Author: Emma Jilavian

Former official says ‘almost no Armenians left’ in Nagorno-Karabakh region

Emma Jilavian
UPI
Sept 30 2023
By Simon Druker

Sept. 30 (UPI) — A former top official of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Eastern Europe said Saturday almost none of its ethnic Armenian population remains following a mass wave of migration of more than 100,000 people.

Artak Beglaryan, the region’s former state minister, said in a social media post that the enclave “is almost fully empty with at most a few hundred people remaining, who are also leaving.”

Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh following a military operation conducted by Azerbaijan to recapture the area, officials confirmed Friday.

Roughly 88,000 of them crossed the border into Armenia in less than a week, the United Nations said Friday, accounting for more than 80% of the Armenian population in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which shares a border with Azerbaijan.

  • Azerbaijan arrests billionaire Armenian leader Ruben Vardanyan
  • Breakaway Norgorno-Karabakh dissolved a week after being re-taken by Azerbaijan
  • Nearly 3,000 people flee Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia

Approximately 120,000 ethnic Armenians called the region home.

A majority of those coming into Armenia do have family there, while approximately 32,000 require government accommodation, according to the Armenian Prime Minister’s Office.

The UN is sending a team of observers to the region.

President Ilham Aliyev’s government last week launched a military operation to retake the 1,700-square-mile territory in the name of Azerbaijan. The breakaway republic was formed in 1994 following a war between Azerbaijan and Armenia and has seen several military conflicts over the years.

Azerbaijan will now formally dissolve the republic, prompting thousands of ethnic Armenians to immediately flee across the border back into Armenia, which has a total population of 2.8 million.

The region itself is located in the South Caucasus, in the Lesser Caucasus mountain range.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in a speech last Sunday warned of the possibility of ethnic cleansing, but Aliyev has denied any hint of the practice and publicly stated he will guarantee the safety of Armenians choosing to remain in Nagorno-Karabakh.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2023/09/30/armenia-refugees-flee-nagorno-karabakh-region/1391696092500/

With one war over, the South Caucasus girds for the next

Emma Jilavian
The Arab Weekly
Sept 26 2023
A carved-out corridor in Armenia’s south would have serious implications for the region, rewriting the geopolitical map for Iran, Russia, Turkey and potentially even Israel.
Tuesday 26/09/2023

After its rapid military advance last week, Azerbaijan is set to establish full sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh, the country’s contested mountainous enclave that has been under ethnic Armenian control for three decades.

With that dispute nearing a conclusion, Azerbaijan may now move to resolve its next point of contention with Armenia: the completion of the so-called Nakhchivan (or Zangezur) corridor. But unlike Nagorno-Karabakh, a carved-out corridor in Armenia’s south would have serious implications for the region, rewriting the geopolitical map for Iran, Russia, Turkey and potentially even Israel.

In 2020, a Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement ending the 44-day war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh guaranteed “the safety of transport links between the western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.” Control over the land link would be managed by Armenian security forces as well as “the bodies of the Border Guard Service of the FSB of Russia.”

Because the proposed corridor slices across Syunik Province, the only portion of Armenia that borders Iran, Armenia could see its access to the Iranian market jeopardised. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, would gain a direct route not only to Nakhchivan, but also to NATO member Turkey, while Iran would see its north semi-encircled by Turkic states.

Iran considers the project a Turkish-led conspiracy to create a corridor linking NATO to the Turan steppe, the original home of the Turkic people. Bringing NATO to its northern border would weaken Tehran’s position in the South Caucasus, and pose an existential threat to Iran. That is why Iranian authorities have repeatedly said they will not tolerate changes to regional borders, calling the issue Iran’s “red line.”

Iran also worries that Israel could use recent developments to strengthen its position in the strategically important region. Between 2016 and 2020, 69 percent of Azerbaijan’s major arms imports were from the Jewish state, and rumours have long surfaced that Israel might use air bases in Azerbaijan to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. Indeed, Iran knows that if the Nakhchivan corridor is built, Tehran will become the second biggest loser of the Karabakh conflict (behind Armenia).

