Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

High-level CoE delegation visits the starting point of the Lachin Corridor

Chakhmakhchian Vatche

 18:23, 7 July 2023

YEREVAN, JULY 7, ARMENPRESS. The high-level delegation of the Council of Europe visited the beginning of the Lachin Corridor, which has been blocked for 7 months, ARMENPRESS reports, the permanent representative of Armenia in the Council of Europe, Arman Khachatryan, wrote on his “Twitter” page.

“Council of Europe High-level delegation visited starting point of Lachin Corridor, blocked for 7 months.

The visit was an opportunity to have a better understanding of situation on the ground, with its serious human rights and humanitarian consequences for people of Nagorno Karabakh. It cannot be denied that Azerbaijan closed the only way of life connecting Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia. Azerbaijan should ensure free and safe movement through the Lachin Corridor, fulfilling the judgments of the International Court of Justice and the ECHR and the recently adopted new resolution of the PACE,” wrote Khachatryan.

Turkish Press: Armenians enlist minors in Karabakh

Chakhmakhchian Vatche
Turkey – June 20 2023
15:26 . 20/06/2023 Tuesday


Armenians enlist minors in Karabakh Conflict

Cases of the use of underage Armenian children in separatist-activated hostilities have recently resurfaced. A few days ago, Armenian bloggers posted a video on social networks showing underage children moving around in military uniforms in Karabakh.


Separatist aspirations and the corresponding actions of a group of persons claiming to be “leaders” of the Armenian population in the territory of Karabakh, where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily stationed, still continue. There is still a process of movement of illegal Armenian armed formations inside Karabakh and conducting “military exercises” in various directions.


There were also cases when minor children performed various duties in videos reflecting the situation on the combat positions of the Armenian side during the second Karabakh War. Moreover, there are enough photos and videos of underage children participating in exercises related to defense and other military activities.


Photo 1. Minor children participating in the training of illegal military formations in Karabakh.

These images were published on the page of an Armenian blogger on social networks, who currently works as a photographer in Karabakh. The footage shows the participation of Armenian children in the initial military exercises held in the village of Khanabad in the Khojaly district shortly before the second Karabakh war (in July 2020).


Photo 2. A photo published on the Instagram platform in connection with the participation of underage Armenian children in the exercises of initial military training.

Photo 3. Another photo posted on the Instagram social network in connection with the participation of underage Armenian children in the exercises of initial military training.

Despite the fact that in the current post-conflict period Baku has put forward a proposal for a dialogue with the aim of implementing the process of reintegration of Karabakh residents of Armenian origin, the separatists are attempting some political as well as military actions aimed at disrupting this process.


Ruben Vardanyan, who tried to prevent the process of reintegration between Baku and residents of Karabakh of Armenian origin and called on ordinary Armenian citizens to fight against Azerbaijan.


Among the projects implemented in Karabakh by the “We Are Our Mountains” Development Agency created by Ruben Vardanyan, and also a competition including systematic military training called “Davit Bek Youth Championship“ is being held.


This event, called a youth sports competition, is planned to be held among boys and girls of age from 16 to 18 years studying in Khankendi schools.


The purpose of the event is to promote military topics among young people, to ensure the readiness of young people for combat operations and the formation of experienced combat units.


However, shortly after the announcement of the competition, after the publication in the Azerbaijani press of revealing materials about the role of international foreign banks in financing the project, the “We are Our Mountains” Development Agency attempted to distort the published information about the goals and objectives of the project.


Photo 4. Primary information about the games at the David-Bek Youth Championship, in which minors participated.

Photo 5. Updated (distorted) version of the information about this project.

In the territories of Karabakh recognized as the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan within the framework of international law, sending Armenian minors to separatist and terrorist activities under the guise of military sports and preliminary military training is a crime against humanity.


The footage published in recent days on social networks, including the involvement of minors under the guise of various games by various Armenian armed groups in military exercises on the territory of Karabakh, inculcate hatred and hostility to a new generation and are preparing for a new war with Azerbaijan.


In this regard, a report document prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan in January this year on the involvement of children in the Armed Forces and armed groups by Armenia was submitted to the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.


The principles and provisions for the protection of children in armed conflict are contained in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto of 1977, as well as in the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and its Optional Protocol of 2000 on the involvement of children in armed conflict.


The report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan notes that Armenia has grossly violated the norms and principles established by international law.


The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court states that actions related to the conscription or mobilization for military service of children under the age of 15 or their active use in military operations within the framework of international and non-international conflicts are classified as war crimes.


