The Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) has published an updated version of the Report on the cases of the killing of civilians in Artsakh by the armed forces of Azerbaijan.
The Report summarizes the data collected as a result of fact-finding work of the Artsakh Human Rights Ombudsman’s staff from September 27, 2020 to on the civilian killings by Azerbaijani armed forces either by targeted strikes or after their invasion of the civilian settlements of Artsakh. Only the cases proved on indisputable grounds are presented. The report provides a brief description on the circumstances of the killing of each civilian.
According to the data collected till , the identities of 80 civilians killed by the Azerbaijani armed forces were revealed. 42 civilians were killed from long-range strikes by the Azerbaijani armed forces, including rocket-propelled grenades, shelling, bombardment, and sabotage by subversive groups. 38 civilians were killed in captivity or at least under the control of Azerbaijan from physical violence, stabbing, beheading, close-range shooting and other direct means. Out of 80 civilian victims, 68 are men and 12 are women. 52 civilians were killed at the place of residence, 15 at the public place, 11 at the place of work, 1 person in the Azerbaijani prison. The majority of civilian victims are people over 63 years old.
The Human Rights Ombudsman also recorded the cases of 163 civilian injuries, most of which resulted from strikes that resulted in the deaths of others. The fate of two dozen civilians from the territories occupied by Azerbaijan remains unknown.
The report was prepared in a closed and public version. The closed report adds many photos of the victims before and after their deaths. The public report was prepared without photos, taking into account the cruel and sensitive images in them.
The closed version of the report has been sent to the relevant international organizations, but its public version is accessible .
Person killed in front of Yerevan park was daughter of well-known businessman in Armenia
Diana Darbinyan, the 27-year-old woman who died after gunshots fired in front of Victory Park in Yerevan on September 28, was the daughter of General Manager of Gloria Sewing Factory Bagrationi Darbinyan, and 29-year-old Vazgen Margaryan, who received a firearm injury, is Diana Darbinyan’s husband, who is the manager of a well-known limited liability company in Armenia, shamshyan.com reports.
Police and investigators have already identified the alleged suspect who committed the murder and fled the scene (the suspect is a 24-year-old citizen of Yerevan). They also found out that before the shootings, the young man, whose name is Levon, and Vazgen Margaryan had gotten into a dispute that turned into a brawl at a café located at an intersection in Yerevan.
On September 28 at around 1:40am, the police received a call informing that shots had been fired in front of Victory Park.
While the police were working at the scene, the law enforcement received a call from a hospital that two people with gunshot wounds had been admitted to this medical center, of whom a young woman had died and the man had been wounded.
About 17 cartridges fired from a rifle were found at the scene.
Also, there were traces of shots at the public transport stop and the wall behind it.
A car with Russian license plates was found in front of the medical center, and there was blood inside this vehicle.
A criminal case has been initiated.
The dead woman was Diana D., and the wounded was Vazgen M. They were husband and wife.
Turkish press: Turkey pledges support for stability of region on first anniversary of Karabakh war
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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Sept. 27 reiterated Turkey’s support to Azerbaijan and called on parties for normalization process in the region on the first anniversary of the Karabakh war.
“We want Karabakh to be remembered for peace and development rather than instability and conflict. The region should now enter the normalization process. There are now new opportunities for regional cooperation and prosperity,” he said, speaking at the Extraordinary Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Turkic Council.
When asked if there is a planned meeting with his Armenian counterpart to make efforts for normalization in the region, Çavuşoğlu said there was no scheduled meeting at the moment.
Reminding that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gave some positive messages after the election, Çavuşoğlu said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed positive remarks afterward.
“Our greatest desire since the beginning is that after the war is over, the region turns into a place of peace and stability. In this direction, as you know, Azerbaijan has offered to sign a comprehensive peace agreement with Armenia. There has yet to be a positive response from Armenia. But in the next period, as always, we will coordinate the steps we can take together with dear Azerbaijan. We decide together; we take steps together,” he stated.
Speaking at the event, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said that Sept. 27 marks the beginning of an end to the Armenian occupation in Upper Karabakh.
“The unity of the Azerbaijani people, army and the chief commander on the battlefield for 44 days showed that status quo had to change,” he said.
The latest big-scale clashes in Karabakh erupted last September when the Armenian army launched attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces.
During a subsequent 44-day conflict, which ended under a Russia-brokered deal in November, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages from Armenia’s nearly three-decade occupation.
On Jan. 11, leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a pact to develop economic ties and infrastructure to benefit the entire region. It included the establishment of a trilateral working group on the Karabakh issue.
A joint Turkish and Russian center to monitor a cease-fire deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia has since become operational in Karabakh on Jan. 30.
Turkic Council members met in Istanbul to discuss current developments in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have taken power. Top diplomats of the Turkic Council member states Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan and Hungary, which has an Observer State status, attended the meeting.
