Thursday,
Putin Urges Respect For Karabakh Truce Accord
• Aza Babayan
RUSSIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin attends his annual end-of-year news
conference, held online in a video conference mode, at the Novo-Ogaryovo state
residence outside Moscow,
The parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must respect the Russian-brokered
agreement to stop the Armenian-Azerbaijani war and not try to change the status
quo, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
“We agreed within the framework of the trilateral statement [issued by the
leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on November 10] to stop hostilities,”
Putin told a marathon news conference held outside Moscow. “And, what is very
important, we agreed that the parties will stop at the positions where they were
when our trilateral statement was signed.”
“Everybody must stop there,” he added, answering a question about whether
Armenian forces should also withdraw from Karabakh in addition to surrounding
districts recaptured by or handed over to Azerbaijan.
Some officials and commentators in Baku claimed earlier this week that the
ceasefire agreement requires Armenian forces to pull out of Karabakh as well.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry dismissed those claims.
The Armenian side accused Baku of violating the ceasefire agreement after
Azerbaijani forces captured at the weekend the last two Armenian-controlled
villages in Karabakh’s Hadrut district which was occupied by them during the
six-week war. Russian peacekeepers intervened to stop further fighting in the
area.
Putin expressed hope that there will be no more truce violations in the conflict
zone and that the parties will resume peace talks mediated by the Russian,
French and U.S. co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.
The truce accord says nothing about Karabakh’s future status. Putin reiterated
that it must be determined in the future.
“The status of Karabakh itself must remain unchanged. That is, the status quo
must be fixed along with the mandatory creation of communication possibilities
between Armenia and Karabakh,” he said.
Putin noted that Karabakh is a part of Azerbaijan “from the international legal
standpoint.” “But the situation is much more complex than the normative
postulates … The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh had taken up arms to protect
their life and dignity,” he stressed.
Armenian Troop Redeployment Sparks Protests
• Susan Badalian
Armenia -- Protesters block a road in Syunik province,
Hundreds of residents of Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province bordering
districts recaptured by Azerbaijan during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh blocked a
highway on Thursday to protest against Armenian troop redeployments resulting
from the Russian-brokered ceasefire.
The Azerbaijani army mostly regained control of the Zangelan and Kubatli
districts southwest of Karabakh and approached Syunik during the six-week war
stopped on November 10. Some internationally recognized parts of the two
districts close to Syunik’s capital Kapan and other communities have remained
under Armenian control until now.
Armenian army units began pulling back from those areas and redeploying much
closer to the Syunik settlements on Thursday, sparking angry protests by local
residents concerned about their security.
Hundreds of them closed a section of the main Syunik road to demand a halt to
the troop withdrawal. The protesters said that Azerbaijani forces will now be
stationed dangerously close to their communities.
“Our security won’t be guaranteed,” one of them told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“How can we be sure that their snipers won’t shoot at us from there?”
Kapan’s Mayor Gevorg Parsian also voiced serious concerns. Aysor.am quoted
Parsian as saying that the “unfortunate order” issued to Armenian troops will
leave Kapan without a vital “security zone.”
The troop redeployments also raised questions about the safety of the highway
connecting Kapan to another provincial town, Goris. Some of its sections
straddle the Soviet-era Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Syunik Governor Melikset Poghosian talked to the protesters and tried to allay
their fears. He said that the security risks resulting from ongoing
delimitations of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border can be minimized.
The protests erupted as Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian toured Syunik to
discuss practical modalities of the troop redeployment with local military
commander and provincial authorities.
In a statement on Harutiunian’s visit, the Armenian Defense Ministry announced
that more Russian border guards will be deployed at “some sections of the Syunik
border.” It gave no other details.
Harutiunian visited Moscow and held talks with Russian Defense Minister Sergei
Shoigu at the weekend.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
insisted on Wednesday that Armenia will not lose any inch of its internationally
recognized territory as a result of the border delimitations. “The borders are
being demarcated on the basis of Soviet-era maps,” he said.
Kocharian Visits Moscow
Դեկտեմբեր 17, 2020
December -- Former President Robert Kocharian greets supporters during his
trial, Yerevan, February 25, 2020.
Former President Robert Kocharian flew to Moscow on Thursday on what his office
described as a three-day private visit.
