Statue of a Dictator (Aliyev Clan)

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

Members of European Parliament slam Azerbaijan for “blatant disrespect” of int’l obligations regarding Lachin Corridor

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15:18, 26 April 2023

YEREVAN, APRIL 26, ARMENPRESS. Member of the European Parliament Marina Kaljurand, the Chair of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with the South Caucasus, Member of the European Parliament Andrey Kovatchev, the European Parliament’s Standing Rapporteur on Armenia, and Member of the European Parliament Zeljana Zovko, the European Parliament’s Standing Rapporteur on Azerbaijan, issued a joint statement on “the blatant disrespect by Azerbaijan of its international obligations regarding the Lachin Corridor.”

Below is the joint statement:

“We express our strong concern related to the installation by Azerbaijan of a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor on 23 April 2023. This can have possible negative consequences and be seen as a clear violation of the ceasefire statement of 9 November 2020, as well as an act of disrespect of the binding ruling of the International Court of Justice of 22 February 2023 which ordered Azerbaijan to ‘take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions’.

We recall that the Azerbaijani blockade of the corridor has been ongoing since 12 December 2022, causing humanitarian hardship to the population of Nagorno-Karabakh and greatly undermining prospects for peace. The recent actions further aggravate the situation. We urge Baku to reverse course immediately and commit to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and to the respect of international obligations and norms. The European Union continues to stand ready to assist the parties in addressing all their differences through negotiations.

Moreover, it is regrettable that such actions were taken on the very eve of the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day of 24 April, the anniversary of the launch of the extermination campaign by the Ottoman Empire 108 years ago. We commemorate the one and a half million victims who perished in the genocide and call on the international community to remain vigilant with respect to all instances of inflammatory rhetoric and actions that incite hatred and prevent reconciliation.”

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1109648.html?fbclid=IwAR0YDvQ_IFTw53VQLv5aXzn159ndD2QtAiPR9_yB0SyhREP0wcOiuqxEWBw

[Yervant1]

April 27 2023

France Urges Azerbaijan to Free up Road to Disputed Enclave, Baku Unhappy

By Reuters

By Nailia Bagirova

BAKU (Reuters) -French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna urged Azerbaijan on Thursday to remove a newly installed checkpoint on the road linking Armenia to the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, on the first leg of a delicate trip to both countries.

Her comments in Baku drew a sharp retort from her Azerbaijani counterpart that highlighted the sensitivities of her mission.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought two wars in the past three decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians and run by a separatist administration.

Azerbaijan set up a new checkpoint on Sunday on the road to Karabakh, the Lachin corridor, in a move Armenia that called a gross violation of a 2020 ceasefire between the two countries, and which also sparked U.S. concern.

"We deplore the unilateral measures taken by Azerbaijan at the start of the Lachin corridor," Colonna told a news conference with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov. "Freedom of movement in the corridor is essential to re-establish trust."

Bayramov responded that Azerbaijan had been saying for 2-1/2 years that Armenia was using the route to transfer weapons and fighters to Karabakh, "but I don't remember France making any statement against Armenia".

BLOCKADE

The checkpoint marked a sharp escalation in a months-long blockade of Karabakh that began in December, when Azerbaijani civilians identifying themselves as environmental activists shut down the road to traffic.

Ethnic Armenians in Karabakh complain of a humanitarian crisis, while Armenia is increasingly unhappy with the failure of Russian peacekeepers to keep the road open.

Separately, Moscow said deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin had held one-on-one meetings with the Armenian and Azeri ambassadors to discuss the Lachin corridor and Karabakh.

Galuzin underlined the importance of sticking to agreements that Russia had signed with both nations on the normalisation of relations, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russia said on Wednesday it had appointed a new head of its Karabakh peacekeeping force.

Colonna rejected a reporter's suggestion that France was biased against Azerbaijan, saying its only interest was to secure peace.

She said reopening the Lachin corridor was a point of international law and a question of restoring trust.

"If you want to nourish the peace process, yes we need gestures of a kind that can help rebuild confidence," she said.

(Writing by Mark Trevelyan, Felix Light and David LjunggrenEditing by Gareth Jones and Frances Kerry)

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-04-27/french-minister-urges-azerbaijan-to-free-up-road-to-disputed-enclave

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

Installation of checkpoint in Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan contradicts ceasefire agreement, says French FM

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16:27, 28 April 2023

YEREVAN, APRIL 28, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan’s installation of a checkpoint in Lachin Corridor contradicts the 9 November 2020 statement, French FM Catherine Colonna said during a joint press conference with Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan.

“If Azerbaijan is concerned over the transparency of flows, there are several other methods to approach this issue, rather than taking unilateral steps. Fair and sustainable peace means peace that respects and protects human rights. We work for our peoples and we want humanitarian steps to contribute to the formation of an atmosphere conducive to negotiations, be it the issues of prisoners of war or those missing, or other difficult issues. We continue to call for the restoration of unimpeded movement along the Lachin Corridor in accordance with the assumed obligations, as well as the ruling of the International Court of Justice. The blockade has been going on for already several months, this is not acceptable, this doesn’t comply with commitments to international law and creates risks for a humanitarian crisis for the population of Nagorno Karabakh,” FM Colonna said.

Colonna called for negotiations around the security and rights of the population of Nagorno Karabakh.

“The population of Nagorno Karabakh must be able to continue to live in peace and security, with respect to its culture and traditions,” FM Colonna added.

The Lachin Corridor has been blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022.

The United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - ordered Azerbaijan on February 22 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. Azerbaijan has so far ignored the ruling.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1109837.html?fbclid=IwAR3_VoZFch95SfnEIU1IgjI3BTROI9G9INMs3YpPGd3dsFvuhkRnla6jDQo

[Yervant1]

Without consequences this is useless effort!

 

Armenpress.am

U.S. Secretary of State tells Aliyev that checkpoint undermines peace process, calls for reopening of Lachin Corridor

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12:14, 1 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 1, ARMENPRESS. United States Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken held a phone call with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on April 30 and expressed “deep concern” that Azerbaijan’s establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor undermines efforts to establish confidence in the peace process and called for reopening the Lachin corridor.

“Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev today to underscore the importance of Azerbaijan-Armenia peace discussions and pledged continued U.S. support. Secretary Blinken shared his belief that peace was possible. He also expressed the United States’ deep concern that Azerbaijan’s establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor undermines efforts to establish confidence in the peace process, and emphasized the importance of reopening the Lachin corridor to commercial and private vehicles as soon as possible,” the State Department said in a readout of the call.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1109954.html?fbclid=IwAR1abkVe5O8jXqu7v5sPZtlw2YA2w0KP6XjLR34XO6lbmANhauBx9Bcu-_I

 

[Yervant1]

May 1 2023

Sieged and Starved: 120,000 Armenians

By Uzay Bulut on May 1, 2023

"Siege starvation,” according to Tom Dannenbaum, a Professor of International Law, is “a war crime of societal torture.”

