Your Namak for Friday, April 8
Pashinyan, Aliyev and Michel meet, Armenian opposition groups hold rally concerning Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia and Azerbaijan absent from United Nations vote.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Pashinyan, Aliyev and Michel Meet in Brussels
On April 6, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and European Council President Charles Michel in Brussels. They discussed security in the Caucasus, after weeks of military escalations and gas cuts in Nagorno-Karabakh, as Armenia’s Security Council claimed Azerbaijan was preparing a new attack. According to a statement by Pashinyan’s office, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to establish a joint commission on border delimitation by the end of April, and to instruct their top diplomats to begin preparing for a peace treaty.
In a statement, Michel stressed the need to resolve outstanding humanitarian issues, including the return of “remaining detainees,” and said “the appropriate distancing of forces is an essential element of incident prevention and tensions reduction.” The statement did not mention Nagorno-Karabakh by name, and the vague language of this provision left many Armenian commentators with questions about the details of what had been discussed.
Armenian Parliamentary Opposition Holds Rally Concerning Nagorno-Karabakh Policy
On April 5, thousands of people gathered in central Yerevan for an anti-government protest organized by Armenia’s main parliamentary opposition groups. The protestors rallied against the possibility of additional territorial concessions in Nagorno-Karabakh, demanding that Armenia continue to guarantee the unrecognized region’s security. In a rare public appearance at the rally, former Armenian President Serzh Sargysan said, “The Armenian people will never agree to have Artsakh under Azerbaijani rule under any circumstances.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan Absent from Vote to Remove Russia from Human Rights Council
On April 7, Armenia and Azerbaijan did not participate in a United Nations General Assembly vote to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. The resolution received 93 votes in favor, 24 against and 58 abstentions. The United States led the effort to remove Russia from the 47-member body, accusing Moscow of using the international podium to spread propaganda about its war in Ukraine.
Correction: In an earlier version of this newsletter, Namak mistakenly stated that Armenia and Azerbaijan abstained from the vote, but the two nations in fact did not participate. We apologize for the error.
Sashka Avanyan: Meet an Armenian-American social entrepreneur raised in Moscow, educated in Canada and now cultivating Vanadzor’s creative scene
“You have villages that are about a 20 minute drive away from each other, with youth doing great stuff in each but unaware of what is happening in the neighboring village.”
Sashka Avanyan’s positive energy is infectious. So is her love for Armenia’s third largest city Vanadzor, and her dog Cosmo. The 26-year-old was born in Houston, raised in Moscow and educated in Montreal, but she now calls Vanadzor home.
Growing up, the young filmmaker and social entrepreneur did not have any tangible links to her Armenian heritage, besides her last name. Her mother is German and American, and her father, half-Armenian and half-Russian, was born and raised in Turkmenistan.
But it’s “Avanyan,” a last name she inherited from her grandfather originally from a village near Hadrut in Nagorno-Karabakh, that brought her to Armenia.
“I was studying filmmaking at McGill in Canada, and when she saw my last name, a girl from the Armenian student association of the university invited me to their meetings,” Sashka says.
She learned about the existence of Birthright Armenia, a program that brings Armenians from the diaspora to volunteer in Armenia for several months, and decided to apply out of curiosity.
“I heard it was a free trip and I wanted to explore that part of my identity, so I applied to do video editing and went to Armenia in 2017,” she says.
Three months became 10 months of volunteering, and later on five years of living in Armenia. “I fell in love with Vanadzor, this is when my Armenian identity really started forming in me,” Sashka says. “Now, after living here for five years, the first thing I say about myself is that I am Armenian.”
Among the rolling green mountains and old Soviet factories, the young woman found an unexpected peace of mind. “It was a very healing experience for me. I struggled with insomnia for two years before I came to Vanadzor. When I arrived, I slept a full night for the first time,” Sashka says. “My brain started working again, and I became way more creative. So this was a sign that this was the right place for me.”
But Sashka also realized that many young people were leaving Vanadzor due to lack of professional opportunities. Three years ago, she co-founded Creopia, with Lusine Poghosyan, a Vanadzor local who works as a peace builder.
The social enterprise specializes in video editing and graphic design for private clients and NGOs. Sashka, who had previously worked as a freelance video editor, says the process of growing Creopia “has been slower than my Western paced mind would have assumed it would be.” But even that has been a learning experience for her.
“Here in Armenia, the community aspect of doing anything is very valued, it is less individualistic,” she says. “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.”
Creopia has a social impact dimension: it provides job training for locals, hosts educational workshops and organizes events like film screenings. Sashka also works in rural areas around the city.
“Rural areas are so disconnected from each other,” she says. “You have villages that are about a 20 minute drive away from each other, with youth doing great stuff in each but unaware of what is happening in the neighboring village.”
Solving this problem is one of Sashka’s long-term goals. Through Creopia, the first-time founder aims to support Vanadzor’s development into a creative hub, providing a space where youth from nearby communities can connect and learn.
To read: A Schindler for the Armenians, a moving story of an Ottoman naval officer who refused to partake in the Armenian Genocide, saving thousands of Armenians from certain death.
To listen: Armenian Food in the 21st Century with Ara Zada, a fun conversation with the Armenian-American chef and author behind the cookbook Lavash. Ara shares his journey traveling throughout Armenia to collect recipes for the book, which highlights the varied and vibrant flavors that form Armenian cuisine.
To watch: Conversations with Armenian Woodwind Masters, a captivating series of interviews with artisans who explain the process of crafting traditional Armenian woodwind instruments.
That’s it for today, see you next week!
Questions? Story ideas? An urge to say barev/parev? You can send us a secure email at namaknews@protonmail.com.