13:13, 7 December 2023
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. The government has appointed Kolya Mikayelyan as the new governor of Vayots Dzor province, replacing Ararat Grigoryan.
The decision was approved at the December 7 Cabinet meeting.
Blinken looks forward to hosting Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Washington
13:46, 7 December 2023
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks forward to hosting the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Washington soon for peace negotiations, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien said after his trip to Baku.
“Had positive and constructive meetings in Baku. As I told President Aliyev, the U.S. welcomes visits by the Central Bank Governor and Energy Minister, and Secretary Blinken looks forward to hosting foreign ministers Bayramov and Mirzoyan in Washington soon for peace negotiations,” O’Brien said in a post on X.
French senators recommend delivering CAESAR artillery systems to Armenia
14:27, 4 December 2023
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. French senators have called on the authorities to explore the possibility of sending CAESAR self-propelled howitzers to Armenia in addition to the other recently shipped weapons, according to a defense budget bill of the French Senate.
The document mentions that Armenia will receive a total of 50 Arquus Bastion armored personnel carriers. 24 of these vehicles are already being shipped, while the rest are currently in production.
Armenia recently bought Thales-made GM 200 radars and Mistral 3 air defense systems from France.
“Armenia recently signed an order for three GM200 radars from Thales and there is talk of a delivery of MISTRAL 3 surface-to-air missiles. The rapporteurs are able to indicate that 24 Bastion-type armored vehicles, produced by the French group Arquus, are being delivered to Armenia and should be joined by 26 other vehicles of the same type currently in production. The French authorities have initiated the delivery of “defensive” weapons to Armenia. This distinction between defensive and offensive weapons is in reality not very operational, as the war in Ukraine demonstrated. Let's not repeat the same mistakes by late delivering equipment that would have been necessary from the start. This is why we must respond quickly to all the requests from the Armenian authorities, particularly regarding their need for artillery. The rapporteurs recommend, in this regard, that the delivery of CAESAR artillery systems be studied as soon as possible taking into account the effectiveness of this equipment and the new production capacities of Nexter in 2024,” Senators Hugues Saury and Helene Conway-Mouret said in a recommendation for the 2024 budget.
Russia still hasn’t delivered armaments Armenia has paid for
14:57, 4 December 2023
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Russia still hasn’t delivered any armaments to Armenia for which Yerevan has paid, Deputy Defense Minister Hrachya Sargsyan has said.
“I know that at the moment no deliveries have been made,” Sargsyan said when asked whether any supplies have been made and whether Armenia considers taking Russia to international courts to resolve the matter.
“I think the matter won’t reach the [courts] and the issue will be resolved in a collegial atmosphere,” Sargsyan said.
Asked whether Armenia has any expectations to eventually receive the armaments from Russia, Sargsyan said, “There’s always hope.”
Armenia ordered armaments from Russia in 2021. According to unconfirmed reports, Armenia paid $400,000,000 for the weapons, which Russia has failed to deliver.
BTA. Politicians, Academics, Experts Discuss Challenges, Opportunities of Bulgaria’s Foreign Policy Strategy
17:02, 4 December 2023
SOFIA, DECEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS/BTA. A conference on "The Foreign Policy Strategy of the Republic of Bulgaria: Challenges and Opportunities" is taking place here on Monday.
"We can all make Bulgaria a factor of stability and security in Southeastern Europe, a factor of growth, a regional innovation leader," Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Garbiel said, opening the forum. "Before getting to this clearly stated ambition, it is crucial to take into consideration the comprehensively changing world around," she added.
The participating politicians, academics, experts and journalists are discussing the development and adoption of a national strategy for Bulgaria's foreign policy.
Gabriel's idea is to hold a series of debates on the subject, her Ministry said.
The Deputy PM said that the strategy is planned to be developed as a public document spelling out the principles and the short-term and medium-term objectives and tasks of Bulgarian foreign policy. She argued that the foreign policy strategy is needed because of the radically changed international environment, growing fragmentation, overlapping crises, a different security architecture, Russia's aggression against Ukraine, hybrid actions and cyber attacks.
"We are witnessing global transformations, climate change, disrupted supply chains, digitization and migration pressure. New strategic partnerships are taking shape worldwide, with North America, Latin America, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. We are clear that economic diplomacy is gaining new dimensions," Gabriel said. "Against this backdrop, the adoption of a strategic document, to be approved in advance by the National Assembly, is intended to increase the transparency, predictability and public support for Bulgarian foreign policy," the Bulgarian Foreign Minister said.
"It is important to build new strategic partnerships. Bulgaria has a lot to contribute to cultural diplomacy acquiring new dimensions," Gabriel said. She believes that the country should be better prepared to tackle disinformation and hybrid threats.
(This information is being published according to an agreement between Armenpress and BTA.)