Russia, meanwhile, is licking its own wounds from Nagorno-Karabakh. Despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers in the enclave, deployed to the region as part of the 2020 ceasefire, Moscow was unable to stop Azerbaijan’s advance or to prevent Armenian forces from disarming and integrating into Azerbaijan.

In truth, Moscow’s commitment to Armenia has long been suspect. Following Armenia’s defeat to Azerbaijan in 2020, it became clear that the Kremlin would not defend Yerevan’s interests in Nagorno-Karabakh if it meant jeopardising Russia’s lucrative energy ties with Baku.

Consider the evidence. On September 20, several Russian troops, including a senior commander, were killed during an Azerbaijani “anti-terrorist operation” in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Kremlin said nothing. Three years earlier, during the second Karabakh war, the Azerbaijani army shot down a Russian Mi-24 military helicopter over Armenia, killing two crew members. Again, Moscow stayed silent.

Armenia, aware that it cannot count on Moscow’s support, has sought to distance itself from Russia and normalise relations not only with its arch-enemy, Azerbaijan, but also with Turkey.

Additionally, Armenia is working to establish political, economic, and military ties with the United States, hoping that doing so will strengthen its position in the region. The two sides recently held a joint military exercise, further evidence that the Kremlin will have difficulty keeping Armenia within its sphere of influence.

Thus, as a result of Azerbaijan’s recent victory in Nagorno-Karabakh, the West and Turkey could eventually crowd Russia out of the South Caucasus, making the Kremlin the third-biggest loser. Bogged down in Ukraine, Moscow seems unable to preserve its hold on Armenia, a former Soviet state whose people are in desperate need of outside support.

The end of the Karabakh conflict will be the start of a new turbulent era in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan will almost certainly continue to develop close defence cooperation with Israel and Turkey, while Armenia may attempt to diversify its arms imports, end its dependence on Moscow, and bolster military ties with the US, Iran and perhaps even India.

In other words, while one conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia may soon be settled, a far more consequential one, the fight over the Nakhchivan  corridor, is just getting started.

Written ByNikola Mikovic

    Nikola Mikovic is a political analyst in Serbia. His work focuses mostly on the foreign policies of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, with special attention on energy and “pipeline politics.”

    Nagorno-Karabakh representatives and Azeri authorities reach agreement on transfer of wounded, critically-ill to Armenia

    Emma Jilavian

     20:25,

    STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS. A Russian-mediated meeting took place on September 25 between representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

    The meeting took place in Ivanyan (Khojaly) at the base of Russian peacekeepers, the Nagorno-Karabakh InfoCenter reported.

    A number of humanitarian issues were discussed, including the course of search and rescue operations of the victims and missing persons of the hostilities. The need for restoring natural gas supply and the uninterrupted work of electricity system and water supply was highlighted.

    The Nagorno-Karabakh representatives underscored the need for transporting wounded persons, pregnant women, children and others in need of urgent medical assistance to hospitals in Armenia for treatment. The parties reached an agreement on the issue and outlined the agenda of the next meeting.

    Russia to blame for Azerbaijan attack, EU says

    Emma Jilavian
    EU Observer
    Sept 22 2023
    By ANDREW RETTMAN

    Russia is to blame for Azerbaijan’s blitzkrieg against Armenians, a senior EU official has said. And Moscow is hoping to topple Armenia’s Western-leaning prime minister, the official added.

    Luc Devigne, the head of the Russia department in the EU foreign service, shared his views at a snap meeting with MEPs in Brussels on Wednesday (20 September).

    Speaking of Russia’s 2,000 peacekeeping troops in the South Caucasus conflict zone, Devigne said: “Did any of these peacekeepers do anything? Nothing. They didn’t even put their armoured vehicles in the road … passively to block the military operation,” he said.

    “There’s only Russian troops [there]. Who is to be blamed? Russia,” he added.

