civilnet english unofficialReaders of the BBC were treated this weekend to the incredible tale of an Armenian restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland. Just steps away from Queen Elizabeth’s residence Holyrood Palace, the Aghtamar Lake Van Monastery in Exile was the restaurant whose chef owner treated his cult following to a candlelit experience described as “part exotic dining, part eccentric performance”. Then, suddenly, a decade ago the chef suddenly vanished, leaving his fans wondering what happened to perhaps the most unique dining in all of Scotland. Journalist Christopher Bobyn is on the case…
I couldn't quite believe the stories I heard about this. I'm so sorry I missed it, but this article is a beautiful, melancholic read about the most extraordinary dining experience I've ever heard of.
If you read one thing this week, read this:
<https://t.co/rrkssx2h8N>
-- Peter McColl (@PeterMcColl) May 23, 2021
Also in the British press: enter the world of filmmaker Frunze Dovlatyan. Actor Armen Dzhigarkhanyan plays a young scientist based on a real-life pioneer of Soviet nuclear physics and first director of the Yerevan Physics Institute, Artem Alikhanian - but don’t let that staid-sounding front deceive you, it’s a romantic drama!
This is great. "Hello, It’s Me! review – mysteries of love and science in wartime Armenia. Frunze Dovlatyan’s breezy, strange and intriguing 1996 drama gets a deserved rerelease" <https://t.co/lMnPObQCDQ>
-- Dr. Artyom Tonoyan (@ArtyomTonoyan) May 24, 2021
At a time when we are beset by very heavy problems and fear for the future, it is important to take a step back and remember the seemingly insurmountable political issues of the day are in fact transitory, beauty is timeless. Delve into the colorful world of “the Matisse of the East” Martiros Saryan and explore the ways his life and art intertwined with Armenia.
“Art is the aspiration of a man towards immortality & it is his will to live forever.”#MartirosSarian could not depict death because his art was about the eternity of life.
For more about the painter’s diverse legacy amid the chaos that has engulfed us: <https://t.co/6f3Fb5LPJs> pic.twitter.com/SigvRurAAp
-- h-pem (@hpemonline) May 19, 2021
Also take a trip into the not-so-distant past, to remember a time when instead of blanket denials and rewriting history, Azerbaijan actually spoke about the Armenian Genocide:
Back when Azerbaijan officially mentioned "genocide" in connection with 1915 (Azerbaijan Soviet Encyclopedia, 1980, 4th volume, p.84) pic.twitter.com/JiGoYQgaTq
-- CAVİD #BayramaNeOldu (@cavidaga) April 24, 2021
Back to the present, history seems to be repeating itself in an eerie way. You may recall the case of Russian-Israel blogger Alexander Lapshin who was arrested in Minsk, Belarus, at the request of Azerbaijan in 2016 for having violated the infamous ban on visiting Nagorno-Karabakh without permission from Baku. President Lukashenko of Belarus allowed the extradition of Lapshin to Baku via Aliyev’s private jet, and Lapshin was sentenced to three years in prison. Three months later he was pardoned and allowed to leave, but not before being attacked in his cell in an assassination attempt which Azerbaijan claimed was self-inflicted. A complaint was filed with the European Court of Human Rights, which just this week ruled in Lapshin’s favor:
Alexander Lapshin was illegally detained by #Azerbaijan for crossing to #Artsakh without Azerbaijan’s permission.
He has opened a lawsuit against Azerbaijan and won the case.The ECHR ordered Azerbaijan to pay Lapshin 30k€.Hence his bank account.(ArtsakhBank)
Trolling level pic.twitter.com/VYFhNOzluc
-- Jora (@TheScarmind) May 22, 2021
Does this situation sound familiar? If it does, that’s because just hours after the ECHR ruling against Azerbaijan, a Ryan Air plane was diverted to Belarus after a reported bomb threat, but, as it turned out, diverted so that authorities could arrest dissident journalist Roman Protasevich. The European Union has decried what has been called a “hijacking” orchestrated by President Lukashenko himself, and it is hard to ignore the experience he gained through his involvement in the Lapshin case. Lukashenko and Aliyev have very close ties, and even the Azerbaijani opposition joined in cheering on Belarus for the kidnapping:
What a spectacular humiliation of the West by Mr Lukashenko! Protasevich of Nexta flying in an Irish plane from Greece to Lithuania ended up in Belarus jail. Caught right in the skies. Now I believe Soviet stories that many women in the West found Fidel Castro very attractive.
-- Ilgar Mammadov (@ilgarmammadov) May 23, 2021
Europe’s annual spectacle Eurovision made its grand return after being canceled last year due to the pandemic. Armenia withdrew this year due to various considerations including the recent war. Azerbaijan was there though, with a performance which some considered a front-runner, but actually ended up in a disappointing 20th place.
While #Eurovision is happening, just a little reminder that #Armenia is not participating, bc it’s mourning the 44-day war waged by #Azerbaijan last fall while also dealing with the constant incursion of Azerbaijani troops on Armenian lands now. Enjoy your night.
-- nairi hakhverdi (@nairi_h) May 22, 2021
Besides enjoying all the camp, one other Eurovision pastime is reading the geopolitical tealeaves based on which countries vote for each other. In recent years, each country delivers two sets of scores, one determined by a jury panel and one by a national televote. Azerbaijan’s jury awarded its top score to Russia. With Russia as the regional hegemon – cultural hegemon as well - this doesn’t come as a surprise; in fact Russia & Azerbaijan traded top scores last contest. However Azerbaijan’s televote went to Israel. This was a real outlier; not only was Azerbaijan the only one to give Israel top points, almost no other country gave Israel any points at all. Due to its poor performance, one can easily see this as indication of the post-war pro-Israel fervor within Azerbaijani society. In case you were curious, the Russian jury gave Azerbaijan 8 points and the televote gave it 4. Both Israel’s televote and juries gave Azerbaijan 2 points.
#eurovision. Azerbaijan are on. Not sure why. This is the authoritarian regime that arrested people for voting for Armenia in a previous Eurovision!
-- paul kenyon (@paulkenyonTV) May 22, 2021
For those familiar with the academic discourse surrounding the Karabakh conflict, it is almost always portrayed to the masses through the lens of “neutral western analysts” rather than the people who live there and know it best. Even though such western analysts often speak the local languages or have lived within their societies to really appreciate what’s going on, the fact they are outsiders and thus “neutral” has given them a great deal of credibility. If you are one of those observers who are frustrated by this phenomenon, you will probably enjoy the appearance onto the scene of this latest “scholar”. Dr. Onnik de[MOU1] Waal Hauer is a sarcastic conglomeration of these figures and parodies their social media presence. Some like this one poke fun at the incestual “old boys club” network which these analysts and diplomats are often part of, while others like his references to his many amazing ex-girlfriends (whom you aren’t allowed to mention!) are inside jokes which only the most devoted Caucasus Twitter followers will understand.
James is an old friend I know from my time as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford (You old rantallion you!). His extensive experience furthering arms deals and placating autocrats is likely to further improve peace and stability in the region. Top of the morning to you James! <https://t.co/g9r9f8qEXv>
-- Onnik de Waal Hauer (@DeHauer) May 22, 2021
Tensions on Twitter have been rising as experts of Armenian descent have been noting that no matter how peer reviewed or factually-based their work is, they are always seen as “Armenian” and thus biased, while the western analysts are lauded for their sometimes misinformed but “neutral” analysis. In just the past week, one article seemed to write off the art journal Hyperallergic’s reporting on the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Karabakh as an Armenian source due to the presence of one Armenian editor, while another similarly referred to the Cornell & Purdue University-led Caucasus Heritage Watch’s satellite documentation of damaged cultural heritage as an “Armenian source”. One has to question why allegedly unbiased western commentators would see fit to racialize and therefore undermine sources doing solid evidence-backed work just because a scholar working with it might be of a certain ethnicity.
CHW is not an “Armenian source”. We are an independent, non-partisan team of professors at Cornell and Purdue Universities. @eurasianet and @joshuakucera please run a correction. And satellite images do not “appear” to show destruction. They do.
-- CaucasusHeritageWatch (@CaucasusHW) May 8, 2021
By the way, if anyone knows a good Armenian craftsman, Alexis is looking to add to the next generation of Armenian chess greatness!:
Like a good Armenian Papa, I'm trying to start teaching Olympia chess… TwitterSquad: can you recommend a handmade Armenian chessboard?
-- AlexisOhanian.eth 7⃣7⃣6⃣ (@alexisohanian) May 18, 2021
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And In Other News - CIVILNET
Readers of the BBC were treated this weekend to the incredible tale of an Armenian restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland. Just steps away from Queen Elizabeth’s residence Holyrood Palace, the Aghtamar Lake Van Monastery in Exile was the restaurant whose chef owner treated his cult following to a candlelit experience described as “part exotic dining, part eccentric performance”. Then, suddenly, a decade ago the chef suddenly vanished, leaving his fans wondering what happened to perhaps the most unique dining in all of Scotland. Journalist Christopher Bobyn is on the case… Also in the British press: enter the world of filmmaker Frunze […]
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