Statue of a Dictator (Aliyev Clan)

[MosJan]

 

[MosJan]

 even the most powerful dictators, just like any ordinary dog, will eventually experience a time when their power or luck runs out,

[Yervant1]

India.com

Dec 16 2024

 

 

Pakistan and Turkey’s friend seeks weapons from India via ‘special friend’, country is…, India’s answer…

It has been receiving weapons from Turkey and Pakistan for years.

Published: December 16, 2024 9:29 PM IST

By Tahir Quresh

Baku: Azerbaijan, which has been embroiled in a long-standing conflict with Armenia, has expressed its desire to buy weapons from India. Azerbaijan has sent this message to New Delhi through a friendly country. This request of Azerbaijan is interesting because it has been receiving weapons from Turkey and Pakistan for years.

At the same time, its enemy Armenia has bought many weapons and defense systems from India. In such a situation, the shift in Azerbaijan has caught attention.

According to a report in ThePrint, the request from Azerbaijan was made through a friend. The report claims that India has ignored this message from Azerbaijan. New Delhi has made it clear to the friendly country that India will decide its bilateral relations on its own and does not want any other country to become a middleman. India has not shown interest in giving weapons to Azerbaijan.

 

ThePrint has quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that the Azerbaijani government did not discuss the matter directly with India. No communication has been received from Azerbaijan either officially or informally. Instead, a third country approached India and said Azerbaijan was willing to become a buyer if it wanted to sell weapons.

Armenia has turned to India in recent years to strengthen its armed forces amid its conflict with Azerbaijan. From India, it has bought rocket-launchers, artillery guns, ammunition, sniper rifles, and anti-tank missiles. For India, Armenia is not only a defence partner, but also a political partner in the region. It has been a strong supporter of India’s position on Jammu and Kashmir.

India, France and Greece are all looking to support Armenia’s security capabilities. On the contrary, Azerbaijan is considered to be part of a growing group of countries, including Turkey and Pakistan. Since 2017, Azerbaijan has focused on deepening trilateral cooperation with Turkey and Pakistan. In such a situation, India’s relations with Azerbaijan are not exactly affable.

https://www.india.com/news/india/pakistan-turkeys-friend-seeks-weapons-from-india-via-special-friend-country-is-indias-answer-azerbaijan-armenia-7470270/

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OC Media

Dec 16 2024

 

 

Azerbaijan renews calls for restrictions on Armenian military and removal of EU monitors

 

ByArshaluys BarseghyanandAytan Farhadova
 

 

Azerbaijan has renewed calls for restrictions on Armenia’s military and called for the removal of EU border monitors, despite its own evergrowing military budget and capacity.

On 12 December, Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev reiterated a previous demand for ‘serious restrictions on Armenia’s military construction policy’, as ‘an occupying and aggressor state’. 

He criticised countries ‘supplying attack-oriented weapons to Armenia’, accusing France of ‘participating in Armenia’s armament programme in violation of international law’. 

It came ahead of a visit to France on Monday by Armenian Defence Minister Suren Papikyan, who met with Fabien Mandon, the French Head of the Military Cabinet and adviser to President Emanuel Macron.

According to the Armenian Defence Ministry, ‘comprehensive discussions’ were held including on military education and training programmes, advisory support, and technical issues.

On 10 December, France and Armenia held strategic defence consultations at the Armenian Ministry of Defence, signing a defence cooperation programme for 2025.

Before the 2020 Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, Armenia relied almost exclusively on its traditional ally, Russia, for arms and military equipment.  

However the inaction of Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in the face of Azerbaijani offensives on Armenia in 2021 and 2022, as well as delayed deliveries of previously purchased weapons, has led Yerevan to ‘diversify’ its relations in the security sector, with France becoming one of its main partners. 

The deals between Armenia and France have previously received criticism from Azerbaijan and Russia, who accuse France of hindering the peace process between Yerevan and Baku.

Aside from France, Armenia has also struck several deals with India, reportedly receiving the first deliveries of an Indian Pinaka multiple launch rocket system at the end of November.

At the end of November, Greek media also reported that the country was in ‘advanced stages of negotiations’ with Armenia for the sale of several Russian-built surface to air missile systems — the S-300, TOR M-1, and OSA-AK. 

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova commented on the reported talks with Greece, saying that bilateral intergovernmental agreements prohibit Greece from re-exporting Russian-supplied military equipment without Russia’s consent. 

‘At the moment, we have not received any requests from the Greek side’, Zakharova said. 

Military ‘number one priority’ for Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan has continuously criticised Armenia’s arm acquisitions despite procuring arms of its own and expanding its defence budget and capabilities, with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declaring in September that increasing military strength was Azerbaijan’s ‘number one priority’.

On Monday, Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov announced that Azerbaijan was increasing its military budget by ₼159 million ($94 million) in 2025 to ₼8.9 billion ($5 billion).

In November, on the anniversary of its victory in the 2020 war, Aliyev warned Armenia to abandon its policy of armament, stating that ‘they will never have the power to compete with us’.

On 12 December, Azerbaijani Defence Minister Zakir Hasanov met with Turkey’s Airforce Commander Ziya Cemal Kadıoğlu. He stated that Armenia’s rearmament ‘negatively affects the preservation of peace and stability in the region’.

Along with his calls for limits on Armenia’s military in his 12 December statement, Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev also again demanded the withdrawal of the European Union’s Monitoring Mission in Armenia (EUMA), stating it was not ‘a factor contributing to the consolidation of peace in the region’.

