BY DAVID ARAKELYAN
Mkrtich Khirmian stands as a giant among the religious leaders of the Armenian nation. His name is inseparable from our people’s struggle for national liberation. Khrimian was called Hayrik (diminutive for ‘Father’) by the Armenians, who saw in him a devoted shepherd who could guide his flock through the difficult terrain of Ottoman and Russian politics during the late 19th to early 20th centuries. It was a decisive period in our people’s history, which saw increased oppression suffered by the Armenian population in these two empires and the emergence of an armed struggle that aimed to counter that oppression. A revolutionary in a religious garb, Mkrtich Khrimian saw the moral and spiritual revival of the Armenians as a precondition for freedom and worked tirelessly to get the first Christian nation to embrace the proper interpretation of the religion of its forefathers. That interpretation rejected subservience, condemned tyranny, and validated the righ
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During last autumn’s six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the ethnic-Armenian majority enclave Nagorno-Karabakh, as Azerbaijani forces took control of areas in and around the region, they rounded up local civilians. Most younger civilians had fled the hostilities. Those remaining, with few exceptions, were older people who did not want to abandon their homes.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented several cases in which Azerbaijani forces used violence to detain civilians and subjected them to torture and inhuman and degrading conditions of detention. Two detainees died in Azerbaijani captivity; one of them, based on the evidence, was most likely the victim of an extrajudicial execution. Azerbaijani forces detained these civilians even though there was no evidence that they posed any security threat – they had no weapons and were not participating in the hostilities.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative has announced a fundamental upgrade of its Artsakh Aid program, which from now on will be focused on assisting projects that support and facilitate the region’s long-term social development. The program, launched by Aurora in the aftermath of the war, had earlier been providing urgent humanitarian aid to the people of Artsakh on the basis of the #AraratChallenge crowdfunding initiative. In addition, the Aurora Co-Founders Noubar Afeyan, Vartan Gregorian and Ruben Vardanyan have donated on behalf of Aurora $1 million to Hayastan All Armenian Fund for Artsakh aid programs, the IDeA Foundation told Armenpress.