“A free people cannot renounce their sovereign rights and submit to the rule of an alien state, especially one ruled for many years by an authoritarian, corrupt, and racist regime, intoxicated by its impunity.

Our collective decision to leave our Homeland – the Republic of Artsakh (the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), our homes, and our Armenian churches, leaving behind the relics of Saint John the Baptist (Surb Hovhannes Mkrtich) and the graves of our ancestors, which we have protected for centuries, is the proof to the whole world that freedom is the highest value for the people of Artsakh. We have made this forced decision amidst ongoing genocidal actions and looming serious existential threats.

We made this decision because those who call themselves champions and defenders of freedom and human rights decided to deny us our right to live with dignity in our homeland and our right to self-determination, thus aiming to achieve an imaginary peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan and for the sake of their own geopolitical interests.

We left because it was the only way to guarantee our safety and preserve our human and national dignity and our gene pool, expose the big lie, on which the political idea of unilateral and forceful resolution of the conflict was based, by forcing us and our children to accept citizenship and swear allegiance to the regime that hates us.

For more than three decades, we have defended with all our might our children’s right to peace and free development. We opposed the political deals that were offered to us at the expense of our sovereign right to live in our Homeland, won at the cost of lives and enormous sacrifices of many generations during the long centuries of struggle to preserve our national dignity and identity. And this struggle is not over. We are confident that we will regain our Motherland with the power of truth and justice.

For those who think that the world can be ruled by lies and brute force, we repeat the following:

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR) was proclaimed on September 2, 1991, by the legitimate authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO) and the Shahumyan Region of the Azerbaijani Soviet Social Republic, when the authorities of the latter announced their decision to secede from the USSR. The political Declaration on proclamation of the NKR was based on the legal norm of the Soviet law in force at that time and the will of the Artsakh people, expressed in a national referendum.

Our right to self-determination was recognized even by the authorities of Soviet Russia and Azerbaijan in 1920, and became the basis for creation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region in 1923, was enshrined in the constitution of the USSR, the constitution of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic and its law “On NKAO”, and was preserved in the Law “Concerning the procedure of secession of a Soviet Republic from the USSR” of April 3, 1990, and is also based on the UN Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966.

The referendum of December 10, 1991, confirmed that the absolute majority of voters supported the decision to declare the independence of our Republic. The legitimate parliament, elected according to democratic standards and in the conditions of a genocidal siege and armed aggression, adopted on January 6, 1992 the Declaration of Independence of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Artsakh. Thousands of our compatriots paid for this choice with their lives.

In 1992, all CSCE/OSCE member states recognized the right of elected representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh to participate in the OSCE  international conference mandated to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In a referendum in 2006, our people approved the Constitution of the Republic, which defined the procedure for electing legitimate representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and their powers; in 2017, again in a referendum, the people approved a new Constitution. This Constitution was and remains the only fundamental document by which the citizens of our Republic are guided and obeyed of their own free will.

Accordingly, we, the citizens of the Republic of Artsakh, in an effort to defend our legal rights and the right to preserve the subjecthood of our Republic, affirm that the self-determined Nagorno-Karabakh did not take any part in the formation of the constitution and authorities of the self-proclaimed Republic of Azerbaijan, and, on the contrary, declared its independence. However, the newly formed Azerbaijan did not hide its baseless claims to Nagorno-Karabakh.

It was in such conditions that the international community recorded the fact that there were disagreements over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, recognizing the disputed nature of this territory. Armenia and Azerbaijan then became participating countries of the CSCE/OSCE on the condition that they recognized the existence of disagreements over the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh and agreed that the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh would be determined at a peace conference under the auspices of the CSCE/OSCE. Both states have assumed an international obligation to resolve the issue exclusively by peaceful means.

However, once it became an CSCE/OSCE participating state, Azerbaijan immediately violated its international obligation to resolve disputes peacefully. Official Baku illegally used force against the NKR as a disputed territory in order to prevent holding an international conference to determine the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. In those conditions, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh exercised their right to self-defense. The armed aggression of Azerbaijan in 1992-1994 resulted in its defeat with significant territorial losses. It is important to emphasize that the Line of Contact between the NKR and Azerbaijan was internationally recognized.

However, during the three decades of the conflict, not a single statesman, politician or international legal authority answered a simple question: why Azerbaijan and other states that have legally recognized the obligation to follow the rule of law as a fundamental principle of their statehood, can disregard the obligation to respect the right of self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh and the principle of non-use of force, both arising from that fundamental principle?

