Author: Badalian Vardan

“Give me a chance” – Former Armenian Foreign Minister promises turning point in negotiations

Badalian Vardan
July 5 2023
  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan
  • Vardan Oskanian on the course of negotiations

“Give me, a group of diplomats, a chance; keep quiet for 2-3 months, we will take responsibility. I assure you that there will be serious progress in the negotiations, a sharp turn in favor of Armenia,” former Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said to the Armenian authorities.

He claims that “there is an opportunity not to lose Artsakh without provoking a war with Azerbaijan.” He says there are “competent people” who can “correctly represent problems.” As a result, according to him, the Armenian side will not only avoid war, but will achieve “substantial progress.” At the same time, the diplomat stressed that his statements should not be considered as an application for a return to politics.

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Oskanian told reporters that the Armenian authorities must have the courage to lay down the burden that is too much for them and delegate negotiations to those who are able to bear this responsibility. He stressed that today the Armenian authorities cannot achieve an alternative solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. According to Oskanian, an alternative would be to give him and a group of diplomats “100 percent authority.”

“But at this time, Pashinyan should simply remain silent, not speak either in commissions [meaning the Prime Minister’s speeches at a meeting of the commission investigating the circumstances of the Karabakh war in 2020], neither at government meetings, nor from the rostrum of the National Assembly, he must refuse to hold press conferences , interview. This is an important condition.”

Oskanian explained this by saying that the Prime Minister’s speeches complicate the situation and “every day it becomes more and more difficult to change it.”

In the event that a group of diplomats receive powers, Oskanian promises

  • very quicklyto change the logic and narrative of negotiations,
  • expand the existing negotiating agenda.

The main step to change the logic and narrative of negotiations is the following:

“We should not negotiate in unequal conditions created as a result of an unjust war, go to the solution of the issue under the threat of war by signing a peace treaty. We must enter into negotiations, yes, as a result of an unjust war, in unequal conditions, but look for the right ways that will create an opportunity for Armenia and Azerbaijan to achieve a just and lasting peace.”

According to the ex-minister, Armenian interests are not represented on the negotiation agenda today, only Azerbaijan’s demands are heard:

“The Armenian delegation in Washington and other places is negotiating only and only in order to give the demands of Azerbaijan such a “package” that will be understandable and acceptable to the Armenians. And Azerbaijan does not even allow this, it wants to formulate its demands in such a way that there is no possibility of different interpretations.”

The Prime Minister of Armenia answered questions from members of the parliamentary commission investigating the circumstances of the 44-day war in Karabakh. Briefly – what did he say?

Oskanian argues that the fact of the existence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region in the Soviet years should be the main argument in the position of Armenia:

“Let’s not forget that this fact in 1991 gave the people of Artsakh the opportunity to strive for self-determination, to hold a referendum.”

He considers it necessary to discuss this fact at the negotiating table. I am convinced that this argument will open up new possibilities for political and legal decision-making. It does not exclude that Azerbaijan will be against including this issue on the agenda of negotiations, but in this case it will face very serious problems from the point of view of international law:

“The refusal to put this issue on the agenda will give the people of Artsakh the opportunity to fight for their independence with the help of the international community. I’m talking about the letter and spirit of international law.”

Vardan Oskanian considers it a misunderstanding to say that “Artsakh is Azerbaijan”, believing that Armenians can live there peacefully or safely. He excludes even the possibility of discussing this topic.

“It just can’t be. Why should Artsakh be part of Azerbaijan? When was he in it? Artsakh was not part of independent Azerbaijan. During the years of Azerbaijan’s existence, it was part of it only in the Soviet period as an autonomous region. And Azerbaijan itself, by its constitution, declared this period invalid, illegal, a period of occupation.”

According to the former negotiator on the Karabakh settlement, having all this arsenal, one cannot just keep silent and think about satisfying Baku’s demands. He insists that there are diplomatic ways to solve the problem. And the current government “should have the will, cast aside their ego and allow experienced people to work.”

On June 15, Azerbaijan banned not only the movement of people, including patients in need of specialized medical care, but also the import of humanitarian goods.

“Surrendering Karabakh to Azerbaijan is the easiest way to solve it,” Oskanian believes, and it is this way that the Prime Minister of Armenia presents to the mediators. The former minister explains that for the international community, a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem is desirable, but the mediators “are not particularly interested in how this will happen.” Accordingly, the international community will support Pashinyan in every possible way so that this easy decision is made.

