Author: Emil Lazarian

The Facebook post of the former chairman of the Military Industrial Committee, Avetik Kerobyan.

I was very happy with the news of arms export from Armenia. But those reporting the news are lying that this is the first time. The first time was 10 years ago, a piece of equipment cost several million dollars, and the buying country was a NATO member.

Let me remind those who say “good things” that in the meantime this administration has dissolved the Armenian-Polish joint venture “Lyubava Armenia” and the Armenian shareholder of the Armenian-Greek “LT-Pirkal” joint venture “Laser Technik” CJSC.

Poland and Greece are NATO member states, both enterprises worked in the field of military industry.

Meanwhile, the military industry committee, under the authority of the Minister of IT, which broadcasts the same news, spent 0 drams in the first 4 months, despite the fact that 850 million was planned for the first quarter alone.

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The International Commission of Jurists published a report on the problems of the justice system in Azerbaijan: “Justice under pressure. independence of lawyers and the right to a fair trial in Azerbaijan”.

Discussing the many problems and violations existing in Azerbaijan’s justice system, the report analyzed in detail the trials of Armenians tried in Baku in the light of international standards. “The trials against the former officials of Nagorno-Karabakh represent these concerns in their most acute manifestation,” the report states.

It is clearly recorded that these trials do not meet the standards of international human rights law.

“According to publicly available sources, the trials of Armenians were accompanied by practices that violate the fundamental guarantees of a fair trial. They were held in a military court without any justification as to why military jurisdiction should be applied to civilians.

The accused were deprived of the effective assistance of their chosen lawyer. State-appointed attorneys did not respond to the evidence of ill-treatment they personally witnessed. The case materials were either not provided or were provided in a language that the accused did not understand. Defense motions were systematically denied without justification and were not included in the trial records. Translation was inadequate or non-existent, and public access, including to accredited diplomatic representatives, was denied.

These systemic flaws show how executive influence, prosecutorial oversight, and limitations on the independence of lawyers can combine to result in trials that do not meet international human rights standards and human rights standards of fair trial, equality of arms, and public scrutiny. As analyzed in this report, these lawsuits are not isolated deviations from established practice, but reflect broader systemic problems,” the report emphasizes.

Additionally, it is also noted that the trials were mostly held behind closed doors, only the presence of state media was allowed. international observers, foreign media and family members of the accused were prohibited from attending court sessions;

“In the absence of transparency, most of the available information refers to the separate trial of Ruben Vardanyan. Vardanyan took public office in Nagorno-Karabakh only in late 2022, but the prosecutor’s office charged him starting in 1988, despite the fact that he was a student at Moscow State University at the time. Prosecuting Vardanyan for alleged actions in 1988, more than three decades later and only after he assumed public office, raises fundamental concerns from the perspective of the principle of legality. During that period, Vardanyan did not hold any political position and could not have predicted that the alleged actions of those years could later become the basis for criminal charges after starting political activity.”

The report presented a number of recommendations to the executive authorities, prosecutor’s office, judicial authorities and the parliament of Azerbaijan. The judicial authorities are urged to “Ensure that any appeal in the cases of former officials of Nagorno Karabakh is examined by a civil court of general jurisdiction.” Ensure the provision of case materials to the defense in a language understandable to the accused and ensure sufficient time and opportunities for the preparation of the defense at all stages of the proceedings, including during the appeal.

The report also calls for the Council of Europe to be granted access to consider possible appeal hearings.

Ruben Vardanyan, Armenian prisoners in Baku, International Commission of Jurists, justice under pressure, Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh, mock trial

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Recently, I was wondering whether to address this shameful episode or not, because it is related to the commander of the Special Forces, the national hero of the RA, Vahagn Asatryan, who died in the 44-day war. There were some records in the past, but we skipped it, not wanting his name to be circulated too many times. However, I decided to make a short reference anyway, and it has its justification.

