Author: Boshkezenian Garik

USCIRF: Armenian church demolished in Turkey, Armenian cemetery in Van destroyed this year

Boshkezenian Garik
News.am, Armenia
Dec 15 2021
12:36, 15.12.2021

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has issued a special report in which it expresses concern over the deteriorating religious minority situation in Turkey, USCIRF commissioner Tony Perkins told the VOA Armenian Service.

He said they see anti-Semitism is on the rise in Turkey, especially during the pandemic, the Armenians also get the same accusations, and they are accused of COVID-19.

In the USCIRF special report on Turkey that was released on December 3, the Commission stressed that repression of religious minorities in the country is carried out if not with the direct participation of the Turkish authorities, then at least because of their neutrality on the matter. Moreover, the Turkish authorities leave the crimes against religious minorities in the country unpunished.

Commenting on this report, Perkins stressed that the Turkish authorities are primarily accountable for the deterioration of the situation of religious minorities in Turkey.

One Armenian church was demolished in Turkey this year, the Armenian cemetery in Van was completely destroyed, and these are forms of intimidation when important religious and cultural sites are destroyed, he added.

According to Perkins, religious minorities in Turkey, including members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, are increasingly restricted in their rights.

Recently, we are witnessing growing enmity towards religious minorities in Turkey; and if we look more closely, we can see that this trajectory is not going well at all, added Tony Perkins.

In its special report, the USCIRF advises the US Department of State to put Turkey on a special list, as its authorities tolerate gross violations of the rights of religious minorities in the country.

Bloomberg: Biden told Erdogan to open border with Armenia

Boshkezenian Garik
PanArmenian, Armenia
Dec 14 2021
– 15:40 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – U.S. President Joe Biden urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during an October meeting in Rome to open the country’s border with landlocked Armenia, Bloomberg reports citing a senior Turkish official.

The report comes amid information from Ankara that Turkey and Armenia will mutually appoint envoys as part of normalization steps between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday, December 13 that Turkey will work to normalize ties with Armenia and start charter flights to its capital city of Yerevan.

Bloomberg believes that Turkey hopes that taking steps to normalize ties with Armenia will help Ankara improve its strained relations with Washington over its purchase of Russia air defenses. After the meeting between Biden and Erdogan, the two countries set up a mechanism to address issues that have poisoned relations between the two NATO allies that share broader security and economic interests.

CSTO foreign ministers adopt joint statement on fight against terrorism

Boshkezenian Garik

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 16:52, 6 December, 2021

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The CSTO member states are deeply concerned about the terror attacks in the CSTO space and outside its borders, as well as about the growing use of internet, live broadcasts for that purpose, the CSTO foreign ministers’ statement adopted on the sidelines of the 28th OSCE Ministerial Council in Sweden says.

The foreign ministers of the CSTO member states – Armenia, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, have emphasized that terrorism with all its types and manifestations is one of the biggest threats for the globe and the international security, calling any terrorist act a crime and adding that it has no justification regardless of its motives.

“We reaffirm our commitment to keep the unity in the international fight against terrorism, by recognizing the UN’s central and coordinating role on the matter. We once again announce that countries have a vital role to play in preventing and fighting terrorism, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations organization. We reiterate our commitment to the full implementation of the UN Global Anti-Terrorism Strategy, respecting human rights, fundamental freedoms and rule of law”, the statement says.

They also expressed their concerns over the growing spread of hate speech and ideas through internet. They emphasized the necessity to make efforts to develop information literacy especially among the youth.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Miss Universe PH Beatrice Luigi Gomez’s fun moments with Miss Armenia Nane Avetisyan draw reactions from netizens

Boshkezenian Garik
Dec 7 2021
By Izel Abanilla
Published On: December 7, 2021, 02:12 PM
Miss Universe PH Beatrice Luigi Gomez gets cozy with Miss Armenia Nane Avetisyan.

Netizens could not help but notice and react to Miss Universe Philippines Beatrice Luigi Gomez’s fun moments with fellow candidate, Miss Armenia Nane Avetisyan, while exploring the beauty of Eliat, Israel, ahead of the 70th Miss Universe competition.

