By Aram Suren Hamparian,

– Denying the Armenian Genocide

– Arming Azerbaijan’s attack on Artsakh

– Endangering Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter

His hostility – rising all too often to the level of toxicity – runs directly counter to the views of the vast majority of Jews and allies of Israel around the world (spiritual and secular) who believe that Israel – itself a genocide survivor state – must stand with, not against, Armenia. – Aram Suren Hamparian

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed the situation in the Middle East, Ukraine, and the Caucasus during a meeting with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Athens, reports the Greek City Times.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan keeps increasingly referring to places outside Turkey as “our lands.” The government of Turkey has threatened to invade and annex Greek islands in the Aegean Sea for at least the past five years.

In this context, the premier Greece noted the importance of respecting the territorial integrity of countries and protecting the civilian population.

He recalled the existing differences between Greece and Turkey over the Cyprus issue.

“There is no other solution for us than the decision of the UN Security Council. The dialogue should continue from where it left off in 2017,” Mitsotakis added.

By Harut Sassounian,

While Armenians are dealing with the dispossession of Artsakh and trying to cope with its tragic consequences, Azerbaijan is escalating its demands by launching a campaign claiming that the entire territory of the Republic of Armenia is supposedly ‘Western Azerbaijan.’ No sensible person in the world would take such an outrageous lie seriously, simply because Azerbaijan was founded a little over a century ago, while Armenia has been in existence for thousands of years. Even Coca Cola is older than Azerbaijan!

After establishing the ‘Western Azerbaijan Committee’ with the blessing of Pres. Aliyev, Azerbaijan has embarked on a worldwide campaign to disseminate its ridiculous scheme around the world and at the United Nations. Those Armenians who are concerned about Azerbaijan’s expansionist plans over the Syunik province of Armenia or the so-called Zangezur Corridor should be more alarmed about Azerbaijan’s enormous appetite to take over all of the Republic of Armenia, after occupying Artsakh.

Here are four actions Azerbaijan has taken at the UN in recent months:

1) Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to the UN Yashar Aliyev circulated to all members of the General Assembly and Security Council a letter by the ‘Western Azerbaijan Committee’ on January 17, 2023, stating that “All Azerbaijanis expelled from the territory of nowadays Armenia and their descendants have the right to return to their homeland.”

2) A second letter was submitted by Azerbaijan to the UN on February 22, 2023, accusing Armenians of carrying out acts of “violence, genocide, massacres and other crimes against humanity and gross violations of human rights. This process was particularly violent and cruel in 1905–1906, 1918–1921, 1948–1953 and 1987–1991.” The letter added that “in nowadays Armenia, Azerbaijani historical and cultural heritage, including mosques and graveyards, were massively destroyed, toponyms were changed and systematic racial discrimination was carried out against Azerbaijanis.”

Moreover, Azerbaijan demanded that the UN take the following steps for the settlement of Azerbaijanis in Armenia:

“− Obtaining a legally binding international agreement with appropriate verification and guarantee mechanisms ensuring the voluntary return of Azerbaijanis expelled from the territory of nowadays Armenia to their homeland in safety and dignity;

− Securing the return process with appropriate security, humanitarian and socio-economic assistance programs;

− Establishing international monitoring, accountability, security, intervention and other necessary activities to prevent the recurrence of expulsion, discrimination and harm to the returned population;

− Ensuring sustainable rehabilitation and reintegration of returnees through the implementation of reconstruction and reconciliation measures under international supervision.”

Azerbaijan’s UN Ambassador demanded that Azeris who return to Armenia “have unimpeded communication with the Republic of Azerbaijan.” This is a very alarming suggestion which means that the Republic of Azerbaijan wants to have a road under its control within the territory of Armenia. The letter added that Azeris returning to Armenia should not be dispersed throughout the country, but kept together as a group and their safety and rights ensured. Even more alarming is the demand that Azeris be able to “use the Azerbaijani language in the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the [Armenian] Government.” Azerbaijan added the following ridiculous demand: “Azerbaijanis shall be entitled to form local security forces and take an appropriate role in courts” of Armenia. This actually means that Armenia will be an appendix to Azerbaijan rather than a sovereign republic.

Furthermore, to ensure the safety of Azeris returning to Armenia, Azerbaijan “considers it necessary to deploy an international security mission with an appropriate mandate and comprising the forces of countries trusted by Western Azerbaijanis in the areas to which they will be returning.” In other words, Azerbaijan wants to station foreign troops on Armenia’s territory, which is completely unacceptable. Azerbaijan also stated that “The Government of Armenia shall ensure the return of property and community lands belonging to Azerbaijanis and pay compensation for property damage and losses caused by preventing the use of property.” Those who make such insane demands are living in a make-believe world.

