Tuesday,
Karabakh Soldier Wounded In Truce Violation
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- Armenian soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint on the road
leading to Kalbacar, near the village of Charektar, November 25, 2020
Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh accused Azerbaijani forces of wounding a
Karabakh Armenian soldier and also targeting local civilians in separate
ceasefire violations on Tuesday.
Karabakh’s Defense Army said the conscript identified as Khachatur Khachatrian
was hospitalized in serious condition after coming under Azerbaijani gunfire in
the disputed territory’s “eastern border zone.”
The army said that it immediately alerted Russian peace keepers stationed in
Karabakh about the incident.
“The situation at that section of the line of contact is stable at the moment,”
it added in a statement.
According to the Karabakh authorities, the soldier was wounded less than an hour
after Azerbaijani forces fired on farmers who cultivated land outside a village
in eastern Karabakh close to the line of contact.
A statement released by the local prosecutor’s office said a tractor used by
them was hit by the gunshots before Russian troops intervened to rescue the
farmers.
The Azerbaijani government did not immediately comment on the incidents.
The authorities in Stepanakert have reported several such incidents in recent
months. In October, a Karabakh farmer was shot dead while working in his orchard
outside the town of Martakert. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed afterwards
that he was killed “as a result of gunfire from the Azerbaijani side.”
Azerbaijani army units are also accused of regularly opening small arms fire at
Karabakh villages close to the town of Shushi (Shusha) occupied by them during
the 2020 war. A private house in one of those villages, Karmir Shuka, was
damaged by Azerbaijani gunfire last week.
Karabakh officials say that such shootings are aimed at intimidating the
territory’s ethnic Armenian population. Baku denies that.
Russian, Armenian FMs Discuss Ukraine Crisis
RUSSIA -- Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (left) meets with his
Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, August 31, 2021
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat
Mirzoyan discussed Russia’s continuing standoff with the West over Ukraine in a
phone call on Tuesday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the two men engaged in a “detailed exchange of
views” regarding “ongoing negotiations on security guarantees” demanded by
Moscow from the United States and other Western powers.
“The importance of consistently upholding the principles of equal and
indivisible security in the Euro-Atlantic region was emphasized,” read a
statement released by the ministry.
From Moscow’s perspective, “indivisible security” means that NATO must pledge
not to admit Ukraine and to scale back its military presence near Russia’s
borders. The U.S. and its NATO allies have rejected these demands amid growing
fears of an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border but
denies planning to invade the former Soviet republic.
Armenia, which has close political, military and economic ties with Russia, has
not publicly taken sides in the conflict.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it is “closely monitoring
developments in Ukraine.” It also indicated that Yerevan is not planning to
evacuate Armenian diplomatic missions there.
Incidentally, the official Armenian readout of Mirzoyan’s call with Lavrov made
no explicit mention of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It said they discussed the
implementation of Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements brokered by Moscow and
Armenia’s normalization talks with Turkey.
Azerbaijan Vows To Arrest Karabakh Leader
• Lusine Musayelian
• Karlen Aslanian
Nagorno Karabakh - Arayik Harutiunian, president of Nagorno Karabakh, delivers a
live video address from Stepanakert, November 10, 2020
The Azerbaijani authorities said on Tuesday that they intend to arrest and
prosecute soon Ara Harutiunian, the Nagorno-Karabakh president.
“Harutiunian, who presents himself as the leader of a self-proclaimed regime,
will be brought to justice by operational divisions and special services and
intelligence agencies as quickly as possible,” a senior prosecutor, Nemat
Avazov, told reporters in Baku.
He said that Harutiunian is wanted for his role in Armenian missile strikes on
Azerbaijan’s second largest city of Gyanja carried out during the 2020 war over
Karabakh.
The strikes, which reportedly left over two dozen civilians dead, followed
relentless Azerbaijani shelling of Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert and other
towns. The deadly shelling continued until Russia-brokered ceasefire stopped the
six-week war in November 2020.
