Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Three Armenian Prisoners Freed By Azerbaijan
• Artak Hambardzumian
• Narine Ghalechian
ARMENIA -- People stand at a Russian military plane with some of Armenian
captives upon its arrival at a military airport outside Yerevan, December 14,
2020
Azerbaijan freed and repatriated on Tuesday three more Armenians who were taken
prisoner during or shortly after last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
They were reportedly flown to Yerevan by a Russian military plane late in the
evening. All three men are soldiers, according to Armenian Deputy Prime Minister
Tigran Avinian’s office.
In a statement, the office said their release was made possible by joint efforts
of Russia, France and the United States and what it called broader international
pressure exerted on Baku.
“We hope that this process will have a logical continuation and quick
conclusion,” added the statement.
Sixty-nine Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians were freed earlier
this year and last December in prisoner exchanges arranged by Russian
peacekeepers stationed in Karabakh. More than 100 others are believed to remain
in Azerbaijani captivity.
Yerevan insists on their immediate and unconditional release, citing the terms
of a Russian-mediated truce agreement.
Baku claims that they are not covered by the agreement because they were
captured after it took effect on November 10. Azerbaijani officials have branded
them as “terrorists.”
The European Union last week called on Azerbaijan to free all remaining Armenian
prisoners “as soon as possible” and “regardless of the circumstances of their
arrest.” The U.S., Russian and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group
called for their release earlier in April.
Meanwhile, two Yerevan-based human rights lawyers said on Tuesday that 19
Armenian POWs and civilian captives were murdered by Azerbaijani servicemen
after their capture. In a joint statement, they said they have filed relevant
lawsuits at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The lawyers, Siranush Papian and Artak Zeynalian, have also appealed to the
Strasbourg court on behalf of the families of other prisoners believed to remain
alive.
Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Aman Tatoyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service,
for his part, that his office has monitored Azerbaijani social media accounts
and found 17 videos of Azerbaijani soldiers beheading Armenian prisoners or
murdering them otherwise.
Tatoyan said the office has also collected about 100 Azerbaijani video clips
depicting the torture and degrading treatment of other captives. He said it will
submit the video material to international human rights bodies.
Armenian Central Bank Again Hikes Key Interest Rate
• Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia- Martin Galstian, the chairman of the Central bank of Armenia, at a news
conference in Yerevan, May 4, 2021.
The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) raised its main interest rate on Tuesday for
the third time in about five months, citing continuing inflationary pressures on
the domestic economy.
The CBA’s governing board set the refinancing rate at 6 percent, up by 0.5
percentage points.
The board already raised it by 1 percentage point on December 15 and by another
0.25 percentage points on February 2 amid rising consumer prices in the country.
A major depreciation of the Armenian currency, the dram, was another factor
behind the tightening of its monetary policy.
In a statement, CBA said the latest rate hike is also aimed at curbing
higher-than-expected consumer price inflation.
According to Armenia’s Statistical Committee, 12-month inflation reached 5.8
percent in March, surpassing a full-year target of 4 percent set by the Armenian
government and the CBA for 2021.
Food prices were up by an average of 7.4 percent year-on-year. Statistical
Committee data shows particularly drastic increases in the cost of imported
basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil and sugar.
The CBA governor, Martin Galstian, said the surge reflecting a global trend,
coupled with the weaker dram, is the main cause of the higher inflation rate. He
admitted that the authorities may well fail to meet their 2021 inflation target.
Speaking at a news conference, Galstian was confident that the CBA’s latest
decision to raise the minimum cost of borrowing will not slow Armenia’s recovery
from a recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic and aggravated by the war
with Azerbaijan.
In fact, he said, the Armenian economy now seems on course to growth faster than
was recently projected by the Central Bank. But he declined to forecast any
growth rates.
The economy shrunk by 7.6 percent last year. The CBA forecast in March that it
will expand by 1.4 percent in 2021.
‘Syrian Mercenaries’ Sentenced To Life In Prison
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Yusef al-Haji, a Syrian man captured during fighting in
Nagorno-Karbaakh, is shown on Armenian television, November 3, 2020
An Armenian court on Tuesday handed a life sentence to two Syrian men who were
captured during last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army took them prisoner in fierce fighting with
Azerbaijani forces stopped by a Russian-mediated ceasefire November 10. They
were handed over to Armenia to stand trial on a string of criminal charges,
including terrorism.
The trial lasted for just a few hours, with both defendants, identified as
Muhrab al-Shkheri and Yusef al-Haji, apparently pleading guilty to the
accusations.
The court in the southeastern Armenian town of Kapan sentenced them to life in
prison, backing investigators’ claims that that they are mercenaries who were
recruited by pro-Turkish militant groups to “terrorize civilians” in Karabakh
and commit other war crimes.
The trial prosecutors said the Syrians underwent military training at a camp in
northern Syria in June-September 2020 before being transported to Azerbaijan via
Turkey. In addition to a fixed wage of $2,000, the recruiters also promised to
pay $100 for every Armenian killed by them, according to the prosecutors.
Both men admitted being mercenaries in their testimonies shown on Armenian
television late last year. Armenian officials portrayed that as further proof
that thousands of Syrians fought in Karabakh on Azerbaijan’s side for money.
