Statue of a Dictator (Aliyev Clan)

[Yervant1]

 

Al-Jazeera, Qatar

Nov 21 2023

 

Azerbaijan arrests two journalists investigating political corruption

The arrests of the director and editor in chief of Abzas Media come after a series of reports looking into officials’ wealth.

Two journalists have been arrested in Azerbaijan, according to their lawyers, after their media outlet recently published a series of reports looking into the wealth of high-ranking government officials and the family of President Ilham Aliyev.

Sevinj Vagifgyzy, the editor in chief of privately owned Abzas Media, was arrested and her home was searched on Tuesday, her lawyer and Abzas Media said.

A day earlier, police also arrested Ulvi Hasanli, the director of the same media outlet, on charges of “smuggling foreign currency”.

Hasanli pleaded not guilty to the charges, for which he could face 12 years in prison, his lawyer Zibeyda Sadygova said.

Abzas Media reported that Hasanli faced “inhumane treatment” while in custody, including being punched and kicked by officers who asked him about his corruption investigations.

Meanwhile, police also raided the media outlet’s office in Baku and kicked out journalists attempting to document the search from outside, footage from Abvas Media shows.

Abzas Media is one of the few independent media outlets left in Azerbaijan following a near decade-long campaign against independent media and press rights groups, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

 

Stifling dissent

Natalia Nozadze, a South Caucasus researcher with rights group Amnesty International, said Hasanli’s arrest “fits into a pattern of critics being arrested by the authorities to stifle their dissent”.

She said Hasanli “has bravely exposed allegations of high-level corruption in Azerbaijan and covered critical issues of public interest” and that he has in the past “faced repeated harassment from the government”.

Signs of dissent are often met with a tough government response in Azerbaijan, an energy-rich nation long ruled by the Aliyev dynasty.

In July, Azerbaijan arrested high-profile political economist and civil activist Gubad Ibadoghlu on charges of various financial crimes, which he has denied.

He has said his prosecution was retaliation for exposing high-level corruption in Azerbaijan.

Amnesty International has said Ibadoghlu has significant health issues, and his life is in danger “due to unsafe prison conditions and denial of adequate healthcare”.

The government of Aliyev, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 2003 after succeeding from his father Heydar, has long faced international criticism over the country’s poor democratic record.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

HTTPS://WWW.ALJAZEERA.COM/NEWS/2023/11/21/AZERBAIJAN-ARRESTS-TWO-JOURNALISTS-INVESTIGATING-POLITICAL-CORRUPTION

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

According to the international law, Azerbaijan must release all hostages – report

18:30, 23 November 2023

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. All Armenian political prisoners, POWs and hostages illegally held in Azerbaijan must be released immediately in accordance with the international law.

This is noted in the report of the Center for Truth and Justice entitled “Azerbaijan Must Release All Armenian Political Prisoners, POWs and Hostages.”

The report indicates that on Sept. 19, 2023, an Azerbaijani offensive, the second in three years, set the stage for the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from their ancestral land of Nagorno-Karabakh. Within 10 days, over 100,000 Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh and found refuge in neighboring Armenia.

During the Sep-Nov 2020 and Sep 2023 wars against Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani authorities detained some 200 Armenian civilians and military personnel.

“Dozens remain in Azerbaijani jails illegally, some awaiting trials and others illegally convicted to lengthy jail terms,’’ reads the report.

It is noted that according to Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general, 300 former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh are wanted for alleged war crimes committed during the wars. Eight of these leaders were detained, humiliated in front of cameras, and transferred to prisons in Baku.

Referring to the hostages, the authors of the report noted that an unknown number of Armenian civilians were taken prisoner since 2020 by Azerbaijani security personnel in and around Nagorno-Karabakh and within the borders of Armenia.

As for POWs, according to the report, 36 Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) remain in Azerbaijani prisons.

“The 2020 war POWs should have been released in accordance with the 10 November 2020 ceasefire agreement. Now that both wars are over, all POWs from must be freed immediately in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. The majority of prisoners of war were taken a month after the official ceasefire in 2020, and in the area of Khtsaberd.

These political prisoners, POWs and hostages, some of whom have been convicted illegally to lengthy jail terms in Azerbaijan, must be freed immediately in accordance with international law, and at the very least as a confidence-building measure so that the ongoing negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan can produce results. The international community, in particular the U.S., Russia and EU mediators, as well as others, have an obligation to persuade Azerbaijan to free them unconditionally and immediately,’’ reads the report.

All the hostages are represented by name in the report, including the persons who held leadership positions in Nagorno-Karabakh: Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakyan, Davit Babayan, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Ruben Vardanyan, Davit Ishkhanyan, Davit Manukyan, Levon Mnatsakanyan, as well as captured civilians and military personnel.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1124804.html?fbclid=IwAR35MGKZfGuhWdkx0LEd2-Rm6PWIm7h83CD4lSAd7OXvYrlR5DlHThJ9pCk

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

Azerbaijani historiography is nothing more than a contrast between the desired and reality: Gardman-Shirvan-Nakhijevan

21:06, 23 November 2023

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Gardman-Shirvan-Nakhijevan Pan-Armenian Union has issued a statement regarding the circulation of fake scientific political discourse by Azerbaijan. The Union has urged Azerbaijan to admit the numerous historical injustices committed against Armenians over the past century.

‘’We call on Azerbaijan to take tangible measures for the just restoration of the rights of Armenians who have suffered from Azerbaijani aggression at different times.

The selective approach to historical facts, the re-editing of the past and the formation of one-sided visions of the future in accordance with it are among the brilliant examples of Azerbaijani political hypocrisy.

This explains the great desire of Azerbaijan, as a young state, to hide the complexity of the historical past, because the historical reality is one thing, and the invention of the desired past is another.

Consequently, the entire Azerbaijani historiography represents nothing more than a contrast between the desired and the reality, from which there are two ways out: either accept reality and strive to correct its consequences, or accept a position of complete denial, repeating the dangerous practice of ethnic cleansing, cultural genocide, complete violation of human rights and disregard for authoritative international structures.

It is not difficult to notice the destructive approach adopted by Azerbaijan. The most superficial study of Azerbaijani society clearly shows that all layers of this state are focused on one issue: the development of anti-Armenian discourses.

