Armenian recruits baptized before heading into war

In a wooded area of Nagorno-Karabakh, new recruits to the war besieging the region are underwent a ritual Monday they hope will help them endure the fight — baptism into the Armenian Apostolic Church.

One by one, the young men in camouflage fatigues approached a priest, who dipped their clasped hands into a water-filled kettle and then anointed their heads and necks. Afterwards, the young men stood at attention as the priest hung wooden crosses around their necks.

Their faces were impassive, but one betrayed the emotion churning beneath by kissing the cross.

Priest Aristakes Hovhannisyan places a crucifix on an ethnic Armenian soldier during a baptism ceremony in a military camp near the front line during a military conflict in separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week on Sunday, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks. (AP Photo)

“The baptism cleansed us and helped us forget about the horrors of the war," Tigran Kagramanian, an 18-year-old recruit, told The Associated Press after the Monday ceremony.

The fight between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces that began in late September is the worst eruption of hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh in decades. The region Azerbaijan has been under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the 1994 end of a separatist war that killed an estimated 30,000 people.

Several cease-fires have been declared, then ignored within hours. The Nagorno-Karabakh defense ministry said Monday that 1,177 Armenian fighters have died in the war, including the region's deputy defense minister.

Ethnic Armenian soldiers stand at the checkpoint near the front line during a military conflict in separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week on Sunday, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks. (AP Photo)

Azerbaijani authorities haven’t disclosed their military losses, but say the fighting has killed at least 91 civilians and wounded 400.

In the most recent attempt to defuse tensions, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met Friday in Geneva for a day of talks brokered by Russia, the United States and France, co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which tries to mediate the conflict.

The talks concluded with the two sides agreeing they “will not deliberately target civilian populations or non-military objects in accordance with international humanitarian law,” but the agreement was quickly challenged by reports of shelling of civilian settlements.

Priests Aristakes Hovhannisyan, right, and Sebeos Galachyan conduct a baptism ceremony for ethnic Armenian soldiers in a military camp near the front line during a military conflict in separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week on Sunday, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks. (AP Photo)

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that to end hostilities, Armenian forces must withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh. He repeatedly criticized the Minsk Group for not producing progress and insisted that Azerbaijan has the right to reclaim its territory by force since international mediators have failed.

Azerbaijani troops, which have relied on strike drones and long-range rocket systems supplied by Turkey, have reclaimed control of several regions on the fringes of Nagorno-Karabakh and pressed their offensive into the separatist territory from the south.

The newly baptized soldiers and the priests who blessed them are prepared for more suffering to come.

Priest Sebeos Galachyan conducts a baptism ceremony for ethnic Armenian soldiers in a military camp near the front line during a military conflict in separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week on Sunday, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks. (AP Photo)

“We came here to inspire, but it is us who are inspired, looking into the eyes of these young guys, who fully understand the situation and are nonetheless ready to take on this martyrs’ death, knowing that behind them are their shrines, their families and their mothers,” said one of the priests, Aristakes Hovhannisian.

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A priest conducts a baptism ceremony for ethnic Armenian soldiers in a military camp near the front line during a military conflict in separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week on Sunday, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks. (AP Photo)

Priests Aristakes Hovhannisyan, left, and Sebeos Galachyan conduct a baptism ceremony for ethnic Armenian soldiers in a military camp near the front line during a military conflict in separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week on Sunday, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks. (AP Photo)

Priest Aristakes Hovhannisyan conducts a baptism ceremony for ethnic Armenian soldiers in a military camp near the front line during a military conflict in separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week on Sunday, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks. (AP Photo)

An ethnic Armenian soldier opens the barrier at the checkpoint near the front line during a military conflict in separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week on Sunday, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks. (AP Photo)

Ethnic Armenian soldiers stand prior to a baptism ceremony in a military camp near the front line during a military conflict in separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Fighting over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh entered sixth week on Sunday, with Armenian and Azerbaijani forces blaming each other for new attacks. (AP Photo)

NEW YORK (AP) — Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City on Thursday, taking over one of the most unrelenting jobs in American politics with a promise to transform government on behalf of the city's striving, struggling working class.

Mamdani, a Democrat, was sworn in at a decommissioned subway station below City Hall just after midnight, placing his hand on a Quran as he took his oath as the city's first Muslim mayor.

After working part of the night in his new office, Mamdani returned to City Hall in a taxi cab around midday Thursday for a grander public inauguration where U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the mayor’s political heroes, administered the oath for a second time.

“Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try,” Mamdani told a cheering crowd.

“To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers' lives," he said.

Throngs turned out in the frigid cold for an inauguration viewing party just south of City Hall on a stretch of Broadway known as the “Canyon of Heroes,” famous for its ticker-tape parades.

Mamdani wasted little time getting to work after the event.

He revoked multiple executive orders issued by the previous administration since Sept. 26, 2024, the date federal authorities announced former Mayor Eric Adams had been indicted on corruption charges, which were later dismissed following intervention by the Trump administration.

Then he visited an apartment building in Brooklyn to announce he is revitalizing a city office dedicated to protecting tenants and creating two task forces focused on housing construction.

Throughout the daytime ceremony, Mamdani and other speakers hit on the theme that carried him to victory in the election: Using government power to lift up the millions of people who struggle with the city's high cost of living.

Mamdani peppered his remarks with references to those New Yorkers, citing workers in steel-toed boots, halal cart vendors “whose knees ache from working all day” and cooks “wielding a thousand spices."

