Month: May 2021

Russian, Armenian defense ministers address situation in Nagorno-Karabakh

Maral Takmazian
TASS, Russia
May 20 2021
On May 17, the defense ministers of Russia and Armenia discussed over the phone issues of bilateral cooperation, the situation in the region and the peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh

"In the evening of May 19, Russian Defense Minister, Army General Sergey Shoigu held talks over the phone with Armenian [Acting] Defense Minister [Vagharshak] Harutyunyan. During the conversation, the situation in the region and areas, where Russia’s peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh fulfills the tasks, was discussed," the defense ministry said.

Armenia also reported that "Harutyunyan outlined his stance on the situation resulting from the Azerbaijani forces’ provocations and Armenia’s actions". "Both sides agreed on the need for a peaceful settlement of the issue. Meanwhile, Armenia’s Acting Defense Minister stressed that any encroachments on Armenia’s sovereign territories were absolutely unacceptable and the Azerbaijani military must return to their original positions," the republic’s defense ministry stated.

On May 12, the Armenian Defense Ministry reported that Azerbaijan's forces tried to carry out "a certain effort" in one of Syunik’s border regions in order to "adjust the border". As the ministry stated, after the measures taken by the Armenian forces, the Azerbaijani servicemen halted these works. In the evening of the same day, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a meeting of the republic's Security Council, during which he slammed these events an encroachment on Armenia’s territory. According to Pashinyan, the Azerbaijani forces crossed the country’s border, going 3.5 km deep.

On May 17, the defense ministers of Russia and Armenia discussed over the phone issues of bilateral cooperation, the situation in the region and the peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

  

Baku-Yerevan peace treaty possible, requires Armenia’s political will – president

Emil Lazarian
TASS, Russia
May 20 2021
This will make real free trade of the two countries with Georgia, Ilham Aliyev said

"A peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia is possible. I will say more, the conclusion of this treaty is possible in a relatively short period of time. What is lacking now is the political will of the Armenian side," Aliyev said.

Aliyev stressed that "the peace treaty implies recognizing territorial integrity of both countries," and, in his words, the Azerbaijani authorities "are ready to do this, publicly recognize the territorial integrity of Armenia," but at the same time, the Armenian authorities must recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan "in its international borders".

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, 2020, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. The Russian leader said the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides would maintain the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to the region.

Pashinyan says about 500-600 Azerbaijani military servicemen remain on Armenian soil

Arbi Tashjian
TASS, Russia
May 20 2021
On May 12, the Armenian Defense Ministry said that Azerbaijan’s armed forces had tried to carry out "certain work" in one of the border districts of the Syunik Province in order to "adjust the border"
 

Azerbaijan appreciates Russia’s role in resolving Nagorno-Karabakh situation, PM says

Christine Harutyunian
TASS, Russia
May 20 2021
WorldMay 20, 16:48

BAKU, May 20. /TASS/. Baku appreciates Moscow’s role in resolving the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin on Thursday.

"Azerbaijan’s government appreciates the role that Russia played in the 44-day war. We remain committed to the obligations that are enshrined in a statement that the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia and the prime minister of Armenia signed on November 9," Asadov pointed out.

He also said that the three countries’ deputy prime ministers maintained close contact to ensure the implementation of the statement’s provision on enhancing economic and transport ties in the region. "Azerbaijan remains fully committed to its obligations under the November 9 and January 11 statements," the prime minister added.

On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the document, Azerbaijan and Armenia maintained the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region. In addition, several districts were handed back over to Azerbaijan. On January 11, 2021, a joint statement was signed following a Moscow meeting between Putin, Aliyev and Pashinyan, which creates a trilateral working group aimed at boosting economic and transport ties in the region.

Oversight Board rules against Facebook in Armenian genocide case

Kevo Kalantarian
POLITICO
May 20 2021

A panel of independent experts said the social media company should not have removed a post critical of Turkey’s portrayal of the mass killing.

