Month: February 2021

Armenian MP Naira Zohrabyan from the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party has appealed to women leaders in Europe to force Azerbaijan to release Lebanese-Armenian Maral Najarian and the other Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) from captivity.

Maral Najarian had moved to Berdzor, Artsakh after the massive Beirut port explosion. She was taken prisoner on Goris-Stepanakert highway when heading to Berdzor to transport her personal belongings to Yerevan after the end of the war on 11 November 2020.

Azerbaijan has already officially confirmed the fact of the woman's capture and some reports suggest that she is being kept in Gobustan prison, about 70 km away from Baku.

“I have appealed to the women leaders of Europe, as well as all organizations dealing with human rights and women's issues to force Azerbaijan to release Maral and all the other POWs,” the MP wrote on Facebook.

“I have appealed to all the women of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to call on Azerbaijan and Aliyev’s spouse, a UNESCO goodwill ambassador, to immediately return civilian captive Maral Najaryan to Armenia.

“I have appealed to UNESCO, which awards the title of goodwill ambassador to the wife of a war criminal country’s president, so that the organization urges, within its mandate, its Azerbaijani goodwill ambassador not to trample on international humanitarian law, not to keep Armenian prisoners and Maral Najarian as a “political currency” and immediately return all POWs to Armenia under the Third Geneva Convention,” Zohrabyan said.

The conditional target of large-scale Turkish-Azerbaijani joint drills near the city of Kars is Syunik Province of Armenia, President of the Powerful Armenian Army NGO, military expert Karen Hovhannisyan said on Saturday.

"Turkish-Azerbaijani joint military exercises continue. Regardless of the fact that media outlets of the two countries have started not to cover them at all, an important detail could not have skipped my attention,” he wrote on Facebook.

“The conditional target of the drills is Armenia, particularly Syunik. The target objects selected for the military exercises, the manpower largely simulate the Armenian ones (even the Armenian camouflage is being used). The area of drills also simulates Syunik as much as possible ․․․

"Before the start of the military exercises, they widely discussed its importance, but after their launch the talk stopped,” Hovhannisyan said. 

Armenia’s opposition Homeland Salvation Movement on Friday released a video telling about the political activity of the coalition’s candidate for interim prime minister, statesman Vazgen Manukyan.

On 24 April 1967, Vazgen Manukyan, who was then studying at the Moscow State University, staged a protest along with a group of his friends in front of the Turkish Embassy in Moscow, the video said.

The demonstration was unprecedented and prompted a widespread reaction in the Soviet Union, after which Vazgen Manukyan was expelled from the university.

This marks the beginning of his political activity, the movement noted.

The demarcation of borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan near Khndzoresk community of Armenia’s Syunik Province has not yet been completed, its head, Yervand Malunts, told Panorama.am on Saturday, referring to reports alleging the Armenian side retreated further from the border area.

The community head said every day the borders are being specified with the use of GPS, and Armenians withdraw from the areas which are marked as Azerbaijani by the positioning system.

Asked whether the Armenian side has made concessions recently, Yervand Malunts gave a negative response.

“Now the enemy forces are stationed only several hundred meters away from us on the left and are at a distance of 5 km on the right. The demarcation and delimitation process is yet to be completed in order to understand whether a new problem will emerge or not. What other major problems and losses can we possibly talk about after handing over 150 km of our liberated lands to them?” Malunts said.