This circumstance allowed Azerbaijan to retain in its policy arsenal the strategy of annexation Nagorno-Karabakh through the forced expulsion of its indigenous people. Azerbaijan’s aggressive policy has yet to receive due international condemnation. International actors, contrary to their international obligations to bear responsibility for protecting the population from genocide (Responsibility to Protect), unfortunately, did not pay due attention to the warnings contained in the Statement of the Parliament of Artsakh of July 27, 2023 about the most serious existential threats facing the population of Artsakh, did not prevent the criminal actions of Azerbaijan, which committed another military aggression against the NKR in September 2023 and completely expelled the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh from their historical Homeland.

It should be recalled that after conclusion of truce on November 9, 2020, the President of Azerbaijan stated that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem no longer exists, and everyone must come to terms with the results of the Second Karabakh War. In an effort to change the essence of the conflict, Azerbaijan has introduced into its diplomatic vocabulary a false narrative of “Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani lands,” through which it attempts to mute legitimate concerns about its aggressive genocidal policy.

We do not intend to compromise our principles, beliefs and our rights in relation to our own Motherland, neither in the face of force, nor  under the threat of destruction, neither in exile, nor under any other political circumstances.

The whole civilized world faces a choice today: either to restore the international order in Nagorno-Karabakh, based on respect for the right to self-determination and other rights and freedoms of peoples and human rights, or to agree that blockade, armed aggression, genocide and occupation are legitimate ways to resolve conflicts.

Today, leaders of many states speak about the need for the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh. However, we believe that for the peaceful, safe and dignified return and life of our people in their homeland the following indisputable conditions are required:

First, we rule out the return of citizens of the Republic of Artsakh to the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani armed forces, police and administration must be completely withdrawn from the territory of the Republic of Artsakh, including the Shahumyan region, where too Azerbaijan bears full responsibility for the ethnic cleansing in 1992.

Second, multinational international UN peacekeeping forces should be deployed along the entire border of the Republic of Artsakh, and a demilitarized zone should be created.

Third, the internationally recognized Lachine Corridor should be completely transferred to UN control and management.

Fourth, the territory of the Republic of Artsakh should be handed over to the UN control to ensure the conditions for the return of all refugees, formation of democratic and legal institutions and the restoration of the economy. All refugees must have equal status, equal rights and be subject to the common rules of the transitional period until a referendum is held to confirm the final political status of Nagorno-Karabakh, the result of which will be legally recognized by all states.

Fifth, the possibility of criminal prosecution by Azerbaijan of citizens of the Republic of Artsakh on any charges for the entire period of the conflict should be completely excluded. All arrested and already convicted Armenians in Azerbaijan must be released immediately. We are ready to recognize the competence of an international tribunal to investigate every war crime for which our citizens are accused, provided that in a similar way this tribunal will also address all war crimes committed by citizens of Azerbaijan and its mercenaries.

We are ready to do our best to contribute to achieving a peaceful resolution to the conflict, which will be based on the full respect for the right to self-determination and other internationally recognized human rights and freedoms of peoples.”

The addressees of the appeal are: the UN Secretary-General, the UN Security Council, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Council of Europe (Secretary-General, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, President of the Committee of Ministers), the President of the European Council, the President of the European Parliament, the Secretary-General of the CIS, the Secretary-General of the CSTO, and the Secretary-General of NATO. 

The invitation remains available for additional signatures. Entities interested in joining are encouraged to send a formal request via email to the following address: Artsakh.December10@gmail.com.

Authoritarian leaders often favor hasty elections. Pashinyan, a dictator, called for snap elections twice and emerged victorious.

Azerbaijan is set to hold an early presidential election on February 7, 2024, as announced by Azertag. President Ilham Aliyev has officially signed the corresponding decree.

When Italian police seized $880 million worth of “extremely pure” cocaine headed to Armenia, packed in containers carrying bananas from Ecuador. Report 301

The 301 team decided to investigate the recent drug epidemic in Armenia. What we found was in recent years, there has been a significant increase in cases of illegal drug trafficking and drug use among teenagers, minors, and women.

The platforms used for drug distribution have become more diverse, with Telegram being one prominent platform. Drug distribution through Telegram has expanded on a large scale, particularly in schools and universities, through advertisements posted on Telegram channels related to drugs. The problem of drug addiction can be particularly severe in the post-war period, as young people and teenagers turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with the fears and anxieties resulting from the war. This has led to a rise in drug spread.

