BayArmos

[Alphanews Armenian Network @AlphaNewsAM]

“‘People like us have defended it, people like you have surrendered it,’ ‘One day they will even hand over your mother to the Turks.’” — A heated argument broke out between citizens & supporters of the ruling party Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party.

[301🇦🇲 @301arm]

Nikol Pashinyan once again shifted blame away from his own government’s failed policies, claiming that political rhetoric inside Armenia is affecting efforts to secure the return of Armenian hostages held in Baku.

Speaking to reporters, Pashinyan referred to statements made by allies of Davit Ishkhanyan, an Armenian hostage currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan.

“They (Azerbaijan) see what kind of statements Davit Ishkhanyan’s party members are making in Armenia. Of course that affects the overall process,” Pashinyan stated.

According to him, the same applies to supporters of Davit Babayan, claiming Azerbaijani authorities also monitor their rhetoric and respond accordingly.

“If the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) keeps promoting the idea that Karabakh will be reclaimed, is it logical for Azerbaijan to quickly release a representative of that same political force so he can return and join that process?” Pashinyan said. “Obviously that is conflict rhetoric.”

The remarks appeared less like a defense of Armenian hostages and more like an attempt to justify Azerbaijan’s continued imprisonment of Armenian political figures while targeting opposition voices inside Armenia. Questions were also raised over why Pashinyan publicly echoed narratives viewed by critics as benefiting Baku.

Pashinyan’s comments came a week after Ishkhanyan issued a voice appeal from prison addressed to Armenia’s Human Rights Defender, Anahit Manasyan, calling for intervention regarding the Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan and requesting assistance in obtaining the full Armenian and Azerbaijani texts of the indictments and verdicts issued against them.

Ishkhanyan, the former speaker of the Artsakh parliament and a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), was captured by Azerbaijani forces on October 3, 2023, following the forced displacement of Artsakh.

[John Ruplinger @JRBombadil]

Still a mystery to me how Assad and the Syrian army so suddenly collapsed. Jolani, ISIS/ Al Quaida leader, was welcomed in by the West and continues mass killings and atrocities.

[301🇦🇲 @301arm]

Relatives and legal representatives of Armenians unlawfully held in Azerbaijan appealed on April 3 to Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, urging the activation of the “protecting power” mechanism under international humanitarian law.

The appeal followed the complete closure of the International Committee of the Red Cross office in Azerbaijan, which the families said had eliminated one of the last remaining channels for independent monitoring of the detainees.

“The closure has left us in complete uncertainty regarding their fate and conditions of detention,” the letter stated.

The families called on Armenia to formally request that Switzerland assume the role of a protecting power in order to help safeguard the detainees’ rights and security.

https://t.co/uD7Hb3gvyn contacted Siranush Sahakyan, head of the Center for International and Comparative Law and legal representative of the Armenian hostages before the European Court of Human Rights, to ask whether any response had been received.

According to Sahakyan, Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs replied that the appointment of a protecting power requires the consent of both states involved.

She added that Switzerland also said it has repeatedly urged Azerbaijan through bilateral channels to guarantee fair trial rights and ensure detention conditions comply with international standards.

“In other words, this humanitarian issue remains part of Switzerland’s bilateral agenda with Azerbaijan,” Sahakyan said.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, however, has not responded to the appeal, despite receiving the letter at the same time as the Swiss side more than a month ago.

[Council of Permanence @coun_permanence]

His name is Edgar Ghazaryan...

Remember it!

[Alex Galitsky @algalitsky]

Armenian hostages in Azerbaijan’s unlawful detention should be released – unconditionally.

Azerbaijani forces should be removed from Armenia’s sovereign territory – immediately.

Forcibly displaced Armenians must be allowed to return to Artsakh – expeditiously.

And Azerbaijan’s genocidal regime should not receive another dollar of U.S. military assistance – indefinitely.

[Sputnik Armenia 🇦🇲 @SputnikArm]

Gagik Tsarukyan said he does not want to become Armenia’s prime minister despite leading the campaign personally. Tsarukyan stated that Prosperous Armenia Party already has four potential candidates for the post, whose names will be revealed later.

[Suppressed News. @SuppressedNws]

⚡️🇺🇸BREAKING: Blinken gets the farewell he deserves.

Reporter Sam Husseini was just physically dragged from U.S secretary of state Antony Blinken’s press briefing, he said “Why aren’t you at The Hague?”

Following this, Journalist Max Blumenthal confronted Blinken during his farewell address to the State Department press:
“Why did you allow the Holocaust of our time to happen? How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide?”