For over 4 months, the indigenous Armenians of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in the South Caucuses have endured siege starvation: they are victims of an illegal blockade, causing starvation and mental anguish at the hands of the government of Azerbaijan.

From December 12, 2022 to April 28, 2023 so-called “eco-activists” of Azerbaijan blockaded the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Artsakh with the rest of the world, exposing the Armenian population there to starvation in an attempt to force them to leave their ancestral homeland. Then, on April 23rd, Azerbaijan declared it had established a military checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor. However, humanitarian aid shipments to Artsakh have been disrupted by Azerbaijan’s new checkpoint, Armenian media reported: “Artsakh authorities announced that humanitarian assistance delivered by Russian peacekeepers from Armenia to Artsakh could not be transported for three days following the creation of the checkpoint.”

Then, on April 28th, Azerbaijan announced it “temporarily suspended” the “eco-protest” it orchestrated to blockade Artsakh. It later turned out that the “eco-activists” were replaced by Azeri soldiers, thus making the road almost impossible to cross for the Armenians. The Artsakh / Nagorno-Karabakh Human Rights Ombudsman reported on April 29th:

“The Artsakh Blockade now continues at 2 sites: the illegally installed checkpoint on the Hakari Bridge on April 23, and at the site blocked since December 12th, 2022 near Shushi, where Azeri government agents in civilian clothes were replaced by law enforcement officers yesterday.”

Azerbaijan does not need the fake “eco-protest” to perpetrate its ethnic cleansing now that it has a military checkpoint. Azerbaijan has thus formalized and doubled down on its blockade through the checkpoint and deployment of the Azeri military personnel on the Lachin corridor. This means the blockade will be even stricter from now on.

This blockade has been denying Artsakh’s 120,000 Armenians access to food, medicine, fuel, and other essential supplies.

In accordance with the 2020 ceasefire agreement signed by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia following the 44-day war, “along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor, a peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation was deployed in the amount of 1,960 servicemen.” The very limited transportation and humanitarian aid shipments between Artsakh and Armenia are currently provided by the Russian peacekeepers and ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross).

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention has issued several “Red Flag Genocide Alerts” to Azerbaijan pointing out the fact that “this blockade is part of broader genocidal aims of the Azeri authorities supported by their staunch ally Turkey.”

On February 2, for instance, the Institute announced:

“The blockade of this [Lachin] corridor, the only land route connecting the Armenians of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) with Armenia itself, has caused a humanitarian crisis isolating 120,000 people, including over 30,000 children, 20,000 elderly people, and 9,000 people with disabilities. Armenians in Artsakh are running out of food, essential medicines (such as insulin), baby foods and necessities, essential hygiene products for women, and other necessities. The serious humanitarian crisis caused by the blockade worsens daily. Additionally, there were constant gas and electricity cuts made by Azerbaijan during the harsh Caucasian winter. The responsibility for this humanitarian crisis lies solely on the Azerbaijani state, particularly with the regime of President Ilham Aliyev.”

Children, pregnant women, and the elderly, many of whom are already suffering from severe illness, are among the worst affected by the blockade. The Artsakh Ministry of Healthcare reports that newborns and their mothers in the region now face dire shortages of baby food, diapers, medicine, and other necessities, according to journalist Jackie Abramian.

According to a report issued by the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Artsakh on April 12th, during the 4-month-long blockade, 1,060 citizens of Artsakh were deprived of the opportunity to undergo surgeries to cure health problems due to postponements of programmed operations in all medical institutions of Artsakh.

The illegal blockade has also led to mass unemployment and an economic crisis in Artsakh. The Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Artsakh has reported that most businesses involved with manufacturing, construction, agriculture, and trade have either completely stopped or almost completely stopped operating due to the impossibility of importing economic inputs as well as insufficient electricity and gas. An estimated 10,300 people have lost their jobs. The businesses that remain open are operating either partially or with governmental support.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan keeps deliberately cutting gas supplies from Armenia to Artsakh. All of this so that Azerbaijan can cause as much suffering as possible to the Artsakh people. By such deliberate deprivation, Azerbaijan seems to grant only two options to Armenians: surrender or starve.

Given Azerbaijan’s callous treatment of Armenians, one could easily conclude that surrender would only lead to death and destruction for the Armenian community; Azerbaijan has unleashed murderous violence against Armenians several times, including during the 44-day war in 2020.

During the short war, Azerbaijani military forces perpetrated war crimes against Armenians. They murdered civilians, injured journalists and targeted homes, forests, hospitals, churches and cultural centers, among other non-military targets. They used white phosphorus and cluster munitions in violation of international law. At least 90,000 Armenians were forced to abandon their ancestral lands in Artsakh as a result.

Throughout these assaults, Azerbaijan was militarily and politically backed by Turkey, a NATO member and a European Union candidate. Together, Azerbaijan and Turkey utilized modern military technology to complete their century-long goal of ethnically cleansing Armenians from the region; Ottoman Turkey committed genocide against Armenians in 1915, with around 1.5 million Armenians perishing.

The 2020 war was supposed to have been suspended by the November 9th agreement signed by Armenia and Azerbaijan and brokered by Russia. However, not only did Azeri military aggression never stop, but it has grown worse through a blockade which is currently holding 120,000 Armenians hostage.

As part of its starvation policy, Azerbaijan is also trying to stop the work of farmers in Artsakh. On March 26th, for instance, civilians working in the pomegranate garden of the village of Martakert were fired at from Azerbaijani combat positions, leading to the disruption of harvesting. The use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare is prohibited by international law.

Azerbaijan, however, continues to blatantly ignore the binding International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision on provisional measures issued on February 22nd, 2023, which ordered Azerbaijan to ensure free movement of goods and people through the Lachin Corridor.

The civilized world, however, keeps watching idly by as another Armenian genocide unfolds before our eyes. Will America also idly observe Azerbaijan’s crimes? The Biden administration should immediately sanction the government of Azerbaijan to stop this ongoing genocide against the Armenian people.

https://providencemag.com/2023/05/sieged-and-starved-120000-armenians/

[MosJan]

lets not forget who help Ihlam become president . USA holded his fathers gaydars body iin freezer in USA till ihlam become president

 

Putin or USA/UK we still going to have the same / Semler outcome . the question is Who Will Control the corridor

 

Without consequences this is useless effort!