“But the moment the Armenian authorities give a new wording to the nature of the negotiations, there will be a sharp change in the position of the international community. If the Armenian side formulates logical, convincing, moderate demands, the content of the talks will change. There is a serious alternative to what Pashinyan is trying to do,” he stressed.

Oskanian assures that no Armenian government “has ever recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan”, Pashinyan was the first to do this, and now he is trying to consolidate what was said by signing the relevant documents.

“We must not let this happen today, it would be a big mistake. Several generations will regret this act,” he said.

According to the ex-minister, if Pashinyan continues to say what he says, and at the same time try to delay the fulfillment of his promises, the likelihood of war will be very high.

“And in case of silence, in two months this probability will be equal to zero. What is being done today cannot lead to a lasting peace. This may temporarily lead to some kind of peace between the Pashinyan government and Azerbaijan. But this decision cannot lead to peace between the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples.”

The diplomat believes that in order to achieve a stable and lasting peace, it is necessary to offer the international community a correct assessment of the current situation, taking into account the history of the conflict.

The number of tourists visiting Armenia in June has increased

Badalian Vardan

 18:45, 7 July 2023

YEREVAN, JULY 7, ARMENPRESS. The Tourism Committee has published statistical data on tourist visiting Armenia in June 2023.

“199 thousand tourists in June 2023 – the best statistical data compared to previous years (130 thousand in 2022, 154 thousand tourists in 2019).

1 million tourists visit in half a year, which is 30 percent more than in the same period of 2019″, ARMENPRESS reports, the Tourism Committee informed.

 




Armenia hopes for intensive development of ties with Iran

Badalian Vardan
MEHR News Agency, Iran
July 3 2023

TEHRAN, Jul. 03 (MNA) – The Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan hoped for intensive development of ties with Iran.

Armen Grigoryan made the remarks in a meeting with the outgoing Iranian ambassador to Armenia Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri.

Grigoryan thanked the Iranian ambassador for his support over the years of his tenure and wished him good luck in his future activities, Armen Press reported. 

The Armenian top official attached importance to the jointly implemented work and expressed hope that bilateral relations will continue to intensively develop for the welfare of the two peoples.

The Iranian ambassador, for his part, said that the Armenian-Iranian bilateral relations are based on a rich historical-cultural past.

“The close partnership of the past years is a testament to this”, he added. 

Mehdi Sobhani, the former ambassador of Tehran to Damascus, is Iran’s new ambassador to Yerevan. 

SKH/PR

Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan says extra guarantees for enclave’s ethnic Armenians impossible

Badalian Vardan
Reuters

Azerbaijan’s foreign minister has rejected a demand from Armenia to provide special security guarantees for some 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave ahead of a new round of peace talks. Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, has been a source of conflict between the two Caucasus neighbours since the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and between ethnic Armenians and Turkic Azeris for well over a century. After heavy fighting and a Russian-brokered ceasefire, Azerbaijan in 2020 took over areas that had been controlled by ethnic Armenians in and around the mountain enclave. The two sides have since been discussing a peace deal in which they would agree on borders, settle differences over the enclave, and unfreeze relations. In what looked like a breakthrough, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was quoted last month as saying Armenia did recognise that Karabakh was part of Azerbaijan, but wanted Baku to provide the guarantees for its ethnic Armenian population.

In an interview with Reuters, however, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said such a guarantee was unnecessary, and the demand amounted to interference in Azerbaijan’s affairs. “We don’t accept such a precondition … for a number of reasons,” he said.

“The most fundamental is the following: this is an internal, sovereign issue. The Azerbaijan constitution and a number of international conventions to which Azerbaijan is party provide all the necessary conditions in order to guarantee the rights of this population.” He said ethnic Armenians could still use and be educated in their own language and preserve their culture if they integrated into Azeri society and state structures like other ethnic and religious minorities.

‘SOME PROGRESS’ Bayramov said there had been “some progress” in peace talks, and that Baku was keen to strike a deal, but also made comments that show how wide the gulf remains before he meets his Armenian counterpart for more talks in Washington next week:

“Why did it take the Armenian prime minister two-and-a-half years (since the war ended) to say he actually recognised the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan?” Bayramov, who was in London to attend a conference about Ukraine’s recovery, complained too about the continued presence of thousands of Armenian troops on Azeri territory.

