Author: Antonian Lara

USCIRF highlights destruction of Armenian monuments in new report on Azerbaijan

Antonian Lara

Save

Share

 13:23,

YEREVAN, MARCH 20, ARMENPRESS. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released a country update on religious freedom conditions in Azerbaijan, recommending that the U.S. Department of State place Azerbaijan on its Special Watch List (SWL) for its ongoing and systematic religious freedom violations, Armenpress reports citing Massis Post.

The report evaluates trends relevant to freedom of religion or belief in Azerbaijan since USCIRF commissioners and staff traveled to the country in early 2020. According the report, religious freedom in Azerbaijan remains severely impeded by problematic legislation, particularly the country’s 2009 law “On Freedom of Religious Beliefs,” which the government has shown little interest in revising.

The country update also details the many obstacles posed by mandatory registration and other restrictions on religious communities, the continued imprisonment of religious activists, and recent violations committed in the context of the renewed conflict over Nagorno Karabakh.

The report notes that during the renewed conflict in Nagorno Karabakh in 2020, the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi was hit twice by Azerbaijani forces. In December, Human Rights Watch concluded that the attack was intentional, constituting a war crime that should be investigated and prosecuted.

“The announcement of a ceasefire in early November formalized the territorial gains Azerbaijan had made militarily, and it set a staggered timeline for the cession of additional territories to Azerbaijan—raising concerns about the protection of various churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and other religious and cultural sites scattered throughout the region,” the report reads.

President Aliyev reportedly gave assurances to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the country would protect Christian churches in these areas; however, some sites, such as a cemetery situated alongside an Armenian church in Hadrut, have already been vandalized. In late November, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization reiterated a call for the protection of heritage sites in the area, and it proposed dispatching a preliminary field mission to produce an inventory of such sites “as a prerequisite for effective protection of the region’s heritage.”

Armenian, Azerbaijani militaries hold exercises amid heightened tensions

Antonian Lara
EurasiaNet.org
Joshua Kucera Mar 19, 2021
As tensions around the exercises grew, Russian officials felt compelled to try to tamp down concerns. (Armenian Defense Ministry)

Armenia and Azerbaijan both conducted large-scale military exercises this week, on relatively short notice, amid heightened fears that war was again going to break out.

Azerbaijan’s exercises started on March 15, after having been announced just five days earlier. Armenia’s exercises, meanwhile, started the day after Azerbaijan’s and were announced just two days after Azerbaijan’s were announced, in apparent response.

The exercises themselves were standard issue. At least according to the official description, Azerbaijan’s were almost identical to drills that took place in May 2020, noted Nagorno Karabakh Observer, a blog and Twitter account that closely follows military developments in the region.

But the political context in which the exercises took place gave them an additional piquancy.

On March 5, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev complained that Armenia was dragging its feet on implementing one key part of the November 10 Armenia-Azerbaijan-Russia ceasefire statement: that Azerbaijan would be allowed to use some sort of transportation infrastructure in southern Armenia to connect the Azerbaijani mainland with its exclave of Nakhchivan. “Now Armenia wants to prevent the implementation of the Nakhchivan corridor,” he told a congress of his New Azerbaijan Party. “But they won’t succeed. We will force them.”

(Armenia has been objecting to Azerbaijan’s description of the as-yet-undetermined transportation arrangement as a “corridor,” as that phrase implies some kind of sovereignty, as in the “Lachin corridor” that connects Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, the territory at the heart of the conflict between the two sides. Armenia insists it will retain full sovereignty over the transportation routes. But more on that in a future report.)

Aliyev didn’t help matters by, a day earlier, reiterating his claim that Zangezur – the Azerbaijani name for the territory of current-day southern Armenia – was “historically” Azerbaijani. “The new transport corridor … will pass through the historical territory of Azerbaijan – Zangezur,” he told an economic conference.

