17:43,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30, ARMENPRESS. The EU Mission in Armenia (EUMA) has added 11 new vehicles to its fleet to strengthen its patrolling activity at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border areas.
“Today, 11 new vehicles arrived to Yeghegnadzor to join the EUMA fleet,” EUMA said on X.
“The vehicles will be distributed to our operating bases to strengthen the Mission’s patrolling activity at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border areas,” it added.
18:51,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 30, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan has falsely accused the Armenian military of firing at its troops on the border in a renewed round of disinformation, the Armenian Ministry of Defense warned Saturday.
“The statement disseminated by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan claiming that at noon on September 30, units of the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at the Azerbaijani outposts in the eastern part of the border, as a result of which a serviceman of the Azerbaijani armed forces was killed, is untrue,” the Armenian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
A caravan of vehicles on the road from Artsakh to Armenia (Photo by David Ghahramanyan for Reuters)As of 2 p.m. local time on Saturday 100,437 forcibly displaced persons from Artsakh have crossed into Armenia since the mass exodus began on Sunday, following Azerbaijan’s large-scale attack on Artsakh last week.
Artsakh’s former Human Rights Defender Artak Beglaryan said in a post on Saturday that only a few hundred people remained in Artsakh. “Artsakh is completely empty,” he warned.
“Artsakh is almost fully empty with at most a few hundred people remaining, who are also leaving,” Beglaryan said.
Legal experts are calling this forced exodus of Artsakh Armenians a war crime, while other international organizations are accusing world leaders of being complicit in Azerbaijan’s genocide of Armenians.
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention criticized the United States for what it called Washington’s “reckless bothsideism” and its instance that the genocidal regime of President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan can engage in dialogue in good faith.
The Lemkin Institute reacted to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller’s recent statement on Nagorno-Karabakh that the US has done its best “to find a diplomatic solution, but at the end of the day, we must not forget that there are two sides here that simply have differences.”
“Demonstrating that it has learned nothing from the genocide currently being committed by Azerbaijan against the Armenians of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, the United States continues to enable the perpetrator with its reckless ‘bothsidesism’ and its delusional belief that the genocidal regime of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev can engage in good-faith talks or negotiations,” the Lemkin Institute said in a social media post on Thursday.
“Genocide is not a matter of ‘simply [having] differences.’ Furthermore, suggesting that the US has played no role in enabling Aliyev’s impunity to commit genocide is mendacious at best. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention warns world leaders that they are behaving in ways that leave them open not only to charges of complicity in genocide but also to charges of aiding and abetting the crime,” the post added.
Several international legal experts believe the mass flight fits the legal definition of a war crime.
The International Criminal Court’s founding documents say that, when referring to forcible transfer or deportation, “the term ‘forcibly’ is not restricted to physical force, but may include threat of force or coercion, such as that caused by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or abuse of power against such person or persons or another person, or by taking advantage of a coercive environment.”
Such a “coercive environment” was created in Nagorno-Karabakh before the offensive by Azerbaijan’s obstruction of essential supplies, international lawyer Priya Pillai and Melanie O’Brien, visiting professor at the University of Minnesota and president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars told Reuters.
“So the fear/apprehension of the population – due to the coercive environment created by the months-long blockade and the recent armed attack – would meet the threshold for this crime,” Pillai said, adding that it would be a more severe ‘crime against humanity’ if considered to be part of a widespread attack.
O’Brien told Reuters that the blockade — which Baku claimed was needed to prevent weapons smuggling — was in effect the start of a genocide because it was implemented with the aim of “deliberately inflicting conditions of life designed to bring about the physical destruction of the targeted group.”
The first prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno Ocampo, agreed with O’Brien’s argumentation, noting that a ruling of genocide did not require mass killings.
“For me, it’s obviously a genocide,” he said.
Meanwhile Armenia’s Finance Ministry has established a treasury account for donations to meet the needs of the forcibly displaced persons Artsakh residents.
“Due to the crisis situation, numerous compatriots and organizations, both within Armenia and abroad, have expressed their willingness to offer assistance and donations to meet the basic needs of people who have been forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia. A treasury account was opened in the Armenia’s Ministry of Finance in order to accept the donations and direct them to the socio-economic needs of the displaced persons,” an announcement on Friday said.
