Your Namak for Wednesday, June 7
Azerbaijan accuses France of derailing peace talks, Pashinyan says Armenia does not support Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Jerusalem Armenians protest controversial land sale.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Azerbaijan Accuses France of Derailing Peace Talks
On June 1, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan met on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Moldova, after which Baku accused France of undermining negotiations between the two countries. European Council President Charles Michel, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron mediated the talks in Chisinau, the latest in high-stakes efforts to reach a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In a statement published following the meeting, Elysée Palace said, “European leaders have called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to respect all their commitments,” in particular the release of prisoners of war. The statement also “stressed the importance of defining rights and guarantees for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.” The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded by accusing Macron of misrepresenting the parties’ positions, and thus hindering the peace process.
Pashinyan Says Armenia Does Not Support Russia’s War in Ukraine
In a wide-ranging interview with CNN Prima News, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan discussed Armenia’s difficult geopolitical position and said publicly for the first time that Armenia does not support Russia’s war in Ukraine. “This was never said out loud, but I think it is visible. We are not Russia’s ally in the war with Ukraine,” Pashinyan said. “Our feeling from that war, from that conflict, is anxiety because it directly affects all our relationships.” Pashinyan also touched upon the ongoing blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan’s ultimate goal of ethnically cleansing the region of its Armenian population.
Jerusalem Armenians Protest Controversial Land Sale
A controversial land sale in Jerusalem’s historic Armenian Quarter has caused concern about the community’s long-term presence in the city, with locals calling on the deal to be revoked. Signed by the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem in July 2021, the deal would lease for 99 years a large section of the Armenian Quarter, known as the “Cows’ Garden,” to Australian businessman Daniel Rubenstein. Concerned members of Jerusalem’s Armenian community have been organizing weekly protests, demanding that the Patriarchate unveil the contract, which has been shrouded in secrecy.
In an interview with CivilNet, local Armenian activist Hagop Djernazian said, “We, the Armenian nation, are the owners of the Armenian Quarter.” Djernazian called upon Armenians around the world to stand with the community, saying, “We, the Armenian community in Jerusalem, are under great danger. Our presence here is in great danger because if this lease is not revoked, we may lose not only this 25 percent of the Armenian Quarter, but we may lose other areas in the Armenian Quarter.”
Pashinyan Attends Erdogan’s Inauguration in Ankara
On June 3, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s inauguration in Ankara, becoming the first Armenian head-of-state to visit Turkey since 2009. Serdar Kılıç, Turkey’s special representative in ongoing normalization talks with Armenia, welcomed Pashinyan at the airport. The prime minister’s decision caused widespread shock and anger among the Armenian public. In a statement, Vartan Oskanian, Armenia’s foreign minister from 1998 until 2008, rebuked Pashinyan’s decision, saying he “did not represent the Armenian people, but himself.” A vocal critic of Pashinyan’s foreign policy, Oskanian added, “With this visit, Pashinyan once again showed that he is far removed from diplomacy.”
Naïri Nahapétian: Meet an Iranian-Armenian journalist from Paris investigating her family history and exile from Tehran
“I started writing novels about Iran as a way to go back there without really going back. In front of my computer, I closed my eyes and it felt like I was there and I wrote.”
Naïri Nahapétian now calls Paris home. We meet in a typical bistro in the 13th arrondissement of the city. But the 53-year-old writer and journalist at French magazine Alternatives Economiques never stopped exploring her multiple identities, and her native city, Tehran.
“I had a happy childhood in a wealthy neighborhood of the Iranian capital. I spoke perfect Persian and less good but fluent Armenian, even though we spoke it at home. Our social life was organized around the Armenian community with the school, church, the Ararat cultural center,” Naïri recalls.
Her mother’s family is from the historical region of Iranian Azerbaijan and her paternal roots are from Isfahan. Both her parents worked as bacteriologists. But in 1979, everything changed. Naïri was eight years old when the revolution began.
“I remember the images of the public hangings on the front pages of all the newspapers my father used to read,” the journalist says. “We could feel the tension. There were debates between my parents and their friends or other family members. My family thought that if Khomenei came to power, he would destroy Iran. Turns out they were right.”
