Friday,
ICJ Order Says Baku Must Ensure Safety Of Armenians Who Want To Return To
Nagorno-Karabakh
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has published a preliminary order
calling on Azerbaijan to ensure the safety of Armenians who want to return to
Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive in September that
resulted in Baku regaining control of the region.
The ICJ decision on November 17 concluded that pending a final decision in the
case, Azerbaijan must ensure that people who left Nagorno-Karabakh after
September 19 and wish to return “are able to do so in a safe, unimpeded, and
expeditious manner.”
The same applies to people who wish to depart Nagorno-Karabakh, while those who
wish to stay must remain “free from the use of force or intimidation that may
cause them to flee,” the court said in its decision, approved 13-2 by the judges.
The judges also called on Azerbaijan to “protect and preserve registration,
identity, and private property documents and records” of people in the region
and told the country to submit a report to the UN’s top court within eight weeks
on the steps taken to apply the provisional measures.
The decision is a preliminary step in a case brought by Armenia accusing
Azerbaijan of breaching an international convention against racial
discrimination linked to Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan also has brought a case
against Armenia alleging breaches of the same convention. It is likely to take
years to resolve the cases.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said Baku welcomed the court’s decision, saying
it confirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
“It is worth noting that the court also rejected the groundless and ridiculous
request to withdraw the personnel of all the military and law enforcement
agencies of Azerbaijan from the Karabakh region,” the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, the measures mentioned by the court accept the
already declared policy of the Azerbaijani government regarding the Armenian
residents of Karabakh.
“This includes our commitment to ensure the safety and security of all
residents, regardless of national or ethnic origin,” it said.
The decision released on November 17 comes after Armenia asked The Hague-based
ICJ to order so-called provisional measures guaranteeing safety and protecting
property and identity documents.
Armenia made the request after Azerbaijan’s army routed ethnic Armenian forces
in Nagorno-Karabakh in a 24-hour campaign that began on September 19. The
region’s ethnic Armenian government agreed within days to disband itself by the
end of the year as more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s statement reiterated the country’s position
that it did not force out any ethnic Armenians and that many left despite the
government’s call for them to stay.
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov pledged at a hearing before
the ICJ in October that Azerbaijan would do all it could to ensure the safety
and rights of all citizens in the region.
The court said on November 17 that the pledges “are binding and create legal
obligations for Azerbaijan.”
The ICJ decision also said that Azerbaijan’s operation in Nagorno-Karabakh took
place in the context of “the long-standing exposure of the population of
Nagorno-Karabakh to a situation of vulnerability and social precariousness.”
It said the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh “have been severely impacted by the
long-lasting disruption of the connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia
via the Lachin Corridor.”
Azerbaijan Urged To Return To ‘Constructive Discussions’
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Artur Hovannisian, a member of the ruling Civil Contract faction in the Armenian
parliament
Assessing negatively Baku’s decision to cancel an upcoming meeting of the
foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington on November 20, the
Armenian ruling party has called on Azerbaijan to return to the field of
“constructive discussions.”
“We see a non-constructive approach, which, in turn, can cause many problems and
risks,” Artur Hovannisian, a lawmaker representing Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s Civil Contract faction in the National Assembly, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service on Friday.
Azerbaijan canceled talks planned in Washington for November 20, complaining
about the statements of James O’Brien, a senior U.S. Department of State
official who criticized Baku during a recent congressional hearing, warning that
“nothing will be normal with Azerbaijan” after its one-day military operation
against Nagorno-Karabakh in September “until we see progress on the peace track.”
In response, Baku described this approach by the United States as “one-sided”,
warning that Washington could lose its role as a mediator.
Earlier, Azerbaijan also refused to attend meetings in Granada and Brussels that
were planned by leaders of the European Union.
The government of Armenia, however, says it still does not rule out the signing
of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan by the end of the year.
“We do not rule out anything. We are moving forward constructively with the
peace agenda, and I repeat, I also hope that with the mediation and efforts of
our international partners, it will be possible to move forward effectively and
return Azerbaijan to a constructive framework,” Hovannisian stressed.
Artur Khachatrian, a lawmaker with the opposition Hayastan faction in the
Armenian parliament, meanwhile, said that he believed that Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev rejected the meetings organized first by the European Union and
then through the mediation of the United States because “Western platforms are
no longer interesting to Azerbaijan.”
Artur Khachatrian
“Baku has already got what it wanted, namely Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – red.],”
he said.
“Let’s not forget that for the first time in the history of the Third Republic
of Armenia, without having any right to do that, [an Armenian leader], Nikol
Pashinian, has recognized the sovereignty of Azerbaijan over the Republic of
Artsakh on the Western platform. They got what they wanted on those platforms,
now they have nothing to get from there anymore. That’s the main reason,” the
opposition lawmaker told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“What it is fraught with? A new war?” he added.
The fact that Azerbaijan has canceled three meetings in the last two months,
according to another opposition lawmaker Tigran Abrahamian, shows that Baku is
buying time, trying to understand whether it is worth taking the path of
military operations to achieve its maximum goals.
