AND IN OTHER NEWS: Hints of War

Two weeks ago, the United States signaled its deep commitment to resolving the Karabakh conflict through its appointment of a new Minsk Group co-chair Philip Reeker. Reeker is not only a seasoned diplomat, but his appointment flew in the face of Azerbaijan’s insistence that the conflict is already resolved and there is no need for the Minsk Group to exist anymore.

The announcement was met with fury from Baku, whose Foreign Ministry spokeswoman sent a stinging tweet calling out the USA’s action. The outright challenge can be seen as a further signal of Azerbaijan’s emboldened feeling as it seeks to impose its will on Armenia. Perhaps coincidentally, within a day of this tweet, it was announced that Ms. Abdullayeva was dismissed from her post as spokeswoman, however a few weeks on she continues to operate in that capacity. 

In the wake of the US-Azerbaijan tiff, France’s representation to the OSCE showed its support with a “Did You Know” highlighting the history of the Minsk Group and its important role. Perhaps the timing of sharing this ‘fun fact’ was another coincidence?

Another not-so veiled attack on the United States by an Azerbaijani MP. The host in response asks whether this means there will be an “operation to enforce peace”. Just hours later, Azerbaijan’s brutal attack was launched on Armenia. One can only imagine if Azerbaijan was furious at Reeker’s appointment how they must feel about the surprise visit of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to Armenia. 

Ruben Vardanyan’s social media announcement that he was moving to Artsakh to support it sparked endless speculation.. What’s behind the move? Simply his patriotic idea or part of a wider strategy, and whose?  

A former congressional candidate Pam Keith chimed in out of nowhere resurrecting the long-debunked accusations made by Turkey and Azerbaijan last spring that Armenia is helping Russia in Ukraine. What’s so bizarre is that even Azerbaijan and Turkey had given up on attempting to fabricate evidence of these claims months ago, making it very odd that someone with no seeming connection to the subject would suddenly appear with such a flagrant opinion. In addition, she attempts to guilt Armenians by stating “NEVER hesitated to stand with the Armenian diaspora in demanding recognition of the genocide of the Armenian people by Turkey. NEVER”, and thus feels betrayed by what she (baselessly) calls Armenia’s support for a “genocide of Ukrainians”. No evidence has been provided of anything she’s actually done to demand recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and her name is unknown to the activist community. Keith received more comments and quote tweets correcting her false beliefs than likes (mostly from Azerbaijanis). She never issued a correction. 

And oh look, Pam is back. Clearly having learned nothing and done no research, she struck again in the wake of Azerbaijan’s attack on Armenia, claiming again without any evidence and after having been repeatedly corrected that Armenia is “provisioning Russia against Ukraine.” Provisioning Russia with what exactly? At what point is her ignorance purposeful, and what’s behind it? 

In light of that, it’s appropriate to point out this photo which went viral of an Armenian company fighting against Russia in Ukraine. Naturally there were some people who were not happy about this, as it flies in the face of anti-Armenian propaganda like we saw above. 

Garo Paylan, MP in the Turkish parliament, has been on a tour of Armenian heritage sites in eastern Turkey, pointing out that the few which remain are often in dire condition in danger of obliteration. Even the few sites which get “restored” are allegedly done by inexperienced workers who further damage the structure’s historic Armenian character through their work. His rallying call was for Armenians worldwide to take this matter into their own hands and save their history. 

In “royal” news, one of the sillier stories in the pre-attack week was of a visit to Shushi of an alleged descendant of the “last Irevan Khan”, which would date back to 1828. A look at the social media of the “prince” shows him to be a pretender obsessed with the last grandeur of Qajar Persia, and his co-option by Azerbaijan is a silly stunt meant to assert their “ownership” of Yerevan which has become a new refrain.. 

Days later, Queen Elizabeth II passed away, and the singer Raffi reminded us how there’s an Armenian angle to almost every story. Besides his father - Onnig Cavoukian’s - color portrait of the Queen, fellow Canadian-Armenian photographic legend Yousuf Karsh has several black and white portraits of  the Queen taken over multiple years. It’s also worth mentioning that the new King Charles III is perhaps the first British monarch to have ever set foot in Armenia, having visited in 2013, and his heir Prince William is said to be of remote Armenian ancestry through his late mother Princess Diana, and even more remote on his royal side whose family tree traces back to St. Gregory the Illuminator and Sahag Bartev (though the validity of such ancient genealogy is hardly certain). 

Finally, the Starmus Festival highlighted a very memorable week for Armenia during which it hosted an incredible line-up of stars and academic notables. You can read more about many of them in our round-up dedicated to the first days of the conference. We thought that Rick Wakeman, keyboardist of the band Yes, summed up the excitement of the week best with his tribute to his time here- with plans to return! It’s a reminder that no matter the dark times we find ourselves in, Armenia is truly a special place with a certain magic which should give us all reason to hope for better days.