Paris calls for the immediate release of all Armenian prisoners held by Azerbaijan: Anne Hidalgo

Yeghisabet Arthur

 19:38, 7 November 2023

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. ''Azerbaijan is guilty of arbitrarily detaining former Artsakh officials and destroying Armenian heritage in this territory.''

Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris  made a post on X and gave details of her discussions with the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo.

''Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, the 100,000 refugees and political prisoners detained by Azerbaijan. 

Paris also calls for the immediate release of all Armenian prisoners held by Azerbaijan”, Hidalgo posted on X.

Anne Hidalgo added that on December 10, on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, the representatives of the Armenians of Artsakh will be presented he honorary citizenship of Paris.

Armenia’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO dies aged 72

Babken Chilingarian

 19:45, 7 November 2023

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. On November 7, Christian Michel Ter-Stepanyan,  Armenia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Personal Representative of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia to the International Organization of La Francophonie, has passed away aged 72, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

“Christian Michel Ter-Stepanyan has been part of the diplomatic service of the Republic of Armenia for a long time, having invaluable contribution in the promotion of Armenia’s priorities on international platforms,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Armenpress: The Prime Minister, together with his wife, attends the funeral service of Matevos Asatryan

Emil Lazarian

 19:52, 7 November 2023

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, together with his wife Anna Hakobyan, participated in the funeral service of Matevos Asatryan, MP from the "Civil Contract" faction of the National Assembly, in the St. Astsvatsatsin Church of Kuchak settlement of Aparan community, the Prime Minister’s Office said.




Asbarez: In Ultimatum to Yerevan, Baku Demands 8 Villages from Armenia

Arsine Chaltikian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 November 7, 2023

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Main, Latest, News, Top Stories

A military post along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border


Azerbaijan Schedules Military Parade in Stepanakert Tomorrow

Azerbaijan demanded what it called eight “occupied” villages from Armenia, issuing an ultimatum to Yerevan and accusing the government there of hindering the peace process. At the same time Baku announced that Azerbaijani forces will conduct military drill is occupied Stepanakert on Wednesday.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry accused Armenia of “once again hindering peace agreement negotiations, continuing military-political provocations, as well as threats from landmines.”

“Armenia has chosen the path of continuing to threaten the peace process, lives of our citizens, restoration and reconstruction work carried out in the region,” the foreign ministry said.

“At the same time, despite its obligations, not only Armenia has not withdrawn its armed forces, which remain the main threat to peace and security in the region, it continues to support them financially, and has not refrained from the illegal transfer of weapons, military equipment, landmines to the territories of Azerbaijan,” Baku said, according to the APA news agency.

“Armenia also is refusing to hand over eight Azerbaijani villages, which are still under occupation,” the Azerbaijani foreign ministry said.

The issue of the so-called eight villages was raised earlier this summer by Baku, but garnered more attention when President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan complained to the President of the Council of Europe Charles Michel in a telephone conversation after failing to attend a meeting in Spain organized the by the EU leader.

While official Baku has not specified which eight villages it is referencing, Aliyev’s website has listed them as seven villages in Armenia’s Tavush Province and one village in the Ararat Province, that borders Nakhichevan.

Last month, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan touched on Baku’s claims about the eight villages in Armenia, by reminding Azerbaijan that the Armenian region of Artsvashen, once part of Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province, continued to remain occupied by Azerbaijan since the 1990s.

Presumably, Azerbaijani forces are launching their incessant attacks on villages and positions in Gegharkunik from Arstvashen.

Azerbaijan continued to provoke the situation by announcing that its armed forces will hold a military “victory” parade in Stepanakert on Wednesday to coincide with the November 9 national holiday, which marks the end of the brutal 2020 war in Artsakh, APA reported.

A similar parade is scheduled to be held in Baku.

Paris Mayor Blasts Baku for Arrest of Artsakh Officials

Adrine Hakobian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 November 7, 2023

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo with Luis Moreno Ocampo in Paris on Nov. 6


Will Grant ‘Honorary Citizenship’ to Artsakh Residents

Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, blasted Azerbaijan for “arbitrarily arresting” Artsakh officials soon after more than 100,000 Artsakh residents were forcibly displaced from their homes last month.

