| ANC UK Newsletter January 2024 |
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1. UK Parliamentarians raising the issues of Armenia and Artsakh
2. UK Parliament holds a hearing on Artsakh and Armenia-Azerbaijan relations
3. MPs raise the issue of the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem
4. MP Jessica Morden met with Annette Moskofian, Chairperson of ANC-UK
5. Interview with Maxim Saakyan, creator of the podcast Uncovering Roots
6. The Armenian community in UK expresses its solidarity with Europeans for Artsakh
7. Recent developments
8. News articles on Armenia and Artsakh |
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On 19 September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack on Artsakh, against the 120,000 indigenous unarmed, besieged and starving Armenians living in Artsakh.
The entire population of Artsakh has been forced to flee their homes after enduring 9 months of Azerbaijani genocidal blockades, hunger and attacks.
The ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, which started in 2020, is continuing today. Under duress, a decree was signed on 28 September 2023 to dissolve the historic Armenian Republic of Artsakh. Such a decree has no legal force and we will, of course, fight for the restoration of the Republic of Artsakh.
We will call upon the UK government and the international community to establish a future status akin to Kosovo for Artsakh, with the aim of our brothers and sisters being able to safely return to their ancestral homeland, Artsakh.
Our demands:
1. clearly and unequivocally condemn Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno of Karabakh;
2. impose individual targeted sanctions against the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan that has been involved in the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor, ceasefire violations, the attack of 19 September and the ethnic cleansing of the native Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh;
3. use all your leverage to force Azerbaijan to immediately and unconditionally return all the Armenian captives, civilian hostages, prisoners of war since 27 September 2020, as well as the former and current leadership of Nagorno Karabakh abducted and charged since 19 September 2023;
4. contribute to the establishment of tangible international security guarantees so that the indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh can exercise their inalienable right to return to their own homeland and provide Nagorno Karabakh with an internationally guaranteed status of self-governance that underpins this right:
5. provide Armenia with adequate assistance to help deal with the influx of forcefully displaced Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh.
6. put effective pressure on Azerbaijan to stop the aggression towards the Republic of Armenia and any action that can endanger the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia.
What we have done this month
ANC UK has been collaborating with British non governmental organisations in the UK so jointly we can put pressure on the government. We are trying to expand our network within the UK.
For the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee Hearing for Artsakh we provided briefings and testimonies.
We have also written letters to the Foreign Secretary regarding (i) the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, (ii) the two Armenian captives, POWs and abduction of officials from Artsakh and Hakari bridge and (iii) current security of Armenian borders and threat to its territorial integrity.
We continue to work with the APPG for Armenia Parliamentarians and other Parliamentarians to raise awareness of issues important to our cause.
Photo: David Ghahramanyan
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By writing to your MP, you are spreading awareness of the situation regarding Artsakh in the Parliament. Your MP should, as a result, write to the Foreign Secretary and raise your concerns. Since we launched this campaign and because of our followers’ involvement, more MPs are raising questions about the UK foreign policy towards Armenian issues.
Please write to your MP to raise their awareness of the situation in Artsakh and to put pressure on the UK Government to take action.
1. Follow the link here to join our campaign.
2. Complete your information and address fields. All areas must be completed.
3. The system will find your MP based on where you live and produce a pre-written letter for you.
4. Please send the email to your MP. Let’s amplify our voices!
If you receive responses, please send them to us so we can share them and encourage more people to participate in the campaign.
Writing to your MP can make a real difference.
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1. UK Parliamentarians raising the issues of Armenia and Artsakh
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2. UK Parliament holds a hearing on Artsakh and Armenia-Azerbaijan relations
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| The International Relation and Defence Committee of House of Lords held a hearing on Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia-Azerbaijan relations on January 10. During the hearing, Thomas de Waal and Marina Nagai were invited to give their independent opinions on questions raised by the House of Lords committee peers.