Karabakh’s foreign minister, Davit Babayan, condemned the Azerbaijani official’s
statement.
“This is part of Azerbaijan’s terrorist policy,” Babayan told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service from Stepanakert. “This could be expected. There is nothing new here.”
“With such actions, Azerbaijan is trying to spread fear [in Karabakh,]” he said.
“They may also try to somehow harm Artsakh (Karabakh) officials or attack them.”
The Azerbaijani authorities already issued international arrest warrants for
Harutiunian, Babayan and other Karabakh Armenian leaders shortly after the war.
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General condemned the move at the time,
saying that it has “taken measures” to prevent them from being placed on
Interpol’s most wanted list.
Harutiunian has repeatedly visited Russia since then. Babayan expressed
confidence that Moscow, which deployed 2,000 peacekeeping troops to Karabakh
right after the war, will not help Baku apprehend him.
Armenian Minister Wants Mass Sackings Of Judges
• Narine Ghalechian
Armenia - Justice Minister Karen Andreasian gives a press conference,November
30, 2021.
A state body overseeing Armenian courts must dismiss scores of judges this year
as part of judicial reforms proclaimed by the government, Justice Minister Karen
Andreasian said on Tuesday.
Andreasian implied that they should include judges who have signed in recent
weeks statements accusing the Armenian authorities of seeking to curb judicial
independence in the country.
“If the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) is up to the task, then I promise you
that within a year the vetting [of judges] in Armenia will be over and we will
have the kind of judicial system that you want,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service.
The SJC is a nominally independent body empowered to fire judges or allow their
arrest and prosecution. Such decisions have until now had to be backed by at
least seven of the SJC’s ten members.
Under a bill passed by Armenia’s government-controlled parliament last week,
five members will be enough to give the green light to punishing judges. Critics
say Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration will use the bill to step up
pressure on independent-minded judges reluctant to execute government orders or
to get rid of them altogether.
Armenia -- A court building in Yerevan, June 9, 2020.
Andreasian stood by his earlier claims that at least 40 of the country’s judges
are “corrupt” and must go. But he did not name them or offer any proof of the
allegations.
The minister said instead: “There is some clan-based sentiment [within the
judiciary.] For example, 93 judges signed some statement. I’m not saying that
they all are corrupt. But I can see that 10, 20, 30 names are repeated when
there is another action [by judges.]”
The 93 signatories mentioned by Andreasian reportedly demanded last week that
the chairwoman of Armenia’s Court of Cassation, Lilit Tadevosian, call an
emergency conference of judges. Their appeal followed the arrest of one of their
colleagues.
The arrested judge, Boris Bakhshiyan, has said that he is prosecuted in
retaliation for granting bail to a jailed opposition figure late last month. The
leadership of Armenia’s Union of Judges has also decried his detention.
Prosecutors insist that the accusations leveled against Bakhshiyan are only
connected with another decision which he made during an ongoing trial presided
over by him.
Armenia -- Supporters of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian block the entrance to a
district court building in Yerevan, May 20, 2019.
In recent months, Armenian opposition groups, lawyers and some judges have
repeatedly accused Pashinian’s government of seeking to increase government
influence on courts under the guise of judicial reforms. The authorities deny
this, insisting that the reforms are aimed at increasing judicial independence.
Pashinian demanded a mandatory “vetting” of all judges in 2019, saying that many
of them are linked to the country’s former rulers. But his government
subsequently agreed to refrain from such a purge at the urging of legal experts
from the Council of Europe.
A new law enacted in 2020 introduced instead a “verification of the integrity”
of judges which is carried out by a state anti-corruption body.
Andreasian sought to revive the idea of judicial “vetting” after being appointed
as justice minister in August. He stated later in 2021 that the vetting process
has already begun with the help of Gagik Jahangirian, a former prosecutor
controversially installed as acting head of the SJC last April.
Andreasian complained on Tuesday that the process has been slow so far for a
number of reasons, including objections from “European structures.”
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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