Thursday,
Russia Urges Turkish Restraint On Karabakh Conflict
RUSSIA -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov arrive for a meeting in Moscow, January 13, 2020
Russia urged Turkey on Thursday to exercise restraint in its reaction to the
deadly hostilities on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border which has been strongly
condemned by Armenia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut
Cavusoglu discussed the clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces during a
telephone conversation.
“In connection with the recent escalation of violence between Armenia and
Azerbaijan, the Russian side emphasized the need for a balanced approach and
containment of the parties involved in the conflict to prevent the further
aggravation of the situation, ensure security on the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border, and intensify efforts for the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process,” the
Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“They agreed to develop cooperation between Moscow and Ankara to stabilize the
region,” added the statement. It gave no further details.
Turkey has blamed Armenia for the fighting which broke out on April 12 and
continued for several days, leaving at least 17 soldiers from both sides dead.
It has pledged to continue to strongly support Azerbaijan in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including with military assistance.
The Armenian government has decried the Turkish reaction, accusing Ankara of
trying to destabilize the region, undercutting international efforts to resolve
the conflict and posing a serious security threat to Armenia. Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian said earlier on Thursday that Ankara’s increasingly “aggressive”
pro-Azerbaijani stance is necessitating a rethink of Armenia’s foreign and
security policy. He did not elaborate.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said last week that the Armenians “will
certainly pay for what they have done” to Azerbaijan, his country’s main
regional ally. Such statements have fuelled speculation about Turkey’s
intervention in the Karabakh conflict on Azerbaijan’s side.
Analysts believe Moscow would strongly oppose Turkish military presence in the
former Soviet region regarded by it as a zone of Russian geopolitical influence.
Russia is allied to Armenia and has thousands of troops stationed in the South
Caucasus state.
European Court Seeks Information About Armenian Captive In Azerbaijan
• Susan Badalian
FRANCE -- The building of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,
September 11, 2019.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Azerbaijan to provide
information about the whereabouts and condition of an Armenian man who was
detained in its Nakhichevan exclave earlier this month.
Authorities in Nakhichevan reported the arrest of the 30-year-old man, Narek
Sardarian, on July 15 one week after he went missing while grazing cattle in a
border village in Armenia’s southeastern Syunik region.
Sardarian was shown on local television saying that he fled Armenia and wants to
live in Azerbaijan or a third country. His family believes that he crossed the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border by accident and was forced by the Azerbaijani
security services to give a different reason for entering Nakhichevan.
A lawyer representing the family, Artak Zeynalian, asked the ECHR last week to
help ensure that Sardarian is safe and sound and can communicate with his wife,
sister and parents.
Armenia - Narek Sardarian.
The Strasbourg-based court agreed to issue such an injunction on Thursday.
According to Zeynalian, it specifically ordered the Azerbaijani authorities to
reveal the place and conditions of Sardarian’s detention and report whether he
is facing any criminal charges, has access to a lawyer and can receive or send
letters.
Baku must provide this and other information before the end of this month,
Zeynalian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Arman Tatoyan, discussed Sardarian’s
disappearance at a July 14 meeting with Claire Meytraud, the head of the Yerevan
office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It is not clear
whether officials from the ICRC office in Baku have since been allowed to visit
Sardarian.
Zeynalian, who served as Armenia’s justice minister from 2018-2019, suggested
that the ECHR took into account the tragic fate of other Armenian civilians who
had strayed into Azerbaijani territory in similar circumstances.
In September 2010, a 20-year-old resident of a border village in Armenia’s
Gegharkunik province, Manvel Saribekian, crossed into Azerbaijan and was
immediately accused by Baku of planning to carry out terrorist attacks.
Saribekian was found hanged in an Azerbaijani detention center one month later.
Azerbaijani officials claimed that he committed suicide. But in a January 2020
ruling, the ECHR backed Armenian forensic experts’ conclusion that young man was
tortured to death.
Azerbaijan -- Armenian captive Manvel Saribekian is paraded on Azerbaijani TV,
17Sep2010
Another Armenian villager, Karen Petrosian, was pronounced dead in August 2014
one day after being detained in an Azerbaijani village across the border. The
Azerbaijani military claimed that he died of “acute heart failure.” The Armenian
authorities believe, however, that Petrosian was murdered or beaten to death.
Sardarian is not the only Armenian national currently held in an Azerbaijani
prison. Karen Ghazarian, a resident of the Tavush province, was captured in July
2018.
In February 2019, an Azerbaijani court sentenced Ghazarian to 20 years in prison
on charges of plotting terrorist attacks and “sabotage” in Azerbaijan. Yerevan
condemned the ruling and demanded Ghazarian’s immediate release.
No Azerbaijani villagers are known to have died in Armenian captivity. One of
them entered Armenia from Azerbaijan’s Gedabey district as recently as on June
12 and remains in detention.
Government Names High Court Nominee
• Artak Khulian
Armenia -- Vahram Avetisian, Yerevan,
The government nominated on Thursday a candidate to replace one of the three
members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court who were controversially dismissed
last month.
The nominee, Vahram Avetisian, heads a civil law chair at Yerevan State
University. He has previously worked in the Office of the Prosecutor-General and
the private sector.
“I believe that I have necessary professional skills, experience and integrity
to properly perform the duties of a Constitutional Court judge,” Avetisian told
reporters after the announcement of his candidacy.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government enjoys a comfortable majority in the
National Assembly, making Avetisian’s appointment to the Constitutional Court
all but a forgone conclusion. The nominee said that if elected by the parliament
he will strive for judicial independence and “harmonious” activities of the
judicial, legislative and executive branches of government.
