Monday,
More Noncombat Deaths In Armenian Army’s Ranks
• Artak Khulian
Armenia - Soldiers march at an Armenian military base, December 24, 2022.
An Armenian soldier reportedly shot dead a comrade before taking his own life
while on combat duty on Sunday, adding to the growing number of noncombat deaths
in the Armenian army’s ranks.
Armenia’s Investigative Committee suggested on Monday that the fatal shootings
were the result of a gross violation of military regulations. The
law-enforcement agency did not immediately arrest or charge any other servicemen
in connection with the deadly incident which it said occurred at an army post on
the border with Azerbaijan.
The shootings sparked fresh uproar from human rights activists monitoring the
armed forces. According to one of them, Zhanna Andreasian, 54 Armenian soldiers
died in the first half of this year, and only a dozen of them were killed by
enemy fire.
Fifteen other conscripts were found dead in January at their military barracks
destroyed by a major fire. Virtually all other victims of deadly noncombat
incidents committed suicide, according to military investigators. Six more
soldiers, including the latest victims, died in August.
“This is unprecedented,” Andreasian said on Monday, commending on the grim
statistics. “There was no such scale under our former rulers.”
The veteran activist blamed Defense Minister Suren Papikian and the army top
brass for the increased number of deaths which she said makes mockery of
sweeping defense reforms repeatedly announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
after the 2020 war with Azerbaijan.
“He [Papikian] doesn’t speak up, and we don’t know … what they are reforming. He
had better resign together with his boss [Pashinian,]” she told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service.
Another human rights campaigner, Artur Sakunts, said the declared reforms cannot
make any difference unless the authorities take “urgent” measures to tackle poor
army discipline. He said military commanders must at last be held accountable
for deaths and other serious incidents happening in their units.
Andreasian similarly complained that senior or mid-ranking officers are rarely
prosecuted over such crimes. She accused investigators of routinely covering
them up.
France's Macron Seeks Stronger Pressure On Azerbaijan
France - President Emmanuel Macron gives a speech in front of French ambassadors
at the Elysee Palace, Paris, .
France will try to drum up stronger international pressure on Azerbaijan to end
its continuing blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, French President Emmanuel Macron
said on Monday.
"I will have an opportunity to speak this week with [Armenian] Prime Minister
Pashinian and with [Azerbaijani] President Ilham Aliyev,” Macron told French
ambassadors to countries around the world.
“We will demand full respect for the Lachin humanitarian corridor and we will
again take a diplomatic initiative in this direction internationally to increase
the pressure,” he said in remarks cited by French media.
Macron gave no details of that initiative. France’s Le Figaro daily reported
last week that Paris is “preparing to submit” to the UN Security Council a draft
resolution designed to help Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population left “on the
verge of starvation.”
The Security Council discussed the worsening humanitarian crisis in Karabakh
during an August 16 meeting initiated by Armenia. Although most of its members,
including the United States, urged the lifting of the Azerbaijani blockade, the
council did not adopt a relevant resolution or statement.
The U.S., the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called for renewed
commercial and humanitarian traffic through the sole road connecting Karabakh to
Armenia. Azerbaijan has dismissed their appeals.
Baku was quick to denounce Macron’s latest remarks, saying that his “language of
pressure” is unacceptable. An Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman also
objected to the French leader’s use of the term “Lachin humanitarian corridor.”
He said it violates Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
France, which is home to a sizable Armenian community, has been the most vocal
international critic of the eight-month Azerbaijani blockade. Baku has
repeatedly accused Macron and other French officials of siding with Armenia in
the Karabakh conflict.
Bread Shortage Worsens In Karabakh
• Susan Badalian
Nagorno-Karabakh - People wait in a line outside a bakery in Stepanakert, August
8, 2023.
Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have urged local farmers to sell wheat harvested
by them amid a deepening shortage of bread resulting from Azerbaijan’s
eight-month blockade of the Lachin corridor.
Bread appears to have become the main staple food in Stepanakert and other
Karabakh towns since Baku tightened the blockade in mid-June by halting all
relief supplies to the Armenian-populated region carried out by Russian
peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Local food stores
have run out of limited amounts of other basic other foodstuffs sold in previous
months.
The bread shortage worsened in recent days, with Stepanakert residents saying
that they now have to spend more hours waiting in lines to buy up to loaves per
person from bakeries.