Various initiatives containing ambitions for the sovereign territory of Armenia, the activities of government officials hidden under the cover of non-political organizations, meaningless and baseless speeches, scientific discourses, festivals, presentations, congresses clearly show Azerbaijan’s real ideas about regional stability,” the statement reads.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1124814.html?fbclid=IwAR33ML1DDs6hvNjA-nlouHVB5mXtRl9AZE9bGhp-22vPqd3RVP_S2Tpcxw8

[Yervant1]

 

rfi, France

Nov 15 2023

 

French disinformation watchdog links Azerbaijan to 2024 Olympic smear campaign

Paris has linked Azerbaijani figures to a disinformation campaign aimed at tarnishing France's reputation as host of the 2024 Olympic Games.

Diplomatic tensions have simmered between France and Azerbaijan of late, with the ex-Soviet country accusing Paris of supporting its arch enemy Armenia and pursuing a policy of "militarisation" in the South Caucasus.

France is pulling out all the stops to host the 2024 Olympic Games, which will take place from 26 July to 11 August.

According to a report from state digital watchdog Viginum, seen by media outlets this week, an investigation was launched in late July after "several visuals calling for a boycott of the 2024 Olympics" were widely shared on X (formerly Twitter).

Viginum – France's service for Vigilance and Protection against Foreign Digital Interference – alleges the campaign featured images of riots, the city of Paris and also the logo of the Olympic Games, and involved three official X accounts of the games and two hashtags #PARIS2024 and #BOYCOTTPARIS2024.

 

Artificial accounts

On 26 and 27 July, more than 1,600 posts accompanied by these visuals or hashtags appeared on X.

Around 90 accounts appear to be behind these posts "suggesting artificial amplification", the report states.

• France's Macron says there 'can be no Russian flag' at Paris Olympics

Viginum added that 40 of them were created in July 2023 and only published content calling for a boycott of the Paris Games.

The probe also revealed that of these 90 accounts, "a significant proportion had at least one link to Azerbaijan" such as a photo featuring the Azerbaijani flag, Azerbaijani locations, or excerpts from speeches of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Misspelled place names – Bordo instead of Bordeaux or Monpelye instead of Montpellier – were another "marker of inauthenticity", the report said.

 

Links to Azeri ruling party

The watchdog has also identified an account at the origin of the online content targeting the Games.

The account @MuxtarYev published 15 visuals calling for a boycott, which were then amplified by inauthentic accounts and picked up by X accounts linked to Azerbaijan – a pattern that "reinforces the hypothesis of a coordinated manoeuvre", Viginum said.

Created in June 2023, the @MuxtarYev account claims to be located in Azerbaijan.

The name Muxtar Nagiyev and the account's profile photo coincide with the identity of the chairman of the Sabail district organisation of the New Azerbaijan party, the ex-Soviet country's ruling party.

According to the report, Azerbaijani national Orkhan Rzayev, who runs two companies including Mediamark Digital, could also be linked to the smear campaign.

At the time of the smear campaign, France had repeatedly criticized Azeri authorities over the blocking of the Lachin corridor, the key road that links Armenia to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20231115-french-disinformation-watchdog-links-azerbaijan-to-2024-olympic-smear-campaign

[Yervant1]

Nov 24 2023

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL

Is BP financing Armenia’s destruction?

by Michael Rubin

As Hamas partisans continue the calumny that Israel’s counterterror operations equate to genocide, real genocide looms in the South Caucasus. In September, Azerbaijani troops seized the entirety of Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing the exodus of its 120,000 indigenous Christians.

Both Azerbaijan and Turkey long used the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute to justify hostility to Armenia. Their actions subsequent to the conquest of the largely Christian region, however, hint that diplomatic dispute was more an excuse for their hostility rather than its true cause.

Driving along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, military fortification in Azerbaijan is obvious. Whereas Armenia builds customs posts and observatories, Azerbaijan constructs helicopter landing pads, airfields, rocket installations, and advanced radar stations. Barracks house dozens of troops at remote locations along the border. Azerbaijani forces have already seized territory within Armenia. President Ilham Aliyev, meanwhile, says that even Armenia’s capital Yerevan is Azerbaijani territory. The implication is clear: Azerbaijan prepares for a new war rather than a lasting peace.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan encourages such belligerence. In the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, he declared, “Like Armenia, Israel will fail too.” His description of the terror war as a struggle between “crescent and cross” reflects his true mindset. American and British diplomats may see Turkey’s army as an important NATO contingent, by Erdogan himself describes it as the “Army of Muhammad.” Both Erdogan and Aliyev regularly belittle Armenians, insult rivals by calling them Armenian, and describe Armenians as dogs or insects.

There are ample reasons why the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention has issued a “red flag alert” warning of the possibility of Azerbaijan perpetrating genocide against Armenia and Armenians. The question policymakers should ask is why after 30 years, the frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict suddenly erupted and why Aliyev so confidently dismisses diplomacy.

Some pundits may cite developments in Turkey or Russia, but they miss the forest for the trees. The reason why beginning three years ago, Azerbaijan rebuffed diplomacy and turned instead to war was a change in the regional balance of power.

The Azerbaijani economy is a one-act show. SOCAR, its state oil company, works in conjunction with BP (formerly British Petroleum) to finance the Azerbaijani government. BP has little interest in the quality of Azerbaijan’s government or its descent into a brutal dictatorship. While ordinary Azerbaijanis wallow in poverty, the Aliyevs spend hundreds of millions of dollars on London real estate and billions of dollars on new weaponry.

Azerbaijan imported nearly 70% of its arsenal in recent years from Israel. In one extreme example, an Israeli drone company seeking to win an Azerbaijani contract demonstrated its system by attacking an Armenian military position. Earlier this month, Baku purchased a $1.2 billion Barak MX air defense system from Israel.

So long as Azerbaijan can undertake a military buildup to give itself both a qualitative and quantitative edge over its neighbors, the chance for peace in the region is zero. Military balance matters. While democratic states fund their people more than their militaries, Aliyev does the opposite. In effect, he diverts the revenue BP’s decades-old contract provides to finance aggression and perhaps even genocide. BP may not be legally responsible, but it is shortsighted. As Aliyev ignores his own public, the risk of assassination or even revolution increases in the long term. No ex-Soviet dictatorship expects a color revolution until the day it erupts.