“Developments in Afghanistan have global implications. However, the Turkish world, as Afghanistan’s neighbor, feels the impact of these developments more,” Çavuşoğlu said.
The fact that millions of Turkish kin live in Afghanistan is of direct interest to Turkey, he added.
“We have special relations with Afghanistan. Therefore, it is important that we send a strong message to the world with the joint statement we will make at the end of the meeting,” the minister said.
Azerbaijan, Armenia mark anniversary of their war
MOSCOW (AP) — Azerbaijan and Armenia are marking the anniversary of the start of their six-week war in which more than 6,600 people died and which ended with Azerbaijan regaining control of large swaths of territory.
Soldiers carrying photographs of comrades killed in the war marched Monday through the center of the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. In Yerevan, the Armenian capital, thousands of people went to the Yerablur military cemetery to pay their respects to soldiers buried there.
The foreign ministries of each country issued statements blaming the other for starting the war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Nagorno-Karabakh is within Azerbaijan but had been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
Last year’s war ended when Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a Russia-brokered cease-fire that granted Azerbaijan control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as adjacent territories occupied by Armenians.
Armenia says more than 3,700 Armenians and Nagorno-Karabakh residents died in the war. Azerbaijan said it lost 2,900 people.
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry issued a statement placing blame for the war on Armenia, saying: “One year ago today, the armed forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan began responsive measures to counter another military provocation from the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia.”
But Armenia’s foreign ministry said “the 44-day war was a pre-planned and prepared military aggression, the purpose of which was to finally close the Karabakh issue by exterminating the Armenian population.”
Turkey accuses Armenia for leaving Baku’s proposed “peace agreement” unanswered
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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu claims that Azerbaijan has proposed a “peace agreement” to Armenia but Yerevan hasn’t responded.
Speaking at a joint press briefing with his Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov, Cavusoglu mentioned the “certain positive signals” made by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after his re-election, and that Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded in kind, Hurriyet reports.
Cavusoglu said Turkey wants “peace and stability” to prevail in the region after the war.
He said Turkey will coordinate with Azerbaijan all steps. “We will decide together, and we will act together.”
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
PM Pashinyan briefed on Garden of Life development
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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was briefed on the upcoming works for the development of the Garden of Life, a park which will be founded in the Botanical Garden of Yerevan in memory of the Artsakh wars victims.
PM Pashinyan viewed the blueprints of the development at Republic Square, where the Guard of Honor are guarding special trees which will be re-planted in the Garden of Life when the project is completed.
During the September 21 Independence Day address, the prime minister had announced the Garden of Life, saying:
“We have been discussing for a long time what kind of project we should carry out to eternalize the memory of the victims of all the Artsakh wars, symbolizing their presence, their living next to us. And we decided to establish the Park of Life in the Yerevan Botanical Garden, where trees symbolizing the aliveness and presence of all the victims of all the Artsakh wars will be planted, and the culmination of the park will be the Tree of Life, symbolizing the lives of all our martyrs sacrificed to the homeland.
It will not be a memorial, it will be a park of life, where children will run, make noise, play, young people will have fun, adults will walk and talk, and that park will be about that they fell in order all these people, Armenia and Artsakh can live. And the living Armenia, living Artsakh, peaceful and developing Armenian statehood must become the victory they shaped.
Here, in the heart of this bright square, wrapped in Armenian flags and guarded by the guard of honor, these trees will be moved to the botanical garden, symbolizing the beginning of a new era in the history of the Republic of Armenia, the beginning of an era of peaceful development.”
Editing by Stepan Kocharyan
RFE/RL Armenian Report – 09/25/2021
Saturday, Armenian, Azeri FMs Meet In New York U.S. - Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev speaks remotely at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 23, 2021. The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in New York late on Friday for talks hosted by the U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group. It was the first face-to-face meeting of the top diplomats of the two warring states since a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh last November. The three mediators described it as a “sign of the resolve of the two countries to reengage in the peace process through direct dialogue.” They also held separate meetings with Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov on the sidelines of a session of the UN General Assembly. “The Co-Chairs and Foreign Ministers discussed a wide range of outstanding unresolved issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” they said in a joint statement.” “The Co-Chairs proposed specific focused measures to deescalate the situation and possible next steps.” “The Co-Chairs reaffirm their commitment to continue working with the sides to find comprehensive solutions to all remaining issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with their mandate,” added the statement. It did not report any concrete understandings reached by Mirzoyan and Bayramov or say whether the co-chairs plan to visit the Karabakh conflict zone soon. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Mirzoyan reaffirmed Armenia’s readiness to “resume the Karabakh settlement process” that has long been mediated by the United States, Russia and France. The talks came the day after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s again claimed, in an address to the UN General Assembly, that Azerbaijan ended the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with its victory in the six-week war. A senior Armenia official insisted afterwards that “the conflict remains unresolved” because there is still no agreement on Karabakh’s status, the main bone of contention. The U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Lynne Tracy, has repeatedly made similar statements in recent weeks. While in New York, both Mirzoyan and Bayramov held talks with Victoria Nuland, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs. Nuland tweeted on Friday that shed discussed with the Armenian foreign minister the “goal of peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.” Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Armenian church in Van Nuys believes vandalism was a hate crime
While police continued their search for a vandal who broke eight stained-glass windows at St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church in Van Nuys on Thursday morning, Sept. 23, the church’s head priest said Friday he believes his congregation was the victim of a hate crime.