Tigran Abrahamian
“I think that a certain calculation and re-evaluation of the balance of forces
is taking place in Azerbaijan at the moment, because it is obvious that
Azerbaijan today also has territorial claims towards various settlements of the
Republic of Armenia. Recently, they have been quite actively talking about
so-called enclaves, about their demands in relation to eight villages, and maybe
at this stage Azerbaijan is trying to gain time, to assess the situation and see
whether to resort to military action in specific directions in order to achieve
its maximum goals,” Abrahamian, of the Pativ Unem faction, told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
Officials in Azerbaijan routinely deny statements from the Armenian side about
Baku’s being unconstructive in the negotiations, for their part accusing Yerevan
of not willing to make headway in the peace process.
Washington Reaffirms Support For Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Talks
Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State Matthew Miller (file photo).
Washington has reaffirmed its support for peace talks between Azerbaijan and
Armenia after Baku pulled out of an upcoming U.S.-hosted meeting citing “biased”
remarks by a Department of State official.
During a press briefing on November 16 Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the
U.S. Department of State, was asked to comment on Baku’s step to refuse to
participate in Washington talks planned at the level of foreign ministers.
Miller said that “we continue to support peace talks to resolve the issues
between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
“We would encourage the two parties to engage in those talks, whether they are
here, whether they are somewhere else, and that’ll continue to be our policy,”
he added.
Speaking to members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on
Europe as part of a hearing on “the future of Nagorno-Karabakh” on November 15,
James O’Brien, assistant secretary at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of
European and Eurasian Affairs, said that Washington “made clear that nothing
will be normal with Azerbaijan after the events of September 19 until we see
progress on the peace track.”
The official referred to Baku’s one-day military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh
as a result of which virtually the entire local Armenian population – more than
100,000 people – fled to Armenia.
O’Brien said that Washington canceled a number of high-level visits to
Azerbaijan in response to that action and that “we don’t anticipate submitting a
waiver on Section 907 until such time that we see a real improvement.”
Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act passed along with the adoption of the
legislation in 1992 bans any kind of direct United States aid to the Azerbaijani
government. A decade later, however, U.S. lawmakers amended Section 907 to allow
presidents to repeal it annually to provide military assistance to Azerbaijan
such as for countering international terrorism and border security.
Azerbaijan on Thursday reacted angrily to the remarks by the U.S. State
Department official that its Foreign Ministry described as a blow to relations
between the two countries.
It said that Baku would, therefore, not send a delegation to Washington for
talks between the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia around a peace
agreement that it said were planned for November 20.
Last month Azerbaijan also withdrew from at least two meetings planned by the
European Union and European leaders.
Armenia, on the country, has indicated readiness to engage in further talks with
Azerbaijan both in Brussels and Washington.
In his remarks during the congressional hearing O’Brien said that the next few
weeks will be “critical” in the context of negotiations between Armenia and
Azerbaijan.
France ‘Vigilant’ About Armenia’s 1991 Borders
French Ambassador to Armenia Olivier Decottignies on the slope of Mount Tezhkar
near the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. .
France is vigilant about the territorial integrity of Armenia and respect for
its 1991 borders, the French Embassy in Armenia said.
In a Thursday post on Facebook the embassy showed photographs of the French
ambassador to Armenia hiking in the mountains, writing: “French Ambassador
Olivier Decottignies on the slope of Mount Tezhkar, a strategic point in
Armenian territory, on the border with Azerbaijan (Nakhichevan). France is
particularly vigilant about the territorial integrity of Armenia and respect for
its 1991 borders reiterated in the Prague Declaration.”
By referring to the 1991 borders, France implies the Almaty Declaration that was
signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and 10 other former Soviet republics in December
1991 after the collapse of the USSR.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
issued a joint statement following their quadrilateral meeting in Prague on
October 6, 2022 with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council
President Charles Michel, confirming their commitment to the Charter of the
United Nations and the Alma-Ata 1991 Declaration through which both Armenia and
Azerbaijan recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
During his visit to Tbilisi, Georgia, last month Pashinian stressed that the key
meaning of that Alma-Ata Declaration is that the administrative borders that
existed between the republics of the Soviet Union at the moment of the USSR’s
collapse become state borders.
“We hope to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan in the coming months and
restore relations based on these principles,” Pashinian said.
In his public statements on several occasions Azerbaijani leader Aliyev has said
that his country has territorial claims to Armenia. But he has so far declined
to recognize the integrity of Armenian territory in numerical terms, something
that Pashinian has done repeatedly.
Pashinian has said that Azerbaijan’s narrative about what Armenia perceives as a
demand for an extraterritorial land corridor to its western exclave of
Nakhichevan and continued talk about “Western Azerbaijan”, suggesting that
Azeris who left Armenia at the start of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh in
the late 1980s had lived in their “historical lands,” shows that Azerbaijan is
“preparing a new war against the Republic of Armenia.”
Azerbaijan has denied any aggressive plans against Armenian territory,
condemning France for its supply of weapons to Armenia under a recent military
cooperation agreement signed between the two countries.
EU To ‘Explore Options’ For Visa Liberalization With Armenia
Peter Stano, the European Commission’s lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and
security policy (file photo).
The European Union is going to explore options for visa liberalization with
Armenia, an official in Brussels has said.
Peter Stano, the European Commission’s lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and
security policy, told Armenia’s state-run Armenpress news agency that “this
means we will start the process to see whether it’s feasible, whether it’s
possible.”