Fly Arna denies rumors of flight suspension, resolves technical issues
17:59, 4 December 2023
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. "Fly Arna" Armenia’s national airline continues its operations, staying true to its promise to provide its passengers with a comfortable and reliable flight experience. The airline has issued a statement about this, denying the news circulating in the media about the suspension of flights in recent days.
“Over the past few days, we experienced technical issues with our reservation system, which temporarily affected our flight booking service. However, we are pleased to announce that the technical issues have been resolved, and our reservation system is now back to normal,” reads the statement.
As a shareholder of “Fly Arna" Armenia’s national airline, ANIF has informed that the company continues its operations.
“During its 1.5 years of existence, Fly Arna has proven that quality, both in terms of services and other operational standards, is central to the company's activities. Today, the company provides more than 125 jobs that includes high- quality personnel trained according to the best international standards. We are confident that the company will continue to be the advocate and pioneer of the implementation of all standards of modern aviation in Armenia,” ANIF said.
Azerbaijan warns weapons supplies to Armenia may trigger new war
MDJ
Dec 6 2023
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday warned France and India against providing Armenia with weapons it deems a threat, saying such supplies could trigger a new war in the region.
Azerbaijan “will have to react to protect its people” should Armenia start receiving “serious installations” from France and India, Aliyev told a conference in Baku, saying he’d already given advance warning to “everybody.”
The demand from the Azeri leader follows three months after his forces launched a lightening offensive to restore full control over Nagorno-Karabakh, an area controlled by Armenians since the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago. Aliyev reiterated that Azerbaijan had no intention of invading Armenia.
Armenia is a member of a Russia-led military bloc that hosts the only Russian army base in the South Caucasus region.
But following the setback in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia has looked for support elsewhere, with Moscow’s attention on the war in Ukraine. In recent months, the government in Yerevan signed contracts with France and India to buy weapons including air-defense systems and armored vehicles.
The U.S. and the European Union condemned Azerbaijan’s September offensive, which prompted an exodus of the region’s 100,000 Armenian population.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien visited Baku on Wednesday to hold talks with Aliyev on a peace agreement with Armenia. Aliyev said he wants “firm guarantees” that, emboldened with the new arms supplies, Armenia won’t seek to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh in the future.
Energy-rich Azerbaijan, which buys weapons from countries including Turkey, Israel and Russia, has fought several wars with Armenia over the mountainous region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but had a majority ethnic Armenian population.
Armenian forces took Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan in the war that started in 1991. Azerbaijan, an ally of Turkey and Israel, already reclaimed most of the territory during six weeks of fighting in 2020.
O’Brien said earlier that Washington is “very closely” monitoring troop movements for any sign Azerbaijan intends to invade Armenia to create a transit corridor to its exclave of Naxcivan. The diplomat said “there’s no chance of business as usual” with the government in Baku until progress is made with Armenia on a peace agreement.
—With assistance from Sara Khojoyan.
https://www.mdjonline.com/tribune/politics_and_government/azerbaijan-warns-weapons-supplies-to-armenia-may-trigger-new-war/article_de6fdfae-cb5e-5e2d-a9e8-02f8fba8a1b5.html
ALSO AT
Are India and Iran set to rope in Armenia in giant North South Transport corridor?
INDIA NARRATIVE
Dec 6 2023
The 7,200 km route charted by the International North South Transport Corridor
India is eyeing to develop a few infrastructure projects in Armenia with a view to boosting connectivity and seamless transfer of goods through Iran and then to the Black Sea region and finally to Europe. India and Iran which have pressed the pedal on boosting connectivity have evinced interest in including Armenia in supporting the Chabahar port project along with the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).
“India and Iran are closely cooperating as part of the North-South international transport corridor initiative, which connects the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf with the Caspian Sea, towards Russia and Europe. We are ready to work with Armenia to understand how the country can benefit from the opportunities of this corridor,” Nilakshi Saha Sinha, Ambassador of India to Armenia said.
Sinha added that certain Indian companies are looking to participate in the infrastructure projects.
According to Mehr News Agency, the Armenian government suggested in 2021 that Indian companies use Chabahar for cargo shipments to not only Armenia but also neighboring Georgia, Russia, and even Europe.
The 7,200 km long INSTC is expected to boost trade between India and the Gulf and Central Asian countries.
India and Iran are also set to look at inking a Preferential Trade Agreement.
In August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in South Africa to discuss matters of bilateral and regional importance including connectivity and trade.
Raisi underlined the need to take India-Iran ties to a “new level” especially with a focus on economic and commercial engagements.
Until 2018 – when the US sanctions kicked in, Iran was one of the primary oil suppliers for India. “For New Delhi, letting go of Iranian crude supplies was a difficult transition as it moved to other suppliers such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and as far as Nigeria and Angola to spread its energy import risk,” Observer Research Foundation said.
