Hello, and welcome to the Armenian News Network, Groong, Week in Review for Sunday December 20, 2020. We’ll be talking to our guests about the following major topics:

● Life in Artsakh

● Update on Hin Tagher & Khtsaberd

● Internal Political Situation in Yerevan

● Kapan Border Tension

To talk about these issues, we have with us:

Dr. Asbed Kotchikian, who is a senior lecturer of political science and international relations at Bentley University in Massachusetts where he teaches courses on the Middle East and former Soviet space.

Irina Safaryan, who is originally from Hadrut, living in Stepanakert. Irina is a social activist, initiative member of the #ArtsakhsVoiceMatters movement, and co-founder and coordinator of Stepanakert Wikipedia Club.

and

Emil Sanamyan, who is a senior research fellow at USC’s Institute of Armenian Studies specializing in politics in the Caucasus, with a special focus on Azerbaijan.

This episode was recorded on Sunday, December 20, 2020

Topics This Week

Life in Artsakh

Irina Safaryan gives us an overview of the way daily life in Stepanakert is developing, the top challenges and issues facing people every day.

Where are Hadrutsis currently living? When did they have to evacuate their city? Who’s caring for them?

Update on Hin Tagher & Khtsaberd

Around 10 days ago the Azeri army initiated new actions against Armenians to take over the villages of Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd. These towns formed a peninsula extending out of the Armenian controlled areas of Artsakh and were difficult to defend, and after quick negotiations, Russians decided that if Armenian forces could defend it, then they could keep it, otherwise it was not worth defending. So this area was ceded to Azerbaijan following a minor skirmish.

Internal Political Situation in Yerevan

The alliance of over 17 opposition parties now named Salvation of the Homeland is continuing to hold daily protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Pahinyan. They have aligned behind Vazgen Maanukyan as their choice of an interim prime minister for a provisional government tasked with leading the country out of this political crisis and hold new elections within 6-12 months. Among these parties only the BHK - Prosperous Armenia Party - is represented in parliament. Another party represented in the parliament, Bright Armenia, led by Edmon Marukyan, also demands the resignation of PM Pashinyan, but with Marukyan taking the prime ministership.

Where is the crisis headed?

Kapan Border Tension

While villages in Armenia have not been ceded to Azerbaijan, many heights very near border towns are now occupied by enemy forces. What is the security situation in Kapa region, and the M12 highway?

Wrap-up

That concludes our program for this week’s Groong Week in Review. We hope it has helped your understanding of some of the current issues. We look forward to your feedback, and even your suggestions for issues to cover in greater depth. Contact us on our website, at groong.org, or on our Facebook Page “ANN - Groong”, or in our Facebook Group “Groong - Armenian News Network”.

Special thanks to Laura Osborn for providing the music for our podcast. On behalf of everyone in this episode, we wish you a good week. Thank you for listening and we’ll talk to you next week.

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Keywords

Armenia, Karabakh, Artsakh, Azerbaijan, Russia, Hin Tagher, Khtsaberd, Edmon Marukyan, Vazgen Manukyan, Yerevan, Nikol Pashinyan

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