Taken together, many Armenians interpreted all this as a threat by Aliyev to continue the fighting into Armenian territory, in the region that they call Syunik and which has been a site of particular tension ever since the fighting ended in November.

Rumors began to spread and were given credence by Armenian officials like Edmon Marukyan, the leader of one opposition faction in parliament, who called on Russia to set up a military base in the region to deter this sort of Azerbaijani/Turkey attack.

The Armenian National Committee of Armenia, a leading lobbying group for Armenian-Americans, warned President Joe Biden and other American officials that “Azerbaijan and Turkey are targeting Syunik, Armenia for their next attack.”

Rumors even spread of an alleged specific date on which the Azerbaijani/Turkish attack would begin: March 16, which fortunately came and went without any major clashes taking place.

As all this was happening, the Armenian government saw fit to reduce funding for the country’s human rights ombudsman, who had been using his post to act as a gadfly calling attention to the many confusing and intimidating developments that Syunik residents are facing now that they find themselves in new proximity to Azerbaijani forces. Many in Armenia saw a political motive to the downgrade of the ombudsman’s office and it even earned the Armenian government a rap on the hands from the U.S.-based human rights watchdog Freedom House.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani officials stepped up their complaints about reports that Armenia was continuing to send its armed forces into Karabakh. Following a skirmish in December in the region of Hadrut, Azerbaijan captured 62 Armenian soldiers and continues to hold them. (It’s not clear whether Armenia is doing anything different from what it has done since the 1990s, which is to heavily support the de facto Karabakh armed forces and supplement them with its own military units. But following the war, Azerbaijan has become bolder in demanding that Yerevan cease its military support for the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.)

On March 13, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General calling attention to the issue, alleging that Armenia was sending troops to Karabakh secretly, in civilian clothing, in order to evade checks by Russian peacekeepers. “Such a misuse of the [Lachin] corridor for military purposes is a gross violation of the trilateral statement. It undermines peace efforts and demonstrates the true intention of Armenia,” Bayramov wrote.

As tensions around the exercises grew, Russian officials felt compelled to try to tamp down concerns. “According to the information we have, the exercises are planned ahead of time, aimed at improving military readiness of the armed forces and don’t constitute a risk for stability and security in the region,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.

After all that, the exercises themselves were a bit of an anticlimax and proceeded without much drama.

Despite the large scale of the exercises – 10,000 troops on the Azerbaijani side and 7,500 on the Armenian side, along with hundreds of pieces of heavy armor and weaponry – they took place amid such secrecy that it wasn’t even clear where they were being conducted. The only media coverage of them was via official releases, photos, and videos from the respective ministries of defense.

Azerbaijani analysts argued that the exercises were aimed at preventing “sabotage groups” like the one Azerbaijanis captured in Hadrut. “These exercises are focused on anti-terror operations in the zone of precious military activity,” analyst Ilgar Velizade told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. “The logic is understandable – there is still a great probability of destabilization from groups that can infiltrate across lines and carry out partisan warfare.”

For Armenia, it appeared to be more about reassuring the public and beginning to restore morale in the military.

“What’s important is the mere fact that these are the first post-war exercises and that they are being conducted parallel to major exercises of the Azerbaijani military,” analyst David Artyunov told Kommersant. “This is a reaction to them and a signal to society that we shouldn’t be afraid of the Azerbaijani exercises. On top of that, the exercises could also be seen as a statement by the military leadership about the restoration of the army’s potential.”

Artyunov added, in another interview with Sputnik Armenia: “After the defeat, one possibility of an exercise of this scale, gathering dozens and hundreds of pieces of hardware is to signal a ‘restart’ of the Armenian army.”

Azerbaijan’s exercises ended on March 18. Armenia’s are scheduled to wrap up on March 20.

 

Joshua Kucera is the Turkey/Caucasus editor at Eurasianet, and author of The Bug Pit.