Individuals may make bank transfers in Armenian drams to the treasury account number 900005002762, or conduct online card transfers (in any currency) using an e-payment system. st1yle=”font-size:16px;margin:0px 0px 1.25em;padding:0px;border:0px;line-height:inherit;,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline”>
Ukraine: Russia and Ukraine engaged in fierce drone attacks this week after Ukraine claimed it had killed one of Russia’s most senior naval commanders in a strike in Crimea that left 34 officers dead.
Ukraine’s special forces on Monday said its attack had destroyed the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet during a meeting of officers that included the head of the fleet, Admiral Viktor Sokolov, who had held the post since September last year. On Tuesday, Russia’s defence ministry released footage it said showed Sokolov at a meeting of defence leaders that day. The Kremlin said the defence ministry had not provided any information about Sokolov’s alleged death.
Russia this week launched a barrage of missile, drone and artillery strikes, including attacks that destroyed grain infrastructure in the ports of Odesa and Izmail. Six people died in the attacks. Russia claimed it had shot down Ukrainian drones over Crimea and two regions in Russia.
Separately, a United Nations investigation reported this week that it found torture and rape by Russian forces in Ukraine had been “widespread and systematic”.
Erik Mose, who headed the investigation, told a hearing at the UN Human Rights Council that “frequently, family members were kept in an adjacent room, thereby forced to hear the violations taking place”.
Russia did not send a representative to the hearing.
United States: Joe Biden hosted a two-day summit with leaders from the Pacific Islands in Washington this week as part of a bid to counter China’s growing reach in the region.
The gathering, which followed a similar summit hosted by the US president last year, included representatives from 18 Pacific nations.
The prime minister of Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, who has been forging close ties with Beijing, did not attend, even though he had just been in New York for the UN General Assembly. Officials in Solomon Islands claimed Sogavare, who visited China in July, had to return home for parliamentary business. A White House official said the US was “disappointed” at Sogavare’s absence.
In his address to the UN, Sogavare said China’s development cooperation was “less restrictive, more responsive and aligned to our national needs”. He also criticised the region’s “toxic mix of geopolitical power posturing”.
The other notable absence from the summit was Vanuatu’s new prime minister, Sato Kilman, who stayed in Port Vila to try to retain his shaky hold on power.
Pacific leaders have criticised the geopolitical rivalry in the region, saying their main priority is climate change.
On Monday, Biden told the summit he accepted concerns in the Pacific about the existential threat of rising sea levels. He promised US$200 million to support climate change mitigation, economic development and public health projects, and to combat illegal fishing.
“We hear your calls for reassurance that you never, never, never will lose your statehood or membership of the UN as a result of a climate crisis,” he said.
The White House, which has been opening embassies across the region, said it would establish diplomatic recognition of Niue, which has just 2000 residents, and of Cook Islands, which has about 8000 residents and is a self-governing nation in free association with New Zealand.
Azerbaijan: Armenia accused Azerbaijan of conducting ethnic cleansing in the disputed Nagorno–Karabakh region this week after Azerbaijani forces reclaimed control of the enclave, prompting a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians.
Azerbaijan has been blockading the tiny territory for months, preventing food and medicine from entering and raising concerns about a potential genocide. The enclave, which is inside Azerbaijan and is internationally recognised as belonging to Azerbaijan, has an ethnic Armenian majority, which had formed a breakaway government.
Last Sunday, Azerbaijan launched a successful 24-hour offensive that forced the breakaway government to agree to a ceasefire and to dismantle its armed forces. The enclave is now set to be reintegrated into Azerbaijan. Armenia said the operation left 200 people dead and 400 wounded.
By Tuesday, more than 28,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno–Karabakh – or almost a quarter of the population – had fled to Armenia, due to fear of reprisals. At least 68 people waiting for fuel to flee the enclave were killed and 300 were injured when a fuel storage depot exploded on Tuesday, though the cause was unknown.
Representatives of the breakaway state this week called for the United Nations to oversee security in the enclave.
David Babayan, an official, told Reuters “99.9 per cent prefer to leave our historic lands”.
The area covered by the sea ice that surrounds Antarctica has hit a record low after failing to recover during winter.
The US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) revealed on Monday that the area covered by sea ice after the recent winter peaked on September 10 at 16.96 million square kilometres – about a million square kilometres less than the previous record low in 1986. Of the eight lowest amounts on record, four have occurred since 2018.
The sea ice is crucial to protect the continent’s glaciers and ice and to help prevent further rises in ocean temperatures.