 

 

[Yervant1]

lets not forget who help Ihlam become president . USA holded his fathers gaydars body iin freezer in USA till ihlam become president

 

Putin or USA/UK we still going to have the same / Semler outcome . the question is Who Will Control the corridor

Armenia had almost 30 years to prepare for this, instead they relied on others to do our job! Armenians can rely on Armenians only.

[Yervant1]

May 3 2023

 

End American Military Aid to Azerbaijan

Why are we funneling money to a corrupt despotism in a far-off land?

Eldar Mamedov
May 3, 2023


As President Joe Biden commemorated the Armenian genocide on April 24, his administration continues military cooperation with Azerbaijan. Emboldened by its military victory over Armenian forces in 2020, Azerbaijan is pressing its advantage to impose a coercive “peace” on the South Caucasus. The U.S. has no business in helping Baku achieve its goals, in any way or shape, much less with the American taxpayers’ money.

On April 23, just the day before the commemoration of the Armenian genocide, Azerbaijan established a checkpoint on the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian-majority enclave within the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, with Armenia through the so-called Lachin corridor. This was done in a blatant violation of the provisions of the trilateral statement between Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan that put an end to the war in 2020.

According to the deal, Russian peacemakers were deployed to the region, ostensibly to guarantee its implementation, including securing the road in question. Yet they appeared to look the other way as Azerbaijan proceeded with blocking the corridor. Regional analysts suggest Moscow’s collusion with Baku. Even in the unlikely case that Azerbaijan acted without at least a prior heads-up with the Kremlin, this development only highlights the unreliability of Russia’s claims to play a stabilizing role in the region.

The erection of the checkpoint is a culmination of a months-long policy of isolation of the Karabakh Armenians, mixing blockade of the enclave and threats of what could amount to ethnic cleansing. Earlier this year, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of the United Nations ordered Azerbaijan to end its blockage of the Lachin corridor. This binding order demanded that Azerbaijan “take all measures to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the corridor in both directions,” according to M.P. Arusyak Julhakyan.

Not only did Azerbaijan ignore that order, but its autocratic president, Ilham Aliyev, issued fresh threats against the local indigenous Armenian population to accept Azerbaijan’s citizenship or leave the territory. Given that Azerbaijan is a hereditary dictatorship that scores at the very bottom of international democracy, human-rights, and transparency rankings, this ultimatum essentially amounts to a demand that the local population submit to a despotic rule that denies rights even to Azerbaijan’s own citizens.

Add to that an anti-Armenian speech at the official level in Baku—recently, Azerbaijani parliament called the European citizens of Armenian origin a “cancerous tumor.” Since Baku has completely ruled out any form of even a limited cultural autonomy for the Karabakh Armenians, it can only be concluded that it is creating conditions that would push them to leave their ancestral homes in what could qualify as ethnic cleansing.

The U.S. State Department expressed its deep concern about the actions of Azerbaijan. Yet Washington can go further and impose real costs on Baku by ending military cooperation with the country. To accomplish that, the U.S. should only follow its own legislation by invoking the Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which was adopted in early 1990s to block any U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. In fact, this is what a bipartisan group of sixty-nine members of the House of Representatives is currently demanding.

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That provision was waived for the first time in 2002 and annually ever since, in the context of the so-called “Global War on Terror.” The GWOT created a whole sprawling network of relationships with unsavory regimes in the wider Middle East judged helpful in fighting terrorism. According to Security Assistance Monitor, a Washington watchdog, in fiscal years 2018 and 2019 alone Azerbaijan was the beneficiary of more than $100 million worth U.S. security aid.

With the GWOT winding down and the U.S. reorienting towards great power competition, there is no reasonable justification for keeping those relationships intact. The absurdity of waiving the Section 907 in 2023 is underscored by the fact that it was introduced when it was the Azerbaijani territories adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh that were occupied by the Armenian forces while today it is Azerbaijan that is destabilizing the region.

When Secretary of State Blinken was pressed on this point by the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, he offered only a weak defense: The $700,000 set aside for Azerbaijan for the next fiscal year would be used to train Azerbaijani officers, in the hope, as Blinken put it, of fostering their development of a “Western orientation.” He didn’t elaborate on what exactly that meant, but if “Western orientation” is synonymous with respect for international norms, then years of U.S. assistance, on the face of it, missed the mark: The Azerbaijani military has committed amply documented abuses against Armenian prisoners of war and civilians. Baku’s official rhetoric and actions do not augur any positive change in the near future.

Equally groundless is the assumption that such aid will make Azerbaijan more receptive to American interests. Azerbaijan’s relationship with the West is strictly transactional, mainly based on leveraging the country’s (limited) oil and gas reserves as an alternative to the Russian supplies. Yet while hawkish Washington cheers on Azerbaijan, think tanks like the Hudson Institute are busy pitching the country as a bulwark against Russian and Iranian influence and thus deserving of U.S. support. In reality Baku is very careful not to antagonize Moscow. Azerbaijan’s government is fully entitled to conduct its foreign policy in accordance with what it sees as the country’s national interest, but there is no reason why the U.S. has to fund it.

Blinken then produced a supposed trump card justifying continued military cooperation with Azerbaijan—the threat from Iran, with which Azerbaijan has a long border that “needs to be protected.” It is unclear why protecting Azerbaijan’s border with Iran should be any of the U.S.'s business. Azerbaijan has intense security relationships with Israel and Turkey and is (or should be, at any rate) more than capable of defending its own borders.

Of further note, Azerbaijan is far from blameless in its tensions with Iran. Since the war, Azerbaijani leadership has only intensified its irredentist claims against both Armenia and Iran. To the extent that the United States should get involved, it needs to call on both Azerbaijan and Iran to resolve their differences diplomatically rather than one-sidedly supporting a government that is actively stoking tensions.

The Biden administration needs to act coherently with the spirit of its commemoration of the Armenian genocide and stop any military aid to Azerbaijan. Such support neither reflects American values nor advances American interests.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eldar Mamedov is a foreign policy analyst based in Brussels.


https://www.theamericanconservative.com/end-american-military-aid-to-azerbaijan/

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

Belgian,French politicians, public figures condemn Azerbaijani checkpoint installation on Lachin Corridor

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13:56, 5 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 5, ARMENPRESS. 32 Belgian and French politicians, public figures and representatives of organizations issued a joint statement condemning the establishment of the Azerbaijani checkpoint on the Hakari bridge, on the Lachin corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh, the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) said in a press release.

In the statement, they call on the Azerbaijani government to fulfill its obligations, immediately open the Lachin corridor, remove the checkpoint, end the hostile policy against the native Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh/ Artsakh and act as a responsible member of the international community.