“When you stand in a line you lose a whole day,” one of them, Arega Ishkhanian,
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “If you queue up at six in the evening, you may
have to wait until the next morning.”
“And the problem is not just bread, there is nothing else available,” she said.
“But at least the kids could eat bread.”
Nagorno-Karabakh - Stepanakert residents line up to buy bread, August 8, 2023.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Karabakh’s Agricultural Fund said it is
supplying additional quantities of flour to bakeries to try to alleviate the
problem. Underscoring its gravity, the agency said the authorities are ready to
buy up all wheat grown and stored by Karabakh farmers and to swiftly pay for it
in cash. It urged the farmers to sell off their wheat stocks.
The authorities are facing growing calls to introduce bread coupons and thus
reduce waiting lines formed outside bakeries and shops.
The Armenian government warned in July that Karabakh is now “on the verge of
starvation.” It urged the international community to put stronger pressure on
Azerbaijan to lift the blockade.
The United States, the European Union and Russia have repeatedly called for
renewed commercial and humanitarian traffic through the sole road connecting
Karabakh to Armenia. Baku has dismissed their appeals.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made clear on Saturday that he will not bow
to the international pressure. Visiting the town of Lachin close to Karabakh’s
lifeline road, Aliyev said Baku’s actions are aimed at “fully restoring
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.”
“Nothing can force us to deviate from our path,” he said.
Three More Karabakh Men Arrested By Azerbaijan (UPDATED)
• Ruzanna Stepanian
A view of the Azerbaijani checlpoint set up in the Lachin corridor, June 23,
2023.
Three residents of Nagorno-Karabakh were detained by Azerbaijani security forces
on Monday while traveling to Armenia through the Lachin corridor.
Karabakh officials said that the young men, identified as Alen Sargsian, Vahe
Hovsepian and Levon Grigorian, were “kidnapped” at the Azerbaijani checkpoint
blocking the corridor as they were escorted by Russian peacekeepers along with
other Karabakh civilians.
One of the officials, Artak Beglarian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the
peacekeepers are negotiating with the Azerbaijani side to try have them freed.
Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, held an emergency session of his
security council later in the day.
“Azerbaijan is continuing its genocidal policy towards the people of Artsakh,
once again violating international humanitarian law,” read a Karabakh statement
issued shortly after the detentions.
The Azerbaijani authorities did not immediately comment on the arrests. But
media outlets linked to them reported that the three Karabakh Armenians are
suspected of being members of a Karabakh football team that had “disrespected”
the Azerbaijani national flag in a 2021 video posted on social media.
Beglarian said he “cannot confirm” that Sargsian, Hovsepian and Grigorian played
for that youth team based in the Karabakh town of Martuni. “All three of them
are students of Armenian universities,” he said.
In any case, added Beglarian, the Azerbaijani allegations are “absurd” and aimed
at intimidating Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population opposed to the restoration
of Azerbaijani control over their region.
Another Karabakh man, Vagif Khachatrian, was arrested at the Azerbaijani
checkpoint in late July while being evacuated by the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) to Armenia. The 68-year-old was taken Baku to stand trial
on charges of killing and deporting Karabakh’s ethnic Azerbaijani residents in
December 1991, at the start of the first Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Karabakh’s leadership rejected the “false” accusations and demanded
Khachatrian’s immediate release. The Armenian Foreign Ministry likewise
condemned Khachatrian’s arrest as a “blatant violation of international
humanitarian law” and “war crime.”
The ministry condemned the latest detentions as well. It described them as a
further indication that Baku intends to “avoid dialogue with Nagorno-Karabakh by
all means and continue instead his policy of ethnic cleansing.”
Khachatrian is the first Karabakh patient arrested by the Azerbaijani
authorities during regular medical evacuations organized by the ICRC after Baku
halted last December commercial traffic through the only road connecting
Karabakh to Armenia.
Last week, Baku also allowed other categories of Karabakh’s population, notably
university students and holders of Russian passports, to travel to Armenia. They
are escorted by Russian peacekeepers.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Author: Jane Topchian
Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 25-08-23
16:55,
YEREVAN, 25 AUGUST, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 25 August, USD exchange rate up by 0.02 drams to 385.98 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 1.95 drams to 416.97 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.01 drams to 4.08 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 2.71 drams to 486.84 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 6.20 drams to 23789.72 drams. Silver price up by 5.41 drams to 300.12 drams.
