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[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

Asbarez.com

 

Australia Finally Acknowledges Azerbaijani Aggression

by Contributor

 

 November 2, 2022

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Main, Latest, News, Top Stories

 

Australia Finally Acknowledges Azerbaijani Aggression Against Armenia graphic

 

CANBERRA—The Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has finally named Azerbaijan as the responsible party for a specific series of crimes against Armenian prisoners of war, in response to the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU)’s latest appeal to the country’s Foreign Minister, Senator the Hon. Penny Wong.

The ANC-AU received correspondence articulating what represents a significant shift in narrative from DFAT, which had until now preferred statements calling on both sides to show restraint, refraining from joining allies in naming Azerbaijan as the sole aggressor in the South Caucasus conflict targeting Armenia and Artsakh.

The department stated: “The government shares the international community’s condemnation of the deliberate targeting of civilians and mistreatment of military personnel, in particular the reported executions of Armenian troops by Azerbaijani forces and mutilation of a dead female soldier.”

The ANC-AU welcomed the statement received from DFAT on behalf of Minister Wong.

“For the first time, Canberra has called out instances of Azerbaijani aggression against the Republic of Armenia, without resorting to both-sideist, victim-blaming rhetoric, which our community has become accustomed to during the Nagorno Karabakh conflict,” said ANC-AU Executive Director Michael Kolokossian.

“We welcome this as a step in the right direction for Canberra and one that is more aligned with the position of her allies. We now expect our Government will bring Australia to parity with the United States, France and others by calling on the aggressor regime of Azerbaijan to withdraw its invading troops from Armenia’s sovereign borders,” added Kolokossian.

Minister Wong also delivered a similar response to the National Council of Churches of Australia (NCAA) General Secretary Elizabeth Stone, who had joined in conveying the Armenian-Australian community’s concerns over the brutal assault and invasion against Armenia and the desecration of cultural and religious heritage sites in the occupied areas of the Republic of Artsakh. 

Minister Wong wrote: “We are concerned by recent reports of damage to Armenian religious and historical buildings, which continues the disappointing pattern of damage and misuse of civilian, cultural, religious and historical sites in and around Nagorno Karabakh since the 1990s.”

The Armenian National Committee of Australia extended warm gratitude to all community and religious organizations, grassroots community members and local, state and federal political leaders for advocating for this shift in position by the Australian Government.

 

 

https://asbarez.com/...YoR9qZGlP1kngVk

[Yervant1]

Asbarez.com

 

French Senate Motion Calls for Sanctions Against Azerbaijan, Reaffirms Artsakh Recognition

by Asbarez Staff

 

 November 4, 2022

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Main, International, Latest, News, Top Stories

 

Members of the French Senate applaud the vote to recognize Artsakh on Sept. 25, 2020

 

A draft motion filed in the French Senate on Thursday calls for imposing sanctions against Azerbaijan and urges Baku to immediately withdraw its forces from Armenia.

The draft resolution, appearing on the French Senate website, cites relevant articles in France’s Constitution as the basis for its demands, among them enforcement of the November 9, 2020 ceasefire agreement as measure that could promote the establishment of “lasting peace” between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The draft resolution was authored by senators Bruno Retailleau, Christian Cambon, Éliane Assassi, Patrick Kanner, Hervé Marseille and Gilbert-Luc Devinaz.

Last week, a delegation of French lawmakers visiting Armenia on a fact-finding mission voiced their commitment to introducing such a resolution, the news of which was reported widely by the press in Armenia.

There was no indication as to when the French Senate was going to debate the resolution. If passed it would be the first such measure carried out by a European Union member-state. A similar resolution has been introduced in the U.S. Senate, in an effort spearheaded by Sen. Bob Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Marco Rubio, the ranking minority member on the committee.

On November 25, 2020, weeks after the end of the 44-Day War, with a vote of 305 to 1 the French Senate adopted a resolution recognizing the independence of Artsakh.

That resolution, along with the 1945 United Nations Charter, the 1949 agreement to form NATO, as well as the 1969 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the November 9, 2020 agreement were cited by the co-authoring senators as the basis for the resolution.

The draft resolution “calls on the Government [of France] to work with determination so that the United Nations Security Council utilizes the International Criminal Court regarding the aggression of Azerbaijan on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, including to investigate on mass crimes and war crimes.”

The draft measure also “calls on the Government to weigh all the diplomatic and economic consequences of these new attacks, and to consider, with its European partners, the strongest appropriate responses – including the seizure of the assets of Azerbaijani leaders and an embargo on imports of gas and oil from Azerbaijan – to sanction the military aggression carried out by the Azerbaijani forces on the territory of the Republic of Armenia, in violation of its sovereignty.”

Below are translated excerpts from the text of the draft resolution.

Whereas the repeated aggression of the Azerbaijani military forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and in the southern and south-eastern regions of Armenia constitute a violation of the sovereignty of this State and of the ceasefire agreements concluded between the two parties ;

Whereas the reports of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) of the Council of Europe and of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) attest to the impossibility of the Armenian populations to live freely within Azerbaijan;

Whereas the security and freedom of the Armenian population living in Nagorno-Karabakh are not guaranteed by the Republic of Azerbaijan;

Whereas the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and that between Azerbaijan and Armenia are taking place in a particularly unstable region, close to the European Union, and carry a risk of escalation potentially involving regional powers;

Whereas the peace talks under the auspices of the European Union are suffering the consequences of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and of the strategic issues linked to the energy autonomy of the European Union;

Whereas the efforts made since 1994 by France, within the framework of the Minsk Group, of which it is a co-chair along with Russia and the United States, to achieve a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict; taking into consideration the impact of the Ukrainian conflict on the ability of the Minsk Group to fulfill its mission; furthermore, taking into consideration that this process is permanently hampered by Azerbaijan resorting to a military solution;

Whereas the condemnations of the international community and the emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council at the request of France, which chairs it, strongly condemns the new military aggressions of Azerbaijan perpetrated at the beginning of August 2022 in the Lachin corridor linking Armenia to the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert, and reiterated on September 13 and 14, 2022 against the Southern regions and Southeast of the territory of the Republic of Armenia, in violation of its sovereignty, international agreements and the Charter of the United Nations;

Calls for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal, to their initial positions, of the Azerbajani forces and their allies from the sovereign territory of Armenia and the Lachin corridor, whose security and unchanged status must be ensured, according to the terms of the agreement ceasefire of November 9, 2020;

Calls on the Azerbaijani authorities and all their partners in the region, in particular Turkey, to respect the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Armenia in accordance with their obligations and international commitments;

Calls for the immediate and unconditional release and repatriation of all Armenian prisoners of war;

