Massis

Le Fonds Arménie aux États-Unis démarre l’« Initiative pour les réfugiés d’Artsakh » LOS ANGELES – Suite à la annonce de 5 millions de dollars alloués pour l'aide immédiate aux forces de l'ordre population arménienne déplacée de Artsakh, Arménie Fund USA est aujourd'hui lancement de « l’Initiative pour les réfugiés d’Artsakh : restaurer l’espoir ensemble ». Le « L’Initiative pour les réfugiés d’Artsakh » continuera à fournir des produits essentiels à court terme, comme de la nourriture, des vêtements et des fournitures pour réfugiés, tout en travaillant également à atteindre les objectifs à moyen et long terme pour ceux qui s’installent en Arménie sous un stress immense. Avec une équipe active sur le terrain en Arménie, l’« Initiative pour les réfugiés d’Artsakh » contribuera à répondre aux besoins urgents besoins de plus de 100 000 réfugiés en cette période critique. Fonds Arménie les ressources seront déployées progressivement programme de mise en œuvre comme suit : -Aide immédiate Continuer à fournir immédiatement l'aide humanitaire, y compris la nourriture, les vêtements, les fournitures essentielles, les abris temporaires et le transport. -Accompagnement à moyen terme Planifier et organiser des des logements et fournir des ressources éducatives, médicales et de santé mentale aux individus, familles et enfants. -Soutien à long terme Poursuivre le soutien à moyen terme programmes complétés par une assistance aider les réfugiés à trouver un emploi rémunérateur et à devenir des membres prospères de leurs nouvelles communautés. Pour faire un don à « l’Initiative pour les réfugiés d’Artsakh » et pour plus d’informations, y compris les progrès et les mises à jour, veuillez visiter armeniafund.org et suivre l’Armenia Fund USA sur Facebook et Instagram. L'ONU lance un appel de 97 millions de dollars pour y répondre Besoins urgents des réfugiés d’Artsakh NEW YORK — L'ONU et ses Les partenaires ont lancé samedi un plan de réponse d'urgence pour venir en aide à 136 000 personnes. réfugiés, appelant à 97 millions de dollars pour répondre aux besoins urgents de ceux qui ont fui la région du Karabakh et leurs hôtes en Arménie. « Nous appelons la communauté internationale communauté à soutenir d’urgence les réfugiés et leurs hôtes », a déclaré Filippo Grandi, Haut-Commissaire des Nations Unies pour Réfugiés. « Le soutien international est crucial pour pérenniser cet accueil et pour nous permettent de répondre immédiatement besoins et de s’appuyer également sur la résilience de cette population. Suite à l'escalade des hostilités fin septembre, davantage plus de 100 000 réfugiés sont arrivés en Arménie en moins d’une semaine. L'agence des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés, le HCR, avec les entités des Nations Unies et les organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) partenaires, est appel à des fonds d'urgence pour fournir une aide humanitaire d'urgence et une protection aux réfugiés et à ceux qui les accueillent en Arménie, en soutien au Réponse dirigée par le gouvernement. Accueil local « remarquable » « Les communautés d’accueil locales ont ont généreusement ouvert leurs portes et ont fait preuve d’une immense solidarité avec les réfugiés », a déclaré M. Grandi. "Le local réponse, menée par les autorités nationales, Il s’agit de la prochaine vague d’aide qui suit Cinq millions de dollars initiaux alloués à cet effort Les dirigeants européens expriment un soutien inébranlable à La souveraineté et l’intégrité territoriale de l’Arménie GRENADE — Les dirigeants du L'Union européenne et son membre clé Etats-Unis, la France et l'Allemagne, ont exprimé soutien ferme à l’intégrité territoriale de l’Arménie et a promis davantage d’aide à réfugiés du Haut-Karabakh lorsque ils ont rencontré le Premier ministre Nikol Pashinyan jeudi. Le président azerbaïdjanais Ilham Aliyev devait également assister à la réunion tenue en marge d'une Sommet de l’Union européenne dans la ville espagnole de Grenade. Mais il s'est retiré à la dernière minute, citant les déclarations pro-arméniennes des dirigeants français et le rejet de ses exigences que le président turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan soit autorisé à participer aux négociations. Une déclaration commune publiée après les pourparlers de Grenade ont dit Michel, Le président français Emmanuel Macron et le chancelier allemand Olaf Scholz « ont souligné leur soutien inébranlable à l’indépendance, à la souveraineté, à l’intégrité territoriale et à l’inviolabilité des frontières de l’Arménie. » « Ils ont également exprimé leur soutien au renforcement des relations entre l’UE et l’Arménie, dans toutes ses dimensions, sur la base des besoins du pays. République d'Arménie. Ils étaient d'accord sur la nécessité de fournir des aide humanitaire à l'Arménie alors qu'il fait face aux conséquences de récent déplacement massif de Arméniens du Karabakh », a ajouté le déclaration. Ils ont souligné que ces réfugiés doivent être libres d'exercer leurs droits. droit de rentrer chez eux et leurs lieux de vie, sans aucun conditions, sous surveillance internationale et dans le respect de leurs l'histoire, la culture et les droits de l'homme. L'UE a alloué 5,2 millions euros (5,5 millions de dollars) en aide humanitaire EREVAN — La France est prête à livrer des armes à l'Arménie pour aider le L’État du Caucase du Sud contrecarre les menaces son intégrité territoriale, les Affaires étrangères françaises La ministre Catherine Colonna a déclaré lors d'une visite à Erevan mardi soir. "La France a donné son accord à la conclusion de futurs contrats avec l'Arménie, ce qui permettra au livraison d'équipements militaires à l'Arménie afin qu'elle puisse assurer sa défense", a déclaré Colonna lors d'une nouvelle conférence conjointe.