Azerbaijan intends to open Lachin Corridor only for outbound transit, warns Pashinyan
11:20,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that he’s received information that Azerbaijan intends to re-open the Lachin Corridor only in one direction to allow outbound transit.
Speaking at the Cabinet meeting on August 24, Pashinyan said that Azerbaijan continues its illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor and the humanitarian aid sent by the Armenian government, the private sector as well as French regions remains stranded at the entrance of Lachin Corridor.
“At the same time, the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh remains tense. The only change in the situation is that a certain movement of people requiring treatment and other citizens has begun along the Lachin Corridor through the Red Cross and the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh. At the same time, we have received credible information that plans are being developed to unilaterally open the Lachin Corridor, meaning to allow only exit from Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinyan said.
The Armenian PM said that numerous residents of Nagorno-Karabakh remain stranded in Armenia and are unable to return home – 5,000 persons as a result of the blockade since December 2022 and 30,000 persons as a result of the unfulfillment of clause 7 of the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement.
Armenia GDP per capita to surpass $8000 this year, minister of economy lauds exponential growth
14:34,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, ARMENPRESS. The GDP per capita in Armenia will surpass 8000 dollars this year, Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan told reporters on August 24.
The increase will be twice more compared to 2020.
He said that the level of development has increased exponentially.
“We are recording exponential growth as a country and as a society,” he said, adding that the government’s business support instruments are being changed according to the pace of development.
RFE/RL Armenian Report – 08/22/2023
Tuesday,
Karabakh Residents Escorted To Armenia
• Robert Zargarian
• Tigran Hovsepian
Armenia - A group of Karabakh residents arrive in Armenia, .
Azerbaijan has allowed several dozen residents of Nagorno-Karabakh to travel to
Armenia for the first time since tightening its blockade of the Lachin corridor
more than two months ago.
Forty-one Karabakh-born citizens of Russia as well as students enrolled in
Armenian universities were escorted by Russian peacekeepers on Monday to an
Azerbaijani checkpoint set up in the corridor in April before entering Armenia.
Another group of Karabakh Armenians passed through the checkpoint on Tuesday.
They included the 17-year-old Knar Khachatrian, who was recently admitted to
Yerevan State University.
“I expected the process of going through the checkpoint to be more complicated,
but it was actually easy and everything went well,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service after crossing into Armenia.
Many of the travellers were approached at the checkpoint by a large number of
journalists from state-controlled Azerbaijani media that portrayed their journey
as proof of Baku’s claims that Karabakh has not been cut off from the outside
world. Karabakh authorities accused Baku of manipulating those interviews for
propaganda purposes.
“The Azerbaijani side continues to create humiliating conditions at the illegal
checkpoint located near the Hakari bridge, in addition to its illegal
surveillance of and obstacles for the citizens of Artsakh,” read a statement
released by a Karabakh agency on Monday evening.
The authorities in Stepanakert argue that Azerbaijan keeps blocking commercial
and humanitarian traffic through the sole road connecting Karabakh to Armenia.
The blockade, compounded by the disruption of Armenia’s gas and electricity
supplies to Karabakh, has led to severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel and
other essential items in the Armenian-populated region.
Baku has also periodically banned the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) from transporting critically ill Karabakh residents to Armenian
hospitals. The medical evacuations continued on Tuesday, with the ICRC escorting
seven such patients to Armenia and transferring as many others back to Karabakh.
Meanwhile, the family of a young Karabakh woman who died in an August 13 road
accident in Armenia still awaited Azerbaijani permission to repatriate her body
through the ICRC. The Red Cross said it is continuing to discuss the matter with
Baku.
Tensions Rise Again On Armenian-Azeri Border
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - An Armenian army post on the border with Azerbaijan.
One Armenian soldier has been killed and one Azerbaijani serviceman wounded in
fresh skirmishes reported from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry said late on Monday that the soldier, Vanik
Ghazarian, died at an Armenian army outpost in eastern Gegharkunik province that
came under fire from across the border.
The mayor of the nearby village of Akhparadzor told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service
that he heard the sounds of gunfire late in the afternoon. He said there were no
signs of further shooting in that border area the following morning.
The Azerbaijani military said, meanwhile, that one of its soldiers was wounded
by Armenian forces on Tuesday. It did not specify where the incident occurred
while accusing Armenia of escalating tensions along the volatile border.
The Defense Ministry in Yerevan issued on Tuesday at least three statements
denying Armenian ceasefire violations alleged by the Azerbaijani side.