BY MARK SCOTT
May 20, 2021 3:19 pm

An independent group of experts on Thursday ordered Facebook to reinstate an online post that criticized Turkey’s portrayal of the Armenian genocide, the latest in a growing number of content cases that have gone against the social networking giant.

In its decision, the so-called Oversight Board — a group of legal experts, human rights campaigners and former politicians put together by Facebook to review the company’s content decisions — decided the tech company was wrong to remove a post from a user in the United States, which included a meme with language associated with the mass killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the then Ottoman Empire more than a century ago. Turkey has long maintained that a genocide did not take place.

Facebook had initially removed the post — which included the sentences “The Armenian Genocide is a lie” and “The Armenians were terrorists that deserved it” — because its content moderators believed the language fell afoul of the company’s hate speech rules, as well as its cruel and insensitive community standards.

The Oversight Board disagreed.

In its decision, which is binding on Facebook, the group said that the post should be allowed to remain because of people’s legitimate right to share hateful content if it is done to raise public awareness, which the board understood to be the post’s intent. The board also said the post should have been left up because it fell under Facebook’s satire exception for potentially harmful content.

The majority of the group “found that the user shared the meme to raise awareness of and condemn the Turkish government’s efforts to deny the Armenian genocide while, at the same time, justifying these same historic atrocities,” the Oversight Board said in a statement.

Still, a minority of the experts said it was not clear if the post was aimed at criticizing the Turkish government’s portrayal of the Armenian genocide, and that the content most likely broke Facebook’s community standards.

Earlier this month, the board ruled that Facebook was correct to remove former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account following the January 6 riots in Washington, but it ordered the company to determine within six months if he should be allowed back on the global platform.

The Oversight Board has ruled against the company in the majority of cases that have been submitted to the body.


Armenia fires warning shots at Azeri border – RIA

Samvel Nahapetian
Reuters
May 20 2021

Reuters

Armenia's defence ministry said on Thursday it had fired warnings shots at the border with Azerbaijan due to an alleged Azeri incursion, the RIA news agency reported.

Armenia accused Azerbaijan of sending troops across the border last week, highlighting the fragility of a Russian-brokered ceasefire that halted six weeks of fighting between ethnic Armenian and Azeri forces last year. Azerbaijan has previously denied crossing the frontier.

 

Is the Armenian PM considering the surrender of more land to Azerbaijan?

Karapet Navasardian
JAM News
May 20 2021
    JAMnews, Yerevan

Armenia is yet again embroiled in scandal. Representatives of the government and the opposition accuse each other of spying in favor of the interests of Azerbaijan. But the main topic of discussion in society is the alleged willingness of the acting PM Nikol Pashinyan to sign a document on the surrender of several territories of Armenia to Azerbaijan.

It all started when Mikael Minasyan, the former ambassador to the Vatican and the son-in-law of the ex-President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, partially declassified a document being prepared for signing. He did not say where he got the information from, but said that the acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan agreed to conduct demarcation and territorial concessions in return for the withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from the territory of Armenia.

In confirmation, he posted on social media part of the trilateral document, which is at the stage of approval.

Many in Armenia are skeptical about the words of the former president’s son-in-law and expected Pashinyan to refute his words.

But on the morning of the next day, during a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, acting Prime Minister confirmed the existence of such a document on the negotiating table with Azerbaijan. Moreover, he stated that he was ready to sign this document “if Azerbaijan implements our agreements.”

The opposition and the expert community demand that the text of the document be published and not signed until the public becomes familiar with its content.

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Mikael Minasyan wrote on Facebook that the work on a new statement on the demarcation of the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been completed and will soon be published.

According to him, Nikol Pashinyan made promises to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev that even Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan is not aware of. And he represents Armenia in the trilateral commission on the implementation of the statements signed by the heads of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia on the cessation of hostilities in Karabakh and further actions of the parties.

In particular, as Minasyan says, a commission will be created that will establish rules for the final demarcation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And it will be conducted on the basis of three principles:

  • maps of the USSR,
  • geographical expediency,
  • real picture at the time of demarcation.

