Author: Hagop Kamalian

Advisor to Artsakh President comments on possibility of re-opening Stepanakert airport

Hagop Kamalian

Save

Share

 16:59, 1 December, 2020

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Advisor to the president of Artsakh Davit Babayan says in case of unblocking transport communication routes as envisaged by the statement signed by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, the re-launch of the airport of Stepanakert should be put into discussion.

“With the support of the Russian side, the re-opening of the Stepanakert airport will create a second important route connecting with the external world. Moreover, after its re-opening the airport can become an important transportation hub, as well as will enable to solve socio-economic issues”, Davit Babayan told Armenpress, adding that according to his information during the recent military operations the airport of Stepanakert has been targeted, but didn’t suffer serious damages.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Putin to chair CSTO Collective Security Council meeting

Hagop Kamalian

Save

Share

 18:18, 1 December, 2020

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. President of Russia Vladimir Putin will chair the meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s Collective Security Council via videoconference scheduled on December 2, the Kremlin reports.

Participants in the meeting will discuss allied interaction within the organization and further efforts to improve the efficiency of the CSTO. They will also exchange opinions on current issues of international and regional security.

The key decisions of the session participants will be reflected in a final declaration and other documents.

Armenpress: Debates on recognition of Artsakh’s independence to kick off in French Senate on November 25

Hagop Kamalian

Debates on recognition of Artsakh’s independence to kick off in French Senate on November 25

Save

Share

 19:42,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 24, ARMENPRESS. The French senate will discuss the resolution on the necessity to recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Artsakh) on November 25. ARMENPRESS reports, citing the official website of the Senate, the debates will start at 19:30 by Yerevan time.

The resolution is authored by Bruno Retailleau, Patrick Kanner, Hervé Marseille, Éliane Assassi, Guillaume Gontard.

‘’On November 25 the Senate will discuss the draft resolution which urges France to recognize Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Only the independence can protect the rights and freedoms of the population of Nagorno Karabakh for a lasting period who have encountered Turkey’s Islamic expansionism’’, Bruno Retailleau wrote on his Twitter page.

National Assembly to convene extraordinary session at the suggestion of the Government

Hagop Kamalian

Save

Share

 19:21,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS. The National Assembly of Armenia will convene an extraordinary session at the suggestion of the Government on November 19. ARMENPRESS reports there will be one issue on the agenda of the session. The MPs will discuss the program Caucasus Power Transmission Network III (2-nd stage).

The extraordinary session will take place at 11:00.

Second group of refugees escorted by Russian peacekeepers returns to Stepanakert

Hagop Kamalian

Save

Share

 10:08,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. Russian peacekeepers have accompanied the second group of refugees back to Stepanakert City, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

475 people returned to the capital of Artsakh on board 19 buses. The convoy left Yerevan and was escorted by the Russian peacekeepers and military police, who ensured their security at the line of contact. 

Earlier a group of 250 evacuated citizens of Artsakh had returned to Stepanakert.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Protesters demanding Pashinyan’s resignation again rally at Freedom Square in Yerevan

Hagop Kamalian

Save

Share

 17:11,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. Protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan are again rallying at Yerevan’s Freedom Square.

The rally is organized by 16 political parties.

Organizers said they will state their assessment of the situation and a roadmap of future actions.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

The world ignored Armenia’s pleas in latest fighting. U.S. must hold Turkey accountable

Hagop Kamalian

By Sevag Tateosian 

07:00 AM
Protesters with Armenian flags walk along a street during a protest against an agreement to halt fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, in Yerevan, Armenia, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. Thousands of people flooded the streets of Yerevan once again on Wednesday, protesting an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan to halt the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, which calls for deployment of nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers and territorial concessions. Protesters clashed with police, and scores have been detained.Dmitri Lovetsky AP

A few days after the United States election, I tuned in to a local popular radio program at lunch to listen to what callers were saying. A few minutes into the program, and to my surprise, the topic of Armenia and Armenian-Americans came up. A caller provided analysis of Armenian-American voters in “battleground” states and was of the opinion that had President Trump recognized the Armenian Genocide, he’d get those votes and ultimately retain the presidency. 