Moscow – which has peacekeepers on the ground – and Washington and the European Union are all trying separately to help ensure lasting peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which have fought two wars since the early 1990s and still have sporadic firefights. Pashinyan is under pressure at home to protect the rights of the ethnic Armenians living in the enclave as Baku pushes for ethnic Armenian government and military structures to be dissolved and the population to accept Azerbaijani passports. Tensions have been raised by Baku installing a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor – the only road that connects the enclave with Armenia – following months of disruption caused by people who called themselves Azerbaijani environmental activists.

Baku says the checkpoint is necessary to prevent the smuggling of military supplies into the enclave and illegally-mined materials out. It denies Armenian allegations that it has imposed a blockade that makes life miserable for Karabakh’s inhabitants. Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire banker who was a top official in Karabakh’s separatist government until February, on Thursday accused Baku of trying to “ethnically cleanse” the enclave by imposing what he called a goods and energy blockade – allegations that Azerbaijan denies.

Bayramov said a peace deal was within reach if Armenia was ready to take certain steps. “If there is a will not only to make statements but do some practical steps, I think that potentially it’s possible to reach an agreement even earlier than the end of the year,” he said.

“But if there’s no real readiness … then it might be later.”

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/2498361-uk-supporting-families-of-lost-titan-submersible-crew-says-foreign-minister

Lawyer says Armenia’s CEC unlikely to reject civic initiative’s bill

Badalian Vardan
Panorama
Armenia – June 12 2023

The HayaKve initiative has asked the Central Electoral Commission of Armenia (CEC) to give a green light to a bill on Artsakh and the Armenian Genocide.

Under the 2018 referendum law, a citizens’ initiative may submit a draft law to the CEC, get its approval and introduce it in the parliament after collecting 50,000 signatures.

The HayaKve initiative handed over a package of relevant documents to the Electoral Commission on Monday.

The bill seeks to make the recognition of Artsakh as a part of any other country and the renunciation of the Armenian Genocide recognition crimes against the constitutional order, lawyer Aram Orbelyan told reporters outside the CEC headquarters in Yerevan.

The CEC can reject the application only if it finds any violations after studying the documents, he said.

“A preliminary study of the documents has been carried out today, so far no obvious violations have been detected, but a detailed study is to be conducted. I don’t think the CEC is likely to reject it. The problem is to confirm it and make a formal decision,” Orbelyan added.

Turkey Ready To Open General Consulate In Nagorno-Karabakh – Erdogan

Badalian Vardan
June 13 2023

 Umer Jamshaid  Published June 13, 2023 | 09:56 PM

Turkey is ready to open a general consulate in the city of Shusha in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which could be a message to the whole world and Armenia, in particular, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – 13th June, 2023) Turkey is ready to open a general consulate in the city of Shusha in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which could be a message to the whole world and Armenia, in particular, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.

“We are ready to open our general consulate in Shusha at any time. (Turkish Foreign Minister) Mr. Hakan (Fidan) will work on the matter without any delay. If our general consulate is opened in Shusha, it will send a message to the whole world and especially to Armenia,” Erdogan was quoted as saying by Turkish newspaper Star.

The Turkish consulate in Shusha could be the country’s third in Azerbaijan, with the two others located in the second-largest city, Ganja, as well as in Nakhchivan.

The decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh flared up again in September 2020, marking the worst escalation since the 1990s. During the fighting, Azerbaijani forces seized control of Shusha and several other areas in the region. Hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered trilateral ceasefire declaration signed in November 2020. The two former Soviet countries agreed to the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the region. Since then, there have been occasional clashes along the border.

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/world/turkey-ready-to-open-general-consulate-in-nag-1707965.html

Armenpress: Docus offers first-of-its-kind AI-powered online health assistant

Badalian Vardan

 09:40,

YEREVAN, JUNE 16, ARMENPRESS. Docus, the acclaimed platform created by two Armenian experts that made headlines last year in India and has since expanded worldwide, is now offering its new product – an AI Health Assistant.

Docus is an AI-powered health platform that enables you to interact with an AI Health Assistant, generate personalized health records, and validate them with top doctors from the U.S. and Europe.

“Anyone can contact Docus AI Health Assistant, create their health records and validate them with leading doctors from the United States and Europe,” Docus CTO and co-founder Gevorg Nazaryan told ARMENPRESS. “This is a first-of-its-kind product that combines an AI-created diagnosis with validated conclusions made under human supervision,” he added.

Docus combines AI with the skills of over 300 top doctors from the U.S. and more than 15 countries in Europe.

The AI Health Assistant is available 24/7 and works by determining a diagnosis based on health-related inquiries submitted by users. It then links the potential patients with leading doctors to validate the diagnosis.

