Month: December 2020

Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris on Friday announced two key staff appointments, both of whom have ties with Turkey and/or Azerbaijan.

Harris announced the appointment of Nancy McEldowney as her national security advisor and Rohini Kosoglu as her domestic policy advisor.

A career U.S. Foreign Service official, McEldowney’s resume includes stints as U.S. Chargé d’Affaires and deputy chief of mission in Turkey (2005-2008) and Azerbaijan (2001-2004). Last month, McEldowney joined President Elect Joe Biden’s presidential transition team to facilitate efforts related to the Department of State.

It was during McEldowney’s tenure in Ankara when the Turkish-Armenia protocol process started that was preceded by President George W. Bush’s infamous Rose Garden press briefing where he condemned the Armenian Genocide resolution being discussed in Congress. She presumably played a more direct role in advancing the protocols in her position as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs from 2009 to 2011.

President Elect Joe Biden has gone on record to express his frustrations with the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“What I think we should be doing is taking a very different approach to him [Erdogan] now, making it clear that we support opposition leadership,” Biden told The New York Times in December, 2019.

“He [Erdogan] has to pay a price,” Biden said at the time, adding that Washington should embolden Turkish opposition leaders “to be able to take on and defeat Erdogan. Not by a coup, not by a coup, but by the electoral process.”

She was in Baku when the U.S. waived the Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, that preconditioned U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan with the end of Armenia’s blockade by Ankara and Baku.

In his fourth announcement in October, while fighting still raged in Karabakh due to Azerbaijan’s aggressive attacks, which were supported by Turkey and Ankara-backed mercenaries from Syria, Biden called on the administration to enforce Section 907 bans on aid to Azerbaijan and the flow of military equipment into Azerbaijan.

“While he brags about his deal-making skills at campaign rallies, Trump has yet to get involved personally to stop this war. The administration must fully implement and not waive requirements under section 907 of the Freedom Support Act to stop the flow of military equipment to Azerbaijan, and call on Turkey and Russia to stop fueling the conflict with the supply of weapons and, in the case of Turkey, mercenaries,” Biden said at the time.

The Sri Lankan-American Kosoglu, who is Harris’ pick for domestic policy advisor, is the wife of Turkish-American software engineer Ozkan Sedat Kosoglu, who hails from Turkey’s northwestern province of Kırklareli.

The announcement of her appointment was hailed by Turkish media, which welcomed the “Bride of Kirklareli” being named to such a high-ranking post.

Harris described Kosoglu as “not only an expert on some of the most important issues facing the American people but also one of my closest and most trusted aides from the Senate and presidential campaign.”

Prior to her appointment on Friday, Kosoglu served as senior advisor on the Biden-Harris campaign, before which she was Harris’ chief of staff in the Senate directing her legislative strategy and leadership on key committees, including the Senate Judiciary, Homeland Security and Government Affairs, as well as Budget Committees.

ANCA, Hellenic American Leadership Council Welcome Provision Punishing Turkey for Purchase of Russian S-400s

WASHINGTON—The Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) and the Armenian National Committee of America applauded the completion of the 60th Annual National Defense Authorization Act.  The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2021 included a provision that effectively mandates that the United States imposes sanctions on Turkey.

In the 115th Congress, ANCA and HALC launched a joint advocacy initiative to remove Turkey from the F35 program and to hold Turkey accountable for violating the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.  The ANCA-HALC advocacy campaigns warned members of Congress against the dangers of failing to hold Turkey accountable and allowing it to have weapons that President Erdogan may turn against our allies – including Greece, Cyprus, Israel, and Armenia – and possibly even U.S. forces.

Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who played a key role in the NDAA amendment, tweeted: “Incredibly proud to have helped secure inclusion of a provision in the NDAA to do what President Trump refused to do: Officially determine on behalf of the U.S. government that Turkey took delivery of Russian S-400 defense systems and therefore will be sanctioned under existing law.”

Endy Zemenides, HALC’s Executive Director praised Senator Menendez’s leadership and noted:  “It took a while but the days of whitewashing Turkey’s consistent destabilizing behavior, violations of American and international law, and lack of reliability as an ally are over.  Congress is sending a clear signal to the incoming Biden Administration that ‘Accountability’ and not ‘Appeasement’ must be the key to US-Turkey policy.”