After listening and thinking about the situation, the analysis has some merit. Armenian-Americans make up a portion of the electorate in battle ground states like Nevada, Arizona, Philadelphia, Wisconsin and Michigan. In those communities, they have churches and organizations. Had President Trump recognized the Genocide and not been so friendly to Turkish President Erdogan, perhaps more Armenian-Americans would have voted for him. For the record, Erdogan was quick to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden, even as his “friend” President Trump contests the election. 

A few minutes later, a second caller called and talked about the Armenian-American demonstrations in Fresno and around the world. The second caller’s question, “What do they want us to do, send troops?”

As an Armenian-American, I’d like to address this question. No, I don’t want to send troops. To the contrary, it was Turkey that inserted themselves in a dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. They provided troops and technology (F-16s). Instead, I’d like our country and the world to stop turning a blind eye and hold Turkey and Azerbaijan accountable for their actions via sanctions. 

Approximately six weeks ago, the Azerbaijani military, with leadership from Turkish armed forces and Syrian mercenaries, attacked Nagorno-Karabakh. The war ended by Armenia signing an agreement to give up land to Azerbaijan in what many are calling a continuation of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. 

Dozens of drones were downed by Karabakh and Armenian forces. It was discovered that the Azerbaijani drones included components made in the United States from “name brand” companies. Armenian Americans are working with their representatives in Congress to prevent components from U.S. companies from being used in weapons, as done by Canada. The drones created havoc and killed innocent civilians.

War is ugly but there is evidence that Azerbaijani forces have committed appalling human rights abuses and war crimes. Video obtained by the BBC ( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54645254) show an Armenian soldier and village civilian being shot with their hands behind their backs and in humiliating positions. These types of actions are why Armenian-Americans are pushing for sanctions and for Azerbaijani and Turkish leadership to be held accountable. Aid, security assistance and arms sales to both countries should be restricted. People like me are upset that our tax dollars are going to help two countries with terrible human rights records. 

Until the U.S. finds an alternative location for the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, like Germany did with finding a base in Jordan, the Turkish government will always have the upper hand in negotiations. Using the air base isn’t cheap. In 2010, public radio’s The World ran a report that suggested the air base was valued at approximately $1.7 billion dollars (https://www.pri.org/stories/2010-10-04/cost-empire). In 2003, Turkey’s leaders didn’t allow the U.S. to launch direct strikes into Iraq from the airbase, jeopardizing operations. To add insult to injury, it is believed that Incirlik is on historic Armenian lands. 

A lawsuit was filed years ago stating (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/land-under-us-airbase-stolen-by-turkey-during-armenian-genocide-according-to-lawsuit-filed-by-yeghiayan–associates-111950024.html) that the land was confiscated by the Turkish authorities during the Armenian Genocide. Considering that the base is in the Adana region, which had a large Armenian population pre-1915, this assertion is highly likely. 

As an Armenian-American, my hope and request is that the U.S., the only country I know and love, will not contribute to the wreckage caused by Azerbaijan, Turkey and the foreign mercenaries who are aiming for destruction of the Armenians. Already Azerbaijani leadership has begun to erase Armenian history. Just a few days after the agreement was signed, Anar Karimov, first deputy minister of culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, tweeted that historic Armenian churches are really Albanian and not Armenian (https://twitter.com/Anar_Karim/status/1326437397270310912). 

I hope Azerbaijan and Turkey are held accountable, but doubt anything will happen. The world ignored Armenia ‘s pleas again. 

Sevag Tateosian lives in Fresno and is a volunteer with the Armenian National Committee of America–Central California fighting for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. 
Sevag Tateosian Contributed Special to The Bee
Read more here:

How drones helped Azerbaijan defeat Armenia, and the implications for future modern warfare

Hagop Kamalian
The Print, India
Nov 14 2020
ThePrint Team 6:07 pm IST

New Delhi: The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended earlier this week, as both sides decided to sign a ceasefire agreement. 

In episode 618 of #CutTheClutter, ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta explained that “unlike most wars in recent decades, this war has ended decisively in the sense that there is a victor, that is Azerbaijan, and there is a defeated side, that is Armenia.”

Back in the 1990s, it was the Armenians who had trumped Azerbaijan. But decades later the tables turned, in a way that could have severe implications on modern warfare.

“(This) is actually the first war in the history of modern warfare that has been won almost entirely on the strength of drone warfare,” Gupta noted.

The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan started on 27 September, over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. 