“The tragedy continues in Armenia. Azerbaijan is guilty of arbitrarily arresting the former officials of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] and destroying the Armenian heritage in this territory,” Hidalgo said in a post on X, which detailed her meeting with human rights advocate Luis Moreno Ocampo, who in a report this summer said Azerbaijan was actively committing genocide of Armenians.

“Yesterday I had the opportunity to discuss it with Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the author of the report on the process of genocide carried out by Azerbaijan during the blockade of Lachin corridor,” added Hidalgo.

Ocampo will received the “Champion of International Justice” award during the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region’s annual awards banquet on Sunday.

“Our thoughts are with the casualties, their families, 100 thousand [Armenian] refugees and political prisoners held by Azerbaijan,” she said.

“On December 10, on the occasion of international Human Rights Day, I will hand honorary citizenship of Paris to the representatives of Artsakh Armenians,” Hidalgo announced. “Also, Paris calls for the immediate release of all Armenian captives being held by Azerbaijan.”

Armenian parliament member Arman Yeghoyan said that the European Region Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie (OIF) has adopted a resolution expressing unconditional support to Armenia and particularly the Armenians of Artsakh, Armenpress reported.

Yeghoyan, who is representing Armenia at the assembly, said in a statement on Tuesday that the resolution stresses the need for respect of the rights of Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, and strongly condemns all forms of ethnic cleansing and the destruction of religious and cultural heritage in Artsakh.

Preserving Armenian cultural property in Artsakh was also on the agenda of the general assembly of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property currently underway in Rome.

Armenia was represented at the session by Harutyun Vanyan, Director of the Department of Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments at Armenia’s Education Ministry, and diplomats from the Armenian Embassy in Italy, the ministry said in a statement. Ambassador of Armenia to Italy Tsovinar Hambardzumyan attended the opening session.

Vanyan delivered a report on the issues of preservation of the historical-cultural monuments in Artsakh. He stressed that saving Armenian historical-cultural heritage in Artsakh will only be possible through the pressure and levers by reputable international organizations. Vanyan noted that unfortunately the Armenian heritage in Nakhichevan was not protected in the past during a similar situation.

Specific facts and numbers on vandalisms and destruction of monuments by Azerbaijan were presented at the session. The report also noted the resolutions and decisions adopted by reputable international organizations, which Azerbaijan has been disregarding.

An agreement was reached to cooperate as part of the ICCROM First Aid and Resilience for Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis (FAR) project, given the number of at-risk monuments in Armenia.

Asbarez: Azerbaijani Sham Court Sentences Artsakh Resident to 15-Year Prison Term

Tania Jagharian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 November 7, 2023

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

Artsakh resident Vagif Khachatryan during his sham trial in Baku on Nov. 7


An Azerbaijani court on Tuesday sentenced Vagif Khachatryan to serve a 15-year prison term after holding a sham trial for several weeks in Baku.

The 68-year-old Khachatryan was abducted by Azerbaijani border guards at the illegal checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor while being transported by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Armenia for medical treatment. He was subsequently transported to Baku where he was remanded into pretrial custody facing charges of allegedly committing genocide against Azerbaijanis during the 1990’s Karabakh Liberation war.

During Tuesday’s court session, Khachatryan again pleaded not guilty to charges, saying he had no role in the events for which he was being charged.

Azerbaijan’s prosecutor charged Khachatryan for allegedly taking part in combat operations that had “59 victims.”

During the course of the sham trial prosecutors put “witnesses” on the stand who said they “recognized” Khachatryan and provided lengthy testimony about his alleged “crimes.”

“Vagif Khachatryan’s lawyer Radmila Abilova made a defense speech in the court session presided over by Zeynal Agayev, chairman of the Baku Military Court. In her speech, the lawyer asked for the acquittal of Vagif Khachatryan. Then Vagif Khachatryan was given the last word. He said he does not consider himself guilty and asked for the acquittal,” Azerbaijani media reported.

Throughout the trial, Khachatryan was identified as being a citizen of Armenia.

Armenia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan said the trial went against all international norms.

”Despite clear rejection of any false accusation, the 68-year-old resident of Nagorno-Karabakh was ‘sentenced’ to 15-year prison term after after a month of mock ‘trail’/show in Baku,” Badalyan said in a social media post on Tuesday.

