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Three soldiers from the Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) Defense Army were killed as a mine exploded on Thursday, November 21, at around 18:35.
Gegham Zakaryan (b. 1995), Sargis Abrahamyan (b. 1998) and Sargis Melikyan (b. 1997) died on Thursday, while Narek Hoveyan (b. 1998) was wounded.
An investigation into the details of the incident is underway.
The feature film “The Last Inhabitant” by Armenian filmmaker Jivan Avetisyan about the ongoing conflict in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) was named the best feature film in Pomegranate Film Festival in Toronto, Canada.
The movie was among the 40 other films submitted for consideration, with Canadian-Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, Arsinee Khanjian, actor/producer Dean Cain, Montel Williams and many others in attendance.
Avetisyan’s eighth feature film, “The Last Inhabitant” centers around Abgar, the only Armenian of Christian faith left in the village of Gyurjevan, now devastated and in near ruins, after everyone else has been deported. Because of his skills as a stonemason, he is assigned to help build a mosque by the Azeri occupants. He also has to take care of his daughter Yurga, traumatized after witnessing her husband’s murder. As the situation deteriorates around them with increasing enemy danger and lack of food, they find solace in their memories of an idealized past, when peace and happiness still prevailed. The last resort for those who have not much to hope for. With its often elegiac and poetic approach the film is able to achieve a touching portrait of survival and at the same time humanizing the protagonists and their fate, how tragic it may be.
Earlier, the film was named the best feature film by the Scandinavian International Film Festival, while actor Aleksandr Khachatryan, meanwhile, won the best actor award in Finland.
Russian astronaut, hero of Russian Sergey Ryazansky published on his Facebook page a photo of Lake Sevan taken from the International Space Station.
“Lake Sevan is the largest body of water in Armenia and the Caucasus region, and one of the largest freshwater high-altitude lakes in Eurasia. The #lake is situated in Gegharkunik Province, at an altitude of 1,900 m above sea level,” Ryazansky wrote on his Facebook page above his image.
A few weeks ago, Ryazansky published shots of Armenian capital Yerevan taken from space. “Yerevan does not look like other capitals – people here are not in a hurry, the city is moving at its measured pace. And the Cascade, one of the symbols of Yerevan, is well-known far beyond its borders,” wrote the astronaut in his post.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared the end of Islamic State on Tuesday in an address broadcast live on state TV, Hindustantimes.com reports.
A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Major General Qassem Soleimani, also declared the end of Islamic State in a message sent to the country’s supreme leader on Tuesday which was published on Sepah News, the news site of the Guards.
Videos and pictures of Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force, the branch of the Guards responsible for operations outside of Iran’s borders, at frontline positions in battles against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been posted frequently by Iranian media in recent years.
Last week, Iranian media published pictures of Soleimani at Albu Kamal in eastern Syria, a town which Soleimani said on Tuesday was the last territory retaken from Islamic State control in the region.
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s most powerful military force which also oversees an economic empire worth billions of dollars, has been fighting in support of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the central government in Baghdad for several years.
More than a thousand members of the Guards, including senior commanders, have been killed in Syria and Iraq.
Azerbaijan’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union is practically ruled out without any consent by the Armenian authorities and the Armenian people, says a Moscow-based political analyst.
In an interview with Tert.am, Alexander Sobyanin, the director of the Association for Cross-Border Cooperation, highlighted the need of serious collaborative work before any decision-making “to understand that uniting economies under a common umbrella is a reality dictated by international developments”. In his words, such an approach would facilitate future peace efforts over Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).
The Russian Foreign Minister recently said in Baku that they would hail Azerbaijan’s presence in the Eurasian Economic Union. Do you think it is a possible scenario? Azerbaijan has not kind of made any public statement in that connection.
