno-Karabakh to be part of its sovereign territory, and Azerbaijan has tried to justify its Lachin Corridor checkpoint as a security measure.

Meanwhile, as this crisis continues to unfold, Armenia and Azerbaijan are still holding peace talks.

“In my understanding you cannot just ignore the elephant in the room, the blockade and humanitarian crisis in the Nagorno-Karabakh and move forward with these so-called peace talks,” Grigoryan said. 

Zaur Shiriyev, a Baku, Azerbaijan-based analyst with the Crisis Group, said that until now, the United States has played a key role in keeping the peace talks alive.

“The expectation now is that the agreement should be signed by the end of the year, the key date in the process. And many worry that if it doesn’t happen by the end, the US will enter its preelection period, potentially decreasing its focus and intervention,” Shiriyev said. 

He added that many issues remain unresolved like the status of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, future security arrangements, and the freedom of movement through the Lachin Corridor.

But despite that, Shiriyev believes that ongoing dialogue between the two sides can be productive, even if a deal doesn’t resolve all these questions.

“Even if [both] sides succeed in signing an agreement, what will happen the day after peace agreement is reached?” 

Back in Stepanakert in Nagorno-Karabakh, Shahverdyan, the schoolteacher, said she doesn’t trust that Azerbaijan would uphold a future peace agreement with Armenia.

“This is not just our local issue here, this is an international issue, this is a humanitarian crisis. And I’m thinking that the way the West pressures Russia to stop the war in Ukraine, the same tactics can be applied to Azerbaijan to stop this. The bare fact that the blockade continues, is proof that they don’t do enough,” she said. 

Over the weekend, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev.

Blinken expressed “deep concern for the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh,” and urged all sides to continue dialogue.

Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh though are looking for more than just words, and are hoping that the blockade is lifted as soon as possible. 

By Etgar Lefkovits, JNS

Hundreds of European rabbis from across the continent will be gathering in Azerbaijan this fall to discuss Jewish affairs in the first such convention in a Muslim nation.

The planned event comes amid burgeoning relations between Israel and Azerbaijan that developed from a centuries-long affinity between the two nations into an unprecedented strategic partnership.

The biennial convention of the Conference of European Rabbis is scheduled to take place in Baku between Nov. 12-15 at the invitation of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who will serve as the honorary host, with about 500 rabbis expected to attend the event.

The primary Orthodox rabbinical alliance in Europe, the organization unites more than 700 religious leaders from communities across Europe. Founded in 1956, it works to defend the rights of Jews in Europe, with freedom of religion and matters related to the Jewish communities expected to be front and center at the conference.

“Azerbaijan is a place with a special memory for the Jewish people, and is home to one of the most unique Jewish communities in the world,” said Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis who met with Aliyev earlier this year.

“The developing ties between Israel and Azerbaijan are of great importance in today’s Middle East,” he added.

The Zurich-born Goldschmidt, who served as chief rabbi of Moscow for nearly three decades, left Russia last year following the invasion of Ukraine and then resigned from his position. His subsequent public criticism of the war led him to be branded by Russia as a “foreign agent.”

‘It is just the right place’

The selection of secular Shi’ite Muslim Azerbaijan as the venue for the conference is also highly symbolic and comes full circle since it is believed that indigenous Jews arrived on the territory of Azerbaijan following the Babylonian destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE.

“The fact that this European rabbinical conference will be held here in Baku is recognition of people feeling safe here; it is just the right place,” said Elchin Amirbayov, representative to the president on special assignments.

“It is a good precedent,” he added.

Indeed, at a time of heightened anti-Semitism across the globe, Azerbaijan is considered free of such animus with the country’s 25,000 to 30,000 Jews living in harmony with their predominantly Muslim neighbors.

“It is truly a privilege to work with Jews from so many diverse backgrounds who live together with a special nation and leadership that honors us and greatly respects us,” said Shneor Segal, who serves as Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community of European Jews in Baku.

Segal is one of seven Chabad emissaries to Azerbaijan, including five in the capital Baku. The city also has three synagogues, two Jewish schools, a newly opened kosher restaurant and hotels that cater to strictly kosher groups.

Historically, Azerbaijan is home to three distinct Jewish communities: European Jews, who settled in the area during the late 19th to early 20th centuries, and during World War II; Jews from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, who settled mainly in Baku during the early part of the 20th century; and Mountain Jews, the most sizable and ancient group.

The conference will include a visit to the historic ancient Jewish town of Quba in Azerbaijan, which was home to Mountain Jews for centuries.

“People are always asking where you can see the Mountain Jews when, in fact, they are often sitting right next to you at a Shabbat service,” he said.

https://ejpress.org/hundreds-of-rabbis-to-join-conference-in-azerbaijan-as-jewish-ties-flourish/

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) called on Disney+ in June to cancel the show, which focused on the founder of the modern Turkish state.

Turkey’s governing party has criticised a reported decision by Walt Disney Co’s Disney+ not to broadcast a documentary series about modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on its streaming service.

Ebubekir Sahin, chairman of Turkey’s television watchdog RTUK, announced the probe on Tuesday night in a statement, describing Ataturk as “our most important social value”.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) called on Disney+ in June to cancel the show, saying that it “glorifies a Turkish dictator and genocide killer”. Last month, Disney+ Turkey announced the Ataturk series would be on air “very soon”.