The “False Prophet” from Ijevan systematically promotes the narrative that his wise economic policies managed to create unprecedented prosperity in Armenia since 2018, the year “The Velvet Revolution” toppled “The Old Corrupt Guard” and Nikol Pashinoglu walked triumphantly to The Office of The Prime Minister of Armenia. 

Of course, Armenia today is not the “Land of Honey and Milk”, and the mighty green dollar does not grow on trees lining up the main streets of Yerevan. Prosperity is limited strictly to the ruling elite, or the “New Guard,” i.e., the long list of oligarchs who plundered the economy under the watchful eyes of PM Pashinoglu, who scratched their backs and, in return, the oligarchs diverted millions of dollars to the multiple charities controlled by Anna Hakobyan, and with some creative accounting the illicit fortune of Pashinyan/Hakobyan ended up in offshore accounts, and not much can be traced back to the “First Family of Armenia”. 

Today (Nov. 27, 2023), very gloomy figures about the widespread poverty in Armenia were released. A close scrutiny of the numbers sends chills down your spine once you realize the dire circumstances affecting 1 out of 4 Armenians living in Armenia. The “official” poverty rate in Armenia is 24.8% (2022), based on figures released by Armenia’s National Statistical Committee, an institution that relied on World Bank methodology to tabulate the final figures. 

Of course, not all international institutions studying poverty globally agree with the creative accounting used by Armenia’s National Statistical Committee. World Food Programme (WFP) believes that the poverty rate is 28%, and others claim that almost one-third of Armenia’s population has been victimized by poverty.

Unfortunately, poverty is not the only scourge affecting the Armenian society under Pashinoglu’s rule. 

Source: Noubar Serabian

By Harut Sassounian,

Last week, I was asked by Alpha News TV to comment on the U.S. Senate’s decision, by a unanimous vote of 100 to 0, to suspend for two years Pres. Joe Biden’s authority to waive Section 907 of the United States Freedom Support Act, which prohibits providing assistance to Azerbaijan. Should the House of Representatives also approve this bill, it would then go to the President for his signature which would make it a law. Since 1992, all U.S. presidents, including Pres. Biden in the last two years, have waived Section 907, thus providing tens of millions of dollars of aid to Azerbaijan.

The Senate’s decision angered Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry which described it as a blow to Armenia-Azerbaijan relations and cancelled its participation in the planned Washington talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries on Nov. 20.

During my interview with Alpha News, I stated that not a single U.S. Senator objected to the anti-Azerbaijan bill, despite Azerbaijan hiring multiple large lobbying firms to defend its interests in Washington. This means that Azerbaijan has wasted tens of millions of dollars in the last two decades paying for these useless lobbying firms. I would like to add that the person directly responsible for overseeing the work of these lobbying firms is Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Washington, Khazar Ibrahim. Therefore, any government that becomes aware of the waste of such large amounts of money would immediately fire its Ambassador. If Pres. Aliyev does not dismiss Amb. Ibrahim, then he himself would be just as responsible for the waste of millions of dollars on worthless lobbying firms which have not been able to convince a single Senator out of 100 to vote in favor of Azerbaijan’s interests.

Within days of my interview with Alpha News, Azerbaijan’s first English language newspaper, AzerNews, published a lengthy article titled, “Bribing congressmen, Armenian lobby poses threat to future of Yerevan,” attacking me personally for saying that Azerbaijan has wasted millions of dollars on lobbying. This is what shameless people do when they accuse others of doing things they are guilty of.

The whole world knows about Azerbaijan’s notorious Caviar Diplomacy and Azerbaijani Laundromat, bribing politicians throughout Europe with billions of dollars to cast votes in favor of Azerbaijan in order to whitewash Azerbaijan’s severe human rights violations and its fraudulent presidential elections.

Shamelessly, AzerNews falsely states that “Armenia’s lobby organizations abroad, pour millions or perhaps billions into the pockets of congressmen, of course, baseless and biased opinions against Azerbaijan will be voiced from the West.”