The separatist leadership led by Arayik Harutyunyan and Ruben Vardanyan, who are trying to present themselves as the leaders of the residents of Karabakh of Armenian origin, are committing an international crime for using underage children in military activities.


Underage children are currently used in the training camps of Daesh, YPG/PKK, Al-Qaeda and a number of other terrorist organizations. Quite extensive information about this can be found in the reports of international organizations.


Photo 7. Children are fighters of the terrorist YPG/PKK organization.

The actions carried out by these terrorist organizations are also held in the Karabakh region, which is the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan.


However, the illegal military activities carried out by VoMA, POGA and various other Armenian armed groups on the territory of Karabakh are ignored by the world community and international organizations.


Baku calls on other international organizations led by the UN and its specialized agencies (UNICEF), including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, which have global authority in the field of human rights, as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene in the activities carried out by the separatists.


Yeni Şafak is actively following leads and will provide updates as the situation evolves.

Armenia-Azerbaijan foreign ministerial meeting to take place next week

Chakhmakhchian Vatche

 11:23,

YEREVAN, JUNE 22, ARMENPRESS. The foreign ministerial meeting between Armenia and Azerbaijan will take place next week, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said at the June 22 Cabinet meeting.

“The meeting between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Azerbaijan will take place next week. Armenia has also offered Azerbaijan to hold a session of the delimitation commission, and there is a principled agreement to convene it. Armenia is also ready for the unblocking of transport and economic connections as soon as possible, under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the parties and the principle of reciprocity,” Pashinyan said.

PHOTOS: Azerbaijani military armored personnel carrier blocks Lachin Corridor

Chakhmakhchian Vatche

 12:43,

YEREVAN, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS. Nagorno Karabakh has released images showing an Azerbaijani military armored personnel carrier blocking the entrance to the Lachin Corridor on the Hakari Bridge.

The Lachin Corridor – the only road linking Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia – has been blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022. During the blockade the Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers were able to deliver relief supplies and carry out medical evacuations, but Azerbaijan blocked this as well last week.

Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) State Minister’s adviser Artak Beglaryan shared the images showing the APC blocking the road.

“The images show how the Azerbaijani armored vehicles have blocked the only Artsakh-Armenia road near the illegal Azerbaijani checkpoint. Is this their guarantee for “free movement” with which they lie to the whole world, falsely claiming that there is no blockade?” Beglaryan said in a statement on social media.

He called on the international community to assume responsibility to prevent a security disaster and humanitarian disaster in Nagorno Karabakh.

“We expect the most urgent and practical steps from Armenia, Russia, the US, France, the EU, UN and all other actors, and we expect major pressure on everyone from the Diaspora-Armenians.”

Today is legendary commander Monte Melkonian’s memorial day

Chakhmakhchian Vatche
Panorama
Armenia – June 12 2023

12 June marks the 30th death anniversary of legendary Armenian commander, philosopher and warrior Monte Melkonian.

Monte Melkonian was born in 1957 at Visalia Municipal Hospital in Visalia, California to Charles and Zabel Melkonian. He was the third of four children born to a self-employed cabinetmaker and an elementary-school teacher. By all accounts, Melkonian was described as an all-American child who joined the Boy Scouts and was a pitcher in Little League baseball. Melkonian’s parents rarely talked about their Armenian heritage with their children, often referring to the place of their ancestors as the “Old Country.”

In the spring of that year, the family also traveled across Turkey to visit the town of Merzifon, where Melkonian’s maternal grandparents were from. Merzifon’s population at the time was 23,475 but was almost completely devoid of its once 17,000-strong Armenian population that was wiped out during the Armenian Genocide in 1915. They did find one Armenian family of the three that was living in the town, however, Melkonian soon learned that the only reason this was so, was because the head of the family in 1915 had exchanged the safety of his family in return for identifying all the Armenians in the town to Turkish authorities during the genocide. Monte would later confide to his wife that “he was never the same after that visit….He saw the place that had been lost.”