Below is the list of signatories of the statement:

Allessia Claes

Karl Vanlouwe

Pierre d'Argent

Bernard Coulie

Georges Dallemagne

Emmanuel De Bock

Julie de Groote

Michel De Maegd

Mark Demesmaeker

Peter De Roover

Jens De Rycke

Sakis Dimitrakopoulos

Christos Doulkeridis

Hervé Doyen

André Du Bus

Josy Dubié

Aymeric Fuseau

Alda Greoli

Marc Hendrickx

Ward Kennes

Benoit Lannoo

Annick Lambrecht

Marie Lecocq

Georgios Sidiropoulos

Simone Susskind

Julie Rizkallah Szmaj

Annabel Tavernier

Thijs Verbeurgt

Julien Uyttendaele

Gaëtan Van Goidsenhoven

Els Van Hoof

Karim Van Overmeire

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1110318.html?fbclid=IwAR1ZCujMSUFo4fc7HnScKL_z3gxpEML2e3jwXF35ENDJRzf83DYNQMbeaK8

[Yervant1]

Exactly my point, asking, demanding, big concern, must open etc. is not working. The West is playing us into believing that they care, when in fact it seems their interests are aligned with fake sultan!

1945

May 4 2023

Blinken Isn’t Taken Seriously By Azerbaijan. A Drone Strike Might Change That.

By Michael Rubin

Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosted Azerbaijan and Armenia’s foreign ministers in Washington, DC, in an effort to win peace in Nagorno-Karabakh. As the diplomats prepared to sit down, Blinken called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. According to the State Department’s readout, Blinken “expressed the United States’ deep concern that Azerbaijan’s establishment of a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor undermines efforts to establish confidence in the peace process, and emphasized the importance of reopening the Lachin corridor to commercial and private vehicles as soon as possible.”

I visited the area of the checkpoint the next day, looking down on it from a nearby mountain. Azerbaijan shows no intention of shutting it down, even though it would be easy to do so: it is a glorified tent that was erected in a few hours, and could be dismantled even quicker. Armenians rightly point out that repeated declarations of “deep concern” are meaningless; they can actually do harm if Aliyev concludes—as he apparently has done—that he faces no more than finger wagging and can ignore Blinken at will. Such attitudes makes peace less likely: Armenians recognize that Azerbaijani agreements are meaningless while Azerbaijanis see a lack of consequence as a reason to become even more aggressive.

Indeed, I traveled along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border close enough to see Azerbaijani forces and pick up Azerbaijani cell phone service. While the State Department waives—and will again this year—Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act in order to provide military assistance to Azerbaijan, I saw newly fortified Azerbaijani positions with advanced radar, missile launchers, and helicopter landing pads. Not far away, Azerbaijan is building airfields in areas with no civilian need. In essence, the U.S. government today finances an Azerbaijani military build-up aimed at eradicating the region’s oldest Christian community.

Perhaps it is time for Blinken to take a page from Ronald Reagan’s playbook in order to restore faith in American diplomacy and fortitude. In July 1987, Reagan reflagged Kuwaiti tankers to reinforce freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf. After a US escort ship struck an Iranian mine the following April, Reagan decided to retaliate against an Iranian oil platform. As per procedure, the Navy first broadcast warnings to the Iranians to evacuate and gave them time to do so. When it became apparent that the Iranians instead sought to reinforce the platform, a battle ensued and Iran effectively lost its navy.

Azerbaijan is not Iran. If the U.S. were to leaflet the illegal checkpoint and demand Azeris abandon the post within ten minutes followed by a drone strike to eliminate the illegal checkpoint, it might be a shot of adrenalin to diplomacy and ironically facilitate efforts at peace. Aliyev continues to push until someone pushes back. Armenia has not. Russia cannot. Should the United States act, Blinken might find that, in an instant, the United States’ word in the South Caucasus would once again matter.

Now a 1945 Contributing Editor, Dr. Michael Rubin is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014); and “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos” (Palgrave, 2005).

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/05/blinken-isnt-taken-seriously-by-azerbaijan-a-drone-strike-might-change-that/

 

[Yervant1]

How can you have peace with someone like this or trust their word!

Armenia - May 6 2023

Azerbaijan to “restore” Armenian monastery as “Albanian”

May 6, 2023 - 13:38 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan is going to “restore” the Armenian monastery of the Nagorno Karabakh town of Hadrut as an “Albanian church”, Apa.az reports.

Azerbaijan’s government announced in February 2022 that it intends to erase Armenian inscriptions on religious sites in the territory that it reclaimed in the 2020 war with Armenia

It justified the move by arguing that the churches in fact were originally the heritage of Caucasian Albania, an ancient kingdom once located in what is now Azerbaijan. The theory, which is not supported by historians, has long been propagated by nationalist Azerbaijani historians and has been embraced by the current government in Baku.

Concerns about the preservation of cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are made all the more urgent by the Azerbaijani government’s history of systemically destroying indigenous Armenian heritage—acts of both warfare and historical revisionism. The Azerbaijani government has secretly destroyed a striking number of cultural and religious artifacts in the late 20th century. Within Nakhichevan alone, a historically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani forces destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars (Armenian cross stones) and 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.
https://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/307136/Azerbaijan_to_restore_Armenian_monastery_as_Albanian

 

 

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

BREAKING: Azerbaijan bars Red Cross patient transfers from Nagorno Karabakh

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15:09, 10 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan has been obstructing the activities of the Red Cross in transferring patients from Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia ever since it illegally set up a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor, the Human Rights Defender of Artsakh Gegham Stepanyan said on May 10.

“After setting up a checkpoint, Azerbaijan obstructs the activities of the Red Cross in Artsakh in every possible way. For 11 days now, the ICRC has been unable to transport patients in critical health conditions to medical facilities in Armenia,” Stepanyan tweeted.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1110585.html?fbclid=IwAR0-3Tra6vdKSRRxbPyry_hSA_aUMqBvhJrQ3CCvPMDLrORu6BoRxWfzbqM

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee calls for sanctions against senior Azerbaijani officials

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09:50, 11 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee has called for sanctions against senior Azerbaijani officials for manufacturing a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno Karabakh with the blockade.

“150 days into Baku's blockade of Nagorno Karabakh, it is clear that [Azerbaijani President] Aliyev is manufacturing a humanitarian crisis & cutting off power for critical infrastructure. Sanctions for senior Azerbaijani officials must be on the table as we apply pressure to open the Lachin Corridor,” the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tweeted.