Should Aliyev order an outright invasion of Armenia, the resulting disruption will likely end BP’s ability to transport its gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey. If Azerbaijan, overconfident in its gas windfall, seeks to end the oldest Christian state completely, BP may shrug its shoulders, but it will be impossible for BP to sidestep its reputational stain. Simply put, its contract enables Azerbaijan to purchase weaponry from Israel and Turkey to pursue genocide against Armenian Christians.

BP may want to sidestep politics, but Aliyev will not give it the chance. It is time for BP to tell Aliyev: Enough is enough, BP will not be party to any dictator’s genocidal ambition.

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/is-bp-financing-armenias-destruction

[Yervant1]

Amwaj

Nov 24 2023

How the Hamas-Israel war impacts the South Caucasus

Iran/Security - Fuad Shahbazov

The war between Hamas and Israel war has triggered strong anti-Israel sentiments in the region and heightened fears of a broader conflict engulfing actors such as Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Worried that the conflict in Gaza could escalate into a regional confrontation, the US has dispatched two aircraft carrier strike groups within range, including additional troops and military advisors.

But alongside tough rhetoric, the violence in Gaza has renewed apparent pragmatism by important regional states such as Iran and Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has openly slammed Israel's bombings of the Palestinian coastal enclave. On the other hand, Ankara has avoided issuing direct threats against Tel Aviv and, in an apparent unusual move, allegedly distanced itelf from Hamas in the aftermath of the Palestinian movement’s surprise attack on Israel last month.

Iran and its regional allies such as Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Ansarullah movement—better known as the Houthis—have adopted more hostile stances. Both Hezbollah and the Houthis have directly attacked Israel. However, Tehran itself has focused on the political track, pushing for Muslim countries to embargo Israel amid its campaign to galvanize anti-Israeli sentiment in the region. The call for an embargo has gained momentum in light of some Muslim countries’ decisions to downgrade ties with Israel—raising fears among some of Israel’s regional partners.

Gaza war puts pressure on Israel’s partners

The mounting criticism of Israel in the region has boosted fears among Tel Aviv’s main Muslim partners, including Azerbaijan. The conflict in Gaza is particularly relevant for Baku, as Tel Aviv’s top energy and military associate in the South Caucasus.

Some 40% of Israel's oil imports of around 300,000 barrels per day were sourced from Iraqi Kurdistan in the first quarter of 2023. That trade has been halted following Turkey's decision to stop oil flows through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in March over a dispute with Baghdad. To fill the gap, Israel has reportedly turned to African producers and Brazil. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan meet more than half of Israel's demand for oil.

Propelled by military cooperation, the partnership between Azerbaijan and Israel gained a new level of momentum in 2020, when Azerbaijani forces heavily relied on Israeli-made weaponry to regain control over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Baku continues to rely on such arms to maintain military superiority over Armenia.

Following the recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Baku-Tel Aviv partnership has morphed into a new geopolitical alliance. Important political steps have been taken, such as Azerbaijan’s opening of an embassy in Israel in March. This has raised eyebrows in neighboring Iran, particularly as an attack on the Azerbaijani embassy in Tehran earlier this year led Baku to shutter its diplomatic mission amid broader tensions.

In parallel with strengthening ties with Israel, Azerbaijan has developed strategic partnerships with leading Muslim countries—including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. While this is mainly due to Baku’s desire to pursue a balanced foreign policy strategy, Tehran has been wary of the deepening relations between its northwestern neighbor and a widening array of its regional rivals.

Continued cooperation despite pressure

Unlike Azerbaijan, the Christian countries in the South Caucasus—namely Armenia and Georgia—generally do not have strong ties with Muslim states. Armenia’s strong relations with Iran are an exception to this broader trend. Indeed, the ruling Georgian government has strongly criticized the Palestinian surprise attack on Israel. Tbilisi has also expressed its unwavering support for Tel Aviv—largely mirroring the pro-Israeli public sentiments in Georgia.

To avoid possible criticism from Muslim countries, Azerbaijan has denounced the harm inflicted on civilians in the Gaza Strip, underlining its full support for all relevant UN resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian issue—including the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state. This stance is not new; Azerbaijan has insisted on these principles since the early 1990s. Perhaps surprisingly, this balanced approach has never been a catalyst for tension in the bilateral relationship with Israel.

Amid the fighting in Gaza and Iran’s resulting calls for an embargo on Israel, Baku has continued to maintain a close partnership with Tel Aviv—albeit while keeping a lower profile on the regional stage.

For instance, at the end of October, Azerbaijan reportedly shipped a tanker loaded with over one million barrels of crude oil to Israel's southern Red Sea port of Eilat. This was after the Ashkelon port on the Mediterranean Sea came under rocket fire from Hamas. Moreover, on Oct. 30, Israel awarded a consortium consisting of BP, NewMed Energy, and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) a license to explore offshore natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean. The move notably came shortly after the Israeli government temporarily shut down the Tamar offshore gas field amid rocket attacks launched by Hamas from Gaza.

Looking ahead

The authorities and state media in Azerbaijan have not highlighted the recent significant milestones in the bilateral partnership with Israel for several reasons.

Undoubtedly, Azerbaijan believes that explicit deep engagement with Israel and praise of such an approach in state media amid the ongoing war in Gaza may provoke a reaction from Iran, a staunch supporter of Hamas. Conversely, the Israeli military campaign against Hamas and the ongoing domestic political turmoil in Israel may have geopolitical ramifications, such as a revival of assertive Iranian policy in the South Caucasus.

The bigger picture is that the violence in Gaza is diverting the west’s attention. As a result, regional powers like Iran and Russia may maneuver to fill the vacuum in places like the South Caucasus. To Azerbaijan, the potential strengthening of Iranian influence is hardly a positive factor, particularly amid Baku’s efforts to ink a peace agreement with neighbouring Armenia.

In addition to the regional power dynamics, the Hamas-Israel war puts the Azerbaijani government in an uncomfortable position at home. As recently as Nov. 17, Azerbaijani security forces arrested an armed suspect near the Israeli embassy in Baku who reportedly planned an attack. As a Muslim country, Azerbaijan is expected to demonstrate more profound solidarity with Palestine. However, Baku is—as in the past—acting on the basis of realpolitik, with a focus on relations built on shared interests.

