Author: Emma Jilavian

33 European Lawmakers Urge Baku to Withdraw Forces from Armenia

Emma Jilavian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

EAFJD welcomed the European lawmakers’ initiative

BRUSSELS—At the initiative of European Parliament member Loucas Fourlas, 33 European lawmakers addressed a letter to the EU High Representative Josep Borrell regarding the attack by Azerbaijani Armed Forces on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia on November 16.

The lawmakers condemned Azerbaijan’s aggression and demanded that the Azerbaijani armed forces immediately and completely withdraw from the territory of the Republic of Armenia. They also urged the EU External Action Service to put pressure on Azerbaijan to stop and prevent the violation of the territorial integrity of Armenia.

“Unlike the EEAS’s declaration, the letter of the MEP’s clearly calls the aggressor by its name. The EU needs to put pressure on Azerbaijan with concrete measures, in order to ensure the immediate and complete removal of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia,’’ said EAFJD President Kaspar Karampetian, who also welcomed the initiative by the European lawmakers.

On Friday, the President of the European Council Charles Michel announced that at his request, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in Brussels next month on the margins of the Eastern Partnership summit.

The complete text of the letter is below.

On November 16, the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan launched an attack in along the eastern border of the Republic of Armenia. As Members of the European Parliament, we condemn the Azerbaijani attack and infiltration into the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia which violates the ceasefire statement of the 9. November 2020 and seriously jeopardizes the fragile peace in the region. The Azerbaijani armed forces must immediately and completely withdraw from the territory of the Republic of Armenia.

We deeply regret the reported human losses as a result of the attack. Any action or rhetoric aimed at undermining the security, the peaceful, normal life and the human rights of the population in the eastern and southern regions of the Republic of Armenia must immediately stop.

We call on the EU External Action Service to use all of its leverage to stop and prevent the violation of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia as well as belligerent rhetoric.

Turkish press: Turkey’s ‘drone killer’ system makes maiden flight

Emma Jilavian
 ISTANBUL DEFENSE 
NOV 11, 2021 1:12 PM GMT+3

The mobile aerial destruction platform Fedai on display at SAHA Expo, Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 11, 2021. (AA Photo)

Akamikaze unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that will be used to counter and neutralize other drone-borne threats successfully conducted its maiden flight and will be ready for delivery at the beginning of 2022, according to company officials.

The product, named the Fedai, was created in cooperation with Turkish defense industry companies. Various versions of the Fedai capable of launching from single and multiple launch systems were created and exhibited at the SAHA EXPO Defense and Aviation Hybrid Fair organized by SAHA Istanbul.

The UAV is part of a wide range of drone detection and destruction systems developed by Havelsan and Transvaro.

Güray Ali Canlı, executive committee member of Transvaro told Anadolu Agency (AA) that after the successful first flight, they started receiving interest from all over the world.

“We started to produce the Fedai from carbon. The first 10 vehicles are out of mass production. There is more demand for the multi-launch version that is installed on the vehicle. We have prepared this model. We offer to the world market a concept in the form of a truck with three launch systems, one command control, one radar, jammer and thermal camera systems in a team of five vehicles,” he explained.

Canlı said that in line with demand for the product from a Southeast Asian country, they have started working on a model that can reach an altitude of up to 5,000 meters (16,404 feet).

“We called it the Fedai 102,” the company official said, noting that tests are ongoing.

“We bring innovations in every flight,” he said noting that it is equipped with a thermal camera, day camera and LIDAR (Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging), making it “the first and only such product in the world with this feature.” He added that the special wing folding system has been patented.

Canlı said that it is also unique with its radar, camera control and LIDAR scanner system.

Currently, the UAV is expelled from the launch tube but the company has started working on a model that can be fired from the shoulder.

“We are making these preparations for aircraft that fly short distances without the need for radar. Our research and development (R&D) studies continue at full speed. We are improving the Fedai every day,” Canlı said.

Stating that the first versions of the product will be ready for delivery as of January or February 2022, Canlı said that the Fedai on its own is not enough and that customers should consider the whole system, DROKA, also known as the drone killer.

“There are a number of systems within in this, from thermal camera to radar, from jammer to other units.”

The global shortage of integrated circuits and electronic components used in radars has driven up the prices of germaniım used in thermal cameras by up to 50%, and Canlı said the company has thus established a separate radar factory in central Yozgat province just to produce the Fedai.

