Day: November 21, 2023

Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez on Tuesday visited the Rose and Alex Pilibos School, where he met with administration and board members and became acquainted with the school and its current and future plans.

Councilmember Hugo-Soto Martinez with Pilibos Principal Maral Tavitian and Pre-School Director Kristina Movsessian and school board representatives

Soto-Martinez, who became the new city councilmember for District 13, visited the school for the first time.

Pilibos Principal Maral Tavitian and Postoian Pre-School Director Kristina Movsessian provided an overview of the school’s 54-year history and the unique and critical role it plays in the community, emphasizing that with its more than 850 student Pre-K-12 student population, Pilibos is an important educational institution that not only advances Armenian language and culture, but also educates future leaders. She also informed Soto-Martinez about the latest accreditation of the school by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which granted the school a six-year accreditation.

This summer the school announced that it had acquired a property adjacent to the school in order to expand the school’s capabilities and meet the needs of the growing student population.

Tavitian briefed Soto-Martinez about the plans for the newly-acquired property, explaining that the parcel will be able to mitigate congestion at the main campus and provide more opportunities for growth.

Issues related to the every-day operations of the school such as traffic and safety were also discussed.

Soto-Martinez then toured the campus and some classrooms, where the students welcomed the visiting official, following which he visited the St. Garabed Church across the street and toured the Postoian Pre-School, where he was greeted by students dressed in traditional Armenian outfits. The pre-school students presented a memento to the council member.

From there, the councilmember was escorted to the Hollywood Youth Center, which is also being used for additional classroom and school-related activities. At the conclusion of the visit, Principal Tavitian presented Soto-Martinez with a memento.

Recognizing Pilbos’ importance in the community, as well as the district, Soto-Martinez said he and his staff are looking forward to working closely with the school administration and board.

Tavitian and Movsessian were joined by school board members Talin Ghazarian, Garo Ispendjian and Sevag Demirjian. Also attending the meeting were Pilibos Dean of Students Sevak Antreasian, Suren Hazarian, from the St. Garabed Church board of trustees and Ara Khachatourian, the executive editor of Asbarez.

The Councilmember was accompanied by his district director Alejandra Marroquin.

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Brussels is looking for steps rather than just statements from Baku to show that Azerbaijan is ready for continuing negotiations with Armenia, a senior European Union diplomat has said.

Toivo Klaar, the EU’s Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, talking to RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service on Monday, said that after the meeting in Granada, Spain, that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev decided not to attend “we have lost momentum.”

“We also hear statements from Baku. But to be frank, I think what we sense is that there are these statements, but what we are really looking for is steps, is the willingness to actually make the next steps,” Klaar said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the EU’s October 5 summit in Granada, Spain, for talks mediated by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and European Council President Charles Michel.

Pashinyan had hoped that they would sign there a document laying out the main parameters of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. However, Aliyev withdrew from the talks at the last minute.
Baku cited France’s allegedly “biased position” against Azerbaijan as the reason for skipping those talks in Spain.

The Azerbaijani leader also appears to have canceled another meeting which the EU’s Michel planned to host in Brussels in late October.

Most recently Azerbaijan refused to attend a meeting with Armenia at the level of foreign ministers in Washington after allegedly “one-sided and biased” remarks by a senior U.S. official made during a congressional hearing on Nagorno-Karabakh. That meeting had reportedly been scheduled to take place on November 20.

Over the weekend Azerbaijan said that it did not accept the mediation of the United States, but was ready to continue negotiations in the Brussels format. Brussels has said it is ready to organize a meeting as soon as possible, but there is still no progress in this matter.
Arman Yeghoyan, a member of the pro-government Civil Contract faction in the Armenian parliament, said he believed that in order to bring Azerbaijan to a constructive field, the mediators should “make coherent assessments of the parties’ steps and speak directly.”

“It is about giving up a little bit of that political correctness to speak directly and clearly. In my opinion, that’s what negotiations are all about, if we mean real negotiations and not just protocol meetings. In real negotiations there should be rhetoric expressing real intentions, including by mediators. If the mediators try to always be in the field of some kind of political correctness, it will make the negotiations more difficult and not easier,” Yeghoyan, who heads the Armenian parliament’s standing commission on European integration issues, said.

Along with skipping negotiations on Western platforms Baku declares that peace and security must be ensured by regional actors. Azerbaijan, in particular, suggests meeting in Tbilisi, Moscow, or negotiating directly, without mediators.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday also criticized the West for “failing to understand” that “a new era has begun in the region after the Karabakh war.”

“Those who have been provoking Armenia for years, seeking benefit for themselves from the sufferings of all people living in this geographic region, have actually caused the greatest harm to Armenia. Using the Armenians, they condemned them to distrust and gave them empty dreams that were impossible to fulfill. Armenia should see and accept these realities,” said the Turkish president, as quote by Azerbaijan’s AzerTac news agency.

“It would be more correct that the people and leaders of Armenia seek security not thousands of kilometers away, but in peace and cooperation with their neighbors. No amount of munitions sent by Western countries can replace the stability that will bring lasting peace,” he added, calling on Armenia “to shake the hand of peace extended by the Azerbaijanis.”

“I repeat that we, Turkey, are also ready to take necessary steps for the success of the process in cooperation with Azerbaijan,” Erdogan said.

Azerbaijan has proposed to negotiate a peace treaty with Armenia through direct, one-on-one negotiations at a mutually acceptable venue that includes the border between the two countires.

The proposal comes as Yerevan announced on Tuesday that it has submitted another proposal to Baku on the peace agreement.

“Azerbaijan is ready for direct bilateral negotiations with Armenia for the early conclusion of a peace agreement,” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We believe that the two countries should decide the future of their relations together. This stagnation in negotiations does not contribute to the stability of the region,” it added.

“The responsibility for the continuation of the peace process, including the choice of a mutually acceptable venue or the decision to meet at the state border, belongs to the two countries,” said the Azerbaijani statement, which also urged Armenia to “avoid new unnecessary delays.”

Azerbaijan has been avoiding mediation efforts from the West, including overtures from the United States and France. Baku canceled scheduled talks in Washington between the foreign ministers of the two countries, which was to be hosted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan also did not attend scheduled EU-mediate talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Granada, Spain last month, yet he demanded the “return” of eight Azerbaijani villages “occupied by Armenia.”

In its statement regarding the new proposals, Armenia’s foreign ministry said that Yerevan “remains committed to concluding and signing a document on normalization of relations based on previously announced principles.”

Yerevan’s statements followed Pashinyan’s remarks on Saturday at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan, where he urged Baku to commit to publicly commit to the key principles for the peace treaty, that include the recognition of each other’s territorial integrity, the delimitation of borders based on a 1991 treaty and the opening of regional trade routes.

In recent statement, Baku rejected mediation efforts by the U.S. and France for their so-called “pro-Armenian” bias.

Over the weekend, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said that Baku prefers “direct talks” with Yerevan, while remaining open to EU-mediated negotiations with Armenia.

Azerbaijan’s parliament on Tuesday condemned the U.S. Senate for adopting the “Armenian Protection Act of 2023,” a measure that approved last week that blocks U.S. Military Aid to Azerbaijan