Author: Chatinian Lara

U.S. ‘deeply disturbed’ by loss of life in Nagorno Karabakh – State Department spox on unprovoked Azeri attack

Chatinian Lara

 10:43,

YEREVAN,JUNE 29, ARMENPRESS. The United States is ‘deeply disturbed’ by the loss of life in Nagorno Karabakh, U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel has said regarding the June 28 unprovoked Azerbaijani attack on Nagorno Karabakh which killed 4 Nagorno Karabakh troops.

Patel said there’s been no change in the schedule of the Armenia-Azerbaijan ongoing foreign ministerial talks in Washington D.C.

“We are deeply disturbed by the loss of life in Nagorno-Karabakh, and we offer our condolences to the families of all of those who were killed. These latest incidents underscore the need to refrain from hostilities and for a durable and dignified peace. The U.S. is committed to assisting the parties in achieving this goal, and Secretary Blinken is directly engaged in the peace process. Direct dialogue is key to resolving issues and reaching a durable and dignified peace. Yesterday’s meetings with the foreign ministers were constructive, and we continue to build on those discussions today and tomorrow as the peace talks continue. So there’s no change in the schedule,” Patel said, adding that the U.S. will continue to work on this.

The Azerbaijani military bombarded Nagorno Karabakh positions on June 28 with artillery and drone strikes, killing four troops.

Asbarez: 2 Days Before 2020 War, Intelligence Pointed to Planned Attack, Says Pashinyan While Defending His Position

Chatinian Lara
by Asbarez Staff

 

 

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

Heavy fighting on Sept. 27, 2020 as Azerbaijan attacked Artsakh


Two days before Azerbaijan launched a massive attack on Artsakh, Armenian intelligence agencies intercepted communication between Turkish F-16 pilots, who were discussing taking part in “an important event” days later, testimony at the parliament’s select committee on the 2020 war revealed.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces at the time, General Onik Gasparyan has testified that on September 25, 2020, Armenia’s intelligence agencies intercepted audio of the radio communication between Turkish F-16 pilots, who were discussing participation in an important event on the forthcoming Sunday. Gasparyan said this prompted authorities to gradually increase the combat readiness level of the military.

During his testimony on Tuesday in front of the committee, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan acknowledged the aforementioned report, but said that intelligence reports before the intercepted pilots’ communication placed the probability of war at 30 percent.

The chair of the select committee, Andrnik Kocharuan, asked Pashinyan whether he had been briefed on the 2020 intelligence report, to which he replied that since taking office in 2018, the National Security Services had warned of probability of war on a daily basis.

“That information was reported to me, but I remember it mentioning ‘tomorrow.’ But how likely was war according to our institutions before that moment? The assessment was 30 percent. And this assessment wasn’t only based on intelligence, but also other data, including based on contacts with international partners. I received another briefing also, that there is a 30 percent risk of war and that it could be a psychological pressure on the political authorities so that they would resort to disproportional concessions,” Pashinyan said.

“Since I was elected prime minister in May 2018 and began to receive intelligence briefings, the NSS intelligence was always warning about the probability of war,” Pashinyan said, adding that different timeframes of possible attacks were being mentioned.

The revelation of the September 25, 2020 intercepted call, coupled with the the U.S. embassies of Armenia and Azerbaijan issuing hours before the September 27 attack signal that there was intelligence of high probability of an attack.

Yet during his testimony on Tuesday, Pashinyan attempted to defend his failure to prevent the war by both criticizing his predecessors’ policies and also by bit self aggrandizing.

“I feel guilty about absolutely everything, but I say, ‘OK, it’s just a declaration.’ When I start drawing up my own indictment … I enter a deadlock at some point,” Pashinyan told the select committee.

“I’m not saying that it was theoretically impossible to avoid the war,” Pashinyan told the panel boycotted by opposition lawmakers. “But the necessary condition for that theoretical possibility was a renunciation of, let’s put it this way, the Armenian vision for settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

“We could have said that we abandon our vision of viewing Nagorno Karabakh outside of Azerbaijan and taken that path, which of course wouldn’t have guaranteed that it could be possible to avoid war,” Pashinyan said when asked whether or not he believes war was inevitable.

Today, Pashinyan and his government have announced that Armenia will recognize Azerbaijan’s 26,600 square kilometer territory, which includes Artsakh.