And so. On April 30, I noticed a post by Roman Baghdasaryan, a blogger close to Nikol Pashinyan, where he blames the Special Forces commander, RA national hero Vahagn Asatryan for leaving Hadrut without a fight, and another commander, Karen Hayrapetyan.

After my respective actions, the post was deleted, but why am I referring to that episode, because it states that this information was included in his book about the 44-day war, you can imagine, right, who writes about the 44-day war, and the former military leadership is silent, speaking of state secrets on principle, the authorities do not want to publish the report of the investigative commission.

Anyway, when I read this raving about Vahagn Asatryan, whom I know very well, the first thing I remembered was what his mother, Mrs. Sima Petrosyan, told me on one occasion in “Erablur”, where, in particular, noted. 

“When he was already in Hadrut, our conversation on the night of the 11th of October (M.P.)… we talked for a long time, he was tired, but he spoke and answered my questions. said: “Mom, I’m in Hadrut, they can’t enter Hadrut, I lengthen the positions, I deepened, everything is normal.” was excited on the 11th of the month he hit Azerbaijani “Yashma” and caused great damage. For the first time, I said: my son, your family misses you, your wife, your sons, he said: Mom, Simash, I can’t come, it’s impossible to leave the army and come. I knew that Azerbaijan wanted to destroy him, wherever they caught him, all their raids…”.

RA National Hero, colonel Vahagn Asatryan died October 12, 2020, after which, in fact, his unit was morally “destroyed”. On the same day, a lieutenant colonel and a detective were also killed Vahagn Tumasyan, a major was also killed at the same time Levon Avetisyan.

Let’s return to Baghdasaryan, who at the same time in his book wrote as if “95 percent of the information about Hadrut was given to Artsrun Hovhannisyan as false, and with that lie they killed our special forces.” Here, of course, pro-government bloggers no bypass Pegow in an accusing tone.

And it’s no wonder that during the 44-day visit, the same Pegov was not only with Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan, so to speak, giving and receiving, but also with Artsrun Hovhannisyan. Moreover, Nikol Pashinyan considered the information given by Arayik Harutyunyan more reliable than that of Onik Gasparyan, the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia.

Apart from this, not once we wrote that foreign media, questionable bloggers, pro-government circles had access to war zones during the war, while Armenian media was limited in reporting even the reliable information they had. Another episode should be remembered here.

of 2020 on October 9 At that time, the representative of the RA Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan published a photo on his Facebook page, stating: “With the commander.”

That is, on or before October 9, a plan of action is drawn up, and on October 10, the commander of the defense area of ​​the Defense Zone N abandons the duties of the commander of an individual regiment and shows a careless attitude. At least, after the war, a criminal case was initiated against him on this charge.

And why does Yailoyan refuse the duties of a regiment commander, maybe he was not familiar with the terrain of the southern parts of Artsakh, the Hadrut region, as required by combat operations, after all, Yailoyan left for Artsakh service from Yerevan, before that he served in Meghri. And maybe there were other problems?

Anyway, after a while, how? we reported The criminal prosecution against the colonel accused in the criminal case related to the 44-day movement is stopped. And the charges brought against the colonel did not prevent him from continuing his service in the southwestern border zone of RA, and then he was entrusted with a position in the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, he is considered one of Suren Papikyan’s close friends.

Let’s go back to Vahagn Asatryan, there are not many commanders like him, and now some blogger with a dubious past decides to find the culprit for the loss of Hadrut and put the responsibility on one of the best commanders who died while defending the motherland, by the way, we still need to understand the circumstances of his death, because he was targeted by the enemy, and there were collaborators with the enemy from the Armenian side on the battlefield.

Any episode related to Hadrut should also be thoroughly investigated one day, by the way, as in the case of Shushi, the authorities have tried to put the loss of Hadrut in the pockets of different people at different times.

The 44-day page is not closed, one day any episode should be subjected to military and legal investigation. Until then, we must protect our heroes from “dirty hands”, as they protected us on the battlefield.

We should not watch with indifference how our de jure and de facto heroes are discredited today, because they are not only their relatives. That’s all.

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