Stano said that “visa liberalization is something that is very important because
it’s tangible and visible for people.”
“There are also tasks to be fulfilled on the side of the partner country, in
this case of Armenia,” he said. “In general, for visa liberalization, there are
technical requirements that means biometric passports, for example, but also
political requirements to make sure that the political framework in the country
prevents people from misusing the asylum system. First of all, that people are
not forced to leave the country and claim asylum.”
Stano emphasized that they do not want to have a sudden increase in asylum
seekers and want to prevent the misuse of the visa-free or liberalized travel
regime.
He said that “if everything goes well, the process might bring a lot of benefits
for the Armenian citizens.”
The EU’s Foreign Affairs Council on November 13 gave the green light to the
European Commission to explore options for visa liberalization with Armenia.
The European Commission is to come up with a specific decision subject to
ratification by all members of the 27-nation bloc.
Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovannisian said earlier this week that
Yerevan considered it possible that negotiations on visa liberalization with the
European Union would commence “in the coming months.”
He said he considered it positive that no EU member state had opposed the start
of the process.
“It was difficult to ensure that consensus among all countries, but it was a
very positive development,” the senior Armenian diplomat said.
“We will continue to actively work with the European Union and its member states
to speed up that process as much as possible,” he added.
Back in 2016, the head of the European Union delegation to Armenia announced
that Yerevan and Brussels would achieve visa liberalization in the near future.
It is also provided for under the Comprehensive and Extended Partnership
Agreement that Armenia signed with the EU in 2017. However, no significant
progress has been made in terms of visa liberalization for Armenia since then.
Armenia To Formally Join ICC In February
Armenia has formally handed in its request to join the International Criminal
Court (ICC) and will become a member in February, The Hague-based tribunal
announced on November 17.
Yerevan last month signed the ratification of the ICC’s founding treaty also
known as the Rome Statute, recognizing the Court’s jurisdiction. Armenia says
this would allow the Court’s prosecutors to investigate alleged crimes committed
in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Baku in September retook complete control of the region after a lightning
offensive, resulting in more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fleeing across the
border into Armenia. Yerevan has accused Baku of “ethnic cleansing” in the
region, a claim Azerbaijan strongly denies.
Risking more tensions with Russia, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian met
on November 10 with Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the ICC who issued an
arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March. The meeting took
place on the sidelines of an annual Paris Peace Forum held in the French capital.
One week after the order for Putin’s arrest over war crimes allegedly committed
by Russia in Ukraine Armenia’s Constitutional Court gave the green light for
parliamentary ratification of the Rome Statute. Despite stern warnings issued by
the Russian leadership in the following months, the National Assembly controlled
by Pashinian’s party ratified the treaty on October 3.
The move added to unprecedented tensions between the two states. Russian
officials said it will cause serious damage to Russian-Armenian relations. They
dismissed Yerevan’s assurances that the ratification does not commit it to
arresting Putin and handing him over to the ICC in the event of his visit to
Armenia.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said earlier this month that it has proposed to
Moscow a bilateral agreement that “can dispel the concerns of the Russian
Federation.” Russian lawmakers brushed aside the proposal.
1 Killed, 3 Injured In Yerevan University Blast, Fire
An ambulance car and police work near a Yerevan State University building.
.
One person was killed and three others were injured in a blast and subsequent
fire at a Yerevan State University (YSU) building on Thursday morning, the
Armenian police, healthcare authorities and the university’s administration said.
Initially, the YSU reported only fire, saying that it began in one of the rooms
of the basement floor in Building N1. It said that the fire was extinguished and
“appropriate actions” were being taken. It said the fire was caused by a voltage
fluctuation, but did not elaborate.
The Ministry of Health, in its turn, reported that three persons were
hospitalized from the scene of the fire at one of the YSU buildings. It said all
three were getting the necessary medical care and undergoing examinations. No
other details regarding their current conditions were reported immediately. The
Ministry of Health also confirmed that one person was killed in the fire.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs later reported that an explosion took place in
the 100-square-meter basement of YSU’s chemistry department that caused a
subsequent fire.
The report said that the room where the blast occurred was intended for a
pumping station, but it also served as a dressing room for maintenance workers.
It said that next to it was a room for storage of chemicals, but there was no
fire in that room. The Ministry of Internal Affairs said that an on-site
investigation was carried out by chemists and no dangerous gases were detected
in the air.
The ministry reported that one of the employees died on the spot and three
people were taken to hospital, including one patrol service officer who was
hospitalized with symptoms of smoke inhalation and whose condition is currently
assessed as satisfactory.
The ministry said the rescue service was alerted to the incident at 9:40 am. It
said the fire in the university basement was contained at 10:11 a.m. and
extinguished at 10:23 a.m.
“Household items and wooden structures were burned in the compressor room.