    He spoke one day after Azerbaijan rolled through the Russian lines to force the surrender of the ethnic Armenian exclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Civilian EU monitors on the Armenian side of the border heard “numerous explosions, 15 here, five there … it was a military operation of an important scale,” Devigne said.

    And one “cynical” reason for Russia’s green light was that a humiliating defeat by Azerbaijan for Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan could see him fall from power to be replaced by a pro-Russian figure, the EU official said.

    The war could also push up to 200,000 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia, a country of just 2.8 million people, placing a huge burden on Pashinyan’s government.

    Devigne highlighted a tweet by former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev, who said the Azeri attack showed what happened if you “flirt with Nato”, referring to a recent small-scale Armenia-US military exercise.

    “I know from some experience how the Russians hate that, so I think this is a factor,” Devigne said.

    “[Russian president Vladimir] Putin never accepted that Pashinyan rose to power the way he did, in what you might call a Colour Revolution,” Devigne also said, referring to the Armenian revolution in 2018 and to other non-violent regime changes in the former Soviet region.

    Several MEPs called for sanctions against Azerbaijan and accused it of seeking “ethnic cleansing” of Armenians from conquered lands.

    “We should get rid of this [EU] need to get gas from there [Azerbaijan] — that would weaken their stance,” said German centre-right MEP Michael Mahler.

    And not a single EU deputy had a good word to say about Baku, even though Azerbaijan had been bending over backwards to make friends in the EU parliament in recent times.

    The EU bought 11.3 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas from Azerbaijan last year — a jump from 8 bcm the year before, but still just 3 percent of its total annual imports.

    EU ambassadors also held behind-closed-doors talks in Brussels on Wednesday which likely discussed potential sanctions, Devigne said.

    But there was no consensus for sanctions in earlier talks in August, Devigne added, when Azerbaijan was already blockading Nagorno-Karabakh in preparation for its onslaught.

    For his part, Devigne’s boss, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, also met the Armenian foreign minister in the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday to voice solidarity.

    France called a meeting of the UN Security Council amid uncertainty if an Azeri-Armenian ceasefire agreed on Wednesday will hold.

    Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh campaign began with a first attack in 2020 and a second one in 2021.

    It has been stockpiling Israeli and Turkish weapons and pumping out ever more belligerent anti-Armenian propaganda.

    And it has belittled Europe, with its EU ambassador tweeting death threats against MEPs and its armed forces opening fire in the vicinity of EU monitors in Armenia earlier this year.

    But if Russia facilitated the latest warfare and previous attacks, the EU also did little to put pressure on Baku in the build-up to the new hostilities, with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen instead going there last summer to shake hands on gas deals with Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, who she called a “trusted partner”.

    Asked by press in Brussels on Wednesday if von der Leyen now regretted cozying up to Aliyev, her spokeswoman declined to answer.

    “It’s a fact Azerbaijan is a supplier of gas to the EU. There’s cooperation on energy, which is very sectoral, and reflects the need to diversify supply,” the commission said.

    Meanwhile, French liberal MEP Nathalie Loiseau gave an idea of how top EU diplomats ought to be feeling.

    She had watched the events unfold with a “mixture of sadness, anger, and shame”, she told Devigne in the EU parliament hearing.

    “For months, Azerbaijan has been circling, starving, and bringing Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh to their knees. Now it bombs Stepanakert [the Nagorno-Karabakh capital]. What have we done? Mediation? Total failure,” she said.

    “We ignored all the signs from the Armenian prime minister, who was telling us that Russia had abandoned Armenia. He called for help,” she added.

    “We just closed our eyes to this,” she said.

    Pashinyan says Armenians should stay in Karabakh

    Emma Jilavian
    eurasianet
    Sept 22 2023

    With the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh falling apart, and no deal between local leaders and the central government in Azerbaijan, the future of Armenians in the region remains precarious. 

    While the vast majority of Armenian society, the Armenian foreign minister, as well as international observers are gravely concerned for their security, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says otherwise. 

