The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Wang Wenbin, commented on the tension on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border and on the territory of Azerbaijan, where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily stationed, citing Sputnik Armenia.
He called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to avoid tension. “Yerevan and Baku are friendly partners of Beijing. We hope that a political solution will be found before the situation escalates further,” he said.
As long as the country is ruled by the occupation gang, which pursues the goal of beheading all forces, we will not have democracy. This was stated by Aspram Krpeyan, an opposition MP of Armenia, during a discussion on Friday.
According to her, not a classical opposition-authorities’ relation has been established in Armenia, but rather a fight is being waged against the criminal gang that has occupied the Armenian state and is advancing the Turkish agenda.
“Under these circumstances, it is naive to expect any active response from the international community, an active response from the ‘civil society’ serving the interests of the criminal gang. We have no such expectations. During this time, we have become witnesses of lustration, we have clearly seen who the true supporter of democracy and human rights is, and who has been promoting just fake democracy for a long time,” Krpeyan emphasized.
The opposition lawmaker noted that there cannot be a true democratic system in the country without a stable security mechanism, and that it is only under these conditions that it is possible to form the necessary environment for the development of democracy.
She expressed confidence that all legal mechanisms should be used.
“The parliamentary opposition submitted 14 petitions to the Constitutional Court during this period,” Krpeyan recalled.
The provocative actions that are regularly provoked are aimed at de-Armenianizing Artsakh, devaluing both the already fragile peace established by the trilateral statement, and the mission of the Russian peacekeeping contingent which has assumed the function of maintaining that peace. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Arayik Harutyunyan stated this Saturday in Chartar town of the Martuni region.
According to the press service of the President, Harutyunyan noted that it is necessary to be patient and not deviate from the path of independence of Artsakh, and that the latter’s authorities will continue to make all possible efforts toward resolving the existing security issues, ensuring the necessary living conditions for a prosperous life, and guaranteeing a stable future.
Azerbaijani tanks are parked after the transfer of the Kalbajar region to Azerbaijan’s control, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP Photo)
The region of Karabakh is located within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated on Saturday amid renewed clashes between neighbors Baku and Yerevan.
Speaking to journalists about the recent escalation, Erdoğan said: “Azerbaijan naturally does not want any illegal armed elements on its territory.”
“We talked about these in detail with my brother Ilham (Aliyev) two days ago. First of all, we condemn the attack that caused the death of one of our Azerbaijani brothers,” he said.
Regarding the attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in London, Erdoğan said it was “unacceptable,” adding: “We hope the incident will be investigated and perpetrators will be punished.”
The embassy building in London was stormed by the Mahdi Servants Union, a Shiite Muslim organization based in London, according to U.K. media reports. Eight people were arrested after police reached the area.
“Nearly two years have passed since the trilateral statement. It is important for Armenia to fulfill its commitments here as soon as possible,” Erdoğan added.
Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
Clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, with the Armenian Army attacking civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violating several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.
During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and around 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.
The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020, which was seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.
However, the cease-fire has been broken several times since then.
In January 2021, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a pact to develop economic ties and infrastructure to benefit the entire region. It also included the establishment of a trilateral working group in Karabakh.
After the conflict ended, Azerbaijan launched a massive reconstruction initiative in the liberated Karabakh region.
In July, Azerbaijan began the process of returning its people to land recaptured from Armenian forces in what Baku calls “The Great Return.” The oil-rich country has vowed to repopulate the recaptured lands.
President Ilham Aliyev had for years promised to recapture lands lost in the 1990s and the first returns marked a symbolic moment for Azerbaijan.
Following renewed skirmishes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Karabakh earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called similarly on the leaders of both countries to seek “direct dialogue” to resolve the conflict.
Blinken held separate phone calls with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Friday, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.
Several deaths and injuries were reported when fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh flared up again on Wednesday.
The Azerbaijani army said it had captured mountainous areas of the region and that Armenian fighters had been killed.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov will pay a visit to Turkey on Aug. 8-9, 2022, upon the invitation of Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to participate in the 13th Ambassadors Conference.
During his visit, Bayramov will address the Ambassadors Conference.
Trucks of the Russian peacekeeping forces drive along a road near Lachin in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Nov. 13, 2020. (Reuters File Photo)
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called on Armenia to refrain from provocations in the Karabakh region, as he underlined that Azerbaijan and Türkiye are sincere about stability and peace in the region.
“I am calling on Armenia once again to refrain from provocations,” Çavuşoğlu said Monday, as he urged Yerevan to take concrete action and honor the terms of agreements rather than just words.
Çavuşoğlu’s statements came as Azerbaijan accused Armenia of failing to abide by the terms of the 2020 agreement by attacking positions near Karabakh, previously referred to as Nagorno-Karabakh.
Attending the 13th Ambassadors Conference in the Turkish capital Ankara, Çavuşoğlu said the normalization of relations with Armenia would benefit Yerevan and the region. He continued by saying that Türkiye and Azerbaijan have been simultaneously trying to normalize ties with Armenia and have been exchanging views during the process and constantly keeping in touch with each other.
The foreign minister also said Türkiye is against the removal of Russia from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), as he highlighted the necessity for dialogue in the region.