Hence, even though Iran may adopt bellicose rhetoric against Azerbaijan for maintaining strategic ties with Israel amid the Gaza war, it is unlikely that Tehran will deliberately jeopardize its relationship with Baku, which is slowly recovering after years of mounting tensions. The recent diplomatic thaw between Azerbaijan and Iran has renewed the intraregional partnership and paved the way for new forms of cooperation, such as a new transit route linking Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave via Iran.

All in all, while Azerbaijan is not likely to concede to any renewed pressure from Iran, a lengthy war in Gaza may diminish Israeli influence in the South Caucasus to some extent. In the meantime, Baku appears poised to steer clear of active diplomacy on the regional turmoil, maintaining a low profile and avoiding antagonizing Muslim countries.

https://amwaj.media/article/how-the-hamas-israel-war-impacts-the-south-caucasus

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

 

Reuters

Nov 28 2023

 

Azerbaijan's Aliyev scolds Blinken over U.S. backing for Armenia

Reuters

BAKU, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a call on Monday that recent American actions in support of Armenia had jeopardised U.S.-Azerbaijani ties, Baku said on Tuesday.

The two countries had enjoyed relatively cordial relations until Azerbaijani forces recaptured the largely ethnic Armenian-populated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning offensive in September.

The United States provided diplomatic backing for Armenia, which had supported Karabakh's separatist authorities, and U.S. officials visited Yerevan in the days after the offensive.

In a statement, Aliyev's office said Aliyev had told Blinken that "the latest statements and actions taken by the U.S. have seriously damaged Azerbaijan-U.S. relations".

It said Baku had taken note of comments by Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien during a congressional hearing that there was "no chance of business as usual" with Azerbaijan after the offensive in Karabakh.

However, it added that Aliyev and Blinken had agreed, in the interest of normalising ties, that O'Brien would visit Baku, and Washington would lift a ban on senior Azerbaijani officials visiting the U.S.

Baku's military victory in Karabakh prompted the exodus of almost all the territory's 120,000 ethnic Armenians. The United States and other Western countries have pledged aid to help Armenia cope with the influx.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/azerbaijans-aliyev-scolds-blinken-over-us-backing-armenia-2023-11-28/

[MosJan]

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

U.S. urges Azerbaijan to seek durable peace with Armenia

10:14, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The U.S. continues to engage with Azerbaijan to urge them to seek a durable peace with Armenia, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has said.

Speaking at a press briefing, Miller said that Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien’s upcoming trip to Azerbaijan doesn’t mean that the U.S. is backpedaling from its policy that, as O’Brien himself said earlier in November ‘nothing will be normal with Azerbaijan after the events of September 19 until we see progress on the peace track’.

“No, not at all,” Miller said when asked whether O’Brien’s trip is a departure from newly announced policy. “We never said that we’re not going to continue to engage with Azerbaijan. That would be against our interests as the United States of America. We think it would be against the interests of peace and security in the region for us to just drop all of our diplomatic engagements with Azerbaijan. We continue to engage directly with both Azerbaijan and Armenia to make clear – for example, in the case of Azerbaijan – where we have concerns. We’ve been concerned with the recent trend of detaining journalists. We continue to urge them to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all, something that I’ve spoken to from this podium in the past. And we also continue to engage with them to urge them to seek a durable peace with Armenia, and that’s something that will continue to be the focus of our diplomatic engagements.”

Miller added that human rights is always on the table for the United States of America when they have these sorts of diplomatic engagements.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1125617.html?fbclid=IwAR08CoqNuSimMadpfk_3DWJrh-Q6Zq5U-g-FvKfqAG0rHmZD8NBrsbqdfZk

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair calls on Biden Administration to hold Baku accountable for NK ethnic cleansing

12:09, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Senator Ben Cardin has called on the Biden Administration to hold Azerbaijan accountable for the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh’s indigenous Armenian population.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Cardin stated he is "deeply concerned that Azerbaijan could take further military action to achieve additional political gains, particularly in regards to the so-called Zangezour corridor."

The Senator called on Blinken to ‘continue to work with international partners and organizations to support accountability for the Aliyev regime’s actions.’

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair also warned that Azerbaijan has been seizing and destroying Armenian cultural property in pursuit of its efforts to erase Armenian history and culture.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1125634.html?fbclid=IwAR3RDcQ84zQULQ9OrjPS6sAXZ6KxTVNcGOAWmAxHy8f0xMzLeaL2BLyGS6c

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

Speaker of Parliament responds to Azerbaijani President’s comments on alleged ‘revanchism’

12:26, 7 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan has responded to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest statement alleging that there is a ‘growing revanchism’ in Armenia and that Baku wants guarantees that such processes won’t happen.

Simonyan advised the Azeri leader to search for such guarantees in his own policy.

“He ought to search for those guarantees first of all in himself and his policy. A lot depends on the Azerbaijani side. You can’t shoot and kill an Armenian soldier, invade the territory of Armenia, and then say ‘I am afraid of revanchism.’ You can’t skip the meetings on the peace treaty and then say ‘I am afraid of revanchism.’ You are afraid of revanchism? Then establish normal relations with your neighbors, your direct neighbors, whom you can’t replace,” Simonyan said.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1125732.html?fbclid=IwAR28RiTY1mHYOci314z6hw4Jv02UlDCJFvz6_14Koim6Vl8ECIKMs7v48gs

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

Baku court sentences reservist Gagik Voskanyan to 18 years in prison

18:40, 7 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. A trial in the criminal case of an Armenian reservist Gagik Voskanyan, detained in Karvachar, was held in a Baku court on Thursday.

 

According to the Azerbaijani media, the verdict was read after the court session.

The court sentenced Voskanyan to 18 years in prison on false and fabricated charges.

 

On August 16, an Armenian reservist Gagik Voskanyan, according to preliminary data, voluntarily left the combat position. Search operations were underway to find him.

Later, the Azerbaijani side announced that they had arrested an Armenian soldier. The Azerbaijani side spread disinformation, claiming that there had been a subversive infiltration attempt.

The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia presented a video showing how a group of soldiers of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces approached reservist Gagik Voskanyan, spoke to him then arrested and transported him to an unknown destination by car.