Video: @ryangrim, @MaxBlumenthal

[The Economist @TheEconomist]

Ali Karimli argues that Azerbaijan’s authoritarian leader is prioritising the climate conference “not due to environmental concerns, but for image management” https://t.co/lWiNdSs2Jn

[BayArmos @BayArmos]

I urge @RepBera to cosponsor H.R.2803: Armenian Genocide Education bill spearheaded by @RepAnnaEshoo, @RepGusBilirakis, @RepDavidValadao, and @RepTedLieu.

[Lindsey Snell @LindseySnell]

Does Israel remember the Armenians Azerbaijan, with Turkish support, has slaughtered with IL weapons? 69% of AZ's weapons come from IL. IL officials were among the first to visit Karabakh with AZ after the war.

Don't use Armenians and Kurds to whitewash IL's ethnic cleansing.

[BayArmos @BayArmos]

@CaliberEnglish Zangezur is not the same as Syunik. Syunik is part of and a region of Zangezur.

[BayArmos @BayArmos]

@fismailzade Dalbayob ti blat suka. Do you even understand the concept of history?

[BayArmos @BayArmos]

@OCCRP @MirandaOCCRP Ilham Aliyev

[Scharo Bajalan @ScharoBajalan]

Video shows Turkish military gear being delivered to the IDF (Israel army) by the Turkish state

Picture shows 🇹🇷cargo ship en route to Israel

Erdogan and the Turkish people like to claim that he’s an ally of the Palestinian people - but actions speak louder than 1000 words

[🇦🇲⚽Football Kentron @FootballKentron]

Let’s celebrate 3 years of Football Kentron in style!

Join us this Sunday with special guest host @havaqakan to preview Armenia’s upcoming Euro 2024 Qualifiers v Wales and Croatia LIVE on our YouTube channel! Subscribe people!

🇦🇲v🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
🇦🇲v🇭🇷
https://t.co/gjiWlf1wzR

[BayArmos @BayArmos]

@ShaykhSulaiman Little cowards spray pepper and run away

[Anna R.S. @sovorakan_ton]

Pasinyan's government is denying Artsakhtsis their Armenian citizenship, claiming that the passport was given to them for travel only.

#ՕկուպացվածՀայաստան

[Misty Mountain @_M_Mountain_]

Is Armenia Europe or Middle East / West Asia?

This question pops up fairly often, in part due to the ambiguous geographic location of Armenia being between Europe and Asia. In this post I will try to dissect this question.

What does it mean to be European? There are two answers to this question - from a historical and racial stance.

===The Unscientific Racial View of European===

Being European from a racial standpoint is simple to define, it's basically the degree of how blond and blue eyed you are. Your Europeanness increases with your "Whiteness". In that sense Armenia is certainly not a European country.

In addition to blondeness, the unscientific concept of "White race" is often being brought up & associated with Europeanness. However, there are no such scientific racial divisions between White and non-White people. For instance, a Norwegian, Italian, an Arab and an Indian are all of the same Caucasian race. White / non-White was the more unscientific culturally motivated divisions which used to change a lot with time. At one point the Irish, Greeks and Italians were not considered White or even European. Slavic people too. Those misconceptions were largely due to lack of any scientific grounds for the concept of "White race" or the racial concept of "Europeanness".

===The Historical Sense of European===

Being European means belonging to Europe historically and culturally. Therefore, what is European Culture?

1. First and foremost, European Culture has been determined by Christian religion. Religion defines the ideas, customs, and social norms/behaviour of particular people or society. Christianity was at the very roots of the European civilization, it is something that largely defined it. And Armenia is the very first Christian nation. The first nation to adopt Christianity as its official religion, even before the Rome.

2. Secondly, European Culture has been determined by the ancient Greek civilization. Indeed, and it's not that the concept of "Europe" was born there, initially it did not carry any "Cultural" (or racial) connotations, it was only meant as a geographic term. But many of the core principals upon which the future Western and European civilization was built upon, such as the scientific ideas, philosophy, and democracy too, were born in the Ancient Greece.

In that regards, Armenia has been much closer to the Greek civilization, given that before Turks invaded the region, Armenia was bordering the Greek kingdoms, Armenians also used Greek language prior to the fifth century (before the invention of the Armenian alphabet) for artistic and cultural expressions. Many of the ancient Greek philosophical works were translated and taught in Armenia way earlier than it reached most of other European nations. The greatest king in Armenian history, the Tigranes the Great, was influenced and an admirer of the Greek culture, Tigranes invited many Greek rhetoricians and philosophers to his court, and his capital was noted for its Hellenistic architecture. Many of the important Greek works also survived in their Armenian translations, and most of the ancient & medieval Armenian scholars and philosophers were students of the Greek scientific & philosophical thought, such as Anania Shirakatsi (7th century Armenian scholar & philosopher who correctly identified the Milky Way as a cluster of stars) and Hovhannes Imastaser (the 11th century Armenian scholar, one of the early proponents of empiricism). The point being, Armenian nation absorbed and developed those ancient Greek ideas that defined the future European civilization way before most of Europe. Just like Christianity.

