Author: Emil Lazarian

An Azerbaijani drone attack killed an Armenian soldier on May 12

Azerbaijani forces on Friday launched a drone attack on Armenia’s Gegharkunik province, as a result of which 20-year-old Narek Baghdasaryan was killed, Armenia’s Defense Ministry reported.

At around 10 a.m. local time on Friday used a drone to target the Sotk village in the Gegharkunik province. The Azerbaijani attacks continued at 7:10 p.m. local time, when Armenian military forces in the Kut village were attacked.

Friday’s attack came a day after a massive launched by Azerbaijan targeting the Sotk, Verin Shorzha and Norabak villages all in the Vartenis region of the Gegharkunik Province in northeastern Armenia.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry reported that two Armenia soldiers were also injured during Friday’s attack. On Thursday, four soldiers were reportedly injured.

The Azeri drone strike comes a day after Azeri forces bombarded Armenian positions in the same area in an unprovoked attack. 

The heaving fighting comes days before Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan are scheduled to meet in Brussels to discuss normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan in a talks hosted by European Council President Charles Michel.

After holding four-day-long talks in Washington last week, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Ararat Mirzoyan and Jeyhun Bayramov, are also scheduled to meet in Moscow later next week.

After Thursday’s offensive, Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of deliberately derailing the talks and attempting to use military force against Armenia in hopes of concessions during the internationally-mediated meetings.

Armenia’s foreign ministry condemned Thursday’s attack, saying that Azerbaijan seems to have forgotten the commitments it made during the talks last week in Washington.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington on May 4

Official Yerevan on Friday countered the United States’s response to a large-scale attack launched by Azerbaijan against the Sotk village in the Gegharkunik Province on Thursday.

The State Department spokesperson Vedan Patel on Thursday characterized Azerbaijan’s unprovoked attack on Armenia as “an exchange of fire,” saying “this kind of violence” undermined the perceived progress made by Armenia and Azerbaijan when their foreign ministers met in Washington last week.

“First of all, it was not an exchange of fire but another unprovoked attack by the Azerbaijan’s army, which is well known for its ISIS-like warfare conduct,” Edmon Marukyan Armenia’s Ambassador at-Large fired back on Friday in a post on Twitter, adding that the “Armenian army took necessary steps to defend our sovereign territory.”

“Our demand is that Azerbaijan must withdraw its occupational forces from the sovereign territory of Armenia and return to the internationally recognized borders, i.e. the administrative borders that existed between both countries at the time of independence from the USSR. Third, in 2022, in Prague and Sochi, Azerbaijan committed that it will refrain from the use of force or threat of use of force,” Marukyan tweeted.

In his remarks, Patel also called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach an agreement at the upcoming talks in Brussels, where Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan are scheduled to meet on Sunday.

Patel also said that Armenia and Azerbaijan should “distance their forces along the border, as discussed by Secretary Blinken during their participation of these negotiations that we hosted here in Washington, D.C., at the beginning of May.”

The State Department spokesperson continued to insist that the talks in Washington last week were “important, positive steps in which we felt the two countries had the opportunity to engage on some important issues, see the other side’s point of view.”

“And we believe that there continues to be a durable path forward. We believe that there is a peaceful solution to this. It’s why we, from the Secretary on down, have continued to be so deeply engaged on this,” Patel added.

“We believe that those talks were fruitful and laid the groundwork for a continuation of these talks beginning in Brussels, and we’ll let that process play out,” Patel said.

Rights advocates Arman Tatoyan and Siranush Sahakyan hold a press briefing on May 12

Human rights advocates Arman Tatoyan and Siranush Sahakyan presented details of their most recent report that includes information about Azerbaijan having stationed 6,000 special forces along its border with Armenia and Artsakh. The report also reveals information about the brutal treatment of Armenian prisoners of war being held captive in Baku.

“Commando unit [of Azerbaijan] is stationed in Hadrut and Karvachar. At the moment there are five units, but the location of three of them is kept secret,” Sahakyan, an attorney who represents Armenia at the European Court of Human Rights, said at news conference with Tatoyan on Friday.

She said that their research has found that the special Azerbaijani forces, numbering around 6,000, have been tasked with destroying the Artsakh Defense Army and are conducting clandestine operations in and around the Azerbaijani border with Armenia and Artsakh.

Tatoyan, who was Armenia’s former Human Rights Defender and runs a foundation that bares his name, said that despite public claims by Azerbaijani leaders about engaging in border delimitation and demarcation processes, official Baku has already begun fortifying the positions it has gained within Armenia through the various breaches of Armenia’s sovereign territory, including the attack on the Aragatsotn, Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces in September of last year.

“We know that the Azerbaijanis have invaded the sovereign territories of Armenia, and it is obvious that they have no intention of leaving,” said Tatoyan. “No matter how much they [the Azerbaijanis] talk about [border] delimitation, international principles, their actions speak of something completely different. They are entrenched in the territories inside the border of Armenia.”

He described the differences he observed when he visited Syunik three months ago and later 10 days ago. Tatoyan said that Azerbaijani forces have “entrenched themselves” on the sovereign territory of Armenia.

“They have set up positions in the administrative area of Nerkin Hand village of Syunik, a few months ago they had built a small building; after a few months—big buildings, infrastructures, and roads. We had recorded the same thing after September 13-14 in the region of Jermuk: after a few months, they were even constructing wide concrete roads, bunkers and other facilities,” Tatoyan said.

He emphasized that the Azerbaijani are making the life of the civilian population in those regions in Armenia unbearable so that they will leave, pointing out similar pressures being applied on the citizens of Artsakh.

Tatoyan said that the Azerbaijani are cutting off the water supply to prevent farmers and shepherds from using their lands for pastures and farming.

He also said that Azerbaijani forces are placing landmines in villages in the Syunik Province, posing a threat to the residents and livestock.

Sahakyan, who has extensive experience advocating for the rights of Armenian captives and POWs, said that Armenian detainees have been severely beaten by Azerbaijani military police. She said that coupled with the physical abuse, Armenian POWs were also deliberately being deprived of food and sleep and were being exposed to the elements when they were held outdoors in cold weather.

Sahakyan said that the Azerbaijani policy was continued under the supervision of special services, and more intense inhumane treatment was shown at detention centers, where the “superiority” of Azerbaijanis over the ethnic Armenians was emphasized through racial insults and degradation.

She explained that a similar tactic intended to cause additional harm to Armenians was being employed by Azerbaijani when they target the families of killed soldiers and detainees by sending them images of their loved one being tortured or mutilated.

Sahakyan warned that often times the captured Armenians were handed over to military or civilian medical professionals who stage scenes of the captives receiving treatment as a means of warding off international observers. In reality, she said the Azerbaijani medical personnel also use violence once the cameras are shut off.

She also said that their investigation has revealed that there are 80 POWs and not 33 as has been reported widely by officials in Baku and Yerevan.
Tatoyan and Sahakyan concluded that inaction by the international community has allowed Azerbaijan to continue to act with impunity and commit gross violations of human and individual rights against Armenians.

Tatoyan explained that Azerbaijan actions serve two purposes for the authorities in Baku. He said that official Baku continues to sow hatred toward Armenians to project to lay Azerbaijanis that there is an external enemy, thus quelling internal unrest.

He said the second goal of the Azerbaijani authorities is to create conditions that force Armenians to leave their ancestral lands—the beginning of ethnic cleansing not just in Artsakh, but also Armenia.