Political scientist Ruben Hakobyan wrote on his Facebook page.

“Yerevan is Erivan Turkish Name and that’s it…

Yesterday’s speech of the main mover about the upcoming elections of the Yerevan Council of Elders reminded me of the famous anti-Artsakh slogan “Artsakh is Armenia and that’s the end” that was uttered four years ago in Stepanakert with a particularly anti-hygienic tone…

After just one year, after shedding the blood of five thousand victims “for nothing”, the same biped, together with the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem, reformulated it: “Karabakh is Azerbaijan and that’s it”, recording an already established fact, as a result of which Artsakh turned into a bleeding wound.. .

After decapitating Artsakh, continuing cooperation with the same tandem, yesterday in “Dvin” (Dvin?…) announced the beginning of the end of the next script, “Yerevan is Erivan and that’s the end” of the script…

And we still continue to tolerate the authoritarian existence of this anti-national abortion…

P.S. And Lao, who was woken up by our own call a year ago, deeply disappointed by us, continues to suffer from insomnia at night…”.

By Harut Sassounian,

In recent months, I have been contacted by many readers who asked me to write about the controversy regarding the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate’s lease of around 25% of the Armenian Quarter to a Jewish investor for 98 years. However, as the details of the lease contract were not made public, I was unable to write about it.

 Trying to learn the facts, I called the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian twice, asking him for a copy of the contract. He did not respond. I spoke with now-defrocked Fr. Baret Yeretzian, one of the signatories of the contract, who said he did not have a copy of the contract. I made several unsuccessful attempts to contact some of the lawyers who went on a fact-finding mission to Jerusalem and prepared a 184-page report. I was told that the report has not been made public because it had some sensitive information. I also contacted an Armenian activist in Jerusalem and one of the sponsors of the fact-finding mission.

Even though I still have not seen a copy of either the report or contract, I just read a revealing article in the Keghart website which posted an interview with a Jerusalem Armenian activist who had a copy of the 184-page report, including the contract with one of the pages missing. I decided to write about what I have learned so far, even though I prefer to review personally copies of the contract and report.

For those who have been following the various scandals involving the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate, there is nothing surprising: sad, but not surprising. Such covert land leases and sales of precious items owned by the Patriarchate have been going on for decades.

This current scandal is not just a questionable business transaction. It has political repercussions given the controversy between Palestinians and the State of Israel over Jerusalem. It has also consequences for the survival of the dwindling Armenian community in Jerusalem.

The contract for the lease has been signed by three clergymen: Patriarch Nourhan Manoughian, now defrocked Father Baret Yeretzian, and Archbishop Sevan Gharibian. As Fr. Baret, the former director of the Patriarchate’s Real Estate Office, has come under intense criticism, many feel that the Patriarch has attempted to shift the blame on Fr. Baret, making him the scapegoat. Nevertheless, King Abdullah II of Jordan, historically the custodian of Holy Sites in Jerusalem, and Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian National Authority, in a joint announcement, blamed the Patriarch and suspended their recognition of Archbishop Manougian as the Patriarch of the Armenian Church in Jerusalem, the Holy Land and Jordan.

Hagop Djernazian, an Armenian activist in Jerusalem, told Keghart that the Australian-Jewish investor, Rubinstein/Rothman, plans to build a seven-star hotel on ‘Goverou Bardez’ (Cows’ Garden), the land leased from the Armenian Patriarchate. The size of the property leased is 11,500 square meters or 123,785 square feet. The annual payment to the Patriarchate is $300,000. However, Fr. Baret told me that the income will be 5% of the hotel’s profits which can vary from year to year. Djernazian said that the leased land currently includes five Armenian homes, the Patriarch’s Garden, the Patriarch’s private parking as well as the hall of the seminary. At the end of the first 49 years, the buyer has the option to renew the lease for another 49 years.

Djernazian also explained that the lawyers obtained a copy of the contract from an unknown third party, not the Patriarchate nor the municipality of Jerusalem, but he insists that the contract is genuine, as “we were able to confirm it with the Patriarchate.”

