Your Namak for Wednesday, June 14
Two foreign nationals injured by Azerbaijani gunfire in Yeraskh, European Union mission in Armenia expands, and doctors charged for illegally selling Armenian babies to Italian couples.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Two Foreign Nationals Injured by Azerbaijani Gunfire in Yeraskh
According to the Armenian Ministry of Defense, on June 14, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces fired on Armenian combat positions in the border village of Yeraskh, wounding two Indian nationals. The ministry reported that the injured men are construction workers in a nearby metal processing plant. In a tweet regarding the first known incident of foreigners injured in border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the U.S. State Department’s spokesperson said, “We are deeply concerned that two civilian employees of a U.S.-affiliated company in Armenia sustained injuries from gunfire from the direction of Azerbaijan.”
European Union Mission in Armenia Expands
The European Union border-monitoring mission in Armenia announced it is planning to open three new operational hubs in Kapan, Ijevan and Yeghegnadzor, doubling its existing presence. Deployed in February under a two-year mandate at the request of the Armenian authorities, the mission aims to prevent future military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Despite the EU presence, clashes have regularly occurred along the border.
Doctors Charged for Illegally Selling Armenian Babies to Italian Couples
Eleven officials and doctors have been charged for illegally selling 20 Armenian children to Italian adoptive parents between 2015 and 2018, according to the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office. A joint investigation by openDemocracy and IrpiMedia revealed that alleged members of an illegal adoption ring continue to hold senior positions in maternal healthcare and government in Armenia, despite criminal charges against them. In a follow-up piece, journalists interviewed a woman who explained how one of her twin daughters was taken away after birth under the pretense of a life-threatening illness. “I was not an uncaring mother, but they [doctors] are capable of completely hypnotizing a person,” the mother told openDemocracy. At least 437 children have each been sold for $25,000 or more to foreigners.
Blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh Enters Seventh Month
As the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh enters its seventh month, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated the need for an international fact-finding mission in the region. “The Republic of Armenia has serious concerns that the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan, despite all its own obligations, is preparing the ground for another aggressive actions and ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh,” the statement added.
Since mid-December, the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting the region to Armenia and the outside world, has been closed by so-called “eco-activists” backed by Baku. In April, the Azerbaijani military established a checkpoint near the Hakari bridge, raising serious security concerns for Armenian residents. To travel back and forth, Armenians must present their passports to Azerbaijani border guards, and are accompanied by the ICRC or Russian peacekeepers. Since the installation of the checkpoint, the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Human Rights Ombudsman reported that the Azerbaijani side has denied entry to at least three Nagorno-Karabakh residents with valid Armenian documentation.
Joyce Boghosian: Meet an Armenian-American White House photographer who has documented world history
In lieu of a new profile this week, we would like to bring back a favorite story from our archives. As a White House photographer, Joyce Boghosian has documented some of the most iconic people and moments in history. Although she has mostly played the role of observer, her deep connection to her Armenian culture once inspired her to step onto center stage.
“A lot of times I’m seeing what’s happening in front of me but I’m not really experiencing it. I’m observing and I’m trying not to get involved because I’m thinking about my exposure or the right angle.”
Joyce Boghosian has spent the majority of her career in one of the most famous buildings in the world: the White House. As a photographer over the span of five U.S. presidents, Joyce has documented some of the most iconic people and moments in history.
She followed in the footsteps of her late father Harry Naltchayan, who spent more than three decades as a photographer at The Washington Post. Joyce’s parents were newly married when they immigrated to Virginia from Beirut in 1957, where Harry had served as Lebanese President Camille Chamoun’s official photographer.
From a young age, her father’s work made a significant impression on the budding photographer.
“He’d come home from work and bring his extra prints so that we could take them to school the next day,” Joyce, 54, says. “So, it was really exciting for us to see: ‘Hey dad, who did you photograph today?’ He always said, ‘No day is the same.’”
On weekends, Joyce and her siblings would accompany their father on assignments, and in the fifth grade she picked up a camera of her own. But it was not until her final year of high school that she decided to pursue photography professionally.
A few months before Joyce’s high school graduation, President Ronald Reagan visited her school to speak with students about the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion. As the yearbook photographer, she had the opportunity to photograph the president alongside members of the press. Following the event, Joyce’s father stopped by the school to pick up her film.
“I remember him pulling up in his Mercury Monarch and I’m handing him my film and I said, ‘Dad, that was so exciting. This is what I want to do,” Joyce recalls.
After interning at local newspapers, Joyce landed a position in the White House at just 20 years old. In her first week as a photography intern, President Ronald Reagan invited her into the Oval Office to share letters he had received from children around the country. One year later, she was hired as a photography assistant to President George H.W. Bush’s personal photographer.
Perhaps it is because she started so young that documenting the most powerful people in the world comes naturally to Joyce. Her relaxed demeanor and discreet presence put others at ease, crucial traits for any photographer that are impossible to teach. Joyce’s ability to make her subjects comfortable shines through in her photographs.
“A lot of times I’m seeing what’s happening in front of me but I’m not really experiencing it,” Joyce says. “I’m observing and I’m trying not to get involved because I’m thinking about my exposure or the right angle.”
Throughout the decades Joyce has spent in the White House’s storied halls, she has chronicled such diverse subjects as Margaret Thatcher and Princess Diana, Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II. But along with photographing presidents and their famous guests, Joyce enjoyed turning her lens on people and scenes who seldom received the spotlight.
“The chefs, the florists, those are the people that make the White House keep going. I did a whole series of portraits of the residence staff,” Joyce says. “My favorite thing was the people I worked with there.”
Although Joyce has viewed her role as primarily that of an observer and documentarian, the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War compelled her to change her position. Joyce wrote a memo to the president’s staff bringing attention to the conflict in the hopes that the United States would broker a ceasefire.
“My email circulated in the West Wing, and I had the opportunity to speak with high-level advisors and cabinet members urging them to help the Armenians,” Joyce says. “My attachment to the history of Armenians motivated me to step out of my role as a photographer and become more than just an observer –– something I hadn’t done before.”
To listen: Pegasus Spyware in the Azerbaijan-Armenia Conflict, an episode of Meduza’s Naked Pravda podcast. Journalist Eilish Hart interviews Natalia Krapiva, a tech-legal counsel at Access Now, which broke the story revealing that Pegasus spyware was used to spy on civil society figures in Armenia.
To read: The Legend of Ali Baba, an article by Liana Aghajanian on Ara the Rat’s blog about the incredible journey of Harry Ekizian, an Armenian Genocide survivor who fled to the U.S. and became a world wrestling champion.
To watch: Dolma Diaries, the new season of a comedy web series about an Armenian, an Azerbaijani and a Georgian living as flatmates in an apartment in Berlin. The show seeks to break stereotypes and cultural tensions through endearing human experiences.
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.