Anahit Manasyan, Armenia’s Human Rights Defender called Khachatryan’s “trial” absurd and urged international human rights organizations to immediately take action.

”Vagif Khachatryan, abducted by Azerbaijani forces in the Lachin corridor, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Baku, without observing the international legal standards and guarantees related to human rights,” Minasyan said in a social media post.

“International Human Rights organizations should respond immediately,” she added.

RFE/RL Armenian Service – 11/07/2023

Bedik Zaminian 
                                        Tuesday, November 7, 2023


Another Armenian Government Critic Held For Social Media Post

        • Narine Ghalechian

Armenia-MP Arargats Akhoyan is guest in Sputnik-Armenia press club, undated


Law-enforcement authorities arrested on Tuesday yet another vocal critic of the 
Armenian government on charges of calling for politically motivated violence on 
social media.

The charges leveled against Aragats Akhoyan, a former parliament deputy, stem 
from a short message which he reportedly posted on his currently deactivated 
Facebook page in June. According to the Investigative Committee, Akhoyan urged 
supporters to draw up a list of people who must be “swatted” after Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian is removed from power. He did not name anyone.

Akhoyan’s lawyer Gor Vartanian emphasized this fact when he spoke to RFE/RL’s 
Armenian Service. He claimed that his client made an “abstract statement” and 
did not call for the murder of any concrete individual.

“He called for violence motivated by his political views,” insisted Gor 
Abrahamian, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee.

The law-enforcement agency launched late last week criminal proceedings against 
Avetik Ishkhanian, a veteran human rights activist and harsh critic of 
Pashinian, sparking uproar from opposition and public figures. It claimed that a 
recent Facebook post by Ishkhanian contained calls for violence. But it has not 
indicted him so far.

The committee also brought relevant criminal charges against seven other persons 
who attended or encouraged anti-government protests in Yerevan sparked by 
Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh. They 
include Tatev Virabian, a Karabakh Armenian mother of two. She is due to be 
moved to house arrest later this month.

Vartan Harutiunian, another prominent human rights campaigner, believes that 
these criminal cases are at best examples of selective justice. Harutiunian 
noted that Pashinian has repeatedly threatened his political opponents with 
violence but has never been prosecuted for that.

The premier brandished a hammer during his election campaign rallies in 2021, 
threatening to “throw on the ground” and “bang against the wall” opposition 
supporters who would try to topple him. He similarly threatened to make them 
“eat asphalt and leak curb stones” during campaigning for the recent municipal 
elections in Yerevan.

Harutiunian said that Pashinian made “much more serious calls for violence” than 
his jailed detractors because he is in a position to act on them.

Gevorg Papoyan, a parliament deputy from the ruling Civil Contract, countered 
that Pashinian never threatened to kill anyone. The premier, he said, simply 
warned of legitimate arrests, using a “description spiced up in an artistic 
style.”




Karabakh Armenian Sentenced In Azerbaijan

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Azerbaijan -- Vagif Khachatrian goes on trial in Baku, October 13, 2023.


A military court in Baku sentenced an ethnic Armenian from Nagorno-Karabakh to 
15 years in prison on Tuesday three months after he was arrested by Azerbaijani 
security services during his aborted medical evacuation to Armenia.

The 68-year-old Vagif Khachatrian was among Karabakh patients escorted by the 
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Armenian hospitals for urgent 
treatment. He was detained at an Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor 
and then charged with killing and deporting Karabakh’s ethnic Azerbaijani 
residents at the start of the first Armenian-Azerbaijani war.

Azerbaijani authorities specifically implicated Khachatrian in the alleged 
killings of 25 Azerbaijanis from the Karabakh village of Meshali captured by 
Karabakh Armenian forces in December 1991. He lived in another village close to 
Meshali during and after the 1991-199 war.

Khachatrian, who had been due to undergo a heart surgery in Yerevan, repeatedly 
denied the accusations during his trial that began on October 13. He said, in 
particular, that he was held in an Azerbaijani prison during the capture of the 
village.

“I’m an innocent person,” Khachatrian said in his concluding remarks made 
shortly after the announcement of the verdict in the case. The verdict mirrored 
punishment demanded by an Azerbaijani prosecutor.