Meanwhile India and Armenia are recharting their bilateral ties. The two have also signed a memorandum of understanding during the Global Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Summit held as part of G20 Digital Economy Working Group meeting held in Pune earlier. The MoU is intended to increase exchange of successful digital solutions for digital transformation.
“We have very long historical ties. I call this civilizational partnership… Some day we will turn this into a strategic partnership and I think that day is close. We share common interests and we have no contradictions. This must be institutionalised in a long-term cooperation between the two countries,” Armenian envoy in India Youri Babakhanian said earlier at a seminar organised by India Central Asia Foundation.
https://www.indianarrative.com/economy-news/are-india-and-iran-set-to-rope-in-armenia-in-giant-north-south-transport-corridor-153797.html
Armenians Navigate the Horrors of the 2023 Artsakh War
Dec 6 2023
12/06/2023 Armenia (International Christian Concern) — It has been more than two months since Azerbaijan seized control of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023. The military take-over followed nine months of brutal blockade on more than 100,000 ethnic Armenian Christians in the enclave. After the Azerbaijani take-over, the Armenian population fled to neighboring Armenia.
The stories emerging from the refugees in Armenia paint a harrowing picture of the traumatic events they witnessed in late September of this year. As Azerbaijani armed forces advanced, reports surfaced of snipers targeting civilians hunkered down in bomb shelters in the city. Additionally, there are disturbing accounts of captured Armenian soldiers facing massacres, while several individuals are reported still missing and unaccounted for during the conflict.
In the aftermath of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, the presence of profound trauma has become painfully evident as men, women, and children grapple with the devastating impact of the conflict.
For women and children, the trauma extends beyond the immediate impact of the war. Suffering for nine months with such limited supplies, the chaos of fleeing Artsakh to Armenia in just 10 days, and the uncertainty of the future have left emotional wounds. Among this group, there are also new widows grappling with the pain of loss, unsure of the fate of their husbands and sons, who are either missing or confirmed dead in the conflict.
The men, particularly those aged 18 and above, who served and fought in the army bear a unique burden of trauma. Their collective sense of brokenness and defeat is palpable after losing the war, their homes and farms, and the very national project of Artsakh itself.
Amid the chaos and tragedy, personal stories of resilience and shattered faith are also emerging. Their collective sense of Christian identity – as the world’s first Christian nation – is evident. In the face of displacement from Artsakh, their primary plea to the outside world is a heartfelt request to defend not only their land but also the Christian faith of their people.
https://www.persecution.org/2023/12/06/armenians-navigate-the-horrors-of-the-2023-artsakh-war/
Jerusalem: Armenian Christians battle developer to keep control of their corner the city
SIGHT Magazine
Dec 6 2023
- DAVID I KLEIN
RNS
Amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, another battle is playing out in Jerusalem among its small but storied Armenian Christian community, their own patriarch and an Australian-Israeli businessman who is said to be set on taking over the Armenian Quarter of the Old City.
Last month, things escalated as Jewish settlers aided by dogs and bulldozers disrupted a long-running sit-in in a site known as the Cow’s Garden, currently a parking lot, where businessman Danny Rothman plans to build his latest hotel.
Rothman’s company, Xana Capital Group, made a secret deal in 2021 with the Armenian Christian patriarchate to lease a swath of the Armenian Quarter, including part of the Armenian Theological Seminary and several family homes. When the deal became public, the local community rebelled, a priest who oversees the church’s real estate was defrocked and Patriarch Nourhan Manougian’s leadership came under question.
“This is land that belongs to the Armenian community for centuries,” Levon Kalaydjian, a Jerusalem-born Armenian, told Religion News Service. “This does not belong to the patriarchate, nor is it for him, the Patriarch, to do whatever he wants to do with it.”
Armenians have had a presence in Jerusalem since the fourth century, when Armenia became the first sovereign state to convert to Christianity. Some of Jerusalem’s Armenians trace their heritage to pilgrims who came to the holy city nearly that long ago, while others arrived from the former Ottoman Empire, fleeing the Armenian genocide in 1915 and 1916.
Today the smallest of the four divisions of Jerusalem’s Old City, the Armenian Quarter is considered separate from the larger Christian Quarter, where Palestinian Christians speak Arabic and worship in Greek Orthodox or Catholic churches.
The 2,000 or so Armenians, who speak a unique Jerusalem dialect of Armenian and belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, are represented by the Armenian Patriarchate and the monastic order of the Brotherhood of St James, which acts as a mini-welfare state: Most Armenians live in church-owned property and work in a church or monastery.
In Jerusalem’s tense cultural politics, the Armenians are widely considered the most peaceful demographic in the Old City, maintaining good relations with both Jewish Israelis and Arab Palestinians. That unique status has been complicated by the fact that they are sitting on one of the Holy Land’s most valuable pieces of real estate.
