Over 30 armed provocateurs wearing ski masks and some carrying lethal weapons attacked a group of Armenian bishops, priests, deacons, and other citizens on Thursday morning in the Old City of Jerusalem, according to the Armenian Patriarchate.

“A mass and coordinated physical attack was launched,” the Patriarchate wrote in an official letter to the Police and Israeli government, which The Jerusalem Post reviewed. “Several priests, students, and indigenous Armenians are seriously injured.”

“They literally attacked us,” Bishop Koryoun Baghdasaryan, director of the Real Estate Department for the Patriarchate,

The Police confirmed that it received the letter and said that arrests were made on both sides – both Armenians and Muslims who allegedly carried out the attack. No one has been officially charged, the Police said.

“There was an unfortunate incident where some Arab Muslim men and some men from the Armenian community got into a brawl in the old city of Jerusalem,” Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum told the Post. “Police came promptly to separate the parties, and arrests were made on both sides.

“The city of Jerusalem will not tolerate any criminal activity, whether religiously motivated or otherwise, and the police will prosecute those responsible,” she said.

How could one man do so much damage to a nation?
How could such a nation remain muted?
How could such a nation endure so much Crime?

A former Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, who was involved in a conflict with Russia that resulted in the loss of significant territory, is currently advising Nikol Pashinyan, the Prime Minister of Armenia. Pashinyan, too, experienced a loss in the Artsakh region during his tenure. They are seeking guidance on managing their relations with Russia. Critics view these leaders as being part of a trend where political figures engage in what they consider corrupt color revolutions, potentially causing damage to their respective nations in pursuit of power.

Azerbaijan has a list of several hundred Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh whom it wants to detain on charges of various crimes, Reuters reports, citing a “senior diplomat”.

“Azerbaijan has a list of “several hundred” Armenians in Karabakh whom they want to detain on charges of various crimes,” the agency reported.

Azerbaijan has already detained Ruben Vardanyan, the former Minister of State of Nagorno-Karabakh, as he tried to cross the checkpoint on Hakari Bridge. He has been charged with “illegally crossing the border of Azerbaijan” and “financing terrorism”.

David Babayan, Advisor to the President and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), went to Shushi and surrendered on Thursday. In a Facebook post, he explained that the Azerbaijani side demanded his arrival in the Azerbaijani capital Baku for an investigation; therefore, he decided to go to Sushi and surrender.

As of 10 a.m. Friday, 88,780 forcibly displaced persons have entered Armenia from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Nazeli Baghdasaryan, press secretary of the Armenian prime minister, informed about this during the press conference presenting the activities of the respective humanitarian centers that has been set up.

“It can be seen from the numeric dynamics that a certain lack of intensity [of the aforesaid displaced persons’ entering Armenia] is felt. As of 06:00, that number was 84,770, and as of 08:00—86,560,” said Baghdasaryan.

She added that 18,756 vehicles crossed the Hakari bridge—to enter Armenia from Artsakh—as of 10am Friday.

Baghdasaryan informed that the buses sent by Yerevan Municipality, and which had left for Artsakh capital Stepanakert Thursday evening, transported about 2,000 forcibly displaced persons from there to Goris, Armenia.

The spokesperson of the Armenian PM said that those buses will leave for Stepanakert again, and they will provide transportation until the last person who expressed a wish to come to Armenia.

Baghdasaryan emphasized that as of now, 63,483 people have been registered in the humanitarian centers in Goris and Vayk cities of Armenia.

Also, she presented how many people made use of the accommodations offered by the Armenian state.

“Last night we had an indicator of 17,153, as of now it is 20,306. Everyone who crosses the Hakari Bridge is offered accommodation. I want to present what indicators we have in the provinces. Aragatsotn Province: 972, Ararat Province: 4,658, Armavir Province: 1,772, Gegharkunik: 1,935, Lori: 921, Kotayk: 4,622, Shirak Province: 900, Syunik: 2,040, Vayots Dzor: 1,370, Tavush: 1,116,” Nazeli Baghdasaryan said.

Samvel Babayan, a deceptive liar watched the video when he said I am the last one to live but he is first to run now he is the first he is in Armenia.

“As if I came to Africa, you are surprised, I came to my country. The journalist asked me: when will you come, I answered: whenever my heart wants, I will be there that day. My heart wanted, I came,” Samvel Babayan, the former commander of the Artsakh Armed Forces, said in a conversation with Factor.am, referring to the information about coming to Armenia.

– It’s just that in this difficult situation, everyone’s heart wants to come to the Motherland, but they can’t. How did you come so easily? – There is a video shot in “Tamozhni”, you can tell me to see how I am doing at home. – Despite the difficult situation, people hoped that you would initiate some action, start a partisan movement… – Vito stays there, let him start the partisan movement, he said: I will stay here forever, they will do the partisan movement with the Russians.

– Until now, Azerbaijan regularly announced that they would arrest those who played a key role in the Artsakh wars. there were even rumors that a list was drawn up, wasn’t your name there? – You should ask from Baku if it is on the lists, and why they didn’t catch it. Ask them how they set up the checkpoint that Samvel Babayan passed, they didn’t see it.