Khachatrian refused to be represented by an Azerbaijani government-appointed 
lawyer at the start of the trial. He defended himself during the subsequent 
court hearings.

Prior to the trial, the Karabakh Armenian was allowed to phone to his daughters 
based in Armenia and send them letters through the ICRC.

“He didn’t ask anything from us,” one of the three daughters, Venera, told 
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Tuesday. “He only asked us to take care of 
ourselves.”

The Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned Khachatrian’s “sham trial” last month. 
It insisted that Khachatrian was arrested and prosecuted “in flagrant violation 
of international humanitarian law.”

“Armenian POWs and civilians still held hostage in Baku should be released,” 
said a ministry spokeswoman.

They include eight former political and military leaders of Karabakh who were 
arrested at the Azerbaijani checkpoint during the mass exodus of the region’s 
ethnic Armenian population resulting from Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military 
offensive. They are facing various grave accusations rejected by the Armenian 
government as well as current Karabakh officials.




Armenia Skips Another Ex-Soviet Meeting

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev (left) and his 
Armenian counterpart Armen Grigorian meet in Yerevan, June 16, 2022.


Ten days after joining multilateral peace talks initiated by Ukraine and 
condemned by Russia, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council announced on 
Tuesday that he will not attend Wednesday’s meeting of his Russian and other 
ex-Soviet counterparts.

A spokeswoman for Armen Grigorian gave no reason for the decision to skip the 
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) meeting in Moscow when she communicated 
it to the official Armenpress news agency. RFE/RL’s Armenian Service could not 
contact her for further comment in the following hours.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian similarly declined to attend a CIS summit in 
Kyrgyzstan held on October 13. The effective boycott highlighted his 
government’s mounting tensions with Moscow.

Grigorian added to those tensions when he joined security officials from more 
than 60 countries who gathered in Malta late last month to discuss Ukrainian 
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s plan to end the war with Russia. He also met 
with Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, during what Moscow condemned as 
a “blatantly anti-Russian event.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry called Grigorian’s trip to Malta a “demonstrative 
anti-Russian gesture of official Yerevan” and accused Pashinian’s administration 
of systematically “destroying” Russian-Armenian relations. Armenian parliament 
speaker Alen Simonian rejected the criticism last Friday, saying that Russia is 
keen to maintain Armenia’s “existential dependence” on it.

Earlier this year, Yerevan also refused to participate in military exercises 
held by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and shunned a meeting 
of the defense ministers of ex-Soviet states making up the Russian-led alliance.

Pashinian has repeatedly accused the CSTO and Russia of not honoring their 
security commitments to Armenia. But he has so far stopped short of pulling his 
country out of the alliance or demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops.



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.

COMMENT: US, Europe, and Russia jostle for influence in the South Caucasus

Emil Lazarian
Nov 6 2023
By Zachary Weiss in Tbilisi November 6, 2023

More than a month after Azerbaijan attacked ethnic Armenians living in its Nagorno-Karabakh region, displacing 120,000 people, foreign political influence in the Caucasus is still shifting. In the recent conflict, the United States played a role for Armenia in ways it had not done in years past, while Russia’s leadership is still attempting to limit the damage from its failure in mediating the conflict.

Evolving Russian interests made Moscow unable and unwilling to prevent the conflict or help Armenia as it had previously. Russia’s ties with Armenia have loosened, partially because it is distracted by the ongoing war in Ukraine.

As the West is beginning to fill Russia’s old supportive role in Armenia in its own way, the most powerful foreign players in the Caucasus have changed their relations with regional actors, undoing 30 years of precedent.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia supported Armenia in its territorial dispute and wars with Azerbaijan, and key Western states stayed largely uninvolved, though some aided Azerbaijan. According to Krzysztof Strachota, department head for Turkey, the Caucasus, and Central Asia at the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw, Russia’s weakening influence is changing power dynamics in the Caucasus, but Russia is not abandoning the Caucasus entirely.

“The last war is one more major step in the erosion of the regional order, the post-Soviet order, the order donated by Russia. Right now, the Russian influence, Russian instruments, and Russian politics are much weaker than they were two months ago, two years ago or 10 years ago,” he says.