    “At this moment, our assessment is that there is no direct threat to the civilian population of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinyan said in a live address on September 21. 

    In a complete contradiction, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan told a UN Security Council meeting on the same day that “Azerbaijan’s intention is to complete the ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.” 

    Since March 2021, access to Armenian-administered Nagorno-Karabakh has been tightly controlled by the Russian peacekeepers, making information difficult to verify. But three days after the beginning of Azerbaijan’s 2023 offensive, credible reports are starting to emerge of civilian casualties and war crimes. The prime minister’s statement triggered widespread outrage and led his critics to repeat their accusations of treason. 

    “I believe the PM was talking to the domestic audience and trying to avoid panic in Armenian society, while fighting against Russian state attempts to weaponize the suffering of the Armenians of Artsakh to bring down democratic governance in Armenia. He failed in doing so and even angered many of his own supporters,” analyst Eric Hacopian told Eurasianet. 

    The timing of the statement, right before the UN Security Council meeting, couldn’t have come at a worse time, according to human rights attorney Sheila Paylan. “The statement is puzzling, and also obviously untrue.” 

    “Perhaps in trying to calm people down, the prime minister thought he needed to make that statement,” she told Eurasianet, noting the angry protests on the streets of Yerevan.

    As of September 20, the de facto Karabakh authorities were counting 200 people killed and over 400 wounded. The streets of Stepanakert are filled with “displaced people, hungry, scared, and in uncertainty,” said Karabakh Human Rights Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan.

    According to Stepanyan, his office has received more than 600 cases of people missing in the region, as of September 22nd. 

    “Lack of communication made it almost impossible to find them or find out whether they were killed or not. Residential areas are cut off from each other, people’s fates are unknown,” former Armenian human rights defender Arman Tatoyan said. There have been reports of a bounty of $500 being placed on the head of a particular Karabakhi Armenian woman on an Azerbaijani Telegram channel. She is to be given to a man named “Murad” as a birthday present, the alleged Telegram post reads. 

    Some Armenians on social media recalled video evidence of atrocities by Azerbaijani troops against female Armenian soldiers during Baku’s incursions into Armenian territory in September 2022.

    Against this backdrop, many found the prime minister’s comment about Armenians not being under threat in Karabakh inexplicably tone-deaf.

    He did say in the same remarks, however, that his government was prepared to handle an influx of 40,000 families from Karabakh (which should roughly cover the region’s entire population that Armenian sources estimate at 120,000).

    So far there has been no sign of Karabakh Armenians leaving through the Lachin corridor, the only route connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. Azerbaijan has been tightly restricting and at times completely closing the corridor in one form or another for the past nine months, resulting in acute shortages of food and supplies.  

    “It’s not opening anytime soon,” said journalist Shant Khatcherian, who is standing by on the Armenian side of the border alongside other journalists, NGO representatives and Armenians who have relatives in Karabakh. 

    Meanwhile in Armenia, today marks the fourth straight day of protests. Roads have been blocked and dozens of people have been arrested. While the anger against Russia, the European Union, and other international institutions has been palpable, many Armenians are looking closer to home for someone to blame. 

    Fin DePencier is a journalist based in Yerevan

    Fin DePencier is a Canadian freelance journalist and photographer based in Yerevan.

    In Calling on Aliyev to Lift Artsakh Blocakade, Blinken Backs Baku’s Alternate Road Option

    Emma Jilavian
    by Asbarez Staff

     

     September 6, 2023

     

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

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee session on Apr. 26


    Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly told President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to reopen the Lachin Corridor while at the same time backing Azerbaijan’s dangerous proposal to deliver humanitarian assistance to Artsakh via an alternate road.

    The State Department on Wednesday issued a readout of the call, which took place on Friday.

    “Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on September 1 to express the United States’ concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. He reiterated our call to reopen the Lachin Corridor to humanitarian, commercial, and passenger traffic, while recognizing the importance of additional routes from Azerbaijan. The Secretary underscored the need for a dialogue and compromise and the importance of building confidence between the parties. He pledged continued U.S. support to the peace process,” the U.S. State Department said in the statement.