“The last principle will have extremely unfavorable consequences for Armenia, since it is obvious that Azerbaijan will decide in which case which of the principles to apply,” Mikael Minasyan said.

He also warns that the transfer of five villages of the Tavush region and one village of the Ararat region to Azerbaijan is being discussed:

“Pashinyan gave his consent to all this, asking that before the elections Azerbaijan withdraw its troops from the territory of Armenia, return several prisoners and that the clause on five villages in Tavush should be formulated as vaguely and incomprehensibly as possible so that he could hold out until the elections.”

And about. The prime minister confirmed that there is indeed a document on the negotiating table with Azerbaijan. However, in his words, the preliminary agreements are 100% consistent with the interests of Armenia.

Pashinyan explained that he does not publish the text of the document, as negotiations continue and “it is incorrect to publish the working document.”

At the same time, the actions of the ex-president’s son-in-law, acting He considers the head of government to be playing along with Azerbaijani propaganda and disrespect for his own society:

“They show a document on the Internet, 90% of which is smeared. This is as evidence that Armenia is allegedly signing an anti-Armenian document. If so, then on the contrary, you need to show the lines so that everyone is convinced. This cannot be called anything other than agent activity in favor of Azerbaijan, ”he said.

Pashinyan stated that Azerbaijan has its agents of information warfare in Armenia, and these people proposed attacking Armenia back in 2020, and then indicated those sections of the border along which it was possible to enter the territory of Armenia:

“Now they are helping Azerbaijan to disrupt the diplomatic work that Yerevan is doing.”

Leader of the opposition bloc “Enlightened Armenia” Edmon Marukyan stated that another document has been prepared behind the backs of the people, the content of which is unknown to anyone – neither the deputies, nor the majority of members of the government.

Opposition MPs intend to convene an extraordinary session of parliament and find out the details of the document, which the acting president is ready to sign. premiere. According to Marukyan, according to the constitution, no agreement on the borders of Armenia can be implemented without ratification by the parliament.

The oppositionist doubts the statement that the document proceeds from the interests of Armenia:

“I don’t understand if the document is so good for Armenia, then why it is being hidden. Let them say, and the people will be delighted. The authorities are obliged to publish the draft document, explain how it is beneficial to Armenia, substantiate it point by point. And then the people will decide whether Armenia needs him or not ”.

The MP assumes that the authorities are trying to avoid discussion in parliament, since, possibly, after a detailed acquaintance with the document, it will not be ratified.

Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan made a demand to publish the text of the document being prepared for signing with Azerbaijan.

He demanded to publish, if not the entire document, then at least those fragments that would make it possible to get an idea of it:

“The publication of the document proceeds from the interests, first of all, of the state. Thus, the state will prevent the leakage of extremely important information from non-state sources and will not allow the loss of confidence in the state authorities. “

Political columnist Naira Hayrumyan wrote on her Facebook page:

“After it became known about Nikol Pashinyan’s intention to sign a document with Azerbaijan, the controversy in Armenia began to unfold around secondary issues: corridors, surrender of villages, resumption of hostilities. These options are specially replicated to divert attention from the main issue.

Nikol Pashinyan said a sacramental phrase during the government meeting: “We must compare the situation with the trilateral statement on November 9” [document on the cessation of hostilities in Karabakh]. That is, the starting point is not the Constitution of Armenia, not the decisions of international structures, not the interests of Armenia, but the “trilateral statement” on which, apparently, his fate depends.

Armenia is a full-fledged subject of international law, the problems of which, including the borders, should be determined on a horizontal level – at the UN.

The trilateral statement is a Russian-Turkish “subcontracting” that has assumed the “vertical” function of deciding for Armenia.

This is what the trilateral statements mean: we cede the right to determine our fate, boundaries and role in international affairs to the Russian-Turkish tandem. That is why Russia and Turkey are doing everything so that the issue of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict does not reach the level of the OSCE and the UN. “

Russia is doing everything – through the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – so that all issues of Armenia are resolved through Moscow, and not through the UN and OSCE. And Yerevan obediently fulfills all orders ”.
More about this source textSource text required for additional translation information

 

Armenia close to new agreement with Azerbaijan

Kevo Kalantarian
EurasiaNet.org
May 20 2021
Ani Mejlumyan May 20, 2021

Armenia is set to sign an agreement with Azerbaijan that could address many of the current disputes between the two sides, but amid collapsing trust in the government many Armenians are demanding that the terms of the deal be made public.