Investigation is underway to find out the circumstances of the incident,” it
said.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Armenia, Iran eye warming ties despite divergent interests
eurasianet
Nov 17 2023
Bay Area Armenians Mobilize To Help Refugees From Nagorno-Karabakh
Nov 15 2023
SAN FRANCISCO — Bay Area Armenians have rallied together to support recent refugees from the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
This is the latest development of the Armenia and Azerbaijan conflict that started back in 2020. Azerbaijan had been blockading the Nagorno-Karabakh region, formerly a semi-autonomous republic, since the end of last year but fully occupied it at the end of September. As a result, over 100,000 ethnic Armenians have fled the area, fearing worsening conditions.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been an area of contention between both countries. Spanning over 1,700 square miles, the region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. However, due to its large Armenian population and continuous conflicts with Azerbaijan spanning back to 1918, it had been operating as a semi-autonomous republic since 1991 under the name “Republic of Artsakh.” Now, with Azerbaijan taking full control of the region, Artsakh is planned to dissolve by the beginning of next year, turning many of its former residents into refugees.
For Ani Bagdasarian, a nurse living in Palo Alto, helping involves shipping medical equipment for those in need. A daughter of two Armenian immigrants, Bagdasarian originally started shipping medical equipment back in 2020 when the war broke out. At the time, through a partnership with a series of non-profits, Bagdasarian managed to fill two large planes with only healthcare items.
“We filled [the shipments] with supplies, beds, all the basics,” said Bagdasarian.
While she is still focused on sending medical equipment, she no longer has access to such large transportation options. Due to logistical complications, an average shipment to Armenia takes around two months to arrive. Because of these obstacles, Bagdasarian believes the Armenian community has taken a different approach than the one three years ago.
“The efforts [to help the refugees] were more slow to start. Everyone wanted to be more methodical this time, making sure to give people what they need,” said Bagdasarian.
In her case, that involves sending less basic medical supplies, and more targeted ones, focused on treating the illnesses that currently afflict many refugees.
David Ojakian, the western region director for the Armenian Assembly of America, an Armenian advocacy organization, says there are other ways to help the refugees that don’t involve directly sending supplies.
“The biggest element right now is raising money. We need to give information to the community, show them how to take action, and where to donate,” said Ojakian.
Although based in the Bay Area, Ojakian’s work takes him across the United States. As an executive in the organization, most of his job involves lobbying politicians in D.C. to send government support to the refugees, something that still hasn’t happened.
“It’s hard to get issues to the forefront in D.C., but we have to do it. There is no other way,” said Ojakian.
Ojakian is not the only one trying to get the Biden administration to provide aid to the refugees. Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, a Palo Alto Democrat who is of Armenian descent, wrote a letter signed by 75 other members of congress urging the president to take a more active stance, both in helping the refugees as well as condemning Azerbaijan.
“The U.S. has a moral obligation to do whatever is necessary to bring an end to this needless suffering and ensure Azerbaijan faces consequences for engaging in ethnic cleansing,” read the letter.
Susie Avagyan, a master’s student at Stanford University left Armenia just days before the refugee crisis started. She mobilized almost immediately after hearing the news. Originally, she started helping by running a clothing drive but soon grew dissatisfied with the impact that could have.
“Because of shipping issues, we could only ship one bag of clothes. And that’s not really enough. I wanted to be of more help,” said Avagyan.
She then decided to change approaches and use her position as a Stanford student to her benefit, connecting with various Armenian student organizations around the bay.
“My main goal now is to make people aware of [the refugee crisis]. The more people are aware, the bigger the change we can make,” said Avagyan. While she has done various things to raise awareness, her work currently focuses on convincing universities to spread the word about the issue in their official newsletters.
“The Armenian community here is very strong,” she added. “Even though everyone is so far away, they all came together to help. It’s good to know that, even halfway across the world, there are still people who care,” said Avagyan.
SAN FRANCISCO — Bay Area Armenians have rallied together to support recent refugees from the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
This is the latest development of the Armenia and Azerbaijan conflict that started back in 2020. Azerbaijan had been blockading the Nagorno-Karabakh region, formerly a semi-autonomous republic, since the end of last year but fully occupied it at the end of September. As a result, over 100,000 ethnic Armenians have fled the area, fearing worsening conditions.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been an area of contention between both countries. Spanning over 1,700 square miles, the region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. However, due to its large Armenian population and continuous conflicts with Azerbaijan spanning back to 1918, it had been operating as a semi-autonomous republic since 1991 under the name “Republic of Artsakh.” Now, with Azerbaijan taking full control of the region, Artsakh is planned to dissolve by the beginning of next year, turning many of its former residents into refugees.
For Ani Bagdasarian, a nurse living in Palo Alto, helping involves shipping medical equipment for those in need. A daughter of two Armenian immigrants, Bagdasarian originally started shipping medical equipment back in 2020 when the war broke out. At the time, through a partnership with a series of non-profits, Bagdasarian managed to fill two large planes with only healthcare items.
“We filled [the shipments] with supplies, beds, all the basics,” said Bagdasarian.
While she is still focused on sending medical equipment, she no longer has access to such large transportation options. Due to logistical complications, an average shipment to Armenia takes around two months to arrive. Because of these obstacles, Bagdasarian believes the Armenian community has taken a different approach than the one three years ago.
“The efforts [to help the refugees] were more slow to start. Everyone wanted to be more methodical this time, making sure to give people what they need,” said Bagdasarian.
In her case, that involves sending less basic medical supplies, and more targeted ones, focused on treating the illnesses that currently afflict many refugees.
David Ojakian, the western region director for the Armenian Assembly of America, an Armenian advocacy organization, says there are other ways to help the refugees that don’t involve directly sending supplies.