    Blinken traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine on Wednesday and after meeting with the country’s leaders pledged an addition $1 billion in U.S. assistance to the Ukraine war effort, while ignoring what experts are calling a genocide in Artsakh.

    While Blinken was meeting with Ukrainian officials, the Congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held an emergency hearing to address the Artsakh crisis.

    Rep. Christopher Cox (R-NJ) who was chairing the meeting said the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development did not respond to invitations to send representatives to the hearing.

    Testifying at the hearing was the former prosecutor general of the International Criminal Court Jose Luis Ocampo, who in a comprehensive report issued last month said that Azerbaijan and its leaders were perpetrating and committing genocide of the Armenians of Artsakh.

    During Wednesday’s hearing Ocampo called into question the U.S.’s strategy of urging negotiations between Artsakh Armenians and Baku.

    “In [Nagorno-Karabakh’s] case […] the negotiation is between a GENOCIDAIRE and his victims. You cannot [arrange] a negotiation between Hitler and the people in Auschwitz. You should stop Auschwitz, and then discuss negotiation. [The U.S.] cannot be involved in a negotiation when President Aliyev uses genocide as a method of negotiation,” Ocampo said.

    Thus far no response from Azerbaijan to Armenia’s peace treaty proposals – Deputy PM

    Emma Jilavian

     12:02, 4 September 2023

    YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan still hasn’t responded to Armenia’s new proposals on a peace treaty, Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan told reporters Monday.

    “As far as I know we still haven’t received a response regarding the latest proposal,” Grigoryan said when asked whether or not there’s been a reaction by Azerbaijan to the offers.

    On August 25, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that Armenia has conveyed to Azerbaijan new proposals on a peace treaty.

    "Russia was a guarantor of Armenia’s security, but it has become a threat." Opinion

    Emma Jilavian
    Sept 4 2023
    • Armine Martirosyan
    • Yerevan

    Russia’s position in the region and relations with Armenia

    Russia has been the main actor in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations for many years, but, as Armenian analysts believe, “in no way a guarantor of stability and security in the region”. Until recently, people had a positive attitude towards the presence of Armenia’s strategic ally in the region. But now trust in Russia has fallen to a critical point.

    One can often hear the opinion that Russia’s position is determined by its own interests, which coincide with those of Baku, despite its allied obligations to Yerevan. Politicians accuse the Russian Federation that cooperation with Turkey and Azerbaijan is more important for it than the fulfillment of its obligations towards its ally. Armenian-Russian relations in this regard are badly shaken.

    Political analyst Gurgen Simonyan comments on Russia’s changing strategy in the region and Moscow’s priorities, what its aggression against Ukraine has led to, and what could happen to Armenia if it does not give up Russian influence.

    • Why does Russia need a consulate in the south of Armenia on the border with Azerbaijan? Opinions
    • “Armenia’s withdrawal from the CSTO will bring Ukraine’s victory closer” – Armenian political scientist
    • Armenia at a crossroads: will the country leave Russia’s sphere of influence

    “Russia is unequivocally a hostile country towards Armenia. It has enlisted itself in the list of countries hostile to us since 2010. At that time, a Russian government delegation headed by Dmitry Medvedev traveled to Azerbaijan. During the visit, agreements on Russian-Azerbaijani relations were signed. Moscow and Baku actually became strategic partners in spite of Russia’s strategic alliance with Armenia.

    Russia sold offensive weapons worth more than 4 billion dollars to Azerbaijan. And thus became the top arms partner for Azerbaijan. Turkey is in third place, behind Belarus. Israel is in fourth place. Moreover, the gap between the first and second place is huge. The entire army of Azerbaijan was equipped with Russian weapons.

    With the introduction of the Madrid principles and then the Kazan document on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Armenian positions in the negotiation process were devalued by Russia.