The mission was deployed on the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan  in January 2023, following Azerbaijani incursions into Armenia.

Yerevan has repeatedly defended the importance of the mission in maintaining stability.

At the end of October, Armenian’s Foreign minister Ararat Mirzoyan voiced concerns about ‘potential actions by Azerbaijan’ likely to take place before the ratification of a peace treaty or the completion of the delimitation of their borders.

‘Accordingly, we need a neutral third party to provide an objective assessment,’ Mirzoyan said.

A month later, in an apparent compromise, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenia had offered to withdraw the EUMA from sections of the border with Azerbaijan that had already been delimited. 

The comment came following comments by an Azerbaijani pro-government think tanker suggesting that the withdrawal of the EU observers was one of three main sticking points in the peace talks.

https://oc-media.org/azerbaijan-renews-calls-for-restrictions-on-armenian-military-and-removal-of-eu-monitors/

[Yervant1]

MediaMax, Armenia
Dec 18 2024


Aliyev says “Armenia’s patrons in the USA” did not heed to his words

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that “the weapon that Macron’s government is supplying to Armenia poses a practical threat to Azerbaijan.”

Trend reports that Aliyev said this in an interview with Dmitry Kiselev, director general of the Rossiya Segodnya agency.

“Since our border with Armenia is more than a thousand kilometers long, many settlements are close to the border and former refugees are returning to most of these settlements. We certainly cannot be mere bystanders to this process. And we have repeatedly informed Armenia and its patrons in the U.S. State Department that this must end. But, unfortunately, we were not heard, the process of arming Armenia is proceeding by leaps and bounds,” Aliyev stated.

https://mediamax.am/en/news/foreignpolicy/56522/

[Yervant1]

Fake sultan will never sign the peace agreement, because him and erDOGan want war again!

 

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eurasianet

Dec 18 2024

 

 

Azerbaijan wants EU monitoring mission to leave

Armenia contends EU presence along border is essential for ongoing stability.

Ani Avetisyan Dec 18, 2024

 

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s chief policy adviser, Hikmet Hajiyev, has stated that Baku is demanding the withdrawal of the European Union monitoring mission before a peace treaty can be signed with Armenia. 

The EU deployed the monitoring mission in early 2023 along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border following an escalation of gunfire exchanges. Subsequently, Azerbaijani forces overran the last Armenian-held areas of the hotly contested Nagorno-Karabakh territory in September 2023, spurring the mass exodus of the Karabakh Armenian population. Since then, Armenian officials in Yerevan have viewed the EU mission as crucial for maintaining the status quo. Azerbaijan has consistently opposed the mission’s presence, claiming the EU is biased against Baku.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pushed back against the idea of an EU withdrawal, saying that Armenia was “ready to discuss adjustments, but the mission’s presence serves an essential role in maintaining security.” As a potential compromise, he suggested that monitoring activity be limited to un-demarcated sections of the border.

To date, Armenian and Azerbaijani negotiators have reportedly agreed upon the wording of 15 of the 17 purported articles in the draft peace treaty. No details have been publicly released on the sticking points in the remaining two articles of the pact. A central issue reportedly holding up the peace process is the preamble to the Armenian constitution, which refers to the 1991 declaration of independence, which in turn refers to the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. Baku wants Armenia to make a constitutional amendment that clearly recognizes Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Karabakh.

The extent to which Baku’s stance on the EU mission will impact treaty negotiations remains uncertain.

Meanwhile, in a development that could also complicate the peace process, Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire who also was a former de facto leader of Karabakh, is facing additional criminal charges from Azerbaijani authorities, adding to earlier accusations of “financing terrorism” and illegal entry.

Vardanyan was arrested by Azerbaijani authorities at a checkpoint in the Lachin Corridor in September 2023, during the mass exodus of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population. He has remained in Azerbaijani custody since then. His lawyer, Jared Genser, characterized the proceedings against Vardanyan as a “secret tribunal.” While the Armenian government claims it is making efforts to secure his release, critics argue that Pashinyan is content to let Vardanyan languish in Azerbaijani custody.

https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-wants-eu-monitoring-mission-to-leave 

 

 

 

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Wall Street Journal

Dec 20 2024

 

At COP29, the Host Boasted About Its Renewable-Energy Plans. They Just Happen to be on Disputed Territory.

Azerbaijan wants to build solar, wind and hydropower plants in Nagorno-Karabakh, a war-torn region that was home to 100,000 Armenians until last year

 

By Yusuf Khan

At this year’s top climate summit, the oil-rich host Azerbaijan sought to wow the world with its bold push into green energy, touting the vast solar parks, giant wind farms and massive hydroelectric dams under construction in the Central Asian country. 

But the clean-energy megaproject is being built on 1,700 square miles of disputed territory that the country has been at war over for the past three decades. Human rights groups and academics say the renewables push is being used to greenwash Azerbaijan’s image after a military offensive they say amounted to an “ethnic cleansing” of Armenians from the region last year. 

Azerbaijan disputes this, saying that building renewable power projects will help bring green energy to central Asia and Europe at a time when critical resources are needed most. “This idea came after liberating the territories,” said Elnur Soltanov, the country’s deputy energy minister, who also served as chief executive of the United Nations’ recent climate talks, COP29. 

Landlocked

The Nagorno-Karabakh territory, previously controlled by ethnic Armenians, is internationally recognized as being part of Azerbaijan.