Patriarch Manougian, under pressure from Armenians worldwide, has promised to cancel the contract, but a unilateral cancelation may result in legal challenges and financial penalties. A representative of the Palestinian Authority stated that it would be willing to pay the penalty for cancellation. However, Djernazian does not seem to be aware of that pledge, as he told Keghart: “If money is needed, I’m sure the Patriarchate, the community and the Armenian nation will work together to raise the required amount to pay the cancellation penalty.”

According to Djernazian, there are a couple of problems with the contract:

1)  It violates the by-laws of the Patriarchate;

2)  The date on the contract is altered from July 7 to July 8, 2021, to reflect the date that the investor’s company, Xana Gardens Limited, was registered in Israel. Fr. Baret explained the discrepancy as a simple typing error.

It is not clear what the next steps are to resolve this thorny issue. One way would be for the Jerusalem Armenian community to hire Israeli lawyers to sue the Patriarch or the Jewish Investor, however, no one else other than the Patriarch and the Jewish investor have legal standing in court.

Given the prominence of Jerusalem in the world and importance of the Armenian presence in the Holy City starting from the fourth century, this lease is of interest to all Armenians worldwide as well as Palestinians, the State of Israel, and the King of Jordan.

However, one party we have not heard from is the Government of Armenia which could officially contact the State of Israel to make its wishes known. However, Armenia’s leaders have their hands full right now, given the precarious situation in Artsakh and Armenia.

At the request of the President of the Republic of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan, Former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, will prepare in 7 days a report on the genocidal policy implemented by Azerbaijan in Artsakh.

Source: https://artsakhpress.am/eng/news/184956/former-chief-prosecutor-of-the-international-criminal-court-will-prepare-a-report-on-the-situation-in-artsakh.html

“Today, you are my hope. Please don’t leave me alone, be my father, mother, sister, brother. Please, dear compatriots, do not leave me alone in this pain, this is not only my pain. Vagif Khachatryan is the image of the entire Armenian people. Artsakh and Armenia are in Azerbaijan,” said Vagif Khachatryan’s daughter, Vera Khachatryan, during the action held in front of the UN Armenian office today.

To remind, on July 29, Vagif Khachatryan was transported to Yerevan accompanied by the Red Cross for treatment, but at the Hakari bridge checkpoint, Khachatryan was illegally imprisoned by the Azerbaijanis.

Vera told that Vagif Khachatryan was diagnosed with aortic stenosis and had to be urgently transferred to Yerevan for surgery.

Vagif was accompanied by his other daughter. Near the Hakari bridge, when the Azerbaijanis checked the passports, Vagif Khachatryan’s passport was never returned. Then they said that he should go to be checked.

The Azerbaijanis took Vagif Khachatryan to an unknown destination, but they let go the other medical patients who were being transported to Yerevan for treatment.

Vera Khachatryan mentioned that none of the relatives personally contacted Vagif Khachatryan. They don’t have any information until now.

The only information that reached the relatives is that Vagif Khachatryan is now in hospital in Baku.

“I ask each of you to put yourself in my place, in the place of my sisters. We are 3 sisters, we don’t have a brother, but now I consider each of you my brother and I am asking you to help us get my father back. I don’t know how and who to turn to, Azerbaijan presents facts that do not correspond to reality,” said Vera.

According to his daughter, the recently spread information that Vagif Khachatryan was the driver of the former commander of the Armed Forces Samvel Babayan is not true.

Vera Khachatryan emphasized that on the day of the abduction, the International Committee of the Red Cross contacted her sister and said that Vagif Khachatryan was in one of the Baku hospitals.

“But do I want Vagif to be in one of the hospitals in Baku?” I want him to be here in his homeland, receive treatment and return,” says Vera.

According to Vera, all the information published in the Azerbaijani press about Vagif Khachatryan does not correspond to reality.

Vera Khachatryan is going to carry out an action in front of the Armenian office of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Another start from the own point leads to the past

Yesterday, the first repatriation and integration center of the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs was opened in Yerevan. First, that is, they will open again. In other words, more money from the state budget will be spent on the office of the Chief Commissioner of Diaspora Affairs, and they will try to solve some issues or create an imitation of solving them. A stillborn initiative.
Since October 1, 2008, Armenia has had a Ministry of Diaspora with many divisions. In 2018, the Velvets took power and a year later, in 2019, they dissolved the ministry that had accumulated 11 years of experience, abandoned all programs, and formed the office of the Chief Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs. The only visible part of the activity of this office is the endless business trips and disputes with Diaspora Armenians by the Chief Commissioner of Diaspora Affairs, Zareh Sinanyan.

