Month: April 2016

Congressional leaders condemn devastating Azerbaijani attacks on Nagorno Karabakh

Garik Boshkezenian
Reaction from Capitol Hill condemning Azerbaijan’s wide-spread attacks along the Nagorno Karabakh border came swiftly this weekend,  with senior legislators calling on the US government and international negotiators to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its escalation of violence and recommending a zero-ing out of aid to the Aliyev regime, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
“We join with Members of Congress in condemning Azerbaijan’s aggression and calling upon the Obama-Biden Administration to hold Ilham Aliyev to account for his unilateral escalation of violence against Nagorno Karabakh,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.  “Not another U.S. taxpayer dollar should be spent supporting the Azerbaijani military or subsidizing the oil rich, corrupt, and belligerent Aliyev regime.”
Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Robert Dold (R-IL) as well as House Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff (D-CA) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Senior Democrat Brad Sherman (D-CA) offered powerful comments hours after the Azerbaijani onslaught started.
“I strongly condemn Azerbaijan’s escalation of hostilities against Nagorno Karabakh, and I join the Obama Administration in urging an immediate de-escalation of the conflict,” said Rep. Pallone.  “President Aliyev continues to defy international calls to reach a negotiated settlement that will ensure a lasting peace in the region. It is unacceptable for Azerbaijan to continue on its current belligerent path, and I urge the Obama Administration and the OSCE Minsk Group to demand accountability on the part of Azerbaijan and continue to work toward implementing proposals that promote peace.”
His Republican counterpart, Rep. Dold, concurred.  “Once again we are reminded that Azerbaijan continues to say one thing and do the exact opposite,” said Dold. “Rather than obscure the reality with allusions towards even-handedness, I hope that the Obama administration will continue to work with Nagorno-Karabakh and the OSCE Minsk Group to come to a peaceful resolution where Azerbaijan is held accountable for their actions.”
Rep. Schiff stated he is “deeply disturbed by and condemns” the escalation in violence, noting that its occurrence just days after President Aliyev’s meetings with Vice-President Biden and Secretary of State Kerry “demonstrates that the policy of the United States and the Minsk Group is simply not working.”  Rep. Schiff continued, stating “Until Azerbaijan faces strong and meaningful consequences over their policy of escalation and violence and its self-serving refusal to agree to international monitoring of the Line of Contact, there is little chance of resolving the conflict and avoiding further bloodshed.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Senior Democrat Brad Sherman (D-CA), calling Azerbaijan’s attacks “deeply disappointing,”  condemned the violence and recommended that “U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan be cut off until it ceases its aggression, renounces violence, and commits to a purely peaceful resolution of the conflict.”
Congressman Sherman joined House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) in leading a Congressional letter delivered to President Obama just one week earlier, cosigned by over 50 House colleagues, calling on the Administration to speak with President Aliyev about the implementation of the Royce-Engel peace proposals during his visit to Washington DC for the nuclear summit.  The proposals include three concrete steps including the withdrawal of snipers, placement of a gun-locator system and deployment of additional OSCE monitors.  Armenia and Artsakh had already agreed to the proposals. “Instead, it appears that Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev launched new attacks against Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Rep. Sherman.

Karabakh conflict about self-determination, not territory: Artsakh FM tells CNN

Meline Chalian

 

 

 

The CNN listened to the Foreign Ministers of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan as it presented developments along the line of contact.

“In the early hours of April 2 Azerbaijan initiated an unprecedented escalation at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, using military equipment, artillery and aircraft,” NKR Foreign Minister Karen Mirzoyan told CNN.

“The Azerbaijani side fired artillery shells not only on the military positions, but also the populated areas, which resulted in many casualties, including among the civilian population,” Mirzoyan added.

Elmar Mammadyarov’s stated that “Azerbaijan is most interested in a peaceful settlement,” but said “we need a result from the point of view that our territories are under occupation.”

In response to the statement, teh NKR Foreign Minister said “it’s not a matter of territories, it’s a matter of self-determination.” “Twenty five years ago these people voted for independence, and now the current regime is Baku is trying to oppress this people not only by diplomatic, but also military means, which is a dangerous development.”

“We are looking for a diplomatic settlement, for a mechanism that will provide us with an opportunity of co-existence in this region,” the NKR Foreign Minister said.

Karen Mirzoyan added that “Karabakh highly appreciates the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group, the international community, but added that any “unaddressed calls to both parties are received by Azerbaijan not as a sign of concern, not as a sign that it’s time to stop the violence, but as a sign that it could continue its policy.”

“We heard opinions from both sides,” the CNN host said at the end of the debate.