 

100 miles

100 km

RUSSIA

Caspian Sea

GEORGIA

Tbilisi

AZERBAIJAN

ARMENIA

Baku

Yerevan

NAGORNO-KARABAKH

TURKEY

Tabriz

Erbil

IRAN

Tehran

IRAQ

 

 

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh since the end of the Soviet Union. When Azeri troops took control of the territory in September 2023, more than 100,000 Armenians fled within a week. Freedom House and other human-rights charities reported incidents of violence including deaths and mutilated bodies.

Azerbaijan says no Armenians were asked to leave and citizenship was offered to residents. It is planning to move Azeri families into the region. The energy ministry didn’t provide a comment on the allegations of violence. 

It is in Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring East Zangezur that Azerbaijan is centering its renewable-power efforts. The country is seeking funding and support to build more than 10 gigawatts of renewable power production in the region. British oil giant BP and Japanese electric utility TEPSCO have signed separate agreements for solar and wind projects in the region. BP has broken ground on its project there. Some of the renewable power generated from these projects is likely to be exported to Europe, the energy ministry says. 

“It is obvious that this is a tactic to clear the remaining traces of Armenian history and cultural heritage from Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Andranik Shirinyan, the Armenian representative for human rights charity Freedom House. “This green-energy zone is just one way to do it so that there is nicer packaging for the international community.”

“The Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh should be able to exercise their right of return if they wish to,” Shirinyan said. 

 

Deputy Energy Minister Soltanov said that a plan to build renewable-power projects in the country was first made in 2019, though the idea initially was to construct them closer to Baku. Masdar, the Emirati state renewable energy company, won a contract to build a wind farm outside the capital. 

Soltanov said talks with companies such as BP started to focus on a potential solar project in the disputed region following the country’s decision to send troops into Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. “We discussed the options,” he said. “The best radiation is either in the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan or in southern Karabakh.”  

In a recent report, energy thinktank Ember said the Caucasus region that is likely to be the most productive for renewable power is the Black Sea, where wind turbines in Azerbaijan’s shallow waters could generate as much as 35 gigawatts—enough to power every home in the country nearly nine times over, according to The Wall Street Journal’s calculations.

BP plans to build a solar energy project in Jabrayil, a city in East Zangezur, south of Nagorno-Karabakh. Power generated from the project will be exported to fuel its oil-and-gas terminal Sangachal, on the Black Sea, south of the capital Baku, according to the company. 

BP expects significant damage to the local environment, including harm to cultural sites, according to the company’s environmental impact assessments. The reports also highlight potential safety risks from unexploded land mines, which are common throughout much of Nagorno-Karabakh and East Zangezur. 

BP declined to comment on its operations in East Zangezur. 

Patrick Galey, senior investigator at Global Witness, an environmental NGO, said publicly available information raises serious doubts over Azerbaijan’s green credentials. “We know that at least some of the electricity generated from planned solar and wind projects will go to power Azerbaijan’s oil and gas infrastructure. It’s frankly absurd to use renewable energy to power the very thing it is meant to be replacing,” he said. 

Soltanov said the operations taking place in Jabrayil are in line with IPCC principles to decarbonise fossil-fuel production.

Azerbaijan’s history is complex, with numerous wars having been fought there over the centuries. Nagorno-Karabakh has changed hands multiple times. Folk songs talk of Karabakh as a homeland in both countries. Soltanov’s wife, an Azeri, fled the region during the wars in the 1990s.

For Armenians, who refer to the region as Artsakh, the move to build out renewables and settle Azeri families into the region twists the knife after decades of violence. “This is horrific, the cleansing of indigenous people in such a premeditated way because you just need the land,” said Nana Shakhnazaryan, an Armenian geopolitical analyst from the region.

Azerbaijan is also discussing a renewable energy project with French oil-and-gas giant TotalEnergies. The plan is to construct a solar project in an exclave of Azerbaijan called Nakhchivan, which is completely surrounded by Armenian territory. TotalEnergies didn’t respond to requests for comment on the project.

“There are no peace treaties, no agreed borders, no diplomatic relations,” said Matteo Fumagalli, a researcher at the University of St Andrews, focusing on Middle Eastern and Caucasian studies. “Given the imbalances between the two militaries, if Azerbaijan decided to proceed with territorial annexation (or Armenian territory) there is little that Armenia could do to stop it.”

However, Azerbaijan’s Deputy Energy Minister Soltanov says that green energy could be a way to broker peace or at least “economic cooperation” between the two countries.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-cop29-the-host-boasted-about-its-renewable-energy-plans-they-just-happen-to-be-on-disputed-territory-62928d38 

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1945

Dec 23 2024

 

Israel Betrayed Armenians. Will It Betray Syrian Kurds Now Too?

 

by Michael Rubin

 

 

September 27, 2020 began as a quiet Sunday morning in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Armenian-populated region that, at first glance, looks like Switzerland: Green field, rolling farms, and snow-capped mountains with churches and monasteries dotting mountainsides. It was just days after the 100th anniversary of the Ottoman invasion of independent Armenia at the tail end of the Armenian Genocide, but that anniversary had passed with minimal bluster from the Turks and the Azerbaijanis.

Then the explosion began, Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians described to me when I visited weeks later. Utilizing Israeli drones and munitions, Azerbaijan launched a surprise attack on the self-governing Armenian enclave, the first of many times over the next three years in which Azerbaijan broke ceasefires until it completed Nagorno-Kabarakh’s ethnic cleansing.

Anger toward Israel remains deep among the Nagorno-Karabakh refugees, Armenia proper, and the broader Armenian community.

