Your Namak for Friday, January 28
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian resigns, parliament elects new Human Rights Defender and Azerbaijani military fires on Nagorno-Karabakh village.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian Resigns
On January 23, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian resigned after nearly four years as head of state. In a statement, Sarkissian said the office lacks effective tools to address the most pressing issues, and claimed that he and his family had been targeted in “attacks by various political groups.” “In the current challenging period for the state and the nation, the President does not have the necessary tools to influence the fundamental processes in domestic and foreign policy,” Sarkissian wrote. A physicist by training, Sarkissian served as Armenia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom for five years immediately prior to assuming the presidency in 2018.
Investigation Reveals New Theory for President’s Resignation
The Armenian investigative outlet Hetq uncovered an alternative explanation for President Armen Sarkissian’s resignation: he was ineligible for office because he held citizenship of another country. That country is St. Kitts and Nevis, a small island nation within the British Commonwealth realm. St. Kitts and Nevis offers a program whereby people can obtain citizenship through investment. When Hetq requested comment from Sarkissian prior to publishing its article, he claimed that he unknowingly became a citizen after investing in the island. “I was not interested in the passport at all,” he told Hetq.
Article 124 of the Armenian Constitution stipulates that the president must hold exclusively Armenian citizenship for at least six years preceding his term. All of Sarkissian’s official actions while president, including decrees and appointments, could now be deemed void. Sarkissian resigned while on vacation, and has not yet returned to Armenia. In response to Hetq’s findings, Armenia’s National Security Service has opened an investigation into the matter.
National Assembly Elects New Human Rights Defender
On January 24, Armenia’s parliament elected Kristine Grigoryan to the post of Human Rights Defender, with opposition deputies abstaining from the vote. Grigoryan will replace Arman Tatoyan, whose six-year term ends on February 23. Following the 44-Day Nagorno-Karabakh War, Tatoyan’s relationship with the government has grown tense, as the ombudsman has publicly sparred with top officials over decisions that he believes undermine human rights.
Azerbaijani Military Fires on Nagorno-Karabakh Village
On January 27, the Azerbaijani military opened fire on the village of Karmir Shuka in Nagorno-Karabakh. In a statement published on Twitter, the Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan said that Azerbaijani attacks on civilian communities in Nagorno-Karabakh have become an almost daily occurrence.
Emily Mkrtichian : Meet an Armenian-American filmmaker who documented women in all their complexity before, during and after war
“The truth is I don’t always know why I am making a film until I have made it. I usually have an intuition, I go in with a question and then the story opens up.”
Emily Mkrtichian’s kind blue eyes and chestnut hair make her easy to spot in a crowd in Armenia, but she also has the best skill a documentary filmmaker can wish for –– she knows how to vanish.
“I am able to disappear when I am in a room,” Emily says. “I am a pretty unassuming presence, people easily let me be around them.”
The 34-year-old was born in Seattle and raised in a household with few Armenian influences. Emily’s father is Armenian, and while proud of his heritage, he suppressed parts of his identity to better acclimate to American life.
“My dad was on the assimilation side –– he was trying to be American more than Armenian,” Emily says.
The young filmmaker studied English literature at Pacific Lutheran University and obtained her graduate degree in writing from Fordham University. Although her background was in writing, she sought to combine her love of words with visual storytelling.
After completing her master’s, Emily moved to Armenia in 2011 for an internship at the production company Bars Media. She intended to live in Armenia for three months, but ended up staying for five years and learning the language. It was her first time in the country.
Emily never predicted that Yerevan would become her second home, nor that she would be behind a camera during much of the past decade she has spent traveling back and forth between Armenia and the United States.
“It was after coming to Armenia and during my time here that I completely diverted from the path I was on,” she says.
Emily began filming and producing documentary, fiction and commercial films about a variety of topics and characters. Released in 2013, her short film “Levon: A Wondrous Life” follows a 60-year-old rollerblader as he brings joy and whimsy to Yerevan’s post-Soviet urban landscape. Her 2018 documentary “Motherland” tells the story of women in Nagorno-Karabakh who complete a dangerous job: clearing landmines.
“The truth is I don’t always know why I am making a film until I have made it,” Emily says. “I usually have an intuition, I go in with a question and then the story opens up.”
In 2017, Emily started work on a new documentary about the lives of four women in Nagorno-Karabakh. Most of her projects center on women, because she finds more common ground with their lived experiences.
“Stories about women as complex characters don’t exist as much as they should,” she says.
She filmed Sveta, a deminer, Siranush, a local politician, Sose, a judoist, and Gayane, who started the first and only women’s resource center in Nagorno-Karabakh. In 2020, she had planned to wrap filming and start the editing process. But then war broke out, transforming the story.
After three years of filming the women, they had become extremely close. When she heard news of the fighting, Emily’s first thought was that she wanted to be with them.
“I went the next day. I joined all the women I had been filming, except Sose who had already gone to the frontlines,” Emily says. “I just went. I really did not even think about it. There was no version in my mind of me not going.”
What followed was the most significant personal and professional challenge Emily had ever faced.
“It was just escalating versions of terrifying. We were in bunkers. It went from drones, to bigger missiles, to planes,” Emily says. “But actually, when you were there you were scared, you would think we gotta go, but the minute you would cross the border, you would be like, ‘No we can’t do this, we gotta go back.’”
And she did go back. Emily says she pushed herself to film until she could not continue from physical and mental exhaustion. The experience forced her to confront new questions about the relationship between a filmmaker and her subjects.
“It’s really hard to film people suffering, especially people you care about so much and have developed a real bond with,” Emily says. “Sometimes you stop rolling and hug them. This war changed my take on everything in my life, not just work.”
In the women she documented, Emily says she discovered a strength that she had never encountered before. Despite having lost so much, all of the protagonists remain in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“I discovered that ability to have an emotion, and not put it somewhere else, but still continue on and do the work that needs to be done,” Emily says.
She has finished filming and is currently in the editing phase, which she estimates will last at least one year. Emily hopes viewers will be able to relate to an experience most of them have never known, thanks to the “radically personal and vulnerable” tone of her film.
To listen: Zabelle, a Kerning Cultures podcast about the Armenian musical prodigy Zabelle Panosian. In 1917, she recorded a song that captured the heartbreak of Armenian-Americans in the aftermath of genocide. She toured the world and sold thousands of records before being forgotten.
To watch: Grandmas React, a new series documenting the hilarious reactions of Armenian grandmothers to the latest trends in pop culture, technology and fashion. Whether in English or Armenian, the sass is real.
To listen: Ghedtair Composite, a new album that combines Armenian folk music with contemporary sounds, created by Brooklyn-based musician and composer Justin Mayfield. You can read about the inspiration behind the project here.
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.