On May 20, Armenia’s acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed the authenticity of a document that had been circulating online since the previous evening. He called it a “preliminary agreement” that was “100 percent consistent with the national interests of Armenia. If Azerbaijan implements the agreements [that are stipulated in the document] then I will sign the document,” he told a government session.

A heavily redacted image of a document, to be signed by Pashinyan, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin was released earlier by Mikayel Minasyan, a son-in-law of former president Serzh Sargsyan and a leading critic and gadfly of Pashinyan. The unredacted part of the document calls for the creation of a joint commission to demarcate the border between the two countries, and for each country to appoint delegates to the commission by May 31.

Minasyan wrote on his Telegram channel that other parts of the agreement called for the withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces from the border area into which they made an incursion a week earlier, the return of some Armenians who remain detained in Azerbaijan, and the handover of six villages. Minasyan didn’t specify the villages, but he likely was referring to several slivers of land in Azerbaijan’s Qazax region that Armenia took control of as the Soviet Union was collapsing. Minasyan said that Pashinyan was still working on a way to word the agreement “in a way that [the handover of the villages] will be unnoticeable so that it will be easy for him to get re-elected.”

Minasyan said that Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazyan has refused to sign the document. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not commented on the allegation.

There was no confirmation from Azerbaijan about the draft agreement, but a number of pro-government media reported on Pashinyan’s statement.

The news of a draft agreement came amid one of the tensest periods in post-war Armenia, as an Azerbaijani incursion into a border region in southern Armenia raised fears that fighting could resume again and that Azerbaijan is seeking additional concessions from a weakened Yerevan. More than a week after their advance, a large group of Azerbaijani soldiers remain in what Armenian officials have said is Armenian territory.

Following the late-evening release of the document, a group of protesters gathered in front of the government headquarters in Yerevan, demanding that Pashinyan be transparent in his negotiations with Baku. “Pashinyan, the minister of defense, and the president have to come here and explain what document they are signing,” said Marina Poghosyan, the head of the human rights NGO Veles, said at the demonstration. “We didn’t give them permission to trade our lands.

In his comments the following morning, Pashinyan did not address any of the details that Minasyan described. While he confirmed the authenticity of the draft, he called Minasyan an Azerbaijani agent.

“In the modern world the information war is sometimes more important than the actions in the battlefield,” Pashinyan said. “Azerbaijan has its agents of information war among Armenia's political elite,” said the prime minister.

“The document that is being circulated on the Internet, is 90 percent redacted and this is claimed to be proof that the Armenian government is signing an anti-Armenian document. If this is an anti-Armenian document, why it is redacted? It should have been fully disclosed and presented to the public,” Pashinyan said. But he added that he wouldn’t disclose the document himself until a final version is reached.

Following the government meeting, reporters asked Economy Minister Vahan Qerobyan about the claim that the document called for the handover of six villages. “No, I can’t go into details but no, there is nothing like that,” he said.

Pashinyan is at the moment only acting prime minister, having resigned to trigger early elections, which are scheduled for June 20. Many have argued that as effectively a caretaker leader, he should not sign any binding agreements with Azerbaijan before the election. “We propose that all forces participating in the election sign a joint document stating that no negotiations took place before a new government is formed, no document should be signed by the current government or acting officials,” wrote Edmon Marukyan, the head of the Bright Armenia party, on Facebook.

Demands have come from several quarters to publish the full document. A demonstration was planned for 7 p.m. in front of the government. Arman Gharibyan, the head of another human rights organization, Human Rights Power, called on people to attend and used a hashtag roughly translating as “not belonging to any political party.”

Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan also called for the document to be released. “The demarcation with Azerbaijan directly concerns vital rights of all of us, every person living in Armenia,” he wrote on Facebook. If the document isn’t released “the information vacuum created by the state will again be filled with information from unofficial sources, confusing even honest people, and some officials will again make irresponsible posts,” Tatoyan wrote.

 

Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.

  

Nagorno-Karabakh Joins Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, and the Donbass

Babken Chilingarian
Foreign Policy
May 20 2021

By Tom Mutch, a journalist from New Zealand who writes about crime and conflict. 
Armenians walk past an armored personnel carrier of Russian peacekeepers to visit the Dadivank monastery on the outskirts of Kalbajar in Nagorno-Karabakh on Nov. 18, 2020. The territory has since been transferred to Azerbaijan. KAREN MINASYAN/AFP via Getty Images
May 20, 2021, 11:26 AM

Dadivank, a beautiful Armenian monastery in the Kalbajar region of Azerbaijan, could be the world’s most fortified church: Its ancient ramparts bristle with sandbags and gun emplacements, and cloisters have been turned into an army barracks. Just six months ago, Armenian pilgrims could worship here freely and in peace. Now, the only way to visit is with a Russian army escort that leaves twice a month from Stepanakert, the regional capital of what remains of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh, an Armenian breakaway region that controls just over two-thirds of Nagorno-Karabakh. The fate of this 12th-century monastery has become a flash point for the conflict over Armenian cultural heritage in land recently retaken by Azerbaijan.

As we stood in the courtyard of Dadivank after a recent Sunday service, Narik, my Armenian escort, pointed to the remains of an old water tower on a hill above us. “There is an Azerbaijani outpost right over there,” he said. “Careful, I bet they’ve got their rifles trained on us as we speak,” he added, a touch dramatically.

As one drives into Stepanakert itself, a billboard with a stony-faced portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin glowers down. It reads “Man of the Year,” and the locals mean it seriously. The inhabitants of Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh regard Moscow as their last protector. Russia, for its part, has been increasingly cutting off and controlling the breakaway state, leaving Armenia more and more powerless in the region.

Last month, the world’s attention was focused on Russia’s troop buildup on the border with Ukraine. But while international attention was distracted by what now seems to have been a fakeout, Russia was quietly consolidating control of another restive region in its environs: Nagorno-Karabakh.

The long-simmering conflict that erupted over the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh in September 2020 was a disaster for Armenia. Outside of significant loss of life—as many as 8,000 soldiers on both sides perished—Yerevan was forced to relinquish around a third of Nagorno-Karabakh in addition to seven Azerbaijani regions it had controlled since the first war over the enclave in the early 1990s. The Russian-brokered cease-fire that ended the latest skirmish mandated that a contingent of around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers control the new line of contact in the region.

Yet the regional power that has benefited most from the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war is Russia, Armenia’s supposed ally. Today, Russian troops are stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, and they now seem to have the final say over the region’s political matters. All this has rendered the statelet more and more isolated. Since February, it has become almost impossible for foreigners—bar Russians—to enter Nagorno-Karabakh. Almost all foreign press and aid organizations who have tried to enter the region have been blocked from doing so by the Russian authorities.

A document obtained and published by Aravot, an Armenian national newspaper, listed that around 80 or so organizations had been barred from entering Nagorno-Karabakh. These included Médecins Sans Frontières, the International Crisis Group, and even the Halo Trust, a demining organization that had been well respected by locals before and during the conflict.

The BBC, Radio France, and many freelance journalists also had their press accreditation denied. The photojournalist Kiran Ridley was even issued a visa by the Artsakh authorities, only to be turned away by Russian soldiers at the border. They told him that only Russian and Armenian nationals were allowed in Nagorno-Karabakh from now on.

