• Amr Salem

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi President, Abdul Latif Rashid, met on Wednesday with the Armenian President, Vahagn Khachaturian, at the Presidential Palace in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

The meeting addressed ways to develop bilateral ties between Iraq and Armenia as well as the latest international developments, according to a statement issued by the Iraqi Presidency.

The president of Iraq expressed interest in initiating bilateral work mechanisms and monitoring the decisions made at the most recent joint committee sessions in Baghdad.

Rashid indicated that Iraq is now an attractive country for foreign investments, particularly in areas such as infrastructure, tourism, and trade exchange.

Khachaturian expressed his appreciation for Rashid’s visit to Armenia due to its positive impact on relations between the two countries, noting that Rashid’s visit is the first of its kind by an Iraqi president to Armenia.

The two presidents chaired a meeting attended by official delegations from both sides, where they discussed agreements in several areas.

The expanded meeting discussed the importance of regulating flights between Baghdad and Yerevan, as well as between Erbil and Yerevan, to boost tourism activities between the two countries.

Both sides also discussed the cancellation of entry visas between the two countries, in addition to operating direct flights between Iraq and Armenia.

The meeting also tackled cooperation in the fields of investment, energy, and technology, facilitating the entry of companies and businessmen, as well as supporting the tourism sector.

This loan also aims to support Armenia's "Comprehensive and Sustainable Green Development Program."

Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, the Director-General of the OPEC Fund, emphasized the fund's commitment to supporting Armenia's climate adaptation program in collaboration with the World Bank, which has provided a parallel loan of €92.3 million.

The statement highlighted the importance of enhancing climate adaptation capabilities.

The OPEC Fund's statement explained that the "Comprehensive and Sustainable Green Development Program" supports Armenia's developmental aspirations and long-term national plans.

It helps Armenia achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), improve environmental management, enhance energy efficiency, promote human capital development, and strengthen governance.

This loan signifies international support for Armenia's endeavors in addressing climate change and advancing sustainable development initiatives. 

Self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has condemned Armenia's absence from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) summit, calling it a "demarche".

Source: European Pravda with reference to the Belarusian state agency Belta

Quote from Lukashenko: "We came to the conclusion that there have always been and will be problematic issues. If we want to solve them, we need to do it at the negotiating table, but not to make demarches without reasons, without specific reasons."

Details: At the meeting, the CSTO members discussed the situation in the Caucasus and "some dissatisfaction of a Collective Security Council’s member", referring to Armenia's decision not to attend the organisation's summit in Minsk.

Background:

• Russian dictator Vladimir Putin arrived in Minsk for a session of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), which was ignored by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

• Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik said decisions in the CSTO are made through consensus, and the decisions will be legitimate even in the absence of the Armenian side.

• Armen Grigoryan, Secretary of Armenia's Security Council, explained that the country ignored the previous CSTO meetings because it "had numerous questions" for the organisation, which still have no answers.

• Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,  accused Armenia of "trying to sit on two chairs" because Yerevan is improving relations with the West.

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• https://news.yahoo.com/lukashenko-condemns-armenias-absence-collective-134026465.html

Shortly after actor-director Michael Goorjian wrote the script for “Amerikatsi,” which is Armenia’s candidate for the international Oscar, he turned to System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian – who is also of Armenian descent – for feedback on the tale of an Armenian-American who repatriates in 1948 to what has become Soviet Armenia.

The Grammy-winning musician and political activist then became an executive producer on the film, which uses an ironic Chaplin-esque tone to depict the dream of the Armenian diaspora to reconnect with their roots.

Goorjian, who wrote and directed the movie, also stars as Charlie, an Armenian immigrant to the U.S. who returns to his homeland, now under Soviet rule, and almost immediately gets thrown into jail. But from his cell, he can see a prison guard’s home. Gradually, his life and that of the Armenian guard and his wife become vicariously entwined.

Goorjian and Tankian spoke to Variety about the film’s timeliness, just as Armenia’s relations with Russia are becoming increasingly frayed.

How did “Amerikatsi” germinate?

Goorjian: As an Armenian, I’ve always wanted to do something related to my roots. But with so much focus on the genocide, I really wanted to make a movie that would allow Armenians to celebrate themselves a bit and be fun to watch. This period when Stalin invited Armenians to repatriate – he did it with many of the Soviet countries – I didn’t know about it, and many Armenians don’t really talk about it. But I’ve heard it described a few times as a “wound upon a wound.” After the genocide, these Armenians who had made their way in the world wound up going back expecting homeland and expecting Armenia. It was a disaster for so many. So finding what was hopeful in this story wasn’t necessarily easy, nor was finding the right tone. When I first wrote the script, I wasn’t 100% sure it would work. That is one of the reasons why Serj saw an early copy of it. And I think, in a lot of ways, he gave me the confidence that there’s something here and it’s worth pursuing.

Can you contextualize the film for me within present-day Armenia?

Tankian: I think it’s an incredible time to put out this film because of Armenia’s geopolitical pivot toward the West and showing some of the history. People look at Armenia and say, “Oh, they’ve been a Russian satellite Soviet nation since the early 1920s.” Which is true. But people don’t realize that the genocide has a lot to do with it. We had Turkey next door after the genocide. We had famine in Armenia and a lot of things. Armenia didn’t have much of an independence. It just had independence for about two years, and the Turkish army was moving in. There were battles and all that. So the choice was between the Russians, who we knew weren’t going to massacre us, and the Turks, that were massacring us. So it wasn’t much of a choice to Sovietize Armenia in 1921. And people have to realize that. The story then becomes the story of Soviet Armenia, which lasted until 1991 with the independence of Armenia and Russia being the security guarantor. And then in 2020, as we know, Azerbaijan attacked. And, of course, they attacked with the full knowledge and acceptance of Putin because that stuff wouldn’t happen in his backyard without his go-ahead. And since then, the Russian state has thrown Armenia under the bus. So coming back to this film, it’s a perfect pivot showing why Armenia is going Western.