————————————————————————————-

Massis Weekly Volume 43, No. 38 Saturday, October 14, 2023 Continued on page 2 Continued on page 4 Continued on page 4 Armenia Fund USA Kicks Off the “Artsakh Refugee Initiative” LOS ANGELES – Following the announcement of $5 million allocated for the immediate aid to the forcibly displaced Armenian population of Artsakh, Armenia Fund USA is today launching the “Artsakh Refugee Initiative: Restoring Hope Together.” The “Artsakh Refugee Initiative” will continue to provide short-term essentials, such as food, clothing and supplies to refugees, while also working to address mid and long-term goals for those settling in Armenia under immense stress. With an active team on the ground in Armenia, the “Artsakh Refugee Initiative” will help to meet the urgent needs of the more than 100,000 refugees at this critical time. Armenia Fund resources will be deployed in a phased implementation program as follows: -Immediate aid Continue to provide immediate humanitarian aid including food, clothing, essential supplies, temporary shelter and transportation. -Mid-term support Plan for and arrange permanent housing and provide educational, medical and mental health resources to individuals, families and children. -Long-term support Continue the mid-term support programs augmented with assistance to refugees in finding gainful employment and becoming thriving members of their new communities. To donate to the “Artsakh Refugee Initiative” and for more information, including progress and updates, please visit armeniafund.org and follow Armenia Fund USA on Facebook and Instagram. UN Appealing for $97 Million to Respond to Urgent Needs of Artsakh Refugees NEW YORK — The UN and its partners launched on Saturday an emergency response plan to help 136,000 refugees, appealing for $97 million to respond to urgent needs of those who fled the Karabakh region and their hosts in Armenia. “We call upon the international community to urgently support refugees and their hosts,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “International support is crucial to sustain this welcome and to enable us to respond to immediate needs and to also build upon the resilience of this population.” Following the escalation of hostilities at the end of September, more than 100,000 refugees arrived in Armenia in less than a week. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, with UN entities and non-governmental organization (NGO) partners, is appealing for emergency funds to provide urgent humanitarian aid and protection to refugees and those hosting them in Armenia, in support of the Government-led response. ‘Remarkable’ local welcome “Local host communities have generously opened their doors and displayed tremendous solidarity with refugees,” Mr. Grandi said. “The local response, led by national authorities, This Marks the Next Wave of Assistance Following Initial $5 Million Allocated to the Effort European Leaders Voice Unwavering Support for Armenia’s Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity GRANADA — The leaders of the European Union and its key member states, France and Germany, expressed strong support for Armenia’s territorial integrity and promised more aid to refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh when they met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was also due to attend the meeting held on the sidelines of a European Union summit in the Spanish city of Granada. But he withdrew at the last minute, citing pro-Armenian statements made by French leaders and the rejection of his demands that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan be allowed to join the talks. A joint statement issued after the Granada talks said Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “underlined their unwavering support to the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of Armenia.” “They also expressed their support to the strengthening of EUArmenia relations, in all its dimensions, based on the needs of the Republic of Armenia. They agreed on the need to provide additional humanitarian assistance to Armenia as it faces the consequences of the recent mass displacement of Karabakh Armenians,” added the statement. They stressed that these refugees must be free to exercise their right to return to their homes and their places of living, without any conditions, with international monitoring, and with due respect for their history, culture and for human rights. The EU allocated 5.2 million euros ($5.5 million) in humanitarian YEREVAN — France is ready to deliver weapons to Armenia to help the South Caucasus state counter threats to its territorial integrity, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said during a visit to Yerevan late on Tuesday. "France has given its agreement to the conclusion of future contracts with Armenia which will allow the delivery of military equipment to Armenia so that it can ensure its defense," Colonna told a joint news conference with her Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan. She declined to shed light on those contracts, saying only “there are things that were already agreed between Armenia and France and that are in progress.” The French government has condemned Azerbaijan’s September 19- 20 military offensive in NagornoKarabakh that paved the way for the restoration of Azerbaijani control over the region and displaced its virtually entire ethnic Armenian population. President Emmanuel Macron suggested last week that Baku might now attack Armenia as well. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said afterwards that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia are an “absolute objective for us.” Lecornu did not rule out arms supplies or other military aid to Armenia, saying that Paris is already examining Yerevan’s defense “needs.” Speaking after talks with Mirzoyan and Prime Minister Nikol France Ready to Deliver Weapons to Armenia to Protect Its Territorial Integrity Pashinyan, Colonna noted that Azerbaijan has “continuously armed itself to take action,” using its oil revenues and Turkey’s military assistance. She said Paris has also proposed that the European Union expand its monitoring mission along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan and help Yerevan from a special fund designed to boost EU partners’ defense capacity.Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian revealed in July that the Armenian government requested “technical assistance” from the European Peace Facility (EPF) but was rebuffed by Brussels. In realted development, Azerbaijan planned and organized the 2 Massis Weekly October 14, 2023 Ukrainian Flag Removed from French Vienne City Hall After Zelensky Thanks Aliyev for Aid VIENNE, FRANCE — Mayor of the French city of Thierry Kovacs has ordered the removal of the Ukrainian flag from the pediment of the administration building after Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s statement about cooperation with Azerbaijan, Dauphiné libéré reports. “You cannot refer to Western values and on this basis call on the West for help, while sharing the vision of the regime – the initiator of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. This form of support for the Azerbaijani dictator is unacceptable. The removal (of the flag. — Ed.) does not in any way detract from the support that Vienne provides to the Ukrainian people,” the publication quotes the mayor as saying. Zelensky said in a tweet on October 4 that he had a call with Aliyev and thanked him for Azerbaijan’s “significant humanitarian assistance, particularly in the energy sector as winter approaches.” According to Kovacs, one cannot thank Baku for humanitarian aid, particularly in the energy sector, while Azerbaijan “sells gas at one and a half times the price to finance its military efforts against Armenia.” On September 19, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh, which left hundreds of Armenians killed and thousands of others displaced. On September 20, the authorities of NagornoKarabakh agreed to a ceasefire on Azerbaijan’s terms, including the dissolution of the Defense Army. On September 18, President of the Republic of Artsakh Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree, according to which the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) will cease to exist by January 1, 2024. As of 1 October, 100,625 displaced residents have already fled Nagorno-Karabakh and reached Armenia. Kristine Grigoryan Named Armenia’s First Foreign Intelligence Chief YEREVAN — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has appointed Armenia’s former human rights ombudswoman, Kristine Grigoryan, as the first head of Foreign Intelligence Service formally set up by his government about a year ago. Armenia already had intelligence services operating within its National Security Service (NSS) and military when the National Assembly approved last December the creation of the Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS). The NSS division is supposed to be fully replaced by the FIS within three years. “The main task of the service is to forecast opportunities and external threats to the state and society and to provide political decision-makers with reliable, credible intelligence information about them,” PM’s press secretary, Nazeli Baghdasaryan told the Armenpress news agency following Grigoryan’s appointment announced on Wednesday. Grigoryan unexpectedly resigned as ombudswoman in January after less than a year in office. She said at the time that she is planning to move on to another job. The 42-year-old lawyer, who has never worked for security agencies before, has not been seen in public since then. A senior pro-government lawmaker, Gagik Melkonyan confirmed rumors that she underwent relevant training before taking up her new post. “She has been trained but I don’tknow where,” Melkonyan told the Hraparak daily. “She came back and got appointed.” Citing another, unnamed source, the paper claimed that Grigoryan was trained by “Western intelligence services.” It noted that the chief of Britain's foreign intelligence agency, Richard Moore, visited Yerevan and met with Pashinyan just days before the Armenian government pushed a bill on the FIS through the parliament. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns visited Armenia in July 2022. YEREVAN — Tigran Avinyan, a close ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, has been appointed Mayor of Armenia’s capital Yerevan. Meeting Tuesday for the first time since last month’s inconclusive municipal elections, councilors voted Tuesday 32-5 to select Avinyan to lead the city for another five years. Avinyan had served as acting mayor since March. The vote came down along party lines, with all 32 ‘yes’ votes coming from Civil Contract and the Republic Party, its coalition partner, and all 5 ‘no’ votes coming from the Public Voice party, which is linked to Vardan Ghukasyan, a controversial blogger more widely known by the nickname Dog. The National Progress party, which is led by former Mayor Hayk Marutyan, and the Mother Armenia Tigran Avinyan Elected Mayor of Yerevan bloc, which is supported by ex-President Robert Kocharyan, boycotted the vote but were not able to prevent Avinyan’s selection. It marks a major political victory for Pashinyan, who personally campaigned for Avinyan in the run-up to the vote. YEREVAN –Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will not attend a summit of fellow leaders of ex-Soviet states that will take place in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek on Friday, it emerged on Tuesday. According to the office of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov, Pashinian notified him about the decision in a phone call, attributing it to “a number of circumstances.” Pashinian participated in the European Union’s October 5 summit in Spain and is due to address the European Parliament next week. The Armenian government did not issue any statements on the call with Zhaparov or the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit which is due to be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics. A senior aide to Putin suggested late last week that the Armenia premier will take part in the meeting via video link. Another Russian official, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, said on Monday that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hopes to hold trilateral talks with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts in Bishkek on Thursday. However, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said later in the day that Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan will not join a meeting of the top diplomats of CIS countries which will also take place in the Kyrgyz capital. Armenia will be represented at the meeting by one of Mirzoyan’s deputies, it told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. In what may have been a related development, Galuzin met with the Armenian ambassador in Moscow, Vagharshak Harutiunyan, on Tuesday. The Russian Foreign Ministry said vaguely that they discussed “some topical issues of Russian-Armenian relations.” Those relations deteriorated further last month following what Moscow described as “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by Yerevan. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Pashinyan on September 25 of seeking to ruin Russian-Armenian relations and reorient his country towards the West. Also, Putin and other Russian officials rejected the Armenian criticism of Russian peacekeepers’ failure to prevent or stop Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh that led to the mass exodus of the region’s ethnic Armenian population. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Not Attend CIS Summit exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh, Colonna said during the Q&A session at the Senate. “No matter how it tries to present the situation, Azerbaijan planned and organized the exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians from NagornoKarabakh. This serious crime cannot go unanswered,” she emphasized. The Foreign Minister said France will demand the adoption of a resolution within the framework of the UN Security Council that will create conditions for the return of Nagorno Karabakh Armenians. The French Foreign Minister stressed the need to protect the historical and cultural rights of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh and insisted on permanent international presence in the region. Continued from page 1 France Ready to Deliver Weapons to Armenia 3 Massis Weekly October 14, 2023 GEOFFRY ROBERTSON UN War Jundge and Author It happened quickly, the final invasion, and with hundreds of Orthodox Christians killed by the aggressors. Armenia, led by a one-time human rights lawyer, had no alternative but to save thousands of its people from death by surrendering their enclave at Nagorno-Karabakh to the brutal forces of Ilham Aliyev, dictator of Azerbaijan. It was Russia, once again, that was principally to blame: it was given by a foolish UN Security Council the duty to keep the peace, but when Armenia condemned the invasion of Ukraine, Putin in revenge withdrew all protection of Nagorno-Karabakh and let the Azerbaijan army off its leash. 120,000 citizens are now at its mercy, being forced either to abandon their ancestral homes or else live under a tyranny that has fomented hatred against them for many years. Nagorno-Karabakh is a small, mountainous country in the clouds, settled by Armenians for many centuries. It was the first in 301 AD to adopt Christianity. Hundreds of Orthodox churches, and their ancient mysterious tombstones (many now defaced or demolished by the aggressors), attract visitors from Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, who take the 6 hour road trek via Mount Ararat to Stepanakert, centre of the Karabakh’s democracy that was this week snuffed out. The trip is only 20 minutes by air from a modern airport. But planes have not flown for years because the Azeri government threatens to shoot them down. The country fell to Russia in the early nineteenth century, and the demographic evidence from the first census of that time proves that it was allArmenian and the area should have been allocated to this state when Stalin divided the territory in 1920. Instead, he gave it to Azerbaijan, and the mistake was not rectified until a civil war after the collapse of the USSR. The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh – still the great majority of the population – voted first to join with Armenia (the A Democratic Nation Has Been Allowed to Die