3) The ‘Western Azerbaijan Committee’ delivered a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in April 2023, requesting him “to send a special UN mission to Armenia for launching the process of safe and dignified return of Azerbaijanis expelled from this country.”

4) The ‘Western Azerbaijan Committee’ submitted a report in October 2023 to the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. According to the Azeri media, the UN Committee “demanded that Armenia address the issues raised by the Western Azerbaijan Committee.” If there is any truth in this claim, I hope that Armenia’s UN Representative responded to Azerbaijan’s allegations and exposed the Azeri lies.

This is the vindictive enemy that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan naively believes he can sign a ‘Peace Treaty’ with. This unnecessary ‘Peace Treaty’ will actually undermine Armenia’s interests. Azerbaijan is already demanding that the rights of “Azeris expelled from Armenia” be included in such a treaty, thus providing the ground for future aggression and occupation by Azerbaijan. The Azeri letter to the UN in fact includes such an alarming provision: “the [Azeri] Community will aspire to include the creation of conditions for the return of Western Azerbaijanis to their homeland as an obligation of Armenia in the peace treaty to be concluded between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”

The only way to end this nonsense is for Armenia to stop the slippery slope of making endless concessions to Azerbaijan and reject all of its unacceptable demands.

There are 6 civilian prisoners, 41 prisoners of war, and 8 former high-ranking political and military figures who are considered political prisoners, human rights defender Siranush Sahakyan, representative of the interests of Armenian prisoners of war at the ECHR, said at the press conference. In addition to 55 people, at least 80 prisoners of war and civilians were captured in Azerbaijan, and no steps are being taken to find out their fates.

“This is just the official number of prisoners, apart from this, at least 80 prisoners of war and civilians were captured by Azerbaijan, and no steps are being taken to find out their fates,” said Sahakyan. “From this point of view, the group of captives is at a higher level of protection, because at least the circumstances of the captivity have been confirmed, and there is no movement in relation to the other group, and as of spring 2021, there are no recorded cases of Azerbaijan officializing the persons captured during the 44-day war,” – emphasized the specialist of international law.

Source: 301

The Russian Federation called on Israel to take measures regarding the situation around the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem. Maria Zakharova noted during the briefing that the rights of all religious communities should be equally protected. “Moscow opposes any illegal actions aimed at revising the historically established ethno-confessional balance in the Old City (Jerusalem), including encroachments on Christian communities, their holy sites, and property”.

Armenia fully recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh. Alen Simonyan, speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, told this to reporters at the NA Tuesday.

“We have already said this eight times in the last year or two. What else needs to be said?” Simonyan emphasized.

Also, he stated that a “Nagorno-Karabakh issue” does not exist in Armenia.

Disputed land deal threatens future of Jerusalem’s Armenian community

Hannah McCarthy in Jerusalem,

It’s almost midnight and a group of people nervously talk among themselves on Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate Road in Jerusalem’s old city. One man holds a muzzled dog, while another speaks anxiously on a phone. The group becomes agitated as an Israeli police car drives down the narrow street towards the car park that lies on land owned by the local Armenian church.

Inside the car park, about 200 local residents of the Armenian quarter are gathered at the site that they say is under threat from an Israeli-Australian property developer. Known as the Cow’s Garden, the site includes a seminary, community hall, five homes and represents 25 per cent of the Armenian quarter’s land in the old city. Surrounded by historic ramparts, the car park is an important space for the 1,000 Armenians who still live within the old city and a possible site for affordable housing.

Many protesters are descendants of those displaced by the Armenian genocide committed by Turkish Ottomans more than a century ago, although the Armenian presence in Jerusalem dates back more than 1,600 years. “There were contacts between Armenia and Palestine even before Christ, and the Cathedral of St James – which stands today at the heart of Jerusalem’s Armenian community – was founded around 420 AD,” says Matthew Teller, author of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem. Like Palestinians in the old city, Armenians are technically stateless and deemed residents rather than full citizens of Israel, after its forces occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967.

The Armenian community’s future is under threat after its local religious leader, known as a patriarch, Nourhan Manougian, entered into a controversial deal in 2021 to lease church land to Xana Capital, a United Arab Emirates company owned by an Israeli-Australian property developer who plans to build a hotel. The developer did not respond to a request for comment sent on LinkedIn.

Local resident Kegham Balian says the deal undervalued the old city site and should never have been agreed to without the community’s consent. One priest who was heavily involved in the deal has since been defrocked and after significant backlash, Manougian says he cancelled the deal with Xana Capital last month – although members of the community have not yet seen the letter canceling the lease.