Condemns the violations by Azerbaijan of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination of January 4, 1969 and calls for the respect by the Azerbaijani authorities of the international agreements and conventions aimed at ensuring the security of the Armenian populations and their right to live in peace and freedom, the right to return of displaced populations and the preservation of Armenian cultural and religious heritage;

Calls on the Government [of France] to work with determination so that the United Nations Security Council utilizes the International Criminal Court regarding the aggression of Azerbaijan on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, including to investigate on mass crimes and war crimes;

Calls on the Government to weigh all the diplomatic and economic consequences of these new attacks, and to consider, with its European partners, the strongest appropriate responses – including the seizure of the assets of Azerbaijani leaders and an embargo on imports of gas and oil from Azerbaijan – to sanction the military aggression carried out by the Azerbaijani forces on the territory of the Republic of Armenia, in violation of its sovereignty;

Asks the Government to consider setting up a humanitarian office in Nagorno-Karabakh;

Asks the Government to demonstrate, by all means, France’s support for Armenia, by considering in particular the strengthening of Armenia’s defense capacities with a view to ensuring its territorial integrity;

Asks the Government to immediately take any initiative to guarantee the security of the Armenian populations and of Armenia, within its internationally recognized borders, and to request for this purpose the deployment of an interposition force under the aegis of the international community;

Reaffirms the need to recognize the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and to make this recognition an instrument of negotiations with a view to establishing a lasting peace;

Asks the Government to do everything possible to ensure that Azerbaijan engages urgently and peacefully in a process of negotiation through the diplomatic channel, in order to achieve the establishment of a lasting peace in the South Caucasus.

 

 

https://asbarez.com/...s-w0rSM4KJ6LmDw

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

Nov 10 2022

 

 

 

News 360

Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of «preparing the genocide of Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh».

Daniel Stewart

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday accused Azerbaijan of "preparing the genocide of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh" and said that Baku's actions pose "a threat to security" in the South Caucasus region.

 

Pashinian has claimed that the Azeri authorities have on numerous occasions violated the trilateral agreements - signed with Russia - in November 2021 and October 2022 to set a ceasefire and open the door to peace, Armenian news agency Armenpress has reported.

 

Thus, he stressed that Azerbaijan's actions "are not only a violation of the aforementioned trilateral communiqués, but a preparation for the genocide of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh," a statement that comes amid bilateral efforts to sign a peace agreement.

"Azerbaijan illegally occupied the settlements of Jtsaberd and Hin Tagher in Nagorno Karabakh in violation of the trilateral communiqué of November 2020, according to which a full ceasefire agreement was set and all hostilities in the conflict zone were stopped," he has explained.

The Armenian Prime Minister also denounced a similar Azeri operation in March 2022, when they occupied areas where Russian peacekeepers were deployed, before stressing that Baku "violates the ceasefire on an almost daily basis".

In this regard, he criticized that the Azeri authorities have not taken steps for "a visible dialogue" with Yerevan and pointed out that Baku "tries to present itself constructively and convey that the rights and security of the citizens of Nagorno Karabakh are guaranteed".

"To what extent this statement is true can be demonstrated in practice by checking the conditions created by Azerbaijan and the steps it has taken for the safe return of thousands of residents of Hadrut and other Armenian-populated territories in Nagorno-Karabakh who were displaced by the 44-day war in 2022," he said.

Thus, he has reiterated that "Azerbaijan has not taken any step on this path" and reminded that Russian troops should remain deployed in the area for five years, according to the 2020 agreement, with an "automatic extension for five-year periods." "I repeat. Automatic extension," he has stressed.

"This, in fact, means that the peacekeeping troops are deployed indefinitely in Nagorno-Karabakh until all issues related to the rights and security of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh are addressed and all security issues are resolved," he has noted.

Pashinian has further outlined that Yerevan has submitted a proposal to create a three-kilometer deep demilitarized zone on both sides of the border set in 1991. "The proposal is standing and yesterday we delivered an updated version to Azerbaijan. I insist that the Azeri Armed Forces must withdraw from all occupied parts on sovereign territory of Armenia, a position we will never change," he has explained.

On the other hand, he has charged Azeri President Ilham Aliyev for a speech on Tuesday which, in his opinion, was full of "indirect threats to the international community and direct threats against Armenia." The speech was given after a meeting of foreign ministers in the United States at which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was present.

At the meeting, the foreign ministers of the two countries agreed to "accelerate negotiations" to try to reach a peace agreement after their recent clashes and have agreed to organize another meeting "in the coming weeks", according to a joint communiqué issued after the meeting in Washington.

For its part, the Armenian Defense Ministry has denounced during the day that a soldier has been "seriously" wounded by an Azeri attack against a "combat position" in the border area, according to a brief statement published on its website.

Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire on September 15 and in early October agreed to commit to the UN Charter and the 1991 Alma Ata Declaration, through which both countries recognize each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty. Following this, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stressed before Parliament that he expects the peace treaty with Azerbaijan to be signed before the end of the year.

The two countries have been involved in several clashes in recent years over the control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory with a majority Armenian population that has been the focus of conflict since it decided to separate in 1988 from the Soviet Union-integrated region of Azerbaijan.

https://www.msn.com/...h»/ar-AA13XiGv

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

 

Azerbaijan conducts illegal construction, fortification works in Armenia’s occupied territories – former Ombudsman

 

 

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 12:55, 10 November 2022

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan is conducting illegal construction and fortification works in the immediate vicinity of Jermuk town of Vayots Dzor, in the occupied territory of Armenia, former Ombudsman of Armenia Arman Tatoyan, head of the Tatoyan Foundation, said during a press conference.

 

He informed that these works have started after Azerbaijan’s September 13-14 aggression against Armenia’s sovereign territory.

As proving facts, he released photos from the construction, fortification works carried out by the Azerbaijani forces in the occupied territory of Armenia.

 

Tatoyan said that the studies of his Foundation in Vayots Dzor and Syunik provinces show that Armenia is facing a serious problem connected with Azerbaijani incursions and their presence near and on the roads of the villages of Armenia.

 

“The Azerbaijani actions show that they have no plan to leave Armenia. Azerbaijan is conducting illegal construction and fortification works in the immediate vicinity of Jermuk, in the occupied territories of Armenia, they are constructing military roads, positions, bunkers, etc. According to our study, the constructed road is 10-12 m wide”, he said.

Tatoyan said the problems resulting from the latest Azerbaijani aggression not only relate to the protection of human rights, but also the national security as not only the villages, but also Tatev HPP, Jermuk HPP, Kapan tailings and other strategic facilities are under target.

 

 

https://armenpress.a...UmeSnbuFfYBRJJU

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

 

Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention condemns Azerbaijani president’s genocidal rhetoric

 

 

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 13:50, 11 November 2022

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention is gravely concerned about the genocidal rhetoric that Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev has been using in his recent speeches.