“The biggest element right now is raising money. We need to give information to the community, show them how to take action, and where to donate,” said Ojakian.
Although based in the Bay Area, Ojakian’s work takes him across the United States. As an executive in the organization, most of his job involves lobbying politicians in D.C. to send government support to the refugees, something that still hasn’t happened.
“It’s hard to get issues to the forefront in D.C., but we have to do it. There is no other way,” said Ojakian.
Ojakian is not the only one trying to get the Biden administration to provide aid to the refugees. Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, a Palo Alto Democrat who is of Armenian descent, wrote a letter signed by 75 other members of congress urging the president to take a more active stance, both in helping the refugees as well as condemning Azerbaijan.
“The U.S. has a moral obligation to do whatever is necessary to bring an end to this needless suffering and ensure Azerbaijan faces consequences for engaging in ethnic cleansing,” read the letter.
Susie Avagyan, a master’s student at Stanford University left Armenia just days before the refugee crisis started. She mobilized almost immediately after hearing the news. Originally, she started helping by running a clothing drive but soon grew dissatisfied with the impact that could have.
“Because of shipping issues, we could only ship one bag of clothes. And that’s not really enough. I wanted to be of more help,” said Avagyan.
She then decided to change approaches and use her position as a Stanford student to her benefit, connecting with various Armenian student organizations around the bay.
“My main goal now is to make people aware of [the refugee crisis]. The more people are aware, the bigger the change we can make,” said Avagyan. While she has done various things to raise awareness, her work currently focuses on convincing universities to spread the word about the issue in their official newsletters.
“The Armenian community here is very strong,” she added. “Even though everyone is so far away, they all came together to help. It’s good to know that, even halfway across the world, there are still people who care,” said Avagyan.
Guilherme graduated from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where he also worked as an Executive Radio Producer and a Columnist. Growing up in São Paulo, Brazil, he contributed to national media outlets, writing about foreign politics. He is interested in international journalism and local government issues. He seeks to use data-driven storytelling to inform underserved communities better and to create tools to assist news organizations in doing the same. As a bonafide Brazilian, his biggest wish is to see his country win its sixth World Cup.
https://peninsulapress.com/2023/11/15/bay-area-armenians-mobilize-to-help-refugees-from-nagorno-karabakh/
The Armenia Project Hosts Panel on Conflict Coverage in Modern Era
Nov 17 2023
- Top experts address challenges of Gaza, Ukraine, Caucasus, and discuss why some conflicts generate more coverage
- Event held in collaboration with the the Institute for International Journalism at E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and the American University of Armenia
YEREVAN, Armenia, Nov. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — With war raging at multiple flashpoints around the world, the Armenia Project, an educational non-profit organization focused on accurate information about Armenia and the region, hosted a webinar on modern conflict coverage attended by a global audience including students from the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and the American University of Armenia.
From left to right: Mark Turner, Liel Leibovitz, Marc Champion, Astrig Agopian, and Dan Perry
The panel of experts included Bloomberg News columnist Marc Champion, freelance photojournalist Astrig Agopian, former Associated Press Europe, Africa and Middle East chief Dan Perry, and Scripps Prof. Mark Turner. It was moderated by Tablet Magazine Editor-at-Large Liel Leibovitz.
They examined conflict coverage through the prism of the wars currently raging in the Middle East and Ukraine, and the late September exodus of over 100,000 Armenians from the self-governing enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh after it was attacked by Azerbaijan. Panelists also grappled with the question of how to ensure young people are exposed to genuine news at a time many of them receive their information through social media.
Leibovitz, a former New York University communications professor who is also is a partner at the Thunder11 communications agency, asked why the three conflicts received such wildly divergent intensity of coverage.
Agopian said events in Nagorno-Karabakh were underreported because they involved Armenia and Azerbaijan, two relatively small countries, and access to the conflict zone was restricted and difficult. But she added: "I think if you're a good storyteller, and you just do your job, plus you're able to explain why it matters, then you're going to be able to hook the audience a bit more to get their attention… A lot of times they think it's far away and they have nothing to do with it, but it's not always true."
"It is critical, I think, to keep reminding people … why is this important?" agreed Champion, who spent long periods in Ukraine since the Russian attack of February 2022, "The war in Ukraine, it's a pretty easy sell," he added, in part because Russia is a nuclear power.
He assessed the next potential flashpoint would be Taiwan: "We will be writing about that conflict as a conflict for years even if it never happens – because if it did, the implications would be so appalling." Perry said the Gaza war confronts media with a myriad of challenges including how to report freely from a Hamas-run police state, how to handle the civilian casualties question, to what degree to introduce complex context amid hugely conflicting narratives, and how to deal with the political implications of the conflict in many countries in the West.
Leibovitz asked whether creating empathy is the goal. The panel agreed, but Prof. Turner also urged that "the bare and very basic idea of covering these conflicts has to be from a point of unbiased coverage as much as we possibly can. "Certainly there is an opportunity for advocacy but that is not in my mind journalism," added Turner, who is a former executive news editor at the Akron Beacon Journal.
Leibovitz stirred some controversy by asking whether media has succeeded in covering the recent wars.
Champion said coverage of Ukraine has been complicated by the fact that journalists cannot cross the front lines to report on both sides. Still, he added, "I think there's been a remarkable amount of very high-quality journalism done out of Ukraine … people taking high risks in order to figure out exactly what's happening."