Michael, how did you create this protagonist who, while he’s imprisoned, lives almost vicariously through the life of these other two characters he sees from his prison window?

Goorjian: Oddly, it’s actually based on a true story someone told me. A Ukrainian friend of mine knew somebody in prison who could see into an apartment building. And what struck me about the story is that it’s a reflection of a very deep aspect of the human condition that doesn’t get recognized that much. Sometimes we forget that we have this part of ourselves that, when we start noticing someone else or paying attention and looking and learning about someone else, just like this prisoner, we can’t help but start caring. That’s human nature. And to me, that’s something that’s not just for Armenians, but for the world right now. We need to be reminded of things like that. That’s what struck me about that story, and that’s why it felt right also for Armenia. I wanted to share Armenian culture, but in a way that was not hitting you over the head with it. I wanted the audience, like the prisoner, to voyeuristically be peeking in a window at an Armenian family and learning little bits of their culture and the food they eat, hearing the music they’re playing. And that is a way of pulling people in.

What does the fact that this film is an Oscar contender mean for Armenians?

Goorjian: I look at it like it’s almost national security to be able to help people see us more as who we really are. Things people know about Armenian culture are very, very limited. And just by having a film that’s accessible – that’s not just for Armenians, but also for non-Armenians – it helps Armenians to be seen. For Armenia to get a nomination, it would literally change the country.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

https://variety.com/2023/film/global/system-of-a-down-serj-tankian-amerikatsi-michael-goorjian-armenia-oscar-1235806383/

The Kremlin said Thursday that it "regretted" Armenia's decision to skip a summit of a Moscow-led security alliance, amid a souring of relations between the two ex-Soviet allies.

Neither Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan nor his defense minister showed up to a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Minsk on Thursday, which comes as Russia worries Yerevan could pull out of the alliance altogether.

When asked to comment on the absence of Armenia's delegation, the Kremlin said: "We can express regret in this regard."

"We hope that Armenia does not change the vector of its foreign policy and remains our ally… We will continue to talk to them," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a state TV reporter.

Tensions between the two countries have run high since September, when Russian peacekeepers failed to intervene in Azerbaijan's lightning offensive against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In a televised address after the conflict, Pashinyan denounced Armenia's traditional security alliance with Russia as "insufficient" and called on Yerevan to seek new partners.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it was "reckless" for Armenia to think it could rely on the West for security, and slammed Yerevan for "radically" changing its foreign policy.

Armenia's high-level snub marks yet another blow to bilateral relations, after Pashinyan shunned a summit attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin in October.

A US report published last week criticizes Turkey for not doing enough to prevent threats to non-Muslim religious sites in the country.

The report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) maintains that while the number and severity of violent attacks targeting religious sites—such as bombings and other terrorist methods—have decreased over the last decade, there has not been a similar decline in incidents of vandalism and the destruction of religious properties.

Titled “Examination of Threats to Religious Sites in Turkey,” the study demonstrates denominational differences in the threats and attacks faced by various religious communities, including the Greek Orthodox, in Turkey and evaluates the geographic variation in attitudes towards these communities and their religious sites.

Although efforts by the Turkish government and local authorities to restore select religious heritage sites represent an important positive step, such projects remain limited, it is reported.

It notes that “the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne also provided protection and freedom of worship for the remaining non-Muslim communities” but that this protection and freedom of worship has often been sharply curtailed, not infrequently through action against sacred Christian sites.

The report illustrates that the highest number of attacks on Greek Orthodox and other Orthodox churches occurred in the Marmara region of Istanbul, which is associated with the largest concentration of non-Muslim populations.

In addition, the report states that the seizure of property can be used as a form of retaliation, citing as an example the seizure of the Prince’s Greek Orthodox orphanage.

The particular orphanage was confiscated in 1964 by Turkish authorities, who did not perform the necessary maintenance, thus allowing the building to suffer the wear and tear of time.

As noted, by the time the Ecumenical Patriarchate managed to regain ownership of the building through an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, “after 60 years of abandonment, the building had sustained significant damage and fallen into disrepair.”

“The burden is on the Greek Orthodox community to repair and preserve the site at considerable financial cost,” the report added.

Overall, despite the decrease in bombings and terrorist attacks in the last decade, incidents of vandalism, destruction of religious property through arson, treasure hunting, and the lack of prosecution of such incidents have increasingly affected Greek Orthodox and other Orthodox communities in Turkey, the report notes.

USCIRF will host a virtual event to discuss the findings of the report on Tuesday, November 28, 2023.

Two-year waiver issued through the Armenian Protection Act.

The Senate unanimously voted to pass the Armenian Protection Act last week, suspending U.S. financial aid to Azerbaijan for the next two years to prevent that nation from invading Armenia. Azerbaijan has placed a disputed region of southern Armenia under siege for the last nine months, and last week 100,000 Armenians fled the area, prompting some to describe the situation as ongoing ethnic cleansing.

“We must send a strong message and show our partners around the world that America will enforce the conditions that we attach to military aid,” Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, author of the Armenian Protection Act, said on the Senate floor. “If we do not take action when countries willfully ignore the terms of our agreements with them, our agreements will become effectively meaningless and toothless.”

• For members of the Senate as they seek to ensure U.S. assistance is not used for ethnic cleansing.
• For representatives in the House to be wise as they consider the legislation to block waivers for Azerbaijan.
• For Secretary of State Blinken as he monitors the situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
• For the people of Armenia as they experience persecution and exile from their homes.