    The interests of Azerbaijan and Russia coincide, they have a common strategy. The concept of Dugin’s Russia is developed in the context of Russian-Turkish alliance. Even to the point that the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov is a Turkologist. The entire presidential apparatus in the Russian Federation consists of Turkologists”.

    Alexander Dugin is a political scientist and philosopher whose views are labeled fascist by critics. He himself does not agree with this assessment. Dugin’s political activity is aimed at creating a Eurasian superpower through the integration of Russia with the former Soviet republics into a new Eurasian Union (EAU). Dugin has long called for the annexation of Ukraine.

    Frank answers from the Prime Minister of Armenia in the Prima News program about the geographical and geopolitical problems of the country, relations with neighbors and even personal questions

    “The region was considered a zone of influence of Russia, and it was Russia that decided all issues here. But the situation changed with the military aggression against Ukraine, when the world challenged all former zones of influence of Russia. This applies to the territories south of the Caucasus Range, as well as Central Asia, Europe, etc.

    But before the aggression against Ukraine, Russia dictated its will. In particular, in the negotiation process on the Karabakh settlement. And it was Russia that imposed a capitulation withdrawal on Armenia.

    If we analyze the chronology of events, we will see that Moscow changed its strategy in the region since 2010 and essentially became an enemy country to Armenia.

    In 2016, the so-called April War started. Russia stopped it and started pressuring former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan for the Armenian side to surrender 7 districts around Nagorno-Karabakh. They came under Armenian control during the first Karabakh war as a security belt. And for that reason alone, they have not been returned. However, Sargsyan traveled to NKR to convince them to give them up – under pressure from Moscow.

    In 2020, we have already seen Russia’s failure to fulfill its allied obligations to protect Armenia’s security. Then we saw a violation of the commitments made in 2020 [talking about the trilateral declaration on cessation of hostilities in Karabakh]. And now the Russians are no longer hiding their anti-Armenian stance in the international arena”.

    • Will France appeal to UN Security Council on NK issue? Comment from Yerevan
    • Recording suggests Aliyev offered Sargsyan $5 billion for regions around Karabakh
    • Scandal continues in Armenia over Aliyev’s proposed $5 bln ‘Karabakh buyout’

    “Russia intends to stay in the region, but it will not succeed. It does not have such resources. It is being defeated in the Ukrainian war. The war in Ukraine is not just a Ukrainian war. In this war, the world will break Russia, thanks to the opposition of Ukrainians who took the fight and did not surrender. In the end, Russia will lose its influence everywhere.

    It has lost our region twice. As they say, once was an accident, the second time was a pattern. Russia has left the region twice and will leave it again, even though it does not want to. Russia does not want to leave anywhere at all. And in order not to leave the region, Russia will fight, will go to all kinds of provocations. All we have to do is to stop them and overcome difficulties. We will be able to do it, despite all the consequences of this struggle.

    There may be shocks, pressures, including in the information field, on political forces, individual people fighting for Armenia’s independence.

    There may be difficulties with the import of energy resources, food products, but they can be replaced. Instead of Russian wheat, we can import Ukrainian wheat. If the only land road through Upper Lars, which connects Armenia with Georgia and Russia, closes, ferry transportation can be intensified. The territory of Turkey and Iran can be used.

    Air transportation may become more expensive. But this is a struggle for freedom, and nothing should be spared for its sake. Liberation from Russia’s influence will allow Armenia to preserve itself. With the loss of freedom, the country will cease to exist. It cannot be replaced by anything”.

    Political analyst Hovsep Khurshudyan believes that the Armenian authorities should resort to tough measures, including going to the international court

    “From the security point of view, Russia can resort to terrorist acts, political assassinations are possible, attacks on our borders. The mechanisms could be different. Fortunately, we do not have common borders with Russia, so the territories of third countries are supposed to be used for full-scale attacks. The most likely candidate is Azerbaijan.