 

“We condemn Pres. Ilham Aliyev and the Azerbaijani gov't's use of inherently genocidal rhetoric during Victory Day speeches. Euphemisms attempt to disguise genocidal rhetoric and intent. We call on the int'l community to condemn this rhetoric and protect Armenians”, the Lemkin Institute said on Twitter.

 

 

https://armenpress.a...Ded4yb9fv2pxAAo

[Yervant1]

Nov 12 2022

 

 

• EXCLUSIVE

Serj Tankian: Armenians Are Defending Their Homeland From a Brutal, Putin-Backed Autocrat’s Army. Why Won’t the World Help?

NOVEMBER 12, 2022 12:00PM EST

• SERJ TANKIAN

 

The same September week that a mass grave was discovered in Izium, Ukraine, Azerbaijan launched brutal attacks on the sovereign territory of Armenia, killing hundreds. The first event was on the front page of The New York Times, in The Washington Post, and on CNN, and denounced by world leaders and international organizations. The latter was a one-day story that was swiftly buried.

I was not surprised. Tired of the world’s mayhem, we pick and choose which outrages actually cause us outrage. Vladimir Putin’s Russia is seen as a rogue power — while the kleptocratic dictatorship of Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev flies under the radar. It’s understandable in a way, since the corruption is clear but the underlying issues are complex. So let me try to simplify.

 

Since it helps any story to feature a cartoonishly evil antagonist, I’m glad to report it all began with Joseph Stalin.

On July 4, 1921, the Caucasus bureau of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party voted to integrate the mountainous Karabagh region — today, much of Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia, 95 percent of whose population was ethnically Armenian — into Armenia. The logical idea was to create ethnically cohesive republics in the Soviet Union.

But the Soviet leader had more clever plans: He wanted the republics to not make sense, to reduce their chances of ever succeeding as viable countries. So the next day, he intervened to integrate Karabagh into Soviet Azerbaijan, as part of an autonomous province.

It was a blow to the Armenians, coming just a few years after big power machinations also ceded the historical Armenian cities of Kars and Ardahan to Turkey and Nakhchivan to Azerbaijan. In 1915, around 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by the Turks, giving birth to the term “genocide.”

At the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the Armenians of the Nagorno-Karabakh province overwhelmingly voted to join Armenia. Azerbaijan reacted with pogroms of Armenians in Azerbaijan and military attacks on Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenians prevailed militarily and established a strong model of autonomy and democracy free of Azerbaijan’s dictatorship.

Then came 2020, when Azerbaijan, with the help of Turkey, attacked again. A brutal 44-day war took the lives of thousands, with Azerbaijan occupying the disputed territory and displacing tens of thousands of Armenians. Not satisfied, Aliyev is now trying to take over territory in sovereign Armenia itself.

Historically, Russia has been the security guarantor of Armenia. But Russia, distracted by the folly of its imperial ambitions in Ukraine, has abandoned Armenia and further cozied up to Turkey and Azerbaijan. Given the Western disinterest, Armenians feel abandoned to their fate.

Lined up against them is a particularly odious iteration of Azerbaijan: It is a country with extremely low freedom and even lower human-rights ratings that’s run as a private business of the Aliyevs. Ilham, an autocrat of the Dr. Evil variety, inherited his fiefdom from his KGB dad, Heydar, made his wife vice president, and runs the energy-wealthy country like a cash machine to buy silence around the world.

His ally, Turkish President Recep Teyyip Erdogan, is a thuggish Islamist autocrat ruling over a pretend-democracy that oppresses its Kurdish minority, invades Syria, and rattles its saber at Cyprus, Greece, and Armenia.

Putin — well, you all know about Putin.

It probably won’t surprise you that this tyrannical triumvirate is working on a fossil-fuel-energy play centered around … Azerbaijan. Essentially, they need to run oil and natural gas from Azerbaijan, as well as Iran, to Turkey and onward, to whatever European country will agree to have it — which requires a corridor through Armenia. They’d like to possess and control such a corridor, which goes a long way to explain this last invasion. Moreover, Russia’s Lukoil owns roughly 25 percent of Azerbaijan’s Caspian oil reserves — so Putin will still be in the game, even if Europe refuses to buy from Moscow directly.

U.S. displeasure with the pipeline is one reason why some U.S. politicians are trying to become more involved in establishing a long-term cease-fire. It also explains why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew to Yerevan, the capitol of Armenia, in September and publicly called out Azerbaijani aggression.

But Europe, obsessed with its energy security, has been far more inclined to appease Aliyev. Indeed, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, recently inked a gas deal, calling Aliyev “reliable” — which is said to have emboldened him to attack Armenia a few weeks later.

Are Europeans fine with watching Azerbaijan ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabagh and Armenia for a mere increase of one percent of their energy needs from dictator Aliyev of Azerbaijan? I don’t think so. Maybe most are unaware.

They should ask the Lemkin Institute, Human Rights Watch, and other watchdog organizations, who have recently raised red flags on Azerbaijan’s genocidal acts toward Armenians. Azerbaijan is a country where kids are raised from a young age to hate Armenians, which may explain the multiple recent videos of extra-judicial killings of POWs by Azeri soldiers, coupled with unspeakable mutilations of Armenian soldiers and civilians.

Azerbaijan has become an international pariah for many travelers who have visited Nagorno-Karabagh, including Anthony Bourdain, whom I had the privilege of taking to Armenia in 2017 for CNN’s Parts Unknown. Tony had nothing but disdain for the likes of Aliyev, Erdogan, and Putin. I had warned him of being blacklisted; his reaction was something along the lines of “I don’t give a fuck.”

It turns out neither do most others — but in the opposite way.

I was recently told that due to coverage of the war in Ukraine and the protests in Iran, media companies don’t have bandwidth for other international human-rights tragedies. But exclusive empathy for the victims of our accepted international enemies is hypocritical.

While all this is going on, international soccer games are played in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Formula 1 races are scheduled there for next spring, and theaters and music venues are booked with international acts.

We should take our example from a few brave Ukrainians, like pop star Max Barskih, who canceled his gig, declaring that “any country that allows aggression against another country is not a place for my concerts.” Or Ukrainian singer Tina Karol, who followed suit by canceling her own show in Baku and posting “Armenian Lives Matter” on Instagram. I’m grateful for such acts of solidarity.

It’s time to cancel and sanction Azerbaijan, adding it to the list of countries committing gross human-rights violations and war crimes in our lifetime. Never again — right?

Serj Tankian is an Armenian American singer, musician, songwriter, and activist.

https://www.rollings...1234613877/amp/ 

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

 

Armenian FM considers it necessary to have more active UN involvement in solving problems caused by Baku’s aggression

 

 

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 20:00, 14 November 2022

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. On November 14, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan received Lila Pieters Yahia, the Acting Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Armenia on the occasion of the end of her tenure, ARMENPRESS was informed from the MFA Armenia.

