12:06,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. On Friday 17 November 2023, the International Court of Justice will deliver its Order on the Request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by Armenia in the case concerning Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Armenia v. Azerbaijan), the press service of ICJ reports.
Judge Joan Donoghue, President of the Court will deliver the Order on Friday 17 November 2023.
15:18,
The heads of diplomatic missions, accompanied by the Matenadaran directorate, toured the museum. The possibilities of implementing joint programs were also discussed.
Over the past week Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and other Armenian officials have been hinting that a peace deal with Azerbaijan could be imminent.
They say the sides have reached agreement on three core principles of a deal while "details" remain to be settled.
Pashinyan told parliament on October 30 that a peace deal is "realistic" if the sides remain faithful to the principles of mutual recognition of territorial integrity, delimitation/demarcation of the shared border based on the 1991 Almaty declaration and the opening of transport links in a way that respects the two countries' sovereignty and customs laws.
Later, ruling party MP Gevorg Papoyan echoed the prime minister, saying that only the "details" of the agreement are left to be hammered out.
Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister, Elnur Mammadov, confirmed that "most points" of the peace agreement had been agreed with Yerevan. Mammadov said that reaching a deal had become "easier" thanks to Azerbaijan's takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh after its September 19-20 lightning offensive.
Following that offensive, several planned meetings between Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders failed to take place in a reflection of the sides' differing preferences on who should mediate.
Baku refused to take part in EU-led peace talks in Granada, Spain and in Brussels, while Armenia's prime minister was a no-show at a CIS summit in Bishkek where he'd been expected to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, Armenia was represented at a meeting in Tehran on October 23 that involved Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan.
Armenia's lack of interest in Moscow-brokered peace talks comes as the country looks to the West for new strategic and security allies, signing an arms deal with France and intensifying diplomatic relations with a number of Western states.
Prior to Azerbaijan's September offensive, which triggered the exodus of the region's entire Armenian population, the Karabakh Armenians' fate had been the thorniest issue in the talks. Baku had rejected the prospect of granting the region autonomous status, as well as Yerevan's calls for an international mechanism that would ensure the Karabakh Armenians' rights and securities under Azerbaijani rule.
During Azerbaijan's attack on Karabakh on September 19, Pashinyan announced that Armenia's priority was to ensure that Karabakh Armenians could remain in the region and live a "dignified" life there. But now that it has been emptied of Armenians, Yerevan seems to have abandoned this demand and instead started the process of granting them refugee status or Armenian citizenship.
"Our policy is that if those displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh do not, objectively speaking, have the opportunity to return to Nagorno-Karabakh – our wish is that they all stay in Armenia, and live and work here," Pashinyan told a cabinet meeting on November 2.
Another critical issue is "the opening of transport links," a provision of the 2020 ceasefire agreement that cemented Azerbaijan's gains in the Second Karabakh War.
Baku long discussed this provision in the context of its "Zangezur corridor" project, which for a time it insisted was to be a seamless corridor connecting mainland Azerbaijan with its exclave Nakhchivan through Armenian territory and beyond Armenian sovereignty.
Azerbaijan stepped back from the maximalist version of this project in February, and, after the September offensive, began giving assurances that it would no longer insist on a corridor and would instead make do with an alternative route through Iran.
But Armenians are wary of these assurances, particularly given Russia's apparent interest in the Zangezur corridor project.
Fears persist in Armenia that Azerbaijan will use force to make the corridor a reality, and continued rhetoric from Baku about "Western Azerbaijan" is doing nothing to allay these fears. This is the notion that parts of Armenian territory rightfully belong to Azerbaijan, or that, at the very least, Azerbaijanis have the right to settle in formerly Azerbaijani-populated parts of Armenia.
These concerns are shared by the EU, which has called on Azerbaijan to commit to respecting Armenian territory and by the U.S., where, according to Politico, Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefed members of Congress in early October on the risk of an Azerbaiajni invasion of Armenia. (The State Department rejected this report.)
The Lemkin Genocide Prevention Institute issued a "red flag alert" on November 1 over a possible "invasion of Armenia by Azerbaijan in the coming days and weeks."
On November 2, the US State Department told the Voice of America's Armenian service: "Any violation of Armenia's territorial integrity will have serious consequences."