"I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist,” Mamdani said. “I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed ‘radical.’”

Before administering the oath, Sanders told the crowd that most of the things Mamdani wants to do — including raising taxes on the rich — aren't radical at all.

“In the richest country in the history of the world, making sure that people can live in affordable housing is not radical,” he told the crowd. “It is the right and decent thing to do.”

Mamdani was accompanied on stage by his wife, Rama Duwaji. Adams was also in attendance, sitting near another former mayor, Bill de Blasio.

Actor Mandy Patinkin, who recently hosted Mamdani to celebrate Hannukah, sang “Over the Rainbow” with children from an elementary school chorus. The invocation was given by Imam Khalid Latif, the director of the Islamic Center of New York City. Poet Cornelius Eady read an original poem called “Proof."

In addition to being the city's first Muslim mayor, Mamdani is also its first of South Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. At 34, Mamdani is also the city’s youngest mayor in generations.

At the watch party on Broadway, onlookers stood shoulder to shoulder gazing up at several jumbotrons and singing and dancing to stave off the cold, with some passing out hot cocoa and hand warmers. Many described feeling as though they were witnessing history.

Among them was Ariel Segura, a 16-year-old Bronx resident, who had arrived five hours earlier to secure a place near the front of the crowd.

“I’m out here fan-girling a politician, it’s kind of crazy,” he said, wiping away tears as Mamdani concluded his speech. “Now it’s time to hold him accountable.”

In a campaign that helped make “affordability” a buzzword across the political spectrum, Mamdani ran on a focused platform that included promises of free child care, free buses, a rent freeze for about 1 million households and a pilot of city-run grocery stores.

Mamdani insisted in his inaugural address that he will not squander his opportunity to implement those policies.

“A moment like this comes rarely. Seldom do we hold such an opportunity to transform and reinvent. Rarer still is it the people themselves whose hands are on the levers of change. And yet we know that too often in our past, moments of great possibility have been promptly surrendered to small imagination and smaller ambition," he said.

But he will also have to face the everyday responsibilities of running America’s largest city: handling trash and snow and rats, while getting blamed for subway delays and potholes.

In his speech, Mamdani acknowledged the task ahead, saying he knows many will be watching to see whether he can succeed.

“They want to know if the left can govern. They want to know if the struggles that afflict them can be solved. They want to know if it is right to hope again,” he said. “So, standing together with the wind of purpose at our backs, we will do something that New Yorkers do better than anyone else: We will set an example for the world.”

Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, an academic and author. His family moved to New York City when he was 7, with Mamdani growing up in a post-9/11 city where Muslims didn’t always feel welcome. He became an American citizen in 2018.

He worked on political campaigns for Democratic candidates in the city before he sought public office himself, winning a state Assembly seat in 2020 to represent a section of Queens.

Now that he has taken office, Mamdani and his wife will depart their one-bedroom, rent stabilized apartment in the outer-borough to take up residence in the stately mayoral residence in Manhattan.

The new mayor inherits a city on the upswing, after years of slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Violent crime has dropped to pre-pandemic lows. Tourists are back. Unemployment, which soared during the pandemic years, is also back to pre-COVID levels.

Yet deep concerns remain about high prices and rising rents.

In opening remarks to the crowd, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised New Yorkers for choosing “courage over fear.”

“We have chosen prosperity for the many over spoils for the few,” she said.

During the mayoral race, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the city if Mamdani won and mused about sending National Guard troops to the city.

But Trump surprised supporters and foes alike by inviting the Democrat to the White House for what ended up being a cordial meeting in November.

“I want him to do a great job and will help him do a great job,” Trump said.

Still, tensions between the two leaders are almost certain to resurface, given their deep policy disagreements, particularly over immigration.

Several speakers at Thursday's inauguration criticized the Trump administration's move to deport more immigrants and expressed hope that Mamdani's City Hall would be an ally to those the president has targeted.

Mamdani also faces skepticism and opposition from some members of the city’s Jewish community over his criticisms of Israel’s government.

Still, Mamdani supporters in Thursday's crowd expressed optimism he'd be a unifying force.

“There are moments where everyone in New York comes together, like when the Mets won the World Series in ’86,” said Mary Hammann, 64, a musician with the Metropolitan Opera. “This feels like that — just colder.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. administers the oath of office to Mayor Zohran Mamdani as Rama Duwaji holds the Quran during Mamdani's inauguration ceremony, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani reacts after speaking during his inauguration ceremony, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, arrives with his wife Rama Duwaji for a swearing-in ceremony, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in New York. (Amir Hamja/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

People wait in the cold near City Hall before Zohran Mamdani's inauguration as mayor on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani reacts after arriving for his swearing-in ceremony as Rama Duwaji looks on, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, greets New York Attorney General Letitia James before the swearing-in ceremony for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, left, and his wife Rama Duwaji, arrive for Mamdani's public swearing-in ceremony on the steps of City Hall, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

New York Attorney General Letitia James, left, prepare to administer the oath of office to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani takes the oath of office during a swearing-in ceremony in the Old City Hall subway station, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Zohran Mamdani reacts after being sworn in as mayor of New York inside the the Old City Hall subway station, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks after taking the oath of office, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Attorney General Letitia James left, prepares to administer the oath of office to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as Rama Duwaji, looks on, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, arrives with his wife Rama Duwaji for a swearing-in ceremony, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Attorney General Letitia James, left, administers the oath of office to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, as his wife Rama Duwaji looks on, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)