– Maybe you were hiding, didn’t they recognize you? – If you think that I can hide and just pass, then your affairs are not good. – Were you not afraid that you would be arrested at the checkpoint? – I said that I was afraid once when I was 25 years old, and my fears escaped with that. I have no fear. – Mr. Babayan, we are receiving information that people cannot leave Artsakh because there is a problem with gasoline. You are the head of the parliamentary force, don’t you have an obligation to support them? – Who can’t? “Kalonas” is coming, whoever can’t come, let him raise his hand, I’ll take him out.

Narek Kirakosyan

By Harut Sassounian,

Shortly after I wrote a column two weeks ago condemning European pro-Azerbaijan Rabbis for planning to hold their conference in Baku, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from 18 mostly Jewish prominent individuals, including eight righteous Rabbis, who condemned the trip to Azerbaijan and called for its cancellation.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis of the UK, the 18 signatories wrote: “We earnestly seek to initiate dialogue with you to appeal the decision of the Conference of European Rabbis and ensure that this conference does not go ahead in a country that is so opposed to the core values of Judaism and the teachings of the Torah.” The letter quoted Prof. James Russell of Harvard University who recently wrote: “It takes bullets to kill people, but indifference pulls the trigger.”

The letter described “the grave humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Artsakh” caused by Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only route linking Artsakh to Armenia, thus risking the starvation of 120,000 Artsakh Armenians. The letter stated that Azerbaijan is a country “widely recognized for having one of the lowest rankings in the world for upholding political rights and civil liberties.”

This group of righteous Jews wrote: “We are saddened that this prominent organization that represents so many Jewish people across Europe is, by choosing to host their conference in Baku, supporting the Azeri government rather than standing up for human rights and living and breathing the lesson of the Shoah — ‘never again’. While we acknowledge and appreciate the freedom that Jews can enjoy in Azerbaijan, the fact that these same inalienable rights do not extend to other minorities and religions in the country give us cause to worry about how long Jews will be able to enjoy freedom in what is otherwise a totalitarian government in the Muslim world…. Despite numerous international appeals and the decision of the International Court of Justice, the authorities of Azerbaijan have callously ignored calls to lift the blockade, disregarding the agreement signed in November 2020 by Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia regarding unimpeded traffic through the Lachin Corridor.”

The letter was signed by: Tamar Fyne, Seda Ambartsumian, Josh Kirk, Benjamin Nahum, Rabbi Avidan Freedman (Director of Yanshoof), Prof. Israel Charny, Dr. Oded Steinberg, Rabbi David Rosen, James R. Russell (Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Emeritus, Harvard University), Scott Jason, Lernik Jason, Michael Stone, Rabbi Yehoshua Engelman, Rabbi Tyson Herberger (Associate Professor of Religion and Religious Education, University of South-Eastern Norway), Rabbi Shimon Brand, Rabbi Irving ‘Yitz’ Greenberg, Rabbi Chaim Seidler Feller and Rabbi Alana Suskin.”

In a separate statement issued jointly by Israel W. Charny and Rabbi Avidan Freedman was titled: “This Kosher certificate for Azerbaijan stinks.” They explained that the 50 European Rabbis, who had written to the leaders of Armenia complaining about Armenians using of the term genocide, “are being used by Azerbaijan to prove the government’s Kosher bonafides to the world, and to shut the world’s ears to the cries of the afflicted.”

Charny, the director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem, and Freedman, a Jerusalem-based educator and Orthodox rabbi, stated: We “say in the clearest terms possible that in our eyes, this rabbinic letter misrepresents the facts, misunderstands the fundamental moral significance of the Holocaust, and misses a major pillar of Jewish ethics.”

Charny and Freedman then enlightened the pro-Azeri Rabbis about the true meaning of the terms Holocaust and genocide: “In the Encyclopedia of Genocide, the word ‘holocaust’ was used to refer to the Armenian Holocaust in 1909, and even earlier in other contexts, and the word ‘genocide’ was coined in 1942 by a Polish Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, to describe the crime that had been committed against the Armenian people by Turkey, and that was then being committed by Germany against the Jews. The entry on the topic in the encyclopedia ends with the following conclusion: “the word (holocaust) belongs historically to all people’s suffering, and certainly that it not become a basis for excluding the suffering of any other people.”

Charny and Freedman described the pro-Azeri Rabbis “claim that any contemporary comparison of the suffering of people is a desecration of the holy memory of the Holocaust, and a belittling of the Jewish people’s suffering is itself an absurd desecration of Holocaust memory.”

Charny and Freedman explained that “What the European Rabbis letter does is to cynically weaponize the memory of the Holocaust in order to enable the infliction of mass suffering. After all, these rabbis do not deny that 120,000 residents of Artsakh are in danger of starvation because of the blockade imposed by Azerbaijan. They do not deny that Azerbaijan is using mass starvation as a tactic for political gain. But by silencing Armenian criticism of Azerbaijan’s actions, they are the ones who cynically use the ‘Holocaust card’ for political purposes.”

Charny and Freedman concluded their statement: “The decision of these rabbis to raise their voices on the side of the oppressor is a desecration of Holocaust memory and of Jewish values. In the spirit of this season of repentance, we call on the Conference of European rabbis, or at the very least, on individual rabbinic members of conscience, to have the moral courage to remember their rabbinic duty, and retract their decision.”