Instead of justifications, implementation of commitments. MFA Armenia spox. responses to her Russian counterpart

Chatinian Lara

 19:30,

YEREVAN, JUNE 22, ARMENPRESS. Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ani Badalyan, in response to the media’s inquiry, commented on the June 21 statement of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, regarding the incident that took place in the Lachin Corridor on June 15, urging the signatories of November 9, 2020 declaration and other tripartite statements accepted by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, to steadily implement their commitments, instead of seeking justifications.

ARMENPRESS reports, answering the question “how will you interpret the statements made by the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry on June 21 regarding the incident near the Hakari Bridge on June 15?”, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia stated,

“In response to the comment of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, I consider it necessary to mention the following.

  1. The incident of June 15 did not take place in the Lachin Corridor, as the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry notes, but in the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, on the Armenian side of the Hakari Bridge.
  2. There is a clear contradiction in the interpretation of the Russian side. If, due to the lack of delimitation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is not possible to say exactly where the border line passes, and this is the reason for the ongoing problems, as the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry claims, then the question arises on what basis and principle the Azerbaijani flag was being raised on June 15 on this particular part of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, on this side of the bridge. By the way, let us record that this same thesis is regularly repeated verbatim by the Azerbaijani side when carrying out aggressive actions against the borders of the Republic of Armenia and invading the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.
  3. It is not clear why Russian peacekeepers participated in that operation of Azerbaijan, when both the purpose and even the location of the operation were clearly outside the scope of the peacekeepers’ functions and responsibility. We remind that the only function of the Russian peacekeepers was to keep the 5 km wide corridor of Lachin under control.
  4. By the way, after the June 15 incident, the Azerbaijani side completely blocked the Lachin Corridor, as a result of which even humanitarian supplies, including food and medicine, are not being delivered to Nagorno-Karabakh, even seriously ill persons in need of medical care are not being transported from Nagorno Karabakh to Armenian medical institutions through the ICRC, , gas and electricity supply continues to be interrupted.

In conclusion, we would like to urge the signatories of November 9, 2020 declaration and other tripartite statements accepted by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, to steadily implement their commitments, instead of seeking justifications.

Azerbaijan says Armenian forces shell border area

Chatinian Lara
Reuters
Wed, at 5:09 AM GMT+3

June 21 (Reuters) – Armenia’s armed forces shelled the positions of the Azerbaijani army in the border area of the Sadarak district, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said late on Tuesday.

“Units of the Armenian armed forces fired at the positions of the Azerbaijani army from various small arms,” the defence ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

Armenian armed formations also fired at the Azeri army positions near Susha in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the ministry said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Armenia.

Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have been locked in conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region for three decades, regularly exchange fire across their shared border.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne;)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/azerbaijan-says-armenian-forces-shell-020911981.html

Turkish Press: Russia sees EU presence in Armenia as attempt to oust it from region

Chatinian Lara
Turkey –

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that the European Union’s presence in Armenia was organized with the goal of ousting Russia from the region.

Commenting on plans to open three operational centers of the EU observation mission in Armenia, Zakharova said in a statement that from the very beginning, Brussels’ activities in this regard lacked transparency.

“The deployment of the European Union presence in Armenia was carried out forcefully, under serious pressure from Brussels. The EU members practically imposed their presence,” she said.

She noted that the launch of the mission, which ostensibly aimed to help normalize relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, took place without the consent of the Azerbaijani side and other regional players and without proper reporting.

“This only confirms the true motive of the EU policy in the region, the main purpose of which is to squeeze Russia out of the Transcaucasus and turn the South Caucasus into an arena of geopolitical confrontation to the detriment of the core interests of the people living there,” she said.

According to Zakharova’s assessment, the increase in the number of EU monitoring points “has nothing to do with the task of establishing stability and peace in relations between Baku and Yerevan.”

“The non-accountability of the EU mission to the international community and, above all, to Azerbaijan and Armenia, reinforces suspicions of the existence of a hidden agenda in EU activities ‘on the ground,’ the presence of a ‘second bottom’ in the mission’s mandate under the guise of its ‘civilian’ nature,” she said.

The spokeswoman said that Moscow is not the only one who has “numerous reasonable questions” about the real motives of the EU’s activities in the region.

“We continue to believe that the continuing expansion of the EU extra-regional factor in the Transcaucasus, behind which the anti-Russian objectives of the United States and NATO can be seen, can only exacerbate the existing contradictions here,” she said.

“There is no ‘added value’ from the dubious activity of EU ‘experts’ near the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Moreover, they are not able to ensure security and compliance with the cease-fire agreements reached with the decisive role of Russian mediation,” she said, arguing that the presence of the Russian peacekeeping contingent remains a guarantee of peace in the region.