Lachin Corridor – the only road linking Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the rest of the world – has been blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022. The United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - ordered Azerbaijan on 22 February 2023 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. Azerbaijan has so far ignored the order.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1110645.html?fbclid=IwAR0P5BsJWzzEe7qDi8pmwhUCbdqotIvu6T7ujQptAvI6FCunf7QuGX9noRc

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

Participation of Germany, France in Chisinau meeting to have positive contribution, says Armenian Deputy FM

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13:07, 12 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS. The participation of influential EU members France and Germany in the June 1 meeting between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moldova could definitely be a positive contribution, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan said at a press conference on May 12.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan are due to meet together with President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, in the margins of the upcoming European Political Community summit in Moldova’s capital Chisinau on 1 June 2023.

The format of the five-sided meeting in Chisinau will be the same as in Prague, when President of the European Council Charles Michel hosted the quadrilateral talks, but this year the German Chancellor will also participate.

Azerbaijan announced this week that they don’t have a final decision about their participation in the Chisinau meeting, but gave consent to an “informal meeting”, as long as it doesn’t replace the Brussels format.

In this regard Hovhannisyan said that there are no changes in the format. “We have a number of different formats. It’s about advancing the process, there hasn’t been any talk about creating any new format,” he said.

Asked whether or not Azerbaijan’s condition for participating in the talks is due to the German and French leaders’ participation, Hovhannisyan said: “The participation of Germany and France can definitively have positive contribution. They are the more influential countries of the EU.”

Armenia has confirmed readiness to participate in the Chisinau meeting.

Pashinyan and Aliyev are scheduled to meet on May 14 in Brussels. Then, foreign ministerial talks are scheduled for May 19 in Moscow. The Chisinau meeting is expected on June 1.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1110772.html?fbclid=IwAR39aENHE8XqnXf5zcjIoSRvISxQnMIKf_0UryZ3jJU3W1vKM7JU3lzyHwc

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Armenpress.am

Ambassador-at-large reacts to U.S. State Department spox’s description of unprovoked Azeri attack as “exchange of fire"

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15:00, 12 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador-at-large Edmon Marukyan has reacted to the U.S. State Department spokesperson’s press briefing where the latter described the May 11 Azerbaijani attack on Armenia in Sotk as “exchange of fire.”

“First of all, it was not an exchange of fire but another unprovoked attack by the Azerbaijan’s army, which is well known for its ISIS-like warfare conduct. Armenian army took necessary steps to defend our sovereign territory. Second, our demand is that Azerbaijan must withdraw its occupational forces from the sovereign territory of Armenia and return to the internationally recognized borders, i.e. the administrative borders that existed between both countries at the time of independence from the USSR. Third, in 2022, in Prague and Sochi, Azerbaijan committed that it will refrain from the use of force or threat of use of force,” Marukyan tweeted.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1110786.html?fbclid=IwAR19mX9tlpvDilzx3VR8aTkVcksI81quPFZQJ9HY5bfTABCcOJQxYTeCAc0

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Asbarez.com

Rights Advocates Say Baku Has Stationed 6,000 Troops Along Border; Detail Azerbaijani Brutality Against POWs

by Asbarez Staff

May 12, 2023

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

Rights advocates Arman Tatoyan and Siranush Sahakyan hold a press briefing on May 12

 

Human rights advocates Arman Tatoyan and Siranush Sahakyan presented details of their most recent report that includes information about Azerbaijan having stationed 6,000 special forces along its border with Armenia and Artsakh. The report also reveals information about the brutal treatment of Armenian prisoners of war being held captive in Baku.

“Commando unit [of Azerbaijan] is stationed in Hadrut and Karvachar. At the moment there are five units, but the location of three of them is kept secret,” Sahakyan, an attorney who represents Armenia at the European Court of Human Rights, said at news conference with Tatoyan on Friday.

She said that their research has found that the special Azerbaijani forces, numbering around 6,000, have been tasked with destroying the Artsakh Defense Army and are conducting clandestine operations in and around the Azerbaijani border with Armenia and Artsakh.

Tatoyan, who was Armenia’s former Human Rights Defender and runs a foundation that bares his name, said that despite public claims by Azerbaijani leaders about engaging in border delimitation and demarcation processes, official Baku has already begun fortifying the positions it has gained within Armenia through the various breaches of Armenia’s sovereign territory, including the attack on the Aragatsotn, Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces in September of last year.

“We know that the Azerbaijanis have invaded the sovereign territories of Armenia, and it is obvious that they have no intention of leaving,” said Tatoyan. “No matter how much they [the Azerbaijanis] talk about [border] delimitation, international principles, their actions speak of something completely different. They are entrenched in the territories inside the border of Armenia.”

He described the differences he observed when he visited Syunik three months ago and later 10 days ago. Tatoyan said that Azerbaijani forces have “entrenched themselves” on the sovereign territory of Armenia.

“They have set up positions in the administrative area of Nerkin Hand village of Syunik, a few months ago they had built a small building; after a few months—big buildings, infrastructures, and roads. We had recorded the same thing after September 13-14 in the region of Jermuk: after a few months, they were even constructing wide concrete roads, bunkers and other facilities,” Tatoyan said.

He emphasized that the Azerbaijani are making the life of the civilian population in those regions in Armenia unbearable so that they will leave, pointing out similar pressures being applied on the citizens of Artsakh.

Tatoyan said that the Azerbaijani are cutting off the water supply to prevent farmers and shepherds from using their lands for pastures and farming.

He also said that Azerbaijani forces are placing landmines in villages in the Syunik Province, posing a threat to the residents and livestock.

Sahakyan, who has extensive experience advocating for the rights of Armenian captives and POWs, said that Armenian detainees have been severely beaten by Azerbaijani military police. She said that coupled with the physical abuse, Armenian POWs were also deliberately being deprived of food and sleep and were being exposed to the elements when they were held outdoors in cold weather.

Sahakyan said that the Azerbaijani policy was continued under the supervision of special services, and more intense inhumane treatment was shown at detention centers, where the “superiority” of Azerbaijanis over the ethnic Armenians was emphasized through racial insults and degradation.

She explained that a similar tactic intended to cause additional harm to Armenians was being employed by Azerbaijani when they target the families of killed soldiers and detainees by sending them images of their loved one being tortured or mutilated.

Sahakyan warned that often times the captured Armenians were handed over to military or civilian medical professionals who stage scenes of the captives receiving treatment as a means of warding off international observers. In reality, she said the Azerbaijani medical personnel also use violence once the cameras are shut off.

She also said that their investigation has revealed that there are 80 POWs and not 33 as has been reported widely by officials in Baku and Yerevan.