Several Turkish and Armenian news reports said Disney had decided to cancel the series, including the Armenian independent media outlet 301, saying the decision was influenced by the lobbying activities of ANCA.

In May 1915, Ottoman commanders began the mass deportation of Armenians from eastern Turkey. Armenia has claimed some 1.5 million ethnic Armenians died in massacres or of starvation and exhaustion in the desert.

Turkey has disputed the number, but acknowledges that killings did take place. However, Turkey has said that deaths occurred on all sides in the context of the conflict going on at the time, and refuses to recognise the deaths as a “genocide”.

Mustafa Kemal – later known as Ataturk – was a commander at the Gallipoli campaign of World War I in 1915, and later went on to establish the Republic of Turkey in 1923, after he ended the Ottoman Empire.

Armenians constituted a large minority in what is now modern-day Turkey for centuries, but only a small number remain, with the descendants of those who fled in 1915 living in other countries in the Middle East, and in the West.

Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, called it a “shame” that Disney+ had “succumbed to the pressure of the Armenian lobby” in reportedly cancelling the series.

“This attitude of the platform in question is disrespectful to the values of the Republic of Turkey and our nation,” Celik said in a social media post.

“As we have stated on various occasions before, this so-called genocide network in the USA is using historical events as a tool for the politics of lies. The sole purpose of this lobby is to prevent the normalisation of Turkey-Armenia relations, as has been repeatedly seen.”

Walt Disney Turkey said on Wednesday that it had “revised content distribution strategy to reach wider audience” and decided to air a special version of the documentary on the FOX television channel in Turkey, and then it would be shown as two separate films in theatres.

The statement did not make it clear whether the Ataturk films will be broadcast on the Disney+ streaming service.

“As part of the centenary celebrations, we’re proud to announce that we will be bringing Ataturk to even more people from October through free-to-air FOX. Followed then by a theatrical window where people can experience both Film 1 and Film 2 on the big screen,” Saner Ayar, the producer, was quoted as saying in the Walt Disney Turkey statement.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/2/turkey-slams-reports-disney-will-scrap-ataturk-series 

At the European U23 Weightlifting Championship being held in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, Armenia’s Liana Gyurjian won the gold medal in combined total in the women’s 87kg category, with the result of 221 kg (96+125). She was also the first in the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk.

Armenia’s Petros Petrosyan won the silver medal in combined total in the men’s 109kg category, with a result of 370 kg (163+207). He also became a silver medalist in Snatch and the Clean and Jerk.

Team Armenia have already won 5 gold, 5 silver, and 6 bronze medals in this championship.

In the junior competition, Armenia’s Meruzhan Yeghoyan (61 kg), Seyran Khudanyan (55 kg), Martin Poghosyan (73 kg), Aleksandra Grigoryan (59 kg), Mnatsakan Abrahamyan, and Julieta Avanesyan (+87 kg) have won bronze medals.

Omer Celik, a spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP said on Wednesday that the Walt Disney Co’s axing of a series about former Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk from its Disney+ streaming service was “shameful”.

Celik alleged that the company caved in to “the Armenian lobby” in the US.

The Armenian National Committee of America had called for the cancellation of the series, describing Ataturk as a “dictator and genocide killer” and arguing that he should not get the “Disney treatment”.

The Turkish opposition shared the fury of the government.

“We see the Disney administrators’ decision is a hate crime against our founding father and great leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. We condemn the decision,” said Faik Oztrak, spokesperson for Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party.

The Walt Disney Company confirmed that it cancelled the series for Disney+ streaming but said it will be broadcast in Turkey.

“As a result of the changes made in our content strategy, a special TV version of ‘Ataturk’ will be broadcasted on our FOX channel [in Turkey]; two films will be in the movie theatres [in Turkey] and then on FOX TV screens,” Cenk Soner, the director for Turkey of the Walt Disney Company said on Wednesday.

The series was originally intended to be a six-part period drama be aired on the Disney+ platform for a global audience.

Ebubekir Sahin, head of the Turkish state agency that monitors and sanctions radio and television broadcasts, announced on Wednesday that an investigation has been launched into Disney+.

The Union of Armenian Foundations in Turkey urged the Armenian diaspora to be more reatrained.

“We call on Armenian institutions and organisations in the USA and international media organisations to support the normalisation process between Turkey and Armenia and to act more responsibly,” Bedros Sirinoglu, president of the Union of Armenian Foundations in Turkey, said in a statement.

The modern Turkish republic founded by Ataturk after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire is to celebrate its first 100th anniversary in 2023 and the Disney+ had designed the series to coincide with the centennial.

Armenian diaspora groups describe killings and deportations of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide. They claimed the series would glorify Ataturk as an Ottoman army officer.

Turkey strongly rejects the genocide allegation.

https://balkaninsight.com/2023/08/03/disneys-decision-to-cancel-ataturk-series-leaves-turks-angry/

Disney will not air a series about the founder of Turkey on its Disney+ streaming platform as originally planned, the company told multiple news outlets, after criticism over his ties to the Armenian genocide—a decision that sparked outrage from high-profile Turkish figures and marks the latest international controversy embroiling U.S. film and TV studios.