Security camera footage reviewed by LAPD and church officials showed a masked individual dressed in black, armed with a baseball bat and carrying a black duffel bag, walking up to the outside of the church’s sanctuary at 17321 Sherman Way on Thursday around 1:30 a.m., said Shnork Demirjian, the church’s head priest.
The individual goes on to swing the bat at eight of the sanctuary’s stained-glass windows and then leaves, according to the church’s and police accounts. It was unclear what the individual carried inside the bag.
Later Thursday morning, Demirjian’s secretary arrived at the church. Before starting work, the secretary carried out his routine of saying a prayer in the sanctuary, Demirjian said. When he walked inside, the secretary discovered shards of glass scattered throughout the sanctuary and below the damaged windows.
The secretary immediately called Demirjian who then alerted other church officials and the police.
Without any written messages, LAPD officers told Demirjian they have little to establish a possible motive in the crime, the priest recalled.
At this stage in the investigation, police called the crime vandalism, but told Demirjian they will still pursue the possibility of a hate crime.
Demirjian said he feels the crime was an anti-Armenian attack, pointing to Armenian Independence Day, which was celebrated days before the incident on Sept. 21.
The timing also prompted Demirjian to recall a separate incident in which an arsonist set fire to an Armenian church and school in San Francisco on Sept. 21, 2020. That incident, which left the church badly damaged, was determined to be a hate crime. Suspect had also scrawled anti-Armenian messages at the church.
Demirjian also felt their Christian faith was a target, adding that the vandal chose specific stained-glass windows that depicted the life of Christ.
“My answer to (police) was if that person takes a baseball bat and shatters the icons of the saints and Christ, that in itself is a message, more than writing on the walls,” Demirjian said.
The LAPD detectives handling the case could not be reached for comment on Friday evening.
The church’s sanctuary, including the stained-glass windows, was built in 1966, according to the church’s Facebook page. The church described itself as “the backbone of this unique Armenian community” in the San Fernando Valley.
Since Thursday’s crime, the church has received an outpouring of donations and support from many in the community who have had ties to the church.
“They came with tears in their eyes, saying ‘I was baptized here, I was married here,’” Demirjian said. “A lot of history.”
On Friday, workers cleaned up the shattered glass and covered the broken windows with wooden boards. Church operations continued. A baptism ceremony was held at the sanctuary on Friday evening.
During Demirjian’s tenure, which began in 1991, he said the church has been victim to several burglaries and another vandalism incident where teenagers had painted satanic symbols throughout the building.
The church is still surveying the cost of the damaged windows.
Armenian, Azerbaijani FMs hold first post-war meeting in New York
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan held their first meeting since November 2020 on the sidelines of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (Stephane Visconti of France, Andrew Schofer of the United States of America, and Igor Khovaev of the Russian Federation) said in a statement.
“On the sidelines of the General Debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, the Minsk Group Co-Chairs met separately in New York with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan. The Co-Chairs also hosted both Foreign Ministers at a joint meeting. The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office (PRCiO) Andrzej Kasprzyk participated in the meetings,” they said.
“The Co-Chairs and Foreign Ministers discussed a wide range of outstanding unresolved issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Co-Chairs proposed specific focused measures to deescalate the situation and possible next steps. The Co-Chairs stressed their continuing strong support for the full range of indispensable activities and operations undertaken by the PRCiO and his team.
“On 24 September the Co-Chairs and PRCiO met with UN Under Secretary General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo and OSCE Chairperson in Office Foreign Minister Ann Linde to brief them on their efforts over the past year, including the most recent developments in the process.
“The Co-Chairs welcome this first meeting of the two ministers of foreign affairs since November 2020 as a sign of the resolve of the two countries to reengage in the peace process through direct dialogue aimed at contributing to security, stability, and prosperity in the region. The Co-Chairs reaffirm their commitment to continue working with the sides to find comprehensive solutions to all remaining issues related to or resulting from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with their mandate,” reads the statement.
Procession with candles starts in Yerevan
Earlier, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, MP from the Armenia bloc Ishkhan Sagatyan noted that no political speeches are planned during the event.
“We call on our fellow citizens, regardless of their political views, to join the march and express their participation, our state will rise up and there will be someone to continue the work of our dead guys,” he noted.
The second President of Armenia Robert Kocharian also takes part in the procession.