Author: Aram Torosian

1 –        ‘Statement’ on Artsakh War by Armenia,
            Azerbaijan & Russia Should be Rejected
            By Harut Sassounian
            Publisher, The California Courier
            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2-         Pashinyan Signs Agreement to End War, Surrenders
Territories Including Shushi
3 –        Armenia continues to fight COVID-19 pandemic
4-         Los Angeles Angels make Perry Minasian general manager
5-         Armenia confirms death of 2,317 soldiers in Artsakh war

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1 –        ‘Statement’ on Artsakh War by Armenia,

            Azerbaijan & Russia Should be Rejected

            By Harut Sassounian

            Publisher, The California Courier

            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

The leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement,
calling it a “Statement,” on November 9, 2020 to stop the 45-day war
in Artsakh and return to Azerbaijan the territories previously
belonging to Armenians.

This shocking announcement was made by Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan creating distress and despair among Armenians worldwide.
There are four reasons why Armenians reacted with such pessimism and
grief:

1) After 45 days of constantly hearing from Armenian officials that
“We are winning,” all of a sudden we are told that we have in fact
suffered a devastating defeat. Even the number of our dead soldiers
was underreported, according to the latest announcement of the
Armenian Health Ministry. Regrettably, the final toll is expected to
be in the thousands.

2) This was probably the greatest loss since the Armenian Genocide of
105 years ago. Armenians are demoralized and deceived by their own
leaders. It shook the very essence of their souls. This was a
humiliating capitulation. The descendants of the Armenian Genocide,
who still carry in their genes the transgenerational trauma of that
greatest tragedy, are deeply affected by this enormous defeat,
exposing their long unhealed wounds.

3) The thousands of young Armenian soldiers killed in the battle have
deeply saddened all Armenians. Many are wondering if their sacrifice
was in vain.

4) Armenians lost a large portion of their historic territories along
with their homes, churches, monuments and cemeteries. Just like the
effects of the Genocide a century ago are still raw in today’s
generation, this latest disaster will have a lasting effect on the
psyche of all Armenians.

A huge controversy has been raging in Armenia and the Diaspora after
the release of this problematic “Statement.” The Armenian people, who
were united like one person throughout the war, all of a sudden have
been divided and at each other’s throats. There have been many ugly
incidents in Yerevan which will hopefully not spill into the Diaspora.
No Armenian should commit an act of violence against any other
Armenian or destroy any property. Even though we have a very serious
problem, attacking each other will not solve anything. At the same
time, those who are engaged in peaceful protests in Yerevan should be
allowed to do so without any harassment by the government. People’s
right to free speech should be respected especially by a leader who
came to power touting democratic rights and values.

The next controversy is identifying those responsible for this
debacle. Here again we have two opposing camps. Prime Minister
Pashinyan and his supporters acknowledge that he had no choice but to
sign the tripartite “Statement” in order to avoid the loss of more
territories to Azerbaijan and save thousands of Armenian soldiers who
may have been captured or killed. Those supporting this point of view
have blamed the previous presidents for enriching themselves at the
expense of the nation and not strengthening the military. Pashinyan
said that if he had refused to sign the “Statement,” the consequence
would have been much worse for the Armenian nation. Azerbaijan would
have taken over the rest of Artsakh.

Those opposed to Pashinyan’s position state that the Prime Minister is
merely dumping responsibility for the defeat on his predecessors. They
point out that Pashinyan made the decision to sign the “Statement”
unilaterally, consulting only with the President of Artsakh and the
military leaders. Pashinyan did not inform the President of Armenia,
the Foreign Minister who just resigned or the Armenian Parliament.
They all found out about this ill-fated announcement from the media.
This was not expected from a Prime Minister who came to power as a
defender of democracy and transparency. Not even France and the United
States, the two other mediating members of the Minsk Group, were
consulted. Pashinyan also did not respect the promise he had made on
August 17, 2018, in front of the 300,000 people at the Republic
Square, announcing that he “will not sign secretly any paper on
Artsakh.” He added that “if there is such a situation, I will come and
stand here, present to you all the details, and you will decide if we
are going to accept that option or not.” Pashinyan now claims that
this “Statement” is merely a ceasefire, not an agreement on the
Artsakh conflict. Obviously, the signed “Statement” is much more than
a ceasefire. It is the return of the seven regions in addition to
giving up a large portion of Artsakh. As a result, Pashinyan’s
opponents seek his resignation.