The platform uses GPT-4, OpenAI and vector databases and meets the HIPAA and GDPR data protection requirements, ensuring confidentiality and security of patients.

“It’s important to note that the information generated by the AI serves only as a general educational knowledge. Although AI won’t be able to replace doctors anytime in the nearest future, it does have the potential to significantly impact healthcare. On one hand the AI provides the patients with updated information validated on the basis of the records, and on the other hand it can help doctors in performing ordinary tasks such as analyzing the data of patients and highlighting the important results,” Nazaryan said.

The CTO claims that Docus has the potential to transform the healthcare sector and save lives.

Nazaryan described Docus’ mission to be the improvement of people’s health by combining modern technologies and leading experience.

The is available all over the world.

Karine Terteryan



Two injured in Azerbaijani attacks on Yeraskh

Badalian Vardan
 Lillian Avedian News 0

Civilian car damaged by Azerbaijani fire (RA Defense Ministry)

Two workers were injured today after Azerbaijani forces fired on an Armenian metallurgical plant under construction near the Nakhichevan border, the latest casualties in two months of severe ceasefire violations along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. 

Indian nationals Muhammad Asif and Mirhasan Sahajan were injured by Azerbaijani fire on the plant in Yeraskh village, according to Armenia’s Defense Ministry. The ministry said that Azerbaijan falsely accused the Armenian side of firing on Azerbaijani military positions fifteen minutes before launching an attack at 11:45 a.m. local time on June 14. Azerbaijani forces opened fire again two hours later. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that the Azerbaijani forces were responding to a provocation from the Armenian side. 

The Armenian Defense Ministry has accused the Azerbaijani armed forces of firing on Yeraskh for two days in a row. On the evening of June 13, the Azerbaijani side opened fire on Armenian combat positions near Yeraskh. One hour before the attack, the Azerbaijani side accused Armenia of firing on Azerbaijani military positions. The Armenian Defense Ministry also shared pictures of a civilian car damaged in the attack.  

The attack comes a week after Azerbaijan criticized the construction of a plant so close to the Armenian border with Azerbaijan’s exclave Nakhichevan, warning that it would damage the surrounding environment. The Armenian Foreign Ministry dismissed these concerns as “false,” stating that they are “simply aimed at hindering Armenia’s economic development and foreign investments.”

“We call on the international community to take concrete steps to curb Azerbaijan’s expansionist ambitions and its unacceptable policy of achieving its groundless, illogical and arbitrary demands through the use of force and the threat of force,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement condemning the attack.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry also warned in a separate statement released the same day that Azerbaijan is “preparing the ground for another aggressive action and ethnic cleansing” in Artsakh. 

The Foreign Ministry said that Azerbaijan has been falsely accusing Artsakh of committing ceasefire violations every day. It said Azerbaijan disseminates fake news in advance of new escalations in order to attribute responsibility to the opposite side. The Foreign Ministry noted that the Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh has only recorded ceasefire violations by the Azerbaijani side.

“We call on the peacekeeping forces of the Russian Federation to strictly follow the observance of the ceasefire regime and investigate all the incidents voiced by Azerbaijan, publicly presenting the entire situation on the ground,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said. 

European Union special representative Toivo Klaar tweeted that the EU is “following closely developments in the region.”

“The shooting in all areas needs to stop. It is essential to keep up the positive momentum of successive meetings and achieve results at the negotiating table that will benefit Armenia, Azerbaijan and the entire region,” Klaar said. 

Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of committing ceasefire violations along the border almost every day for the past two months. Several Armenian soldiers have been killed or injured in Azerbaijani attacks on Armenia’s eastern border. 

On May 17, Armenian soldier Edgar Vahan Suleymanyan, born 2003, was fatally wounded after the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire on Armenian military positions near the Sotk village in the Gegharkunik province. Additionally, a paramedic was wounded after Azerbaijani forces also opened fire at the ambulance carrying Suleymanyan to the hospital.

On May 12, Armenian soldier Narek Norayr Baghdasaryan, born 2003, was killed and two soldiers were wounded after the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire against Sotk, Kut and Verin Shorzha in Gegharkunik using UAVs. 

On May 11, four Armenian soldiers were wounded by Azerbaijani fire near Sotk. 

Armenian soldiers Arthur Sahaykan (1999), Mkrtich Harutyunyan (1989), Henrik Kocharyan (1997) and Narek Sargsyan (1994) were killed after Azerbaijani forces opened fire near the village Tegh in the Syunik province on April 11. 

