Author: Hunanian Jack

Interfax - Russia & CIS Military Newswire
 Monday 6:36 PM MSK
Aliyev views exacerbation of tensions in Karabakh as reason for
speeding up settlement talks (Part 2)
 BAKU. June 19
The latest incidents on the contact line between the conflicting
parties in Nagorno-Karabakh prove the need to accelerate settlement
negotiations, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.
"Azerbaijan is committed to observing the ceasefire. However, Armenia
carried out a military provocation on the contact line prior to your
visit to the region. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces gave an adequate
response, the outcome of which is known," Aliyev said at a meeting
with the OSCE Minsk Group's co-chairs from Russia, France, and the
United States in Baku on Monday.
Certain tensions persist on the contact line lately, Aliyev said. "It
is an important factor for accelerating the negotiating process," he
said.
He accused Yerevan of provocations on the frontline. "The Armenian
side had carried out another military provocation against Azerbaijan,
which led to the death of an Azerbaijani serviceman, following your
visit to Armenia and the occupied Azerbaijani territories and prior to
your visit to Azerbaijan," the president said.
The Armenian side always resorts to such provocations prior to holding
any important event or the OSCE co-chairs' visit, he said.
These actions of Yerevan are aimed at blaming Baku for violating the
ceasefire, Aliyev said. "They accuse us of anything, including
ceasefire violations. But one only has to look at the chronology to
see when the Armenian Armed Forces had killed an Azerbaijani
serviceman, and when Azerbaijan gave an adequate response to it.
Therefore, responsibility for the latest ceasefire violation on the
frontline rests with the Armenian leadership, and the Armenian Armed
Forces are accountable for any consequences," Aliyev said.
The recent events proved that Armenia is trying to interfere with
activities of the OSCE Minsk Group's co-chairs, he said. "Armenia is
trying to shift focus only to the security issues and is using the
events happening as a reason to accuse Azerbaijan of breaching the
ceasefire. It is entirely unjust stance," he said.
Russian co-chair Igor Popov, for his part, expressed the negotiating
process mediators' concern over serious ceasefire violations in the
Karabakh settlement zone. "We will report this situation in the
statement adopted following the visit," he said.
U.S. co-chair Richard Hogland and French co-chair Stefan Visconti, as
well as Personal Representative of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej
Kasprzyk, also expressed their views on the negotiation process.
"At the meeting, the parties expressed their views on the emerging
situation and prospects of the Karabakh settlement," the Azerbaijani
presidential website said.
Tensions on the contact line in Karabakh have exacerbated over the
past week. Conflicting parties reported causalities among servicemen.

                                        Monday, June 5, 2017
Karabakh Army Chief Expects More Truce Violations
 . Hovannes Movsisian
Nagorno-Karabakh - General Levon Mnatsakanian, commander of the
Karabakh Armenian army, addresses military personnel, 10Dec2016.
Azerbaijan will likely ratchet up tensions along "the line of contact"
around Nagorno-Karabakh in the months ahead, the commander of
Karabakh's Armenian-backed army claimed over the weekend.
"Azerbaijan will certainly do everything keep up tensions on the
frontline," Lieutenant General Levon Mnatsakanian told reporters in
Stepanakert. "It will increasingly seek to inflict damage on us, while
we will do everything to respond accordingly and, if need be, if we
find it expedient, deal a final blow."
Mnatsakanian said that in the past several months truce violations
around Karabakh have been much less serious than they were last year,
which saw heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in
April known as "the four-day war."
Over the past year the Karabakh Armenian army has reinforced its
frontline positions with new defense fortifications, more weapons as
well as special equipment such as night-vision surveillance
devices. The latter helped it fight back in late February two
Azerbaijani commando raids that left at least five Azerbaijani
soldiers dead.
In Mnatsakanian's words, Azerbaijani special forces have not attempted
more such incursions since then. "As regards gunshots fired from
various weapons, they have decreased sharply since 2016," added the
general.
Truce violations on the Karabakh frontlines have periodically
intensified this year. In the most recent escalation, Azerbaijani
forces fired guided missiles at an air-defense system of Karabakh's
Defense Army on May 16. The latter retaliated with mortar fire
targeting Azerbaijani military facilities.
The U.S., Russian and French mediators co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group
condemned the "significant violations of the ceasefire." In a May 18
statement, they urged the parties to "take all necessary measures to
prevent any further escalation in the conflict zone."
A senior official in Stepanakert insisted on Friday that continuing
armed incidents are unlikely to escalate into a full-scale war.
Ombudsman Deplores Prison Health Care In Armenia
 . Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - An ambulances leaves a prison hospital in Yerevan 6Mar2017.
People serving prison sentences in Armenia often lack access to
adequate health services and have to turn to their cellmates for
medical assistance, the country's human rights ombudsman said on
Monday.
Arman Tatoyan drew this conclusion in a special report based on
interviews that were conducted by representatives of his office as
well as civic activists in various Armenian prisons last year.
The report paints a grim picture of prison healthcare with concrete
examples of unnamed inmates who claimed to have lacked proper
treatment and medication for their illnesses and disabilities. One of
them, a visually impaired person, is said to have been discharged from
a prison hospital in Yerevan and sent back to jail despite being able
to move around unaided.