Upon his return to California Monte returned to his education. In high school, he was exceeding all standards and having a hard time finding new academic challenges. Instead of graduating high school early, as was suggested by his principal, Monte found an alternative thanks to his father: a study abroad program in East Asia. At the age of 15 Monte traveled to Japan for a new chapter in his young life. While there he began making money teaching English which helped finance his travels through several Southeast Asian countries. This introduced him to several new cultures, new philosophies, new languages, and in several cases, like his travels through Vietnam, new skills that would become immensely valuable in his later life as a soldier. Returning to the United States, he graduated from high school and entered the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in ancient Asian history and Archeology. In 1978 he helped to organize an exhibition of Armenian cultural artifacts at one of the university’s libraries. The section of the exhibit dealing with the 1915-23 genocide was removed by university authorities, at the request of the Turkish consul general in San Francisco. The display that was removed was eventually reinstalled following a campus protest movement. Monte eventually completed his undergrad work in under three years. Upon graduating, he was accepted into the archeology graduate program at the University of Oxford. However, Monte chose to forgo this opportunity, and instead chose to begin his lifelong struggle for the Armenian Cause.

On October 6, 1990, Monte arrived in what was then still Soviet Armenia. During the first 8 months in Armenia, Melkonian worked in the Armenian Academy of Sciences, where he prepared an archaeological research monograph on Urartian cave tombs, which was posthumously published. Seta and Monte were married at the monastery of Geghart in August 1991.

Finding himself on Armenian soil after many years, he wrote in a letter that he found a lot of confusion among his compatriots. Armenia faced enormous economic, political and environmental problems at every turn, problems that had festered for decades. New political forces bent on dismantling the Soviet Union were taking Armenia in a direction that Monte believed was bound to exacerbate the crisis and produce more problems.

Under these circumstances, it quickly became clear to Monte that, for better or for worse, the Soviet Union had no future and the coming years would be perilous ones for the Armenian people. He then focused his energy on Nagorno-Karabakh. “If we lose Karabakh,” the bulletin of the Karabakh Defense Forces quoted him as saying, “we turn the final page of the Armenian history.” He believed that, if Azeri forces succeeded in deporting Armenians from Karabakh, they would advance on Zangezur and other regions of Armenia. Thus, he saw the fate of Karabakh as crucial for the long-term security of the entire Armenian nation.

On September 12 (or 14) 1991 Monte travelled to the Shahumian region (north of Nagorno-Karabakh), where he fought for three months in the fall of 1991. There he participated in the capture of Erkej, Manashid and Buzlukh villages.

On February 4, 1992 Melkonian arrived in Martuni as the regional commander. Upon his arrival the changes were immediately felt: civilians started feeling more secure and at peace as Azeri armies were pushed back and were finding it increasingly difficult to shell Martuni’s residential areas with GRAD missiles.

In April 1993, Melkonian was one of the chief military strategists who planned and led the operation to fight Azeri fighters and capture the region of Kalbajar of Azerbaijan which lies between the Republic of Armenia and former NKAO. Armenian forces captured the region in four days of heavy fighting, sustaining far fewer fatalities than the enemy.

Monte was killed in the abandoned Azerbaijani village of Merzili in the early afternoon of June 12, 1993 during the Battle of Aghdam. According to Markar Melkonian, Monte’s older brother and author of his biography, Monte died in the waning hours of the evening by enemy fire during an unexpected skirmish that broke out with several Azerbaijani soldiers who had gotten lost. Monte died in the arms of his closest and most trusted comrades.

He was buried with military honors at the Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan on June 19.

The EU has high expectations from the July meeting in Brussels. Borrell

Chakhmakhchian Vatche

 19:22,

YEREVAN, JUNE 13, ARMENPRESS. The EU mission is part of the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but it cannot completely replace the process. the only solution is in the diplomatic sphere. The conflicting parties have expressed their desire to continue the negotiations, and the next meeting will be held in Brussels, from which the EU has high expectations, 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.

According to Borrell, the current situation in the Lachin Corridor certainly raises the concern of the international community, but the EU does not have access to the checkpoint located in the corridor, therefore it is deprived of the opportunity to carry out a full observation.

“The EU is interested in the establishment of peace in the South Caucasus, and for this purpose it implements initiatives of a humanitarian nature, as well as contributes directly to the negotiations aimed at peace. We are also involved in finding missing persons during the conflict and keeping the conflicting parties away from new clashes,” said the head of EU diplomacy.

2 off-duty servicemen killed in single-vehicle accident

Chakhmakhchian Vatche

 11:31,

YEREVAN, JUNE 13, ARMENPRESS. Two off-duty servicemen of the Armenian Armed Forces were killed on Monday in a car crash while traveling on the Vardavank-Kapan road.

The victims were traveling in a Ford Transit. No one else was in the car besides the two off-duty servicemen, with one of them being the motorist, authorities said. Other vehicles were not involved in the crash.