The office gave no details of the trip, and it was not clear whether Kocharian
was scheduled to meet with any Russian officials.
Russian media reported that the board of directors of a major Russian
corporation, AFK Sistema, will hold a regular meeting on Friday. Kocharian has
been a board member since 2009.
The 66-year-old ex-president, who governed Armenia from 1998-1999, has not been
able to attend any Sistema meetings since being arrested in July 2018 on coup
charges rejected by him as politically motivated. He was most recently released
from jail on bail in May this year.
Russia has criticized the criminal proceedings launched against Kocharian.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made a point of congratulating
him on his birthday anniversaries and praising his legacy.
Weeks after the outbreak of the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Kocharian and
another former president, Levon Ter-Petrosian, offered to visit Moscow to meet
with Russian leaders as Armenia’s “special envoys.” Their planned trip was
cancelled in disputed circumstances.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian questioned late last month the sincerity and
seriousness of the ex-presidents’ offers. The latter responded by accusing
Pashinian of blatantly lying about their hopes to try to stop the war.
Earlier this month, Kocharian joined the Armenian opposition in blaming
Pashinian for the Armenian side’s defeat in the war and demanding his
resignation. He charged that Pashinian’s government made the war “inevitable”
with reckless diplomacy and miscalculations of Armenia’s military potential and
needs. Pashinian rejected the criticism.
Government Approves More Aid Programs For Karabakh Refugees
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- Labor and Social Affairs Minister Mesrop Arakelian at a cabinet
meeting in Yerevan, .
The Armenian government approved on Thursday two temporary employment programs
for residents of Nagorno-Karabakh who fled to Armenia during the recent war with
Azerbaijan.
In particular, it pledged to create public works jobs for the ethnic Armenian
refugees remaining in the country. A government statement did not specify how
many of them will be covered by the scheme. It said only that they will be able
to work for up to three months and receive 8,000 drams ($15) a day.
The government will also offer to finance paid internships for unemployed
refugees willing to gain work experience in new fields. It will pay each intern
100,000 drams a month and compensate their employers for all resulting taxes.
“These are short-term programs that do not encourage permanent work … because
more long-term employment encouragement programs are planned in Artsakh
(Karabakh). They will enable Artsakh citizens to have stable incomes,” Labor and
Social Affairs Minister Mesrop Arakelian said during a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan.
The government also announced three-month financial assistance to families in
Armenia and Karabakh temporarily hosting Karabakh Armenians who lost their homes
during the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10.
They will get 30,000 and 45,000 drams respectively for every person hosted by
them.
According to authorities in Stepanakert, at least 90,000 civilians making up
around 60 percent of Karabakh’s population fled their homes during the war. Most
of them took refuge in Armenia. At least 40,000 Karabakh Armenians have
reportedly returned home over the past month.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Month: December 2020
Azerbaijani attack on Shushi’s Ghazanchetsots Cathedral possible war crime – HRW
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 16 2020
Azerbaijani forces attacked a church in the city of Shushi on October 8, 2020 during the Nagorno-Karabakh hostilities, in what appears to be a deliberate targeting in violation of the laws of war, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday..
Two separate attacks, hours apart, on the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral on October 8 in the town of Shushi, also known as Shusha, suggest that the church, a civilian object with cultural significance, was an intentional target despite the absence of evidence that it was used for military purposes. Remnants of the weapon Human Rights Watch collected at the site corroborate the use of guided munitions. President Ilham Aliyev said that the church could have been targeted only by mistake and was “not among military targets.”
“The two strikes on the church, the second one while journalists and other civilians had gathered at the site, appear to be deliberate,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These attacks should be impartially investigated and those responsible held to account.”
On September 27, Azerbaijan began air and ground attacks across Nagorno-Karabakh, an escalation in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia and the local authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh. Fighting continued until November 10, when Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia concluded an agreement to end the hostilities.
Shushi is approximately 10 kilometers from Nagorno-Karabakh’s largest city, Stepanakert. Several attacks on Shushi were reported in the first days of fighting. By early October, many of its residents had fled, though some civilians remained, including men, women, and children.
The Cathedral, constructed in the 19th century and an important building for the Armenian church, was attacked twice in the afternoon on October 8. No one was injured or killed in the first strike as the civilians in the church at the time were sheltering in its basement, but three journalists for Russian outlets were injured in the second strike. Reports of the first attack were posted on social media channels beginning around 12:30 p.m.