According to the report, another prisoner underwent only X-ray
screening when he was hospitalized after suffering a broken leg. He
subsequently relied on cellmates, rather than doctors or other prison
staff, to meet his basic needs.
"These practices are unacceptable," says the report. It also says that
convicts in need of medical aid are not always transferred to prison
or civilian hospitals in violation of European conventions and norms
adopted by Armenia. It also cites cases of sick prisoners not being
provided with necessary medicines.
According to Tatoyan, law-enforcement authorities blame this on a lack
of public funding for medical care in the penitentiary system. The
ombudsman dismissed this explanation.
Almost 3,900 persons served prison sentences or were under pre-trial
arrest in Armenia as of September 2015, up from around 3,000 in 2005.
According to the Council of Europe's Annual Penal Statistics (SPACE)
released in March, 38 inmates died in Armenian prisons in
2014. Activists monitoring prison conditions in the country say such
deaths primarily result from a lack of adequate and quick medical aid.
Sarkisian Confronted By Protesters In Yerevan
 . Narine Ghalechian
Armenia -- President Serzh Sarkisian speaks to protest#rs in Yerevan,
5June, 2017.
President Serzh Sarkisian was confronted on Monday by about a dozen
angry people dispossessed by a government-backed private construction
company that demolished their homes in Yerevan years ago.
The protesters are former residents of an old neighborhood in the city
center that was due to be redeveloped by the now bankrupt company,
Glendale Hills. The latter signed in 2007 contracts with over 100
owners of local houses who agreed to cede their land and properties in
return for its formal pledge to give them new homes in apartment
buildings which were due to be constructed in the area. The
redeveloped project was never implemented.
Around half of those families have still not received apartments or
financial compensation. Some of those people gathered outside
Sarkisian's residence early in the morning in the hope of speaking to
the president and asking him to intervene. They waited for more than
two hours before the presidential motorcade emerged from the secluded
compound and stopped just outside it.
"Mr. President, we have been homeless for ten years," one woman told
Sarkisian after he got out of his limousine and approached the small
crowd. "We have been badly mistreated, just like street dogs."
"Mr. President, I had personally appealed to you," complained another
woman. "You said you will see to it that my problem is urgently
solved. We have still not received an answer."
"Is it you who brought the journalists here?" replied a visibly
irritated Sarkisian. "Why are they hindering us?" "They are not,"
retorted one of the women.
"Alright, [officials] will come and look into the matter in the next
two days," the president said before leaving the scene.
The protesters argue that the Armenian government was a party to their
2007 contracts with Glendale Hills and must therefore help make sure
that they are implemented. As one of them put it: "If the company is
now liquidated, it means that the state must address the issue."
Either they must pay us or give us apartments."
Some displaced residents fear that they will only be offered rundown
apartments in the city outskirts in breach of the developer's
contractual obligations.
Hundreds of Yerevan families were displaced in the 2000s during a
massive redevelopment of parts of the city center. Many of them were
forced out of their mostly old homes after refusing financial
compensation which they believe was set well below the market value of
their properties because of government corruption.
Some appealed to the European Court of Human Rights after having their
lawsuits against the government rejected by Armenian courts. The
Strasbourg-based court has ordered the Armenian authorities to pay
additional compensations to dozens of such families.
Press Review
(Saturday, June 3)
"Hayots Ashkhar" is critical of a report by the International Crisis
Group which claims that Armenia and Azerbaijan are closer to a renewed
war for Nagorno-Karabakh than ever before. The paper notes that the
report comes ahead of international mediators' fresh visit to the
conflict zone and "seems to be somewhat depreciating" their efforts to
step up the difficult search for a compromise peace formula.
"Zhamanak" says that Armenian politics is increasingly dominated by
the question of what President Serzh Sarkisian will do after
completing his second and final term in office in April next year. The
paper complains that it has overshadowed other important issues. "The
only issue on the political agenda in Armenia is government infighting
and its likely outcome," it says. "The public has become a mere
spectator in this process."
"168 Zham" notes that official photographs of Sarkisian's meetings
held with some government ministers in recent weeks exposed books in
the Armenian and foreign languages that seem to have been
demonstratively placed on the presidential desk. In a written response
to the paper, Sarkisian said: "The books on my desk are both gifts
from various individuals and books which I read or re-read when I have
time. By being surrounded by books in my office, I feel protected and
insured by the power of books and knowledge. As regards my literary
preferences, I am currently re-reading Niall Ferguson's `Politics' and
Helmut Schoeck's `Envy' as well as works of [Armenian poet] Yeghishe
Charents."
"Hraparak" looks at structural changes within the Armenian government
that are mandated by the country's amended constitution. The paper
says that as part of those changes Armenia's police and National
Security Service (NSS) may be merged into a single ministry of
internal affairs. Alternatively, it says, the police may be merged
with the Ministry of Emergency Situations. There are already rumors
that the national police chief, Vladimir Gasparian, might be sacked as
a result, according to the paper.
(Artur Papian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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