Author: Hambardsumian Paul

 14:07,

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Member of Parliament Hasmik Hakobyan (Civil Contract faction) criticized the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for its inaction over the occupation of sovereign territories of Armenia – a CSTO member – by Azerbaijan.

Hakobyan delivered remarks at the meeting of parliamentary delegations of CSTO member states during the 146th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Bahrain.

“In May and November 2021, as well as in September last year, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military aggression against the Republic of Armenia which resulted in over 150 square kilometers of sovereign territories of Armenia being occupied. In this situation the military and political support from CSTO partners was important for Armenia. And we regret that our organization, the CSTO, still doesn’t have a clear political assessment that an attack has taken place on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, and that Azerbaijan has occupied territories of a CSTO member country,” Hakobyan said in her speech.

Speaking about the humanitarian crisis and security-related issues in Nagorno Karabakh, Hakobyan underscored that Azerbaijan is not complying with the International Court of Justice February 22 ruling to open the Lachin corridor – the only road linking Nagorno Karabakh to the outside world.

“For three months, along with the blockade of Lachin corridor and creation of a humanitarian disaster, Azerbaijan continues to terrorize the indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh. The Azerbaijani military is regularly violating the ceasefire. Recently they opened fire on a peaceful civilian who was farming. And on March 5, as a result of a sabotage ambush committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces, three police officers of the Nagorno Karabakh police were killed and one was injured,” the legislator said.

Hakobyan called on the parliamentarians to condemn Azerbaijan’s use of force, as well as provocative manifestations of a large-scale military attack.

The United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan on February 22 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. The Lachin Corridor is blocked by Azerbaijan since 12 December 2022.

 13:08,

YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. The Future Armenian Convention – the first pan-Armenian citizens’ assembly – kicked off in Yerevan on March 10.

The Future Armenian is a public initiative launched by Armenians and friends of Armenia to create a common framework of understanding around the sustainable development of Armenia as a country and Armenians as a nation.

Over 200 participants will engage in discussions on “Historic Responsibility”, “Armenia-Diaspora Unity” and “Growing Population”.

“Today we are opening a new chapter in the history of the Future Armenian initiative,” said Artak Apitonyan, the CEO of the Future Armenian Development Foundation. “We are launching a highly important stage of public discussions, which is commonly referred to as a citizens’ assembly in the world. In a sense this is a new test in the Armenian arena but we are convinced that we will achieve success through joint efforts.”

Speaking about the development of the initiative, he said that the 2020 war made them once again think about the future in terms of “what kind of Armenia and Armenians we want to have and how to build that Armenia.”

Over 110,000 Armenians from 108 countries have already joined the initiative.

200 of them are now participating in the discussions.

Noubar Afeyan, a co-founder of the initiative, as well as Ruben Vardanyan, the former State Minister of Artsakh who is also a co-founder of the initiative, also delivered remarks at the event, with the latter joining through video call from blockaded Artsakh. Vardanyan said that the ongoing blockade showed that Armenians have a great demand for discussing ideas.

 12:10, 8 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 8, ARMENPRESS. Today, Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), is circulating a letter for his colleagues to sign outlining key congressional priorities for Armenia and Artsakh. The letter, to be sent to House State Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) and Ranking Member Barbara Lee (D-CA), specifically calls for $100 million in aid to Armenia, $50 million in aid to Artsakh, $2 million for demining efforts, as well as enforcing Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, and releasing Armenian prisoners of war and captured civilians who were supposed to be freed under the terms of the trilateral statement signed in November 2020, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Armenian Assembly of America.

Citing Azerbaijan’s “inhumane” and illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which is now in its third month, the letter emphasized that the region’s Armenian people are “on the brink of a humanitarian crisis” that “threatens to have lasting consequences on the region’s security.”

While the Armenian people are still trying to recover from the “severe hardships caused by the deadly 44-day war” that Azerbaijan, with the full and open support of Turkey, waged on Artsakh in September 2020, the letter highlighted that these ongoing “cruel actions” of blockading the Lachin Corridor and denying access to medical treatments, food, and essential goods, have created “overwhelming needs” and therefore “the assistance provided to date by the U.S. government is wholly insufficient.”

In order to bolster the security of Armenia and champion democracy in the region, the letter also urges assistance to Armenia to “protect their sovereignty” in the face of constant “Azerbaijani expansion and authoritarianism.” The “critical investment” will build on the past support for Armenia and Artsakh and further strengthen U.S.-Armenia relations and partnerships.

Cutting off military assistance to Azerbaijan is another point underscored in the letter, which states that it is “abundantly clear that the continued waiver of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, amidst Azerbaijan’s unabated policy of aggression, has emboldened this violent pattern of behavior.”