Some of the reduction in sea ice this winter was caused by storms that pushed sea ice against the landmass, but the bulk of the loss could not be explained by seasonal weather. According to the NSIDC, the sea ice around Antarctica took a “sharp downturn” in 2016 that has steadily continued and is believed to be due to warmer ocean temperatures.
“There is some concern that this may be the beginning of a long-term trend of decline for Antarctic sea ice, since oceans are warming globally, and warm water mixing in the Southern Ocean polar layer could continue,” the centre said in a statement.
Antarctica and the Arctic are both believed to be warming at faster rates than the rest of the world, causing environmental havoc. Late last year, melting sea ice in Antarctica caused the mass wipeout of emperor penguin chicks, which drowned or froze because they had not yet developed the feathers required to swim. About 10,000 young penguins died.
Gail Whiteman, of the University of Exeter in Britain, told The Washington Post the latest sea ice data from Antarctica was “not great news”.
“Polar ice is one of the world’s biggest insurance policies against runaway climate change, and we can see in both the North and the South sea ice, we’ve got problems and alarm bells are ringing,” she said.
Armenia has filed a lawsuit against Azerbaijan in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), according to a press release from The Hague published Sept. 29.
The request calls on the court to uphold the rights protected under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Armenia’s suit asks the ICJ to impose new demands on Azerbaijan in addition to reinforcing its obligations under previous orders.
The new demands include the complete withdrawal of military and law enforcement personnel from civilian establishments in Nagorno-Karabakh and the facilitation of humanitarian aid deliveries to ethnic Armenians in the region.
It also calls on Azerbaijan to “refrain from taking any actions directly or indirectly aimed at…displacing the remaining ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.”
On Sept. 19, Azerbaijan launched a military offensive against the ethnically Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh. After a day of fighting, authorities in the capital of Stepanakert (Khankendi in Azerbaijani) agreed to accept a ceasefire on Sept. 20 mediated by Russia.
Yerevan denounced the offensive as part of a policy of “ethnic cleansing.”
On Oct. 5, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will meet in Spain to hold talks along with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and European Council President Charles Michel.
On September 19, Azerbaijan initiated a significant “anti-terrorist operation” in Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict lasted only 24 hours, but Azerbaijan achieved its goal: The local defense forces surrendered and agreed to engage in discussions regarding potential integration.
Five days later, Baku opened the Lachin Corridor that links Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and thousands of residents of Armenian descent fled to Armenia for refuge and are unlikely to return.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Armenia’s ambassador to Israel, Arman Akopian, said Azerbaijan has been using Israeli weapons to maintain its power over Nagorno-Karabakh, including against civilians.
In an earlier interview, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Israel, Mukhtar Mammadov, told the Post that the Armenians have been smuggling weapons into the region that would eventually be used against his country. He also said that Azerbaijan is not forcing anyone to leave Karabakh but would like to integrate the residents into Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile, representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan are meeting to reach a final peace agreement. The Post spoke to Akopian over the weekend to discuss how his country views the situation.
This interview has been modified only for length and clarity.
Ambassador Arman Akopian: What is going on is classic ethnic cleaning. We see the indigenous population of the region of Armenia, people who were there for 3,000 years, leaving their homes and their spiritual and national heritage behind, leaving the graves of their loved ones behind.
They have no choice but to leave Nagorno-Karabakh because their lives are unbearable. Just a week ago, 120,000 Armenians lived there. Today, about 100,000 have already left.
The official number of people who left is 95,000. Do you believe there were 95,000 military in that region? You can see the videos on TV: Women and children are being expelled because they see no future there. There is no guarantee for their lives. Even the Azeri people do not have guarantees because they live under an autocracy. How can the rights of the Armenians be guaranteed?
[Azerbaijan considers itself a democracy, with free elections and three branches of government operating independently: legislative, executive and judicial. However, some political analysts often characterize the country as authoritarian for its lack of genuinely democratic elections and a significant concentration of power in the hands of President Ilham Aliyev and his extended family.]
These were self-defense forces to protect local Armenians against the Azeris. There were two wars [in 1990 and 2020], and the people’s safety was not guaranteed. Any community has a right to protect itself. Who else would have protected them?
Azerbaijan claims these units were part of the regular army of the Republic of Armenia. It is a lie. There are no standard army units of the Republic of Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh.
I would not, no. It does not make sense to compare conflicts. Each conflict is unique.
Any war ends with peace, and we remain optimistic that we will reach an agreement. But under the current conditions, when Armenians are expelled from their ancestral homeland, [it is hard to foresee]. I hope this meeting [between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on October 5] will take place because there is no other alternative but to sit at the table and talk.