 

20 Armenian servicemen killed, 72 wounded, 26 missing

Raffi Khondkarian

Lusine Avanesyan
Public Radio of Armenia

Twenty Armenian soldiers were killed, 72 were wounded as a result of the clashes along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact, Spokesman for the NKR Defense Ministry Senor Hasratyan told reporters in Stepanakert.

According to him, another 26 servicemen are missing. The Armenian side lost seven tanks. “Azerbaijan’s advancement has not exceeded 300 meters. At this point we have lost 5 military positions in the southern direction and 3 in the northern direction of the line of contact,” Hasratyan said.

As for the losses of the Azerbaijani side, Hasratyan noted that the rival lost 18 tanks, 2 helicopters, 6 infantry fighting vehicles, other military equipment. He said 300 Azeri servicemen were killed in clashes.

UN chief to visit Azerbaijan, Armenia despite Karabakh escalation

Vardan Badalian

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to pay official visits to Azerbaijan and Armenia in late April, despite the escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a UN source told on Monday.

According to the source, the escalation in the region “did not affect” the plans of the Secretary-General.

Last week, a UN source told TASS that Ban Ki-moon was going to visit Armenia and Azerbaijan and meet with leaders of the two countries shortly after the signing of the Paris climate deal set for April 22.

However, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, did not confirm the visit.

If Ban Ki-moon goes there, he will obviously meet with the heads of the countries, the spokesman said.

Azerbaijan violates the norms of international humanitarian law: Shavarsh Kocharyan

Emil Lazarian

“The large-scale offensive operations unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh in recent days not only violated Ceasefire Agreement, signed by the latter in 1994, and the Trilateral Agreement on the consolidation of ceasefire regime in 1995, but also is accompanied with gross violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said in comments to Armenpress.

“From the very beginning of the Azerbaijani offensive civilian infrastructures and civilian population, including children and the elderly have become intentional and indiscriminate targets of their actions. Among the first civilian victims were the 12 years old Vaghinak Grigoryan, who was killed, and two other wounded school-children,” he said.

“Azerbaijan violates the international humanitarian law and international human rights law, particularly, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977, 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child,” Shavarsh Kocharyan added.

“In the Talish village of Martakert region of Artsakh, the Azerbaijani soldiers tortured, maimed and killed three members of the Khalapyan family, the eldest of which was Marusya Khalapyan, born in 1924. It is impossible to find any justification for such barbarism towards civilians. The actions of the Azerbaijani army are violating the abovementioned conventions, customary law on war, as well as are beyond any civilizational elementary norms,” he added.

“The masterminds and perpetrators of such hideous crimes should be brought to justice. We lend importance to the strong condemnation by the international community, including the international institutions dealing with human rights and humanitarian law, of the atrocities being committed by Azerbaijan against the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Shavarsh Kocharyan stated.

Lavrov and Kerry condemn attempts by ‘external players’ to whip up confrontation around Nagorno-Karabakh

Emil Lazarian

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry have urged Azerbaijan and Armenia to immediately stop hostilities, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday after their telephone conversation initiated by the American side, TASS reports.

The sides “continued an exchange of opinions as to possibilities to overcome the conflict in Syria through boosting joint fight against Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra (both outlawed in Russia as terrorist organizations) and other terrorist groups, fixing the ceasefire regime and continuing the United Nations-brokered negotiations between the authorities of that country and the whole spectrum of the opposition forces to work out as soon as possible parameters of a peace settlement,” the ministry said.

The two top diplomats “expressed serious concern over escalation of confrontation in Nagorno-Karabakh and reiterated their resolute call for immediate cessation of hostilities,” the ministry said. “It was agreed to invigorate efforts of Russia, the United States and France as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, to promote the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Lavrov and Kerry condemned attempts by certain ‘external players’ to whip up confrontation around Nagorno-Karabakh.”

 

Senator Kirk urges Obama to hold Aliyev fully accountable for Karabakh violence

Albert Nalbandian

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today released a statement in response to Azerbaijan’s launch of military operations against Nagorno Karabakh:

“It is unacceptable and reckless for Azerbaijan to blatantly violate its ceasefire agreement with Armenia and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic with a series of deliberate, offensive attacks last weekend. Baku’s warmongering has led to numerous Armenian deaths, both civilian and military, as well as significant Azerbaijani causalities. I strongly condemn Azerbaijan for instigating this violence against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, and urge Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to stop his aggressive military onslaught.

“In addition, I call on President Obama and the State Department to hold President Aliyev fully accountable for this violence, and to support the implementation of the pro-peace steps laid out by Reps. Royce and Engel that include an agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact, the placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-location systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact, and the deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.”