Changing Russian influence could mean that the West can form new relations with regional actors, according to Strachota. “A weak Russia doesn’t mean that Russia is powerless. From the Western perspective, weakening the post-Soviet system, weakening the Russian donation, creates more space for the states in the region. It creates more space for the West and the Caucasus’ relations.” 

Despite Russia’s failure to mediate the September war and prevent the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Karabakh, it still holds leverage over the small nation in the South Caucasus. Russia supplies Armenia with natural gas. Armenia is also dependent on Russia for trade, and Moscow has investments into important parts of the Armenian economy, including mining, transportation, and financial industries. It can use this leverage to disrupt Armenia’s growing ties to the West.

Western entities like the United States and the European Union, on the other hand, have new influence and leverage over Armenia. The United States sent the head of the United States Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, as the September conflict was ongoing, along with millions of dollars of aid.

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan is looking to the West more for support; he has also attacked Russia, calling Armenia’s reliance on Moscow for military support a mistake and joining the International Criminal Court, which has called for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

With Russia out of favour as a peace broker, new peacemakers are stepping in to fill the void, according to Strachota. “The USA is somehow needed in the region, by Armenia, and by Azerbaijan.” Strachota noted that their official policy is to avoid more conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and to establish a sustainable peace in the region.

Efforts by American Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European allies are vital for this effort. They can “clearly communicate to Azerbaijan to avoid open aggression towards Armenia,” Strachota says. He adds, “helping Armenia in this current situation is important because right now Armenia is extremely weak without external guarantees for its security.”

Political guarantees from the West in partnership with Azerbaijan are the best way to ensure that sustainable peace is achievable. Another tool the West can use is sending peacebuilding and aid missions to Armenia as a deterrent. Anything that the West can do to encourage peace is important, as Armenia alone lacks the leverage to prevent Azerbaijan from further aggression. These tactics are likely what has deterred Azerbaijan from further aggression, according to Strachota, as some have feared Azerbaijan would attack Armenians again to connect Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, which the south of Armenia separates. 

The United States may not have a strong incentive by itself to prevent conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but reducing Russian influence in the region has long been its goal. Much of Europe is more reliant on Azerbaijani energy than ever as it struggles to find energy sources aside from Russia. This reliance limits how much Europe will be realistically able to push back on Azerbaijani aggression towards Armenia, so its peacekeeping efforts are the best it can do to stabilise the region.

Russia itself cannot easily undo the strengthening ties between Armenia. Instead, it must wait, according to Strachota. “Russia wants to stop, or to push out the West from the region.” That means weakening Pashinyan’s grip on power over time, with the goal of a new leader of Armenia coming to power that does not protest against Russian failures by siding with the West to the same degree as Pashinyan. At this moment, according to Strachota, “it’s not the time for a very assertive active politics of Russia in the Caucasus because it seems to be risky for Moscow”. That time could come soon, though.

Russia’s efforts to undermine the West in the region could even mean improving relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey. By changing its relationships with Azerbaijan for better relations and shifting from a peacekeeping role with Armenia, it would drive a wedge between Russia and the West in a way that would punish them for supplanting Russia as a peacemaker.

The United States, Europe, and Russia are all trying to take advantage of the recent conflict to cement their own influence in the region. As Armenia, and to a lesser extent Azerbaijan, are reliant on foreign support in their conflict, the steps more powerful nations take in the ongoing conflict could bring lasting peace or fuel growing tensions in the South Caucasus.

https://www.bne.eu/comment-us-europe-and-russia-jostle-for-influence-in-the-south-caucasus-298624/?source=armenia

Letters to Artsakh

Emil Lazarian
Daily Sundial, CSUN
Nov 6 2023
Brandon Balayan, Reporter • November 5, 2023

Founder and Director of the Hidden Road Initiative Nanor Balabanian received text messages from her students asking her to save them from Azerbaijan’s bombardment of Artsakh.

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic, also known as Artsakh, is a self-determined state recognized internationally as a part of Azerbaijan. A majority of its population is Armenian. On Sept. 19, Azerbaijan launched an attack on the republic, which displaced over 100,000 people and ended with the agreement to dismantle all government institutions by Jan. 1, 2024.

Among these displaced were 42 English students of the Hidden Road
Initiative (HRI). To show support to their students, CSUN’s HRI chapter held their event at the East Conference Center on Oct. 12, sending personalized letters to the forcibly displaced students.