Unfortunately for all of us, there has not been, there is not and there will be no repatriation of unprecedented volumes, on the contrary, emigration is increasing. And now, forming the Center for Repatriation and Integration, the Velvets admit that it was a mistake to dissolve the Ministry of Diaspora and hand over all Armenia-Diaspora issues to one office and appoint that person from Glendale to head it. Then, the appointment of commissioners in diaspora communities, who are supposed to be the representatives of the Armenian commissioner in the communities, rejected by the given communities like him, is contradictory and serves the CP authorities. Then, perhaps, centers with different names will be opened in Armenia, then a third, a fourth, and finally we will have the same Ministry of Diaspora with a different name. But we will have lost precious time, as well as the trust of Diaspora Armenians, the dim hope of understanding each other, the deepening gap between homeland and Diaspora.

After the dissolution of the Ministry of Diaspora, how many qualified specialists found other jobs, how many emigrated and became Diaspora Armenians, why does the velvet government deprive us of the opportunity to develop and grow in any field, why does it destroy and destroy everything?
The first repatriation and integration center of the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs and other centers to be established later will not give anything to Armenia or the Diaspora. This is another vain initiative in velvet logic, like, for example, planting 10 million trees, establishing Kenats Purak, adopting a strategy of public administration reforms, having a protected and legal Armenia, etc.

Areg Margaryan

“Concerning Pashinyan’s collaboration with Azerbaijan, my earlier warnings about the installation of an illegal checkpoint in the Lachin corridor have unfortunately come to fruition. The presence of Azerbaijani forces in the Lachin Corridor poses a significant problem for the free movement of Armenians through this route, as it exposes them to the risk of arbitrary kidnappings by the Azerbaijani side.

At the same time, there are disturbing reports of Pashinyan’s actions in Armenia, where he appears to be rounding up Armenian heroes under questionable allegations. This has raised serious concerns, as it could lead to the capture of a considerable number of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population on trumped-up charges.”

Hayk Gevorgyan

The signature collection of the HayaVote civil initiative in Stepanavan city has been suspended without legal grounds. According to the illegal instruction of the mayor of Stepanavan, the representative of the municipality is not present at the place of the signature collection, which is why the signature collection was stopped.

Aram Petrosyan, one of the authors of the initiative, told “Hraparak” that the head of the Stepanavan CP community did not like the call of one of the citizens.

“The citizen who came to sign said that everyone should come and sign. It is inconvenient that some people are not concerned about Artsakh. The mayor heard these words and he did not like them. He told the employee that you should leave my area, I no longer allow him to collect signatures here, our employee said that his presence is legal and he will not go anywhere, and the mayor decided to remove the public servant from the building,” he said.

According to Petrosyan, on this occasion, they appealed to the HRD and are waiting for a response.

Anzhela Mnatsakanyan,

Its common opinion that Nagorno-Karabakh is an unsolvable conflict as the two principles of international law contradict themselves: the right to self-determination and the right to territorial integrity.

But the picture seems to be different as Artsakh – the historic Armenian name of Nagorno-Karabakh – has nothing in common with the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and I am going to show why.

Pre-Soviet Period

Artsakh is an integral part of Historic Armenia, it is mentioned in the works of Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Claudius Ptolemy, Plutarch, Dio Cassius, and other ancient authors. Ancient Greek sources called the area Orkhistene.

In contrast, Azerbaijan is a relatively young country, which first appeared on the political map in 1918 with the name Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (1918-1920). It was never formally recognized by the international community or by the League of Nations.

During 1918-1920, 95 percent of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh were Armenians, and they convened their first congress, which proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent political unit. The legislative power in Nagorno-Karabakh was exercised by the Assemblies of Armenians of Karabakh.

