Month: February 2021

Former Ambassador of Armenia to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan wrote the following on his Telegram channel:

“All us Armenians see that the war is not over. We understood that defeat is not suffered once. The lack of self-love of Nikol and his team and their flirting with the enemy aren’t letting the Armenian people come to their senses, self-organize and try to start from scratch.

Every day Nikol and his team continue to humiliate all us Armenians. Azerbaijan and Turkey make threats, but Nikol’s team talks about regional cooperation. Azerbaijan and Turkey hold new military exercises, but Nikol talks about the opening of borders. This has been going on for the past four months. Pasinyan and his capitulation team continue to be humiliated, deliver new territories, destroy the positions in the negotiations and any prospect for fixing the situation. They hope to be able to gain at least something by playing with Aliyev in order to help maintain power.

One of the steps of this game is the upcoming meeting of Director of the National Security Service of Armenia Armen Abazyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, Rustam Muradov and Chairman of the State Security Service of Azerbaijan Ali Nagiyev. The secret meeting that Armen Abazyan agreed on during his recent visit to Moscow will take place over the next few days on the line of contact, not far from Mataghis. Abazyan, Harutyunyan and Nagiyev are planning to discuss “infrastructure-related issues” and, in essence, the actions to integrate the remains of Artsakh into Azerbaijan.

We Armenians need to understand that this is not just another meeting, but the implementation of the plan for elimination of Armenian statehood for which Nikol is still in power. Armenia’s willingness to be humiliated only boosts the desire of Turkey and Azerbaijan to gain territories, concessions and guarantees from Nikol. One person can’t and must not cruelly humiliate his own homeland and people and remain unpunished. This means that the hour of historic, legal and moral liability is close, very close.”

Armenia can’t renounce international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. This is what Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Harutyun Marutyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am, adding that even though Turkey’s political elite regularly raises this issue and Ankara recommends that Armenia renounce international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, this issue is included in Armenia’s declaration of independence, which forms a part of the Constitution.

“Remembrance of the genocide, which is the most important, is a component part of the collective memory of the Armenian people. It will be impossible to remove this from the agenda. On the contrary, we need to work more intensively for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In 2022, the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute will host an international conference devoted to teaching of the Armenian Genocide in the 21st century. It is necessary to identify the peculiarities of teaching of the Armenian Genocide in different countries, understand the problems and find the paths to solving the problems,” Marutyan emphasized.

Marutyan also said the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute has requested necessary materials from the Association of American Educators, which comprises 1,700,000 teachers and has recognized the Armenian Genocide.

After the war in Artsakh in 2020 and amid the agreements on unblocking of communication links, Turkey is actively recommending Armenia to renounce international recognition of the Armenian Genocide committed in the Ottoman Empire in exchange for normalization of relations and opening of borders.

Vice-President of the Republican Party of Armenia Armen Ashotyan today posted the following on his Facebook page:

“Today the Executive Committee of Centrist Democrat International (CDI) held a session during which it considered and adopted a resolution on the truce in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Republican Party of Armenia and Heritage Party succeeded in incorporating several major recommendations in the resolution.

In particular, one of the largest political families stressed the importance of the role of the OSCE Minsk Group in the establishment of longstanding peace in the region, touched upon the issue of exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of the deceased, called on conducting proper investigation of war crimes and punishing the guilty and called on Azerbaijan to respect the rights of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh and protect the religious and cultural monuments in the region.

In the resolution, the Executive Committee also makes a reference to the provisions stated in the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (I would like to remind that it also contains the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination as a principle for settlement), as well as the December 3, 2020 statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group which reaffirms the importance of the Basic Principles and Elements for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan posted the following on his Facebook page:

“Over the past few days, there have been press releases stating that the gunshots fired by Azerbaijani soldiers near the borderline villages of Syunik Province are irregular or that the Azerbaijani soldiers are simply firing gunshots in the air. One might get the impression that this is a way of mitigating the risk of shootings.

1. How will irregular and regular shootings be differentiated?
2. How will villagers determine whether the Azerbaijani soldier is shooting in the air or towards the village?

The Human Rights Defender of Armenia has specifically set the bar — even one gunshot disturbs the tranquility and peace of villagers, puts the lives and health of villagers and their children at risk and deprives villagers of the opportunity to cultivate their lands and use other properties. The hypothesis is that any gunshot fired by Azerbaijani soldiers must be viewed as a regular gunshot (within the meaning of being periodic) fired in the direction of a village.

It is already a fact that the Azerbaijanis’ gunshots fired with small and large-caliber weapons right next to Armenia’s villages are fired on a regular basis, and are even fired from a distance of more than 1 kilometer, either in the air or in the direction of villages. The Azerbaijani servicemen are also well aware that their gunshots are clearly heard in the villages, disturb peaceful civilians and first and foremost children and disturb their peace.

Consequently, the existence of Azerbaijani servicemen right next to the villages of Syunik Province or on the roads linking the communities of the province to each other and any movement of the servicemen on those roads is a violation of the rights of the peaceful civilians of Syunik Province guaranteed by the Constitutional and internationally and pose a threat to their tranquility and peace.”

Former Prime Minister of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Anushavan Danielyan today posted on his Facebook page, calling on his supporters to show active participation in the rally to be held on Feb. 20 in Yerevan.

“I am certain that every citizen must join the struggle for Armenia and Artsakh and for the future of our people. Together we will save our homeland,” he wrote.