Russia now has complete military control of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The exact chain of command in Nagorno-Karabakh is deliberately opaque. The leader of the Russian peacekeeping mission, Lt. Gen. Rustam Muradov, meets frequently with Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders to hear petitions about what should happen in the statelet. But because Armenian forces were forced to withdraw from the area—while Azerbaijan’s troops remain behind the new line of contact—Russia now has complete military control of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Jeanne Cavelier, the Central Asia regional director for Reporters Without Borders, said these restrictions risk transforming Nagorno-Karabakh into a news and information “black hole” and called on the Russian peacekeepers to expand access for international media. This is a stark contrast from before. When Nagorno-Karabakh was under Armenian control, NGO workers, journalists, and even tourists could enter the region almost at leisure.

In March, the parliament of the Republic of Arstakh introduced Russian as an official language, and officials in both Yerevan and Moscow have proposed giving the region’s population Russian passports. While such an arrangement would be new to Nagorno-Karabakh, it tracks with how events have unfolded in other frozen conflict zones where Russia has extended its grip.

Across Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, Russia has used its peacekeepers to put pressure on regional foes while offering Russian citizenship to locals. South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia recognized as an independent state by Russia, is controlled by Russian peacekeepers. It is extremely difficult for foreigners to access and completely geopolitically reliant on Moscow. Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russia’s demand that its peacekeepers patrol the borders in the Donbass region in the county’s east is one of the main sticking points preventing a lasting cease-fire.

Russian peacekeepers have also patrolled two other frozen conflict zones—the regions of Abkhazia in Georgia and Transnistria in Moldova—since the early 1990s. These areas remain similarly isolated, though slightly easier to access than South Ossetia and the Donbass. A senior Ukrainian general told me in 2018 that Russia had mobilized its peacekeepers in Transnistria in 2014 in case they were needed for an invasion. Indeed, one of the Ukrainian military’s biggest fears is that Russia could launch an offensive from the Donbass or Moldova.

Of course, there remain significant differences between Nagorno-Karabakh and these other enclaves. For one, both Armenia and Azerbaijan signed off on the presence of Russian peacekeepers in their cease-fire last fall. Ukraine and Moldova, by contrast, had turned definitively toward the West when Russia intervened in their local conflicts.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have also retained friendly relations with their former colonial ruler in Moscow. Yet the two countries themselves remain sworn enemies, and, in Nagorno-Karabakh, mere yards separate Azerbaijani troops from their Armenian enemies. This reality has rendered Moscow’s men less controversial than elsewhere, as they are seen as a neutral party. But skirmishes still break out.

When I visited this line of contact shortly before access for foreign journalists was cut in February, I witnessed one of these violent encounters for myself. A small group of journalists, of which I was a part, was accompanied by a squad of Armenian troops who were standing guard in Taghavard, an Armenian village that is cut almost directly in two by the new front line. Shortly after arriving at what the soldiers said was a heavily mined line, we heard gunfire coming from the Azerbaijani positions barely a mile from us.

The Armenian troops were tight-lipped about the situation but confirmed to us that they were still suffering injuries from sniper fire they had endured earlier that day—meaning that such skirmishes were a routine occurrence. In a separate engagement that day, as many as 62 Armenian troops had been taken prisoner while defending the Armenian villages of Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd in otherwise Azerbaijani-controlled territory. The status of these villages had not been settled under the cease-fire agreement, so Azerbaijan decided to settle the matter by force.

The mayor of Taghavard told us that when a villager crossed into the other Azerbaijani-controlled part of the village to visit his brother’s grave, he was taken hostage by Azerbaijani troops who claimed that Armenians in the area were saboteurs. The villager’s whereabouts remain unknown, although local officials suspect he was taken to Baku.

One Armenian foreign official in Yerevan complained to me that while Russia had done nothing in response to Azerbaijan’s initial attack in the war last fall, it moved very swiftly as soon as given the chance to deploy troops in the region. Still, many Armenians feel that they have no choice other than to turn to Russia for protection.

Despite the recent influx of Russian troops, a semblance of peace has been restored in Stepanakert itself. During the war in September 2020, locals would rise early in the morning to sweep away the broken glass and debris from shelling the night before. A local told me that keeping their city presentable was a small act of defiance during the war. Now, the streets are clean, and most of the damaged buildings have been repaired or covered up. Life has returned, and Stepanakert looks as if it just suffered a bad storm rather than a pitiless military bombardment.