The Armenian National Committee of UK participated in the hearing with the presence of its Chairperson Annette Moskofian. Previously, ANC-UK sent briefings to be distributed to the committee members on War crimes, Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide, Destruction of Cultural and Religious heritage and POWs and illegal abductees. ANC-UK also asked Luis Moreno Ocampo, Lemkin Institute, the Tatoyan Foundation, the Etchmiadzin, HART and Global Witness to submit reports to the committee ahead of the session.
The complete hearing: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/ee24ad75-dcc5-4b53-9081-1436ed3f45dd |
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| Baroness Cox raised two concerns: “I try to use my role in the House of Lords to be a voice for people who’s voices are not heard and obviously the people in Nagorno-Karabakh come within that category. I’ve visited many times since the 1990s. Just two issues I think they would be grateful if I could just highlight because they’d raised them with me. First is the situation with regard to the prisoners or people who’ve been abducted by Azerbaijan, Armenian leadership and that are currently imprisoned by Azerbaijan. What can be done to try to encourage their release? The other point refers to Azerbaijan encroachment to Armenia itself. I was in Goris recently, a town in Armenia were Azerbaijan had an implacement visible from Goris and three more in the region. So the other question is Azerbaijan’s encroachment in the sovereign territory of Armenia with impunity and is that of course for concern? If so, what can be done about it?”. |
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| Concerns were raised by House of Lords member, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Stirrup, KG, GCB, AFC, FRAeS, FCMI, informally known as Jock Stirrup, former senior Royal Air Force commander who was the Chief of the Defence Staff from 2006 until his retirement in late 2010. He is now a Crossbench member of the House of Lords. He queried: “Why would anybody trust anybody else to keep a corridor of that nature open and therefore there seems to be even more motivation for the Azerbaijanis to impose some sort of corridor by force. I can’t help reflecting on corridors of the past and the inglorious history of these things, all of which it seems to me is a recipe for further conflict in the not too distant future. While it would be nice to have a peace agreement that settle all of this, isn’t that simply unrealistic? What we’re faced with is the management, almost on a day by day basis, of these continuing tensions and potential conflicts to keep them suppressed as much as possible and then perhaps moving step by step over the process of many years to a more long-term political resolution. Aren’t we in the era of nudging rather than wholesalers resolution?”. |
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| The Rt Hon. the Lord Boateng remarks: “What leverage do the US, the EU and ourselves have to ensure that human rights are appelled in Nagorno-Karabakh and indeed the right of return of the displaced people is the heart of that? We don’t have a particularly good track record of protecting the rights of displaced people globally”. |
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| Thomas the Waal, senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and specialized in the Caucasus, comments during the International Relation and Defence Committee of House of Lords hearing on Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia-Azerbaijan relations on January 10. |
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3. MPs raise the issue of the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem
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| Chris Law, Scottish National Party MP for Dundee West, presented an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the UK Parliament on January 26 regarding the situation of the Cows’ Garden in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem.
The motion states that “this House is deeply alarmed by the attempted take-over of the Cows’ Garden in the Armenian Quarter of occupied Jerusalem by illegal Israeli settler organisations” and “acknowledges the severe and critical threat to the Armenian community of Jerusalem, which has had a presence in the Old City for almost two millennia”. It also “calls on the Government to take effective measures in response including supporting all legal and accountability mechanisms to resolve this crisis”.
The full text here: https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/61810
We urge our followers to ask their MPs to endorse this EDM.
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| Tommy Sheppard, Scottish National Party MP for Edinburgh East, asked if the UK Government was going to “introduce sanctions following the attempted takeover of the Cows Garden site of the Armenian Quarter of Old Jerusalem”.