“The piece of land we’re talking about is one of the most important in the city, if not in the country and the world,” said Setrag Balian, one of the founders of the current protest movement. “Striking as it might sound, it is a fact.”
The Armenian Quarter occupies the highest point in the Old City and lies along the main path from the Jaffa Gate to the Western Wall and Jewish Quarter. It is also situated on one of the few vehicle-accessible roads in the Old City. The Cow’s Garden is one of the few undeveloped spaces inside the walls.
“The Armenian community used to feed off of that land, and Armenian pilgrims used to come camp there and put up their tents and caravans,” Balian said. “Other than the cultural and historic fact that this is the Armenian Quarter, it had economic importance; our life depended on that land.
“And today, even as parking, it depends on it. In modern times, in municipalities all over the world, one of the biggest problems is the matter of parking, so this should also not be underestimated,” he added.
It’s not the first time someone has tried to wrest control of land from the Armenian community. Enver Pasha, the Ottoman minister of war who was an architect of the Armenian Genocide, once eyed the Cow’s Garden for a summer home, while Jerusalem’s five-time mayor, Teddy Kollek, also pressed for previous patriarchs to allow construction on the land, along with numerous other potential investors.
None was successful until the deal with Xana, signed in 2021.
The 49-year lease deal will allow Xana to build a luxury hotel complex over not only the Cow’s Garden but the Patriarch’s private garden and the seminary’s main hall, where nearly all of the community’s celebrations are held, some 1.6 hectares in all. The deal also gives Xana the unilateral power to renew the lease for another half century after the initial term is up, for a total of 98 years.
The return for the patriarchate is a lump-sum payment of $US2 million and a yearly rent of just $US300,000 – less than previous offers and a paltry sum for one of the world’s most valuable properties, leading to accusations of bribery and corruption in the agreement.
Exacerbating the community’s concerns is the developer’s profile. Though Rothman, who also goes by Rubinstein, has been involved in tourism in Israel for decades, little is known about his company, which is based in Dubai, making inquiries about its history and holdings difficult.
The deal also came at a time when both Christians and Muslims in the Old City and east Jerusalem are under pressure by Jewish settler groups, attempting to take control of properties for the explicit aim of ‘Judaising’ the city.
Patriarch Manougian has claimed that the patriarchate’s real-estate manager, Baret Yeretsian, misinformed him about the deal, and he has defrocked and exiled him. Yeretsian had to be removed from the Old City under police protection in May, due to the community protests outside of the patriarchate.
In October, the Patriarch cancelled the deal, saying it was illegal because it had not been approved by the Synod of the Brotherhood of St James, but only after more than two years of internal pressure from the Armenian community.
Since the cancellation, the patriarchate has put out a statement stressing the danger to the Armenian character of the quarter, and the Patriarch has at times joined the protesters in the Cow’s Garden.
“Better late than never,” Kalaydjian said.
The controversy has been compared to a 2005 scandal in the Old City, when the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem was dismissed after signing a deal to give over Christian properties in the city to the far-right Jewish settler group, Ateret Cohanim, which some saw as a concession to Israeli designs on non-Jewish sectors of Jerusalem. Yeretsian pointed out that Rothman is a secular Jew, whose investment partner is a Palestinian Greek Orthodox Christian.
But on 5th November armed settler activists appeared with dogs and bulldozers demanding that construction begin on Rothman’s hotel. Balian accused Rothman and his partner of “cheap intimidation tactics” using “settler groups that don’t even come from Jerusalem, or the Old City.”
The strategy didn’t work.
“We’re a 1,700-year-old presence at least in the Old City. We are not ready to give up just at the presence of armed people or bulldozers,” Balian said.
As important are the internal politics of the Armenian community. He questioned the dismissal of Yeretsian, saying defrocking him only forfeited the patriarchate’s ability to punish him. Before the deal had been formally cancelled, Balian said he rejected calls pushing for the resignation of the patriarch, as it would only set a precedent in which the patriarch can walk away from his responsibilities to the community.
Instead he believes the patriarchate, with its power and influence over the lives of Jerusalem Armenians, needs to bring in lay managers and integrate the community into its decision-making process, at least on mundane matters.
“We’re not saying that the community should decide on everything,” said Balian, “because you need that structure, you need that institution. It’s a religious institution, and we all belong to it. But let’s work together as a united front.”
In a divided Jerusalem, Balian said, what’s most important for his community is to stick together, no matter who is trying to encroach on their land.
“For us, it doesn’t even matter if it’s settlers or not, or if it’s Jews or Muslims or others. Our goal is to keep that land Armenian,” Balian said.
https://www.sightmagazine.com.au/features/33543-jerusalem-armenian-christians-battle-developer-to-keep-control-of-their-corner-the-city