Yerevan mayor: Salaries of employees of kindergartens and sports schools raised by 20% over past 2 years

Antonian Lara
News.am, Armenia
20:45, 16.03.2021

During today’s session of the Council of Elders of Yerevan, Mayor Hayk Marutyan said the salaries of employees of kindergartens have been raised by at least 20% over the past two years, adding that the salaries of employees of sports schools have also been raised by 20%, if not more.

“It’s clear that it is necessary to aspire to pay higher salaries, but the progress is clearly noticeable,” Marutyan mentioned.

Turkish press: Turkey’s importance in its region ‘too obvious to overlook’

Antonian Lara
Ahmet Gencturk   |13.03.2021

ANKARA

Turkey’s place as a regional power cannot be denied, as its importance in the region’s stability and prosperity is “too obvious to overlook,” according to French historian and political scientist Maxime Gauin.

This was one of many observations proffered by Gauin, a senior researcher at the Center for Eurasian Studies (AVIM) in Turkey’s capital Ankara, in an interview with Anadolu Agency on Monday.

His research focuses on contemporary aspects of situation in Armenia and Turkish-French relations.

He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Bordeaux and Paris before earning his doctorate in history from Ankara’s Middle East Technical University in 2020.

He has published articles in various academic journals, including the European Journal of International Law, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, and the International Review of Turkish Studies.

He also contributes to various leading dailies such as Hurriyet Daily News, Daily Sabah, Cumhuriyet, Haaretz, and The Jerusalem Post.

Excerpts of Gauin’s conversation with Anadolu Agency published below give an insight into topics currently dominating international politics; from the recent coup attempt in Armenia to the continuing power struggle in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the challenges facing Turkey and France as they look to patch relations.

Anadolu Agency (AA): We have recently seen a coup attempt against Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Is this a case of public backlash or a power play that involves players such as the Armenian elite, diaspora, and Russia?

Maxime Gauin (MG): Pashinyan came to power in 2018 after two decades of what is seen as corrupt and failed governance by a pro-Russia elite that maintained intertwined relations with the Armenian diaspora, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation [Dashnaks], and the ethnic Armenian elites in Upper Karabakh.

A majority of Armenian people are frustrated and angry with Pashinyan because of the humiliating defeat to Azerbaijan in Upper Karabakh, which led to Armenia losing control of most of the territory it had occupied for nearly three decades.

However, a large segment of Armenian society still believes that Pashinyan is the best available option, a view also shared by Azerbaijan and its main ally, Turkey.

For Baku, the most important factor is that Pashinyan has seen the combined strength of Azerbaijan and Turkey, so he will not risk a new war.

As for Turkey, it believes that Armenia can be part of regional transportation and commercial networks if Pashinyan pursues a stable and peaceful foreign policy.

This has been stressed by the leaders of both Azerbaijan and Turkey, who say it could give Armenia, a country that has been mired in poverty and seen a constant exodus of people since independence, a shot at prosperity.

AA: Moving away from the Caucasus, we see that Greece is working with some non-regional actors to form an alliance that aims to isolate Turkey in the region. How feasible and sustainable could such efforts prove to be?

MG: I would like to be bluntly honest here.

Turkey and Israel are the two major powers of the Eastern Mediterranean; any country with concerns and interests in the region needs to consider this fact.

Syria is already in ruins and not likely to be what it used to be before the civil war. Lebanon is a failed state, and Egypt is heavily dependent on aid from the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

UAE, a non-regional power pretending to be a regional power, has had to stop its anti-Turkey campaign after realizing that it cannot be a match for Ankara.

So, who does that leave behind? Turkey and Israel.

You may be inclined to ask whether Greece could be seen as a significant player in the region.

And my answer, without needing to think much, would be a big no.

Greece is a country that is punching above its weight. It is a country without a real economy; it has no manufacturing capacity and no technology or defense industries. It remains at the mercy of European taxpayers who are already tired of it.

On the other hand, the Turkish economy, which is not seeing its best days at the moment, still produces and exports.

