Month: April 2016

On 8 April Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan met with Defense Minister of the Republic of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan.

Issues related to the wide-scale combat operations launched by Azerbaijan against the Artsakh Republic were discussed during the meeting.

The intelocutors noted the significance of further widening and deepening of  close cooperation as a pivotal factor of securing defense capacity of Armenia and Artsakh as well as maintaining stability in the region.

NKR Defense Minister Levon Mnatsakanyan partook in the meeting.

Azerbaijani forces actively fired in the direction of the Armenian Army divisions and settlements near the city of Vardenis, Armenia from 10:30 to 23:00 on April 6.

Besides artillery weapons, the rival used machine guns and 60 mm mortars.

The Armenian Armed Forces did their best not to violate the agreement on ceasefire.

Almost all the agreements on the settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh are “on the table,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday after talks with his Azerbaijani and Iranian counterparts Elmar Mammadyarov and Javad Zarif, TASS reports.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin pays personal attention to this issue, we regularly meet at the level of ministers with counterparts from Azerbaijan and Armenia,” Lavrov said.

“I agree that almost all the components of agreements are already on the table,” he said, adding that “in fact, we are very close (to reaching them).”

Lavrov said the talks in Baku with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and his meeting with Armenia’s Eduard Nalbandyan on Friday focus on these efforts.

He stressed that Russia is interested more than any other foreign partner that the conflict is resolved as soon as possible. “It is in our common interest to reach settlement.”

Russia’s top diplomat also urged measures to prevent new outbreaks of violence and called for stepping up efforts for political settlement.

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is far from stable, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday, TASS reports.

“The situation is certainly far from stable,” Peskov said. “That’s why it is impossible to stop at what has already been achieved, and no one is going to do this,” he added.

Talking about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh in general, “a setback has occurred,” Peskov said. “Very good progress was made before the resumption of heated clashes. Now, unfortunately, a setback occurred, and there’s a lot of catching up that will need to be done,” he concluded.

Moscow will continue its efforts to assist the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s peaceful settlement, Peskov went on to say.

“Certainly, this time again very prompt and major efforts have been exerted with a view to stopping the fire,” he said. “These Russia’s efforts have been welcomed by the parties concerned. Of course, Moscow will continue its consistent policy.”

In an article published by , French MP Valérie Boyer insists that it’s time to recognize the de facto independent Republic of Nagorno Karabakh.

She reminds that the night of April 2 Azerbaijan launched a major military offensive against the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh in what became the worst escalation since the conclusion of cease-fire in 1994.

“Azerbaijan  mobilized assaults tanks, combat helicopters, drones and even Grad missiles that targeted the cities of Nagorno-Karabakh and caused casualties among civilians, including children. The attack was pushed back so that dictator Aliyev had to agree on a ceasefire. With more than 200 dead, about twenty tanks destroyed and no territorial gain, this inept offensive has indeed shown the military weakness of Azerbaijan,” Boyer writes.

“How come that Azerbaijan stuffed with petrodollars is unable to triumph over tiny Nagorno Karabakh? Because no one in Azerbaijan, except Aliyev is interested in waging war,” the lawmaker writes.

“The Republic of Nagorno Karabakh has been de facto independent for nearly twenty-five years. For 25 years it has been striving to make each day even more democratic, while Azerbaijan sinks into the most desperate dictatorship,” she continues.

“The international community believed that postponing the question of the political status of Nagorno-Karabakh would favor negotiations and the establishment of peace. Experience shows, however, that it is not so and it only encourages the bellicose ardor of Baku. We must put an end to this situation. We must now recognize Nagorno-Karabakh,” Valerie Boyer concludes.

Valerie Boyer is a Member of French National Assembly. She represents the Bouches-du-Rhône department and is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Mdvedev has arrived in Yerevan at the invitation of Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.

The delegation headed by the Russian PM comprises a number of government representatives, as well as the Director General of “Roskosmos” State Corporation Igor Komorov and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.

Hovik Abrahyan welcomed his Russian counterpart at Zvartnots Airpors.

Immediately after the official welcome ceremony the Russian delegation left for Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian genocide victims.

The settlement of the Karabakh conflict should be in line with the right to self-determination, MEP Eleni Teocharous said in a statement on the incidents along the frontier of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. The statement reads:

“The bloody incidents that erupted along the frontiers of Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh on April 2, 2016, constitute developments that can lead to a wider conflict and blow up the Caucasus regions.

It is obvious that the escalation of the crisis puts stability and peace at a high risk. The EU and the international community in general bear their own responsibility since, for many year, they underestimated how dangerous the dormant conflict in Nagorno Karabakh is. Therefore, the EU should take initiative and diplomatic actions with the aim of mobilizing the international community and thus prevent a further escalation of the crisis.

The current developments with many soldiers and civilians from both sides losing their lives come to prove the need for a comprehensive solution based on the right to self-determination. If international community and particularly the EU do not intensify their efforts towards a democratic solution, a new catastrophic war is to come.

Azerbaijani government should stop violating the agreed ceasefire through provocative military actions, which turn into boomerang not only for its own citizens, but also for the stability and peace within the wider Caucasus region.