A video of Gomez and Avestiyan uploaded via the Miss Universe organization’s official Twitter showed the latter riding on Luigi’s back for a piggyback pose.

With Gomez being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, netizens could not help but inject color into their closeness.

Some even jokingly reminded the country’s representative that the goal to bring is the fifth crown and not another love life.

In November 2021, Beatrice and her girlfriend Kate Jagdon broke up. The DJ artist-entrepreneur confirmed this in an Instagram story, saying that they have gone through some difficult times because of the break-up but still wished the beauty queen the best of luck in her journey.

Prior to that, Kate congratulated Beatrice for winning the Miss Universe Philippines title.

Beatrice hailed from Cebu and was crowned Miss Universe-Philippines 2021 held at the Hennan Resort Convention Center in Panglao, Bohol, in September 30.

Get to know more about the country’s representative to the 70th Miss Universe pageant in this gallery:

Identity of the Azerbaijani serviceman who killed a civilian in Karabakh was established

Boshkezenian Garik

Dec 5 2021


    JAMnewsYerevan

The prosecutor’s office of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic reports that the identity of an Azerbaijani serviceman who killed a 65-year-old civilian Seyran Sargsyan in Nagorno-Karabakh has been discovered. On December 3, it was reported that the man was engaged in animal husbandry, lost his way, and ended up in the territory controlled by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. He was detained by the servicemen of Azerbaijan, taken to the position where the armed forces were stationed, and killed there.

The Azerbaijani side did not refute this information but stated that the shot was fired by the serviceman after he was attacked while on duty at one of the positions of the Azerbaijani army.

However, on December 4, the Armenian side reported additional details, which became known during the investigation. It has been reported that the killed man did not get lost, but was forcibly abducted from the territory which is considered a neutral zone. Moreover, there are “convincing and irrefutable facts, including the video, proving the commission of premeditated murder”.

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The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported that a serviceman who was on duty at one of the positions of the Azerbaijani army in the Khojavend region was attacked by a person of Armenian origin on December 3 at about 13:00:

“[This] person tried to seize a weapon. After shooting in the air,  with the aim of self-defense Azerbaijani serviceman neutralized the provocateur who had attacked him.
The incident was reported to the Command of the Russian peacekeeping forces and the Russian-Turkish Joint Monitoring Center.
The investigation is underway”.

Armenian law enforcement agencies report that there is irrefutable evidence of the murder of a civilian and they will be transferred to the Russian side for a full investigation of the circumstances of the incident.

However, at that moment, in cooperation with the prosecutor’s office of the peacekeeping forces of Russia, it turned out that “the murder of the citizen of Artsakh was committed by the citizen of Azerbaijan, private Rahimzade David Gabil oglu”.

As part of the agreement reached between the Prosecutors General of Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, the prosecutor of the Russian peacekeeping contingent arrived at the scene. He has already had the opportunity to meet witnesses of the incident from the Azerbaijani side and talked with Rakhimzade.

It is also reported that at this moment “the possibility of holding a working meeting with the leadership of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia” is being considered with the mediation of the Russian side.

All Armenian publications remind that this is the third case of the murder of a civilian since November 10, 2020, that is, since the establishment of the ceasefire in Karabakh.

The press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Vahan Hunanyan made a statement in which he condemned the killing of a civilian by the Azerbaijani servicemen:

“It is noteworthy that the attacks and acts of intimidation against the Armenian civilian population of Artsakh have systemic manner, which is due to the baseless justification by the official Baku of similar crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces, leading to repetition of such behavior.

“The recent atrocities committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces against the civilian population of Artsakh are a continuation of the policy of Armenophobia, annihilation and ethnic cleansing of Armenians of Artsakh by the Azerbaijani authorities, which once again proves that guaranteeing the physical security and the right to life of the Armenians of Artsakh is impossible under the Azerbaijani jurisdiction.

“Proper investigation of this and previous attacks on civilian population and bringing the perpetrators to justice can create preconditions for the prevention of such crimes in the future”.