HRI is a charitable non-profit organization that aims to provide educational and leadership opportunities for students living in remote villages in Armenia through annual educational summer camps, scholarship opportunities, and development projects. HRI has chapters at CSUN, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UCSB and UCSD.

The CSUN and UCLA chapters divided up the students and are both writing letters. CSUN’s members are writing to 13 students, some of which are a part of the same family.

Lily Chakrian, President of CSUN HRI, said the goal of the event was to show their students that they have advocates from across the world while also fundraising for the Artsakh Family Fund. Chakrian said she is one of the few executive members who has not been to Artsakh.

“It’s really hard because I haven’t been able to see and I don’t– can’t imagine what they’re going through and what they’re experiencing,” Chakrian said.

This fund was created by HRI in response to the displacement of Armenians from Artsakh. There is a $300 minimum donation which would sponsor a displaced family and would help cover living expenses for their initial months in Armenia. The organization has currently raised about $18,000, according to documents provided by HRI. The letters will be delivered by a HRI executive board member to Armenia in November.

Balabanian said although the scale of the displacement is unprecedented, she has experienced this in the past.

“I experienced the 2020 war and I was in Artsakh when we were all deported,” Balabanian said. “I [also] had to help students flee from Akhpradzor from the Sept. 2022 attacks.”

It is a persistent cycle of displacement that has not ended.

Nana Grigoryan, a former HRI student from Kolkhozashen, was in Artsakh while Azerbaijan was imposing its blockade. She applied and was admitted to an international baccalaureate in Israel, and had her tuition covered with the help of a fundraiser by Kooyrigs NGO, a nonprofit that “provides resources to the global Armenian network through launching community projects, implementing educational initiatives and amplifying marginalized voices.”

She was able to reach Armenia from Artsakh with the help of the Red Cross, and prepared to leave for university. Grigoryan began attending the university but was displaced due to the recent Israeli-Palestinian war, and has returned to Armenia.

Balabanian said the most they can do right now is to create communities so they can speak with one another, and these virtual English classes have been a space for this.

Every Saturday, HRI holds its English classes through Zoom. Students first go through a 30-minute thematic lesson and then break off into Zoom rooms with their personal teachers. This past Saturday, the class focused on words associated with fall, and started their class with an Armenian nursery rhyme, “My dear, it is fall!”

Balabanian said HRI currently has between 80-100 teachers, who are mostly from the U.S., and they teach about 120 students a week.

All of HRI’s students from Artsakh have been displaced and are receiving support from HRI’s Artsakh Family Fund for housing and immediate aid.

For now, these students can learn and live in peace and not under bombardment.

https://sundial.csun.edu/176746/news/letters-to-artsakh/

The Temple of Garni – Armenia’s sole surviving Greco-Roman colonnaded building

Kanayan Tamar
Nov 6 2023


The Temple of Garni, standing proudly as the sole surviving Greco-Roman colonnaded building in Armenia and the former Soviet Union, continues to be shrouded in historical mystery. While its exact origins are still a subject of debate, it is most likely that the temple was constructed in 77 AD, during the reign of Tiridates I.

This Armenian monarch, who had been crowned by the Roman emperor Nero eleven years earlier, is believed to have been instrumental in the temple’s construction.

The tale goes that Nero, in a gesture of goodwill, sent Tiridates back to Armenia with a group of Roman craftsmen and substantial resources, which were used to build the fortified city of Garni and its central temple. This temple was dedicated to the ancient Armenian Sun God, Mihr.

Support for the Tiridates theory partially rests on a Greek inscription found near the site, which references the completion of a significant construction project in 77 AD. Nevertheless, some scholars debate whether this evidence is sufficient to conclusively confirm the theory.

What is indeed remarkable is that the Temple of Garni remains standing to this day. It not only survived a destructive earthquake in 1679 but also withstood the wave of Christianization that swept through Armenia in the 4th century. During this period, King Tiridates III’s regime ordered the destruction of most pagan temples, making the temple’s survival even more enigmatic.

To this day, the temple continues to be a captivating enigma, drawing over 135,000 visitors each year who come to admire its historical significance and architectural grandeur.

By Historic Vids.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2023/11/06/the-temple-of-garni-armenia/