Sergey Lavrov spoke not only of Azerbaijan but also Uzbekistan. I think those countries’ membership in the Eurasian Economic Union is really becoming inevitable, yet we shouldn’t make haste under any circumstances, as this kind of decisions have to consider also the member-states’ societies (not just the governments). It has to do particularly with Armenia. Those states’ membership efforts should contribute to the Eurasian Union’s development in general. In the case of Azerbaijan, a lot depends certainly on Armenia. It is a complicated issue as it is, so [the sides] need to carry out considerable work before any decision-making to reach agreements wieghing all the pros and cons.
You are aware that Armenia and Azerbaijan are in a de-facto war situation. So what is the expected outcome? What would be the motivating factor for Armenia to agree to Azerbaijan’s membership?
If there is a [mutual] desire, the sides will be able to reach an accord. Azerbaijan’s membership may facilitate the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement efforts. At the same time, it is important to also maintain security and sovereignty in the two states not to allow any lowering of those criteria, and to avoid any loss of balance. The international community does not have common approaches with respect to the Karabakh conflict; there isn’t any single and universally acceptable position. So Russia’s presence in the conflict settlement process is really necessary in order to make the sides demonstrate enough willingness and desire to discuss the issue. This kind of problem requires a great responsibility as it is really very complicated. It is the international situation that practically makes our economies help one another.
So do you really think the Nagorno-Karabakh issue will be resolved after Azerbaijan and Armenia become members of a single union? For over 25 years, the sides haven’t been able to reach any accord, with each pursuing its own gains and interests. How are they expected to forget all this for the sake of Azerbaijan’s membership?
That doesn’t absolutely imply that Azerbaijan’s entry into the EEU would pave way to conflict settlement just within a fraction of the second. It is possible, of course, to establish historic sovereignty. We have seen Germany’s and France’s example, which is quite successful. Of pivotal importance is not only the consent by the political elite but also the civil society of Armenia. We need also consent by the [political] factions represented in the National Assembly, as this is really a complicated issue. I do not simply imagine that at least a small segment [of the Armenian society] would back Azerbaijan’s membership in the EEU. We probably need a referendum to identify the public sentiments. I don’t know whether Armenia’s Constitution allows for that, but public opinion surveys alone will not be enough to identify what the societies want and whether or not they agree [to such a plan]. The Armenian society’s position must be clearly expressed before such a decision-making. But that’s a time-consuming issue, not something to be settled in just a couple of days.
And what about situation with Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in that case? Will Karabakh also become an EEU member and if so, what will be its status?
Considering the developments over the past 10 years, this issue needs to be considered from the angle of the theory of relativity. I think that Karabakh will in most likelihood have its status approved, overcoming economic barriers. And the economy of Karabakh will reach a considerably advanced level to have its contribution to the Eurasian market’s development. That’s one option. And perhaps Karabakh will be granted a separate status, as they may decide that it should not be a Union member. I think the issue can be resolved through discussions.
New York, NEW YORK — On Sunday, November 12, 2017, journalist and cartoonist Lucine Kasbarian delivered an unprecedented talk on the Armenian lecture circuit with a highly informative and entertaining presentation, “Armenians & Political Cartoons.”
The World Food Program says Saudi Arabia’s continued blockade threatens the lives of millions in Yemen as aid deliveries cannot get to the needy.
Stephen Anderson, the head of the World Food Program, on Monday described as “heartbreaking” the fact that millions in Yemen depend on sustained access to humanitarian assistance.
Of a population of 26 million, some 17 million Yemenis do not know where their next meal is coming from and seven million are totally dependent on food aid.
On November 6, Saudi Arabia announced that it was shutting down Yemen’s air, sea, and land borders, after Yemeni fighters targeted an international airport near the Saudi capital with a cruise missile.
The United Nations made a plea for the Saudi war machine to remove its blockade, warning that without aid shipments “untold thousands of innocent victims, among them many children, will die” and that its partial lifting was not enough.
Anderson said from Sana’a that humanitarian flights to the northern Houthi-held part of Yemen have been grounded amid the siege.
President of the National Self-Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikyan has gone on a hunger-strike outside the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) in protest against a decision to ban a petition campaign aiming to change the Constitution.
The politician considers the CEC’s decision unconstitutional.