The Foreign Ministry of the unrecognized NKR also condemned the “terrorist policy of Azerbaijan” and called on the international community to adequately assess the actions of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. The ministry’s statement says that Baku’s policy sent “a treacherous blow to the peacekeeping mission of Russia”.

Shifting Geography of the South Caucasus

Boshkezenian Garik
Dec 4 2021


Published

 December 4, 2021

By

 Emil Avdaliani





One year since the end of the second Nagorno-Karabakh war allows us to wrap up major changes in and around the South Caucasus. Most of the changes discussed in the scholarly works so far focused on the role of Turkey and Russia. The shifting geography of the South Caucasus, however, has been disregarded.

In many ways, the war accelerated the pre-existing trends, but also initiated new developments. The first and foremost change concerns geography. The South Caucasus has been historically dominated by neighboring states. Whether it is the Sasanian and Byzantine empires in late antiquity or later Ottoman and Persian states, the region was exclusively subject to one or two powers. The idea is that the region was mostly closed to the outside, non-regional influence. The trend continued in 19th-20th centuries when the South Caucasus was exclusively dominated by Russian power. The end of the Soviet Union changed this geopolitical reality when several powers were able to penetrate the region. Yet the pace of the change was relatively slow – Russia was still able to minimize the extent to which the neighboring or non-regional countries were able to act in the South Caucasus: Turkey, Iran, US, EU, and to a certain extent, China have been influencing the region to a limited degree.

But the second Nagorno-Karabakh war accelerated this process. The South Caucasus’ borders are increasingly shifting. No single power or even a duo of countries can dominate the region. It reflects geopolitical changes in the world where the emerging multi-polar world ushers in a different set of rules. Exclusive geopolitical control is no longer viable and the 2020 war showed exactly this.

There is also yet another dimension of the unfolding geographic change. The war also solidified that the Caspian basin and South Caucasus are inextricably linked to the greater Middle East. Russia and Turkey are basing their strategies in the region on developments in the Middle East and the Black Sea region. Not since the end of the Soviet Union has the South Caucasus been such a critical point for the powers around it. In a way, this re-emergence of close contacts between the South Caucasus and the Middle East is a return to normalcy which was disrupted in the early 19th century by Russian annexation of the South Caucasus. Indeed, in pure geographic terms the region is better connected to Turkey and Iran than to Russia, with which it shares the impassable Caucasus Mountain range.

This also means that the role of the South Caucasus in the thinking of Iran and Turkey, and by extension Russia, has grown. Considered if not as a complete backwater region in the calculus of large powers, the South Caucasus has nevertheless experienced a lack of attention. This was especially true for Iran, which now struggles to retain its weakening position in the region.

It is true that Iran was never a dominant power in the South Caucasus. Unlike Russia or Turkey, the traditional power brokers, it has not had a true ally. Tehran was certainly part of the calculus for states in the region, but it was not feared, like Ankara or Moscow. And yet, the South Caucasus represents an area of key influence for Iran, based on millennia of close political and cultural contacts various Persian empires had with the South Caucasus.

The 2020 war changed Iran’s calculus in the region as the Islamic Republic’s interests were largely unheeded. Iran has now to adjust to the changed geopolitical landscape and it can be even argued that the recent escalation it had with Azerbaijan over the detained trucks, drills, and alleged Israeli influence, was an effort to wedge itself back into the geopolitics of the South Caucasus.

Yet there is little Iran can realistically do to boost its position in the region. The South Caucasus will certainly feature higher in Tehran’s foreign policy agenda than before. But Tehran does not have an ally in the region, nor does it have financial means to strengthen its soft power. Iran can support Armenia in its efforts to balance the triumphant Azerbaijan.

The lifting of US-imposed sanctions could augment Iran’s projection of financial and diplomatic power in the South Caucasus. Still, a more realistic approach for Tehran would be to build closer cooperation with Russia. Both loath growing Turkish influence and the Islamic Republic does not object to growing Russian influence as much as it does resent the West’s and Turkey’s presence. Surely, interests with Russia do not align always, but for Tehran, Moscow is a traditional power in the South Caucasus which is about maintaining a status quo. Turkey, on the other hand, disrupts it seeking greater influence.