The Armenians who remain, however, face a deep identity crisis. The hastily brokered cease-fire agreement made no mention of the future of Nagorno-Karabakh, which parties relegated to later talks. But this intractable issue is at the heart of the conflict over the enclave, and until it is sorted, Nagorno-Karabakh will join Abkhazia, South Ossetia, the Donbass, and Transnistria as a frozen conflict zone reliant on Moscow. Russia, for its part, has grown extremely comfortable with the indefinite nature of these conflicts: Frozen conflicts prevent any of the countries involved in them from joining NATO, which requires that applicants for membership have no outstanding territorial disputes.

Russian troops also now function as a bulwark against Turkish influence in Nagorno-Karabakh as the growing rivalry between the two powers escalates. During the September 2020 war, Turkey threw its full diplomatic and military support behind Azerbaijan, and Turkey’s supply of high-tech military hardware was likely the decisive factor in the conflict’s outcome. Indeed, many of the drones Azerbaijan had used were piloted from Turkish bases in Ankara.

Frozen conflicts prevent any of the countries involved in them from joining NATO.

Yet it seems Turkey achieved little for its support of Azerbaijan. Ankara has no military presence on the front line, having been relegated to a joint Russian-Turkish observation headquarters miles from the conflict zone. Plans for a land corridor between Turkey and mainland Azerbaijan via Nakhichevan have also stalled. And U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent recognition of the Armenian genocide demonstrated to many observers that Turkish influence has waned in Washington, not least over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Meanwhile, Armenia and Azerbaijan are caught in yet another tense military standoff. Azerbaijani troops marched several miles into the southern Armenian province of Syunik on May 12, prompting U.S. and international calls for their withdrawal. Once again, Russia has been called to meditate, further increasing its influence in both countries.

Back at Dadivank, I saw no omens for peace and reconciliation. As the afternoon dragged on, three men dressed in Azerbaijani military fatigues came down from their perch in the hills to buy snacks and supplies at the makeshift food truck Russian troops had parked next to the monastery’s chapel. They were tall and lanky with trimmed moustaches but couldn’t have been older than 21. As they huddled among themselves, the men looked awkward and uncomfortable—hardly the conquering horde of Armenian imagination. They were probably the first Azerbaijanis any of the Armenians I was with, most of them worshippers and priests, had encountered in the flesh since the borders closed more than 25 years ago.

But when I suggested we approach the Azerbaijani soldiers and get a quote from them, Narik raised his eyebrow at me and grimaced. “I’ll always hate them, and they’ll always hate me,” he said.

“Why would we ever talk to each other?”

India Urges Calm As Armenia-Azerbaijan Tensions Flare-Up Again

Yeghisabet Vorskanian
Eurasian Times
May 20 2021


By Sputnik Agentstvo

May 20, 2021

The Armenian Defense Ministry reported on Thursday a warning shooting incident at the border and explained that it was due to fire from the Azerbaijani armed forces.

“On May 20, an incident was recorded at the border section of the Gegharkunik Province with the participation of Azerbaijani servicemen who entered the territory of Armenia. At about 15:00 [11:00 GMT], several dozen shots were fired, presumably into the air, after which Armenian units opened warning fire,” the statement says.

According to the ministry, the commander of the Azerbaijani military established contact with the commander of Armenian units, asked for a ceasefire and said that the shots were accidental.

“The Armenian Armed Forces warn that the repetition of such incidents will be viewed as a deliberate attempt to go to confrontation and will lead to appropriate actions of the Armenian side,” the ministry said.

Earlier, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs called for the pullback of forces from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on Wednesday as Yerevan has accused Baku of transgression.

“We have been following, with concern, the situation along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Border incursions through military movements can destabilize the situation and lead to renewed hostilities. We call upon the transgressing side to pull back forces immediately and cease any further provocation,” ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a statement.

Bagchi said India considers the peace and stability in the South Caucasus important for the entire region and stands for the political resolution of any disputes.