The complete question: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-01-09/8751 |
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4. MP Jessica Morden met with Annette Moskofian, Chairperson of ANC-UK
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| A great meeting took place between Jessica Morden MP and Annette Moskofian, Chairperson of ANC-UK, at Westminster, discussing the security of Armenians, the faith of the population of Artsakh and future cooperation with Labour Party. |
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5. Interview with Maxim Saakyan, creator of the podcast Uncovering Roots
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ANC-UK sat down with Maxim Saakyan, creator of the podcast Uncovering Roots, to talk about his project to recover and tell lesser-known stories of the SWANA region (South West Asia and North Africa). The first episode was dedicated to the life of Aurora Mardiganian, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide and later a Hollywood star acting in a film based on her own life.
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6. The Armenian community in UK expresses its solidarity with Europeans for Artsakh
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| As part of the pan European solidarity for Artsakh in 50 locations across Europe during 27 and 28 of January, the Diocese of The Armenian Church of the United Kingdom & Ireland and the Armenian Community Council UK issued a joint statement on behalf of the Armenian community in the UK expressing its solidarity with people of Artsakh.
You can watch a summary of the rallies across Europe here: https://fb.watch/pXt1RE4abw/ |
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| The Armenian Youth Federation London also distributed informative leaflets raising awareness in streets of London. |
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| The bodies of two Armenian servicemen were found on January 9 in Vardenis. According to the Ministry of Defence, contract soldier Karen Araikovich Karapetyan and Senior Lieutenant Mikael Danielyan were shot in unknown circumstances. |
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| The Court of Appeals of Baku, Azerbaijan, confirmed the sentence of 15 years in prison for Vagif Khachatryan, an Armenian civilian that was kidnapped by Azerbaijan during his transfer by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to continue his medical treatment on July 29, 2023. On November 2023, a sham court case in Azerbaijan sentenced Vagif Khachatryan to 15 years in prison on fabricated war crime charges. |
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| “The EU has been using every opportunity to pass clear messages to Azerbaijan that any violation of Armenia’s territorial integrity would be unacceptable and will have severe consequences for our relations. We remain firm and steadfast in this stance”, said the European Commission’s lead spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy Peter Stano to Armenpress on January 16. |
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| Azerbaijan vandalized the cemetery of Haterk village in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), according to Monument Watch on January 17. A video was posted in Azerbaijani media were most of the memorial stones with the portraits of the people buried there and the tombstones were turned upside down. |
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| The Committee for the Defense of the Fundamental Rights of the People of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was created on January 18. The committee will defend the right to collective repatriation of the people of Artsakh and other fundamental rights. The responsibility for overseeing the Committee’s activities has been assigned to the former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Vartan Oskanian. |
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| Azerbaijan announced it would suspend their participation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) “for an indefinite period” on January 24, just after the challenge of their credentials and before the debate of that motion.
Two days ago, Frank Schwabe (Germany, SOC) challenged the Azerbaijani delegation credentials citing the political prisoners in the country, the violent displacement of people from Nagorno-Karabakh, the fact that Assembly rapporteurs were unable to visit Azerbaijan at least three times during 2023, and the lack of an invitation to the Assembly to observe the country’s 7 February presidential election. |
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| PACE has voted not to ratify the credentials of the Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation, citing the situation in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and recalling the September 2023 Azerbaijani military operation “which led to the flight of the entire Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and to allegations of ‘ethnic cleansing’.” |
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| The Azerbaijani authorities arbitrarily extended the detention of all former leaders of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) for 4 months, including former presidents Arkady Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, former Foreign Minister Davit Babayan, former State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, National Assembly Chairman Davit Ishkhanyan, and Generals Levon Mnatsakanyan and Davit Manukyan. |
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| The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby, received His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians, with Bishop Hovakim Manukyan, Primate of the Armenian Church in the UK and Ireland, on the Old Palace, next to Canterbury Cathedral, for a morning meeting on Sunday 28 January 2024.
The church leaders met three months ago in early October in Armenia, at the Mother See of Etchmiadzin, Armenia. During his visit, the Archbishop spoke to many forcibly displaced refugee families housed in a church-run hostel supported by the Armenian church after the attacks of Azerbaijan.