And not just textiles, garments, and raw materials; Turkey also has a promising IT and defense industry.

This is exactly why wiser and farseeing decision-makers in the West and Israel will always prefer Turkey over Greece.

The same goes for France, despite the significant problems that have blighted its relations with Turkey.

In my view, French support for Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean had mostly to do with selling Rafale aircraft and frigates.

Of course, the anti-Turkish campaign in the West funded and organized by the UAE has also played a role.

Similarly, Turkey’s other enemies, such as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and the Armenian diaspora, did their best to sabotage Turkish-French relations.

Still, though, French decision-makers and industrialists acknowledge Turkey’s value as a trade and strategic partner; this is clearly proven by the sheer volume of French investments in Turkey.

All in all, Turkey’s importance in the region’s stability and prosperity is too obvious to overlook.

AA: Staying on the topic of Turkish-French relations, could you share your perspective on how the two countries can improve bilateral ties?

MG: Turkey should make an effort to reach out to the French people.

The French public is exposed to a lot of anti-Turkish propaganda, and since they do not have any other connection to Turkey, they tend to believe what they hear.

I know Turkey has been fighting the Daesh/ISIS terror group. I know Turkey’s war against PKK/YPG terror group is a just cause and I also support Turkey’s stance on the Armenian issue.

But that is just me, a French scholar living in Turkey among Turkish people.

We cannot expect the same from the common person on the streets of France.

To this end, through its French service, Anadolu Agency is playing an important role in filling a significant gap.

I have seen and appreciate how your French service’s quality and content have improved just in the past year.

Armenpress: Sarkissian holds meeting with Pashinyan over political crisis

Antonian Lara

Sarkissian holds meeting with Pashinyan over political crisis

Save

Share

 16:23,

YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. President Sarkissian held a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and discussed the situation in the country and the ways for surmounting the political crisis.

“In this context, early elections of parliament were discussed as a solution,” the presidency said in a news release.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenian ombudsman says he will apply to top court if parliament passes funding-related bill

Antonian Lara
Panorama, Armenia

The possible move to cut the funding for the Armenian Human Rights Defender’s Office will have a negative impact on its A status and will clear the way for a process of reviewing the accreditation of the office sought by Azerbaijan for a long time, Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan told reporters on Saturday, noting that this status gives them an opportunity to be elected to and participate in elections of the governing bodies of international human rights institutions.

“Today we are part of the governing bodies of various institutions. It allows us to deliver speeches at such venues where countries with the B status cannot, for example, the Azerbaijani Human Rights Defender’s Office,” Tatoyan said.

“If not for our status, it is not ruled out that Azerbaijan’s efforts to make numerous complaints against us would succeed. I must say that the stronger the institution of the ombudsman, the higher the democracy in the country. Whether I like it or not, the issue is at the center of attention of international organizations. You saw how the Freedom House reacted,” the ombudsman said.

Tatoyan does not rule out that the bill seeking to reduce the funding for the Ombudsman’s Office approved by the government will be adopted by the National Assembly, stating the move is politically motivated.

“This is obviously an unconstitutional bill. If it is passed, I will immediately apply to the Constitutional Court to challenge its constitutionality. Moreover, I will immediately file a motion to the court to suspend this provision, as it will cause problems for the country’s legal security and democracy,” he said, adding that he will await the conclusions of international organizations and institutions. 

Experts urge greater cooperation between India, Armenia to counter Turkey

Antonian Lara
OP India
March 6 2021

India should increase cooperation with Armenia in response to Turkey’s dalliance with Pakistan, experts argue

One of the direct impacts of the war was that the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), the largest Armenian American political organization, urged the United States to demand the blacklisting of Pakistan by the FATF for funding “Jihadist Mercenaries” against Armenia.