“The adoption of this key NDAA provision – long sought by the ANCA and our HALC and IDC allies – holds Erdogan accountable for his increasingly reckless and anti-American actions,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “It is our hope that the incoming Biden Administration will reflect and reinforce this broad bipartisan consensus, bringing to an end a shameful era in which the first instinct of U.S. diplomacy has been to erase every Turkish sin, excuse every Turkish offense, and appease even the most irrational Turkish demand.”

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday, once again, touted the need to open transportation links to Azerbaijan, one of the many troubling provisions of the November 9 agreement that he signed to end the war.

Since the start of the implementation of the agreement, which also called for the handover of large swaths of territory in Artsakh to Azerbaijan, individual citizens have felt the brunt of the vagueness of the document with no official explanation or instructions. Instead, Pashinyan has attempted to justify the agreement ignoring the plight of citizens who, for example, went to work at the Sotk mine in Armenia and were met with 250 Azerbaijani troops claiming ownership to 50 percent of the mine, which has been operating in Armenia for more decades. In other instances, residents in Artsakh were given 48 hours to evacuate their homes, because, it turned out, their villages were to be handed over to Azerbaijan.

The ninth and final point of the agreement calls for all economic and transport links in the region to be unblocked, adding that “the Republic of Armenia shall guarantee the safety of transport links between western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic with a view to organizing the unimpeded movement of citizens, vehicles and cargo in both directions.”

“Subject to agreement by the Parties, the construction of new infrastructure linking the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic with regions of Azerbaijan shall be carried out,” adds the agreement.

This provision of the “end of war” accord, has alarmed residents of the Syunik Province, which after almost three decades find themselves sharing a border with Azerbaijanis who have newly occupied the Lachin and other territories formerly under control of Armenians. This uncertainty also resulted in the resignation of the Syunik governor and has called into question the sovereign of Meghri, which borders Iran.

On Wednesday, residents of the Tegh village in Syunik found themselves in the awkaward—and potentially dangerous—position of negotiating with newly installed Azerbaijani border guards and armed units on the other side of the border, with no official instruction from the government, despite the fact that Pashinyan dispatched his newly-minted advisor, Armenia controversial former education minister, Arayik Harutyunyan to Syunik.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, has set his eyes on Meghri, proposing to build a highway connecting what is now under control of Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan, setting off more panic among residents.

Yet, on Saturday, Pashinyan repeated what he has been saying in defense of the agreement, that for Armenia’s future economic prosperity, opening of the transportation routes with Azerbaijan would be vital.

Of course, the prime minister framed this issues by arguing that open rail links with Iran and Moscow would greatly benefit Armenia’s economy. The railroad to Iran goes through Nakhichevan, while the one to Moscow must go through Baku.

“If we are to think about the future, we must think about the possibility of new factors emerging in economic life. Will there be significant changes in our economy from the resumption of the Armenia-Russia and Armenia-Iran railway communication? I think, yes. If we look at the question in this context, the picture looks different. But now, as I said, much more urgent issues need to be addressed,” he said.

Pashinyan also sought to minimize residents’ concerns—or allay their fears—by saying that Armenia’s armed forces were in control of the border with Azerbaijan.

“Many Armenian citizens are seriously concerned about the processes taking now place on some sections of the Armenian state border with Azerbaijan,” said Pashinyan. “This, of course, is understandable, but we must state that our armed forces are deployed along the entire state border of Armenia. What is happening in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is a separate issue.”

He then went on to discuss “various practical problems,” brushing aside residents’ concerns by saying those issues “are not insurmountable, and we are working to solve them.”

When it came to Meghri, Pashinyan simply said that the only mention of the word “corridor” in the November 9 agreement related to Lachin, which was handed over to Azerbaijan on Tuesday, leaving a 3-kilometer “corridor” that is now controlled by Russian peacekeepers.

“I mean, there is no concept of a “corridor” regarding Meghri,” Pashinyan said.

There was no concept of ceding villages in Mardakert to Azerbaijan spelled out in the agreement. Nevertheless, residents of seven villages woke up to evacuation orders late last month and find themselves homeless because at the last minute it was determined that their villages were actually part of Aghdam, which was surrendered to Azerbaijan on November 20.

President Armen Sarkissian on Saturday called for an atmosphere of tolerance and mutual respect in the country, while warning that the Armenian government cannot act in the spirit of the 2018 public mindset, given the post-war realities in Armenia.

Sarkissian’s remarks seemed to be a direct response to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan who minutes before concluded an address to the nation on Facebook Live, where he once again criticized the opposition, which is demanding his resignation after he signed the November 9 agreement that ended the war but saw Armenia making major territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.

In his remarks Saturday, Pashinyan stressed that Armenia’s last parliamentary elections, held in December 2018, when his My Step bloc won a clear majority, were widely recognized as democratic. In an apparent reference to the opposition forces, which are calling for the creation of a “national accord” government and nominated Vazgen Manukyan as their candidate, Pashinyan said that “some circles” want to come to power through a fraudulent vote.

Sarkissian, who has himself endorsed the concept a “national accord” body and has pushed for snap elections with the current government’s resignation, said Saturday that Armenia is in a “deep post-war crisis,” adding that the government could not act within the 2018 public mindset since “today’s reality is completely different.”

The dueling messages from Sarkissian and Pashinyan came hours before a scheduled opposition-organized rally, which drew thousands to Yerevan’s Freedom Square, where among other representatives, Manukyan, the opposition’s prime ministerial candidate, addressed the public.

“Today our state and our public are in a deep post-war crisis. This has to be said without any hesitation, without deceiving ourselves, and, at the same time, without despair. We must fully comprehend and accept the existence of this crisis and do everything we can to overcome it, together, hand in hand,” said Sarkissian in his written message.

“Regardless of the positions we hold, our political beliefs and views, our personal likes and dislikes, we must think about the future of our state, our country and our people,” said the president. “Each of us has the right to express our opinions, dissatisfaction and demand an explanation from the authorities for the enormous human and territorial losses caused by the war.”

In emphasizing the need for an atmosphere of tolerance and mutual respect, the president’s appeal to the nation was to ensure that their actions were in accordance to the rule of law.

He also appealed to law enforcement bodies, which in the past weeks have brutally arrested opposition protesters, saying while maintaining law and order is important, they must remember that “the person in front of you—in the streets of Yerevan—is our compatriot, one of us, man or women, young or old. Among them are people who a few days ago defended the homeland, each of us, you.”

“Any violence, disproportionate use of force and measures are inadmissible and unacceptable. In your actions you must show responsibility and the highest professionalism and humanity,” added Sarkissian to his appeal to law enforcement.

“Today we need groundbreaking decisions. Any solution must receive national consent. We must be able to restore the atmosphere of tolerance, mutual respect, to bring together all the positive and vital qualities of our people, to turn them into a collective force, which will be the guarantor of our future success. The activities of the President and institution of the president are aimed at that very goal,” said Sarkissian.

YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—The Armenian government has commissioned 600,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines from World Health Organization-backed COVAX Facility and hopes to receive their first batch in February, a senior official said on Friday.

They will be enough to vaccinate 300,000 people making up roughly 10 percent of Armenia’s population.

According to Gayane Sahakyan, the deputy director of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, medical and social workers, seniors and people suffering from chronic diseases will be the first to get vaccine shots free of charge.

COVAX is a global partnership which aims to finance COVID-19 vaccines to be distributed fairly to more than 180 countries that have joined it. It should give them access to several vaccine candidates in development globally. Vaccine manufacturers and suppliers will be chosen by the COVAX administration.

The Armenian government’s supply contract with COVAX is worth $6 million.

“The first vaccine which COVAX will make available to the participating countries is the one produced by the British company AstraZeneca,” Sahakian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “It is expected that the manufacturer will deliver it to COVAX in February or March.”

“We can directly apply to any other manufacturer and get vaccines from them,” she said. “But the cost will be quite high. Can we afford it? Of course we can’t. That is why we are mainly pinning our hopes on the COVAX Facility.”

Sahakian at the same time did not exclude that the government will urgently buy smaller quantities of vaccines from other sources for high risk categories of the population.

Late last month the Russian Ministry of Health donated several dozen doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V to Armenia. It emerged on Friday that Health Minister Arsen Torosyan and his deputy Artyom Smbatian are among Armenian volunteers vaccinated with Sputnik.

“He is feeling well and waiting for the next inoculation because the Russian vaccine involves two shots,” said Torosyan’s spokesman, Alina Nikoghosyan.

The Armenian health authorities have confirmed a total of nearly 140,000 coronavirus cases so far. The real number of infections is believed to be much higher.