There has been a certain retrenchment of the Western influence in the South Caucasus. While it does not signify a definitive decline in West’s fortunes, it is nevertheless important for Washington and Brussels to formulate a more robust approach toward the region. Decreasing the tensions with the Turkey could be one of the steps. Increasing economic engagement with the region would be another. Delay could be damaging. Georgia, which serves as a door for the West to the Caspian basin and on to Central Asia, could be the biggest loser if Washington shifts its foreign policy away from the region. An alternative could be a Russian model of peacebuilding and regional order where Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan will face a lack of foreign policy options if the West’s unwillingness to commit to the region continues to grow. Author’s note: first published in caucasuswatch

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2021/12/04/shifting-geography-of-the-south-caucasus/





Tigran Abrahamyan: Azerbaijanis have one motive – to kill an Armenian to remind of Turkish hatred and their true aims

Boshkezenian Garik
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 4 2021

The new provocation of Azeri servicemen in direction of Chartar settlement in Artsakh comes to give the full picture of their previous crimes in October in Martakert and the November incident on the main highway leading to Shushi town, lawmaker Tigran Abrahamyan wrote on Facebook. 

“In the past three months three citizens of Artsakh were killed as a result of the Azerbaijani provocations, an employees of the water and sewage service, a truck driver and a cattleman among them,” Abrahamyan wrote on Facebook, commenting on the Friday incident. 

“Azeris have one motive to kill an Armenian, disrupt the peace yet to be established and remind of Turkish hatred and true aims,” Abrahamyan wrote, adding the tragic incidents could be prevented if decision makers in Artsakh and Armenia had realized the priorities,  detected the threats on time and taken precautionary measures.”  

In the words of the opposition MP, authorities deliberately keep the public in the status of victims to consistently persuade and justify their defeatist policy. 

To remind, on December 3, a resident of Chartar settlement of Artsakh’s Martuni district Seyran Sargsyan was captured and killed by Azerbaijani military units.

​Armenia and Azerbaijan agree ceasefire after border clash – Armenia

Boshkezenian Garik
Reuters
Nov 16 2021

Armenia and Azerbaijan agree ceasefire after border clash – Armenia

Reuters

MOSCOW, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on Tuesday to a ceasefire at their border, the Armenian defence ministry said, after Russia urged them to step back from confrontation following the deadliest clash since a war last year.

Armenia had asked Moscow to help defend it after the worst fighting since a 44-day war last year between ethnic Armenian forces and the Azeri army over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave that killed at least 6,500 people.

That conflict ended after Russia, which has a military base in Armenia, brokered a peace deal and deployed almost 2,000 peacekeepers to the region. Turkey took the side of Azerbaijan, which regained swathes of land it lost in an earlier conflict.

“In accordance with an agreement mediated by the Russian side, fire ceased on the eastern section of the Armenian-Azeri border, and the situation is relatively stable,” Armenia’s defence ministry said.

Azerbaijan’s defence ministry did not immediately reply to a Reuters’ request for comment.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan discussed the situation on the border by phone, the Kremlin said.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu also spoke by phone to the Armenian and Azeri defence ministers by phone, Interfax news agency said.

The Armenian defence ministry said its troops had come under fire from Azerbaijan and that 12 of its soldiers were captured, while two combat positions near the border with Azerbaijan were lost.

Eduard Aghajanian, head of the Armenian parliament’s foreign relations committee said that 15 Armenian soldiers had been killed.

The Azeri defence ministry said it had responded to large-scale “provocations” after Armenian forces shelled Azeri army positions, and that its own operation had been successful.

France’s French foreign ministry had said it was very concerned about the deteriorating situation and called on both countries to respect a ceasefire.

Reporting by Polina Devitt in Moscow and by Nailia Bagirova in Baku, Writing by Andrew Osborn, Editing by Angus MacSwan and Timothy Heritage


Armenia asks Russia for help after border clash with Azerbaijan

Boshkezenian Garik
EuroNews
Nov 17 2021
By Reuters  •  Updated: 17/11/2021 – 11:40

MOSCOW -Armenia on Tuesday asked Russia to help defend it against Azerbaijan after a border clash in which it said 15 of its soldiers had been killed, 12 captured, and two combat positions had been lost.