Frankly, they are right. Israel is one of the dwindling number of Western countries that does not recognize the Armenian Genocide. That anger has persisted as Azerbaijan has systematically began dismantling Armenian churches and sandblasting inscriptions on monasteries, some over a millennium old. It was a short-term and self-defeating strategy on Israel’s part, as Israel’s backing of Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and destruction of cultural heritage created a precedent that could be used against Jews living in the West Bank, especially among Palestinians who deny any Jewish connection to the land. 

 

Israelis—commentator Mordechai Kedar, for example—may argue that Azerbaijan is a haven for Jews, but this is increasingly false. The arguments Kedar relies upon outdated numbers and repeats the same tactics Iranian partisans used to argue that the Islamic Republic was simply anti-Israel, not antisemitic. The reality is that Azerbaijan has hemorrhaged its Jews for a reason. When population statistics remain unchanged for decades on end, it is a sign those statistics are outdated if not false.

Nor do Israel’s realist arguments to justify the Israel arms-for-Azerbaijani hold water. Azerbaijan may once have been a crucial source of energy for Israel, but the Abraham Accords opened new channels absent the moral baggage inherent in helping a racist dictator eliminate a minority community. Privately, all but those wanting something Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev acknowledges how repressive and unhinged Aliyev has become; Aliyev himself does not try to hide his agenda. Nor does Israel show itself cognizant of Azerbaijan’s true role when Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly plans violence against Israel and bolsters Turkey’s own domestic military industry but uses Azerbaijan to continue trade with the Jewish state. Israel needs to remove its strategic blinders: Every Israeli delivery to Baku provides technology Ankara can use against Jerusalem.

Israel’s complicitly in Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic cleansing represents a stain not easily removed, but it can also provide a lesson not to repeat: Short term deals with Israel’s ideological adversaries do not bring peace; instead, they embolden enemies. Turkey may present one face to tourists in Istanbul, Bodrum, or Antalya, but ideologically, it works to eradicate Middle Eastern minorities, be they Armenian or Chaldean Christians, Syrian Kurds, Yezidi, Alawi or Jews. 

Syrian Kurds now face existential peril as the Turkish army bares down. Turkey’s accusation that the Kurds represent a terror threat is nonsense; rather, Turkey objects to the Kurds’ liberalism, their self-governance, and their rejection of Erdogan Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Islam, an interpretation of Islam historically foreign to the region.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2024/12/israel-betrayed-armenians-will-it-betray-syrian-kurds-now-too/

[Yervant1]

Aliyevs Own Many Buildings in London

Valued at Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

 

By Harut Sassounian

TheCaliforniaCourier.com

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) selected Pres. Ilham Aliyev in 2012 for its first “Person of the Year Award [which] recognizes the individual or institution that has done the most to advance organized criminal activity and corruption in the world.”

OCCRP is a worldwide network of investigative journalists that has been exposing for over a decade the appropriation of state funds by Pres. Aliyev’s family and close associates to purchase real estate overseas.

While there are numerous groups that report about Azerbaijan’s jailing of journalists, opposition members and human rights activists, OCCRP is one of the rare groups that has documented the secret acquisitions of valuable real estate in the heart of London by the Aliyev clan. Many of these holdings are hidden behind foreign offshore trusts, making the true owners of the properties difficult to identify.

However, in 2022, the British government adopted new laws that help reveal the owners of some of these properties. In an article titled, “Luxury London Properties Linked to Family of Azerbaijan's President Are Hidden Behind an Offshore Trust,” OCCRP’s James O’Brien reported this month that the Aliyev family “acquired U.K. real estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars.” The article stated: “newly available data reveals that Aliyev’s daughters own six luxury apartments in London. But the current ownership of 10 [other] properties, acquired by the family for $160 million, remains unknown because they were moved into an offshore trust. Trust structures are currently exempt from public scrutiny.”

OCCRP reported that the Aliyevs own in London “A hotel building near the British Museum. Penthouse apartments just steps away from Hyde Park. A mansion overlooking the green expanse of Hampstead Heath. And much more. In 2021, OCCRP revealed that a nearly $700-million collection of London real estate had been acquired by the family and close associates of Ilham Aliyev, the longtime authoritarian president of Azerbaijan. Having leveraged two decades of unchallenged political power into vast wealth, this elite group had chosen to spend a fortune in one of the financial centers of the democratic world. The properties they purchased were owned by dozens of secretive offshore companies, hiding their ownership from public scrutiny. It was only thanks to the Pandora Papers, a leak of secret offshore documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, that reporters were able to link them to the Aliyevs.”

The OCCRP reported that it “teamed up with researchers from Transparency International UK, an anti-corruption advocacy group, to reexamine the 23 London properties our earlier investigation had linked to the Aliyevs.” They found out that “President Aliyev’s daughters, Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva, personally own six luxury apartments just across the street from Hyde Park. But the Register [of Overseas Entities] fails to establish who ultimately owns 10 properties the Aliyevs and their associates had acquired for $160 million: the Hampstead Heath mansion, two townhouses, multiple flats [apartments] and penthouses, and a six-story building in Central London. It only reveals that they are owned by a trust registered in the Isle of Man.”

Aliyev’s office “did not respond to [OCCRP’s] requests for comment, but President Aliyev has previously attributed his wealth to success in business.”

OCCRP reported that on his presidential website in 2021, Pres. Aliyev “acknowledged that he was ‘not a poor man’ when he became president, but said this was due to his business achievements. (The son of Azerbaijan’s first post-independence leader, Aliyev served as a vice-president of Azerbaijan’s state oil company before succeeding his father as president in 2003). ‘Unlike some other people in the West who dedicate all their fortune to their cats and dogs, in Italy and Azerbaijan we value family values,’ he said at the time. ‘Therefore, I transferred all my business to my children.’”