 

During the meeting, issues on the continuous cooperation with the UN system and specialized agencies, and the effective implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals were discussed.

In the context of the humanitarian and other issues that emerged as a result of the 44-day war and Azerbaijani aggression against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia on September 13-14, Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized the need for more active involvement of the UN and specialized agencies in order to record and address the existing challenges in accordance with their mandate.

 

 

https://armenpress.a...UUsXMIYSRwGtoXA

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

 

This is an overt step to terrorize the civilian population. Pashinyan comments on Aliyev's speech

 

 

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 23:02, 14 November 2022

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan considers the November 8 speech of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev as a step to terrorize the civilian population of Armenia, ARMENPRESS reports Pashinyan wrote this in his Twitter microblog.

 

"Dressed in a military uniform and in the presence of the military, the president of Azerbaijan Aliyev announced in his threatening and aggressive speech on November 8 that Sisian, Goris, Kapan and other Armenian cities are in the zone of their visibility. Armenia understands what this means. This is an overt step to terrorize the civilian population," wrote Nikol Pashinyan.

 

 

https://armenpress.a...b-g26TQyLdntFkM

 

[Yervant1]

News.am

Armenia - Nov 16 2022

 

Bob Menendez: How can the U.S. justify security assistance to the Baku regime?

21:01, 16.11.2022

 

 

 

Too often the South Caucasus has suffered from dictators with imperialistic aspirations, Bob Menendez, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at a hearing on the South Caucasus.

In 2020, 100,000 Armenians were displaced from their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of Azerbaijan's war, 6,500 were killed. Today, Armenians in Artsakh still face a humanitarian crisis, including the threat of ethnic cleansing. That's why the politician insist son more humanitarian aid, because the U.S. aid has been insufficient.

He wonders: How can the U.S. justify any security assistance or other assistance to the Baku regime?.

Menendez touched on Section 907 of the Freedom Act, recalling that it prohibits security assistance to Azerbaijan until the latter renounces the use of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

And yet, again and again, the State Department makes an exception for Azerbaijan. It has requested $600,000 for military training for Azerbaijan, a program that includes professional military training, he said.

It makes no sense to say that U.S. military assistance has not affected the military balance between Azerbaijan and Armenia.  You have to give Congress all the details so that we can assess U.S. assistance to Baku, he said.

https://news.am/eng/news/730626.html

[Yervant1]

News.am

Armenia - Nov 16 2022

 

Bob Menendez says Ukraine supplies Azerbaijan with phosphorus bombs it used in Karabakh

22:09, 16.11.2022

 

 

 

U.S. Secretary of State's Advisor for the Caucasus Negotiations and OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Philip Reeker says he has not seen any reports about Azerbaijan using phosphorus bombs during the aggression against Artsakh during the 44-day war in 2020.

His remarks came in response to the question of Bob Menendez, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the U.S. Senate.

The senator asked if Reeker had information about the Azerbaijani Armed Forces' use of white phosphorus munitions, which has been widely publicized. Reeker said he had not seen any such reports.

Menendzer noted that there have been a lot of reports about white phosphorus and unfortunately, these munitions were supplied by Ukraine.

Asked if the administration was taking steps to verify the video of the brutal killing and torture of Armenian soldiers by the Azerbaijani military, Reeker said evasively that he had to clarify it.

https://news.am/eng/news/730630.html

Edited by Yervant1, 18 November 2022 - 10:33 AM.

[Yervant1]

The Print

India - Nov 18 2022

 

 

Removal of Pakistan from FATF grey list on terror financing will create more difficulties: Armenian Secy

ANI

By Rajnish Singh

New Delhi [India], November 18 (ANI): Removal of Pakistan from the FATF grey list on terror financing will not help in the fight against terrorism and create more difficulties, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan said on Friday.

Speaking to ANI on the sideline of the two-day ‘No Money For Terror’ Ministerial Conference, Grigoryan also said “Terrorism is one of the security challenges of India and Armenia supports it in its fight against terrorism”.

“The FATF list is very important and it helps to fight and target terrorist groups…For sure, this kind of removal will not help. It will create more difficulties. I know how India is more impacted by terrorists. What kind of challenges it creates and which kind of security environment India lives,” Grigoryan said.

He answered in response to the question of how the fight against terrorism will help if countries such as Pakistan would be removed from the FATF grey list.

Global terror-financing watchdog FATF last month announced Pakistan’s removal from its grey list, saying the country has largely completed its action plans on anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism. Pakistan has been on the FATF grey list since June 2018.

Replying over terror financing through the dark web, social media crowdfunding and other methods, the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia said, “Actually new technology creates positive impact and creates opportunities to meet challenges that humanity has. It brings also security challenges. So, social networks and other resources can be used by terrorists for bad purposes.”

“For all states, there should be a major goal in order to make sure that the social networks and other means of technologies can be used only in the interest of humanity, economic development, and in the interest of increasing security and not create security challenges.”

Grigoryan also stressed that “Terror impacts every country and everyone is negatively impacted by terror. Everyone understands that alone no one can meet the challenges of terrorism. That is why all countries should bring their effort together in order to fight terrorism.”

Armenia is impacted negatively by terrorists in the context of Azerbaijan during the 2020 war, said Grigoryan when asked about the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

He further said “Azerbaijan used terrorist groups and mercenaries”, and that the “financing of these terrorists came from Azerbaijan”.

“Armenia has facts of these. Two of the terrorists are imprisoned in Armenia and they gave a lot of details and information about how they participated in the 2020 war. So, Azerbaijan continues to use terrorist groups,” Grigoryan said.

Armenia is part of 78 countries and multilateral organisations which are part of the ‘No Money For Terror’ Ministerial Conference which is being organized in New Delhi between November 18 and 19. (ANI)

https://theprint.in/...n-secy/1224208/

[Yervant1]

Nov 18 2022

 

 

Why is there an endless war between Armenia and Azerbaijan?

 

 

By

 Anzhela Mnatsakanyan

Armenia and Azerbaijan are post-Soviet republics in South Caucasus, with a profoundly complicated relationship, which is almost always interpreted as this “conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh,” which has nothing in common with reality.

Let’s briefly talk about Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), a de facto independent country in the South Caucasus, historically part of Armenia, forcibly attached to Azerbaijan by Joseph Stalin’s one-night decision, and which was never part of independent Azerbaijan. Even more, Artsakh and Azerbaijan became independent according to the same domestic Soviet Law, so the legal bases of the independence of these two republics are equivalent. In 1994, Artsakh, Armenia, and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire agreement, proving that Artsakh is considered a distinct legal entity.

After the forty-four-day war in 2020, Azerbaijan took control of almost 70% of Artsakh territory, more than Azerbaijan kept claiming since 1994. Nevertheless, you might probably ask, why, after that, is there no peace or even a working ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan?