“At Sunday’s meeting in Canterbury, both leaders discussed once more the ongoing humanitarian crisis triggered by the invasion, including matters such as the welfare of prisoners and the protection of cultural heritage, and what assistance religious organisations and the international community might be able to offer. The Archbishop assured His Holiness of his prayers for the Armenian Church and its people”, reported the Archbishop.
The announcement: https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/news/articles/archbishop-meets-his-holiness-karekin-ii-and-bishop-hovakim-canterbury |
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| The head of the statue of Goddess Anahit kept in the British Museum will be exhibited in Yerevan for the first time in September 2024 thanks to an agreement reached between the Museum of the History of Armenia and the British Museum.
The worship of the Goddess Anahit in the Armenian Highlands began from time immemorial and was closely related to the worship of motherhood. The main temple of Anahit was located in Yeriza town in Upper Armenia. The temple was looted in 34 B.C. during the invasion of the Roman general Mark Antony. His soldiers broke the huge golden statue of Anahit and took it to Rome. Rumors say the first soldier who attacked the statue of Anahit went blind, then went mad and died. The relics kept in the British Museum were found at the end of the 19th century in Yerznka by a peasant during farming. The relics of the statue were moved to England under some circumstances, and the copy is kept in the Museum of the History of Armenia. |
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8. News articles on Armenia and Artsakh
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| Read the article by The European Conservative on the upcoming Armenian marches across Europe organised by Europeans for Artsakh: https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/marches-in-europe-for-persecuted-armenians/ |
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| “Jailed in Limbo: The Armenian Prisoners in Azerbaijan”, the article by Anush Ghavalyan in Inter Press Service News can be read here: https://www.ipsnews.net/2024/01/jailed-limbo-armenian-prisoners-azerbaijan/ |
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| Food writer Caroline Eden recommended Tsaghkunk, in Armenia, as her “dream meal” in an article published by The Guardian.
“f you are interested in local flavours, it is a must in Armenia. The chefs are inventive, foraging in surrounding hills for mushrooms and herbs, and there is a traditional bread house attached, with a clay tonir for making Armenia’s moreish lavash flatbread”, she said.
You can read the complete article here: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2024/jan/27/chefs-and-food-writers-pick-their-dream-meals-across-europe-for-2024 |
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| Read the article “Business as usual for EU and Azerbaijan amid Nagorno-Karabakh ‘ethnic cleansing’” by Lucy Martirosyan and Siranush Sargsyan in Open Democracy here: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/eu-armenia-refugee-war-azerbaijan-gas-energy-russia-security-rights/ |
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| We also demand the release of all government and military personnel of Artsakh, POWs and captives |
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Armenian National Committee UK sends its condolences to the Vartanian family for the passing of Eng. Hayastan Vartanian, who was a devoted advocate and supporter of the Armenian cause throughout his life. He established the activities of the ANC here in the UK in the 1960’s.
We mourn his loss in the community.
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Make your donation
Please give today to help our campaigns
To continue our ever growing work in lobbying we urgently need funds to have paid staff. All our efforts are done on voluntary basis. Please donate so we can carry on working for the Armenian Cause and raise concerns of the British Armenian community.
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Why Donate?
The Armenian National Committee of the United Kingdom (ANC-UK) is the largest and most influential British-Armenian political grassroots organisation.
Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout Britain and affiliated organisations around the world, ANC-UK actively advances the concerns of the British-Armenian community on a broad range of issues.
The work achieved by ANC-UK is currently on a volunteer basis. However, we are hopeful that in the coming years through the financial support of our community, the ANC-UK chapter will have the necessary funds to open a full-time office employing an Executive Director and a part-time Administrative Assistant.
Setting up an ANC-UK office will allow for our organisation’s goals to be achieved as they have been throughout the diaspora in the United States of America, Canada, Australia and Europe.
As a grassroots organisation, we rely upon you, our community and friends for financial assistance to advance our cause. Your donations support our goal of having a full-time office, to advocate on issues important to all British-Armenians and the Armenian cause.
Thank you for your consideration of our request for your support.
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