There are several grave errors in the above sentence. First of all, the Armenian government has not hired a single U.S. lobbying firm simply because it does not have the huge amount of petrodollars that Azerbaijan has which it wastes on lobbying firms in Washington, instead of taking care of its poor people at home. Secondly, Armenian-American organizations do not have millions, let alone billions of dollars to “pour into the pockets of congressmen.” Armenian-Americans do not need to bribe anyone. When your cause is just, you do not need to pay bribes to convince anyone of the truth. Only when you commit massive crimes, as Azerbaijan and Turkey repeatedly do, you need to spend millions and billions of dollars to cover up your crimes.

AzerNews went on to incriminate Azerbaijan, saying that Baku “is not only interested in participating in this auction of finding partnerships that Armenia is lavishly doing now.” Even though the sentence is not grammatically correct, the Azeri writer seems to admit that Azerbaijan is eager to bribe foreign officials. This is a useless statement since Azerbaijan has been bribing foreign officials for years.

Azerbaijan should be the last country in the world to cast aspersions on Armenia or any other country, since Baku is led by a dictator who jails journalists and human rights activists, and his soldiers commit the ugliest war crimes, such as rapes and beheadings. Azerbaijan invaded Artsakh and committed genocide against its Armenian population. Furthermore, Ramil Safarov, an Azeri soldier, during a NATO-sponsored training seminar in Hungary, chopped the head of a sleeping Armenian soldier with an axe. After Pres. Aliyev bribed the Hungarian government to release him from prison, he pardoned him and recognized him as a national hero.

I commend AzerNews for tracking all the way from Baku my interview in Glendale, California, and writing a baseless and false response. The writer of the article, Elnur Enveroglu, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of AzerNews, went to great lengths to find not only my TV interview, but also to translate it from Armenian into English.

On November 22, H.E. Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians received the President of the Republic of Iraq Abd Al Latif Jamal Rashid, on an official visit to Armenia, at the Holy See of Etchmiadzin.

Welcoming the visit of the delegation led by the Iraqi President to the spiritual center of all Armenians, His Holiness expressed confidence that the latter’s visit to Armenia will contribute to the rapprochement of relations between the two peoples and the strengthening of interstate ties. Speaking about the Armenian community in Iraq, the Catholicos of All Armenians noted that it makes an important contribution to deepening Armenian-Iraqi relations. In this regard, His Holiness expressed his gratitude to the Iraqi authorities for their attention to the community and its national spiritual life.

During the meeting, the Armenian Patriarch also discussed the military and genocidal actions unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh, as a result of which Artsakh Armenians were forcibly expelled, and presented the security and humanitarian challenges that the country faces.

In turn, Iraqi President Abd Al Latif Jamal Rashid informed that his delegation’s visit to Armenia aims to strengthen and further develop cooperation between the two countries in various fields. The President discussed the current situation in Iraq and the measures taken by the authorities to overcome the existing challenges. On this occasion, the Iraqi president underlined with satisfaction that the Armenian community of Iraq also plays an important role in the development of the country’s progress.

Some Western powers still do not realize that with the Karabakh war, a new era has begun in our region, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“The Armenian people and their leaders should seek security not thousands of kilometers away, but in peace and cooperation with their neighbors. Those who received payment by inciting Armenia have actually caused the greatest harm to Armenians,” added the head of Turkey in his address to the people after the government’s Cabinet session.

Arda Aghazarian,

With speed and determination, the Armenian community of Jerusalem has organized itself to stand up to Israeli attempts to seize historic and vital Armenian communal property.

Jerusalem Story has published several stories about the standoff between Israel and Jerusalem’s Armenian community regarding control of Armenian church property. Since that reporting earlier in November, aggressive moves by Israeli entities have forced the Armenian community to respond quickly and collectively to defend their rights. At stake is not only the rights of the Armenian community but also the very presence of the Christian community in Jerusalem. 

The Armenian property at the center of this drama is estimated to extend over 11,500 square meters, which makes up 25 percent of the Armenian Quarter of the Old City.1 Since 2021, the hotel development company Xana Gardens Ltd. has claimed that through an agreement with the Armenian Patriarchate, it now has the right to develop it.

However, over the summer, a delegation of Armenian local and international lawyers2 was finally able to obtain the contract, and they discovered a number of serious irregularities.

On November 1, 2023, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced that on October 26, 2023, it informed Xana Gardens Ltd. of its decision to cancel the 2021 agreement it had signed with the company regarding the property.

The Patriarchate said that an extensive legal review post-signing found that the contract had been unlawful, falsely represented, and with undue influence, and that it disregards the Patriarchate’s legal position.3 Moreover, its legal team filed a case in Israel courts to cancel the agreement on October 31, 2023.