I don’t believe Israel has Armenia on its agenda. We have seen a lot of military cooperation: Azerbaijan buying Israeli weapons worth billions of dollars, and there is cooperation on military defense and intelligence. Iran, of course, is a factor in that. I would not say Israel is ‘pro,’ but cooperation is very strong, and the strategic partnership is very strong. Every time there is an escalation in our region, from the second war in 2020 until September 19, we know that Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines is making frequent flights to Israel to import weapons. Before this last escalation, a flight went directly from Israel to the city of Ganja, situated just north of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Any country can sell and buy weapons. The issue is that these weapons end up on our borders and are fired at peaceful civilians.
So, if you ask whether Israel is pro-Azerbaijan, I cannot answer. But the countries’ strategic, military and intelligence cooperation is strong, and it is no secret. It is something both sides declare with pride.
No. The civil society is very pro-Armenia in the case of Nagorno-Karabakh and recognition of the Armenian genocide.
[Israel has yet to recognize the Armenian genocide officially.]
We can find parallels. Armenians and Jews have so many things in common. We are two peoples who suffered terrible genocides: the Armenians during WWI and the Jews in WWII.
Raphael Lemkin, creator of the world’ genocide,’ referred to both the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust in parallel in an interview with CBS.
We are witnessing a terrible human tragedy unprecedented in the 21st Century. Armenians are being forced out of their historic homeland, leaving their heritage, churches, monasteries, and tombstones behind. I see no hope for them. As long as Azerbaijan remains an autocracy, we will continue to witness this tragedy.
I am also thankful to all the Israelis who call the embassy, write open letters, and place ads in local papers supporting the Armenians. I am grateful for all the goodwill and support.
More than 100,000 refugees have arrived in Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh, Yerevan and the head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR have said.
Azerbaijan had earlier this month launched an offensive to gain control of the region, prompting thousands of ethnic Armenians to flee in fear of persecution.
“Many are hungry, exhausted and need immediate assistance,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said on social media.
“UNHCR and other humanitarian partners are stepping up their support to the Armenian authorities, but international help is very urgently required,” Grandi added.
The Armenian government on Saturday put the exact figure at 100,417, out of Nagorno-Karabakh’s estimated population of 120,000.
Artak Beglaryan, a former official from Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government, said that “the last groups” of residents from the enclave were heading to Armenia on Saturday.
“At most a few hundred persons remain, most of whom are officials, emergency services employees, volunteers, some persons with special needs,” he wrote on social media.
Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of carrying our a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against the majority Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Baku, however, denies the claim, and has urged ethnic Armenians of the enclave to “reintegrate” into Azerbaijan.
Yerevan has called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest court, to protect Nagorno-Karabakh’s inhabitants and ensure that Baku doesn’t move to displace the remaining Armenians.
A UN mission is expected to reach Nagorno-Karabakh this weekend to assess humanitarian needs there, marking the first time an international body gained access to the region in around three decades.
https://www.dw.com/en/nagorno-karabakh-over-100000-flee-to-armenia/a-66969667
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The fate of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh has poisoned relations between fellow ex-Soviet neighbours Armenia and Azerbaijan since the 1990s.
Armenia supported the bid by the region’s ethnic Armenian majority to win independence from Azerbaijan — a three-decade quest that ended last week in a lightning offensive by Baku.
Here are some key differences between the Caucasus rivals:
– Revolts vs dynasty –
Armenia, a predominantly Christian country, has been rocked by political and economic instability since it gained independence from the Soviet Union.
The country’s post-Soviet leadership repressed opposition to its rule and was largely beholden to the interests of Russia.
Street protests in 2018 brought current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to power.
He cracked down on corruption but infuriated Armenians by agreeing in 2020 to return parts of Nagorno-Karabakh that had been in the hands of ethnic Armenian separatists since the early 1990s.
Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim country with a secular tradition, has been under the authoritarian grip of a single family since 1993.
Heydar Aliyev, a former officer of the Soviet’s KGB security services, ruled the oil-rich country until October 2003.
He handed over power to his son, Ilham, weeks before his death.
Like his father, Ilham has quashed all opposition to his rule but Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia in the 2020 Karabakh war boosted his popularity.
– Turkey vs Russia –
Turkey, with ambitions to be a regional power broker in the Caucasus, has thrown its weight behind historical ally Azerbaijan.
