Month: May 2021

The Armenian parliament adopted legislation authored by the Government on granting pardon to persons who avoided compulsory military or alternative service. According to the government justification the adoption of the initiative is based on the mitigation of the post-war consequences, as well as the manifestation of the principles of humanity and solidarity.

The adoption of the law gives the persons who avoided the military service an opportunity to return to their homeland and make their contribution to the development of a number of fields.

It is envisaged to grant pardon to male citizens who are 27-year-old privates and 35-year-old reserve officers who avoided compulsory military or alternative service until 26 September 2020 including, as well as the announced training camp and mobilization conscription and who are suspected, accused or convicted of a crime pursuant to only Article 327.1 of the RA Criminal Code.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov accompanied by the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ara Aivazian, visited the Memorial complex of the Armenian Genocide and paid tribute to the memory of the Holy Martyrs.

"Sergey Lavrov placed wreath wreath at the memorial for the Genocide victims and place flowers near the eternal flame," Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook. 

Following the visit, the Russian delegation headed by Lavrov headed to the Foreign Ministry for the official talks with his Armenian counterpart.

The Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan reports that the Ombudsman's Office has released a new Ad Hoc Report on a park of killed Armenian soldiers and chained prisoners of war. The report discusses the so-called Trophy Park, an “exhibition-park” related to the September-November 2020 war in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) which was opened in Baku on April 12, 2021. The “Park” demonstrates wax figures of the Armenian military servicemen. All of them are presented in a degrading manner to humiliate dignity, in a way openly violating human dignity. 

It is noted that this sensitive issue would cause mental pain and suffering to the families of the missing persons and captives, as well as to the Armenian society in general. It is mentioned that there are long queues to visit the “park”. Moreover, a “park-museum” of human sufferings is also open for children, even under 6 years old.

"The opening of such a “park” clearly confirms the fact of institutional hatred towards Armenians in Azerbaijan and existence of a state policy of propaganda of animosity. This policy has been consistently implemented for years, confirmed by concrete evidence," according to the document. 

The monitoring of the Armenia’s Human Rights Defender’s Staff revealed also posts in Azerbaijani social media about the exhibition which only welcomed and encouraged the initiative of the Azerbaijani authorities and the mentioned materials were disseminated and still continue to be spread through Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks. The analyzed data shows a worrying trend of deepening Armenophobia in Azerbaijan.

As Tatoyan added, the report will be submitted to international structures  to showi the institutional hatred towards Armenians in Azerbaijan and existence of a years-long state policy of propaganda of hostility towards Armenians.

"Today's talks covered not only the trilateral cooperation aimed at unblocking economic links in the region but the whole spectrum of issues emerged in the post-conflict period," Russia's FM Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Thursday, summing up talks with his Armenian counterpart. 

Lavrov's remarks were made in response to Panorama.am request to comment on Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev's recent statement about the so-called 'Zangezur corridor.' 

To remind, in a recent interview, Aliyev declared that their would implementing the Zangezur Corridor, whether Armenia wants it or not. ‘If Armenia wants to, we will solve this issue more easily, if it does not, we will solve it by force,’ the local source quoted him as saying. 

Lavrov reminded that the mechanism of trilateral cooperation at the level of deputy prime ministers was established according to the decision of the president of Russia, Azerbaijan and the prime minister of Armenia as reflected in the January 11 trilateral statement adopted in Moscow. 

"This mechanism envisages agreements which are exclusively volunteer, are based on mutual benefits and imply nothing except diplomatic agreements and decisions aimed at completely unblocking the economic links. Any issues put forward in contrary to the agreements made by the three leaders can not be accepted as an alternative to what has already been agreed," said Lavrov.