"Reporters on the ground are doing great, great work, no doubt about it, in all three conflicts, but … certainly with broadcast, (the end product) tends to be very superficial," Perry said. "The biggest failure maybe is that the mainstream media … has completely failed in taking the story to social media, which is where the youth are."
Asked whether she would recommend the profession to potential young reporters, Agopian said: "I am a young reporter myself… I would say go for it because I cannot say not to do it when I'm doing it… The biggest advice is to really not take it lightly and prepare for it, because we're not tourists."
Turner agreed: "If they're passionate about it, then absolutely. If they feel like they can be a great storyteller, then absolutely. It's so necessary and so important."
The event was live-streamed on the YouTube channel of the American University of Armenia, where it will remain available, and was also attended globally via Zoom. The livestream was made possible through AUA Media Lab.
About The Armenia Project: The Armenia Project (TAP) is an educational non-profit that promotes the democratic and economic development of Armenia by advancing the country's communications ecosystem, ensuring it is robust, accurate and impactful. Through strategic programs and diverse partnerships, TAP raises global awareness about Armenia and the region.
About the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University: Scripps is a top-ranked journalism school with more than 500 students attending the school each year. Many of these students go on to work at noted media industries, such as the New York Times, The Washington Post, Insider, Facebook, Google, and TBWAChiatDay.
About AUA: Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.
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Azerbaijan rejects the Armenian peace talks scheduled in the United States
GEO TV
Nov 17 2023
BAKU: Azerbaijan on Thursday refused to participate in normalization talks with arch-rival Armenia that were scheduled to be held in the United States this month due to what it described as Washington’s “biased” stance.
Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a decades-long regional conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Baku regained in September after a lightning attack against Armenian separatists.
Internationally mediated peace talks between the former Soviet republics have seen little progress, but leaders of the two countries said a comprehensive peace agreement could be signed by the end of the year.
The Foreign Ministry in Baku said in a statement: “We do not see it as possible to hold the proposed meeting at the level of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Washington on November 20, 2023.”
The move came after a hearing in the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, where the department said Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien made “biased and biased statements” about Azerbaijan.
O’Brien told the House of Representatives committee that “there will be nothing normal with Azerbaijan after the events of September 19 until we see progress on the peace path.”
He added, “We have canceled a number of high-level visits and condemned (Baku’s) actions.”
“Such a unilateral approach by the United States could lead to the loss of the American mediation role,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.
Armenian Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Thursday that “Yerevan’s political will to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan in the coming months remains firm.”
Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held several rounds of talks mediated by the European Union.
But last month, Aliyev refused to attend the round of negotiations with Pashinyan in Spain, citing “France’s biased position.”
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were scheduled to join European Union Secretary General Charles Michel as mediators in those talks.
So far, no tangible progress has been made in the European Union’s efforts to organize a new round of negotiations.
https://geotvnews.com/azerbaijan-rejects-the-armenian-peace-talks-scheduled-in-the-united-states-and-the-world-geotv-news/
Teenager takes own life in Armenia after being outed online
Nov 17 2023
A tribute to the victim left at the site of his death.
A 17-year-old boy has taken his own life in Armenia, reportedly after being outed by a popular local Telegram channel and kicked out of his home by his family.
Reports of the boy’s death emerged on Wedensday. ‘The last time I saw him was four days ago in our office. He knocked on my office door and said, I want to thank you for doing so much for our community,’ wrote Lilit Martirosyan, the founder of Right Side, an Armenian group defending the rights of trans people and sex workers.
Andranik Shirinyan, the Armenia country representative at Freedom House, wrote on Wednesday that the boy had been evicted by his family after they discovered he was queer.
Pink Armenia, a local queer rights group, corroborated this the following day, stating that the boy had taken his life after being bullied because of his sexual orientation. They added that the teenager’s pictures had appeared on a Telegram channel ‘that continues to spread hate and calls for violence against various individuals’.
The group told OC Media that photos of the teenager were published around a month ago on xᴀʏᴛᴀʀᴀᴋ 18+ (‘disgraceful’), a private Telegram channel.
The channel’s Russian description says its aim is to ‘preserve Armenian traditions and values’. Despite recently being blocked by Telegram, a new channel with the same name has appeared. According to TGStat, before the block, the channel had 43,000 subscribers making it one of the top 10 channels in Armenia.
A spokesperson for the Armenian Investigative Committee, Gor Abrahamyan, told OC Media that a criminal investigation had been launched for incitement to suicide, which in the case of a minor, carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Abrahamyan added that the victim was an ethnic Armenian but not a citizen of the Republic of Armenia.
Mamikon Hovsepyan, communications manager of Pink Armenia, told OC Media that the authorities had not made any information available and that what they knew so far had come from the victim’s friends.
‘His acquaintances said that after that publication [on Telegram], he was kicked out of the house’, Hovsepyan said, adding that he had also lost his job as a result of the post. ‘He was in a tough and depressed state’, he added.
Pink Armenia verified that photos of the boy taken in the street were published on the channel, stating that the post received numerous hateful comments in response.
Hovsepyan said he believed the police were attempting to hide the incident, ‘probably at the request of their parents’.
He added that it was common for Armenian police to support abusers more than the victims. ‘In these cases, the families usually get along easily with the police’, he said.