In 2015, OCCRP reported that “Leyla Aliyeva, the Azerbaijani president’s then 29-year-old elder daughter, was one of the directors of the British company that managed the [five-story luxury] building, worth over $33 million.”

Although the trust hides the ownership of 10 high-end London properties, for nine of them, “the Register of Overseas Entities lists the same person as having ‘significant influence or control’ over the offshore companies that own them: Mir Pashayev…a cousin of President Ilham Aliyev’s wife. The 54-year-old-banker is closely linked to the Aliyev family’s business interests. He is a board chairman of Pasha Bank, a major lender owned by the president’s daughters Leyla and Arzu, and deputy chairman of the board of directors of their entire Pasha Holding business conglomerate, which spans interests in banking, insurance, and construction.” OCCRP reported that “in October 2014, he [Pashayev] took over from Leyla Aliyeva the directorship of the company that manages her mansion on Speakers’ Corner [in London].”

Pres. Aliyev’s constant threats to attack Armenia, if Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan does not agree to make concessions, are meant to distract attention away from Aliyev’s violations of human rights and embezzlement of Azerbaijan’s state funds which deprives his citizens of massive amounts of income from the country’s billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues.

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Armenpress.am

 

Politics09:49, 27 December 2024

Narrative of so-called Western Azerbaijan is troublesome and could be used as pretence for war, Swedish lawmaker warns

Read the article in: العربيةFrançaisՀայերենРусский简体中文

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The narrative of so-called Western Azerbaijan targeting Armenia could be used as a pretence for war, Swedish Member of Parliament Erik Hellsborn has warned. 

In an interview with Armenpress, Hellsborn touched upon Baku’s narrative of the so-called Western Azerbaijan community, the Azeri government’s discontent regarding Armenia’s arms acquisitions, as well as the likelihood of escalation in the region.

Baku has been advancing its so-called Western Azerbaijan narrative to try and justify its aspirations towards sovereign Armenian territories. 

“The "Western Azerbaijan" rhetoric is troublesome,” the Swedish MP said. “Even if [President of Azerbaijan] Aliyev today claims that he is only talking about displaced peoples' right to return, it sounded drastically different not long ago. The idea that Armenia or parts of Armenia is a "Western Azerbaijan" could be used as a pretence for war in the future.”

Speaking about Azerbaijan’s complaints regarding Armenia’s arms acquisitions, Hellsborn said that building up one's defensive capabilities is not in itself an act of aggression and that strong defense is a deterrent. 

“This argument from Baku is nothing new, and it makes no more sense today than 3 or 5 years ago. Building up one's defensive capabilities is not in itself an act of aggression. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Sweden and many other NATO countries responded with increased military budgets. This doesn't mean that we plan to attack Russia or its allies. A strong defense is a deterrent, which can prevent wars from ever getting started. A stronger Armenian defense with more modern equipment is good for peace, not the other way around,” Hellsborn said.

Speaking about Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan’s statement that ‘If Azerbaijan doesn’t have intentions to attack Armenia the likelihood of escalation in the region is zero’, the Swedish legislator expressed hope that the negotiations will be successful, and there will be a long, lasting peace.

He said that even the idea of an Armenian invasion of Azerbaijan is “altogether absurd.”

“The idea of an Armenian invasion of Azerbaijan is of course altogether absurd. An Azerbaijani invasion of Armenian territory on the other hand is not. Hopefully the negotiations will be successful, and there will be a long lasting peace. But given Azerbaijan's history, no one can blame Armenia for being cautious," he said. 

 

 

 

Published by Armenpress, original at https://armenpress.am/en/article/1208448?fbclid=IwY2xjawHcgG9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYQWXywrEdQOV6kq06NFnl11lHsBpZu5cMNPgIYaurVjQFx8Aff5foCAVQ_aem_corm2ipeZec8dKuaN3cXzQ

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[MosJan]

is the honeymoon over Russia trying to tell them something ?

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mini dictator is demanding 

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[Yervant1]

Asbarez.com

 

In Rebuke to Kremlin, Azerbaijan Blames Russia for Plane Crash

by Asbarez Staff

 

 December 30, 2024

 

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

 

President Ilham Aliyev warmly greets President Vladimir Putin in Baku on Aug. 18

 

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan is not satisfied with the tacit apology he received from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, regarding the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passage jet last week. The Azerbaijani leader on Sunday directly blamed Russia for the crash, calling on Moscow to accept responsibility and offer compensation to victims

Putin offered an apology, but Aliyev said in an interview published by the Azertac news agency that it was not sufficient to preserve the friendly relations between the two countries.

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane was traveling from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny in southern Russia on Wednesday, but was diverted from its path after encountering interference with its navigation systems and impact with external objects, according to Azerbaijan’s government. The plane crashed in Kazakhstan soon after, resulting in the deaths of 38 of the 67 people on board, more than half of them Azerbaijani citizens.

Azerbaijani and U.S. officials, as well as international aviation experts, had said they believed that the plane was most likely shot down by a Russian air defense missile. Moscow, however, has not admitted responsibility and, in his apology, Putin did not take responsibility.

“We can clearly say today that the plane was shot down by Russia,” Aliyev said in the interview, in what can be seen as a direct rebuke to the Kremlin.