Tracing President Ilham Aliyev’s brutal 2020 assault on Artsakh not long after receiving over $100 million in security assistance through the Section 333 Building Partner Capacity Program in Fiscal Years 2018 and 2019, the letter states that “holding Azerbaijan accountable is long overdue and must begin with Congress encouraging the Administration to fully enforce Section 907, restricting the Administration’s authority to waive this law, and enacting statutory prohibitions on any new or pending U.S. military or security aid to Azerbaijan.”

Despite agreeing to the terms of the trilateral statement, Azerbaijan continues to detain over 130 Armenian prisoners of war, hostages, and detained persons, and the letter urges their immediate return.

“The Assembly urges Members of Congress to join this important initiative spearheaded by Congressman Pallone and the Armenian Caucus,” said Assembly Congressional Relations Director Mariam Khaloyan. “Securing aid for Armenia and Artsakh, stopping military assistance to Azerbaijan, and ensuring the release of Armenian prisoners of war are vital. With so much at stake as the Armenian people face a humanitarian crisis and genocidal threats to their very existence, we urge the community to join with us for our upcoming Advocacy Summit and make our voices heard in the halls of Congress.” Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

 09:30, 6 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 6, ARMENPRESS. The former State Minister of Artsakh Artak Beglaryan issued a statement on the Azerbaijani disinformation regarding the March 5 deadly ambush by Azeri forces against Nagorno Karabakh police officers.

Beglaryan said that the Azerbaijani disinformation is “simple and unreasonable” to such extent that even a child can identify the lies.

Below is the full statement released by Beglaryan.

“The disinformation from Azerbaijani authorities is so simple and unreasonable in its logic that even a kid can identify their lies on the ambush their armed forced carried out on Artsakh policemen today.

1. The Artsakh police car was traveling from Stepanakert to their duty checkpoint in the Shushi region, while the Azerbaijani side claims that it was traveling from Armenia to Stepanakert. The car’s direction of travel is fully visible in the video published by the Artsakh Police.
2. With the police vehicle traveling from Stepanakert, it is clearly impossible that they were transferring weapons, or anything for that matter, from Armenia to Artsakh because they were traveling in the opposite direction.
3. The video also shows the moment Azerbaijani servicemen ambushed the police vehicle, firing then approaching and opening the door then throwing documents, claiming to check for weapons that they didn’t find.
4. A photo published by the Police also shows the targeted vehicle, at the location, post-attack, was empty, which means that there was no cargo in it.
5. Besides the fact that the officers were traveling from Stepanakert, they were also traveling in a small vehicle barely large enough for the passengers, how could weapons be transported in such a small car?
6. The video also shows how the Azerbaijani servicemen were shooting at the car from a distance and then approaching closer and shooting again into the car. Video evidence makes it apparent that only after leaving the location of the attack, Artsakh military positions fired in defense. It refutes Azerbaijani false claims that the Artsakh side shot first.
7. If the Artsakh side was the first attacker according to the Azerbaijani side, in that case what about the video evidence and why the targeted car and the losses of both sides were on the road under our control over 1 kilometers far from the contact line?
8. Azerbaijani authorities planned this attack, wrongly assuming their ambush and killing of our people would not receive an adequate and defensive response from the Artsakh military position near the incident location. We have full rights to protect our people from Azerbaijani crimes and genocidal actions.

This is nothing less than a continuation of the ethnic cleansing policy of the Aliyev regime against the people of Artsakh in parallel with their 84-days of blockade.

Azerbaijan has not only done nothing to implement the UN International Court of Justice order, published on February 22, to open the Lachin Corridor for unimpeded movement of persons, cars and cargo, but it continues to deteriorate the humanitarian crisis further with such kind of aggressions.

By the way, the UN International Court of Justice rejected the Azerbaijani application on Armenian munitions saying that there are not sufficient evidence on those claims.

The Aliyev dictatorial regime of Azerbaijan must be punished by the international community for this and previous crimes, including the blockade, otherwise they will continue to escalate their aggressions and commit new and more brutal crimes against humanity and the people of Artsakh.”

 17:48,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani refugees living in Germany gathered outside the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich to protest against Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s regime, Azerbaijani media reported.

The Azerbaijani leader was to arrive at the venue of the Munich Security Conference for a trilateral meeting with the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken when the demonstration began. 

The demonstrators were holding signs calling for sanctions against Aliyev. “Don’t sacrifice democracy for energy. Sanctions against Aliyev,” read one of the posters.

CIVILNET.AM