Tensions at various sections of the long border have run high in recent months
despite major progress reported in Armenian-Azerbaijani talks on a bilateral
peace treaty. According to Yerevan, one of the main remaining obstacles to such
a deal is Baku’s rejection of an Armenian proposal to use Soviet-era military
maps for delimiting and demarcating the frontier.
Fresh shooting incidents were also reported from the “line of contact” in and
around Nagorno-Karabakh. The authorities in Stepanakert on Tuesday accused
Azerbaijani troops of continuing to shoot at residents of a Karabakh village
trying to harvest their wheat.
The authorities report such incidents on a regular basis. They claim Azerbaijani
is deliberately trying to disrupt agricultural activity in Karabakh in an effort
to aggravate food shortages resulting from the Azerbaijani blockade of the
Lachin corridor. Baku claims that its troops only open fire to stop Karabakh
Armenian forces from fortifying their positions.
Azerbaijan Urged To Recognize Armenia’s Borders
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan meets his Belgian
counterpart Hadja Lahbib in Yerevan, .
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib urged Azerbaijan to publicly recognize
Armenia’s borders when she visited Yerevan on Tuesday.
“We have welcomed the courage of [Armenian Prime Minister] Nikol Pashinian who
publicly recognized Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, and we call on
Azerbaijan’s leadership to do the same,” she said after talks with her Armenian
counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan.
Mirzoyan reiterated Yerevan’s claims that Baku could lay claim to Armenian
territory even after Pashinian recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh
earlier this year.
“So far we have not heard public statements by Azerbaijan’s leadership
recognizing the territorial integrity of Armenia,” he told a joint news
conference with Lahbib. “We heard such words only during meetings held behind
closed doors, and we are very concerned about this. This may mean that
Azerbaijan has territorial claims to Armenia.”
Pashinian suggested earlier this month that Azerbaijan is seeking to sign the
kind of peace deal with Armenia that would not preclude such claims.
Pashinian’s most recent meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was
hosted in Brussels on July 12 by Charles Michel, a former Belgian prime minister
heading the European Union’s top decision-making body. Michel said after the
meeting that the two leaders reaffirmed their earlier “understanding that
Armenia’s territory covers 29,800 square kilometers and Azerbaijan’s 86,600
square kilometers.” Aliyev has still not publicly confirmed that.
Mirzoyan said that international mediators should make sure that Baku honors
Armenian-Azerbaijani understandings brokered by them. “Not only are
understandings not being respected but we are seeing opposite processes,” he
said, pointing to the continuing Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor.
Lahbib expressed serious concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in
Karabakh, warning of the risk of famine in the Armenian-populated region. “It is
incumbent on Azerbaijan to ensure the security of Karabakh’s population and free
traffic through the Lachin corridor,” she said.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: supermarket shelves empty as food shortages hit – video
The Guardian, UK
Aug 21 2023
A resident of Nagorno-Karabakh filmed empty supermarket shelves as reports show it has become harder to access food, medicines and other essential supplies as an Azerbaijani blockade of the breakaway region drags into its ninth month.
Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but its population of 120,000 is overwhelmingly ethnic Armenian and the enclave’s one remaining land link to Armenia, the Lachin corridor policed by Russian peacekeepers, was first disrupted in December. In April, Azerbaijani border guards installed a checkpoint along the route, tightening the blockade
Watch the video at
Armenia denies Azerbaijan’s accusations of laying mines
11:57, 15 August 2023
YEREVAN, AUGUST 15, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador-at-Large Edmon Marukyan has denied Azerbaijan’s accusations that Armenia is laying mines and emphasized that Yerevan has given Baku all maps of minefields as part of building confidence.
Marukyan responded on social media to Azeri presidential assistant Hikmet Hajiyev, who falsely accused Armenia of laying mines.