The car is said to have crashed into a gorge in the switchback section of the road.

The motorist died instantly while the passenger succumbed to his injuries after being taken to the Kapan hospital.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.




Azerbaijan attempts to derail agreements, Armenia warns at meeting of CSTO Security Council chiefs

Chakhmakhchian Vatche

 16:03, 8 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan delivered a speech on June 8 at the CSTO meeting of Security Council Secretaries.

Grigoryan spoke about the regional security challenges, emphasizing that Azerbaijan continues its policy of the use of force or threat of force and is attempting to derail the implementation of previously reached agreements. The Secretary of the Security Council said that Azerbaijan also continues to escalate the situation not only on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, but also in Nagorno Karabakh and Lachin Corridor.

Secretary Grigoryan said that the non-acknowledgment of the Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia’s sovereign territory and attempting to relate it with the non-implementation of the delimitation process of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is ungrounded.

Armen Grigoryan called on his colleagues to give an unambiguous and targeted assessment to the current situation in Nagorno Karabakh and take effective measures in order for the 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno Karabakh not to be subjected to ethnic cleansings. He said that in this context creating an international mechanism ensuring the rights and security of the population in Nagorno Karabakh remains a priority for Armenia.

Pashinyan broaches possibility of returning key exclave to Azerbaijan

Chakhmakhchian Vatche
EurasiaNet.org
June 7 2023
Joshua Kucera Jun 7, 2023

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has raised the prospect of ceding control of an occupied exclave of Azerbaijani territory inside Armenia. But it remains unclear if that is a signal of an impending Armenian concession or a rhetorical attempt to lower domestic expectations, analysts say.

In a question-and-answer session at a June 2 appearance with Moldova’s Armenian community, Pashinyan was asked about Karki. That is one of the vexatious bits of territory, a relic of idiosyncratic Soviet border-drawing practices, that are effectively islands of de jure Azerbaijani territory inside Armenia, or vice versa. These exclaves are one of several tricky issues that Armenia and Azerbaijan are trying to resolve in ongoing negotiations to comprehensively resolve their decades-long conflict.

Pashinyan’s answer seemed to indicate that Armenia was willing to give up Karki, which was part of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic but was entirely surrounded by the Armenian SSR. It was taken over by Armenia in the first war between the two sides in the 1990s and is now home to a small community of Armenians who moved there following the war. From a national security perspective, the village is critical because it lies directly on the country’s main north-south highway.

Delineating the countries’ shared border is one of the main tasks of the peace talks, and  Pashinyan has repeatedly said that 1975 Soviet maps – the most recent and precise available – should be the standard by which Armenia and Azerbaijan should draw their border today. In his comments in Moldova, he said that should be the basis for determining the fate of Karki. “If it turns out that it belongs to Azerbaijan by that map, then we don’t have any problem,” he said. 

As Pashinyan no doubt already knew, it does in fact turn out to belong to Azerbaijan according to that map. 

He continued by minimizing the road issue: “There’s no such enclave that could cause the kind of road problems for us that would be unsolvable. There’s no such issue. If the road can’t pass this way it will pass that way. There is no problem whatsoever. We are actually developing our road network in Armenia to such a level that there is no unsolvable issue,” Pashinyan said.

His comments created the impression among some that this and a few other territories were already virtually signed away.

“If Nikol Pashinyan remains in power and continues with his current policy, Tigranashen [the Armenian name for Karki] will face a fate far worse than that of Shurnukh [a village on the Armenia/Azerbaijan border that Armenians lost partial control of as a result of the 2020 war],” Artur Khachatryan, a member of parliament from the opposition Armenia alliance, told reporters following the prime minister’s remarks. 

“The handover of enclaves to the enemy will create more favorable conditions and temptation for them to continue the war on Armenia’s territory. As a result, the peace treaty will become a war treaty,” Vazgen Manukyan, a former prime minister now allied with the political opposition, wrote on Facebook.

Karki and several other villages in similar conditions emerged as contentious issues even before the end of the 2020 war. In initial media reports about the November 10 ceasefire statement that ended that war, the agreement contained language stipulating the “return to the Azerbaijani side the territory held by the Armenian side in the Gazakh region of the Azerbaijani republic.” In the document that was formally published, however, that line had been deleted. (Two of the Azerbaijani exclaves that were surrounded by the Armenian SSR are part of Gazakh region. Karki, the third, is near Nakhchivan. There are also several bits of territory contiguous with Azerbaijan that Armenia sliced off during the first war in the 1990s. There was one Armenian exclave inside the Azerbaijani SSR, Artsvashen.)