While Armenia only fought with tanks, artillery and air defence systems, Azerbaijan relied heavily on drones, specifically the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 and the Israeli-made Kamikaze drones. The two drones can carry bombs of up to 55 kg and 15 kg respectively.

“These are drones that are expensive, but very useful when it comes to targeting your adversaries, missile batteries particularly, your adversaries’ air defence radars, because all of those emit radiation,” Gupta said.

Gupta went onto refer to two articles to illustrate how this war would change the future of warfare. One, in The Washington Post, titled ‘Azerbaijan’s drones owned the battlefield in Nagorno-Karabakh — and showed future of warfare’, and the second, published in a military warfare blog, Oryx, titled ‘The Fight For Nagorno-Karabakh: Documenting Losses on The Sides Of Armenia and Azerbaijan’.

The Oryx article tallied pictures and videos to establish how much equipment had been lost by both sides. The forces of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic Armenians who had been living in the disputed region, lost 185 tanks, 45 armoured fighting vehicles, 44 infantry fighting vehicles, 147 towed artillery guns, 19 self-propelled artillery, 72 multi-barrel rocket launchers and 12 radars. Azerbaijan’s losses were only one-sixth of this.

“It’s as if armoured vehicles or tanks now are there for target practice if you lack the ability to handle drone attacks. If you have drone superiority, you don’t get tanks to fight tanks anyway,” Gupta said, illustrating why this was uneven warfare.

He further explained Azerbaijan’s “viciously clever tactics”, which involved baiting the Armenians using a repurposed biplane that dates back to 1947.

“They (Azerbaijan) took a biplane with a single propeller engine and converted it into unmanned single-use drones, which were sent to the Armenian defences, which thought this was a big threat coming,” Gupta added.

The Armenians activated their radars and missile batteries, which disclosed their positions. The Azerbaijan drone that had been encircling the area then came in and destroyed them. 

“That’s how almost the entire Armenian air defence and missile defence, surface-to-air missile defence was taken out,” Gupta said.

Explaining the advantages that a drone provides, Gupta pointed out how it can debilitate a force by having a devastating effect on the morale of soldiers “because they do not know what will come and hit them”.

“Now, it’s very scary because you don’t know — you’re sitting on the ground, you are in a tank, and you don’t know which fellow is loitering over you someplace, and will pick up your electronic signatures or your heat signatures and come drop bombs on you,” he said. 

Gupta quoted an exasperated speech by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who said the defeat was unavoidable due to the “deep analysis of the military situation”. 

“An army sitting on the ground and air force with very expensive jets having pilots cannot fight a rival that is very good with the use of drones,” Gupta said, elaborating what the Armenian PM had stated.

Another important factor that Gupta laid emphasis on was that the drones had been acquired from Turkey.

“Now these drones are very controversial, because the Turks designed these and built these after the Americans and NATO put sanctions keeping the Turkish from buying drones from them,” Gupta said. 

Canada had also stopped exporting electronic parts that were being used by Turkey to build drones.

At the heart of the issue was the devastation that had been caused by the drones in the conflicts in Syria and Libya. As the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan proved, Turkey developed the capability to build its own drones, which could affect India.

Gupta explained: “Turkey and Pakistan are now very close allies. Turkey will not give Pakistan drones for free because its economy is a mess… But if one gets very desperate, the Pakistanis can find the money. So India has to work on the presumption that Pakistan has access to these.”

In conclusion, Gupta quoted researcher Franz-Stefan Gady’s remarks that had been highlighted in the aforementioned Washington Post article.

“Now, he (Gady) says that it’s not as if the tanks and armoured vehicles will become obsolete… but Nagorno-Karabakh has shown the ever-increasing importance of using armed drones along with other weapons and highly trained ground forces, and the exponentially more devastating consequences of failing to do so in future wars,” said Gupta.

Watch the full episode here:

TURKISH press: Turkey: UN statement on mercenaries in Karabakh conflict ‘damages body’s credibility’

Hagop Kamalian
 ANKARA DIPLOMACY 
NOV 13, 2020 2:08 PM GMT+3
A view of a damaged house in the town of Shusha in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Azerbaijan, Oct. 29, 2020. (EPA Photo)

The United Nations Human Rights Council’s “baseless claims” on the use of Syrian fighters in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia are completely disconnected from reality and damage the organization’s credibility, the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated Friday.

