YEREVAN, OCTOBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the Lebanese Republic  is in regular contact with the relevant bodies of Lebanon, as well as the leadership of the Armenian community structures to propose solutions that can contribute to the safety of the citizens of the Republic of Armenia, as well as many thousands of Lebanese Armenians.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan said in response to Armenpress question.

She also noted that at the moment the Armenian embassy has not received any request regarding the transportation of citizens from Lebanon to Armenia.

"In response to several requests, the embassy provided the necessary information, including currently operating Beirut-Yerevan commercial flights," said Ani Badalyan.

Glendale City Councilmember Elen Asatryan

The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region announced its endorsement of Glendale City Councilmember Elen Asatryan for the California State Assembly District 44. Asatryan was a former Executive Director of the ANCA-WR.

Announcing her candidacy for State Assembly on June 5, 2023, Councilmember Asatryan has a long history of public service, community organizing, and activism. Moving to Glendale from Armenia at ten years old, she volunteered for her first campaign at 15 and, at 19, was serving as a campaign manager for a local election. Asatryan has been a vocal advocate for the community for over two decades.

She has worked to expand voter participation, protect the environment, address equity issues, and create opportunities for student engagement in government. She has served in local and regional leadership for several organizations, including as the chair of the City of Glendale Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Commission, board member of the Glendale Youth Alliance, the Glendale Unified School District Superintendent’s Advisory Committee, Los Angeles County Voter Outreach Committee, Los Angeles City Voter Outreach and Education Committee, among many others.

As Executive Director of the ANCA-WR for several years, Asatryan helped grow the reach of the Armenian cause forward and has since continued to bring attention to issues of importance to the Armenian-American community. During her time with the ANCA-WR, the ANCA-WR saw the growth of recognition of the Armenian Genocide on the state and local levels. Asatryan also aided in the expansion of the ANCA-WR’s grassroots audience by activating several new chapters across the Western United States.

In 2017, Asatryan departed ANCA-WR to found the Stark Group, a full-service political consulting and public relations firm. Asatryan was elected to the Glendale City Council in 2022, being the first immigrant woman and Armenian-American woman to serve on the City Council.

“Elen Asatryan is a proven leader who has dedicated her life to serving the Armenian-American community and advancing our shared values of justice, democracy, and human rights. She has the vision, the experience, and the passion to represent the diverse voices of CA Assembly District 44 and to fight for the issues that matter most to us,” said Nora Hovsepian, Esq., Chair of the ANCA-Western Region.

“My Armenian heritage and immigrant experience is at the core of my identity. I am proud to have earned the endorsement of the ANCA-Western Region – an organization that is near and dear to my heart,” stated Asatryan. “The million of Armenians who call California home currently have zero representation in the California Legislature. This is one of the main driving forces behind my decision to run for AD 44. As my people face yet another brutal genocide by the dictatorial regimes of Turkey and Azerbaijan, ensuring that my community has access to essential services, securing equitable funding for our institutions, justly representing our community, and forging stronger bonds between California, Armenia, and Artsakh are among my foremost priorities.”

The 44th Assembly District consists of portions of Los Angeles County, including the whole City of Burbank, and parts of the City of Glendale and San Fernando Valley neighborhoods in the City of Los Angeles, including Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Valley Village, North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, La Crescenta, and Sunland-Tujunga.

Primary elections for California will occur on March 5, 2024, with general elections on November 5, 2024. For more information on voting, visit HyeVotes.

The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region is the largest and most influential Armenian-American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian-American community on a broad range of issues.

A graphic featured on the Russian Channel One Program shows George Soros as a puppet master of Pashinyan and his government

Russian State-Run Television Airs Program Disparaging Pashinyan and Saying Russia Should Control the “Zangezur Corridor”

The escalation of tensions between Armenia and Russia took on new form when Russia’s state-run Channel One aired an hour-long program criticizing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for his government’s handling of the Artsakh issue, and, among other issues, advancing the imperative for the opening of the so-called “Zangezur Corridor” to be controlled by Russia.

The program, which aired on Monday evening, was deemed so “insulting” that Armenia’s Foreign Ministry handed a protest note to Russia after summoning its ambassador to Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin on Tuesday.

“In connection with the program aired on October 23 on the all-Russian federal TV channel Channel One, during which insulting and absolutely unacceptable statements were made against high-ranking officials of the Republic of Armenia, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Sergey Kopyrkin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Armenia,” a statement by the foreign ministry said Tuesday when the protest note was also presented.

The growing rift between Moscow and Yerevan has also spilled into other facets of bi-lateral relations, with the Speaker of the Russian Duma, Viasheslav Volodin, announcing that it has tabled a measure that would recognize Armenia-issued drivers’ licenses as identification.

“We thought it appropriate to delay the [ratification of] the measure, which grant additional privileges [to Armenian citizens], since Armenia’s National Assembly members and the government have not taken any steps on the issue of the status of the Russian language,” Volodin said.

He explained that Belarus and Kyrgyzstan have also determined the status of Russian language in their countries through Constitutional amendments.

Then on Monday Channel One, the leading state-run television channel, aired an hour-long program entitled “Nikol Pashinyan: The Bearer of Calamity,” in which Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his circle, including National Security Chief Armen Grigoryan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan were labeled as “Soros agents,” referring to the American billionaire George Soros whose “democracy-building” contributions to emerging democracies have caused domestic havoc in some of the recipient countries.

