Month: February 2019

Turkish Press: Turkey’s main opposition condemns France move on 1915 events

Garnik Tadevosian
Anadolu Agency (AA), Turkey
February 6, 2019 Wednesday
Turkey’s main opposition condemns France move on 1915 events
 
Erdogan Cagatay Zontur
 
Macron’s plans to mark so-called Armenian genocide on national day ‘groundless’, ‘unnecessary’, says CHP leader Kilicdaroglu
ANKARA
 
The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party on Wednesday strongly condemned French move to declare April 24 as a national day marking the so-called Armenian genocide.
 
“Tertiary countries cannot erase the traces of this tragedy and heal the wounds with groundless and unnecessary decisions,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, chair of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said in a written statement.
 
Kilicdaroglu’s remarks came as a blast at French President Emmanuel Macron over his plan to commemorate so-called Armenian genocide on April 24.
 
The main opposition leader said 1915 events are “traumatic” for Turkish and Armenian people, leaving “deep wounds” in collective memories of the two communities.
 
Speaking of painful events of the past does not help reconstructing a bridge between the Turkey and Armenia, Kilicdaroglu said.
 
“Action should be taken to rule out disintegration between Turkey and Armenia, new generations should see the future in a peaceful way, not in conflicts,” Kilicdaroglu noted.
 
Macron announced in early hours of Wednesday on Twitter that “In the coming weeks, France will make April 24 a day for commemoration of the [so-called] Armenian genocide.”
 
Turkey’s position is that the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia in 1915 took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.
 
Ankara does not accept the alleged genocide, but acknowledges that there were casualties on both sides during the events of World War I.
 
Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as “genocide” but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy for both sides.
 
Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue.
 
Turkey has also decried Western hypocrisy in alleging a genocide while ignoring their own dark history, including France’s colonialist record in Algeria.

Azerbaijani Press: SOCAR about Start of Production from Karabakh Field

Tatoyan Vazgen
Turan Information Agency, Azerbaijani Opposition Press
February 8, 2019 Friday
SOCAR about Start of Production from Karabakh Field
 
 
Baku/08.02.19/ Turan: Production of the first raw hydrocarbons from the Karabakh field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea is expected in 2020-2021, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said.
 
“There are great expectations about the oil and gas reserves in the Karabakh field. At present, the construction of a marine base for mining and drilling at this field is underway. The construction of the marine support block has already been completed by 60%. The primary engineering of the project is also being completed, the head of SOCAR said in an interview with the AzerTaj state agency.
 
He also said that at present, preparations are underway for drilling an exploratory well in the prospective Aypara structure in the Caspian Sea.
 
Earlier, Abdullayev said the Norwegian company Equinor will start drilling the first exploratory well in the Karabakh field in the second half of 2019.
 
The drilling will be carried out using the Dede Gorgud semi-submersible floating drilling rig.
 
On May 31, 2018, SOCAR and Equinor signed in Baku a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for exploration and development of the block of prospective structures of Dan-Ulduzu-Ashrafi-Aypara and a Risk Service Contract for the development of the Karabakh field. For the implementation of the projects, SOCAR and Equinor created an operating company on a parity basis (50% to 50%).
 
The agreements were ratified by the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan on June 29, and entered into force on July 5.
 
The Karabakh field, with recoverable reserves estimated at 16 million tons of oil and 28 bcm of gas, is located 130 km east of Baku. The depth of the sea in the area is 180 meters.
 

Israel Lifts Ban On ‘Suicide’ Drone Sales To Azerbaijan

Adrine Hakobian
Daily Independent (Nigeria)
February 5, 2019 Tuesday


Israel Lifts Ban On ‘Suicide’ Drone Sales To Azerbaijan


Israel’s Defense Ministry has lifted its ban on exports to Azerbaijan of “kamikaze” drones that are manufactured by an Israeli company accused of hitting Armenian positions in Nagorno-Karabakh with one of them in 2017.