The development of the situation shows that the trilateral agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia is the most sustainable base for the settlement, she said.

Zakharova also promised that Russia will continue to assist the parties in ensuring security and stability in the region.

Steel manufacturer determined to continue construction of plant in Yeraskh despite Azeri shootings

Chatinian Lara

 14:04,

YEREVAN, JUNE 15, ARMENPRESS. The construction of the smelter plant in Yeraskh is temporarily halted but will resume after clarifying several technical issues with authorized bodies, GTB Steel CEO Tiran Hakobyan told reporters.

GTB Steel is building the steelworks in Yeraskh which came under Azerbaijani gunfire on June 14. Two construction workers were wounded in the shooting.

“Of course we are worried about the incident, but there’s no panic. We are in the sovereign territory of Armenia, we are resolute in our activities, we will not stop and we will continue to work,” Hakobyan said.

The fact that equipment and workers are targeted means that Azerbaijan seeks to disrupt the construction of the plant, he added.

“The reason is clear, they don’t want Armenia to become economically stronger. While our factory will have a rather large investment in the Armenian economy. After completing construction the plant will produce approximately 200-250 thousand tons of rebar annually from black steel, and Armenia will be the main consumer. We view Middle Eastern countries as a market as well,” Hakobyan said.

GTB Steel is co-owned by American companies, with only one of the beneficiaries being Armenian – Grigor Ter Ghazaryan. Building the plant in Yeraskh was Ghazaryan’s idea.

“We had offers to build the plant in various parts of Armenia. We came to Yeraskh at the desire of Grigor Ter Ghazaryan, one of our co-owners, because it’s very important for the border zone to develop. Everyone knows that we have tax privileges, we are exempt from VAT, but we’ve refused this privilege and we are paying VAT,” he said.

200 workers are employed at the construction site. 70 of them are citizens of India.

Indian embassy staffers have visited the two Indian workers at a hospital who were wounded in the June 14 Azeri shooting.

“Since the plant is a technological one, we use the skills of our Indian partners in some issues. We were working normally before these shootings began,” he said, adding that none of the workers want to quit.

Photos by Hayk Manukyan




Artsakh ombudsman releases updated report on Azeri blockade

Chatinian Lara
Panorama
Armenia –

Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan on Monday published an updated version of the ad hoc trilingual report on the violations of individual and collective human rights as a result of the 6 months (182-day) blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijan.

The report comprehensively and in detail presents data on the violations of 7 individual rights, 5 rights of vulnerable groups and 4 collective rights, which reflect the deepening humanitarian crisis and the genocidal policy of Azerbaijan towards the people of Artsakh, the ombudsman’s office reported.

Below are presented some basic data reflected in the report on human rights violations as a result of the 182-day blockade:

• The movement of people passing through the Stepanakert-Goris highway (along the Lachin corridor) has decreased by about 198 times (2246 entries and departures instead of 445,900);

• Almost 58 times less car traffic was recorded on the road compared to what should have been in case of no blockade (2,867 car entries and departures, performed only by the Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers, instead of 167,440);

• Approximately 13 times less vital cargo was imported compared to what should have been in case of no blockade (5,574 tons instead of 72,800 tons);

• Due to the suspension of the pre-planned operations, about 1400 citizens lost the opportunity to solve their health problems via operations;

• Azerbaijan has completely or partially interrupted the gas supply from Armenia to Artsakh for a total of 117 days;

• The electricity supply from Armenia to Artsakh has been completely cut for 154 days now, which led to the introduction of rolling blackouts followed by numerous accidents;

• According to preliminary estimates, about 11,000 people have actually lost their jobs and sources of income (including cases of job retention)

• The country’s economy suffered loss in the amount of about USD 346 million;

• A number of violations of rights are more pronounced in case of vulnerable groups, in particular 30,000 children, 9,000 people with disabilities, 20,000 older people, 60,000 women (women and girls) and 15,000 displaced persons.

In addition to the continuous and multiple violations of the provisions of the Tripartite Statement of November 9, 2020, the mandatory execution of the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of the United Nations (UN) on ensuring unhindered entry and departure of people, cars and cargo along the Lachin corridor has not been implemented by Azerbaijan, which once again tramples on the highest international values and principles. Moreover, after that the Azerbaijani side resorted to new aggressive actions which resulted in human losses and new sufferings among Artsakh people. Since April 23, the Azerbaijani side has installed an illegal checkpoint near the Hakari bridge. Consequently, the international community has not only the right, but also an indisputable obligation to implement the decision of the Supreme International Court of Justice by practical means as soon as possible and to prevent future Azerbaijani crimes, including the new planned and brutal crime against humanity.

