Your Namak for Sunday, October 16
France and Russia spar over Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian Security Council president expects peace deal by year end, and EU border monitoring mission arrives in Armenia.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
France and Russia Spar Over Nagorno-Karabakh
The French and Russian leaders sparred publicly this week over their respective countries’ involvement in Nagorno-Karabakh. In an interview with France 2 TV on October 12, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Russia of stoking the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh to reestablish its presence in the South Caucasus. Macron said Russia “clearly played Azerbaijan’s game, with Turkish complicity, and returned there to weaken Armenia.” The French president also questioned the effectiveness of the Russian peacekeeping mission.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called his French counterpart’s remarks “unacceptable” and suggested that Macron does not understand the conflict. In a statement, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova added, “Such attacks are consistent with the West’s anti-Russian line of demonizing Russia and demonstrate attempts to transfer the logic of confrontation from Ukraine to other parts of the post-Soviet space, including the South Caucasus.”
Armenian Security Council President Expects Peace Deal by Year End
In an interview with Armenian Public TV on October 12, President of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan said Armenia and Azerbaijan will sign a peace deal by year end. “We should have a peace agreement by the end of the year, and there was also an agreement that delimitation would happen by the end of the year, meaning the peace agreement and delimitation are interrelated,” Grigoryan said. Grigoryan also emphasized that Azerbaijani troops must immediately withdraw from Armenian territory, and that the Armenian side will not submit to Azerbaijan’s demand for an economic corridor passing through Armenia.
EU Border Monitoring Mission Arrives in Armenia
On October 14, the European Union’s civilian border monitoring mission arrived in Armenia to begin its work. EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar tweeted, “The aim of the European Union deployment will be to monitor the situation and support Armenian-Azerbaijani stablisation on the ground.” The mission was announced earlier this month following talks in Prague between the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, France and the European Council.
Madelaine Ekserciyan: Meet an Armenian-Argentinian photographer (re)discovering her motherland, one image at a time
“The camera is my excuse to begin a relationship with new, very different people.”
Madelaine Ekserciyan has a warm and communicative laugh that catches people’s attention and makes them immediately connect with her. For the young photographer and fashion designer born in 1991 in Buenos Aires, Armenian culture is a family affair.
Madelaine says her main source of Armenian culture came from her grandparents. Her father’s family moved to Latin America from Istanbul, while her mother’s family are Armenians from Romania.
“In 1997, I went to Armenia for the first time with my family. It was important for my parents to get to know the actual place, the territory of Armenia, not to stay in an idea of diaspora people,” Madelaine says.
Her family owned a textile company, a very typical job for the Armenian community in Argentina. “Since I was a kid, I was around textiles, clothes,” Madelaine says. “I went to my father’s factory and was fascinated by it. I started making my own clothes from a very young age, for my cousins and friends.”
Madelaine graduated in fashion design from the University of Buenos Aires in 2013, and started working in the fashion industry while cultivating her passion for photography on the side. In 2021, she received a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in photography at EFTI: Centro Internacional de Fotografía y Cine in Madrid.
When it comes to her photography, the young artist explores intimate human issues. For the project “Mayrig,” which she started eight years ago, Madelaine documents the many dimensions of her motherland, Armenia.
“The camera is my excuse to begin a relationship with new, very different people,” she says.
During her first trips to Armenia as a child, she remembers good breakfast, but no lights or hot water. In her latest visits, Madelaine discovered a completely changed and modernized country.
“Armenia has changed so much. Every year, it’s like a new Armenia,” she says. “I ended up documenting that too even if at first it was a more intimate project.”
Because of her lifelong immersion in textiles and fashion, Madeleine always takes note of what people wear. During her trips to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, the ubiquity of military patterns caught her eye.
“I was comparing how my nephews play in Argentina and the kids here. Two different realities,” she says, referencing how many children in Armenia sport military dress. “The fact that they wear this and how they behave as children says a lot.”
Madelaine says her relationship to her Armenian identity has evolved throughout different stages of her life. She went from being a kid bored on trips to Armenia with her parents, to a curious young adult using photography to approach a country that is not hers, but that she considers her motherland. She is currently in Armenia, continuing the project “Mayrig.”
To listen: Keeping Up with the Caucasus (And Why You Can’t), a podcast unpacking how mainstream narratives about the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan became so muddled. This is the first episode of Obscuristan, a new podcast delving deep into Eurasia from a de-colonial perspective.
To watch: A young Armenian making strides in American politics, a CivilNet interview with Member of the Michigan House of Representatives Mari Manoogian, who discusses her advocacy for Armenian issues and shares observations from her very first trip to Armenia.
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.