Incidents of bullying and violence against queer people are frequently reported in Armenia. Last year, a young queer couple took their own life after reportedly receiving abuse from the mother of one of the couple. Earlier this year, a transgender woman was brutally murdered in her flat in the centre of Yerevan.
[Read on OC Media: ‘You learn to hide your identity’: being queer in the Armenian army]
Andranik Shirinyan from Freedom House criticised the government’s record on protecting queer rights, stating that the Armenian government ‘bears the responsibility to safeguard the rights of LGBT people’, adding that ‘national human rights institutions are completely ineffective’.
‘Armenia has yet to adopt an anti-discrimination law or initiate reforms to eliminate impunity and educate society. Law enforcement lacks both the sensitivity and willingness to help the victims’, he said.
‘What kind of democracy is it when the most vulnerable in our society are left unprotected by the state and abandoned by their families and community?’
https://oc-media.org/17-year-old-takes-own-life-in-armenia-after-being-outed-online/
Azerbaijan continues to snub peace talks as U.S. moves to boost support to Armenia
eurasinet
Nov 17 2023
Nov 17, 2023
Azerbaijan continues to refuse to attend peace talks with Armenia, citing what it calls the biased approach of Western mediating countries. This time it was the U.S. that displeased Azerbaijan.
On November 16, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry put out a statement announcing the country's decision not to attend a meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Washington scheduled for four days later.
The snub was in large part a response to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien's testimony the previous day at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing titled "The Future of Nagorno-Karabakh." He told the committee that the U.S. was working on establishing a "comprehensive, thorough and transparent" record of what happened in the formerly Armenian-populated enclave before and during Azerbaijan's September military takeover.
"We have commissioned independent investigators, we have our own investigators working in the field. There is information available from international non-governmental organizations and other investigators. And as we develop the record of what happened, we will be completely open about what we are finding. I can't put a timeline on this investigation, but we will inform you as we go forward," he said.
O'Brien went on to express support for Armenia, which has been attempting a pivot away from Russia and is scrambling to accommodate the 100,000-some people displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh in September.
"I am very impressed by the Armenian government's commitment to reforms and diversifying the relationships that it has – economic, political, energy and security – particularly in the Trans-Atlantic community," he said. "And I think we owe it to the people of Armenia to help them through this difficult situation so that those choices they have made very bravely are able to help them to make them have a more secure, stable and prosperous future."
O'Brien also said that the U.S. had canceled high-level bilateral meetings and engagements with Azerbaijan (without specifying exactly when) and would keep urging Baku to "facilitate the return of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians who may wish to go back to their homes or visit cultural sites in the region, as well as restore unimpeded commercial, humanitarian, and pedestrian traffic to the region."
In its statement the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called the hearing "a blow to the Azerbaijan-U.S. relations in bilateral and multilateral formats."
"The groundless accusations voiced against Azerbaijan are irrelevant and undermine peace and security in the region," the statement read.
On the day of the hearing, the U.S. Senate also adopted a bill titled "Armenian Protection Act of 2023". If it becomes law, the bill will suspend all military aid to Azerbaijan by repealing the Freedom Support Act Section 907 waiver authority for the Administration with respect to assistance to Azerbaijan for the years 2024 and 2025.
On that front, Azerbaijan's diplomatic body argued that the U.S. was repeating "the same mistake" it made in 1992, when Azerbaijan was sanctioned with this amendment, "despite being a state who faced aggression and occupation" at the hands of Armenian forces.
Also on November 16, the U.S. reaffirmed its support for Armenia-Azerbaijan rapprochement irrespective of who mediates. "We would encourage the two parties to engage in those talks, whether they are here, whether they are somewhere else, and that'll continue to be our policy," spokesperson of the U.S. State Department Matthew Miller told a briefing.
Baku for its part does not seem interested in the U.S. having an active role in those talks. For some months now, it has been expressing distaste with Western-brokered negotiations and instead shown a preference for regional mediators like Russia, Turkey, and Iran.
And its latest statement, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry warned that, "[S]uch a unilateral approach by the United States could lead to the loss of the mediation role of the United States."
James Adomian hosts a night of big laughs at UCB, ‘All for Armenia’
LA Weekly
Nov 16 2023
Benefit shows can be slogs. But All for Armenia, a comedy show on Friday, Nov. 3rd at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater, was anything but. It managed to raise money for a vital cause while also being very, very funny.
The show was hosted by comedian and master impressionist James Adomian, who along with producers Sam Varela of Naked Comedy, Chris Tcholakian of the Everything Now Show and stand-up Armond Gorjian, put together a stellar lineup of comics and character performers, jammed into two hours.
All proceeds for the show went to All for Armenia, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian aid to the estimated 100,000 Armenians displaced from the Nagorno-Karabakh region, also known as Artsakh, after being pushed out by neighboring Azerbaijan. All told, the show raised over $1,700.
Adomian kicked off his hosting duties with a short set that included his best-in-the-biz Bernie Sanders impression and musings about his (one-quarter) Armenian-ness.
There wasn’t a dud in the program that followed, with stand-ups Aparna Nancherla, Nate Craig, Chris Estrada, Alice Wetterlund, River Butcher and character performer Alyssa Limperis all bringing their A-game, with punchy sets that delivered the goods.