Since then, the issue has periodically bubbled up into public discussions about Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiations. The Armenian position has typically been that the two sides should just keep the territories inside their borders (i.e. they would give up Artsvashen and get the seven Azerbaijani territories in return). “Our hope is that the possible solution is that the exclave of Armenia is left to Azerbaijan, the exclaves of Azerbaijan, which are in the territory of Armenia, are left to Armenia,’” the head of Armenia’s National Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, said last May. 

The stated Azerbaijani position, meanwhile, has been that its Soviet-era territories should be returned to its control.

In a June 5 statement, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry again reiterated that position, complaining that “Armenia […] is still occupying 8 villages of Azerbaijan” and is delaying the “return of 8 villages to Azerbaijan under various pretexts.”

Pashinyan’s statement might appear to be a reversal of Armenia’s previous position. But he may simply be lowering expectations so that if in the negotiations Armenia managed to hold on to the territories inside its borders, it could be presented to the Armenian public as a diplomatic victory, said Benyamin Poghosyan, an analyst and head of the Center for Political and Economic Strategic Studies in Yerevan.

“He has to have two options,” Poghosyan told Eurasianet. “If he keeps the exclaves, he can show it as a victory for himself. And if the exclaves are given up, then he has to show that it’s not a tragedy.”

A solution that would give back all territories to their Soviet-era owners would create logistical headaches, in particular among the territories that are fully surrounded by the other country. It would raise the prospect of the contention around the Lachin Corridor being multiplied and expanded to a new Karki Corridor, Artsvashen Corridor, and so on. 

As such, Azerbaijan may not be interested in a pure exclave-for-exclaves trade, but in bargaining over a solution that would see it gain as much territory as it stands to lose, said one Baku-based political commentator, who asked not to be named so as to be able to speak more candidly. Baku may be looking at a solution that would include Azerbaijan regaining control over the villages that are contiguous to Azerbaijan’s borders; a trade of the exclaves; and retaining control over enough of the Armenian territories that it now controls as the result of military advances since 2020 to make the ledgers work out, the commentator said. (Baku says that the border near the territories it took as a result of those operations is not demarcated and so should be the subject of negotiations; Armenia says they were incursions onto its internationally recognized territory.)

The deal also could include Nrnadzor, a village deep inside southern Armenia that until 1928 was part of the Azerbaijani SSR and was known as Nyuvadi. Azerbaijan has sought to regain control of that village in previous negotiations and may seek to do so again, the commentator said. 

Delimitation and demarcation of the countries’ shared border is being undertaken by a trilateral commission led by the deputy prime ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia. 

Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of dragging its feet on cooperation with that commission. “Instead of insisting on special reference to some 1975 map, it would be more useful for the Armenian side to start the delimitation work,” Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said in a June 4 statement. “It should not be forgotten that after the Patriotic War of 2020, it was Armenia that did not respond to the proposal of delimitation of the borders with Armenia for a long time.” 

In an appearance before parliament on June 5, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan was asked about the issue and said it should be the purview of the commission. 

“Politically, yes, we know that such enclaves existed in the territory of Armenia during the last period of Soviet Armenia, but I think that this is an issue that should be dealt with by the delimitation commission itself,” he said.

Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet’s former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan says maintains close contact with ex-FM Zohrab Mnatsakanyan

Chakhmakhchian Vatche

 17:01, 5 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 5, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has said that he maintains close contact with ex-foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan.

Member of Parliament Garnik Danielyan from the Hayastan faction asked Mirzoyan whether or not he sought advice from his predecessors over the negotiations process with Azerbaijan.

“The state [belongs] to us all. And I think that ministers taking office ought to study their predecessor’s experience in case of opportunity. No one is perfect, you might get some advice or nuances that could be to the benefit of the country,” the lawmaker told the foreign minister during parliamentary joint committee debates of the 2022 budget report.

“From former foreign ministers I maintain rather close contact, for example, with Zohrab Mnatsakanyan. The ministers who served before him are regularly publishing articles so I get to know their approaches from the press anyway. Unfortunately, I find their positions to be far from being an appropriate perception or offers constituting appropriate solutions, therefore there isn’t much to talk about. In case of someone else I can recall that he abandoned the position entrusted to him at the most difficult time full of challenges for our country. I don’t understand what’s there to discuss,” Mirzoyan said, adding that he also discusses matters concerning Armenian interests with experts.