Tatoyan and Sahakyan concluded that inaction by the international community has allowed Azerbaijan to continue to act with impunity and commit gross violations of human and individual rights against Armenians.

Tatoyan explained that Azerbaijan actions serve two purposes for the authorities in Baku. He said that official Baku continues to sow hatred toward Armenians to project to lay Azerbaijanis that there is an external enemy, thus quelling internal unrest.

He said the second goal of the Azerbaijani authorities is to create conditions that force Armenians to leave their ancestral lands—the beginning of ethnic cleansing not just in Artsakh, but also Armenia.

https://asbarez.com/rights-advocates-say-baku-has-stationed-6000-troops-along-border-detail-azerbaijani-brutality-against-pows/?fbclid=IwAR1AaQXYfwGa-8YGDQ3Ussni-zYJlcH2skEuYJxPxFHZI18PhyjK2rwgjFM

[Yervant1]

 

May 11 2023

 

Azerbaijan: The veneer of democracy is peeling off Baku’s authoritarian political structure

 

Extended parliamentary vacancies mean 380,000 citizens have no representation.

May 11, 2023

Seven of the 125 seats in Azerbaijan’s parliament are now vacant and no one seems in a hurry to do anything about it. The prolonged vacancies are an indicator that President Ilham Aliyev’s administration is not worrying about maintaining a democratic veneer on the country’s authoritarian system.

Azerbaijan has a strong presidential system that includes what is widely viewed as a rubber-stamp legislature. Parliament is packed with pro-presidential MPs, most of them members of Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan Party, along with a smattering of independents. The democracy watchdog group Freedom House in its 2023 Freedom of the World report ranked Azerbaijan’s political system as “not free,” adding that Baku ranked among the “worst of the worst” states in the areas of political rights and civil liberties.

Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan have routinely been marred by irregularities, according to monitoring groups. The last legislative elections in 2020 produced an expected, overwhelming pro-presidential majority, but it also yielded a minor surprise: the Central Election Committee invalidated the results in four electoral districts, citing complaints of fraud. The invalidations came after Aliyev spoke publicly about a need to clean up Azerbaijan’s reputation for dirty elections. “We don't want any violations,” Aliyev said. “Those who committed violations should receive their punishment so that such situations do not happen in the future.”

One way to address electoral fraud is to not hold a vote at all. And this is what has happened with the four invalidated results. No re-run elections have been scheduled in the un-represented districts. Three additional parliamentary vacancies have also opened up over the years: one MP died, another was arrested and expelled, and the third was promoted to a post in the executive branch. No moves have been made to fill those vacancies either.

Azerbaijani legislation seems to require expeditious action to fill parliamentary vacancies. The law on Elections for Parliament calls for re-run elections to be held within three months in cases where original results are nullified.

Back in 2021, CEC chief Mazahir Panahov told journalists that special elections for the vacant seats would be held “in the near future.” But since then there hasn’t been a peep about the matter from administration officials, who seem more focused on external issues, including as Azerbaijan’s prickly relations with Iran and the still smoldering conflict with Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh. Earlier this year, MP Zahid Oruj said that no special elections are currently planned. The next general legislative elections should be held no later than 2025.

Najmin Kamilsoy, a political analyst in Baku, said widespread apathy with electoral politics is enabling the government’s ability to put off special elections. Campaign season is a time when “political activity comes to life,” he noted. And given that elections have often engendered “international criticisms targeting election fraud, the government doesn’t feel an urge to call for new or repeated elections,” continued Kamilsoy, co-founder and analyst at Baku-based Agora Analytical Collective. “There isn’t much domestic demand.”

A lone vocal voice in calling for special elections is Ilgar Mammadov, chair of semi-opposition Republican Alternative Party (ReAl). He invoked a time-tested rationale for filling the vacant seats: taxation without representation is tyranny. “As parliamentarism is directly related to the tax policy of the state, it is the right of citizens to participate in the disposal of collected taxes by the Milli Majlis [Azerbaijani parliament] through their representatives,” he wrote in a public statement in 2022.

Mammadov’s rallying cry hasn’t resonated much with voters, however. There’s been no groundswell of grass-roots support for special elections. Even some sitting members of parliament seem to question the point of filling the seats, acknowledging the existence of electoral fraud and the legislature’s subservient role in relation to the executive branch.

MP Erkin Gadirli from ReAl, often described as the only opposition voice in parliament, was vilified by pro-government MPs in January after he questioned the validity of the entire electoral process. The parliamentary rebuke followed Gadirli’s interview with blogger Mehman Huseynov, during which he said he could not be sure if his own mandate was legitimate. “There are no democratic elections” in Azerbaijan, he said. Another MP, independent Vahid Ahmadov, received an official reprimand from parliament’s Disciplinary Committee for taking a similar swipe at the legitimacy of the legislature. Ahmadov also called attention to the impropriety of some MPs operating business ventures while being involved in creating legislative frameworks concerning commerce.

https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-the-veneer-of-democracy-is-peeling-off-bakus-authoritarian-political-structure

[Yervant1]

NEWS.am

Armenia - May 15 2023

Tatoyan: Azerbaijan will not limit itself to Artsakh and has no intention of peace regardless of the Artsakh issue

23:54, 14.05.2023

Azerbaijan will not limit itself to Artsakh and has no intention of peace regardless of the Artsakh issue. The former Ombudsman of Armenia, President of the Tatoyan Foundation Arman Tatoyan wrote about this on his Facebook page.

“Azerbaijan will not limit itself to Artsakh and has no intention of peace regardless of the Artsakh issue.

The goal of the Azerbaijani government is to numb our vigilance and advance aggression under the veil of false peace, and the destruction of Armenian identity.

Now, one of the fundamental goals of their state policy is to deepen the division and tension in our society, to make us all hostile to the Armenian Diaspora.

We would like to thank international lawyers Garo Ghazarian and Karnig Kerkonian for their invaluable support in the preparation and analysis of evidence.

All of this is proven with uncontroverted evidence”, - he wrote.

https://news.am/eng/news/759915.html

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Armenpress.am

The USA accused Azerbaijan of destroying the Armenian spiritual heritage in Nagorno Karabakh

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19:15, 16 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 15, ARMENPRESS. The US State Department has released the International Religious Freedom Report 2022 of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Azerbaijan was included in the list of countries under special control.

ARMENPRESS reports, according to the report, the state of religious freedom in Azerbaijan had negative dynamics in 2022.

The report mentions the destruction of Armenian spiritual heritage by Azerbaijan in the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh that passed under the control of Baku.