Despite the deal supposedly being cancelled and no court order enforcing the lease, armed Israeli settlers turned up at the car park on November 5th with dogs and pepper spray; while diggers remain at the site, after arriving earlier this month and knocking down one wall and digging up in one section of the car park. The Armenian community rallied in response and set up a 24-hour watch to prevent further demolition, which senior church leaders in Jerusalem criticized as “illegal actions”.

On this night, those gathered at the car park were joined by patriarch Manougian – who arrived in a black Mercedes and refused to speak to these pages – and several priests who led locals in prayers. “We’re peaceful and we get on with our Jewish and Palestinian neighbours,” says Balian, “but if we don’t make a stand here, the entire Cow’s Garden will be gone.”

Earlier that evening, Setrag Balian says the Israeli police arrived with a private security company and told them that if they didn’t leave the site, they would be forced to by Israeli soldiers. The next day armed settlers arrived again, accompanied by Israeli police who arrested three Armenians while demanding they produce evidence that the land is theirs.

An Israeli military spokesperson referred The Irish Times to the Israeli police for comment, who said: “The Israel Police is not a party to civil or contractual disputes and it is not part of its role. Upon receiving reports or complaints in suspicion of a criminal offence, they are dealt with by the police accordingly.”

The Armenian Quarter sits beside the old city’s Jewish Quarter and includes one of the main routes to the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites.

Israeli lawyer Daniel Seidemann, who founded Terrestrial Jerusalem which tracks development that harms the status and stability of the contested city, says that “settlers are interested in creating an uninterrupted bridge between Jaffa Gate and the Jewish quarter of the city” and describes this as dovetailing with a wider strategy backed by the Israeli authorities to encircle the old city with settlements and biblically-inspired settlement projects. As examples, he cites Israeli encroachment in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheik Jarrah and proposals for a settler-run national park on the Mount of Olives.

Multiple properties in Jerusalem’s Muslim and Christian neighbourhoods have become embroiled in opaque transactions often involving shell companies which sometimes lie dormant for years before groups aligned with settlers take legal action to force possession through the Israeli courts.

With media attention focused on the war in Gaza and in the West Bank, Seidemann believes settlers see an opportunity to take possession of the strategic Armenian site quickly. “What is happening there is not only a threat to the community, it is a threat to the city’s integrity,” he says. “Jerusalem would not be Jerusalem without a vibrant Armenian community.”

Source: https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2023/11/26/disputed-land-deal-threatens-future-of-jerusalems-armenian-community/

Aliyev Pashinyan has issued a directive commanding his supporters to target ANCA_DC, aided by assistance from international media outlets, azatutyun radio Video

this “Assistant Professor” Kopalyan is attacking the ANCA.

Until 2018, the ANCA was only attacked by Turkey and Azerbaijan. Let that sink in….

The ANCA is a lobby group of Armenian-Americans, primarily composed of volunteers. It is important to note that they are neither legally nor intentionally representing the Republic of Armenia; instead, they focus on advocating for Arm-American interests. Their role involves countering the influence of Turkish-American or Azeri-American lobbies if such lobbies exist.

It’s crucial to clarify that Armenia’s decision not to allocate funds for hiring lobbyists in the US is the responsibility of the Armenian government, not the ANCA. Rather than leveraging the Arm-American lobby as an additional resource aligned with Armenian interests, individuals like “Assistant Professor” Kopalyan, who are part of the government, criticize the ANCA.

Up until 2018, the ANCA had been subjected to attacks mainly from Turkey and Azerbaijan. Reflecting on this fact is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the situation.

The Artsian,

One of the first things Nikol did when he came to power was to try to replace the Armenia Fund with the “My Step Fund”. He immediately arrested the director of the fund on charges of misappropriating $250k ($250k out of $220million).

5 years have passed and Ara still hasn’t been convicted of a crime. Then in 2020, his administration decided to transfer $105 million dollars from the Armenia fund to the government budget. This was something unprecedented. Interestingly, the members of the government and the parliament received substantial bonuses shortly after. Now with Artsakh being completely under Azeri occupation, the Armenia fund has literally lost everything that it. Has worked since the day of its inception. Everything we donated and built is gone. Literally everything. Today, the Armenia Fund has become somewhat obsolete, which is exactly what Nikol as well as Aliyev, and Erdogan always wanted. Armenia fund is partly to be blamed for this. After all, throughout the past 5 years they either promoted Nikol or stayed silent when Ara Vardanyan was spending time in prison for an allegation that was never proven, they were silent on Nikol’s organized efforts to undermine the organization. Most importantly i haven’t heard anything from the Armenia Fund in regard to how this government handled the wars and gave away every inch of Artsakh. So i think its time for us to create a new organization. With Artsakh gone, Armenia Fund has lost its meaning.