“Till today, the Armenian parties have taken all the necessary steps, in the context of confidence building, including handing over all the landmine maps to Azerbaijan, but in response, Azerbaijan continues to make false accusations about ongoing installation of minefields and contrary to the agreements didn’t even release prisoners of war and other people in its prisons as a measure to build confidence. Azerbaijan regularly attacks and occupies different parts of the sovereign territory of Armenia, violates the fundamental obligations of November 9 and keeps the people of Nagorno Karabakh under a complete blockade. It would be better for Hikmet Hajiyev to stop this campaign of falsehood, because it by no means can distract the attention of the international community from the topic of ethnic cleansing policy conducted by Azerbaijan,” Marukyan said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Aurora Prize, Moderna co-founder Noubar Afeyan slams ‘horrifying and inhumane’ Azeri blockade in Nagorno-Karabakh
11:17,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. Aurora Prize co-founder Noubar Afeyan has reacted to the report by a former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warning that Azerbaijan is preparing genocide against the Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Moderna co-founder Afeyan took to X social media platform and condemned the Azeri blockade as ‘horrifying and inhumane’ after the ICC ex-prosecutor issued the report.
“As a descendant of the Armenian Genocide that occurred a century ago, I find the unfolding situation in #artsakh horrifying and inhumane,” Afeyan posted on X and shared an Associated Press article on the Azeri blockade and the genocide warning issued by former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo.
Ocampo has warned that Azerbaijan is preparing genocide against the Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh and called for a U.S. Security Council intervention.
Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the rest of the world, has been blocked by Azerbaijan since late 2022. The Azerbaijani blockade constitutes a gross violation of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire agreement, which established that the 5km-wide Lachin Corridor shall be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Furthermore, on February 22, 2023 the United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. Azerbaijan has been ignoring the order ever since. Moreover, Azerbaijan then illegally installed a checkpoint on Lachin Corridor. The blockade has led to shortages of essential products such as food and medication. Azerbaijan has also cut off gas and power supply into Nagorno Karabakh, with officials warning that Baku seeks to commit ethnic cleansing against Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh. Hospitals have suspended normal operations.
On July 26, Armenia sent a humanitarian convoy carrying emergency food and medication for Nagorno-Karabakh, but Azerbaijan blocked the trucks at the entrance of Lachin Corridor.
They describe Azerbaijan’s blockade of Nagorno Karabakh as ‘genocide’
Aug 8 2023
The crisis that keeps the 120,000 Armenian inhabitants of the territory of Nagorno Karabakh isolated militarily, constitutes genocide “through starvation” holds a relationship. The alarming study compares the serious episode with those suffered by Jews and Poles in 1939, Russians in today’s St. Petersburg in 1941 and Cambodians in 1975/75.
The report was prepared by Argentine lawyer Luis Moreno Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and former assistant prosecutor in the Juntas trial in 1985 and now a lecturer at Harvard and Yale.
The jurist acted at the request of the government of that region involved in a conflict with Azerbaijan, a country claiming total sovereignty over that territory.
According to the 28-page exposé, the Azerbaijani regime, which has already taken military part in that space, closed the so-called Lachin Corridor which is the only one through which it is possible to send food and medicine to the population, mostly Armenian.
The report argues that “in analyzing the Srebrenica case, the International Court of Justice ruled that the “deprivation of food, medical care, shelter or clothing” constitutes genocide within the meaning of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention. He refers to the massacre of some 8,000 ethnic Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995, during the Bosnian war.
The crisis of the corridor, which connects Armenia with the disputed enclave, began last December, when sporadic blockades began to be established, which were later aggravated with the installation of checkpoints along its route which filtered the passage of truck. December 12 was closed, interrupting since then the transport of 400 tons of basic necessities per day.
The intention would be the surrender of the population resisting the annexation to Azerbaijan. Between September and November 2020 there was a war with an all-out offensive by the Azerbaijani armed forces, which are much more powerful than the local ones.
Both South Caucasus countries belonged to the Soviet Union, one Shiite and the other Orthodox Christian. Dictator Joseph Stalin was the one who handed over Nagorno to Azerbaijan. As the Communist camp fell into crisis, the Armenians were involved in the First Nagorno War which ended in thousands of deaths and the reconquest of territory that had since remained loyal to Yerevan.
In the conflict three years ago, the Azerbaijani regime captured most of the territory, including the enclave’s second city, but did not advance all over the space due to pressure from Russia. which is Armenia’s economic and military ally.
However, due to the war in Ukraine, which reduces the Kremlin’s autonomy in that region, Azerbaijan has taken steps under the protection of its main patron, Turkey, which has strong geopolitical appetites on those borders. In this context the blockade of the Lachin took place with danger for its inhabitants.
With the time since that closure, the situation is extremely complex today, as the report indicates. Medical care is at a minimum, schools are practically non-functioning and there is a pressing shortage of food, including fruit, vegetables and milk.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.