The charming comic Mary Basmadjian gave us a gut-busting look into the trials of dating as an Armenian woman. Guy Branum didn’t shy away from the topic at hand in a brilliantly dark set that tackled, among other things, the popularity of genocide.
Actor and LA radio legend Phil Hendrie also performed in character, and in a moment of nostalgia for the LA talk radio faithful, gave us a spot-on Tom Leykis impression. Leykis, the shock jock from the 90s and aughts, infamously tweeted, “Angelenos don’t give a SHIT about Armenia” — a sentiment quickly debunked if you talk to anyone from LA.
Lory Tatoulian was a showstopper, reprising her character Sossi Hayrabedian, a Ross Dress for Less-clad Armenian running for president, who harangued the crowd and left us in tears. And Reggie Watts closed out the night with his signature bizarre observational stylings.
We talked with Adomian afterwards about what it meant to produce a show benefitting the Armenian cause.
“We’re seeing all this bad news in the last two months, and in the last three years, from Armenia and Artsakh — the ethnic cleansing that happened, the massacres, the torture, at the hands of Azerbaijan,” Adomian told us. “And people don’t know what to do besides retweet something or like an Instagram post. So it was really nice to give people a chance to help directly with the refugees from Artsakh.”
It’s been a grim few years for the Armenian community globally and locally — LA County is home to the largest concentration of Armenians outside of Armenia.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of disputed territorial claim, has been de-facto governed by ethnic Armenians as the independent Republic of Artsakh following a 1994 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenians have been living there thousands of years and made up a large majority of its population.
In 2020, the neighboring oil-rich and authoritarian Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, launched an offensive that took effective control of the region. In the ensuing years, they blockaded the region and terrorized Armenians living there with documented accounts of torture.
Then in September of this year, Azerbaijan fully invaded Artsakh and ethnically cleansed it of its Armenian population, forcing an estimated 100,000 its Armenians to flee to Armenia — a massive number considering Armenia has a population under 3 million — resulting in a humanitarian crisis.
The events are a stark parallel to the Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by Turkey, which started in 1915 and resulted in the killing of over 1 million Armenians, primarily through death marches. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan deny the Armenian Genocide.
But you’d be loath to find any of this in newspaper headlines or on cable. With wars in Ukraine, Africa, and now, the Middle East, there has been little to no coverage of Armenia’s turmoil in our media.
“There’s next to zero news coverage outside of like KTLA locally,” Adomian explains. “The State Department has a shameful policy of just playing both sides. And so the Armenians have been very depressed worldwide, feeling like there’s no support from any quarter — ganged up on by Turkey and Azerbaijan and Russia together, and the United States and Canada doing nothing.”
“But then you realize on the street, among the real people, wherever there are, people love them and like them and want to support them. So we don’t have a lot of support at the highest levels of media, state departments and other foreign ministries and other countries, but we do have a lot of support with real people.”
Adomian thanked the UCB Theatre where he has performed since it opened in 2005. “When the ethnic cleansing started, they were very, very accommodating, and then the conversation started immediately about doing a fundraiser there.”
For a benefit with such a bleak backdrop, it felt good to laugh. And it definitely helped that the show was stacked with comedians who can do what comedians do best — make light in darkness.
“It was a little bit emotional for me because it was the first time I got to see firsthand — not just on the internet, but in person — people come out who weren’t Armenian to support the Armenians in a time of great tragedy and crisis,” Adomian reflected. “And I was kind of amazed that nobody was afraid to laugh and have a good time. It was a fun night.”
https://www.laweekly.com/james-adomian-hosts-a-night-of-big-laughs-at-ucb-all-for-armenia/
Armenia investigating vandalism at country’s only synagogue
Israel National News
Nov 17 2023
Armenian authorities said on Thursday that they had opened an investigation after the country's only synagogue was vandalized in an arson attack, AFP reported.
Video from social media on Wednesday showed a person pouring burning fuel on the door of the Mordechai Navi Jewish Center, which serves the small Jewish population in the capital Yerevan.
"On November 15, the police received a call that unknown persons wanted to set fire to the doors of the building at 23 Nar-Dos Street in Yerevan. An investigation has been launched," local police told AFP.
Rima Varzhapetyan, the president of Armenia's Jewish community, said that the synagogue had not been seriously damaged and that no one was in the building at the time.
"We are horrified because Jews have never had any problems in Armenia," she told AFP.
Israel's non-resident ambassador to Armenia, Joel Lion, denounced the attack in a statement on social media.
"I call on the government of Armenia to condemn all forms of anti-Semitism, to fully investigate this crime, and bring the perpetrators to justice," he said.
The incident comes amid a spike in antisemitic incidents around the world since the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, and Israel's subsequent war against the group in the Gaza Strip.
These include vandalism at a Jewish cemetery on Cleveland’s west side, where a number of headstones were found spray painted with red swastikas.
Last week, a Los Angeles woman was charged with hate crimes after ramming her vehicle through the gate of a local synagogue and cultural center.
The incident came days after Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish man, died from blunt-force head trauma after he was hit in the head with a megaphone during a confrontation with a counterprotester at a Los Angeles protest.
In Montreal, gunshots were fired at a Jewish school in the city twice within one week.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/380468