Their alliance is fuelled by a mutual mistrust of Armenia, which harbours hostility towards Ankara over the killings of some 1.5 million Armenians by Turkey during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.
More than 30 countries have recognised the killings as genocide, though Ankara fiercely disputes the term.
Russia, which maintains close ties with Armenia, is the major power broker in the region. After the 2020 war, Moscow deployed 2,000 peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Yerevan relies on Russian support and military guarantees because its own defence budget is overshadowed by Azerbaijan’s spending on arms.
But bogged down in its Ukraine war, Russia is losing its influence in the post-Soviet space — and Moscow’s failure to help Yerevan in the face of the Azerbaijani threat has fuelled anti-Russian sentiment among Armenians.
– Oil vs celebs –
Azerbaijan has in recent years used its oil wealth to try to boost its standing on the world stage.
It has invested in massive sponsorship deals including the UEFA Euro 2020 football championship, in which it hosted games.
Azerbaijan has also cashed in on the war in Ukraine to try to replace Russia as a major supplier of gas to Europe.
Armenia, for its part, has a vast and influential diaspora that fled during the Ottoman-era repressions.
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian, the late singer Charles Aznavour, and pop star and actress Cher all trace their roots to Armenia.
bur-cb/acc/jm
https://news.yahoo.com/armenia-azerbaijan-ex-soviet-neighbours-120904343.html
ANCA-Pasadena chapter Board members with members of the Pasadena Police Department
PASADENA—The Armenian National Committee of America Pasadena chapter hosted the Pasadena Police and Fire Departments at H&H Jivalagian Youth Center on Thursday, September 21 for Disaster Preparedness, Safety and Career Presentations and Procedures.
The ANCA – Pasadena chapter had worked closely with the City of Pasadena’s police and fire departments to bring about this important public function. We encouraged the esteemed residents of the City of Pasadena and its neighboring cities, young and old, to attend. All were welcome.
“Emergency preparedness, readiness, and keeping oneself safe, can and should never be taken lightly nor be understated, but should be taken with seriousness and single-minded dedication,” stated Board Advisor, David George Gevorkyan.
Members of the Pasadena Fire Department with ANCA-Pasadena chapter Board members A scene from the ANCA-Pasadena chapter’s Disaster Preparedness, Career & Safety Procedures forum
The event’s success is due to Pasadena Fire Department’s Firefighters, who were incredibly gracious in sharing information pertinent to the forum as well as the Police Department’s Officers. Both departments did a tremendous job in informing the public with the ANCA WR Pasadena chapter’s board infinitely grateful to the Fire and Police Chief, Chad Augustin and Eugene Harris, respectively, not to mention their staff, for their outstanding help in putting the event together.
A special thanks goes out to City of Pasadena’s Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian for her unwavering help in this endeavor.
Equally, the chapter thanks Pasadena’s Armenian Cultural Foundation, Lernavayr Gomideh, for their fervent help in making the event happen.
ANCA-Pasadena chapter Board members
Events such as these are organized by the ANCA-WR Pasadena chapter as part of an effort to provide a public benefit that is crucial in times of natural disasters, such as floods, wildfires and earthquakes, not to mention safety in times of dire need.
The Armenian National Committee of America – Pasadena Chapter is the oldest, largest, and most influential Armenian-American grassroots organization of its kind within the City of Pasadena. Founded in 1979, the Pasadena ANCA advocates for the social, economic, cultural, and political rights of the city’s thriving Armenian-American community and promotes increased civic service and participation at the grassroots and public policy levels.
(Reuters) – European Union member Cyprus on Friday said it was considering ways to host, if needed, displaced ethnic Armenians who had fled Azerbaijan’s war-ravaged breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
More than three-quarters of the Armenian population of 120,000 had fled by Friday after a lightning defeat by Azerbaijani forces. The enclave had broken away in the 1990s.
Cyprus traditionally has close ties with Armenia, and has a minority Armenian Christian population represented in parliament.
“The Cypriot government maintains an open corridor for the Armenian people and in that framework is ready to offer immediate humanitarian aid,” the Cypriot Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“Cyprus is considering, among other things, ways to host a number of displaced Armenians in our country should that be deemed necessary.”
There have been Armenians in Cyprus for centuries. Many trace their roots back to Armenian people or orphans forced to flee mass killings under the Ottoman Empire in 1915, which some governments today consider genocide.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated or constitute a genocide.
(Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Kevin Liffey)