“We have clearly expressed our demands to the Russian side,” said President Ilham Aliyev in the interview, saying that Azerbaijan officially conveyed those demands on Friday.

“First, the Russian side must apologize to Azerbaijan. Second, it must acknowledge its guilt. Third, those responsible must be punished, brought to criminal responsibility, and compensation must be paid to the Azerbaijani state, as well as to the injured passengers and crew members,” Aliyev added.

Aliyev added that Moscow had met only the first condition thus far.

“I hope the other conditions will also be accepted. All these demands are fair. There are no extraordinary requests or issues here; all of this is based on international experience and normal human conduct,” Aliyev emphasized.

When Azerbaijan shot down a Russian military helicopter over Armenia’s airspace during the 2020 Artsakh War, Baku apologized and offered compensation for the victims. Presumably, Aliyev is using that incident as precedent to ask Moscow for compensation.

 

 

https://asbarez.com/in-rebuke-to-kremlin-azerbaijan-blames-russia-for-plane-crash/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHgPz1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHcPZgPSO5kBhRxvgurXKIdIOATw5SuJQjG_U_YxoAapx8CU3P26NwWtwRA_aem_MMwqZM_ZyFFOzqMN-ssXRg

[Yervant1]

Panorama, Armenia

Jan 6 2025

 

 

Greece detains Aliyev's cousin for drug trafficking

 

Greek judicial authorities announced on Friday that they have temporarily detained Izzat Khanim Javadova, who has performed as a DJ in dance clubs under the name Mikaela and Mikaela Jav and is related to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, on drug trafficking charges.

Javadova was arrested on December 30 at a party near Athens, where drugs were seized by police, Balkan Insight reported.

“The case file includes charges of both usage and drug trafficking. There were packages of drugs in the 43-year-old’s possession and a large amount of money that was not justified, which the police believe came from drug trafficking at the party,” police spokesperson Konstantina Dimoglidou told MEGA TV on Friday.

According to the Greek broadcaster ERT, the DJ denied the charges.

“I did not organise the party [raided by the police] and I did not send online invitations…. Also, they did not find drugs on me,” she said.

She said that the party was “a Tekno Berlin Kinky Party dedicated to love and music”, and that the accusations were “an attack on LGBTQ people” by portraying them as drug users.

Greek police arrested ten people at then party on charges of drug possession, drug trafficking and dealing, including the DJ.

Javadova, who has performed in clubs in Ibiza and across Europe, has been embroiled in controversy before.

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, OCCRP, in a joint investigation with Transparency International’s UK chapter, revealed in 2021 that Javadova, and her husband, Suleyman Javadov, were under an investigation by the UK National Crime Agency, NCA, over reports that they had received 13.9 million pounds, or $19.6 million, from suspicious sources.

According to the NCA, the couple used a network of 20 offshore companies to send these funds to the UK. Six of these companies were allegedly part of the so-called Azerbaijani Laundromat, which the OCCRP described as a financial vehicle that allowed the country’s ruling elite to embezzle money, launder it and bribe Western politicians.

The couple denied the allegation, but The Guardian reported that they were ordered to hand over 4 million UK pounds to the NCA after admitting in a settlement that they had brought the money into the country illegally.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2025/01/06/Aliyev-cousin-detention/3098451

[Yervant1]

Asbarez.com

 

‘Zangezur Corridor Must and Will be Opened,’ Aliyev Asserts while Threatening Armenia

by Asbarez Staff

 

 January 7, 2025

 

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

 

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan conducts an interview with Azerbaijan television outlets on Jan. 7

 

Aliyev Lashes Out at EU and France, while Praising Trump

In another threat-filled interview with local Azerbaijani television channels, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan on Tuesday asserted that his plan to open a land corridor through Armenia to Nakhichevan will take place.

“The Zangezur corridor must and will be opened. The sooner they [Armenia] understand this, the better it is,” Aliyev said, warning that Armenia should not “act as a geographical barrier between Turkey and Azerbaijan.”

He claimed that Yerevan was standing in the way of Baku’s aspirations for peace, while claiming that Armenia is losing its allies worldwide, warning the Armenian government to take notice of the global changes that are currently underway.

Aliyev also said that his country was embracing peace, but added that if Armenia is ignoring Baku’s overtures, then Azerbaijan does not want peace either.

“I would still advise the Armenian side to weigh everything, including geopolitical changes in the world. Their close friends are being shamefully removed from the political scene. Yesterday, news came that Mr. [Canadian Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau, a close friend of Armenia and Pashinyan, also had to resign. This country, which was very anti-Azerbaijani during and after the Second Karabakh War, is not far from France. As for France, what is happening on the political scene there now? Everyone can see that,” Aliyev added.

He went on to accuse France and its political establishment, as well as the European Union, of working against Azerbaijan, while refusing to travel to Paris or Brussels for talks and saying that if officials want to negotiate, they would have to “come to Baku.”

“If there is a consensus in French political circles, it is a consensus only on Azerbaijanophobia. Unfortunately, not only the incumbent government but also those who have ambitions to come to power do not differ much from each other,” Aliyev said.

“It would be enough to recall the illegal trips to Karabakh during the period when Russian peacekeepers were present. Those were the opponents of the current French President – the Mayor of Paris, who, by the way, ran for election, the governor of the region where Paris is located, who was also a rival of President Macron in the elections, and Mr. Barnier, who briefly held the position of Prime Minister recently,” Aliyev said.

“Islamophobia and xenophobia, in general, are distinctive features of the French political class,” the Azerbaijani leader added, further exacerbating the already tense relations between Baku and Paris.

