Your Namak for Friday, October 22
Five POWs come home, hearings continue in Armenia v. Azerbaijan and voters head to the polls in local elections.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Armenia and Azerbaijan Face Off in High Court
Hearings continued in the case of Armenia v. Azerbaijan at the International Court of Justice. On September 16, Armenia instituted proceedings against Azerbaijan for violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The application is based on what Armenia’s legal team describes as a “state-sponsored policy of Armenian hatred” in Azerbaijan, which is “taught in schools and regularly espoused at the highest levels of government.” Pending a judgment on the merits of the case, Armenia has requested that the Court apply provisional measures, including the closure of the Military Trophy Park in Baku, the repatriation of all Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives and the protection of Armenian cultural heritage sites under Azerbaijani jurisdiction. In response to the proceedings, the Azerbaijani government has removed mannequins of Armenian soldiers and helmets of fallen Armenian servicemen from the Military Trophy Park, a museum that glorifies Azerbaijan’s victory in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Five Armenian POWs Come Home
Five Armenian prisoners of war returned to Armenia on the evening of October 19. The Russian government mediated the release of the POWs, who were accompanied to Yerevan by the former commander of the Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Russian Ambassador to Armenia greeted the returnees upon their arrival at Erebuni Airport. The Azerbaijani authorities have continually refused to disclose the exact number of prisoners of war and civilian detainees remaining in Baku.
Former American Ambassador Backs Security Zone
In a statement on Twitter, former United States Ambassador to Armenia John Evans expressed support for the creation of a demilitarized security zone along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Responding to demands by Arman Tatoyan, the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Evans said the establishment of such a buffer zone “is fully justified at this point.” Evans’ statement comes after months of frequent incursions along the border in Armenia’s Gegharkunik and Syunik regions, which have placed civilians under direct threat and resulted in numerous Armenian military fatalities.
Armenia’s Ruling Party Defeated in Local Elections
On October 17, voters headed to the polls in six major municipal elections throughout the country. Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract Party lost races in the second largest city of Gyumri, and in three municipalities in the southernmost region of Syunik, which borders Azerbaijan.
Michael Hajian: Meet the man who makes a radio show in Azerbaijani from Stepanakert
“If I can change even just one person’s standpoint and understanding of the situation, or at least make them question the propaganda from Baku, then I win.”
Michael Hajian has a warm, baritone voice and looks deeply in people’s eyes when he speaks with them. He gets especially passionate when he talks about the fate of Nagorno-Karabakh, and about Azerbaijan. But he also has a calming and sweet smile, and seems honored to garner the attention of people from “outside.”
What Michael does can seem surprising or useless to some Armenians. He hosts an online radio show in the Azerbaijani language from Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital of Stepanakert. Michael produces news content, and tries to convey the Armenian voice and perspective on current events, including the ongoing conflict in the region, to make it accessible to listeners in Azerbaijan.
“People who live in Azerbaijan only hear the propaganda Baku wants them to hear,” Michael says.
Michael was born in 1951 in Gyurjevan village, in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. He grew up speaking Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani. Early in life, he realized he liked storytelling.
His great voice, natural charisma and easiness with people led him to journalism. After studying in Baku, he joined the USSR TV service there, and mainly worked on radio and television programs in Armenian. Michael was in Baku in 1990.
“I could feel that things were getting bad, were changing,” Michael says. “I could feel that it would not end well for us, Armenians.”
The authorities falsely accused him of stirring up trouble and plotting massacres of Azerbaijanis. Michael managed to prove his innocence, but he had two young children at the time, and knew that it was too dangerous to remain in Azerbaijan.
On January 12, 1990, a brutal, week-long pogrom against Armenians began in the Azerbaijani capital. Armenian civilians were hunted down, murdered and expelled from the city. An estimated 90 Armenians died, although Soviet record-keeping makes precise figures difficult to ascertain. Following the Baku pogrom, nearly all the Armenians living in Azerbaijan fled the republic.
Michael and his family moved to Yerevan, in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, where he started working on TV programs in Azerbaijani. But during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War from 1991 to 1994, the Azerbaijani media content in Armenia disappeared.
After the end of the war, he relocated to Stepanakert with his family, and started working for the media there. Michael is accustomed to adapting to difficult situations, and talks about the ups and downs of his life in a sometimes surprisingly casual manner. He is always full of new ideas and motivated to implement them.
With the development of the internet, Michael saw an opportunity. He could create an online radio show, for cheap, in Azerbaijani, to reach people living there. Some might think what he does is just a raindrop in the ocean, but he disagrees.
“If I can change even just one person’s standpoint and understanding of the situation, or at least make them question the propaganda from Baku, then I win,” he says.
Despite his resilience, living in a conflict zone has not been without significant personal challenges and loss. Like many Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, Michael’s son felt a deep sense of obligation to protect their land. He fought during the Four-Day War in April 2016, and died while defending the northern village of Talish.
“I stopped writing, I stopped everything, it was my biggest shock yet,” Michael says.
In September 2020, when war erupted once again, Michael wasn’t sure he could continue on, but he and his family remained in Stepanakert throughout the 44 days. Now he is back to work, producing a weekly broadcast about the new reality on the ground in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Michael does not know for sure if he has changed the perspective of any Azerbaijani. But he does have an audience –– he receives dozens of letters per year from listeners, both praise and insults.
“Of course, we see them as enemies, I don’t forgive. I can’t,” Michael says. “But they need to hear our voice, our perspective, our truth, because I think it’s possible, I think they can understand us at some point.”
To watch: Haut-Karabakh: deux enfants dans la guerre (Nagorno-Karabakh: two children in a war), a documentary by French-Armenian photographer Alexis Pazoumian about the everyday life of two boys from the village of Talish.
To read: When Ethiopia took in Armenian refugees, an article about how the northeastern African nation became home to survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
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.