By Eurasianet.org
https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/Azerbaijan-Softens-Stance-On-Zangezur-Corridor-As-Peace-Deal-Nears.html
Jerusalem’s Old City, which has been deserted since the Gaza War, just had its most significant explosion of anger since the recent conflict erupted.
The Old City is no stranger to tension. It is arguably the main cauldron of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
What made Sunday’s eruption different was where it took place: a normally quiet car park in the Armenian Quarter, tucked away in the south-east corner of the Old City.
On the face of it, an increasingly heated quarrel in this corner of Jerusalem is about property development. But it cuts to the heart of the agony so many communities in Israel and Palestine have experienced in more than 100 years of conflict.
The current war, the Armenians say, has focused global attention on the unbearable violence in Israel on October 7 during Hamas' surprise attack, and the subsequent massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
That crisis, in turn, has empowered radical Israeli settlers to seize more Palestinian land and intimidate communities
Armed men with guard dogs descended on part of the car park right next to a private garden over which an Armenian flag stands tall.
Hagop Djernazian, a community leader, stood in the fray surrounded by Israeli police, lawyers, clergy and large crowds of agitated residents.
“I was at home. At three o’clock I got a message that a group or armed settlers had arrived,” he said, amid the furore.
“They have pepper spray. They kicked us out of the property. When the police came we went back in. The priests arrived as did our lawyer.”
Tensions had already been high before the arrival of the armed men. The car park in which they were prowling is the centre of a bitter and murky property battle, involving a private developer’s plan to build a hotel on the site, which makes up 25 per cent of the entire quarter.
The land was sold by the Armenian Patriarch with the involvement of a now-defrocked priest who was responsible for the Patriarchate’s vast property portfolio.
“The whole thing stinks,” Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli anti-settlement activist and lawyer, told The National.
“This patch of land is strategically located. In Camp David, [Prime Minister Ehud Barak] was willing to give Palestinians the Christian and Muslim Quarter, but only half of the Armenian Quarter. Israel wanted its road, one of the only vehicular routes in the Old City” Mr Seidemann added.
“I’ve said to my friends in the international community, ignore the legalities for now. There are hundreds of members of a community confronting armed people with dogs and weapons. It’s on the brink of an explosion. The last thing we need is an eruption of convulsive violence in Jerusalem. Sort out the legal issues later – make this go away.”
The Armenian community is indeed seething. They fear the deal might spell the end of their presence in the Old City.
Without a car park, the Quarter’s already dwindling numbers would not be able to keep its institutions going, turning the area from a centre of Armenian life into a museum, they say.
Garo Ghazarian, a high-profile US-Armenian attorney and part of a group of international lawyers who have banded together to prevent the deal, summed up the stakes at the end of a fact-finding mission in June:
“The Armenian Quarter is of national and international importance for all Armenian people all over the world,” he told a packed courtyard of residents and international journalists, flanked by peers from across the Armenian diaspora.
“It is of the highest historical value and wealth to the Armenian nation. It is an integral part in the identity of the Armenian people in general. It is living proof of the centuries-old history of our people. It is testament to our great civilisation in world history.”
On October 26, the Patriarch announced that he had a sent a cancellation letter to the developers, although no one from the community has seen it.
That same day, bulldozers turned up to the site and began knocking down walls, prompting members of the community to keep watch on regular intervals.
Although they were already on alert, Sunday was different. The arrival of anonymous armed men was a significant escalation.
Mr Djernazian beckoned in rage in the direction of one particular man, Danny Rothman, a figure at the heart of the property deal about whom very little is known.
Mr Rothman declined to comment on the reason behind his surprise arrival and the current status of the wider property deal.
Perhaps worst of all, many in the community feel betrayed by their religious leadership. Many believe the Patriarch was incompetent at best for signing away the property. Others believe corruption is the reason.
The breakdown in trust is dangerous for the tiny community.
Armenians in the Holy Land, numbering only a few thousand people, are mostly the descendants of victims of the Armenian Genocide, who scattered themselves throughout the Middle East to escape the Ottoman Empire's oppression in the early 20th century.
There is also a much older religious community, whose presence for centuries makes the Armenians one of the foremost Christian denominations in Jerusalem.