The Armenian claims were backed by France and, implicitly, Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron accused Turkey of recruiting jihadist fighters
from Syria for the Azerbaijani army shortly after the outbreak of large-scale
hostilities in and around Karabakh on September 27. Russia also expressed
serious concern about the deployment of “terrorists and mercenaries” from Syria
and Libya in the Karabakh conflict zone.
Turkey and Azerbaijan denied the presence of any foreign mercenaries in the
Azerbaijani army ranks. Baku dismissed the Syrians’ televised confessions as a
fraud.
Multiple reports by Western media quoted members of Islamist rebel groups in
areas of northern Syria under Turkish control as saying in late September and
October that they are deploying to Azerbaijan in coordination with the Turkish
government.
Armenian Judge Claims Government Retribution
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- A court building in Yerevan, June 9, 2020.
A judge in Yerevan claimed on Tuesday that the Armenian authorities are trying
to punish him for his refusal to sanction the arrest of a man accused of
plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
The man, Ashot Minasian, was the commander of a volunteer militia from the
southeastern town of Sisian which participated in the autumn war in
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Minasian and three opposition figures were detained in November amid
anti-government protests in Yerevan sparked by Armenia’s defeat in the six-week
war. The National Security Service (NSS) charged them with plotting to kill
Pashinian and overthrow the government.
All four men rejected the charges as politically motivated before being freed by
courts.
Judge Arman Hovannisian cited a lack of evidence produced by the NSS when he
ordered Minasian’s release. Armenia’s Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in
response to an appeal lodged by prosecutors.
It emerged last week that the Ministry of Justice has asked the Supreme Judicial
Council (SJC) to take disciplinary action against Hovannisian. It cited
prosecutors’ claims that the judge violated the law when deciding whether or not
to issue the arrest warrant.
Both the ministry and the Office of the Prosecutor-General on Tuesday refused to
elaborate on the alleged violations.
Hovannisian alleged, meanwhile, government retribution for his decision not to
remand Minasian in pre-trial custody. He claimed that the law-enforcement
authorities themselves are acting illegally.
Under Armenian law, judges can face disciplinary proceedings for gross
misconduct or procedural violations discrediting the judiciary, rather than
rulings handed down by them. Only higher courts can declare those rulings
illegal or unfair and overturn them.
It is not yet clear when the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) will consider the
ministry’s petition. The independent body is empowered to nominate, sanction and
fire judges.
The SJC chairman, Ruben Vartazarian, himself was controversially suspended and
charged with obstruction of justice on April 15 weeks after Pashinian’s
political allies accused him of encouraging courts to free dozens of opposition
members and other government critics detained in recent months.
Vartazarian denies the accusations. He says that Pashinian’s administration has
ordered the criminal proceedings against him in a bid to replace him with Gagik
Jahangirian, an SJC member reputedly allied to Pashinian.
Jahangirian was named as acting head of the SJC pending the outcome of the
criminal investigation because of being the oldest member of the judicial
watchdog.
Armenia Condemns Azeri ‘Destruction’ Of Karabakh Church
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- A view shows Ghazanchetsots Cathedral damaged by recent
shelling in Shushi/Shusha, October 8, 2020
Armenia accused Azerbaijan on Tuesday of vandalizing Nagorno-Karabakh’s largest
Armenian church located in the Azerbaijani-controlled town of Shushi (Shusha).
Photographs taken from nearby hills and publicized on Monday showed the Holy
Savior Cathedral stripped of its conical dome and cross that was perched on it.
Other parts of the 19th century church, commonly known as Ghazanchetsots, were
covered in scaffolding.
Azerbaijani authorities did not immediately comment on those changes. Karabakh’s
human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, said they are trying to “distort” the
appearance of the white stone church “under the guise of renovation works.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning what it called an
act of “vandalism aimed at depriving the Shushi Cathedral of its Armenian
identity.”
“It’s noteworthy that Azerbaijan is carrying out actions at the Shushi Cathedral
without consulting with the Armenian Apostolic Church, which clearly violates
Armenian believers’ freedom of religion,” said the statement. “It is equally
concerning that Azerbaijan has started to change the architectural appearance of
the church before the launch of a UNESCO expert assessment mission.”
Senior Armenian lawmakers added their voice to the condemnation during a session
of the National Assembly. Lilit Makunts, the parliamentary leader of the ruling
My Step bloc, accused Baku of seeking to “eliminate all traces” of Armenian
history and culture from territory occupied by the Azerbaijani army during last
year’s war.
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Arthur Sahakyan, 63, prays inside the damaged Holy Savior
Cathedral of Shushi/Shusha, October 13, 2020.
The Shushi cathedral was twice hit by long-range Azerbaijani missiles during the
war. The missiles left a gaping hole on a lower roof of the church but did not
damage its dome.
Azerbaijani forces captured the strategic town overlooking the Karabakh capital
Stepanakert just days before a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the
hostilities on November 10. Armenian officials have since repeatedly accused
them of desecrating Armenian cemeteries, churches and other monuments in and
around Karabakh.
Yerevan has also expressed serious concern about the fate of the medieval
Dadivank monastery located in the Kelbajar district just west of Karabakh.
Although the district was handed over to Azerbaijan in late November, Russian
peacekeeping forces set up a permanent post at Dadivank to protect Armenian
clergymen remaining there. The peacekeepers also periodically escort Karabakh
Armenian worshippers to the monastery for religious ceremonies.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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