According to Israeli media reports, the company, Aeronautics Defense Systems, was working on a potential $20 million deal with Baku when Azerbaijani officials asked its specialists to demonstrate its Orbiter 1K unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on Karabakh Armenian soldiers in the summer of 2017.

The reports said two Aeronautics employees refused to carry out the attack before two higher-ranking executives eventually agreed to do it. They said the drone did not directly hit their targets but two soldiers were injured in the attack.

Aeronautics’ export license was suspended after a complaint was filed with the Israeli Defense Ministry. Israel’s Justice Ministry moved in August 2018 to charge the company’s chief executive, deputy CEO, and other employees with violating an Israeli law on security export controls. The company denied any wrongdoing.

The Times of Israel newspaper reported that the Defense Ministry returned the export license on Monday, leading the company to inform the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that the ban on Orbiter 1K sales to its “central customer ‘A'” has been lifted. “The company can continue to supply the UAV to the aforementioned customer as soon as possible,” Aeronautics said in a statement.

The ministry’s decision came three weeks after Aeronautics was purchased by another, state-owned Israeli defense company, Rafael, in a $231 million deal.

The Azerbaijani army heavily used similar suicide drones manufactured by another Israeli company during the April 2016 hostilities in Karabakh. Baku had bought the Harop drones as part of multimillion-dollar defense contracts signed with Israeli arms manufacturers.

In 2012, Israeli defense officials confirmed a reported deal to provide the Azerbaijani military with more weapons worth a combined $1.6 billion. Those included, among other things, sophisticated anti-tank rockets which were also used by Azerbaijani forces in April 2016.

Armenia has long expressed concern at the Israeli-Azerbaijani arms deals, saying that they undermine international efforts to end the Karabakh conflict. A senior Armenian military official hailed in September 2017 the freeze of Orbiter 1K sales to Baku.

Commenting on the lifting of the Israeli ban on Tuesday, an Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said: “We will raise this issue both in our bilateral meetings [with Israeli officials] and on multilateral platforms … We will keep telling our international partners that an arms race is extremely dangerous for our region.”

The “suicide” drone scandal was exposed by the Israeli press more than two weeks after Israel’s Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi visited Yerevan in an apparent bid to improve his country’s frosty relationship with Armenia. Then Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian visited Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November 2017.

The post Israel Lifts Ban On ‘Suicide’ Drone Sales To Azerbaijan appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.


Armenian TV debate highlights concerns over Karabakh talks

Alex Jidarian
Public Television of Armenia
Feb 3 2019
Armenian TV debate highlights concerns over Karabakh talks

[Armenian News note: the below is translated from Armenian]

Armenian Public TV hosted a debate on 3 February on the recent statements about the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan preparing their nations for peace as part of peace talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen, who mediate work towards a peaceful settlement to the Karabakh conflict, and the UN Secretary General, came up with similar statements after a meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Paris on 16 January.

During the debate on 3 February, presenter Petros Ghazaryan said that peace is good but it should be “mutual” and there should be a consensus between the conflicting parties.

Ghazaryan wondered why Armenian should get ready for peace “if the opponent is going to attack us”.

Calls for peace ‘not new’

Ruben Rubinyan, the head of the parliament’s standing committee on foreign relations of the ruling My Step bloc, insisted that calls for peace were not new, and had been repeatedly voiced since 2006.

He reiterated the new government’s position that no decision will be taken on Karabakh without the agreement of the Armenian and Karabakh people. The MP also underscored that the option of “peace for territories” has not and must not be discussed in Armenia unless the issue of the recognition of the Karabakh people’s right for self-determination is discussed in Azerbaijan.

“It has been stated that there is no document or list of provisions on the table of negotiations now. No scenario is being discussed at the moment,” Rubinyan said.

He called on all political forces to avoid “seeding unfounded doubts” or “inspiring defeatist fears”.