The answer is more than simple, Azerbaijan wants not only the entire Artsakh but also Armenia and never tried to hide it; the President of Azerbaijan went so far as he claims Armenia’s capital Yerevan, Syunik, and Gegharkunik provinces of Armenia, as “historical lands” of Azerbaijan. To understand how groundless these claims are, it is enough to mention that the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, was founded in 782 BCE. Furthermore, Azerbaijan only appeared on the political map in 1918 as the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (1918-1920), which was never formally recognized by the international community or the League of Nations.

Azerbaijan made it clear that it has territorial claims over Armenia. Since 2021, it has started to prove it by openly violating Armenia’s sovereign territory almost every month and occupying more than 41 sq. km of Armenia.

However, this never gets enough covering; even when Azerbaijani soldiers were executing unarmed Armenian POWs on cameras and posting it on social media, the international community tended to turn a blind eye to it. Why? Because it was presented that “Armenia is a Russian strategic ally, and supporting Azerbaijan means countering Russia.” However, the picture seems to be different, as relations between Russia and Azerbaijan are way better than those between Armenia and Russia. Let me prove it with facts.

The economic relations between Azerbaijan and Russia are on the rise: Russia remains one of its leading economic partners in Azerbaijan. In 2021, trade turnover between Russia and Azerbaijan was 14%; in 2022, in just seven months additional 7% was added to that very turnover. Russian investment in Azerbaijan reached 4.5 milliard US dollar, which the President of Russia announced himself during the meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who added that, indeed, the relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan are developing dynamically. On February 22, 2022., just a few hours before the Russian-Ukrainian war, Azerbaijan and Russia signed a joint declaration on bilateral “allied cooperation,” which says that “to ensure security, maintain peace and stability, Russia and Azerbaijan may consider providing each other with military assistance.” One more thing you definitely need to know is that 25.5 percent of the gas resources of Azerbaijan TANAP Shah Deniz-2 field, which aimed to help the EU reduce its dependence on Russia for natural gas, belongs to the Russian Lukoil company.

So, Armenia is all alone against Azerbaijan, which Turkey fully backs, whose politicians are openly threatening Armenia with a new Genocide. Suppose you still wonder why Azerbaijan continues the endless war against Armenia, which caused the death of thousands of Armenians and Azerbaijanis. In that case, you need to know that Azerbaijan is a totalitarian country ruled by a few families, and the most powerful among them is the Aliyev family. The president of Azerbaijan inherited the Presidency from his father, Heydar Aliyev. In 2003, the current president of Azerbaijan announced that he “won” 76.84 percent of votes in the election before voting had even started. Due to changes in the Azerbaijani constitution, in 2017, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev appointed his wife as the first vice president and currently preparing Presidency for his son: Heydar Aliyev Junior. The current regime in Baku needs to distract attention from the fact that the country is turned into a family business, which keeps getting rich, in contrast with the population living in poverty with a grooving unemployment rank. Moreover, the Azerbaijani Government promotes Anti-Armenian sentiment, also known as Armenophobia, making the people believe that Armenia, is the reason for all their problems. From Azerbaijani war crimes against unarmed Armenian POWs, you can conclude that Azerbaijani Government succeeded: Azerbaijani citizens firmly believe that if Armenia and Armenians disappear, they will finally live healthy and wealthy, which has nothing in common with reality.

https://moderndiplom...and-azerbaijan/

[Yervant1]

Nov 22 2022

 

 

BBC accused of ‘whitewashing’ autocratic Azerbaijan in BP-sponsored film

‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’ film was made with BP funding and the help of the country’s controversial ruling Aliyev family

 

 

James Dowsett

22 November 2022, 9.38am

 

Broadcaster Bettany Hughes presented the BP-sponsored BBC film about Azerbaijan's culture and history

 | 

Image: YouTube / Heydar Aliyev Foundation

 

 

The BBC has been accused of ‘whitewashing’ the Azerbaijani dictatorship after broadcasting a film made with the support of the country’s controversial ruling family – and sponsored by UK oil and gas giant BP.

Audiences tuning into BBC World News in August were promised that they would discover “how Azerbaijan’s oil wealth enabled the capital Baku to flourish” and “gain the reputation of being the ‘Paris of the East’” in the BP-sponsored ‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’ film.

BP spent £300,000 on the film, which was made by UK production company SandStone Global with support from a foundation and a media centre run by members of Azerbaijan’s ruling Aliyev family. Broadcaster and historian Bettany Hughes, who co-founded SandStone, presented the film.

Emin Huseynov, an Azerbaijani journalist who fled political persecution in Azerbaijan in 2015, accused the BBC of “whitewashing a dictatorship” over the film.

Husyenov, who was the subject of an award-winning 2006 BBC documentary which followed pro-democracy youth activists in Azerbaijan, told openDemocracy that the BBC had undergone “a shameful transformation and given the floor to one of the bloodiest and most corrupt regimes in the world.”

He also accused the BBC of being “passive” in its coverage of the human rights situation in Azerbaijan and questioned the lack of scrutiny over BP’s ties to the Aliyev regime.

The BBC told openDemocracy that the ‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’ film “is not a current affairs programme”.

“The wider geopolitical story of the region has been reported on extensively by BBC News services,” a spokesperson said.

Chris Garrard, from the arts campaign group Culture Unstained, told openDemocracy that media sponsorship arrangements such as BP’s “legitimise” fossil fuel companies as they continue to invest in new oil and gas infrastructure, rather than trying to meet net-zero goals.

Given the Azerbaijani regime’s track record of human rights abuses, the BBC film’s “positive cultural perspective on Azerbaijan” worked to “BP’s advantage”, Garrard said.

The film also implicitly promoted Azerbaijan’s claims to Shusha, a city in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh that Azerbaijan seized from Armenian forces in the Second Karabakh War in 2020. Azerbaijan now wants to turn the region into a ‘green energy zone’ – with BP’s help.

Under its so-called ‘contract of the century’, BP is the largest foreign corporate investor in resource-rich Azerbaijan.

It has long faced criticism from human rights and climate activists for its ties to the ruling Aliyev regime, which has been accused of “electoral fraud”, the silencing of dissenting voices and benefiting disproportionately from Azerbaijan’s oil and gas wealth.

“BP needs to keep the [Azerbaijani] government onside and this [film] is a low-cost way of doing it,” said campaigner James Marriott, co-author of Crude Britannia: How Oil Shaped a Nation.

BP told openDemocracy it aims to work for the “effective and responsible” development of the Caspian Sea’s energy resources for the benefit of Azerbaijan and the company.

It added that it has a net zero ambition and is working to decarbonise operations and develop renewable energy in Azerbaijan.