The factory will open early in the new year.

Describing the differences between Fedai 101 and Fedai 102, Canlı said, “customers want to use Fadai as a low-altitude air defense system not only to shoot down UAVs and drones, but also to shoot down low-flying helicopters and propeller planes.”

“That’s why the request for 5,000 meters was made. It’s a bit taller, with its battery and engine are bigger as well. We’ve also made the warhead a little bit bigger as well. Its diameter is the same, the wing lengths are different. We’ve extended our launchers. The same launcher can fire Fedai 101 and Fedai 102 but the second one has more speed and airtime, and more powerful batteries,” he said.

Major road closed as Nagorno-Karabakh civilian reportedly shot dead

Emma Jilavian
Nov 8 2021
 8 November 2021

ByAni Avetisyan
Entrance to the city of Shusha (Shushi) near where the shooting was reported. Photo: Brandon Balayan/Civilnet.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s National Security Service reported that one Armenian civilian died and three were wounded as Azerbaijani troops fired at a group of workers repairing water pipes near the city of Shusha (Shushi). According to unconfirmed witness reports, Russian peacekeepers were nearby during the incident.

According to the official report, the incident took place at around 15:00 on 8 November and took place near the Lachin-Stepanakert road, which connects Stepanakert (Khankandi), the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. The wounded have been transported to a hospital in Stepanakert.  

According to Nagorno-Karabakh Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan, the deceased is 22 years old, while the three wounded civilians are 41, 31, and 43 years old, respectively. 

No names, or further identifying information has been released.

According to unconfirmed reports on social media, the incident took place a few hundred meters from Russian peacekeepers who are observing the road connecting Stepanakert to the Republic of Armenia. 

Stepanyan has reported that the section of the Lachin-Stepanakert road where the incident happened has been closed as law-enforcement bodies are carrying out investigative work.

As of publication, there have been no statements from Azerbaijani or Russian authorities.

The same day as the incident, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was in Shusha alongside Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar to mark the anniversary of Azerbaijani forces taking control of the city during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. 

In October, another Armenian civilian was killed by Azerbaijani fire, reportedly while carrying out agricultural work and accompanied by Russian peacekeepers.

[Read more: Nagorno-Karabakh civilian shot dead in apparent ceasefire violation]

For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.

Azerbaijan marks anniversary of war victory

Emma Jilavian
EurasiaNet.org
Nov 8 2021
Ulkar Natiqqizi, Ani Mejlumyan Nov 8, 2021

Azerbaijan celebrated its first “Victory Day” holiday on the one-year anniversary of the capture of the city of Shusha, the pivotal battle that led to its defeat of Armenia in last year’s war.

The celebrations kicked off on November 7, the eve of the anniversary, when President Ilham Aliyev and his wife, vice president Mehriban Aliyeva, went to Shusha in Karabakh. They inaugurated what has been called the “victory road” through the region of Fuzuli to Shusha, since named the cultural capital of the country. In Shusha they toured various reconstruction projects and laid the foundations for new buildings including a central hospital and a mosque.

In Baku, the events were marked starting on the morning of November 8 with a march by thousands of soldiers and other Azerbaijanis from central Baku to the new Military Trophies Park, featuring Armenian military hardware captured during the war along with controversial depictions of Armenian soldiers.

Initially, Aliyev had designated November 10 to be marked as Victory Day, the day that Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a Russia-brokered ceasefire agreement that formally ended the fighting. But that is also the day that allied Turkey commemorates the death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and Azerbaijan later changed it to November 8, the day that Aliyev announced that Azerbaijani forces had captured Shusha.

Turkey was represented at the Victory Day celebrations by Defense Minister Hulusi Akar. Azerbaijan’s victory “was a beautiful response to those who turned a blind eye and remained silent to injustice and lawlessness,” Akar said in a speech ahead of a concert at Baku’s Heydar Aliyev Center.

Azerbaijan also enlisted several other foreign dignitaries who were in the country to take part in a conference, the VIII Baku Global Forum. The final event of the conference was a panel on the “Economic Assessment of the Value of Cultural Heritage,” which was held in Shusha on November 8.

Among the participants was former United States ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta, who said “the international community needs to think about how it can help revive Shusha.”

Unexpected support also came from Iran, in spite of the tension that the two countries recently experienced. Foreign ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh told a Tehran press conference that Iran had always opposed the occupation of Azerbaijani territory.

