| | CMEP Weekly Bulletin: Pelosi, in Armenia, Condemns Azerbaijan’s ‘Illegal’ Attacks as Cease-fire Holds A look at protests, ceasefires, and more news in this week’s bulletin. CMEP’s Bulletin is a weekly round-up of news from the Middle East and represents an array of perspectives on the issues we cover. CMEP does not necessarily agree with all the views expressed in the articles, and they do not speak on CMEP’s behalf. | | | |  | Image: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi walks with Armenian National Assembly President Alen Simonyan on Saturday (September 17). (AP) | | | Pelosi, in Armenia, condemns Azerbaijan’s ‘illegal’ attacks as cease-fire holds Washington Post “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in a visit to Armenia this weekend, accused Azerbaijan of ‘illegal and deadly’ attacks that led to clashes along the border, saying ‘we strongly condemn those attacks.’ Pelosi traveled with a congressional delegation to Armenia, where a fragile cease-fire has temporarily halted border fighting with neighboring Azerbaijan that killed more than 200 soldiers in recent days. In Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, the delegation on Sunday (September 18) met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, whom Pelosi described as ‘a valued partner in advancing security, prosperity and democracy in the Caucasus region.’” | | | | | | | |  | Image: Jordan's King Abdullah II addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 20, 2022 at the UN headquarters in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) | | | Before UN meet with Lapid, Jordan’s king says Christianity ‘under fire’ in Jerusalem
Times of Israel “Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned against ‘undermining’ the status quo in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday (September 20), ahead of a meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid. He said the future of Jerusalem was a cause for concern and that ‘Christianity in the holy city is under fire.’ Jordan sees itself as the custodian of Jerusalem’s Muslim and Christian holy sites, including the Temple Mount complex which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a focal point of tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” | | | | | | | |  | Image: St. Hovhannes Church of Chahuk (built in the 12th or 13th century and renovated in the 17th and 19th centuries) was destroyed between 1997 and 2009, as documented in a new report from Caucasus Heritage Watch. (Provided) | | | Report shows near-total erasure of Armenian heritage sites Cornell “A new report from the Cornell-led Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW) has compiled decades of high-resolution satellite imagery to document the complete destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan beginning in the late 1990s. Moreover, the latest finding of CHW’s heritage monitoring project suggests that the same policy of cultural erasure now threatens Armenian monuments in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. CHW has recently discovered the destruction of an historic church in Karabakh, one of hundreds of Armenian monuments in territories ceded to Azerbaijan under the terms of a 2020 ceasefire to a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.” | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | Public Statement: Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) Calls for an End to the Attacks on the Armenian Border and an End to Hostilities Between Armenia and Azerbaijan CMEP calls for an immediate end to the attacks on the Armenian border and the violence centering around the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. | | | | |  | Church Partner Event: On September 18, 2022, Churches for Middle East Peace’s Outreach Manager, Jennifer Maidrand, gave a talk at Westmoreland Congregational Church, a long-time church partner of CMEP. She spoke about the Bible's role in shaping the land of Palestine and Israel and its contemporary geopolitical implications. Learn more about how your church or group can partner with us by clicking the button below. | | | | |  | Middle East Partnerships: Kevin Vollrath (R), CMEP's Manager of Middle East Partnerships, was privileged to pray at Wi'am's community barbecue commemorating the annual exultation of the cross in the Latin church on September 15, 2022. Learn more about how we partner with organizations in the Middle East by clicking the button below. | | | | | | | | Support the work of CMEP: Join us this month as we remember the legacy of our former Executive Director, Ambassador Warren Clark, by raising funds for our Fellowship in his name. The Ambassador Warren Clark Fellowship equips young Christian academics with the opportunity to research the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Consider making a contribution to this vital program today! | | | | | | | | | |  | Image: Anger at the Palestinian Authority has boiled over in Nablus. (Reuters) | | | Palestinian raid sparks gunfights and protests
BBC “There have been fierce gun battles in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, after Palestinian security forces arrested militants wanted by Israel. A 53-year-old man was killed and there have been violent street protests. It marks a further deterioration of security in the West Bank and is a sign of growing dissatisfaction among Palestinians with their leadership, after months of Israeli incursions. An official warned of the risk of ‘civil war’ if calm was not restored. Meanwhile, the militant group Hamas accused its rivals in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the West Bank, of a ‘national crime’ by carrying out the raid.” | | | | | | | |  | Image: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) meets with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the United Nations headquarters in New York on September 19, 2022. (Mission of Palestine to the UN/Twitter) | | | Seeking full membership, Abbas says it’s UN’s ‘last chance’ to salvage peace role
Times of Israel “Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urged United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday (September 20) to assist Ramallah’s effort to obtain full-member status at the UN, ahead of the General Assembly’s annual high-level meeting. Abbas’s office said that during the meeting, he also presented Guterres with a letter outlining the importance of the initiative.” | | | | | | | |  | Image: People protest outside Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology following death of a woman in custody, in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022 in this still image taken from a video obtained by Reuters. (Reuters) | | | Iranian protests against the regime's brutality hit third night
J-Post “Demonstrations have carried on into their third straight night as Iranians protest police abuses against women. The protests come in the wake of the killing of Mahsa Amini, a woman who was detained by Iran’s ‘morality’ police while on a trip to Tehran with her family. Reports in the Kurdistan region of Iran, a region in the northwest, say that civil society organizations have called for a general strike ‘against the torture and murder of Jina Mahsa Amini by Iranian forces.’” | | | | | | | | CMEP's Bulletin is a weekly round-up of news from the Middle East and represents an array of perspectives on the issues we cover. CMEP does not necessarily agree with all the views expressed in the articles, and they do not speak on CMEP's behalf. | | | | Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
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