The program did not shy away from emphasizing the more than 30 billion-ruble (over $320 million) annual funding Armenia receives from Moscow, as well as that four Russian military basis operating in Armenia where some 4,000 Russian border units are deployed, Azatutyun.am reported having translated the content of the show.

As relations have worsened between the two countries, Russia has signaled its support for the controversial land corridor from Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan through Armenia—a move Yerevan vehemently opposed and called an infringement on Armenia’s sovereign territory.

The Channel One program also featured a government official who, according to Azatutyun.am, claimed to have participated in meetings of the deputy prime ministers of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, who are tasked with untangling the transport routes between the two countries and the more complex task of delimiting and demarcating the borders.

The Russian official featured on the program did not mince words when asserting that Russia’s goal and desire is to take control of the so-called road connecting Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan.

“The 45-kilometer [almost 15 miles] road, called the Zangezur Corridor, has to be built,” the official said on the Channel One program. “We don’t understand why Armenia is against it.”

From left, the foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia and Iran in Tehran on Oct. 23

At the conclusion of a summit in Tehran on Monday, the foreign ministers of Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey issued a communique pledging to recognize the inviolability of each other’s borders.

Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had invited the summit, known as the “Consultative Regional 3+3 Platform,” which was attended by foreign ministers Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia, Sergey Lavrov of Russian, Jeyhum Bayramov of Azerbaijan and Hakan Fidan of Turkey.

During the meeting Mirzoyan emphasized the need to address “very complicated problems” in the region, “otherwise, the region is doomed to remain in the past.”

Stressing that it will not be possible to implement future plans if “the red lines of regional coexistence defined by international law are not respected by all,” Mirzoyan indicated that the goals and principles of the United Nations Charter and in particular the exclusion of the use of force and the threat of force, the principles of territorial integrity, sovereignty, inviolability of borders and the protection of fundamental human rights should be the guidelines.

“Furthermore, it is important to adhere to these principles both in our actions and in our rhetoric. In conditions of aggressive and threatening rhetoric, it is difficult to imagine the creation of a favorable environment, which will allow the implementation of ambitious regional projects. Armenia, for its part, is loyal to those principles,” Mirzoyan told his counterparts in Tehran.

The Untied States used caution when discussing the summit, with State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller telling reporters on Monday that some of the countries involved in the initiative were not “reliable partners.”

“We welcome any good-faith engagements that contribute to peace and stability for the people of the South Caucasus regardless of where those talks happen or who is hosting them. But that being said, we recognize the South Caucasus’ delicate geographic position regarding Iran and Russia, but we have not found these countries to be reliable partners, to understate matters,” Miller said.

The following are the nine points highlighted in the statement:

• Taking into account the importance of developing friendly relations between countries based on mutual interests and good neighborliness, they emphasized in this regard the importance of peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for sovereignty, political independence, territorial integrity, inviolability of internationally recognized borders, non-interference in internal affairs, prohibition on the threat or use of force and respect for human rights based on all the principles of the United Nations Charter;
• While expressing their views on various international issues, they discussed the most significant issues in the region and emphasized the importance of platforms like the Consultative Regional Platform “3+3” in providing opportunities for constructive dialogue and establishing mutually beneficial cooperation between the countries of the region that have the primary role in this regard;
• Highlighted the positive impact of the economic cooperation on strengthening mutual trust, the well-being of nations and the stability of the region;
• Emphasizing the importance of cultural cooperation, people-to-people contacts and joint projects in the field of education, science, tourism, culture and sports;
• In order to enhance lasting peace and economic development of the region, they will strengthen bilateral and multilateral consultation and interaction;
• Welcoming the ongoing processes of normalization and development of relations between all the countries of the region;
• While positively evaluating the results of this meeting, they reaffirmed the openness of this Platform for equal participation of Georgia;
• The Ministers also exchanged views on the situation in Gaza. They emphasized the need for immediate termination of targeting innocent civilians;
• The Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Turkey and the Russian Federation thanked the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the good reception and successful holding of this meeting.

“With an assessment of the regular meetings of the “3+3” Regional Platform in expanding and strengthening the environment of trust and cooperation in the region, they agreed that the next meeting will be held in Turkey on a date that will be coordinated through diplomatic channels,” the announcement concluded.

Arthur Khachatryan, a lawmaker representing the opposition Hayastan bloc in Armenia’s parliament, said Tuesday that the Tehran announcement should compel Azerbaijan to pull out its troops from Armenia’s sovereign territories.

“The definition of the territorial integrity, according to the Helsinki Final Act, means the resolution of territorial disputes peacefully. Yes, all countries, especially neighbors, must resolve relations without the use of force. Thus, Azerbaijan, who adopted that statement yesterday, should pull back its occupying troops from Vayots Dzor, Syunik and Gegharkunik as early as today,” Khahtryan said Tuesday.

“But having adopted such a statement on one hand, and simultaneously maintaining its occupying troops in Armenia, Azerbaijan is sending out a clear message that it does not intend to go for peace if that peace treaty is short of a capitulation statement by Armenia,” the lawmaker added.

Khachatryan said that Armenia must take all measures to ensure its territorial integrity and the political rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, including their right to self-determination.