He said that last year, Azerbaijan’s relations with the European Commission were “full of disappointments.”

Aliyev emphasized that the European Union “unequivocally” took Armenia’s side in the normalization process, stressing that “the way the so-called observation mission of the European Union was extended did not strengthen, but on the contrary, undermined the trust.”

Aliyev sounded an optimistic note about Azerbaijan’s relations with the United States, saying the President-Elect Donald Trump’s remarks about regional issues create the possibility for Washington and Baku to advance strategic ties.

“Trump is sending very clear, direct messages with his statements, and the vast majority of them are shared by Azerbaijani society. Therefore, hopes are high. That’s why I said that there is hope, there is great hope. This includes the possibility of advancing U.S.-Azerbaijan strategic relations,” Aliyev said.

In the weeks leading up to the November, 2024 elections, Trump vowed to “protect persecuted Christians, I will work to stop the violence and ethnic cleansing, and we will restore PEACE between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

In the same message he accused his opponent in the race, Vice-President Kamala Harris of failing to act in the wake of ethnic cleansing.

“Kamala Harris did NOTHING as 120,000 Armenian Christians were horrifically persecuted and forcibly displaced in Artsakh,” Trump said in the same statement. He reiterated his position on Artsakh when he held a telephone conversation with His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilica three days before the November 5 elections.

 

 

https://asbarez.com/zangezur-corridor-must-and-will-be-opened-aliyev-asserts-while-threatening-armenia/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHrLRpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHd3ScrHvSroskB2jFZnzLmAne0fdbVogDdeDREk1TJAdUKeHneB6oFrxrQ_aem_bD5uJQBmYijgMqdvnpEhfg

 

--

[Yervant1]

DevDiscourse

Jan 8 2025

 

Tensions Mount as Azerbaijan Accuses Armenia of 'Fascism'

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev accuses Armenia of being a 'fascist' threat, while Armenia's leader views this as a potential pretext for conflict. Tensions remain over Nagorno-Karabakh despite efforts for peace talks, with both nations lacking formal diplomatic ties and maintaining a heavily militarized border.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has intensified tensions by accusing Armenia of being a 'fascist' threat, a stance that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan suggests might be a pretext for renewed conflict.

 

 

 

The long-standing rivalry between Armenia and Azerbaijan took a new turn in September 2023 when Azerbaijan reclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh, resulting in a mass exodus of Armenians from the region. Despite intentions for a peace treaty, diplomatic progress has been minimal.

Aliyev insists fascism in Armenia must be eradicated, hinting at further escalation unless resolved peacefully. The two countries have no formal diplomatic relations, with a heavily fortified border emphasizing the ongoing tension in their volatile relationship.

(With inputs from agencies.)

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/politics/3219004-tensions-mount-as-azerbaijan-accuses-armenia-of-fascism

[Yervant1]

---

POLITICO

Jan 8 2025

 

 

Armenia responds to Azerbaijan’s fascism accusation: They want to provoke tensions

Azerbaijan has fought a series of wars against Armenia in recent years.

 

By Veronika Melkozerova

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has urged Azerbaijan to cool tensions and to stick to dialogue instead of resorting to accusations and threats.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said on Tuesday that independent Armenia is a threat to the region and “a fascist state in its nature” in an interview with local media, reacting to the reform of Armenia’s army and its arms deals with France.

Responding, Pashinyan said: “Perhaps [Azeri capital] Baku is trying to “legitimize” the escalation in the region. They make aggressive statements in the hope of an aggressive response from [Armenian capital] Yerevan, which [in turn] allows Baku to make its [own] statements more aggressive.

“[When] combined with the spread of false information about the violation of the ceasefire by the Armenian army, [this will] form a “justification” for a new escalation in the region,” Pashinyan told Armenpress on Wednesday.

Aliyev and his government have been accused of stirring up ethnic hatred against Armenians. Azerbaijan has fought a series of wars against its neighbor since 2020. In September 2023, Azerbaijani forces conquered the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sparking an exodus of its entire 100,000-strong ethnic Armenian population — drawing allegations of ethnic cleansing from Western NGOs and watchdogs.

Aliyev’s fascism claim came after the Azeri defense ministry accused the Armenian army of shooting at Azeri army positions on the southeastern border between the two states on Jan. 5. The Armenian Defense Ministry dismissed the accusations as disinformation in a statement on Sunday.

“[The] armament of Armenia will lead to new tensions. We don’t want that. We want peace … But independent Armenia is a fascist state at its core. Fascism must be destroyed by [the] Armenian leadership or we will do it ourselves,” Aliyev told local TV channels on Tuesday.

The two countries have been in a decades-long conflict since the fall of the Soviet Union. In recent years the U.S. and the EU have been pushing for a diplomatic solution amid hopes that a lasting peace deal can be signed.

 “We will not use the language of aggression, but the language of dialogue. We will continue to focus on demarcation, on agreeing on the text of the peace treaty, [and on an] agreement on humanitarian issues, including the problems of discovering the fate of the missing,” Pashinyan said.

Gabriel Gavin contributed reporting to this story.

https://www.politico.eu/article/armenia-nikol-pashinyan-azerbaijan-ilham-aliyev-fascism-accusation-tensions/

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

 

Politics11:30, 9 January 2025

Baku's invented narrative of “Western Azerbaijan” will “fall on deaf ears internationally” – Swiss legislator

Read the article in: العربيةՀայերենРусский简体中文

YEREVAN, JANUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. Swiss lawmaker Stefan Müller-Altermatt has said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s narrative of so-called Western Azerbaijan could benefit him domestically, but will fall on deaf ears internationally.