    But the big question is whether Azerbaijan will want to become a springboard for such attacks after Armenians take the path of struggle? Because by becoming such a springboard, Azerbaijan will find itself on the same plane as Russia, and Aliyev will find himself on the same plane as Putin.

    I doubt that Azerbaijan will go for that. And the military-strategic and geopolitical situation for Armenia’s liberation from Russia is more favorable now”.

    Tension between the negotiators was felt even before the start of the talks mediated by Putin. The dispute between them began during the expanded meeting of the EAEU

    “If hostilities start in Artsakh, Azerbaijan will find a hundred reasons to attack Syunik [Armenia’s southern region] as well. Nothing will prevent Azerbaijan from claiming alleged shelling from the territory of Armenia and moving towards it.

    Therefore, any provocation on the territory of NK must be stopped there, including by Armenian forces. Any aggression against Artsakh means aggression against Armenia.

    Russia is holding Artsakh hostage in order to capture Armenia. Both Russia and Azerbaijan see NKR and Armenia in the same security system. And they are right to do so. For them the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh has long been resolved.

    Russia does not plan to stay in NK, it intends to move its entire contingent to Syunik. This is the Russian plan. And Syunik, as an extraterritorial black hole uncontrolled by Armenians, should serve the interests of Russia and come under the control of the FSB. Then Armenia, which has lost its strategic importance, will become an outpost for Russia.

    This process must be stopped in Artsakh so that Armenia does not lose its sovereignty”.

    https://jam-news.net/russias-position-in-the-region-and-relations-with-armenia/

    Cities of God: Ejmiatsin and Christian Armenia

    Emma Jilavian
    Catholic Culture
    Aug 31 2023

    By Mike Aquilina ( bio – articles – email ) | Aug 30, 2023 | In Way of the Fathers (Podcast)

    Listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS feed | YouTube Channel

    This is a listener-supported podcast! Thanks for your help! 

    As if an interest in patristics isn’t strange enough, in this episode we’re getting still more exotic. We’re entering the world of Armenian patristics. We’re visiting the ancient city of Ejmiatsin—leaping over the barriers of language (and even alphabet) to encounter the heroes too often neglected in the histories. This is the story of St. Gregory the Illuminator and his contemporaries, and the Church they founded. Armenia also became a great center of learning and so houses translations of many Greek and Syriac works that would otherwise be lost.

    LINKS

    Mike Aquilina, “Ancient Christian capital rises again in stunning New York exhibit” https://angelusnews.com/voices/ancient-christian-capital-rises-again-in-stunning-new-york-exhibit/

    Helen C. Evans, ed., Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Armenia_Art_Religion_and_Trade_in_the_Middle_Ages

    Society for Armenian Studies, Digital Resources https://societyforarmenianstudies.com/2018/02/12/armenian-studies-digital-resources/

    Robert W. Thomson, Five Studies in Armenian Patristics https://archive.org/details/thomson-studies-1964-1982

    Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

    Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

    Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

    In an effort to whitewash its criminal record, Azerbaijan unilaterally decides to send ‘aid’ to victims of its blockade

    Emma Jilavian

     10:46,

    YEREVAN, AUGUST 29, ARMENPRESS. In an apparent effort to whitewash its lengthy record of human rights violations and disregard for international law, the Azerbaijani authorities, who have caused a humanitarian disaster in Nagorno-Karabakh, have now unilaterally decided to send “humanitarian aid” to the victims of their own actions.

    Nagorno-Karabakh has been blockaded by Azerbaijan since December 2022. The blockade has led to a humanitarian crisis, with shortages of all essential products.

    Azerbaijan had previously claimed to be willing to send supplies through the Aghdam road. This was viewed in Nagorno-Karabakh as an attempt by Baku to subjugate them. Nagorno-Karabakh rejected the offers on receiving any Azeri aid through the Aghdam-Stepanakert road despite the crisis.

    On August 29, Azerbaijani news media reported that the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society will send 40 tons of flour to the Aghdam-Stepanakert road in what Azerbaijan hypocritically described as a “humanitarian gesture.”