“We all know that the adopted Constitution contains transitional provision allowing three initiators to enforce changes, attracting 200,000 citizens, the National Assembly and the President. But 200,000 citizens cannot possibly gather together the parliamentarians in just half an hour,” he told reporters, considering the issue extremely important.
Hayrikyan said they have their own version of the basic law which, if properly considered, “would make every third person feel that he is the master of this country”. He added the CEC rejected their earlier request for an official form for signatures, citing the absence of legislative guarantees allowing the procedure.
“[The CEC president] could have said at least that the provision is ineffective. I only wanted to call attention to the problem, considering its importance as a panacea” he added.
Taner Akcam, a Turkish-German historian and professor, and the first academic in Turkey to openly address the Armenian Genocide issue, compares the current crisis in the country to the “dark periods” faced in 1970s-1990s.In an interview with Tert.am, Akcam shared his concerns over the continuing uncertainty, and the population’s wide support to violence and oppression. “The developments in Turkey today are indeed very concerning – no one can figure out what will happen tomorrow. Leaving out the Ottoman period, Turkey faced similar dark periods in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, especially after the 1971 and 1980 military coups. However, there is a fundamental difference between what occurred then and what is happening now. In the past, a military regime was attacking the entirety of the population. Everyone faced oppression but everyone also knew this oppression would end sooner or later. Furthermore, these oppressive tactics did not have large popular support. Now, unfortunately, 50-60% of the population unquestioningly supports the type of oppression and violence taking place today. This mass support is the most worry-inducing factor today,” he said.
Akcam, who is honored with the 2018 Outstanding Upstander Award from the World Without Genocide organization, also addressed Turkey’s policy of denial and the differences in the public attitudes towards the Armenian Genocide recognition.
“It is difficult to speak about a single attitude of the Turkish population on the matter of the events of 1915. If we were to compare Turkey to a train, this train has many different wagons. Each wagon develops an attitude towards history in a different manner. For example, the Kurds are more inclined to accept the crimes committed in the past. Denial is more widespread among the Turks. Furthermore, the most important problems are a lack of knowledge or awareness and the ‘who cares’ attitude. Turkish society feels that there are more urgent and pressing problems to deal with and that what happened 100 years ago is less important. In the 2000s, and especially after the assassination of Hrant Dink, we experienced some important developments on the topic of opening up to facing history. However, this was also removed in the current oppressive regime. I believe that the success achieved on the civil society level is very important. However, in the short term, I do not expect any positive steps being taken by either the government or the population regarding the denial of the genocide.
Asked to comment on the Turkey-Armenia relations and President Serzh Sargsyan’s strong-worded statement regarding the 2009 Zurich Protocols (that Turkey’s leadership is mistaken if they think those documents can be held hostage forever and ratified only at the most opportune occasion from their very point of view), the historian said he has little hope that the issue will ever be brought to the agenda. “It seems that on the Turkish front, the protocols have long been buried. I do not think that they will be brought up again in the near future. It seems that the softening of Turkish-Armenian relations is left for a different spring…” he noted.
The visit of three Mexican deputies to Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia has stirred a diplomatic crisis between Azerbaijan and Mexico, local media reports suggest.
Blanca Margarita Cuata Domínguez, María Cristina Teresa García Bravo, Carlos Hernández Mirón, accompanied by deputy Armenian parliament speaker Eduard Sharmazanov arrived in Karabakh on October 24. The guests visited the Stepanakert Memorial Complex and laid flowers in memory of those who fell during the Artsakh Liberation War.
At the invitation of the member of the Parliament of Armenia, Karen Avagyan, the three Mexican deputies traveled from October 21 to 28 to Yerevan. The deputies took a day to visit Karabakh, where they even recorded a video to express their support for Armenia.
This act was not well-received by Azerbaijan, whose embassy in Mexico sent a note of protest to the president of the Chamber of Deputies to condemn the visit of the legislators.
Azerbaijan’s charge d’affaires Mammad Talibov asked Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín to launch an investigation into this “illegal visit” and take appropriate measures so that “such incidents do not occur in the future.”