The Yeraskh construction site is the second plant to come under Azerbaijani fire in recent months. Operations at the Sotk gold mine, which employs 700 workers, have been partially suspended since mid-April due to periodic gunfire. The Russian-owned GeoProMining company announced that open-pit mining at Sotk has been terminated, and its personnel left without work. Employees have tried resuming work, yet have been hindered by continued shelling.

“Such a state of permanent danger for the company’s employees has been observed for more than a month. As a result, further work at the Sotk open pit became impossible due to circumstances beyond the company’s control,” GeoProMining said in a statement. 

On June 13, the US Embassy in Yerevan released a security alert warning US citizens to “exercise caution near all international borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan and avoid travel near the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone and line of contact.” It specifically warned against travel along Armenia’s eastern border in the Tavush and Gegharkunik regions. It also advised against traveling to Yeraskh, the town Jermuk and the entire Syunik region. 

Sign to enter Yeraskh village (RA Human Rights Defender)

Wednesday’s escalation took place as negotiations on a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Artsakh conflict seem to have stalled. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov were scheduled to meet on June 12 in Washington for a new round of negotiations. However, the talks have been postponed without an explanation. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the talks were delayed at the request of the Azerbaijani side. 

Several high-level meetings have taken place between Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders within the past weeks. No concrete agreements were announced after a meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Moldova’s capital Chisinau June 1, along with European Council President Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, or after an earlier trilateral meeting between Pashinyan, Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on May 25. 

After a trilateral meeting hosted by Michel in Brussels on May 14, Pashinyan announced that he is prepared to recognize Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan. Michel said that the leaders “confirmed their unequivocal commitment” to each other’s territorial integrity. He added that he “encouraged Azerbaijan to engage in developing a positive agenda with the aim of guaranteeing the rights and security” of the Armenians living in Artsakh.  

Mirzoyan and Bayramov previously met in Washington for marathon talks from May 1-4. Armenian leaders said that the sides did not make progress on the most fundamental issues under negotiation. Namely, they did not reach agreements on the creation of an international mechanism to oversee talks between Artsakh and Azerbaijan or international guarantees for compliance with a peace treaty and recognition of Armenia’s territorial integrity. Bayramov, however, said that the leaders had taken “one step forward,” despite “quite a lot of differences between the positions of the parties.”

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Lillian Avedian is a staff writer for the Armenian Weekly. Her writing has also been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Hetq and the Daily Californian. She is pursuing master’s degrees in journalism and Near Eastern Studies at New York University. A human rights journalist and feminist poet, Lillian’s first poetry collection Journey to Tatev was released with Girls on Key Press in spring of 2021.


International community’s silence could lead to new Azeri aggression against democratic Armenia, warns senior diplomat

Badalian Vardan

 11:28,

YEREVAN, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS. The international community’s silence or absence of unequivocally targeted measures on Azerbaijan may cause new aggressions against democratic Armenia, Ambassador-at-large Edmon Marukyan warned after the latest Azerbaijani shooting which targeted civilian infrastructure in Yeraskh.

“Azerbaijan opened fire at the vehicles and infrastructures of a plant being built in the sovereign territory of Armenia by a US-Armenian investment. Intensive fire continued for three hours. This is an outrageous behavior going against all efforts carried out towards the peace process and a gross violation of all commitments on non-use of force or even threat of use of force. We strongly condemn this provocative behavior and call for our international partners to take measures against Azerbaijan, including sanctions and direct calls for refraining from such destructive approach. The silence of international community or absence of unequivocally targeted measures on Azerbaijan may cause new aggressions against democratic Armenia,” Marukyan tweeted.

“This is an indiscriminate use of force by Azerbaijani armed forces in the sovereign territory of Republic of Armenia, which must be condemned by all international actors interested in peace as stability of the entire region,” Marukyan added in a separate post.

Borrell notes that the socio-economic situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is serious

Badalian Vardan

 19:01,

YEREVAN, JUNE 13, ARMENPRESS. The socio-economic situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is quite serious, which is why the EU has implemented various initiatives in the last two years to provide humanitarian support to the local residents. 70 million euros have already been allocated for this purpose, ARMENPRESS reports, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said during the discussion on “Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Lachin Corridor” in the European Parliament.

The head of EU diplomacy noted that the humanitarian support was aimed at solving health problems, including providing medical equipment and providing social support to people affected by the conflict. Borrell emphasized that there is still a lot to be done in that area.