Now, those two parts of the community, co-religionists in one of Israel's worst crises, are bitterly divided.
There are, however, signs things might be improving.
Many priests joined the community in the car park on Sunday, not easy given their boss started the saga. A new bishop has just arrived from Armenia to deal with the institution’s property. A number of figures in the community told The National they hold him in high regard.
The Patriarch himself even turned up, according to a press release. “The community stood strong, with 200 members in unity to prevent the takeover and save the Armenian Quarter,” it read.
On Monday, quiet had returned to the car park. Mr Djernazian stood by the rubble kicked up by the bulldozers mere days previously.
“Jerusalem has been targeted for years, but it’s important to note that people are using the war in Gaza to target Armenians when they are most likely to be alone,” he said.
“We have had a presence here since the 4th century, so we will never give up. Losing this land would mean endangering not just the Armenian presence in Jerusalem but the Christian one, too.”
13:55, 9 November 2023
BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno Ocampo believes that countries are deliberately ignoring the risk of genocide to avoid the obligation to prevent it.
In an interview with Armenpress Brussels correspondent, Ocampo said that the forced displacement of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh after the Azerbaijani attack constitutes genocide.
Mr. Ocampo, on August 7, you provided and then published your professional opinion to the President of the Republic of Artsakh, considering the blockade and complete siege of Artsakh as genocide. What process could have been started at that time to prevent the coming disaster?
Well, the report was important because we made a point in the public opinion. However, states are doing something fascinating, they are deliberately ignoring the risk of genocide to avoid the obligation to prevent genocide, that’s what we found. We found basically that states are trying to avoid the word genocide. Even because when the US Congress took the report and started activities, then US State Department, without mentioning genocide said they will protect Nagorno Karabakh internationally. But it was late too late. They said that and three days later Aliyev attacked.
How do you interpret what happened after September 19 in Nagorno Karabakh? It seems that when many say genocide, they only imagine a massacre. But in a few days, more than a hundred thousand people forcibly left their homeland, leaving behind everything.
That is a genocide as well, under Genocide Convention article 2B. There's a new report by Juan Mendes saying that the fact that 100,000 people left is showing the mental harm. The fact that they left everything. So that is another form genocide to be, not only killing. The killing was not massive, but there is a mental harm of all the community leaving their land.
What legal mechanisms are there for the rights of the people of Artsakh that can work and how realistic do you consider the restoration of the rights of these people according to international norms?
I think it's important now that France is pushing for that. That's an important state that is pushing the agenda and it's something we should fight for. We should fight for gaining respect of the right of the people, because the people, even if they are not there, they are still the owners of the land and the place, so their rights must be respected. And I think a different priority is to recover, to release the hostages. There are 53 people in jail in Azerbaijan. The problem is international law is not something like if someone steals your bike, you can go to the police and the courts. No, there's nothing like that. We have the International Court of Justice presumably for states, and there is the International Criminal Court for prosecuting individuals. The legal process for releasing these people is not clear, but we should develop the process politically. That is why this meeting is important.
How do you assess the behavior of the international community, what could it have done that it did not do, and that inaction led to this result?
Well, that is a problem, a failure by design. Because the world has no global institutions. Basically, the only global independent institution is the International Criminal Court, that's it. That's not enough. Imagine a country with just one court, no government, no political system. So, Armenia should be involved in resolving the problem. And that's why meetings like this, discussions with political leaders about what they can do and articulating that with the European Union, with the ICC, that is what we need to do. Armenia is showing that it's not just Armenia at risk, but civilization is at risk, and that's why Armenians are not alone. But Armenia is crucial. Armenia has a very important community around the world, so it’s an incredible strength you have there, and we can use it.
There are some conflicts that get more attention than others, as if all children are not children, all women are not women. What is your explanation for this duality?
Well, the media’s span of attention is only 6 seconds. That’s normal. The Darfur genocide was top in the media, then came the Arab Spring, then Libya, then Syria, then Russia, Yezidis, then Rohingya. There's always a new conflict covering the failure of the previous conflict. And that's why this year we are on the topic of having five genocides in only 2023. Now is the time to fix it. The fact that the Armenian community and the Jewish community are so widespread could really help to transform this situation. I understand it is a very difficult moment for the Armenian community, that even attacks on Armenia are possible, but you must understand that you never win if you stop fighting. So, you have to keep on fighting, and you are not alone.