Baku accuses him of a number of crimes, from illegal border crossing to terrorism.

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1125776.html?fbclid=IwAR0Ijbu_vHn0NDwuWobeARqwK_kIoI7-r5xJYw3HEwvwcFQ43xMJ5Eg2kIc

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

Dec 11 2023

"By providing a corridor, Armenia can request a road to the Black Sea." Opinion

• JAMnews

• Yerevan

Normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations

In order not to bring the topic of unblocking transport in the region to a dead end, it should be moved to “the area of projects satisfying both sides.” This is the opinion of political scientist Areg Kochinyan. He says if Azerbaijan wants to get a road uncontrolled by the Armenian side – without paying customs duties – Armenia should know what it can get in return.

In particular, he suggests considering the possibility of transport with Iran through the territory of Nakhichevan and access to the Black Sea through the territory of Turkey. The political analyst suggests that the Armenian authorities formulate their options and see what the reaction is.

Areg Kochinyan’s comments on the unblocking of regional transport, the joint statement of the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities, as well as the extraordinary elections announced in Azerbaijan.

• Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement: Opinion from Yerevan
• For the first time: a joint statement by Armenia and Azerbaijan “to achieve long-awaited peace in the region”
• Armenian Parliament rejects criminalization of recognition of NK as part of another country

Corridor topic is irrelevant for Baku

“The topic of the extraterritorial corridor has become irrelevant for Azerbaijan, especially after the version of the end of the Karabakh issue that we have seen. And also due to the international consolidation against the corridor [of Armenia providing a road uncontrolled from its side].

The approach of the Azerbaijani side is as follows: we recognize Armenia’s territory, we have no questions about sovereignty [in relation to the territory where the road linking Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan runs]. At the same time, Baku believes that it is its right to use this road without customs control, without customs and tax duties.

Is it a corridor or not? Yes. Sovereignty is recognized, there is no extraterritorial element here, but in terms of content it is a corridor.”

What can Yerevan get in return for the “corridor”?

“If Azerbaijan manages to get our road X without customs duties, taxes, what do we get in return?

One of the options is as follows: in return we get a road, a railroad with the same control regime through Nakhichevan, which will connect us with Iran. The Armenian-Iranian railroad has not been functioning for a long time, there is only a highway.

A more interesting option is to involve Turkey in this conversation. If we provide a road with favorable conditions for Azerbaijanis, Turkey will provide us with the same road with access to the Black Sea, for example, in the direction of Trabzon.”

Joint statement by the authorities: a step forward in relations or a threat?

“In the short term, obviously it’s a wonderful achievement, our guys [Armenian prisoners] will finally go home. I see certain threats in the long term.

When we combine this with the holding of extraordinary presidential elections in Azerbaijan, it seems that Baku wants to buy time with this move. And at the same time to ensure that it will not be under pressure. Theoretically, it will be interesting for Azerbaijan to wait until next summer, as the European Parliament and US elections are ahead.

If Trump wins in the US and the leftists and Euroskeptics win in the European Parliament, it could create additional positive conditions for Azerbaijan on the peace treaty.

And this transitional phase creates ideal conditions for putting additional, even military pressure on Armenia to get the maximum possible before signing the peace agreement.”

It is better to negotiate with one adversary than with three

“I don’t think that in the long term Azerbaijan is seeking to bring the negotiation process to a deadlock. It only wants to maximize its victory on the battlefield and gain maximum benefit at the negotiating table.

For us, the most promising negotiating platforms are the Western ones: Brussels, Washington. Direct negotiations are much less interesting. For a party with a lower defense capability, it is desirable to bring additional forces to the negotiating table – mediators, guarantors.

The worst option is Moscow. Direct negotiations with Azerbaijan, even with Azerbaijan and Turkey, are a more desirable and favorable option for Armenia than the Russian platform. It is better to negotiate with one adversary than with three at the same time.”

Best moment for Aliyev to go to the polls

“Now Aliyev has a chance to reach a historic high. In a year’s time, the situation may change.

But there are other layers. This is a move aimed at preventing Russia from interfering in Azerbaijan’s elections. The Russians will be busy with their elections.

In addition, it seeks to buy time again, to try to wait for a stage when he can get more out of the negotiation process.”

Close the topic of Nagorno-Karabakh

“The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan wants to ensure that the conversation about Nagorno-Karabakh is finally closed. Now international relations are quite flexible, any document can be changed if there is a balance of power that supports it.

At the moment there is no such balance. And Azerbaijan is taking advantage of this situation. But it cannot be sure that tomorrow this balance will not be restored or not change in Armenia’s favor.

Azerbaijan wants a third party guarantee that the story of the Karabakh conflict is over, and that what it has achieved on the battlefield and intends to consolidate at the negotiating table is final.”

https://jam-news.net/normalization-of-armenia-azerbaijan-relations/

[Yervant1]

Dec 14 2023

If You Thought Dubai Was a Bad Place for COP, Wait Until It Goes To Azerbaijan

Yes, it’s another petrostate. But that’s just the beginning.

JEVA LANGE

When the announcement came that COP29 will be held in Baku in 2024, the immediate reaction in the climate community was “again?!”

It wasn’t that Azerbaijan — a nation of about 10 million people, situated on the Caspian Sea at the southern tail of the Caucasus mountains — had hosted the global climate summit before. Actually, it almost didn’t get the 2024 hosting gig at all: COP29 was briefly homeless after Russia vowed to block Bulgaria’s bid (because Bulgaria is part of the European Union) and longtime enemies Azerbaijan and Armenia vowed to block each other’s bids (because of what many have characterized as an ethnic cleansing). Other nations in the region balked at the sheer size of what the COP event has become. At one point, even Australia and Bonn, Germany, were on the table as potential COP29 replacements if the Eastern European bloc couldn’t pull things together.

But, rather amazingly, it did. That means — as countless headlines have blared, and as you’re undoubtedly already aware — that the United Nations summit intended to assess and progress the goal of limiting climate change will be held in an oil and gas-producing state for the third consecutive year. Cue the groans.

That is reason enough for hand-wringing, especially after a record turn-out of fossil fuel lobbyists at the convention this year, not to mention the scandal over the head of ADNOC leading the whole shebang. But if you thought all that was absurd and disturbing, wait until you hear about Azerbaijan.