In my view, there is a much simpler explanation. Ever since the 1994
ceasefire, Armenians in and out of Armenia were totally opposed to
returning the liberated territories to Azerbaijan, as were the leaders
of Armenia and Artsakh. The only exception was Pres. Levon
Ter-Petrosyan who wanted to make territorial concessions to
Azerbaijan, as a result of which he was forced out of office. The
subsequent Presidents of Armenia knew well that the Armenian people
would not accept any kind of territorial concessions regarding
Artsakh. Ever since the 1994 ceasefire, there have been dozens of
fruitless meetings between the foreign ministers and heads of Armenia
and Azerbaijan, mediated by the Minsk Group of France, Russia and the
United States. The Armenian position was that we will consider
returning some of the territories around Artsakh, if Azerbaijan
recognized Artsakh’s independence. Armenians wanted a package deal
rather than a step-by-step solution. The reason was that should
Armenians give up the surrounding territories first, Azerbaijan would
then be in a position to take over Artsakh itself.

In the meantime, Armenians and the rest of the world repeatedly stated
that there is no military solution to the Artsakh conflict which
should be resolved through peaceful negotiations. However, Pres.
Aliyev kept threatening to use military force to recover the lost
territories. Using its huge oil income, Azerbaijan bought billions of
dollars of sophisticated weapons from Israel, Russia and others.
Armenia also bought some weapons, but did not have the resources to
match Azerbaijan’s military buildup. Armenians did not take Aliyev’s
threats seriously. Finally, Azerbaijan secured the support and
participation of the powerful Turkish military and recruited several
thousand Islamist terrorist mercenaries to fight on its side. The
highly technological war with remote control drones and missiles
devastated the Armenian military and conquered what Armenia and
Artsakh was not willing to give up, despite the heroic efforts of the
Armenian soldiers.

Therefore, rather than asking who is to blame for this fiasco,
Armenians need to acknowledge that we paid the price for being unable
to counter the powerful weapons of Azerbaijan and Turkey which has the
second most powerful military in NATO. As Prime Minister Pashinyan
acknowledged, if he had conceded some of the territories around
Artsakh earlier, there would not have been this capitulation. However,
if we had given up these areas without an agreement on the final
status of Artsakh, Azerbaijan would have then attacked and captured
Artsakh itself.

There are two basic facts that we must all admit:

1) The powerful side always wins in a war, no matter how just the
weaker side’s cause is. Armenians did not use the last 26 years to
turn Artsakh into an impenetrable fortress. They should have had a
defense system to shield Artsakh from drone attacks.

2) When you are weak and rely on others to save you, you would be
disappointed and defeated. Armenians kept saying that we were left
alone. This is not surprising. All countries make decisions based on
their own national interests.

The “Statement” signed by Pashinyan is devastating. We need to find a
way to minimize our losses. Besides losing the territories in and
around Artsakh, we should not have agreed to provide a corridor
through Armenia to Azerbaijan to connect with Nakhichevan. This would
allow Turkey to cross Armenia by land and link with Azerbaijan and
beyond to other Turkic republics. This is the realization of Turkey’s
Pan-Turanian dream which we should not permit at all cost.

Finally, the text of the “Statement”, which is the equivalent of a
treaty according to Armenia’s constitution, should be submitted to
Armenia’s Constitutional Court and the Parliament for ratification.
Otherwise, it would have no legal value. Armenia should also involve
France and the United States, the other two Minsk Group of mediators,
in the negotiation process to get a better deal.

Even though Pashinyan acknowledged that as Commander-in-Chief he is
responsible for Armenia’s defeat, he refuses to resign. Therefore, a
referendum should be held to see if the Armenian public approves or
rejects the “Statement.” If they reject it, Pashinyan would have no
choice but to resign. The elected new leader, hopefully not one from
the discredited previous regimes, would then try to negotiate a
revised agreement considering the one signed by the ousted Pashinyan
to be null and void. This option, however, carries the risk of a fresh
attack on Artsakh by Azerbaijan.

I hope Armenia’s new leaders will go through this traumatic experience
with sound judgment and concentrate their energies on building a
powerful military so they can counter any future attacks by Azerbaijan
and Turkey.

Finally, this is the right time for Armenia to recognize Artsakh’s
independence or its unification with Armenia, thereby introducing an
unexpected new factor in the negotiations with Azerbaijan.

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2-         From Duxov to Defeat: Pashinyan Addresses Nation to Explain
Trilateral Deal

In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on
Thursday, November 12 offered his reasons for signing a trilateral
agreement with the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan on November 10
ending the Karabakh war.

The agreement that stipulates the surrender of territories in Artsakh,
including Shushi, as well as establishing a transport corridor between
Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan through Meghri, among other provisions.

Earlier, Pashinyan met with President Armen Sarkissian to discuss the
current situation. No specifics were reported from the meeting.