Lilit Gasparyan
15:20, 9 November 2023
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. French journalists Pierre Sautreuil and Thomas Guichard have won the Varenne Young Journalist Award for their Les dessins perdus du Haut-Karabakh (The lost drawings of Nagorno-Karabakh) article published in La Croix Hebdo.
Les dessins perdus du Haut-Karabakh is a story of how drawings found in an abandoned village in Nagorno-Karabakh helped retrace the story of an Armenian family in exile.
11:15,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. United States Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has introduced legislation demanding Azerbaijan’s immediate release of Armenian prisoners of war, captured civilians, and political prisoners, including Nagorno-Karabakh government officials illegally detained during Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing last month, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
The resolution specifically calls on the Biden Administration to impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act on Azerbaijani government officials responsible for the illegal detention, torture, and extrajudicial killing of Armenian POWs. It also reiterates Congressional calls for the enforcement of Section 907 restrictions on U.S. military and security assistance to Azerbaijan.
“Azerbaijan is already guilty of grave atrocities committed during the recent war, and the continued illegal detention of Armenians compounds the problem. Azerbaijan’s treatment of these prisoners, including torture and killings, is heartbreaking and a direct threat to international law and order,” said Rep. Schiff. “My resolution urges the American government and international community to stand up to these gross human rights violations being perpetuated against the Armenian community by the Aliyev regime and return these prisoners back to their families.”
The resolution condemns Azerbaijan’s illegal detention of Nagorno-Karabakh civilian and military officials held as political prisoners: former Nagorno-Karabakh presidents Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, and Arayik Harutyunyan, former Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Minister David Babayan, Speaker of Nagorno-Karabakh Parliament Davit Ishkhanyan, former Nagorno-Karabakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, and former Nagorno-Karabakh military commanders Levon Mnatsakanyan and David Manukyan.
Rep. Schiff’s resolution builds on similar legislation he and the Congressional Armenian Caucus led in 2021 (H.Res.240), which garnered broad bi-partisan support. The resolution’s call for U.S. sanctions on Azerbaijani leaders and enforcement of Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan echoes bipartisan legislation (H.Res.108 / H.R.5683) and multiple Congressional letters to the Biden Administration which has garnered the support of over 100 Congressional leaders.
21:51,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. During the question and answer session at the "6th Peace Forum" panel discussion held in Paris, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan referred to the "Western Azerbaijan" thesis put forward by the official Baku.
Nikol Pashinyan drew the attention of the audience to the growing rhetoric by Azerbaijan, by which the Republic of Armenia is called "Western Azerbaijan".
"This is a very disturbing message, and this narrative is sponsored by the government. But if Azerbaijan reaffirms the three principles on which we have reached an agreement with the participation of the President of Azerbaijan, it will signify that we can continue to move forward," said the Prime Minister of Armenia.
19:30,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. On November 10, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, who is in Paris on a working visit, had a meeting with Park Jin, the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
''The interlocutors discussed agenda issues of Armenian-Korean cooperation. Thoughts were exchanged on issues related to the deepening of bilateral political dialogue, the prospects of mutually beneficial cooperation in the fields of trade, economy, science and education, innovations and high technologies.
In the context of the most effective realization of the existing potential in the above directions, the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Korea reaffirmed their intentions to mutually open diplomatic missions in both countries. Issues of interaction with the Korea International Cooperation Agency were also addressed.
Collaboration between the two countries within international platforms was also on the agenda of the meeting.
Reflecting on the regional security issues, Minister Mirzoyan presented to his Korean counterpart the situation created as a result of the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan and the measures implemented to address the problems faced by more than 100,000 forcibly displaced Armenians.
In this context, the Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized effective cooperation with international partners and institutions.
The interlocuters touched upon the efforts aimed at establishing stability and peace in the region,'' reads the statement.
20:21,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Within the framework of the Paris Peace Conference, the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a meeting with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Ahmad Khan, the PM’s Office said.
During the meeting, the interlocutors discussed issues related to international justice and law, as well as other topics of mutual interest.