No clear-cut strategy on Karabakh

Pundit Hakob Badalyan noted that the international calls for peace are an indication that no peace agreement is on the table.

He also stated that the Armenian public is concerned about the state of the talks because, for the last 25 years, Armenians had been made to believe that they must be “the first one to cede” in the Karabakh conflict settlement.

Propaganda of hatred

The pundit added that the two countries’ view of the conflict is radically different. In Armenia, the Karabakh issue is seen as a matter for the country’s leadership to solve, Badalyan noted.

But in Azerbaijan, he said, it is seen as a matter of state identity. He said that the main problem is that the Armenian public has assumed a passive stance, and suspects every succeeding government of ceding territories.

Badalyan said it is wrong for Armenia to assume an “obedient constructive stance” in front of the international community – and it is wrong for society to think that it is what they expect from Armenia.

The pundit added that the issue to focus on is not whether or not Armenia should adopt a policy of hatred towards Azerbaijanis. “The problem we have is to formulate our state strategy,” Badalyan said.

Opponent or enemy

Gegham Manukyan, the head of the news department of Yerkir Media TV affiliated with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun, pointed out that surveys have shown Armenian society is more tolerant.

“What do we call Azerbaijan on TV? We call it our opponent, do we not? All the TV stations have called it our opponent for years and even during the [2016] April war. Watch any TV channel in Azerbaijan, they call [Armenia] dusman [enemy in Azeri]. They do not say opponent, they say enemy,” Manukyan said.

He argued that Armenia needs to be “intolerant”.

“I do not speak about total militarisation but the Armenian society should be psychologically ready for what happened in April [2016]. Society must be as ready as the [soldiers on the] frontline so that the connection between the society and the frontline does not break up,” Manukyan said.

But MP Rubinyan argued that Armenia is not a militant society.

“Unlike Azerbaijan, we are not militant, we do not hate anyone but at the same time, we, our society, our armed forces will simply destroy the enemy, if, at any moment, there is any encroachment on the borders of the Republic of Armenia or Republic of Artsakh [Karavakh]. And no context of peace preparation can neutralise this,” he said.

Russia sold fighters to Armenia as if to itself

Nahapetian Samvel
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
February 4, 2019 Monday
RUSSIA SOLD FIGHTERS TO ARMENIA AS IF TO ITSELF
Four Su-30SMs were sold to Armenia for domestic prices
 
by Ivan Safronov, Alexandra Djordjevic
 
 
It was the Sputnik agency that on Thursday reported, with reference to the press service of the Armenian Defense Ministry, on the signing of the new agreement on Su-30SM fighter jets. The Defense ministry confirmed the fact of the deal, but did not specify either the number of aircraft purchased or the amount of the contract, adding only that “the process of acquiring the weapons in the framework of the $ 100 million loan previously allocated by the Russian side is at the implementation stage”. Rosoboronexport (the special exporter of Russian armaments) and the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation refrained from commenting.
 
Source: Kommersant, N18, February 1, 2019, p. 5 Moscow and Yerevan have signed a contract for the purchase of four Su-30SM multi-role fighter jets, which Armenian forces should receive in 2020. As it became known to Kommersant, the Russian negotiators made serious concessions to implement the deal with the CSTO ally: they not only issued a loan, but also sold the aircraft at Russian domestic prices, not at export prices. This contract can be considered symbolic both for the Armenian authorities as a whole, and for the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan personally: for the first time in decades, the Air Force of the country acquires new aircraft, not used ones.