“Therefore we congratulate this country on the occasion of the liberation of territories from occupation and we applaud the anniversary of this victory today,” he said. “The most important issue is to eliminate the misunderstandings that occurred in the press and public.”

In Armenia, the anniversary was the source of political backbiting, as opponents of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took the occasion to blame him for the loss in the war. Participants of one demonstration marched to the Yerablur military cemetery in Yerevan holding signs that read “Nikol should be tried” and “We reject the November 9 agreement.” (The agreement was signed in the middle of the night, November 10 by Caucasus time and November 9 by Moscow time, and the agreement is known by both dates.)

Former president Robert Kocharyan, who now leads the largest opposition faction in parliament, was scheduled to give a speech on November 8, which a Kocharyan ally said would mark the “start of the pan-Armenian resistance.”

The anniversary also was an occasion for Armenians to look back and examine what went wrong. In a November 7 interview with public television, Pashinyan discussed an investigative commission that is to be set up to look not only at the conduct of last year’s war, but everything that happened since the first war between the two sides ended in 1994. “Unless we do a deep dive, we won’t know what happened,” he said.

He also described broad investigations into criminal cases being carried out in relation to the conduct of the war, though he didn’t specify what crimes had been committed. He said there are roughly 1,000 cases opened, with 40 people charged so far and 10 arrested. And he said the arrests were only the “tip of the iceberg.” 

Many sources had reported that Aliyev, Pashinyan, and Russian President Vladimir Putin would meet on the anniversary of the ceasefire signing to agree to two new deals: on demarcating the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan and on a plan to open up transportation through southern Armenia connecting Azerbaijan with its exclave, Nakhchivan. Those reports were barely mentioned in Azerbaijani official media but were the source of intense speculation in Armenia.

In his interview, Pashinyan denied that the meeting would take place on the anniversary of the ceasefire.

On November 8, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitriy Peskov said that a video conference between the three men was being planned, but a date had not been set yet. 

The anniversary also served as a reminder that despite the ceasefire, the conflict remains unresolved. The Armenia-backed de facto authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh reported that Azerbaijani soldiers fired on civilians working on a water pipeline, killing one of them. Azerbaijan did not comment on the incident.

 

Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.

Ulkar Natiqqizi is a reporter based in Baku.

Positive atmosphere created for Armenia-Saudi Arabia mutual partnership: Foreign Ministry’s response to ARMENPRESS

Emma Jilavian

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 09:45, 9 November, 2021

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia for participation to the Future Investment Initiative conference and meeting with the Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman will greatly contribute to the progress of the Armenian-Saudi inter-state relations, Foreign Ministry of Armenia told ARMENPRESS, in response to the question whether Armen Sarkissian’s visit will contribute to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Saudi Arabia.

The ministry said that despite the absence of diplomatic ties, contacts at different levels between Armenia and Saudi Arabia have taken place over the past years. According to the MFA, it’s a long time this process is underway.

“In general, it can be said that a positive atmosphere has been formed for the mutual cooperation with the Saudi side”, the ministry said.

Asked whether the President’s visit could contribute to achieving progress in the establishment of diplomatic ties or creating good preconditions for that, the ministry said: “Since the independence of Armenia, the relations with the countries of the Middle East are one of the key directions of Armenia’s foreign policy, taking into account both Armenia’s geographical position towards the region and the existing deep historical-cultural ties. Armenia has adopted a policy of strengthening and deepening the existing ties with the countries of the region, expanding the cooperation with them in areas of mutual interest, and this policy is also reflected in the Armenian government’s 2021-2026 action plan. From this perspective we are confident that President Armen Sarkissian’s working visit to Saudi Arabia aimed at taking part at the Future Investment Initiative international forum and his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will significantly contribute to the progress of the Armenian-Saudi inter-state relations.”

In response to the question whether Armenia plans to take any steps through diplomatic means or whether contacts have taken place with the Saudi side, the ministry added: “It’s worth mentioning that Armenian-Saudi contacts at different levels have been recorded over the past years, therefore this process exists for a long time. In general, it can be said that a positive atmosphere has been formed for the mutual partnership with the Saudi side.

On October 26, 2021, President of the Republic of Armenia Armen Sarkissian paid the first visit to Saudi Arabia, one of the pivotal countries of the Arab-Islamic world, in the history of independent Armenia.