“We do not support individuals or political groups in any country,” a BP spokesperson told openDemocracy.

A BBC spokesperson said: “Hosting advertising and sponsorship outside of the UK, which is clearly labelled as such and is completely separate to our editorial output, allows us to invest in the BBC’s world-class journalism, which provides independent and impartial news across all topics, including climate change, the energy crisis and geopolitics.”

Curious travellers

BBC World News aired the two-part programme to its viewers outside the UK over a week in August – the same week that British audiences saw the BBC broadcast extensive coverage of the energy crisis and soaring household fuel bills.

Ads aimed at the “curious, eco-conscious traveller” were shown alongside the BP-sponsored film, as part of a brand deal between BBC Global News (one of the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries) and Azerbaijan’s official tourist board.

The BBC’s ‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’ film is part of a wider editorial series, also presented by Bettany Hughes, which explores areas of natural, artistic and cultural interest around the world.

The BBC licensed the content for the two-part programme from Hughes’s production company, SandStone Global. The BBC edited the material, but the copyright remains with SandStone. The production itself was funded by BP, whose sponsorship was made clear on screen when the programme aired.

Each of the two episodes was broadcast globally five times in late August, flanked by travel ads for Azerbaijan. It was not broadcast in the UK.

A representative of SandStone Global told openDemocracy that it was “standard practice” for production companies to get support from “local organisations” for on-location services.

Baku Media Centre provided logistics support to SandStone, while the Heydar Aliyev Foundation helped the UK company secure filming permits and access to unique heritage sites, the representative said.

The Baku Media Centre is run by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s youngest daughter, Arzu Aliyeva. It works closely with the family-run foundation.

SandStone’s representative said: “[The organisations’ involvement] does not amount to editorial influence, as all decisions relating to our productions are made by the SandStone Global team.” Arzu Aliyeva was not personally involved in the production process, they added.

The BBC spokesperson said: “Whilst the original programme was not made by the BBC, the BBC alone has full editorial control over everything broadcast on its channel, in line with its robust editorial guidelines.”

BP supported the programme as a “contribution to Azerbaijan’s global promotion” in partnership with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, named after the former president, who led the country both before and after it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Heydar Aliyev was succeeded in 2003, after ten years of rule, by his son, the current autocratic president Ilham Aliyev.

The foundation is chaired by Ilham’s wife Mehriban Aliyeva, who is also the country’s vice president.

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation is tasked with promoting Azerbaijan’s image abroad, including by advancing the government position over Nagorno-Karabakh. But government critics say this work extends to diverting attention from the regime’s relentless crackdown on dissent and its systemic corruption.

“The foundation was set up by the ruling family to whitewash Azerbaijan’s image,” Arzu Geybullayeva, an Azerbaijani journalist living in exile, told openDemocracy. She added: “It can by no means be described as independent of the state.”

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.

Speaking at a launch event for the film in Baku in September, presenter Bettany Hughes said: “I understand history not through politics… I don’t get involved in politics at all.

“But I do go to places which have been extraordinary in culture. So it was exceptional for me to get access to places which when I came last time I couldn’t go to because there was too much conflict there.”

Disputed territory

Hughes was speaking about Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory – but had been under ethnic Armenian control since the early 1990s.

That was until 2020, when Azerbaijan started a 44-day war to take control of part of the disputed territory – as Ilham Aliyev himself recently admitted. Thousands were killed in the fighting as Armenian forces attempted to protect it.

Indeed, the BBC series featured a segment where Bettany Hughes travelled to the city of Shusha, in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan seized the city in November 2020 as part of its brutal military offensive. Prior to that, Shusha – known as Shushi to Armenians – had been in the hands of ethnic Armenians since the first Nagorno-Karabakh war three decades earlier.

Azerbaijan has now declared Shusha a “cultural capital”, and major efforts are under way to restore Azerbaijani culture in the city. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation is leading restoration works in Shusha. Some of these works featured in the BBC programme, including a sequence shot inside a reconstructed Soviet-era mausoleum to the 18th-century Azerbaijani poet and statesman Vagif. The monument fell to ruin when the city was under Armenian control.

Speaking in Shusha in June 2022, BP’s regional president Gary Jones said Nagorno-Karabakh had the country’s “best solar and geothermal resources” – making it a “perfect opportunity for a fully net zero system”. BP is planning a solar power plant in the city of Jabrayil, which Azerbaijan regained control over during the 2020 war.

‘Wonders of Azerbaijan’, which did not address Armenia’s connections to Shusha or Nagorno-Karabakh’s bitterly contested history, was broadcast in the last week of August.

A fortnight later, Azerbaijani forces made further incursions into Armenian territory – the worst escalation in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict since the 2020 war.

BP’s Jones took to the stage at the Baku premiere of the film in late September to praise the “unwavering support of the [Azerbaijani] government” for his company and its co-venturers’ operations in the country.

Jones also spoke of the “joint effort” that went into creating the documentary. He thanked the Heydar Aliyev Foundation for its support and paid personal homage to the president’s daughter, Arzu Aliyeva, and to the Baku Media Centre she heads, “for their outstanding technical support” on the production.

Tourism campaign

This isn’t the first time BP has collaborated with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, or that the foundation has cropped up on the BBC.

Last year, BBC StoryWorks, the in-house content studio for the commercial BBC Global News, ran a separate tourism-focused campaign for Azerbaijan to mark the 30th anniversary of the country’s independence from the Soviet Union.

The campaign included a paid-for advertorial that invited readers to “discover more” about Azerbaijan by following a link to an external website run by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. The ‘Azerbaijan’ portal claims (among other things) that Azerbaijan’s current president Ilham Aliyev “has always focused on ensuring a fuller provision of human rights and freedoms in the country”. It also contains information about the so-called “Armenian problem”.

Azerbaijani officials have a long record of using dehumanising language and imagery about Armenians, including opening a “war park” last year containing weapons, armour and vehicles seized from Armenian forces and wax figures of Armenians – as the BBC reported in the UK.

The link was removed after openDemocracy contacted the BBC for comment.

BP, meanwhile, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Heydar Aliyev Foundation to jointly implement some of its social investment projects.

Previous joint projects have included sponsored films, such as ‘The Last Session’, a 2018 documentary commemorating the birth of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic – the short-lived independent state that was ended by Soviet invasion in 1920. BP spent $320,000 on the project, which was organised by the Baku Media Centre. Arzu Aliyeva was credited as the film’s executive producer.

In its statement to openDemocracy, BP said that its social investment policy in Azerbaijan – and elsewhere in the region – was “in line with our group sustainability framework.”

The company said that it has supported over 100 communities in Azerbaijan through educational and cultural initiatives, including projects aimed at building opportunities for advancing the energy transition.

https://www.opendemo...sponsored-film/

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

 

Dutch FM sends letter to the country's parliament regarding the alleged war crimes committed by Azerbaijan

 

 

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 19:32, 24 November 2022

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra sent a letter to the Dutch Parliament regarding alleged war crimes committed by Azerbaijan. ARMENPRESS infomrs, in the letter, the Foreign Minister reminds that the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, Toivo Klaar, in his October 2 tweet, expressed his disgust regarding the video, in which Azerbaijani soldiers supposedly shoot Armenian prisoners of war. In his tweet, he called for an independent investigation and, if the authenticity of the video is confirmed, to prosecute the culprits.

 

"The press secretary of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Peter Stano, at the press conference held on October 3, called on the Azerbaijani authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the alleged violation of the laws of war presented in the video. The Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan announced on the same day that it will investigate the events shown in this video. Therefore, the Netherlands discussed the events of the video in a conversation with the ambassador of Azerbaijan on Wednesday, October 5, expressing disgust for what was shown in the video and called on Azerbaijan to start an impartial and independent investigation," the letter states.

It was also emphasized in the conversation that the Netherlands, together with international partners, will closely follow the investigation.

 

"The results of this investigation must be published, and the alleged criminals must be brought to justice by the competent authorities. The Ambassador of Azerbaijan confirmed in the conversation that the Azerbaijani authorities have started an investigation into the events of the video, and noted that it will be carried out independently. The Ambassador of the Netherlands to Baku has repeatedly conveyed this message to high-ranking Azerbaijani officials. Furthermore, the Netherlands has repeatedly emphasized the importance of this video and its independent investigation in the European context, including in discussions at the Working Party on Eastern Europe and Central Asia (COEST), the European External Action Service (EEAS) as well as with the team of the Special Representative in the South Caucasus.

 

The Netherlands will continue to insist on an independent investigation and the publication of its findings, and will follow developments closely. All EU countries support the EU mediation process. The Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the spokesperson of the EU spoke about the video and called on Azerbaijan to conduct an independent investigation. The Netherlands does not know whether any other country has also invited the ambassador of Azerbaijan to address this issue," the letter says.

The letter from the Dutch Foreign Minister states that the Ministry of Defense of Armenia has confirmed the authenticity of the video, and Bellingcat published its investigation into the authenticity of the video on October 20.

 

"According to that analysis, there is sufficient certainty of authenticity. Human Rights Watch analyzed the video and called for an independent investigation and responsibility by the Azerbaijani authorities," the Dutch Foreign Minister concluded.

 

 

https://armenpress.a...ktbQqChH8MLaSyE

[Yervant1]

Asbarez.com

 

Calling Armenia ‘Russia’s Slave,’ Aliyev Says Armenian History is Fake

by Asbarez Staff

 

 November 25, 2022

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

 

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan speaks at a forum in Baku on Nov. 25 (Azertaj photo)

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan on Friday called Armenia “undeveloped,” “dependent on Russia” and “Russia’s slave,” saying that Armenians need psychological assistance and that Armenian history was fake and fabricated. He also called Armenia’s former president Serzh Sarkisian a “war criminal.”

The Azerbaijani leader’s latest rant against Armenia took place while speaking to foreign reporters and experts before meeting with Toivo Klaar, the European Union’s Special Representative to the Caucasus, with whom he discussed normalization of relations with Armenia and talks regarding a so-called peace treaty.

Earlier on Friday, Aliyev announced that he would not meet with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on December 7 in Brussels, saying Armenia was attempting to thwart peace negotiations because Yerevan requested the presence of President Emmanuel Macron of France at the scheduled meeting.

Aliyev also told the foreign reports that he had warned Pashinyan after he became Armenia’s prime minister that Azerbaijan will not tolerate occupations. “We will destroy you,” Aliyev said he told Pashinyan, saying that was neither posturing or showmanship. “We simply knew what we are capable of and what Armenia can do,” the Azerbaijani leader said.

Aliyev added that Pashinyan only changed his rhetoric after the 2020 war, saying the Armenian leader does not understand how honest we were being. “Maybe, [he] needs another cold shower,” Aliyev said of Pashinyan.

The Azerbaijani leader, once again, stressed that the so-called “Zangezur Corridor” will become a reality despite Yerevan’s numerous claims that such a such a plan has not been discussed during any discussions with mediators.

Aliyev insisted that Yerevan cannot block this demand by Azerbaijan, adding that Armenia’s other neighbor, Iran, will not become an obstacle to this plan. He said that currently Baku and Moscow are in talks about the “corridor,” and because Armenia is a “Russian satellite” he is not wasting his time to engage in talks with Yerevan about this matter.

He said he believes that Iran will not become an obstacle because it, too, is interested in opening of transit routes in the region. “These plans are not directed against any country. On the contrary they will only work toward everyone’s interests,” Aliyev said.

Iranian leaders, including the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on numerous occasions have warned about any changes in the current borders and stressed the need for respect of nations’ territorial integrity.

 

 

https://asbarez.com/..._34nephpDKIXkeo

 

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

Nov 28 2022

 

Fears for new Nagorno-Karabakh crisis as Azerbaijan threatens key road link An uptick in violence and rising political tensions are calling attention to the fate of the sole road in and out of the breakaway territory. Gabriel Gavin Nov 28, 2022

 

Increasingly fiery rhetoric and daily reports of clashes along the tense line of contact around Nagorno-Karabakh have sparked fears of a new conflict over the only remaining road link connecting the breakaway region to the outside world.

The Lachin Corridor, which connects Karabakh to Armenia through a sliver of Azerbaijani-controlled territory, has been under the supervision of Russian peacekeepers since the 2020 war.

Azerbaijan now is accusing Armenians of using the highway to transport weapons and other materiel in contravention of the terms of the ceasefire agreement that ended the 2020 war.

“The corridor is not being used for its intended purpose and this must be stopped,” Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov told journalists on November 25. He claimed that Baku had evidence that landmines manufactured in 2021 had been shipped from Yerevan to the region in recent months.

Armenia has denied the accusations; Ambassador-at-large Edmon Marukyan said that the allegations amounted to a pretext to “create false grounds to dispute [the] Lachin Corridor.”

The Russia-brokered 2020 ceasefire agreement required the Karabakh Armenians to give up the previous version of the Lachin Corridor, which had linked their isolated community to Armenia, as well as several towns and villages along it. In its place a new route that runs further south, largely constructed by Azerbaijani workers, opened to traffic in August.

 

 

But as Azerbaijan seeks to push Armenia into a comprehensive peace agreement, it is continuing to exert military pressure on Armenians as it calls into question the Lachin Corridor. The recent increase in tension has again raised fears that a new escalation could be in the cards.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a sharp spike in the number of ceasefire violations reported by both Armenia and Azerbaijan, with Baku repeatedly claiming over the course of several consecutive days that its troops had come under fire from “illegal armed detachments” in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian Karabakh armed forces, known as the Artsakh Defense Army, have called the claims “disinformation” and Russian peacekeepers have reported that it is in fact Azerbaijani forces who have been violating the ceasefire.

Baku has called on all ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh to disband, while locals fear that if they do, Azerbaijani troops will move in and they could be displaced from their homes – or worse.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly expressed frustration that the Lachin Corridor remains open while Yerevan refuses to allow it to use a 35-kilometer stretch of land in the south of Armenia connecting mainland Azerbaijan and its exclave of Nakhchivan. Baku insists that what it calls the “Zangezur Corridor” was agreed as part of the deal that ended the 2020 war and that Armenia has been dragging its feet on implementation; for its part Yerevan argues it only has an obligation to reopen its border to vehicle traffic from the neighboring country.

“The Zangezur Corridor is the responsibility of Armenia,” Aliyev said during a speech in early November. “For two years, we have not been interfering with the cars moving from Armenia to Karabakh and in the opposite direction along the Lachin road. […] How much longer are we supposed to wait?” In recent days, negotiations appear to have broken down, and Aliyev has revealed he is holding talks with Moscow instead of Yerevan on the issue, describing Armenia as a Russian “satellite country” whose independence is merely “symbolic.”

Meanwhile, a rift has opened up between the Kremlin and Armenia after an Azerbaijani offensive in September and the refusal of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to intervene on Armenia’s behalf.

At a summit in Yerevan on November 24 and 25, members of the organization failed to agree on an action plan to resolve the conflict after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan refused to sign off on its proposals. Instead, Armenia has increasingly been seeking support from the United States and Europe. And Aliyev on November 25 abruptly canceled a European Union-brokered meeting with Pashinyan over the proposed involvement of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Baku is not prepared to wait indefinitely on its demands for the handover of the Zangezur Corridor and the disbanding of Karabakh Armenian forces, a senior Azerbaijani official told Eurasianet.  “Diplomatic options have almost been exhausted,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “What if we were to install a [border] post at the entrance of Lachin and finish the whole process? How can you breathe with no air?”

In Stepanakert, the de facto capital of the unrecognized state of Artsakh, concern is growing over the prospect of Baku limiting movement to and from the region. “Everybody is waiting for a new escalation,” Tigran Grigoryan, an Armenia-based political analyst, told Eurasianet. The precarious transport link is “not just a vulnerability but an existential threat,” he said. “If Azerbaijan has any kind of control or presence on the Lachin Corridor, the majority of the population will question the possibility of staying because that is the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to the outside world.”

Speaking at a cabinet meeting earlier in November, Pashinyan warned that Aliyev’s rhetoric represented an attempt “to create grounds, invented grounds, for closing the Lachin Corridor, surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, and subjecting them to genocide and expatriation, under the pretext of Armenia not fulfilling its obligations.”

Across the border, the prospect of another conflict looms large as well. “We have really seen a deterioration of the situation over the past month,” Vasif Huseynov, head of department at the Azerbaijani state-run think tank Center of Analysis of International Relations. “According to the [2020] trilateral statement, the Lachin Corridor can be used only for humanitarian purposes. The violation of this makes Azerbaijan use various instruments under its disposal to stop illegal use of the corridor by Armenians,” he adds. “With the interference of external actors like Macron and Russia, and the breakdown in diplomacy, all this suggests that new escalations unfortunately cannot be excluded.”

Gabriel Gavin is a British journalist covering the former Soviet Union and Turkey.

https://eurasianet.o...s-key-road-link 

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

 

U.S. Ambassador-designate pledges to help Armenians to document atrocities committed by Azerbaijani servicemen

 

 

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 11:59, 1 December 2022

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) stressed the importance of the U.S. holding Azerbaijan accountable for its war crimes and clearly condemning Azerbaijani aggression against Armenians, during the Senate confirmation hearing for Biden Administration nominees for U.S. Ambassador to Armenia and Russia, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

 

In questions to U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy, who has been nominated for the U.S. ambassadorial post in Russia, Chairman Menendez expressed dismay that State Department officials recently evaded inquiries about videos depicting Azerbaijan’s murder and mutilation of Armenian captives, during what the Chairman described as “one of the most disappointing hearings I have ever conducted.” In response to Amb. Tracy’s reference to outreach to the Armenia Human Rights Ombudsperson regarding the investigation of the videos, Chairman Menendez demanded more. “We need our ambassadors, particularly in places of conflict, to be able to pursue what the truth is, so that we, as policymakers, can decide what to do about that truth,” stated Sen. Menendez.

Later, when U.S. Ambassador to Armenia-designate Kristina Kvien pledged to do her “best to help the Armenians with any requests they have to document” atrocities depicted in these videos, Chairman Menendez was adamant. “I don’t want requests from Armenians, I want us to be proactive so that we can make a determination,” stated Chairman Menendez, explaining that Senators need the facts about the Azerbaijani war crimes and aggression when deciding the enforcement of Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan. “I want an ambassador who is going to pro-actively help us determine whether executions, whether these mutilations, whether these other activities are true or not […] so that we as policymakers can make a decision. Can I depend upon you to do that,” asked Chairman Menendez.

 

“Yes, Senator, and I will go further to say that accountability for crimes of this nature are very important to me, and I will work to make sure there is accountability as well,” stated, Ambassador-designate Kvien. Offering the last word, Chairman Menendez remarked, “Without accountability, there is no justice.”

 

Building on Chairman Menendez’ exchange, Senator Van Hollen stressed the importance of accountability, sharing his dismay at Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried and State Department Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations Philip Reeker’s refusal to clearly identify Azerbaijan as the aggressor during the recent attacks, when the testified at the November 16th hearing. “It was very well documented in September by independent press sources that Azerbaijan launched attacks and engaged in different types of atrocities,” stated Sen. Van Hollen. “I understand the importance of being a mediator, but in order to be a credible mediator, in my view, you have to at least begin with the facts – and be willing to publicly state them.”

On U.S. aid to Artsakh, Chairman Menendez noted that he is “deeply concerned that neither the State Department nor USAID have provided the humanitarian assistance necessary to assist the 100,000 displaced by the Nagorno Karabakh war of 2020 or the current needs of those who still reside in the region.” The Chairman went on to secure a public commitment from US Ambassador-designate to Armenia Kvien to support a U.S. humanitarian needs assessment for the victims of Azerbaijan’s aggression in Artsakh and Armenia.

 

Regarding the proper acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide, Chairman Menendez stated “I am glad to see a nominee who actually calls the Armenian Genocide a ‘genocide,’ noting that he had, in the past, stopped nominees who denied the Armenian Genocide in their responses to Senate inquiries.

 

 

https://armenpress.a...y2IF-lTG0nX96TA