President Armen Sarkissian and an assembly of the country’s judges are due to
name two other nominees for the high court.
The parliament approved last month constitutional amendments calling the gradual
resignation of seven of the court’s nine installed before April 2018.Three of
them are to resign with immediate effect. Also, Hrayr Tovmasian must quit as
court chairman but remain a judge.
Tovmasian and the ousted judges have refused to step down, saying that their
removal is illegal. They have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights
(ECHR) to have them reinstated.
Pashinian Wants Armenian Policy Response To ‘Turkish Threat’
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, .
Armenia needs to review its foreign and security policies in response to
Turkey’s increasingly “aggressive” support for Azerbaijan in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday.
Echoing statements by other Armenian officials, Pashinian charged that Ankara
has sought to heighten tensions in the conflict zone by blaming Yerevan for this
month’s deadly hostilities on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and promising
military aid to Baku.
“The only country that attempted to provoke greater violence, rather than calm
the situation down, [during the flare-up] was Turkey,” he said at the start of a
weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
“Given that country’s destabilizing and aggressive policy towards a number of
neighboring regions and traditional anti-Armenian policy, evidenced by its
justification of the [1915] Armenian genocide, Turkey’s stance did not come as a
surprise,” he said. “But its increased aggressiveness is creating the need for a
certain revision of our policy, including in terms of the scale of our
participation in international formats for curbing Turkey’s aggressiveness.”
Pashinian did not specify whether he thinks Armenia should forge even closer
military ties with Russia, its main ally, or step up security cooperation with
the West.But he did single out Russia’s role in international efforts to stop
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border clashes that broke out on July 17.
Azerbaijan -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev walk before a meeting in Baku, October 14, 2019
The deadly clashes provoked last week a bitter war of words between Ankara and
Yerevan, with the two sides accusing each other of trying to destabilize the
South Caucasus. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish leaders blamed
Armenia for the violence that left at least 17 soldiers dead. For its part, the
Armenian Foreign Ministry branded Turkey a “security threat to Armenia and the
region.”
Turkey’s National Security Council condemned the Armenian “aggression” on
Wednesday in a statement issued after a meeting chaired by Erdogan. It said
Ankara “will support any decision by Azerbaijan.”
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar vowed on July 16 that Armenia will be
“brought to account” for its “attack” on Azerbaijan. He did not elaborate.
Akar spoke at a meeting with a visiting Azerbaijani military delegation headed
by Deputy Defense Minister Ramiz Tahirov. The delegation also met with Ismail
Demir, the head of a state body overseeing the Turkish defense industry. Demir
tweeted afterwards that Ankara is ready to provide Baku with military drones and
missiles.
Successive Turkish governments have lent Azerbaijan full support throughout the
Karabakh conflict, reflecting close ethnic and cultural ties between the two
Turkic nations. They have made the establishment of diplomatic relations with
Armenia conditional on a Karabakh settlement acceptable to Baku.
Armenia, which is allied to Russia politically and militarily, has always
rejected this precondition.
EU Mediates Talks Between Armenia, Azerbaijan
Belgium -- EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep
Borrell at a press conference in Brussels, July 12, 2020.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has urged Armenia and
Azerbaijan to avoid further ceasefire violations and resume peace talks during a
trilateral phone call with the foreign ministers of the two South Caucasus
states.
Borrell phoned Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian and his newly appointed
Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov late on Wednesday to again discuss the
July 12 outbreak of deadly clashes on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, which
left at least 17 soldiers dead. It was Mnatsakanian’s first conversation with
Bayramov, who replaced Azerbaijan’s longtime Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
last week.
“I urged both sides to reaffirm their commitment to a ceasefire and undertake
immediate measures to prevent further escalation,” Borrell tweeted after the
phone call.
In a separate statement, the EU cited Borrell as saying that the parties to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should “refrain from action and rhetoric that provoke
tension, in particular from any further threats to critical infrastructure in
the region.”
“He also stressed the need for meaningful re-engagement in substantive
negotiations on the key aspects of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement
under the auspices of the [OSCE Minsk Group] Co-Chairs; both ministers concurred
on this,” read the statement.
Baku and Yerevan blame each other for the border clashes which appear to have
subsided over the past week. Mnatsakanian and Bayramov were reported to stand by
their governments’ diametrically opposite versions of the events.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Mnatsakanian “emphasized the
importance of implementation of the previous agreements on reducing tensions,
restoring and strengthening the ceasefire.” The confidence-building agreements
reached in 2016-2017 called for the deployment of more OSCE monitors in the
conflict zone and international investigations of truce violations happening
there.
For his part, Bayramov said that while Azerbaijan remains committed to a
peaceful Karabakh settlement it wants further negotiations with Armenia to
produce “concrete results.”
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has threatened in recent weeks to withdraw
from the negotiating process, saying that it has been “meaningless” so far. He
has said the U.S., Russian and French mediators co-heading the Minsk Group
should do more to make the talks “substantive” in addition to trying to prevent
violence.
Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian insisted on Thursday that
Azerbaijan itself hampers progress towards the conflict’s resolutions with its
“maximalist” position that preludes any compromise peace accord. He said Baku
must not “talk to us from the position of force.”
“Azerbaijan should publicly renounce the use of force and take credible steps to
end its anti-Armenian rhetoric,” Pashinian added during a weekly cabinet meeting
in Yerevan.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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