Day: May 20, 2024

Armenian political, religious and lay officials offered condolences on Monday after it was announced that Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had died in a helicopter crash.

After a day of searching the area of the crash, Iran’s official news agencies announced that Raisi, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and all others on board the helicopter had not survived the crash. The helicopter had left an area near the border with Azerbaijan, where the Iranian officials participated in the inauguration of a new bridge.

“On behalf of the government and the people of the Republic of Armenia, I convey to you my sincere condolences and words of consolation on the tragic death of my dear friend and colleague President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and their accompanying persons,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a condolence note addressed to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“I express my solidarity with the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran, wishing strength and steadfastness at this difficult time,” added Pashinyan.

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan likewise offered his “deepest condolences… to the friendly people of Iran” in a social media post.

President Vahagn Khachaturyan, Defense Minister Suren Papikyan, as well as Catholicos Karekin II issued separate condolence statements.

Opposition leaders, similarly, expressed their condolences, among them Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, who is currently leading the “Tavush for the Homeland” protest movement against Armenia’s unilateral border delimitation process with Azerbaijan.

“At this difficult moment, all our thoughts and prayers are with the friendly state and brotherly people of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Galstanyan said in a message prior to the official announcement of the Iranian leaders’ deaths.

“Iran is a friendly country for us and stability in our region, to which Iran is one of the maintainers, it is very important at this juncture,” Galstanyan added.

Armenian Film Society and HollyShorts Armenian short film screenings graphic

Armenian Film Society is set to present four Armenian short films with HollyShorts. The screenings will take place on Wednesday, May 22 at 7 p.m. at the TCL Chinese Theatre.

The series will include the following short films, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and a networking mixer in the lobby of the theater.

In the city of Nowhere, shadows dream of a life without their human masters. “Nowhere,” directed by Garin Hovannisian, won Best of Fest at the Oscar-qualifying LA Shorts International Film Festival.

Directed by Tigran Nersisian, in “Back to Ashtarak,” a man returns to his hometown to relive the happiest moments of his childhood.

Directed by Ophelia Harutyunyan, “It Takes a Village…” centers on Mariam, who lives in an Armenian village where there are no men. On her birthday, her hopes of a reunited family are shattered, but she must put aside her own crushed dreams and help her friend Anush as she embarks into motherhood. “It Takes a Village…” won Best International Film at the Oscar-qualifying LA Shorts International Film Festival. Ophelia Harutyunyan is a producer of the upcoming documentary on “The Sopranos.”

Directed by Avo John Kambourian. The documentary centers on Kef Time, a once popular genre of Armenian-American folk music, which had captivated the souls of its community from the 1970s to the 1990s. In this nostalgic intergenerational saga, a family and a community search for meaning and identity against the difficult cultural landscape of 21st century America, in an attempt to carve out a memory of permanence in the middle of transient history.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here. The screening is sponsored by Kevork Law, courtesy of Zoe Kevork.

Founded in 2005, HollyShorts Film Festival is an annual Oscar-qualifying independent short film festival located in Hollywood, California, and one of the most prestigious film festivals of its kind. The yearly festival features an eclectic mixture of short films of various genres from around the world. HollyShorts also hosts monthly screenings.

Founded in 2015, Armenian Film Society champions Armenian films and champions Armenian filmmakers. Armenian Film Society has partnered with organizations such as Vidiots, American Cinematheque, and the Academy Museum, and has welcomed guests such as Atom Egoyan, Joe Manganiello, Mardik Martin, Sona Movsesian, Angela Sarafyan, and Sev Ohanian.

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan on Monday hailed the border delimitation process with Armenia, saying that this process will have beneficial opportunities.

As a result of the process, which began on April 19, Armenia’s government ceded four villages in the Tavush Province to Azerbaijan, without any guarantees from Baku that Azerbaijan with withdraw from Armenian territories currently under its control.

“At this juncture there are beneficial opportunities for advancing the peace agenda,” Aliyev said during a meeting with Latvia’s parliament speaker in Baku on Monday.

“After Azerbaijan reclaimed its sovereignty and territorial integrity, there is a historic opportunity for peace in the region,” Aliyev added, emphasizing the “bilateral efforts, especially in the delimitation and demarcation of borders.”

Despite opposition protests demanding an end to the border delimitation and demarcation process, the Armenian government, last week, announced that it officially cemented the ceding of four villages in the Tavush Province to Azerbaijan by signing an agreement.

Armenia’s foreign ministry issued a statement at the time announcing that the deputy prime ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met again and signed an agreement on the coordinates of relevant demarcated sections of the border.

The Armenian government claims that the four villages in questions were captured by Armenian forces in 1991 to 1992 and are largely uninhabited. During the same time period, Azerbaijan seized large swathes of agricultural land belonging to several Tavush villages. None of that land will be given back to Armenia under the terms of the April 19 border deal.

Aliyev hailed the April 19 deal as “yet another victory” for Azerbaijan during a speech earlier this month.

“We showed the enemy its place, and today the enemy is powerless against us,” Aliyev added.