According to Pashinyan, he signed the trilateral agreement because
reports from Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan indicated that the
Artsakh Defense Army was outmanned and outgunned—and that Stepanakert,
by and large defenseless, could have been lost within days, if not
hours. If the agreement hadn’t been signed, Pashinyan said Martakert
and Askeran would have also been lost—and then the second, third,
fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh defenses of the Defense Army would be
under siege by Azerbaijan, “which means that more than 20,000 Armenian
troops and officers could find themselves surrounded by enemy troops,
inevitably facing the prospect of being killed or captured. Under
these conditions, of course, the fall of Karvachar and Kashatagh
regions would be inevitable, leading to a complete catastrophe.”

Pashinyan said that up until the very moments leading to signing of
the trilateral agreement, he had believed that the Arstakh Defense
Army could have repelled or defeated Azerbaijan. Yet the situation on
November 9 proved calamitous.

“With this in mind, I signed the notorious document, and when I signed
that document, I realized that I was facing the threat of my personal
death, not only in a political but also in a physical sense. But the
lives of 25,000 soldiers were more important, I think, for you too.
Therefore, it was time for the commander to risk his own life for the
sake of these soldiers, both physically and politically. It was time
for the homeland to make sacrifices for those soldiers who spared
nothing for the sake of the homeland, and I signed that document with
this in mind,” said Pashinyan.

Pashinyan said he did not resign before signing the agreement because
it would have been seen as “desertion,” and “it would mean shaking off
my share of responsibility and putting it on someone else’s shoulders,
hoping that later people would say that Prime Minister Pashinyan was
so patriotic as not to sign that humiliating document. And also
because, as I said, decisions had to be made within hours, otherwise
the wheel could spin, which could no longer be stopped in any way,”
said Pashinyan.

Pashinyan said he did not consult with the nation before signing the
agreement for tactical reasons. “When talking to the people, I would
have presented the objective situation, which meant providing the
enemy with detailed information about the situation, moreover,
presenting a detailed plan to block our 25,000 soldiers for hours,
with all the ensuing consequences.”

Pashinyan said the trilateral agreement “only implies cessation of
hostilities” and that “the Karabakh issue was not resolved before the
signing of the aforementioned statement, nor has it been settled after
it. There is still much to be done in this respect.”

Pashinyan said that fighting the war—rather than signing an agreement
within the first days of the war—was an issue of national morale.
“There were two reasons for this. First, we had to hand over seven
districts, including Shushi, without fighting, and second, the
military situation instilled the hope that by involving new resources,
we would be able to defy the challenge with superhuman efforts.”
Pashinyan said this is why he and President Harutyunyan continued
their calls for people to enlist for the defense of the homeland; and
continued to encourage the soldiers fighting on the frontline, without
giving Azerbaijan too many details about Armenia’s problems.

As for the content of the document itself, Pashinyan said “it is
really bad for us, but we should not make it worse than it is in
reality.” He said Armenia would not be ceding Meghri. “It is only a
matter of unblocking the transport routes in the region, including
from Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan, but this means that the transport
routes from Yerevan to Nakhichevan through Syunik should be unblocked,
including the railway communication between Armenia and the Islamic
Republic of Iran, which can boost our country’s economic development.”

Pashinyan said “Nagorno-Karabakh, or rather the part under the control
of the Artsakh authorities, the Lachin corridor from Goris to
Stepanakert will see uninterrupted functioning after the deployment of
Russian peacekeepers.” He said peacekeepers will also ensure the
security of the border in this part of Artsakh, “so the residents of
the settlements within the perimeter of the peacekeepers’ deployment
need to return to their homes as soon as possible. The governments of
Armenia and Artsakh will do everything possible to eliminate the
impact of destruction as soon as possible and provide all necessary
conditions.”

Pashinyan said the final settlement of the Karabakh issue and the
status of Artsakh is of fundamental importance. “In this regard, our
task has not changed: the international recognition of the Artsakh
Republic is becoming an absolute priority, and in fact, there are now
more weighty arguments for the international recognition of Artsakh,”
he said.

Pashinyan said the priority now is to restore stability and security
in the country. He said the government would not concede to the
“provocations of rebel groups sponsored by the former authorities.” He
said “the organizers of the riots and many of the active participants
have been arrested, many are hiding, but they will definitely be found
and brought to justice.”

Pashinyan called on Armenians to “unite around a government that is
determined to live up to the task of getting the country out of this
situation, while guaranteeing that no one can usurp the people’s
legitimate power against plundering the country and returning it to a
whirlpool of corruption.”

He said the outcome of this trilateral agreement was sown by previous
administrations. “We are reaping the bitter fruits of robbery and
corruption, when for many decades the country’s wealth and income used
to go into the pockets of well-known individuals and not to the
development of the army,” said Pashinyan.