6 March, 2021
OpIndia Staff

One of the most significant geopolitical events of 2020, if not the most important, was the Nagorno-Karabakh War between Azerbaijan and Armenia where the former secured strategic victories over the latter. During the conflict, Azerbaijan received support from Turkey and Pakistani fighters reached the region as well in order to aid Azerbaijan’s war efforts.

One of the direct impacts of the war was that the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), the largest Armenian American political organization, urged the United States to demand the blacklisting of Pakistan by the FATF for funding “Jihadist Mercenaries” against Armenia.

Now, regional analysts believe India and Armenia should enhance cooperation between themselves in order to counter the Pakistan-Turkey nexus. In recent times, Turkey has backed Pakistan over key matters such as Kashmir. Reports have also surfaced which link radical Islamist organisations like PFI coordinating with Erdogan backed Turkish NGOs.

Yeghia Tashjian, regional analyst and researcher, at a webinar organised by New Delhi based international observer group Red Lantern Analytica (RLA) on the 5th of March, said that Turkey is attempting to establish an alliance with countries such as Pakistan in order to counter the influence of India and Russia.

The subject of the webinar was “Deciphering Hatred: Armenian genocide by Turkey & Hindu and Sikh Genocide by Pakistan”.

Tashijan is of the opinion that India, Iran and Armenia should increase cooperation between themselves to curtail Turkish expansionism under Erdogan. To further his point, he said that there is a legitimate threat that Turkey might send its mercenaries to Kashmir.

Anush Ghavalyan, an analyst from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), said that Artsakh had received a great deal of support from Indians on social media and hoped that India will continue its support for the region.

During the conflict, India had announced that it India “followed with great concern the escalation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh with considerable ingress of Armenian forces into Azerbaijan” and had called for “respecting each other’s’ territorial integrity and inviolability of existing borders”.

Turkey was responsible for the infamous Armenian genocide, when a million ethnic Armenians were targeted through systematic ethnic cleansing by the Ottoman Empire during World War 1.

Thus far, India has maintained strategic neutrality regarding the matter. However, given Turkey’s recent inclinations, experts argue that India should respond by increasing its cooperation with Armenia at an international level.

Politician: Without arresting Armenian PM, General Staff continues its criminal inaction

Antonian Lara
News.am, Armenia
March 7 2021
19:50, 07.03.2021

Without arresting Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and the government, the General Staff continues its criminal inaction, ex-head of the National Security Service, politician David Shahnazaryan noted.

“Without arresting Pashinyan and the government, the General Staff continues its criminal inaction,” he noted. 

According to him, the current authorities “have brought the country to the brink of collapse.

“The Armenian Prime Minister, the government will no longer be able to make adequate decisions in this critical situation for the Armenian people.”

“The Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia shall ensure the defense, security, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders,” he added “It is the constitutional duty of the Armed Forces to immediately neutralize the threat it has identified.”

“In this crucial situation for the Armenian statehood, the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces was obliged to take immediate measures to eliminate the greatest threat to the security of the Republic of Armenia, to arrest Prime Minister Pashinyan and members of the government,” he added.

Armenian President says he won’t sack Army chief

Antonian Lara
The Hindu, India
Feb 27 2021


AFP

FEBRUARY 27, 2021 22:00 IST

UPDATED: FEBRUARY 27, 2021 22:01 IST

Armenian President Armen Sarkisian said on Saturday he had refused to sign the Prime Minister’s order to dismiss the Army’s Chief of Staff, deepening a national political crisis.

The ex-Soviet nation has faced turmoil since Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a Moscow-brokered peace accord in November, sealing a humiliating defeat to Azerbaijan after six weeks of fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Divisions widened on Thursday when Mr. Pashinyan defied a call by the military to resign, accused the Army of an attempted coup, and ordered the Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan to be fired.

On Saturday, Armenian President Sarkisian said that he would not back the sacking. “The president of the republic, within the framework of his constitutional powers, returned the draft decree with objections,” the presidency said. It added that the political crisis “cannot be resolved through frequent personnel changes”.