“It’s stunning to me that they would make Baku the next place for COP,” Ronald Suny, a distinguished professor emeritus of History at the University of Michigan and an expert on the South Caucasian nations who’s written extensively about Azerbaijan, told me.

Yes, Azerbaijan is a petrostate. But more alarmingly, it is also even more repressive and authoritarian than the United Arab Emirates based on the scale developed by Freedom House, a human rights watchdog group. “Azerbaijan is not even a one-party state,” Suny explained. “It’s a one-person or one-family state.”

To make a long and complicated history very short, former First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev came to power after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1993 and eventually passed his title of head of state onto his onlyson, Ilham Aliyev, in “irregular” elections in 2003. Ilham Aliyev is still president today, and will remain so indefinitely. “There’s no dissent allowed,” Suny said. “There’s absolute control of the media — much stricter than Russia. Anyone who criticizes [the government] is either in jail or in exile. And lots of people are in jail.”

On the one hand, having COP29 in Baku could be viewed as a small positive. “For years, climate change has been a factor…in wars and conflicts,” reads one effusive lead paragraph in The Associated Press. “Now for the first time, it’s part of a peace deal.” True, the attention from the UN helped to spur a prisoner exchange and peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia following renewed bloodshed over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region earlier this fall. It’s also likely that Azerbaijan will be on its best behavior ahead of the UN convention, given that it’s now under a higher-than-usual level of international scrutiny. Giving Baku the convention “is not necessarily a bad thing,” argues Rashmee Roshan Lall, an international affairs columnist, on her blog, “because it shows that COPs reflect the diversity of the world in which we live and seek to preserve.”

But allowing COP29 to happen inAzerbaijan also helps to legitimize and sanitize Ilham Aliyev’s rule. This is why other authoritarian regimes from Russia to Saudi Arabia to Qatar and Dubai have vied to host global events such as the soccer World Cup and the Olympics. Since 2012, Baku has played host to the Eurovision Song Contest, the First European Games, and the Formula 1 Grand Prix, according to Gubad Ibadoghlu, a senior policy analyst at Azerbaijan’s Economic Research Center, writing for the website Crude Accountability. The government in Baku explicitly “tries to whitewash its damaged image in the international arena by ‘paying attention to modernization’ and by creating connections with global leaders in the sphere of sports and culture,” Ibadoghlu said.

Suny sees the same thing happening now with COP. “It could be that Azerbaijan, which has tried and worked very hard to refurbish and beautify its image, will benefit from such an event and will be happy to put on a good face,” he said. And as Ibadoghlu pointed out, Azerbaijan has spent a huge amount of money on this program over the years. “It’s a very rich state and it can divert its resources — because it certainly doesn’t go into the people — to building extraordinary buildings,” Suny added. By allowing COP to be held in a country that viciously cracks down on dissent and free speech, then, the UN is not only turning a blind eye to but actively assisting what is basically a twisted form of greenwashing.

Curiously, estimates indicate that Azerbaijan might not be an oil state for much longer. The nation is expected to deplete its supply and sole source of wealth within the next 25 years — an involuntary phase-out by 2050, if you will. According to a World Bank report published two weeks ago, “urgent action on climate” — including investing in renewable energy, prioritizing energy efficiency, and climate-proofing its agricultural sector — “can help Azerbaijan minimize the risks emerging from the global low-carbon transition and protect the living standards of its people.”

In that sense, at the least, Baku needs COP. Now we have to wait to see what it does with its chance.

https://heatmap.news/cop29-baku-azerbaijan-petrostate-authoritarian

[Yervant1]

Dec 14 2023

Meet the lobbyists fronting for Azerbaijan in Washington

Armenians were blockaded and run out of Nagorno-Karabakh this year, and the US largely did nothing.

REPORTING | WASHINGTON POLITICS

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) recently sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him to get tougher on Azerbaijan for its “brazen campaign of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

This follows an earlier statement from Cardin, shortly after Azerbaijan’s September “lightning offensive” against Nagorno-Karabakh, that called for the U.S. to “halt security assistance to Azerbaijan,” and increase humanitarian support for the 100,000 ethnic Armenians who fled en masse from Nagorno-Karabakh.

As of this writing, neither of those things has occurred and the Biden administration has done little to address Azerbaijan’s military aggression. While there are undoubtedly myriad reasons for the U.S. government’s lukewarm response, one possible explanation is one of Washington’s oldest pastimes: lobbying. For years, the Azerbaijan government has been financing a well connected lobbying and influence operation in the U.S. that has worked diligently to keep U.S. military assistance flowing and to ensure that policymakers turn a blind-eye to the country’s consistent human rights violations.

As documented in a just released Quincy Institute brief, The Lobbying Battle for Nagorno-Karabakh, the government of Azerbaijan has spent millions of dollars on registered lobbyists and much more on illicit influence operations that have helped foster and maintain support for Baku across Europe and the U.S.

 

The End of Nagorno-Karabakh

“The United States will not countenance any action or effort – short-term or long-term – to ethnically cleanse or commit other atrocities against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh,” was an assurance from then-Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Yuri Kim in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 14.

Just five days later, the U.S. did exactly what Kim said it would not, standing idly by on September 19 as Azerbaijan launched an “anti-terrorist” operation against what remained of Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh, leading to the ethnic cleansing of over 100,000 of its residents as they fled to the neighboring Republic of Armenia.

The territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh — the mountainous breakaway region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but self-governed by Armenians — now appears over as the de facto officials announced that all institutions will be dissolved on January 1, 2024. These developments followed what had been a year of Azerbaijani escalation against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia proper, including an Azerbaijani blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh which lasted almost 10 months and saw the territory’s food, medical, and energy supplies all but run out. When Baku launched its military assault, Washington and Brussels were only able to muster strongly worded statements, but no meaningful reaction.

The Azerbaijan Lobby

Don’t count out Azerbaijan’s influence operations in Washington for helping to thwart what should have been a stronger response on Capitol Hill and in the White House. The government of Azerbaijan has spent over $7 million on lobbying and public relations firms registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) since 2015, according to OpenSecrets. Chief among the Azerbaijan lobby’s hired guns is BGR Government Affairs, one of Washington’s top lobbying firms, which is contracted to serve as a liaison for the Azerbaijan Embassy in the U.S.