“The reason why this fake news was circulating is Armenia’s effort to create the perception that it is allegedly a ‘victim country fighting against international terrorism’ and to divert attention from its illegal occupation,” the ministry said in a written statement.

“It was proven that Armenia recorded members of the Syrian National Army and published this as alleged evidence on the internet. These fake videos and words of persons who were made to speak in return for money have neither credibility nor validity,” it added.

The ministry said releasing the report based on fake footage and news without waiting for Turkey’s views damaged the U.N.’s credibility, adding that it expected the body to refrain from biased and misleading statements and conduct its work transparently while consulting all relevant parties.

The Foreign Ministry’s statement came after the U.N. Human Rights Council wrote Wednesday that there were widespread reports that “the Government of Azerbaijan, with Turkey’s assistance, relied on Syrian fighters to shore-up and sustain its military operations in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.”

On the other hand, the ministry said that the report indicating that Armenia used foreign fighters in the conflict was a positive step though insufficient.

The ministry underlined that it is known that Armenia positioned YPG/PKK terrorists in Nagorno-Karabakh, noting that even Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian admitted that a large number of ethnic Armenians from its diaspora participated in the fighting.

“We would expect special rapporteurs to investigate this information and footage, which can be found in open sources, in a more detailed manner,” the ministry said.

The statement also pointed out that while deliberate attacks on civilians were mentioned in the report, it was intentional negligence that Armenia was not stated as the perpetrator.

The ministry further reminded that Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International also reported Armenia’s illegal acts during the conflict.

Baku and Yerevan signed a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10 to end the fighting that erupted in September and work toward a comprehensive solution.

HRW last month urged Armenia to stop using internationally banned weapons amid clashes with Azerbaijan and described the act as a “flagrant disregard for civilian life and international law.”

“Armenian forces either fired or supplied internationally banned cluster munitions and at least one other type of long-range rocket used in an attack on the city of Barda, 230 kilometers (143 miles) west of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Oct. 28,” the rights group said.

Russia’s peaceful hand against aggression

Hagop Kamalian 
aceful-hand-against-aggression?j=404119&sfmc_sub=13818694&l=1222_HTML&u=1496
4262&mid=10979696&jb=14&cmpid=ema:Commentary:20201112&src=newsletter 
Its role in ending Azerbaijan's war against Armenia may hint at a new
respect for the sovereignty of national borders.
November 10, 2020
By the Monitor's Editorial Board
Did Russia just do an about-face and embrace a core principle of the
international order?
On Monday, it brokered a settlement to stop one former Soviet state,
Azerbaijan, from forcibly taking more land claimed by another former Soviet
state, Armenia, in a brutal war that began Sept. 27. Moscow even sent troops
into the disputed area, known as Nagorno-Karabakh, to help keep the truce.
What makes the settlement interesting is that Russia, a country that used
force twice in the past 12 years to change the borders of neighboring
states, stood up to Azerbaijan's aggression. This could be a moment to
celebrate Moscow's apparent respect for the sovereign equality of other
countries even as it had practical reasons to intervene.
Among most member states of the United Nations, the prohibition against the
use of force to change borders lies at the heart of the U.N. charter. Indeed
that global norm accounts for the relative peace of the past seven decades
compared with the destructive world wars of the early 20th century. In 2008,
Russia violated the prohibition by taking Georgia's Abkhazia and Tskhinvali
regions. In 2014, it used force again to take over parts of Ukraine.
These actions under President Vladimir Putin have since hit Russia's
economy. The West has imposed sanctions and kept Mr. Putin at a diplomatic
distance. The U.N. General Assembly criticized Russia for its belligerency
against Ukraine. And Mr. Putin now faces domestic pressure to deal with
COVID-19.
Azerbaijan, which has used its oil wealth to buy new weapons, attacked
Armenian forces in September with Turkish support. Armenia, which is aligned
with Russia, has since suffered heavy losses on the battlefield. Russia is
also at odds with Turkey in a number of conflicts, such as in Libya and
Syria. All of this may have led Moscow to find a way to end the use of
brutal force by Azerbaijan in changing the current boundaries with Armenia.
Related stories
FIRST LOOK Calls for diplomacy as Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict enters day 3
GLOBAL NEWS BLOG Will Azerbaijan fighting end after declared ceasefire?
GLOBAL NEWS BLOG Is Putin serious about peace in the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict?