Your Namak for Monday, January 23
EU approves two-year monitoring mission in Armenia, top U.S. and NATO officials highlight humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, and 15 Armenian soldiers die in fire at military barracks.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
EU Approves Two-Year Monitoring Mission in Armenia
On January 23, the European Council agreed to deploy a two-year civilian monitoring mission to Armenia, as part of regional peacebuilding efforts. In a press release, the EU said the objective of the mission is to “contribute to stability in the border areas of Armenia, build confidence on the ground, and ensure an environment conducive to normalization efforts between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” The announcement came following the Yerevan visit of Toivo Klaar, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia, who met with high-level Armenian officials regarding the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Top U.S. and NATO Officials Highlight Humanitarian Crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh
On January 23, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev over the phone, urging an immediate reopening of the Lachin Corridor. In a statement about the call, Blinken said the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh undermined peace prospects between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and also raised concerns about Baku’s domestic human rights record.
On the same day, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels. In a statement, Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two discussed regional security concerns, and Mirzoyan emphasized the urgent need for international intervention to end the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Fifteen Armenian Soldiers Die in Fire at Gegharkunik Military Barracks
On January 19, according to the Armenian Ministry of Defense, 15 Armenian servicemen died in a fire at a military barracks in the Gegharkunik region. The fire started in a barracks in Azat village, killing 15 and injuring six others, two of whom are in critical condition. According to the preliminary investigation, the fire was an accident, caused by a violation of the building safety protocols. A dozen military officers were fired from their posts following the incident.
Azerbaijanis Film, Harass Armenian Children Returning Home to Nagorno-Karabakh
On January 17, Azerbaijanis blocking the Lachin Corridor directly confronted a group of 19 Armenian children returning home to Nagorno-Karabakh. The children had been stranded in the border city of Goris for more than a month, unable to reunite with their families. Azerbaijanis stopped and entered the van carrying the minors, who were being escorted by the Russian peacekeeping forces, and began filming and shouting menacingly at them. Video of the incident spread widely on social media.
In an interview with CivilNet, four children from the group provided their testimony. When the Azerbaijanis entered their car, Vladimir Margaryan said the children thought they would be captured as prisoners of war or killed. “We were thinking it would be better for them to kill us than take us prisoner, because we know what happens when they take prisoners,” Margaryan said. As a result of the stress, he said a child sitting next to him fainted. “Yes of course it is difficult inside the blockade,” said Sergey Adashyan. “But for me it is better to be in your home, with your family, than 100 kilometers away.”
Nagorno-Karabakh Blockade Stretches into Second Month, With No End in Sight
It has been more than one month since the start of the blockade of the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the rest of the world. Food and medicine are running low, and residents now receive coupons from the local authorities to access essential products in limited quantities. Intermittent gas cuts have been reported, and electricity outages now last up to six hours a day. Only vehicles of the Russian peacekeeping forces and the ICRC have passed through.
Gayane Arushanian: Meet a Ukrainian-Armenian artist navigating a life punctuated by war
“I remember the sound of sirens in Stepanakert during the war when I was little. I know what war feels like. I was young, so I do not remember everything. I have flashbacks. Hearing them again in Ukraine took me right back.”
Gayane Arushanian is an optimist. Walking though the dark streets of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, during wartime, the young artist still manages to give a tour of her favorite places, make jokes and see beauty everywhere around her.
The 33-year-old was born in the Haterq village of Martakert region in Nagorno-Karabakh, during the first war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In 1993, she was only three years old when her family moved to Zaporizhia, Ukraine.
“I remember the sound of sirens in Stepanakert during the war when I was little. I know what war feels like,” she says. “I was young, so I do not remember everything. I have flashbacks. Hearing them again in Ukraine took me right back.”
Gayane grew up in a modest family, who did not have the means to go back and forth to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. But her parents made sure she, as well as her brother and sister, would be connected to their roots.
“My father always said, at home we speak Armenian. He really insisted. We spoke in the Artsakhci dialect, so I would never forget,” Gayane says. “My mom brought a book made to teach the Armenian alphabet and now when I think back about it, I realize it was like a Holy Bible.”
Zaporizhia is a mostly Russian-speaking area of Ukraine, but school was always in Ukrainian and Gayane grew up speaking both languages fluently. “I always liked creating things. My family was modest, so I did not have many dolls or things like that, but I would sew dresses and construct houses for dolls with anything I could find,” Gayane recalls.
At 10 years old, she started drawing classes with her Ukrainian neighbor, a teacher at the fine arts school of the city who noticed her talent. Six years later, she returned to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time, with her grandfather. “I felt really deep things that are hard to describe. I weirdly wanted to hug the soil,” she says. “And when I saw Ararat I was so impressed. It was so beautiful. I had seen pictures but I never realized how breathtaking it actually looked.”
After graduating from the University of Zaporizhia in architecture and from the Fine Arts School of Zaporizhia in 2012, Gayane opened her own arts studio in the city. In 2017, she moved to Kyiv and opened a studio there.
“There are invisible mathematical rules in the world, laws of duality, rules of rational things that math can show. And I explore those through my art,” the artist explains. She specializes in abstract conceptualism, with lots of colors and invisible math, seeking harmony and natural mathematical balances in the turmoil of reality.
Gayane names Basquiat, Mondrian and Monet as her biggest inspirations. She shares her time between commissioned art, exhibitions all over Ukraine and the world, and teaching for adults and children.
Gayane’s bubbly personality contrasts with the serious topics she talks about. She is very eloquent and captures the attention of all the people around her when she speaks.
Growing up as an Armenian in Ukraine in the 90s was not always easy, as other kids would make Gayane feel different, even though she is and feels Ukrainian too. That’s why as a teenager she joined Armenian diaspora groups in the country. “With both school and more Ukrainian-Armenian friends, I felt complete,” she says.
In 2014, the war in Donbas and the Russian invasion of Crimea brought war back into her life. “War is not new in Ukraine. And it felt close in 2014 after Maidan, because I lived in Zaporizhia,” she says. “There was a direct highway to go to Donetsk and suddenly it was impossible because at 200 kilometers, full-on war was happening.”
As the war seemed to slow down in the east of Ukraine, in 2020, like many Armenians Gayane woke up to news of a new war in Nagorno-Karabakh. “I remember, it was a Sunday. I looked at my phone and saw that it was the war,” she recalls. “I wrote to my relatives in Artsakh. They were in the basement. I could not believe it. Thirty years later? Again? Forty four days of hell. Hell. I cried everyday, and tried to explain to Ukrainians and others what was happening.”
But geopolitical alliances and politics create misunderstandings and sometimes tensions between Ukrainians and her. “If Ukraine did not have the war with Russia, they would look at it differently. But here Armenia is viewed as an ally of Russia, so Ukrainians are sometimes aggressive, saying that Karabakh and Crimea are the same, that Armenians are wrong,” she says. “It was very difficult for me. I realized they do not know anything about the history of Artsakh.”
Before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the young artist did not believe it would actually happen. On February 24, 2022, she woke up from the sound of explosions at 5 a.m. “I immediately remembered my childhood. And I understood what was going on. I was not scared. I just became practical: organizing my things, localizing shelters,” she says.
Gayane decided to stay and sell art to raise money and help her relatives and charities. She closed her studio, but continued teaching online. “Kyiv is now my home. I did not want to leave home, again. I am staying active and positive because there is no other way,” Gayane says.
“My only wish… and I will sound like a cliché Miss Universe contestant but… I want peace in the world. That’s it,” she concludes with a smile.
To read: The cruel blockade against Armenians shows the world order has collapsed, an op-Ed by Salpi Ghazarian in the Los Angeles Times, who argues that the fate of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians will foreshadow the kind of world that awaits us all.
To attend: Shelter, an immersive exhibition by She Loves Collective in Glendale, in remembrance of the victims of the 44-Day Nagorno-Karabakh War. For our Los Angeles readers, the show will be on display until January 29.
To listen: Գնա Ըսէ, a new song by musicians Apo Sahagian and Yellowheart, who masterfully blend traditional Armenian folk sounds with pop melodies. This happy tune is like a ray of sunshine during difficult times.
That’s it for today, see you next week!
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