Human Rights Watch spoke to four civilians who were at the church or in its immediate vicinity during one or both attacks, including two injured in the second attack.
A Human Rights Watch researcher examined the damage to the church and collected remnants from munitions. Human Rights Watch was not able to identify the munitions used in each attack but found remnants consistent with munitions capable of being accurately directed at a specific target and making corrections to its flightpath after release. Some of the remnants Human Rights Watch found and documented matched those circulated on social media following the first attack. However, photos of other remnants do not appear to have been posted elsewhere. No remnants found match any publicly documented air-to-ground weapons.
The Azerbaijani government has denied intentionally striking the church, instead asserting without evidence that the church was attacked by Armenian forces as a “provocation” or that it may have been mistakenly struck by Azerbaijani artillery.
However, multiple factors indicate that both attacks were directed at the church. The remnants found indicate that the weapons used were capable of being directed at a specific target. The two strikes struck the same part of the church roof, with no more than two meters difference between the point of impact. This substantially reduces the possibility that less precise weapons were used, given their inability to achieve such a high degree of accuracy over two strikes. Additionally, Human Rights Watch is not aware of any additional reports of strikes in Shushi around the church at the time of these attacks, suggesting that each attack was a single strike.
International humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war, requires warring parties to distinguish between civilian objects and military objectives at all times. Attacks directed at civilian objects that are not used to commit hostile acts or are otherwise not military objectives are prohibited and may constitute a war crime. Warring parties are also required to respect cultural property and special care must be taken to avoid damage to buildings dedicated to religion and historic monuments. They must not be attacked unless imperatively required by military necessity.
Serious violations of the laws of war committed with criminal intent – deliberately or recklessly – are war crimes. Governments have a duty to investigate allegations of war crimes by members of their armed forces or forces on their territory and to fairly prosecute those found responsible.
On October 15, President Aliyev said that Azerbaijan would need to investigate the attack. On November 9, BBC published an interview with Aliyev, who said in response to a question about the result of the investigation: “In order to investigate it, we have to be there to investigate.”
“It has been over a month since Azerbaijan has retaken control of Shushi and the government needs to waste no time in investigating the attacks and holding those responsible to account,” Williamson said. “Attacks such as these serve no military purpose and all parties should ensure these kinds of attacks are punished and otherwise prevented.”
Yerevan Court of Appeals overturns ruling to arrest Mikayel Minasyan
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 16 2020
The Court of Appeals in Yerevan has overturned a lower court ruling to arrest former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan, his lawyer Mihran Poghosyan said on Wednesday.
“In this politically motivated criminal case protracted for around a year, the person holding the Armenian prime minister’s post has failed to achieve his desired goal for the fourth time already,” the lawyer wrote on Facebook.
“Regrettably, if Nikol Pashinyan had directed at least 10 percent of his efforts to fabricate a case against Mikayel Minasyan to prevent the threats facing the homeland, we would not find ourselves in such a deplorable situation now,” he added.
Vazgen Manukyan speaks of legitimate change of power
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 16 2020
Candidate for the PM's post from the Homeland Salvation Front Vazgen Manukyan was hosted on Wednesday at the Presidency of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. As the press service at the Academy reported, ways to overcome the ongoing challenges ahead of Armenia were discussed during the meeting with the Presidency members. Among topics discussed were issues related to ensuring the security of the country, the clarification of the Artsakh status, the army rebuilding, the spread of the idea of national values and the increase of education quality. The talks around the Artsakh issue under the auspices of the Minsk Group were touched upon.
In his remarks, Vazgen Manukyan highlighted the need for legitimate change of power.
"The course of Armenia's future path will be set in the first year, which is to build a national, democratic and protected country with own say in the region," Manukyan stressed.
Radik Martirosyan, the President of the National Academy of Sciences, in turn, pointed to the role of science in taking the country out of the current crisis. He attached importance to the state funding and investment in the development of the sciences.
During the meeting, NSS academicians Lenser Aghalovyan, Yuri Suvaryan, Eduard Ghazaryan, Ashot Saghyan and others made remarks.