Atmosphere of Karabakh settlement talks constructive – Armenian FM

Ara Felekian 
Interfax - Russia & CIS Military Newswire
February 4, 2019 Monday 3:58 PM MSK
Atmosphere of Karabakh settlement talks constructive - Armenian FM
YEREVAN. Feb 4
The atmosphere of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement negotiations is
constructive, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said on
Monday.
"I hope I am not mistaken, but the constructive atmosphere remains,"
Mnatsakanyan told journalists.
Armenia is continuing to work and will continue participating in talks, he said.
"We have said that we are a party to the negotiations and a guarantor
of Karabakh's security," Mnatsakanyan said.
Asked about the date of an official meeting between Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev,
Mnatsakanyan said there should be no hurry.
"Let's not hurry. It's important for us to build the process so that
we get a result. We should be confident that the next step is planned
in such a way as to maintain momentum," he said.
va mc ar

Karabakh conflict settlement to boost Armenia’s independence – Azeri Foreign Ministry

Ara Felekian 
Interfax - Russia & CIS Military Newswire
February 4, 2019 Monday 10:01 AM MSK
Karabakh conflict settlement to boost Armenia's independence - Azeri
Foreign Ministry
BAKU. Feb 4
A settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will open big economic
prospects primarily for the population of Armenia, Azerbaijan's
Foreign Ministry said.
"As Prime Minister of Armenia, Mr. [Nikol] Pashinyan should be aware
that a settlement of the conflict will lend impetus to the
independence of Armenia and create new political situation and also
open up big economic opportunities primarily for the population of
Armenia," the ministry stated in response to Pashinyan's remarks
during his visit to Germany.
The international resolutions and documents adopted in relation to the
conflict, primarily the four UN Security Council resolutions, "require
a full, immediate and unconditional withdrawal of troops by the
Armenian invader from Azerbaijan's occupied territories," the
statement said.
"First of all, we would like to remind that as the result of the
conflict it is Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven areas abutting
Azerbaijan that were occupied, and around a million of Azerbaijanis
were subject to ethnic cleansing and forced to flee. All of the
documents adopted in relation to a conflict settlement, and the
proposals by the Minsk Group co-chairs of the OSCE [Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe] are referring not to 'people' but
the population of Armenian and Azerbaijani origin," the statement
said.
It was reported that at a joint press conference with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Friday the Armenian prime
minister said that Azerbaijan's unwillingness to recognize Stepanakert
as a party to the Karabakh conflict thwarted progress in the
settlement talks.

Azerbaijani citizen applies to Karabakh Foreign Ministry for granting him citizenship

Garnik Tadevosian
News.am, Armenia
Feb 6 2019
Azerbaijani citizen applies to Karabakh Foreign Ministry for granting him citizenship Azerbaijani citizen applies to Karabakh Foreign Ministry for granting him citizenship

22:46, 06.02.2019
                  

A citizen of Azerbaijan, Rashad Alizade, has applied to the Foreign Ministry of Artsakh for granting him citizenship of Artsakh, Artsakhpress reported quoting a source close to Artsakh MFA informed, adding that no other information is available.   

Sports: Armenia to send two medal favorites to IWF Youth World C’ship

Christine Harutyunian
MediaMax, Armenia
Feb 5 2019
Armenia to send two medal favorites to IWF Youth World C’ship

Head coach of the Armenian team Gevorg Davtyan has told Mediamax Sport that two weightlifters are to represent the country in Las Vegas: Gevorg Ghahramanyan (81kg) and Garik Karapetyan (89kg).

“We selected the athletes based on the results they had in the national championship. Additionally, they are the main medal favorites,” he said.

The team will train in Tsaghkadzor until February 7 and start a training camp in Olympavan after a three-day break.

Sports: Armenia to take part in Winter Children of Asia Int’l Sports Games

Khondkarian Raffi
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 5 2019

Armenia’s entries will compete at the 1st Winter Children of Asia International Sports Games to be held in Sakhalin, Russia from 9 to 16 February, the National Olympic Committee told Panorama.am.

The games sanctioned by the Olympic Council of Asia, feature 8 events – figure skating, hockey, short track, skiing, snowboard, biathlon, ski race and ski jumping.

The competition is expected to bring together 3,000 participants from 20 countries. The participants are children 16 years old and below.

The 1st Winter Children of Asia will be held under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee.