Your Namak for Friday, February 11
Azerbaijan plans to erase Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, eight Armenian POWs come home and Syunik judge arrested following controversial ruling.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Azerbaijan Announces Plan to Erase Armenian Cultural Heritage Sites
Azerbaijan plans to erase Armenian inscriptions from cultural heritage sites in territories it gained control of in the 44-Day Nagorno-Karabakh War. During a press conference on February 3, Azerbaijani Minister of Culture Anar Karimov announced the creation of a working group dedicated to removing “fictitious traces written by Armenians on Albanian religious temples.” The authorities in Baku base their decision on a historically discredited theory that ascribes Armenian history in Nagorno-Karabakh to Caucasian Albanian heritage.
The spokesperson for Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on UNESCO to immediately deploy a fact-finding mission to Nagorno-Karabakh to investigate the threat to Armenian cultural heritage. According to a report published by the Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), more than 1,400 immovable Armenian monuments fell under Azerbaijani jurisdiction following the 2020 war, including churches, cross stones and ancient ruins.
France and EU Negotiate Release of Armenian POWs
On February 7, eight Armenian prisoners of war returned from Azerbaijani captivity following negotiations mediated by the French government and European Union. In a statement celebrating the release of the POWs, French President Emmanuel Macron said, “Thank you to our diplomats as well as to our soldiers mobilized in this operation.”
Judge Arrested Following Decision to Free Opposition Activist
On February 7, Armenia’s National Security Service arrested a judge following his decision to grant bail to a prominent opposition figure. Boris Bakhshiyan, a judge in the southern Syunik region, ordered the release of anti-government activist Ashot Minasian on January 26. Minasian was arrested on December 1 one year after being charged with plotting to kill Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and overthrow the Armenian government. The coup charges have since been dropped.
Bakhshiyan is accused of ordering the illegal arrest of a defendant in an unrelated trial, but his lawyers claim the judge’s arrest is connected to his decision to free Minasian. In a statement, Armenia’s Union of Judges said that the criminal proceedings launched against Bakhshiyan threaten judicial independence.
British MP Peddles Azerbaijani Propaganda
An investigation by Open Democracy has revealed that a British parliamentarian used Azerbaijani propaganda to lobby the UK government. Conservative MP Bob Blackman boasted about his close relationship with the oil-rich nation, saying, “On a regular basis I put down positions on behalf of our good friends in Azerbaijan.” During the 44-Day Nagorno-Karabakh War, Blackman, who chairs the Azerbaijan All-Party Parliamentary Group, urged the British foreign minister to side with Baku in the fighting and introduced several pro-Azerbaijan motions in the House of Commons. Since 2011, Blackman has taken seven free trips to Azerbaijan, whose price tags total more than £23,000.
Alec Ohanian and Eva Duvalyan: Meet two medical students laying the groundwork for improvements in Armenian healthcare
“In medical school, you’re really in the thick of it, learning very detailed things. Sometimes when you come up for breath, you’re like ‘How can I apply this? How can I use what I’ve learned somehow to make a difference?’”
Alec Ohanian and Eva Duvalyan have a lot of questions for you. As medical students at the University of California, San Francisco, one of the world’s premier healthcare research institutions, they have learned about the needs of diverse patient populations. But it was not until recently that they thought to turn the microscope onto their own community.
Eva’s family moved to Sunnyvale, California from Yerevan when she was four years old, where her software engineer parents began working in Silicon Valley’s nascent technology industry. Alec, a London native, traded the British capital’s dreary weather for sunny Los Angeles as a high schooler. Despite living thousands of miles away from one another, the future doctors grew up in strikingly similar households.
“Even though we moved here, I felt like I was still living in that culture at home,” Eva, 29, says. “Since day one, every time my sister and I speak English for a little too long in the house, my parents are like, ‘Speak Armenian.’”
As children, Alec and Eva spent weekends learning Armenian in Saturday school, and summers included trips to the homeland. In 2017, Alec volunteered for three months in Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city, through the Birthright Armenia program.
“All this love I have for Armenia was from my childhood,” Alec says.
Alec and Eva’s paths crossed years later in San Francisco, where a partnership was born out of their shared cultural identity and commitment to contributing their skills to Armenia. The pair have recently launched a research study dedicated to understanding healthcare needs within the global Armenian population.
The anonymous survey asks respondents questions about the myriad factors that influence long-term health outcomes, from physical environment to genetics. Alec and Eva arrived at the idea for their project after observing the scarcity of information available about Armenian patient populations.
“This information is only the first step,” Eva says. “This groundwork, baseline research needs to be done regardless before you can start doing big projects.”
Like many Armenians in the diaspora, the 44-Day Nagorno-Karabakh War sprung them into action. As founder of the Armenian Graduate Society at UCSF, Alec educated his peers about the conflict and lobbied the university to show solidarity with its Armenian students. But after the fighting ended, the 26-year-old began brainstorming more concrete ways to combine his professional path with his desire to support Armenia.
“The war was a catalyst,” Alec says. “It’s up to us to do stuff. We can’t wait for the next person to try to come up with something or make a plan for this idea that we have.”
For Eva, the motivation behind the research was both personal and practical. Their complementary perspectives have made for a successful working relationship.
“In medical school, you’re really in the thick of it, learning very detailed things,” Eva says. “Sometimes when you come up for breath, you’re like ‘How can I apply this? How can I use what I’ve learned somehow to make a difference?’”
Alec and Eva hope to collect a broad sampling of data from Armenians around the world. Their goal is to use the findings as a springboard for more robust research over the coming years, to ultimately inform public health campaigns and interventions in Armenia’s healthcare system, developed in collaboration with medical professionals on the ground.
“This whole notion of helping Armenia is completely wrong. It’s more about serving the country and collaborating with people there,” Alec says. “We need to work together to push things forward.”
To watch (and to attend!): Film Club with Oksana Mirzoyan, an event with the director from Nagorno-Karabakh at the Armenian Institute in London on February 25. You can attend via Zoom and watch some of her work, including the short film “140 Drams,” which portrays modern Armenia through the story of a young boy who buys milk by himself for the first time.
To read: In Armenia, Making Orange Wine is Personal, an article about Armenia’s ancient winemaking tradition applied to one of the hottest trends in wine today.
To listen: Tigrane Kazazian’s original compositions. Born in Egypt, the French-Armenian oud player and composer mixes Eastern and Western influences to create hauntingly beautiful music that transcends cultures and traditions.
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.