116 schools came under Azerbaijani control in Artsakh as a result of the war
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 17 2020
Society 10:22 17/12/2020NKR
As a result of the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), 116 schools came under the control of Azerbaijan, while 6,300 school students were deprived of their right to education, the Artsakh State TV Channel reports. According to the source, at present, only 1,191 students attend school in Stepanakert.
As the Minister of Education and Culture of Artsakh Lusine Gharakhanyan said, discussions with representatives of international structures will be held in Artsakh soon to address issues related to cultural heritage of Artsakh.
‘March of dignity’ for Pashinyan’s resignation to start from Tumo park in Yerevan
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 17 2020
Society 11:10 17/12/2020Armenia
A “march of dignity” demanding the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will be held in Yerevan, Armenia on Thursday evening.
The march, organized by the Homeland Salvation Movement created by 17 opposition political parties
‘March-dignity-Pashinyan’s-resignation-Yerevan/2421517
Defense Ministry: Video showing Armenian servicemen being freed from siege authentic
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 16 2020
A video circulated on the web and showing a group of Armenian servicemen being freed from a siege in the area near His Tagher and Khtsaberd villages of Hadrut region is authentic, Armenia's defense ministry reported in a statement.
"The operation was facilitated thanks to practical steps of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh and at the personal meditation of Lieutenant General Rustam Muradov," the ministry added.
To note, the Artsakh Defense Army earlier reported that it had lost contact with the personnel of several military positions deployed near Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd villages of Hadrut in yet unknown circumstances on Tuesday evening.
Azerbaijan continues to openly preach hatred and animosity towards ethnic Armenians – Ombudsman
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 17 2020
The Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan insists the highest authorities of Azerbaijan continue to openly preach hatred and animosity towards ethnic Armenians. Tatoyan has presented evidence on his Facebook.
"1. The President of Azerbaijan continues to generate hatred towards the entire Armenian people with his public speeches, to make threats against the entire population of Armenia, to make insulting and hateful expressions.
2. In particular, during the military event held in Baku on December 10, 2020, the President of Azerbaijan delivered a public speech full of open threats of genocide addressed to the entire people of Armenia, as well as systemic hatred. During the same event, the President of Turkey had a public speech with more open threats addressed to lives of the entire people of Armenia praising the organizers and perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.
The Human Rights Defender of Armenia has already presented the very dangerous consequences of these two speeches not only for the people of Armenia, but also for the international human rights system in his public statement of the same day.
3. It is especially condemnable that after those speeches, the President of Azerbaijan made similar statements during the December 12, 2020 meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group France and the US Co-Chairs, i.e. not for the domestic, but for the international audience in presence of international figures.
4. The speech of the President of Azerbaijan of December 12, 2020 is full of expressions inciting hatred and animosity towards Armenians, open threats of mass violence against Armenians.
In particular, he mentioned in the part of that speech concerning Armenia. "(…) if Armenian fascism once again raises its head, we will crush its head with an iron fist." Moreover, this was done with special reference to the speech of the President of Azerbaijan during the military event held on December 10 in the capital of Azerbaijan.
The President of Azerbaijan also stated. "We gave such a response that destroyed the Armenian army and we can even say the Armenian state (…). "We dispelled the dreams of the so-called “Artsakh” of the Armenian nationalists."
5. The same speech used profound expressions of ethnicity towards Armenians, including those that generated hatred on religious grounds.
6. Afterwards, the President of Azerbaijan in his same speech of December 12, 2020 stated that open threats of his speech addressed to the entire people of Armenia should be conveyed to Armenians by the international community. And this was made in the presence of international figures and by a public speech.
7. The rhetorics sowing hatred and animosity are clear continuation of the previous public statements and speeches of the President of Azerbaijan. For example, in one case he stated that "Armenia is a country of no value. It is actually a colony, an outpost run from abroad”. In another case, Armenians were called wild beasts and predators. At the same time, speeches of the Azerbaijanի President on Armenia and the Armenian people constantly contain words of "Armenian fascism" and it is done to insult the Armenian people and incite hatred towards Armenians among the people of Azerbaijan.
8. Studies of Armenia’s Human Rights Defender's Office, collected evidence confirm that after such speeches of the President of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani mass media and social networks are filled with similar expressions of hatred and animosity not only towards the people of Armenia, but towards all Armenians in general.