Between May 1918 and April 1920, Azerbaijan, supported by the military units from Turkey, committed acts of violence and mass killings against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The efforts of the Government of Azerbaijan to solve the Karabakh problem by military means provoked the organization of Karabakh’s` self-defense.

Soon after, military units from the Republic of Armenia came to rescue the oppressed population of Karabakh and fully liberate Karabakh. On April 23, 1920, the Ninth Assembly of Armenians of Karabakh declared Nagorno-Karabakh as an inalienable part of the Republic of Armenia.

Soviet Period

On November 30, 1920, the now-Soviet Government of Azerbaijan adopted a Declaration on recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh, Zanghezour, and Nakhichevan as part of Soviet Armenia. On July 4th, 1921, The Caucasian Bureau of the Communist Party of Russia convened a plenary meeting in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, during which it again confirmed the fact that Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to the Armenian SSR.

However, during the nights of July 4 and 5, 1921, a new decision was dictated by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, which stated: “Proceeding from the necessity of establishing peace between Muslims and Armenians… include Nagorno-Karabakh in the Azerbaijan SSR, granting it wide regional autonomy with an administrative center of Shushi, included in the autonomous region.”

These facts demonstrate, Nagorno-Karabakh belonged to the Azerbaijan SSR, neither during the Sovietization of Azerbaijan nor after the establishment of the Soviet power in Armenia when Baku recognized all disputed territories as Armenian.

On the other hand, with or without procedural violations, the legitimacy of this forum is seriously questioned.

The decision of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party-Bolsheviks is an unprecedented legal act in the history of International Law: the political party of a third country, with no legal power or jurisdiction, decided the status of the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In 1988, in response to the self-determination claims of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani authorities organized massacres and ethnic cleansing of the Armenians on the entire territory of Azerbaijan, particularly in Sumgait, Baku, and Kirovabad.

Process of independence:

On September 2, 1991, based on the USSR Law on “The procedures of the resolution of problems on the Secession of a Union Republic from the USSR,” a joint session of deputies of all levels of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Shahumyan region proclaimed the independence of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR), which was strengthened by the referendum of Independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, where 99.89% of participants voted “in favor” of Independence.

On October 18, 1991, the Republic of Azerbaijan confirmed its independence by the adoption of a “Constitutional Act on State Independence.” The same Constitutional Act considered the establishment of the Soviet power in Azerbaijan as “annexation by Soviet Russia” which “overthrew Azerbaijan’s legal Government.”

Thus, the Republic of Azerbaijan declared the establishment of Soviet power in Baku illegal and rejected the whole Soviet political and legal heritage.

When the Republic of Azerbaijan rejected Soviet legal heritage in 1991, the international subject to which the territories were passed in 1920 ceased to exist.

By rejecting the legal heritage of the Azerbaijan SSR of 1920-1991, the Republic of Azerbaijan has lost all claims to the territories passed to Soviet Azerbaijan in July 1921 – namely Nagorno-Karabakh.

It is important to highlight that Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan became independent according to the same domestic Soviet Law, so the legal bases of the independence of these two republics are equivalent.

Current stage:

In 1991, Azerbaijan launched a war against Nagorno-Karabakh, which lasted until May 1994, when Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Armenia via the mediation of Russia, signed a ceasefire agreement. The fact that Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire agreement with Nagorno-Karabakh is evidence that Karabakh was considered a distinct legal entity.

During all these years, Azerbaijani authorities, having all the necessary resources and a permanent military partner (Turkey), kept violating the ceasefire agreement.

The border clashes turned into wars in the summer 2014, and in April 2016, both times military activities were stopped by the mediation of Russia.

On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey and with the involvement of foreign terrorist fighters, launched a new war against Artsakh. Thousands of soldiers from both sides were killed before the ceasefire was made.

Still, now the Republic of Artsakh has no status, and there is no real guarantee that Armenians of Artsakh will not face the new ethnic cleansing,

So, we can conclude that the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan has nothing  in common with the Republic of Artsakh, as Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), was never been part of independent Azerbaijan, neither in 1918-1920 nor after 1991.

Anzhela Mnatsakanyan is a PhD student from Armenia. She specializes is the Eastern Partnership, Russia, and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.