Those two reasons described above - Christianity and Ancient Greek civilization - were the pillars upon which the future European identity and civilization was built upon. And it so happened that Armenia if not at the heart of both of it, at least historically has been much closer to it than majority of other European nations. So excluding Armenia from Europe is rather nonsensical.

But there are other reasons too.

3. Architecture has also been one of the more important aspects of cultural expression. In that regards, Armenia, specifically the medieval Armenian city of Ani, has been the birthplace of Romanesque and Gothic architectures which, according to many European scholars, has later spread to Europe, laying the foundations of the medieval European architecture.

4. Feudalism, forms of government. Feudalism was the dominant social system in medieval Europe, in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service. In comparison, in Middle Eastern kingdoms & empires the feudal lords were not permanent owners of particularly large domains, but simply members of an upper class, which, as a collective, owned the land. There was no such land owners in the Ottoman Empire for instance. The medieval Europe had a more decentrelized feudal government, while medieval Middle East usually had a way more centralized power structure. This was one of the distinctions between Europe and Middle East. As you perhaps guessed it, the ancient / medieval Armenian form of government closely resembled the European decentralized feudalism, as Armenian lords also were permitted to own lands, and, at some point even the concept of "sub-kingdoms" was developed throughout Bagratuni Armenia.

5. Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was one of the most important European Empires both in terms of culture, military and economy. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in the whole Mediterranean world. Armenia and Armenians were not strangers to the Empire. On the contrary, Western Armenia was for the most part within the Byzantine Empire, and Armenians (alongside Greeks) were way too often comprising the ruling elite of the Byzantine Empire. Around 33 Byzantine Emperors were either full or partially Armenian, including some of the most famous ones. Armenian presence was so deep in the Byzantine Empire, that in medieval times some Arab historians referred to the Byzantine Empire as an Armenian Empire. Therefore, Armenians were at the heart of one of the most historically important European empires, and as such played a big role in its decisions which later influenced the continent. One of them was the Christianization of Kievan Rus (later known as the Russian Empire), which happened during the marriage deal made between the Armenian ruling elite of the Byzantine Empire and the ruler of Kievan Rus, Vladimir, the Grand Prince of Kiev.

6. Armenia had connections with Western Europe too. The Crusader States. During the medieval times, Crusades were raging at the shores of Middle East. As a result a series of Western European Crusader states were formed alongside the mediterranead shores of the Middle East. Armenia supported the Crusader states and formed a new Armenian state just in-between those Crusader kingdoms, the Cilician Kingdom of Armenia - often itself regarded as a semi-crusader state. Armenian Cilician Rulers intermarried with the European Rulers, and lived together for centuries as allied kingdoms. This was also the time when under its influence the Armenian alphabet included two new letters - F and O. Armenia became the longest standing crusader state, it lasted for almost 4 centuries. The last Crusader king of the Armenia Cilician Kingdom was an ethnic Frank, later transferred and burried in France.

7. Language. Although, in my personal opinion, not as important as other factors, nonetheless worth a mention; Armenian language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. And in particular, according to many European linguists, the closest surviving langauge to Armenian is the Greek language.

8. Armenian intelligentsia. Much of prominent representatives of Armenian intelligentsia of the last centuries have been educated in European schools, and participated in contributing to the Western civilization. From one of the pioneers of the first color TV, the first MRI (magnetic resonance scanning machine), one of the founders of theoretical astrophysics (Ambartsumian), founder of the modern practice of plastic surgery (Kazanjian), first rovers to explore another world (Kemurdzhian), one of the founders of evolutionary physiology (Orbeli) and neurobiology (Koshtoyants), to foremost inventor of new chemical elements (Oganessian), and more; Armenians, while not being large in numbers, have contributed considerably to the Western and world civilization. Some of the most beloved Armenian classics, such as Komitas, where also educated in European schools.

9. Present forms of government. Unlike most of the Middle East and East in general (like Russia), Armenia and Armenian people did not tolerate a dictatorial or authoritarian form of government. Armenia is a democracy, and as such, shares with Europe democratic values and forms of government.

Note that neither of those 9 points alone make a nation European. But all of them together? Undoutedly so.

In conclusion, if we shed the racial unscientific concepts of "Europe", Armenia was not just European, but comprising one of its deeper roots. These are just facts.