Feature StoryArmenians Launch Legal Battle to Cancel Controversial Cows’ Garden Land Deal

The land lease deal between the Armenian Patriarchate and the Jerusalem municipality, concluded in secrecy, is now in the courts.

At stake is not only the rights of the Armenian community but also the very presence of the Christian community in Jerusalem.

Spiralling Out of Control

On November 5, Xana Gardens majority shareholder Danny Rothman/Rubinstein, an Australian-Jewish investor, and his deputy, Israeli Palestinian citizen George Warwar, brought in about 15 settlers armed with assault rifles and trained attack dogs to provoke, harass, and intimidate the Armenian community—as well as to create facts on the ground.

At least one person present among the settlers, an investigation by The New Arab found, is a known extremist member of the Israeli settlement movement who identifies himself as a “hilltop settlement activist,” is associated with right-wing Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Gen-Gvir, and had previously been placed in administrative detention by Israel in 2005.4

About a week later, Armenians were shocked to see bulldozers in the area. Because the case has not yet been decided in the courts, the company has no legal standing to do anything in the area. Yet the Xana bulldozers proceeded to demolish parts of the Armenian Quarter’s parking lot area and threatened to cause more harm.

Feature StoryClash Over Armenian Quarter Land Lease Deal Turns Physical

The team from Xana Capital Ltd. tried to stake its claim to a large area of the Armenian Quarter by force in the wake of the Patriarchate’s filing of intention to cancel a controversial land lease deal. 

Demolitions Underway

On Sunday, November 12, 2023, a Xana Gardens bulldozer attempted to demolish a stone wall by the Armenian parking lot. The Armenian community immediately organized themselves and set up a barricade to block access to the site.

At 7:00 a.m. the next day, two bulldozers showed up and attempted to tear down the barricade. They were confronted by community members who created a human fence, preventing the bulldozers from moving.

The community members were joined by the Patriarch, and again they erected a tent to maintain a physical presence on the site.

Substantial Escalation

Despite the valiant efforts of Armenian community members, some of the area has been bulldozed, and more settlers with heavy arms showed up.

On Wednesday, November 15, things got especially tense when around 20 Israeli police forces showed up. Although the community argued that no legal decision had been made about the property and no permits had been secured for the demolition work, the police demanded the premises be vacated and threatened that they would detain and arrest the community members. They then did in fact detain three people—one of them a minor—for answering back to them, presumably to intimidate the group; the three were soon released. The two adults were ordered to stay away from the site for 15 days.5

Hagop Djernazian, an active member of the Armenian community and a spokesperson on this issue, has noted that the Israeli police has been cooperating with the company to remove the community members and take possession of the land. In a public statement dated November 17, he described the armed people who barged into the area as “mafia” that were hired to harm and provoke the community members and priests.

Urgent Pleas

On November 16, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem released an urgent communique, saying “The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem is under possibly the greatest existential threat of its 16-century history,” which “fully extends to all the Christian communities of Jerusalem.” The statement concluded, “We plead with the entirety of the Christian communities of Jerusalem to stand with the Armenian Patriarchate in these unprecedented times as this is another clear step taken toward the endangerment of the Christian presence in Jerusalem and the holy land.”6

On November 17, the Armenian National Committee issued a statement on the matter:

The Armenian National Committee–International, working in concert with the global network of Armenian National Committees, strongly supports the Armenian community of Jerusalem and the Armenian Patriarchate in protecting their millennia-old rights.The settlement of this matter must be made exclusively on the basis of local and international laws, without the threat or use of force.The rights of Armenians in Jerusalem are a matter of concern to all Armenians, hence a threat to the Armenians of Jerusalem represents a threat against all Armenians and will be dealt with accordingly.

“The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem is under possibly the greatest existential threat of its 16-century history.”

Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Source: https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/article/armenian-community-steps-resistance-land-deal-xana-gardens-intensifies-violent-takeover

Anyone who says: “What do we care about Syria, Iraq, [Artsakh] Karabakh, Libya, Bosnia and Jerusalem” is consciously or unconsciously hindering the great march of Turkey, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking at the 62nd General Assembly of the National Turkish Students’ Union, Anadolu reports.
“As Turkey became stronger and defended its interests in all directions, the level of hostility towards it began to increase,” he said.
“If every terrorist group supported by powers such as the United States and Europe kills people at will, then the world order will be completely disrupted,” the Turkish President added.