The lack of EU strategy in Caucasus region is offering Russia the advantage of having the initiative moves and the diplomatic upper hand. The European Parliament cannot simply watch the parties involved play with fire. Therefore, it should ask the High Representative of the EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to play a constructive and active role and thereby avert the escalation of the crisis.

The EU and UN and the great powers through the Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ efforts could take such measures in order to consolidate stability and peace among the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples, regardless of whether they are inhabitants of the Armenian Republic, the Azerbaijani Republic or Nagorno Karabakh. The settlement of the conflict should be in line with the right to self-determination. This is the only fair, democratic and realistic approach, which can lead to a viable settlement of the conflict.”

A group of French MPs, Senators and politicians have come forth with a joint statement on the recent escalation at the Nagorno Karabakh Line of Contact. The translation of the statement published by French newspaper is provided below:

It is now six days that the South Caucasus is ablaze again. Encouraged by international indifference, Azerbaijan under the rule of Ilham Aliyev attempted to regain by force its former colony, the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. This deadly offensive was concluded by a fragile cease-fire. It must be noted that this attack brought nothing to anyone, since the balance of power and the front line remain unchanged.

The fact remains that again the people of Karabakh paid with their lives for the vengeful impulses of the despot of Baku. Civilians were deliberately targeted by shelling and murdered by commandos, children were killed in the courtyard of their school.

This new aggression carries lessons. Who would dare ask the people of Karabakh to integrate with a regime that wants their physical annihilation? For the people of Karabakh independence and the establishment of the Republic have never been an objective, but a means; the way to live in peace and security, the way to build a democratic state that respects its citizens, open to the world and looking towards the future.

Azerbaijan is in turn a rich country but Azerbaijanis are poor. For the Aliev clan, regularly cited in the lists of “Swiss leaks” and “Panama Papers,” the war against Nagorno-Karabakh remains a good way to divert the attention of his countrymen from his material and moral corruption, which impoverishes its people.

The international community, fully aware of this, must take responsibility. We propose that the Minsk Group of the OSCE develops further negotiations on the following bases that will certainly be more fruitful.

On the one hand the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh that has over twenty years proven its viability and credibility must now be recognized for Baku not to continue to use the pretext of lack of recognition for attacking civilians.

On the other hand, the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh should be readmitted to the negotiating table: the twenty-first century negotiating the fate of a people with their representatives absent  is a meaningless process.

Finally, it’s necessary to impose effective measures for monitoring the cease-fire, measures already agreed by Yerevan and Stepanakert, and only Baku stubbornly refusing. In this context and considering the serious events that have just taken place, we call on the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to initiate an inquiry which will establish the facts and responsibilities. It will become possible to apply a system of political and legal sanctions on warmongers, as is the case in many other regional conflicts in the world.

The signatories: François Rochebloine (UDI), MP (Loire); Guy Teissier (LR), MP (Bouches-du-Rhône), René Rouquet (PS), MP (Val-de-Marne), Nicolas Daragon (LR) Mayor of Valencia, Luke Carvounas (PS), Senator (Val François de-Marne), André Santini (IDU) deputy (Hauts-de-Seine)Michel Amiel (RDSE), Senator (Bouches-du-Rhône) Roland Blum (LR), Deputy Mayor of Marseille; Valérie Boyer (LR), MP (Bouches-du-Rhône) François Pupponi (PS), MP (Val d’Oise); Hugues Fourage (PS), MP (Vendée); Bernard Fournier (LR), Senator (Loire); Sophie Joissains (LR), Senator (Bouches-du-Rhône) Arlette Grosskost (LR), MP (Haut-Rhin); Jean-Jacques Guillet (LR), MP (Hauts-de-Seine) Christian Kert (LR), MP (Bouches-du-Rhône) Patrick Labaune (LR), MP (Drôme); Philippe Marini (LR), Honorary Senator (Oise) and Mayor of Compiègne; François-Michel Lambert (EELV), MP (Bouches-du-Rhône) Richard Mallié (LR), mayor of Bouc-Bel-Air; Emmanuel Mandon (UDI), Regional Advisor (Rhône-Alpes Auvergne); Christophe Masse (PS), general counsel (Bouches-du-Rhône) Marlene Mourier (LR), Mayor of Bourg-lès-Valence; Jacques Remiller (LR), former MP, honorary mayor of Vienna; Alain Neri (PS), Senator (Puy-de-Dôme) Rudy Salles (UDI), MP (Alpes-Maritimes)

A billboard in the North End that was paid for by a group that denies the Armenian genocide was placed there “in error” and is being removed, a spokesman for Clear Channel Outdoors – the owner of the billboard – said on Thursday,  reports. 

The billboard, which is located just a few blocks from the Armenian Heritage Park, had sparked criticism on Wednesday night for its references to genocide-denial.

“Truth = Peace,” the sign says. A hand with the flag of Turkey holds up two fingers in a peace symbol, while hands with the flag of Russia (left) and Armenia (right) have their fingers crossed in the symbol of lying.

The text of the billboard directs readers to FactCheckArmenia.com, a website that dismisses the genocide as “propaganda being pushed by a powerful and well-funded Armenian diaspora.” The billboard says it is “proudly” paid for by the Turkic Platform, Istanbul.