All the violations of Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh are carried out within the framework of its state policy of racial discrimination (Armenophobia) and are deeply directed against their right to self-determination and the fact of its realisation, aimed at finally resolving the conflict to their advantage via ethnic cleansing based on the “no people, no rights” logic.

The systematic and consistent policy of ethnic hatred pursued by Azerbaijan, which manifested itself both during the aggression against the people of Artsakh in 2020 and after the establishment of the ceasefire regime, indisputably proves that any status of Artsakh within Azerbaijan is tantamount to ethnic cleansing of Artsakh and the genocide of the Armenians of Artsakh. Therefore, in the context of the Artsakh conflict, the right to self-determination is equal to the right of people to live in their homeland.

The fundamental right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh, as well as the Azerbaijani encroachments and threats against their physical existence on the basis of racial discrimination are more than sufficient grounds for the protection of the people of Artsakh by the international community, as well as the international recognition of the Republic of Artsakh based on the principle of “remedial recognition”.

The report is available here. https://artsakhombuds.am/en/document/1028

Armenpress: The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan continues to spread disinformation. Ministry of Defense of Artsakh

Chatinian Lara

 21:08, 8 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. The message of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan that the units of the Artsakh Defense Army allegedly opened fire on the border between 11:25 and 18:40 on June 8 in the direction of Azerbaijani positions located in the occupied territories of Martuni, Askeran and Shushi regions of the Republic of Artsakh, does not correspond to reality.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Artsakh, the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, announcing the disruption of the engineering works allegedly being carried out in the direction of Martakert, Martuni, Askeran and Shushi, once again distorts the reality, trying to justify the possible cases of ceasefire violation by its units.

AW: Helpless

Chatinian Lara
June 8, 2023 Varak Ghazarian Opinion, Letters to the Editor 0

Berdzor, Artsakh, 2018 (Photo: Varak Ghazarian)

Feeling silenced. Feeling like we have no control. It is not a matter of not having control, but rather an issue of not being organized around a united ideology. Of course, we will not have control if every person is out doing something without any unified organization. If we look back to 2018, it felt as if we were in control and were leaders of our own destiny. Why was that? Because everyone was unified in getting rid of the old corrupt Armenian governance and creating a new, democratic and free Armenia. Now, we must take advantage of that same ideology to rid the government that has given up on Artsakh to create a stronger, more unified Armenia. 

Enough of feeling powerless, of feeling we are helpless. We must all stand together to strengthen Armenia because the repercussions of the current government will be grand and long-lasting. They have created a fragile Armenia, incapable of withstanding the military presence surrounding us. Plenty of Armenians are tired of fighting for Artsakh and do not believe we should shed any more blood for Artsakh. However, they are dangerously wrong simply because Artsakh is Armenia and full of Armenians. Secondly, without Artsakh, Armenians will now be fighting on “Armenian” soil. Azerbaijan will continue its aggression, as it has indicated with its decade-long rhetoric of claiming Armenian lands such as Yerevan, Gegharkunik and Syunik to be Azerbaijani. That constitutes the majority of the Armenian population and a vast chunk of Armenia. It will not stop with Artsakh. Rather, it will only be the beginning of a much more dire situation for Armenians. It is time to wake up, unite and take control of our lives and our motherland. 

Armenians around the globe must unite under the common ideology of creating a stronger Armenia – an Armenia that will be able to withstand its invaders on its own through the creation of a military-industrial complex and the establishment of strong military allies. As for the common Armenian, in Armenia or the Diaspora, we all have our part to play in strengthening Armenia. We must identify how our skillsets can apply to the homeland and begin applying those skills with tangible work on the ground. We must connect with organizations on the ground in Armenia (Birthright Armenia, Repat Armenia, etc.) as there are plenty in nearly all fields and demand how we can be of assistance.

June 2, 2023

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Varak Ghazarian is an Armenian-American from Los Angeles who attended a Armenian school his entire life. Upon his graduation from UC Berkeley, he volunteered in Armenia for year with Birthright Armenia. He spent time in Artsakh for a month, where he mentored teenagers in border villages about fundamental topics of health. He currently lives in Armenia, which has opened up a door of imagination that was closed off elsewhere.