FARA filings reveal that the firm contacted congressional offices more than 1,000 times on Azerbaijan’s behalf in just the first half of 2023, and that their work included efforts “to ensure there were no negative Azerbaijan amendments on the National Defense Authorization Act” and “fair language for Azerbaijan” in the appropriations process. More generally, BGR “educated policymakers in Congress about the important role Azerbaijan plays as a key security partner of the United States.”

In 2018, BGR signed an agreement with another lobbying firm — Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell, and Berkowitz — to aid its efforts on behalf of the Azerbaijan Embassy. An analysis of that firm’s FARA filings shows that they’ve been laser focused on the State, Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations, which is responsible for, among many other issues, determining how much U.S. military assistance flows to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Overall, it would seem both firms have been successful at allowing Azerbaijan to dodge criticism and continue to receive millions of dollars in security assistance every year.

Most notably in 2023,the Azerbaijan Embassy hired The Friedlander Group, whose namesake Ezra Friedlander has been a prominent American-Israeli lobbyist for years, rubbing shoulders with a number of top policymakers, including former President Donald Trump. When he was hired by Azerbaijan he immediately put his connections to work, according to his firm’s FARA filing, securing meetings with dozens of congressional offices, including even a face-to-face meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

This is just the tip of the iceberg for Azerbaijan’s influence operations in the U.S. As documented by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Azerbaijan government has a history of laundering its influence in Europe and the U.S. The “Azerbaijani Laundromat,” as described by the OCCRP, was “a complex money-laundering operation and slush fund that handled $2.9 billion over a two-year period through four shell companies.” This 2012-2014 scheme which involved funneling government funds through shell companies, included payments to several pro-Azeri Americans, one of whom later pleaded guilty to concealing the fact that a congressional trip to Azerbaijan he’d helped organize was secretly funded by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).

Azerbaijan’s often illicit influence operations in Europe have dubbed it “caviar diplomacy,” given the country’s repeated attempts to bribe European officials with all manner of luxury goods, including caviar. At least one investigation resulted in FBI agents raiding the home of the co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), in January 2022.

Armenian Influence in the US

Armenians have also sought to influence the U.S. public debate surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. However, this has been done at a significantly smaller scale than their Azerbaijani counterparts, and the main actors of Armenian lobbying efforts in the U.S. have been the estimated one to two million diaspora Armenians in the U.S.

In the early 1990s, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, the Armenian diaspora in the U.S. achieved its first major political victory via Section 907 of the 1992 Freedom Support Act, which explicitly prohibited the vast majority of U.S. assistance from the Act to post-Soviet Azerbaijan until Baku “cease[es] all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.”

However, in 2002, as the “Global War on Terror” was heating up, Azerbaijan was granted a waiver for Section 907 that has allowed over $160 million of U.S. security assistance to flow to the country ever since.

Nevertheless, during the war in 2020, Armenians boycotted lobbying and PR firms working for Azerbaijan and, in 2021, President Joe Biden recognized the systemic mass killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide, a long-standing priority of the Armenian diaspora in the U.S. More recently the Senate unanimously passed the “Armenian Protection Act,” that would cut off aid to Azerbaijan for at least two years.

For Armenians, these developments are viewed as too little too late, however, as Azerbaijan has already achieved what it wanted in Nagorno-Karabakh with little international pushback. This result is likely due in no small part to Azerbaijan’s concerted influence operations in the U.S. For years, the lobbyists on Azerbaijan's payroll have worked to keep U.S. military assistance flowing to the country and to tip the scales of U.S. support in their favor.

While they may not have “won” this influence battle they have no doubt done enough to keep the U.S. on the sidelines of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

 

Editor's Note: Artin Dersimonian was an intern at the Armenian Embassy in Washington in 2018. The Terjenian-Thomas Assembly Internship Program at the Armenian Assembly — which is mentioned in the QI brief on which this article is based — facilitated Dersimonian's internship with the embassy.

 

Artin Dersimonian

Artin DerSimonian is a junior research fellow in the Eurasia program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He earned a Masters of Science in Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies from the University of Glasgow in 2022, where his thesis focused on ‘The Decline of a pro-German Foreign Policy in late Imperial Russia, 1878-1890.’

The views expressed by authors on Responsible Statecraft do not necessarily reflect those of the Quincy Institute or its associates.

Ben Freeman

Ben Freeman is Director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute. He investigates money in politics, defense spending, and foreign influence in America. He is the author of The Foreign Policy Auction, which was the first book to systematically analyze the foreign influence industry in the United States.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/azerbaijan-nagorno-karabakn/

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

JACOBIN

Dec 18 2023

Washington Must End Its Support for Azerbaijan’s War Crimes

BY

ALEX GALITSKY,

SHAHED GHOREISHI

The US has long offered unconditional military assistance to Azerbaijan even as it carries out ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh. It’s consistent with Washington’s support for brutal human rights violators from Saudia Arabia to Israel.

The other week, Azerbaijan’s president scolded US secretary of state Antony Blinken over efforts to curtail military assistance to the Caspian dictatorship in the wake of its assault on the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. While US arms and assistance to Azerbaijan have largely been overlooked, they are representative of how Washington’s security assistance has facilitated war crimes and perpetuated a global system built on the selective application of human rights and international law. In the case of Azerbaijan, US assistance enabled ethnic cleansing on a shocking scale.

However, amid public outcry over the nonenforcement and rollback of human rights conditions on military assistance to US allies from Turkey to Saudi Arabia to Israel — a recent decision by the Senate to suspend military assistance to Azerbaijan marks an unprecedented step toward the enforcement of human rights standards and congressional oversight long absent from US foreign policy.

Last month, Azerbaijan invaded Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as Artsakh), forcibly expelling its entire indigenous Armenian population, aided by US security assistance. As a direct consequence of the impunity Washington has granted Baku, Azerbaijan, is now threatening further military action against Armenia — a risk recently acknowledged by Secretary Blinken.