The first round of normalization talks was held in Moscow on Jan. 14, where both parties agreed to continue negotiations without any preconditions, according to a statement released after that meeting.
The Turkish and Armenian envoys met for the second time in Vienna on Feb. 24, and the third meeting was held on May 3, also in the Austrian capital.
Also, a historic bilateral meeting took place between the foreign ministers of Türkiye and Armenia on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on March 12.
The two countries have never established formal diplomatic relations and their shared border has been closed since the 1990s.
But in December, the two countries appointed special envoys to help normalize relations, a year after Armenia lost to Türkiye’s ally Azerbaijan in a war for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Azerbaijan used the help of Turkish combat drones to recapture most of the contested territory that had been under Armenian forces’ control since the 1990s.
Azerbaijan’s victory that ended the occupation of its Karabakh region also helped pave the way for the normalization between Türkiye and Armenia.
Relations between the two former Soviet countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
New clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, and the 44-day conflict saw Azerbaijan liberate several cities and over 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for almost three decades.
In February, Türkiye and Armenia resumed their first commercial flights in two years.
The land border between the two countries has remained closed since 1993 however, forcing trucks to transit through Georgia or Iran.
Ankara has been mending ties with several regional countries and has emphasized the need for enhanced cooperation, within this scope steps were also taken with Armenia, particularly following the latest Karabakh war between Baku and Yerevan.
Since then, both Russia and Azerbaijan have voiced support for closer ties between Türkiye and Armenia, which is seen within the sphere of regional normalization.
13:15, 4 August 2022
YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. Individuals and organizations from around the world are joining forces to help strengthen and develop Armenia and Artsakh within the framework of Armenians Forward Together Forum 2022, the second All-Armenian Collaboration Forum in Yerevan.
The three-day Forum has been organized by volunteers living in the United States, Canada and Armenia whose purpose is to create opportunities for the collaboration of organizations and individuals.
“People, who want to cooperate, present their ideas and find people, who could help develop ideas not only financially, but also with their knowledge and efforts, have gathered here. There are projects both at a level of an idea and those that are already being implemented”, Hripsime Mkrtchyan, Assistant-Professor at the American University of Armenia, researcher at the Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory, said.
The Forum aims at gathering people with the same interests and projects in one place, enabling them to talk, know each other, collaborate and create new opportunities.
Armine Karapetyan from San Francisco, representing Publicis Groupe, said that the idea of holding this Forum came after the 44-Day Artsakh War. “We wanted to invest our strength and knowledge in order to be able to organize something that will help both Armenia and Artsakh”, she said.
On the first day of the Forum, on August 4th, 19 different organizations and initiatives were presented. In the next two days 14 seminars will be held during which educational, cultural heritage preservation, crisis management, cancer research and other projects will be discussed. The Office of the State Minister of Artsakh, the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia, LeranmingMission, RepatArmenia and other organizations have also contributed to the organization of the Forum.
“Our primary goal was to help children of families displaced from Artsakh who were deprived of education that days. We are now assisting the schools of Syunik [province], we are opening computer laboratories in schools, provide notebooks by which teachers from US are holding online classes”, Alina Vehuni, representing California-based Hye Hopes, said during the Forum. The company Hye Hopes has been founded after the 44-Day war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh. It has already opened laboratories in Kapan, Verishen, Meghri, and will soon open in schools of Sisian and Goris. The company is teaching different subjects, such as robotics, programming, leadership, English. “We want to establish cooperation with the organizations that are operating in education sector”, she said, commenting on their participation in the Forum.
The Armenian Ministry of Defense has once again refuted the Azerbaijani reports on ceasefire violation.
Units of the Armenian Armed Forces did not fire at the Azerbaijani positions located in the eastern part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border last night, the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is relatively stable, it is under the full control of the Armenian Armed Forces, the Ministry said,
https://en.armradio.am/2022/07/31/armenian-forces-did-not-fire-at-azerbaijani-positions-defense-ministry/
The National Center of Chamber Music in Yerevan will host a long-awaited concert featuring German-Armenian conductor Ruben Gazarian and soloist Hasmik Papyan.
Gazarian will lead the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia at the concert scheduled for July 29. He will go on stage in Armenia for the first time in 30 years.
Gazarian has recently been appointed General Music Director of the Theatre Altenburg Gera.
Before that, he was for sixteen years – from 2002 to 2018 – the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the renowned Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn.
In more than 860 concerts and 26 CD productions of this time, he enriched the standard repertory of the orchestra by regularly expanding it to symphonic dimensions and by selecting numerous works from the Romantic and early modern eras as well as from the avant-garde. In recognition of his achievements during the long Heilbronn tenure, he was awarded the Golden Coin of the city in 2018.
In cooperation with the Consulate General of Armenia in Aleppo, the medical group of the Humanitarian Mission of Armenia delivered 3.5 tons of medical supplies to the medical institutions of Aleppo.
Syrian health officials expressed their gratitude to the Armenian doctors for the aid and for their daily assistance.
Armenian doctors and mine-clearance specialists have been carrying out humanitarian mission in Syria since February 2019.
The tenth group of doctors and sappers left for Syria on July 19.