"International structures and other organizations continue to question the willingness of the government of Azerbaijan to protect and preserve the religious and cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories under Azerbaijani control. In February, the former Minister of Culture Anar Kərimov announced the creation of a working group, the purpose of which was to remove Armenian Apostolic inscriptions from churches, which he called "unreal". With most probability, the government abandoned the plan after the international community's outrage, and in March the European Parliament condemned Azerbaijan's continuous policy of erasing and denying the Armenian cultural heritage in and around Nagorno-Karabakh," the document says.

USCIRF recommends that the US government "provide funding to the US Agency for International Development and the US Embassy in Baku for the restoration, preservation, and protection of places of worship and other religious or cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas."

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1111073.html?fbclid=IwAR3YBlE-GoSdLM480xOrc46S4b45sg5LQKdv-p7whLfGhSVzGA4Qis5ilGk

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Armenpress.am

Los Angeles names intersection near Azeri consulate 'Republic of Artsakh Square' to reaffirm solidarity

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12:10, 17 May 2023

YEREVAN, MAY 17, ARMENPRESS. On Tuesday the Los Angeles City Council voted to name the West L.A. intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Granville Avenue "Republic of Artsakh Square," LAist reported.

The intersection was chosen because it's where Azerbaijan's Los Angeles consulate is located, City Council President Paul Krekorian's office told LAist.

“Azerbaijan's dictator has explicitly threatened genocide and called for the expulsion of all Armenians from territories he claims, once again threatening the annihilation of the Armenian people in their ancient homeland,” Krekorian said in an emailed statement to LAist. “We have taken this action to affirm the solidarity of the people of Los Angeles with the people of Artsakh.”

The Lachin Corridor – the only road linking Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the rest of the world – has been blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022.

The United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - ordered Azerbaijan on 22 February 2023 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. Azerbaijan has so far ignored the order. The blockade has caused a humanitarian crisis.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1111112.html?fbclid=IwAR0YvprXYgPkXshtwJDYyLsDuWLHKjC-xIVMwLY1WEYCoFhp1-ncR8S8v2o

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June 2 2023

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s ego will cost Armenian lives

by Michael Rubin

The warning signs about atrocity are flash red, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken persists in forcing through a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a traditionally Armenian-populated enclave in what is now Azerbaijan.

Blinken may see a peace deal as a success he can trumpet against the backdrop of a tenure devoid of other accomplishments, but the consequence of Blinken’s actions will be huge.

THE US MUST TURN UP THE HEAT ON TURKEY'S ERDOGAN

He may want a Nobel Peace Prize, as might Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan or even Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. It is unlikely, but should the Norwegian Nobel Committee oblige, the Blinken prize would herald a humanitarian disaster, as did the Nobel Committee’s award to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in 2019.

The problems with Blinken’s peace plan are huge.

Democracies should not bully fellow democrats into conceding to terror in the face of aggression. Nor should the State Department dismantle democracies and force their submission to dictatorship. Most alarming, Blinken actively ignores Aliyev’s abuses, even as Aliyev incites genocide and denies the legitimacy of an entire population.

As Armenian lands have fallen under Azerbaijan’s control, Azerbaijanis have demolished churches and destroyed a millennium-old cemetery. They, like Palestinian extremists do toward Jews in the Holy Land, denied any historical connection between Armenian communities and the lands on which they have lived for thousands of years since founding the world’s first Christian state 1,722 years ago. This is why Azerbaijani restorers sandblast Armenian inscriptions from churches and insist they belong to ancient Albanians rather than Armenian interlopers.

That Blinken is silent as Azerbaijan demands Armenian priests abandon the Dadivank monastery suggests indifference to cultural eradication.

Aliyev, meanwhile, finds solace in sycophants who deny any legitimacy to Armenia’s population, dismissing their community in Nagorno-Karabakh as no more real than “Narnia.” That said, Blinken’s silence is the rule rather than the exception. Be it in Nigeria, with regard to the Uyghurs, or in the South Caucasus, Blinken has been the worst secretary of state for religious freedom, at least since Cordell Hull insisted on sending Jews back to Nazi Germany as the Holocaust loomed.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Armenian community in Nagorno-Karabakh has organized itself democratically. Freedom House has ranked them more democratic than Azerbaijan, a country Freedom House lists among the world’s worst dictatorships.

Things have heated up this week.

On May 28, Aliyev demanded the surrender of Nagorno-Karabakh’s elected president, but suggested he would offer amnesty for other ethnic Armenian administrators and elected officials should they accept Azerbaijani rule. Bizarrely, the State Department praised Aliyev’s offer.

This sets up a humanitarian disaster.

As soon as ethnic Armenians put themselves under Aliyev’s rule, they become Azerbaijani subjects with no civil or human rights of which to speak. Aliyev has already shown disdain for Armenians by subjecting them to a five-month blockade of food, medicine, and fuel. He has separated elementary school-age children from their parents and senior citizens from their caregivers by allowing some to visit Armenia, only to deny them the right to return.

During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War and after, Azerbaijani forces embraced terror as a tactic. They circulated videos of prisoner beheadings and mutilations and destruction of graveyards to both desensitize their own population and force the flight of Armenians.

Should Blinken impose peace, expect that Azerbaijani tactic to accelerate.

Azerbaijan may want Nagorno-Karabakh, but it does not want its residents. It will treat regional capital Stepanakert like Serb nationalists treated Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. The logic remains the same: Murder 8,000 but force 10 times that number to flee by exposing the impotence of peacekeepers and diplomats.

It is time to end the moral equivalence. Democracy should be a precursor to peace. So too, is an end to the incitement of ethnic hatred in Azerbaijan’s textbooks and media. Delaying the demarcation of borders until after peace only gives Azerbaijan a green light to renege on its commitments.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

During the Obama administration, Jake Sullivan’s ego, naivete, and ambition played into Iranian hands and brought the Islamic Republic to the brink of nuclear breakout. The cost for Blinken’s ego, naivete, and ambition will be paid in tens of thousands of Armenian lives.

Michael Rubin (@mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/secretary-of-state-antony-blinkens-ego-will-cost-armenian-lives

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Armenpress.am

Azerbaijan must pull back troops from sovereign territory of Armenia – Governor of Syunik

13:07, 6 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 6, ARMENPRESS. Syunik Governor Robert Ghukasyan has said that the Azerbaijani military must pull back its original positions in the Tegh section.

Speaking about the farmers who have lost pastures and arable lands as a result of the Azerbaijani invasion near Tegh village, the Governor said that the government will pay assistance to those who are unable to access their territories. “I am convinced that Azerbaijan must to pull back to its original positions,” he added.

The governor said that the Azerbaijani troops have pulled back in some parts but was unable to give details on specific location and distance of withdrawal.