Rolling Back Conditions on Military Aid

Azerbaijan hasn’t always enjoyed the kind of impunity other recipients of US military assistance do. In the early 1990s, Azerbaijan was prohibited from receiving US aid pursuant to Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, which suspended all forms of aid to Azerbaijan in light of its aggression against Armenian civilians during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

While this prohibition is still in effect, following the September 11 attacks it has been subject to a national security waiver — an all-too-familiar tool that has granted the US president far-reaching discretion over military assistance, unbeholden to congressional oversight and the long-ignored human rights conditions mandated under the Leahy Laws and Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act.

In an attempt to garner Azerbaijan’s support for the United States’ 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the waiver of Section 907 saw hundreds of millions of dollars funneled to the government through lucrative defense contracts and security assistance. This has only escalated in recent years as Washington now justifies its uncritical support for Azerbaijan as necessary to secure its role as an alternative energy supplier for Europe and a regional bulwark against Russia and Iran.

Despite President Joe Biden’s campaign pledge to cut military aid to Azerbaijan after its assault on Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, his administration has twice reauthorized assistance to Baku, even in the face of strong congressional opposition. These waivers have continued despite the Azerbaijani government’s torture and execution of Armenian prisoners of war, human rights abuses, and war crimes against civilians, and a humanitarian blockade that precipitated the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh. Washington had every opportunity to prevent this unfolding humanitarian and security crisis but instead chose to embolden Azerbaijan by rewarding its behavior with security assistance.

Azerbaijan is an instructive case in the abject failure of current US policy. Not only did unconditional assistance to Azerbaijan grant the United States little-to-no ability to influence or constrain Baku’s behavior — the lack of conditions on assistance to Azerbaijan sent a green light to its government that it would face no material repercussions for its human rights abuses, emboldening its behavior. US arms sales haven’t even deterred Azerbaijan from engaging with US rivals, as Baku continues to expand its energy partnerships with Russia and Iran.

Dangerous Consequences

Washington’s support of Azerbaijan will signal to other recipients of US military assistance that they will continue to face zero accountability for their actions, despite Biden’s pledge to ensure autocrats “pay the price” for their aggression. Furthermore, Washington’s reckless policy threatens to destabilize the region further by encouraging war profiteers to take a page from Washington’s playbook, with Turkey closing a major arms deal with Saudi Arabia in July, and Israel selling weapons to Azerbaijan used to perpetrate horrific human rights abuses against Armenians in Artsakh at the same time it perpetrates unconscionable war crimes of its own in Gaza.

Immediately before Azerbaijan’s assault on Nagorno-Karabakh, US officials affirmed that they “would not countenance any attempt at ethnic cleansing” by Azerbaijan. Washington’s failure to hold Azerbaijan accountable after it breached this red line will only embolden further aggression as Baku eyes Armenia’s sovereign territory. It will also undermine whatever confidence anyone might still have had in Washington’s willingness to uphold human rights. It sends a clear signal to other recipients of US military assistance engaged in human rights abuses, from Turkey’s relentless assault on Kurdish communities in Northern Syria and Iraq, to Saudi Arabia’s crackdowns at home and its mass murder of refugees and destruction of Yemen, to Israel’s indiscriminate attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza — heightening the risk of conflicts that could engulf the entire region.

Facing considerable congressional and public pressure, the Biden administration has now publicly stated that it does not intend to waive restrictions on military assistance to Azerbaijan. But the unanimous passage of the Armenian Protection Act by the Senate last month takes that one step further, prohibiting the executive from exercising its waiver authority for a two-year window. If enacted by the House of Representatives, this would mark an unprecedented step toward enforcing human rights standards and congressional oversight of US security assistance in a rare rebuke of US foreign policy, driven by grassroots action.

Washington’s Faustian bargain with some of the world’s most abusive governments has produced the very outcomes it purportedly seeks to avoid and recklessly enables the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh’s Armenians. The unanimous Senate vote to enforce human rights conditions on assistance to Azerbaijan is not just a step toward justice for the victims of Azerbaijan’s genocidal aggression — it marks an important victory in the effort to curb executive overreach, end the practice of fueling raging regional fires, and stop material US support for war crimes.

https://jacobin.com/2023/12/washington-biden-administration-azerbaijan-war-crimes-armenia-us-military-aid

[MosJan]

azerbaijan elections 2024, i guess it will also include election votes from Artsaq / Nagorno Karabagh. I guess this is the way that he's going to say that the civilians elected me from artsakh and will "legally" in the face of the whole world show

[MosJan]

[MosJan]

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

UN Special Rapporteur’s communiqué to Azerbaijan mentions attacks on NK people, monuments and violations of int’l law

11:13, 20 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Armenia considers it important that the international community documents the Azerbaijani policy targeting the Armenian religious and cultural heritage, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan said in response to a query from Aysor news agency.

Aysor: It has recently become known that the Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights has sent a communication to Azerbaijan expressing concern about the destruction and appropriation of the Armenian historical, cultural and religious heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, intentional distortion of the history of Nagorno-Karabakh and attempts to erase the traces of Armenians, which may amount to cultural cleansing․ How would you comment, what are the expectations, is there a reaction?

Badalyan: You're right. The communication also points to attacks on people, monuments and symbols, and violations of international humanitarian law. The communication refers to the order of the International Court of Justice adopted on December 7, 2021, and to the information on the destruction of shrines, cemeteries, so called "Albanisation", anti-scientific approaches, a false agenda spread under the narrative of so-called "Western Azerbaijan", hate speech against Armenians, the attack of September 19 and ethnic cleansing, as well as a number of other issues․

It is noteworthy that the UN Special Rapporteurs have repeatedly touched upon the violations of the rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, including cultural rights, cases of destruction and distortion of Armenian heritage.

Unfortunately, even the above-mentioned legally binding Order of the International Court of Justice did not stop the policy towards the Armenian religious and cultural heritage. Yes, this is also combined with manifestations of incitement to hatred, anti-scientific falsification regarding the territory of Armenia and the history of Nagorno-Karabakh.

At the same time, we consider it important that the international community documents the above-mentioned approaches and realities: it is of primary importance for prevention of similar atrocities and establishment of an atmosphere of dialogue and lasting peace in the region.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1126589.html?fbclid=IwAR3OkvuldBfndmeMhNCiI890BoyrvZeF6pJV23YVQLOXxQc9dZIPUiIAdhk