Pashinyan said Armenia has a future and that this difficult juncture
is a time to learn from collective mistakes. “I urge all of us to
focus on what we can do to strengthen our country. This will be our
best service to the memory of our martyrs, our wounded and disabled
servicemen, their relatives, families, mothers, fathers, wives, and
children,” said Pashinyan.

In closing, Pashinyan said the compatriots and relatives of those who
died may ask why their loved ones perished. “The answer to this
question is one, first of all, to save the people of Artsakh from
genocide, to protect our people’s right to survival. By reviving and
developing the country, we will value the blood they shed for the sake
of the homeland, the future of their children, their unwavering
devotion. Our homage implies daily creative work and education that
should improve our country,” said Pashinyan.

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3 –        Armenia continues to fight COVID-19 pandemic

Armenia continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic as the country is
reeling from the news that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a
trilateral agreement brokered by Russia to end the war with with
Azerbaijan, in which much of Artsakh was ceded to Azerbaijan.
Thousands have taken to Republic Square in Yerevan to protest and
demand the resignation of Pashinyan. According to the Ministry of
Health, there were 40,233 active coronavirus cases in Armenia as of
Monday, November 2. The Ministry has recorded 117,886 coronavirus
cases and 1,788 deaths; 75,865 have recovered.

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4-         Los Angeles Angels make Perry Minasian general manager

Perry Minasian, an assistant general manager with the Atlanta Braves,
was named the new GM of the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday, November
12.

The Angels signed Minasian to a four-year contract. In a statement,
Angels owner Arte Moreno said Minasian’s “background in scouting and
player development, along with his unique understanding of roster
construction, were the leading factors in our decision.”

Minasian, who will replace Billy Eppler, was among five candidates who
advanced into the second round of interviews this week and was seen as
the clear front-runner as of Wednesday night.

Minasian, 40, comes from a deep-rooted baseball family and has spent
more than three-quarters of his life in the major leagues, beginning
as a bat boy for the Texas Rangers when he was 8 years old.

Minasian, whose father, Zack, was the Rangers’ longtime clubhouse
manager, served as a bat boy and a clubhouse attendant for 15 years,
then spent the next six years as an advanced scout and a staff
assistant for former Rangers manager Buck Showalter.

From there, Minasian spent nine seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays,
six of which came as director of pro scouting. In the last two years
of that run, from 2015 to 2016, the Blue Jays made back-to-back trips
to the American League Championship Series.

Minasian was initially hired as a top aide for former Braves GM John
Coppolella in September 2017, about a month before Coppolella was
forced to resign amid rules violations in the international market.
When Alex Anthopoulos took over as the new president of baseball
operations, one of his first tasks was elevating Minasian to vice
president of baseball operations and assistant GM. Minasian spent the
next three seasons working closely with Anthopoulos, his former boss
with the Blue Jays, helping to build the Braves into a perennial
contender that has an abundance of young talent.

With the Angels, Minasian is expected to augment a scouting department
that was hit especially hard by furloughs, an industry source told
ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel.

Seattle Mariners assistant GM Justin Hollander, Chicago Cubs senior
vice president Jason McLeod and Arizona Diamondbacks assistant GMs
Jared Porter and Amiel Sawdaye joined Minasian in advancing into the
second round of interviews for the Angels’ GM vacancy. The initial
wave included nearly 20 applicants, including former GMs such as
Michael Hill, Dan Jennings, Bobby Evans and Ruben Amaro Jr. Throughout
the process, the Angels also spoke to longtime scouting director Eddie
Bane and longtime broadcaster Victor Rojas.

The Angels, who fired Eppler after a five-year run as GM at the end of
the 2020 season, have qualified for the postseason only once since
2009 and are trying to get back into contention with Mike Trout
approaching his age-29 season.

Minasian, whose hiring was first reported by The Athletic, has a
brother, Calvin, who is the clubhouse coordinator for the Washington
Nationals and another brother, Zack Jr., who is the pro scouting
director for the San Francisco Giants.

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5-         Armenia confirms death of 2,317 soldiers in Artsakh war

As of November 16, the forensic medical examination of Armenia has
confirmed 2,317 dead servicemen (including unidentified ones) in
Artsakh, according to the press secretary of the Ministry of Health of
Armenia Alina Nikoghosyan.

At the same time, Nikoghosyan stressed that the final death toll is
not yet known, since the process of exchanging the bodies of the dead
between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues.

Azerbaijan, citing wartime censorship, has not yet reported data on
losses in its ranks.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan reported that several
bodies of killed Armenian soldiers were handed over to Armenia. The
ministry clarified that they are talking about the servicemen who died
in the battles for the newly ceded city of Shushi.

Armenia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on the end of the Artsakh
war on the evening of November 9. The exchange of bodies of dead
servicemen began on November 14.

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