“Azerbaijan must pull back from our sovereign territory. This is an unequivocal stance,” Governor Ghukasyan said at a press briefing.

No border incidents were recorded over the past two weeks in Syunik, he added.

Armenian and Azerbaijani militaries are conducting engineering works on the border, the governor said.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1112627.html?fbclid=IwAR0v1S5iJ0BzhqQBAu_NGK03wyzSfj32VP8QIRycasMUW_9Y6lIKIuK2S3U

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Armenpress.am

950 hectares under Azeri control near Armenia’s Berkaber, says Governor of Tavush

12:49, 6 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 6, ARMENPRESS. There is nothing new in terms of the enclaves in the Armenia-Azerbaijan talks and this issue will be solved during delimitation and demarcation, Governor of the Tavush Province Hayk Ghalumyan told reporters when asked on the matter.

“This issue has been discussed on numerous occasions both by the Prime Minister and the members of our political team,” Ghalumyan, who represents the ruling Civil Contract party, told reporters on June 6. “We all know this, there’s no secret, everything is transparent. There is nothing going on in terms of the enclaves in the negotiations, the public will be informed whenever something happens,” he added.

Asked whether there are enclaves that should be surrendered to Azerbaijan, Governor Ghalumyan said: “Just as we have territories under Azerbaijani control, they too have the same in the Tavush Province and other parts of the Republic of Armenia. This issue will be resolved during delimitation and demarcation. I have nothing to add at this moment,” he said.

“I can only say that in the Berkaber section some 950 hectares of land is under Azerbaijani control,” he added.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1112623.html?fbclid=IwAR1A_S5gkbYcEW34heyL-CYmK-PHYGVylvFfoq8XDf__ErJ7Ilte6fR5amQ

[Yervant1]

In other words the world don't care what the fake sultan does!

Advice to Aliyev: Continue

Destroying Azerbaijan’s Reputation

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

 

Even though Azerbaijan, with the help of Turkish and Israeli weapons and hired Islamic terrorists, won the 2020 Artsakh War, Pres. Aliyev has been destroying his country’s international reputation.

With his barbaric actions during and since the war, Aliyev has undermined the interests of Azerbaijan. As a result, he has made himself a hated pariah and the laughing stock of the entire world. While Russia is cuddling him for its own political interests, the West is tolerating him to benefit from Azerbaijan’s oil and gas.

I am very pleased that Aliyev is doing so many negative things in the eyes of not only Armenians, but also the entire world.

There are many examples of Aliyev’s misdeeds. Here are some of them:

During the 2020 war, Azeri soldiers committed barbaric acts that violate the international law, such as: beheading captured Armenian soldiers and civilians, mutilating their bodies, torturing them, trying the captives in court and sentencing them to lengthy jail terms.

In violation of international conventions, Azerbaijan used banned cluster and phosphorous bombs to kill Armenian soldiers during the 2020 war.

Azerbaijan systematically destroyed and defaced hundreds of Armenian cultural monuments and desecrated dozens of Armenian churches in Artsakh in violation of the Hague Convention on “the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.”

Azerbaijan continues to violate the ceasefire agreement signed by Pashinyan, Aliyev and Putin at the end of the 2020 war. Here are some examples: Not releasing many of the Armenian Prisoners of War, shooting at civilians in Artsakh, occupying parts of the territory of the Republic of Armenia, taking new Armenian hostages, and threatening Armenia and Artsakh with further attacks if they do not comply with Azerbaijan’s wishes.

Aliyev has dehumanized and demonized Armenians by describing them with vile adjectives, such as “leeches” and “wild animals.” In 2005, during the visit of a German delegation, the Mayor of Baku, Hajibala Abutalybov, shamelessly told them: “Our goal is the complete elimination of Armenians. You, Nazis, already eliminated the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s, right? You should be able to understand us.”

Aliyev dispatched dozens of fake eco-activists to block the Lachin Corridor during the last six months, depriving 120,000 Artsakhtsis of food and medicines. These so-called eco-activists were more like eco-terrorists. Azerbaijan then placed a checkpoint at the Lachin Corridor further violating the 2020 agreement.

In addition, Azerbaijan periodically cuts off the Internet and electricity of the Artsakh population, keeping them isolated, in the dark and without heat in freezing temperatures.

Instead of a simple transit road, Azerbaijan repeatedly demands a corridor to cross from eastern Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan, which implies Azeri sovereignty over Armenia’s territory, in violation of 2020 agreement. By insisting on the Corridor, Aliyev is actually delaying Azerbaijan’s access to Nakhichevan through Armenia.

Aliyev declares that all of the territory of the Republic of Armenia is ‘Western Azerbaijan.’ This is sheer nonsense. Whereas Artsakh and Armenia are thousands of years old, Azerbaijan did not exist until a century ago.

Aliyev made the ridiculous pledge that Artsakhtsis will live under Azerbaijani rule just like all of its other citizens who are also repressed. Artsakhtsis remember well their barbaric mistreatment by Azerbaijan. Blockading them now shows how much worse they will be treated in the future.

Aliyev repeatedly urges Armenia to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. Any treaty signed by Azerbaijan is a meaningless piece of paper as we see from Aliyev’s violations of the 2020 agreement.

To make matters worse, State Dept. spokesman Matthew Miller welcomed Aliyev’s outrageous statement that he will give amnesty to all Artsakh officials who resign. Instead, Miller should have condemned Aliyev’s unacceptable threats to invade Armenia and Artsakh.

Aliyev dismissed the demands of scores of world leaders and international organizations as well as the UN Security Council, the World Court and European Court of Human Rights to release the Armenian POWs and unblock the Lachin Corridor.

After the 2020 war, Azerbaijan established a racist Military Trophies Park in Baku, displaying wax models of Armenian soldiers with hooked noses and distorted faces. After complaints and condemnations by the international community, the exhibit was closed down.

In February 2004, an Azeri soldier, Ramil Safarov, used an axe to chop the head of a sleeping Armenian soldier in Hungary during a NATO program. In return for Azerbaijan loaning Hungary several billion dollars, Safarov was released prematurely with the understanding that he will serve the rest of his life sentence in a Baku jail. However, Aliyev welcomed Safarov as a national hero, pardoned him, promoted him to the rank of major, and gave him a free apartment and eight years of back pay. This is Azerbaijan’s compensation to Safarov for committing a cold blooded murder.

As a result of all these war crimes, Aliyev has destroyed his and Azerbaijan’s reputation around the world. He should be arrested and tried by the International Criminal Court as a war criminal.

Despite Aliyev’s reprehensible actions, world powers keep closing their eyes ignoring his many crimes, blinded by Azerbaijan’s oil and gas.