“After the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh, Aliyev needs new narratives to justify his tyranny. To this end, he is now reversing the victim-perpetrator narrative and inventing 'West Azerbaijan'. While this may benefit him domestically, his words will fall on deaf ears internationally,” Stefan Müller-Altermatt told Armenpress when asked to comment on Baku’s narrative of so-called Western Azerbaijan, through which many believe it seeks to materialize territorial demands against Armenia.

Touching upon the Armenian Prime Minister’s recently expressed concerns about the Azerbaijani Constitution containing territorial demands against Armenia, the Swiss legislator said it was a call to the West to be vigilant.

"I interpret the prime minister's words mainly as a call to the West to be vigilant. In the case of Artsakh, the West failed to stop the despot in Baku. This must not happen again. The EU mission and the pledges of support from France and others are extremely important. I hope the EU states will hear Pashinyan's words of warning,” Stefan Müller-Altermatt said.

The Swiss MP said that by making such demands Azerbaijan seeks to sow discord in Armenia and destabilize the country.

“It is clear that the Prime Minister [Pashinyan] is walking a tightrope. It is clear that Azerbaijan's demands have one main aim: to sow discord in Armenia and destabilize the country. He [Pashinyan] would therefore do well not to give these claims too much of an echo in his own country, but above all to proclaim with vigour that the territory of the Republic of Armenia is inviolable.”

 

 

 

Published by Armenpress, original at https://armenpress.am/en/article/1209020?fbclid=IwY2xjawHtfYRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHVuesaXFy-JVWiTt5tWC-TR_Tf-126pKh0fxJRZWKJ6N_dLL0vHxau47_Q_aem_R-mRuf0Zi7ITmbqAKxLRIA

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.am

 

Politics17:22, 9 January 2025

‘Armenia has the right to defend its borders,’ Swiss lawmaker rejects Baku’s groundless accusations

Read the article in: فارسیFrançaisՀայերենРусский

YEREVAN, JANUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. Armenia has the right to defend its borders, and if international partners help it to do so, it is in the spirit of international law, Swiss Member of Parliament Stefan Müller-Altermatt told Armenpress when asked to comment on Baku’s discontent over Armenia acquiring arms. 

In a recent interview, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenia is not engaged in an arms race with any country, and it is acquiring armaments exclusively for defending its territorial integrity. Stefan Müller-Altermatt said the Armenian leader’s remarks are correct.

“These statements by Aliyev should also be analyzed from an Azerbaijani domestic perspective: Aliyev's constant aim must be to keep Armenia small in order to make his people believe that they are superior thanks to their leader. In this respect, Prime Minister Pashinyan's statement is correct: Armenia has the right to defend its borders, and if international partners help it to do so, it is in the spirit of international law. After all, national borders should be defended on the basis of international law, not the law of the strongest and most brutal," the Swiss MP said. 

Speaking about the probability of renewed escalation in the region, the Swiss legislator said that the risk of escalation will remain without security guarantees from the West.

“Without security guarantees from the West, this danger of escalation will unfortunately remain - and not just because of Azerbaijan,” the MEP said, pointing out geopolitical developments.

“Armenia chose freedom in 2018,” Stefan Müller-Altermatt said, referring to the Velvet Revolution. “And you can see what Putin does with states that opt out of his kleptocratic system: he attacks them with a hybrid war. This is what happened in Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. And it will continue to happen in Armenia, albeit via Azerbaijan, whose autocratic system is drawing it ever closer to Moscow".

 

 

 

Published by Armenpress, original at https://armenpress.am/en/article/1209092?fbclid=IwY2xjawHtf6NleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYQtgkNpo4CC_uEqKp2yvoi2ZuK8CgFEg7RKCPtQsK-Eeeh60D39X6ySbg_aem_LxNyQSInIegcxSSq9pM2nA

[Yervant1]

Azatutyun.am

 

Baku Unimpressed By Pashinian’s Fresh Overtures

Հունվար 10, 2025

 

Azerbaijan - The building of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry in Baku.

 

Azerbaijan’s government has dismissed as insufficient Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s apparent offer to make more concessions to reach an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal.

Pashinian listed over a dozen peace proposals on Thursday two days after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made fresh threats of military action against Armenia. The proposals include the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh, something which has for months been demanded by Baku. Pashinian had previously set conditions for doing that.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aykhan Hajizade, brushed aside these overtures later in the day, saying that Armenia is still not “interested in building peace with its neighbors.” He said that Yerevan remains reluctant to change the Armenian constitution which Baku claims contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan.

“Sorry, but your argumentation cannot be considered a confirmation of the ‘good intentions’ of Armenia,” Hajizade wrote on the X social media platform.

Aliyev again made clear that the change of the constitution is one of his preconditions for signing a peace treaty with Armenia. He also insisted on the opening of an extraterritorial corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan through a strategic Armenian region, threatening to use force for that purpose.

Armenian opposition figures portrayed Aliyev’s latest threats as further proof that Pashinian’s appeasement policy is only encouraging Azerbaijan to demand more Armenian concessions and will not bring peace. They claimed that Baku is gearing up for a large-scale invasion of Armenia.

 

 

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/33271530.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawHvAgFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHSMkFPdMR5Oerh1UCPSEOyUaWnygb9wzn-RPLjdlxn2mYJK9PSIxIOs6LQ_aem_H4Ynfys5vazAPZkFKjbk_w