9. According to the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, these are the exact speeches that have been made over the years in Azerbaijan and by this an institutional system of propaganda of hatred and animosity towards Armenians on the basis of ethnicity, open promotion of impunity and state supported hatred at the highest level has been established.
State encouragement for killing Armenians in Azerbaijan has reached such a level that even the country's Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) has publicly stated that Ramil Safarov, who brutally killed an Armenian solider with ax during a night in a European Union member state, must become an example of patriotism for youth of Azerbaijan.
10. Such speeches are a direct reasons for the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces in September-November 2020 that do not even fit into the human imagination.
11. The expert examinations of videos of atrocities by the experts of the Human Rights Defender's Office of Armenia have confirmed that Azerbaijani soldiers use the same expressions of the President of Azerbaijan as inspiration when torturing or killing Armenian soldiers or civilians, cutting off the parts of bodies of killed Armenians.
All above mentioned is confirmed by real and concrete evidence obtained by the Human Rights Defender of Armenia.
12. Therefore, the mentioned speeches of the President of Azerbaijan directly confirm the war crimes and atrocities committed by the Azerbaijani military forces during the wars of April 2016, September 2020-November and in other periods and still continue.
These speeches also confirm that the described actions envisaged by international criminal law are results of an organized state policy of Azerbaijan, which clearly proves the Azerbaijani policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide through terroristic methods in Artsakh.
13. It is of particular concern for the Human Rights Defender of Armenia that the President of Azerbaijan delivered his speech full of insults and animosity towards the Armenian people in the presence of international figures on December 12, 2020, and surprisingly he has not been condemned by any of these figures or even their disagreement.
14. The Human Rights Defender of Armenia is convinced that such indifference of the international community in response to the hatred and animosity propaganda is one of the main preconditions that has led to systematic and widespread torture and cruelties of Armenians by the Azerbaijani military in Artsakh.
15. Such extremely dangerous phenomena must be strongly condemned by the international community.
It must be borne in mind that all the above mentioned violates basic principles of international law and undermines the entire international system of human rights and humanitarian protection.
16. Impunity creates new atrocities and torture.
17. The international community and particularly international organizations with mandates to protect human rights must prove that they are dedicated to their titles and missions that they still adhere to the international rules they have established.
18. The reason for this statement of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia on the mentioned extremely dangerous phenomena for human rights is related to the necessity to document, analyze and to submit to the international community the gross violations of right to life, property and other rights of Armenians grossly violated by the Azerbaijani armed forces.
This is due to the fact that these violations have long-term or lifelong negative consequences for their victims (lifelong disability, physical and mental suffering of victims of torture and their families, etc.)," Tatoyan wrote.
The number of search groups for missing people in Karabakh increased – Dmitry Perepelkin
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 17 2020
"Together with employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross, we continue the exchange of the bodies of those killed between the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides, as well as the search for missing persons," Dmitry Perepelkin, a deputy chief of the Russian peacekeeping contingent’s reconciliation center, told reporters at a briefing on Thursday.
"To make this work more effective, the number of search groups has been increased from three to five," Perepelkin stressed, adding the hotline for collecting data about the missing persons had received over 490 telephone calls.
In Perepelkin's words, Russian combat engineers have defused over 6,000 explosive objects and cleared about 200 hectares of territory in Nagorno-Karabakh,
"Russian combat engineers of the Center for Humanitarian Demining have cleared 195 hectares of territory and 60 kilometers of roads from unexploded mines and shells. <…> More than 6,000 explosive objects have been detected and destroyed," Perepelkin said.
According to him, 405 buildings were also checked for unexploded ordnance. The deputy head of the center also said that military doctors provided assistance to 558 local residents, including 67 children.
Clamart city of France adopts resolution calling for the recognition of the Artsakh sovereignty
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 17 2020
The city council of Clamart, France, has adopted a resolution calling for the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh's (Artsakh) sovereignty, the Artsakh Foreign Ministry reported.
The resolution, adopted during the council session held on December 9, called on the President of the French Republic to engage in the process of final settlement of the conflict, implementation of the peace process, and immediate recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh, remove the ban imposed on urban communities on having institutional ties with the Artsakh Republic.
It also stated that France, based on its historical friendly ties with Armenia, must play a major role in finding a lasting political and peaceful solution. France, as a country defending human rights, must officially recognize the Artsakh Republic for the right of peoples to self-determination.