Being based in Armenia for 12 years hasn’t only given me plenty to photograph and write about, but also provides me with an opportunity to fix for many large media organizations. Last year, for example, I regularly fixed for the BBC, Al Jazeera English and The Wall Street Journal as well as photographed and organized a series of reports for The National. However, albeit with a few exceptions, the subject matters were the same — Armenia-Turkey relations and the unresolved conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh.
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Obama Talks Turkey (Updated)
Tsitsernakaberd, Yerevan, Armenia © Onnik James Krikorian 2008 History has the unfortunate habit of repeating itself as Armenians know only too well. This is especially true when it comes to U.S. presidential elections. Without fail, candidates running for the White...
Armenia: Yezidi Identity Battle
Yezidis in the western Aragatsotn region of Armenia have taken a dim view of government efforts, supported by the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, to bolster minority education in the republic.
Assessing Kurdish Militancy in Armenia
PKK activities in Armenia seem thus far to be fairly low-level, though Armenia’s Yezidi community — an ethnic minority related to Kurds by blood and language — may be receptive to PKK outreach. Among other things, we have heard reports that the PKK sends money to some Armenian Yezidi and that there are links between Yezidi communities in Armenia and Kurdish militant groups in Turkey. We have also heard that the Armenian government has made lukewarm attempts to hush a freelance journalist who reports extensively on the Yezidi and their affiliations with Kurdish militants. We believe many of these reports to be credible.
Interviews on the Cultural Traditions of Yezidis in Armenia
The interviews form part of continuing research on Armenia’s largest minority and the division within the community regarding ethnic identity.
Pashinyan Reignites Constitutional Reform Debate Amid Declining Ratings
On January 18, six years after the street protests that brought him to power in 2018, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan raised the issue of reforming the country’s constitution during a meeting with the Armenian Ministry of Justice. The constitution was originally introduced under Levon Ter-Petrosyan in 1995 and controversially amended under his successors, Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan.
Street Punk Legends The Exploited Play Tbilisi, Yerevan and Istanbul
A lively crowd of passionate fans eagerly gathered outside Elektrowerk, a repurposed Soviet-era factory in Tbilisi’s Isani district, last weekend. They were here to see[ME1] punk legends, The Exploited who had come from delivering electrifying shows in Yerevan and Istanbul just days earlier. Now they were bringing raw energy, rebellious spirit, and a dose of punk-infused chaos, to the Georgian capital.
A tale of two meetings: More on Aliyev and Pashinyan at the Munich Security Conference
Actually, not a tale, but rather two articles on last weekend’s meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegations, led respectively by Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev, and the return to the stage of the two leaders at the annual Munich Security Conference.
Declassified US Documents summarised on 25th Anniversary of Ter-Petrosyan Resignation
To mark the 25th anniversary of the resignation of Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty’s Yerevan Bureau on 3 February published a summary of a batch of declassified documents relating to attempts in 1997 to end the conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh.
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Ahead of November, Armenia and Azerbaijan juggle for their geopolitical position
In the lead-up to this year’s NATO Summit in Washington D.C., it was uncertain whether Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov would meet. However, a last-minute announcement confirmed that they would, albeit not in a bilateral format, but with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Expectations were low, given disagreements over Azerbaijani demands for Armenia to change its constitution and the United States now apparently pushing its own vision for unblocking trade and communication in the region.
Transparency needs to replace speculation and intrigue in the current phase of Armenia-Azerbaijan talks
At the beginning of the month, the Armenian and Azerbaijani border demarcation commissions exchanged documents detailing the regulation of future activities. But this was not the unified document that had been expected. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had earlier that day refused to answer questions from the media as to whether the deadline set for such a document had been met or not. Even Radio Free Europe were unsure. While its Yerevan Bureau reported that the two sides hadn’t in fact managed to agree on the draft regulations, its Prague Headquarters at least reported progress.
Baku insists on Constitutional change for Armenia peace accord
Early last month, Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, announced that an agreement to normalize relations with Armenia is unlikely to be signed unless it changes its constitution. Specifically, this would mean removing a controversial preamble that references the 1990 Declaration of Independence, which in turn is based on the 1989 Joint Statement on the “Reunification of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Mountainous Region of Karabakh.”