Suddenly the swimming pools were separated for men and women, her mother would get into fights for refusing to wear a veil. In 1980, at nine years old, she left Tehran for Paris with her mother, believing it was a temporary move. They could not go back for 15 years.
Naïri wanted to understand why her father, one of the leaders of the Armenian community in Iran, did not leave with them when he could (he was later forbidden from leaving the country). Her first autobiography Quitter Téhéran (“Leaving Tehran”), published by Bayard Editions, investigates what happened to her father and why he was trapped in Iran.
“When I was a child, I wanted to become a writer and an explorer. And I became a journalist, isn’t that the modern form of explorer?” Naïri says with a smile.
After leaving Tehran, she adapted very fast to her new life, spoke French, made friends. “But it was very hard for my mother. She was only a contractor scientist. We used to have money and a good life in Iran and then suddenly we were struggling to make ends meet in Paris. She suffered a lot from that,” Naïri recalls.
When she was finally able to go back to Iran, in 1995, Naïri was already an adult. “It was so emotional. I was in Tehran, stuck in traffic in the city surrounded by the mountains, I felt at home again. It was familiar even though the city had changed and modernized,” she remembers.
She now spoke Persian with a slight accent, and it was obvious for locals that she came from the West. In collective taxis, the streets, shops, she was surprised to see how everybody criticized the regime in a quite fearless way. Locals were tired of mollah and were happy to find a Persian yet foreign ear.
“I went back for personal reasons, but it is such a fascinating country and society that I started freelancing as a journalist,” she says.
The rest of her family had left the country and moved to the United States. Naïri kept going on reporting trips for years, freelancing for French media, writing about women, freedom, politics, and the fights between the conservatives and more “liberals,” economics, the consequences of sanctions. She would enter with her Iranian passport and move around more freely than a French journalist with a press visa would.
“It was still extremely scary. You cannot lose Iranian citizenship and they do not recognize other nationalities for their citizens. You can go to jail, if you do something they do not like,” she explains.
Iran borders Armenia, where Naïri visited one time in 2007. She was supposed to go back with her family in 2020, but canceled the trip because of the war. “I will go back now. It makes me emotional. I am really worried about what is going on there too,” she says.
After the birth of her son, Naïri stopped traveling to Iran so often, not willing to take the risk of being separated from her child if something happened. On top of her job as a journalist in France, she started writing fiction detective novels which all took place in Iran.
“I started writing novels about Iran as a way to go back there without really going back. In front of my computer, I closed my eyes and it felt like I was there and I wrote,” she says. The characters are inspired by people she met during her childhood and her reporting years in the country.
Naïri also very closely follows the news in Iran. The recent “Women, Life, Freedom” movement has taken her on an emotional rollercoaster. “Every time I think, finally they will end the regime and I will go to Iran. And then there is repression and I lose some hope,” she says. “But I will always still have hope. Iranians are so brave and society is constantly resisting the government.”
Much of Western media attention focuses on the veil, but Naïri explains that there is much more than that at stake.
“Veil is just a symbol. There are serious economic problems and not only because of the sanctions but because of the way the mollahs handle everything, no freedom in many areas not just about the veil, not enough jobs, it’s a global rejection of the system,” she says.
“The regime is ready to do anything, even kill children to stay in power. But people are not willing to make any more compromises with the system. I don’t know how this will end but my dream is that the movement will be successful and as soon as I can, I will go back to Iran,” Naïri says, smiling at that thought.
To read: When Wine Becomes Crucial to Cultural Identity, a New York Times feature on the role that wine has played in defining nationhood. Writer Eric Asimov explores historic winemaking practices in politically turbulent regions, including Armenia, believed to be one of the birthplaces of wine.
To listen: A Kid From Yerevan, a new album by Dutch-Armenian artist Full Crate, who fuses hip-hop, R&B and electronic music to create a uniquely alluring sound. “City of Yerevan” is both a tribute to the singer’s birthplace and a mediation on desire and longing.
To watch: Aurora’s Sunrise, an animated film by Inna Sahakyan, available in French and German for free on Arte’s streaming service until the end of July. It tells the life story of Aurora Mardiganian, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide who lost all her family but escaped and later became an actress in Hollywood.
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.