The fighting was the worst since a 44-day war last year fought between ethnic Armenian forces and the Azeri army over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave which killed at least 6,500 people and ended in a decisive victory for Azerbaijan.

That conflict ended after Russia brokered a peace deal and deployed almost 2,000 peacekeepers to the region. Turkey took the side of Azerbaijan, which took back swathes of land it had lost in an earlier conflict.

In a series of statements carried by Armenian and Russian news agencies, the Armenian defence ministry said its troops had come under fire from Azeri artillery, small arms and armour.

It said 15 of its soldiers had been killed, 12 captured and that two combat positions near the border with Azerbaijan had been lost.

“Since Azerbaijan has attacked Armenia’s sovereign territory we are asking Russia to defend Armenia’s territorial integrity based on an existing 1987 (mutual defence) agreement between our countries,” the Interfax news agency quoted Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, as saying.

Russia has a military base in Armenia as well as a peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh. There was no immediate response from Russia to the Armenian appeal.

The Azeri defence ministry said it had launched a military operation to respond to what it called large-scale “provocations” from the Armenian side and in a statement blamed Armenia’s military-political leadership.

It said Armenian forces had shelled Azeri army positions with artillery and mortar fire and that its own operation had been successful.

“The Azerbaijan Army has operational and tactical superiority,” it said in the same statement, saying it had targeted Armenian troops and hardware along the border.

“Armenian servicemen are leaving their positions in fear and panic. Military equipment belonging to the opposing side has been destroyed.”

US aid to Azerbaijan helps enable heinous acts against ethnic Armenians – Sen. Menendez

Boshkezenian Garik
Public Radio of Armenia
Nov 18 2021
November 18, 2021, 09:51

 2 minutes read

US aid to Azerbaijan helps enable heinous acts against ethnic Armenians, Chairman of the Senate foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez says.

“Reports of Armenian casualties and Armenian soldiers taken as political prisoners by Azerbaijan are deeply concerning. Defense aid to helps enable these heinous acts against ethnic Armenians. It is time to pass my NDAA amendment cutting this aid,” the Senator said in a Twitter post.

On November 4 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-CA) introduced a powerful amendment that would end U.S. presidential waiver authority of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, an Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) -backed measure that would effectively block U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan.

The amendment (#4177) is one of three amendments to the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that deals with U.S. aid to Azerbaijan as well as Azerbaijani and Turkish war crimes committed against Artsakh and Armenia during the 2020 war.  The amendment removes all references to presidential waiver authority of Section 907, a provision first put in place in 2001, and utilized by successive U.S. presidents – including President Biden, even in the wake of Azerbaijan’s 2020 brutal aggression against Artsakh in Armenia. Since 2016, the U.S. has provided over $120 million in U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan, in the face of objections by Members of Congress and the ANCA, which has long raised alarms about the Aliyev regime’s belligerence in the region.

Senator Menendez also offered a second amendment (#4150) to the NDAA which calls for a joint State Department and Defense Department report on Turkey’s use of U.S. technology in its Bayrakdar drones, with a special focus on whether their sale to third countries, like Azerbaijan, violates U.S. export laws.  The ANCA has identified a number of U.S. parts used in Bayrakdar drones that targeted Artsakh and Armenian civilians during the 2020 Artsakh war.  In addition to the ANCA, Amendment #4150 also has the support of a coalition of ethnic, civic, and faith-based groups including the Hellenic American Leadership Council, American Friends of Kurdistan, the Hindu American Foundation, and the Middle East Forum.

A third amendment (#4251) introduced by California Senator Alex Padilla (D) calls for a joint State Department and Defense Department report, in response to Azerbaijani war crimes during the 2020 Artsakh war, including the use of U.S. technology during the attacks; the use of white phosphorous, cluster bombs, and other prohibited munitions; and the hiring of foreign mercenaries.