Within the framework of that visit, which is of exceptional importance in the history of Armenian-Arab relations, particularly those between the Republic of Armenia and Saudi Arabia, the President of Armenia attended the 5th Conference of the “Future Investment Initiative.”

President Sarkissian together with the Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman attended the opening ceremony of the conference.

The President of Armenia, and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia talked about the need to develop relations between the two countries and their future. It was noted that the rich historical ties between the two peoples are a good basis for building future interstate relations.  

 

Reporting by Aram Sargsyan

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Nearly 20,000 Artsakh people remain in Armenia, minister says

Emma Jilavian
Panorama, Armenia
Nov 5 2021

The Armenian government, being the main guarantor of the social security of the Artsakh Republic, took more than 20 measures to alleviate the situation during last year’s war and the post-war social crisis, Armenia’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan told reporters on Friday.

In his words, these relief measures helped mostly overcome the crisis in the post-war period. Mkrtchyan noted that the vast majority of the 90,000 people displaced from Artsakh as a result of the war have already returned home. At this point, almost 20,000 Artsakh residents remain in different regions and communities of Armenia, the minister said.

Also, Mkrtchyan underlined that a new support program is being implemented, adding the applications are already being accepted.

“We will provide assistance in the amount of 50,000 and 25,000 drams to different target groups. There is no need for mass hospitality in Armenia for our compatriots from Artsakh at the moment. We previously paid citizens to host people from Artsakh, but now we are going to provide the sum to Artsakh Armenians for them to decide how to spend it,” Mkrtchyan said.

He noted that more than 100,000 people currently live in Artsakh.

Artsakh War was the continuation of Turkey’s policy, Armenian President says

Emma Jilavian
Public Radio of Armenia
Oct 28 2021
, 17:18

 1 minute read

Nothing has changed in Turkey’s strategy, because the war in the South Caucasus was not the only problem connected with Turkey, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian said in an interview with Russian RBC.  

“It’s part of a regional and global policy. Let’s remember why Turkey entered Libya, why it is so active in Iraq, why it is present in Lebanon and Syria, why it clashes with Cyprus and Greece in the Mediterranean, why it keeps hundreds of thousands of refugees on the EU border. In some sense Europe is a hostage of Turkey, because if those hundreds of thousands of refugees enter Europe, it will be hard to speak about its stability,” the President said.

He noted that last year’s Artsakh War was the continuation of Turkey’s policy, its wish to increase the influence in the region.

“Whether we want it or not, Turkey has become more influential in the South Caucasus. It is very influential in Georgia in the economic sense. Today, Turkey is largely present in Azerbaijan. The influence of the Turkish armed forces on Azerbaijani armed forces after the war is obvious, and it has a huge influence on Azerbaijan’s sovereignty, its economy, and respectively, logistics, transport routes, including the oil pipelines stretching from Baku to Tbilisi and Ceyhan,” President Sarkissian noted.

“Turkey has become more influential politically and militarily. On the other hand, the Turkish economy is not one of the best ones in the world. As you know, many investment companies leave Turkey. The economic downturn gets compensated by high activity,” the President added.

1 dead in Russian border guard vehicle crash in Armenia

Emma Jilavian

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 15:54,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, ARMENPRESS. A Russian border guard truck crashed 150 meters into a gorge in Armenia, leaving 1 dead and another injured, the emergency situations ministry reported.

The incident happened midday October 29 in the 80th kilometer of the Yerevan-Meghri road, near Tigranashen.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Substitute for General Affairs of Holy See’s Secretariat of State visits Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

Emma Jilavian

Substitute for General Affairs of Holy See’s Secretariat of State visits Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

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 13:45,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. Substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State at the Holy See Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan to pay tribute to the memory of the innocent victims, the Armenian foreign ministry said.

Photos by Tatev Duryan

Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra will arrived in Armenia on a two-day official visit.

He will take part in the official opening of the Vatican’s Apostolic Nunciature in Armenia.

He is scheduled to meet with Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenian President departs for UAE from Saudi Arabia

Emma Jilavian

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 14:56,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian departed for the United Arab Emirates from Saudi Arabia on a working visit, his Office said today.

President Sarkissian visited Saudi Arabia yesterday, on October 26 where he was welcomed by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir. Sarkissian’s Office described this trip as a historic visit as no diplomatic relations exist between Armenia and Saudi Arabia and it was the first visit of an Armenian head of state to Saudi Arabia.

[See video]

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan