Author: Khondkarian Raffi

Why is Pakistan the only country that does not recognise Armenia?

Khondkarian Raffi
The Express Tribune, Pakistan
The frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is one of Eurasia’s geopolitical time bombs just like Kashmir

Andrew Korybko

Pakistan is the only country in the world that doesn’t recognise the independence of Armenia. The South Caucasus country objectively exists and is a member of the UN, but Islamabad’s stance is a principled one practiced as a form of protest in response to Yerevan’s egregious human rights violations against the Azeris of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region. There are some very good reasons why Pakistan doesn’t recognise Armenia, and they’ll be touched upon briefly in this piece.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is at the core of Pakistan’s decision. This war lasted from 1988-1994 and remains frozen to this day. The Armenians of Azerbaijan’s then-Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (region) wanted to unite with their ethnic brethren in nearby Armenia in the twilight days of the USSR. This was a direct consequence of the widespread explosion of pent-up nationalist sentiment in the Soviet Union triggered by Gorbachev’s failed experiment with glasnost (“openness”).

The Armenian-Azeri conflict long precedes that period, however, but was kept under control by the Soviet authorities until the central government began to crumble in the late 1980s. Stalin placed the majority-Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh under Azerbaijan’s administrative control as part of his nationality policy that critics claim was implemented as a form of divide and rule. This was never a serious issue until the dissolution of the USSR seemed possible and its many minorities began worrying about their future.

The Armenian Armed Forces invaded Azerbaijan to support the local Armenians’ secessionist attempt. They won the war and the region has remained de-facto independent since then, but practically all of its Azeri residents were ethnically cleansed as a result. Interestingly, not even Armenia itself recognises the self-proclaimed independence of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding occupied regions that the local Armenians call “Artsakh”, though this is probably a political calculation since they’d be universally condemned if they did.

Four UNSC Resolutions (822, 853, 874, 884) were passed in 1993, all of which included calls for Armenia’s withdrawal from internationally recognised Azerbaijani territory. Suffice to say, Yerevan has refused to implement them. It did, however, express interest in the Madrid Principles that the OSCE’s Minsk Group proposed in 2007 and updated in 2009. Nevertheless, Armenia has claimed that its interpretation of these clauses differs from Azerbaijan’s and has thus indefinitely stalled any real implementation of these proposals.

The latest clashes along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border have returned global attention to this unresolved conflict. The author wrote about this recent outbreak of violence in his analyses titled “Don’t Fall For The Alt-Media Narrative On Armenia & Azerbaijan” and “Armenia, Azerbaijan Must Immediately Implement The Madrid Principles”, which should be skimmed by the reader if they’re interested in his interpretation of the contemporary geopolitical context in which this conflict is once again heating up.

To summarise, while Pakistan’s excellent relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey obviously played a role in its decision not to recognise Armenia, there was actually a lot more to it than just that. Pakistan doesn’t support the unilateral changing of international borders by force, nor does it agree with Armenia’s continued occupation of Azerbaijan. In addition, Pakistan is against Armenia’s refusal to implement UNSC Resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh and strongly condemns its ethnic cleansing of local Azeris there.

Few are aware of Pakistan’s principled position towards this conflict, but it would greatly improve its soft power appeal within the international Muslim community (“Ummah”) if Islamabad raised greater awareness of its stance among fellow Muslim countries. The frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is one of Eurasia’s geopolitical time bombs just like Kashmir and Palestine are, so Pakistan should make its position on the unresolved South Caucasus conflict just as well known as its approach towards the South Asian and Mideast ones already are.

The Trump White House finally — if unintentionally — invokes the Armenian genocide

Khondkarian Raffi
Washington Post
July 7 2020
 
 
 
By  Aaron Blake
July 7, 2020 at 5:41 p.m. GMT+3
 
President Trump’s close ally, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may not be happy about this one.
 
After decades of the United States government declining to acknowledge the Armenian genocide because it would alienate Turkey, the White House on Monday invoked the term — albeit indirectly.
 
In the course of decrying protesters desecrating memorials across the country, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany referred to a memorial to the genocide by its proper name.
 
“There seems to be a lack of understanding and historical knowledge when the Armenian Genocide Memorial, remembering victims of all crimes against humanity, including slavery, is vandalized,” McEnany said.
 
McEnany appeared to be referring to the Armenian Genocide Memorial outside the Colorado state Capitol in Denver, which was vandalized several weeks ago.
 
The inclusion by McEnany was meant to reinforce the haphazard nature of the protesters’ alleged disregard for history. But it also trod into uneasy waters for an administration that, like its predecessors, has conspicuously avoided using the g-word.
 
The United States has long declined to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, owing in large part to its strategic alliance with Turkey in the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire is accused of slaughtering more than 1 million Armenians during World War I.
 
As a candidate, Barack Obama pledged to recognize the genocide for what it was, but his administration never made good on that promise over his eight years.
 
Likewise, Trump’s administration has shunned a more forceful congressional attempt to press the issue. After both chambers of Congress last year passed resolutions — each overwhelmingly — to symbolically recognize the genocide, Trump’s State Department maintained that the resolutions didn’t reflect U.S. policy.
 
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) later said that he momentarily blocked a vote on the measure in the Senate at the express request of the White House, given that Erdogan happened to be visiting at the time.
 
“The only reason I did it is because he [Erdogan] was still in town,” Graham said, adding: “That would’ve been poor timing. I’m trying to salvage the relationship, if possible.”
 
The recognition of the genocide is indeed politically dicey. The White House will surely argue that McEnany was simply referring to a memorial by its actual name, but even using that name has been a no-go for many years inside the White House. Some Obama aides have expressed regret for not making a more principled stand on the issue. “I’m sorry,” Obama’s former United Nations ambassador, Samantha Power, said in 2018. “I’m sorry that we disappointed so many Armenian Americans.”
 
What’s more, groups that have been pushing for the recognition hailed McEnany’s comments Monday.
 
“We appreciate that the [Trump] administration has taken note that the Armenian Genocide memorial in Denver was vandalized and of the need for a better understanding of historical knowledge,” Armenian Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny said in a statement to The Fix on Monday. “This monument, dedicated on the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, ‘commemorates the victims of all crimes against humanity.’ ”
 
The Trump White House has addressed “atrocities” against Armenians, saying on Armenian Remembrance Day this year, “Today, we join the global community in memorializing the lives lost during the Meds Yeghern” — an Armenian phrase recent U.S. administrations have adopted meaning “great calamity” — “one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century.” That statement, including the use of the Armenian phrase, echoed how the Obama administration handled it. But both studiously avoided saying “genocide.”
 
The use of the actual word by McEnany is particularly striking from the Trump administration, though, given that Trump has carved out an especially close relationship with Erdogan. Among other things, Trump withdrew troops from northern Syria, which detractors, including many Republicans, argued allowed Erdogan to slaughter the U.S.-allied Kurds in the region. Former White House national security adviser John Bolton also said in his recent book that Trump told Erdogan he would intervene in a Justice Department case involving a Turkish firm — apparently Halkbank.
 
Given Trump’s posture, it would seem odd that McEnany would refer in any terms to the Armenian genocide, even if just using the proper name for something.
 
Update: The Turks are indeed pushing back, while allowing that perhaps McEnany just misspoke.
“We believe that the statement by the press secretary was an unfortunate slip of the tongue,” the Turkish Embassy in Washington told Business Insider’s John Haltiwanger. “In any case, these expressions cannot be accepted.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Azerbaijani president calls into question negotiations with Armenia

Khondkarian Raffi
EurasiaNet.org
July 7 2020
Joshua Kucera Jul 7, 2020

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev gives an interview to local media in which he issued rare, harsh criticism to the international mediators helping negotiate with Armenia. (photo: president.az)

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev has sharply criticized the international mediators of his country’s negotiations with Armenia, saying that the peace process has become “meaningless.”

The broadside comes as fighting along the line of contact between the two sides has been remarkably quiet, but also as diplomatic progress appears to have stalled since early hopes engendered by the 2018 coming to power of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Armenia.

Aliyev made his comments in a July 6 interview with local television following the construction of a new hospital in Baku for the treatment of coronavirus patients. It was just a week after the last meeting, via videoconference, of the foreign ministers of the two sides.

He criticized Armenia at length, calling it “fascist,” a “dictatorship,” and “a country of criminals, thieves, and bribetakers” and complaining that Western organizations instead pick on Azerbaijan because of the influence of the “Armenian lobby” and ethnic Armenian officials in Western governments. But what stood out was his attack on the OSCE’s Minsk Group, the diplomatic body led by the United States, Russia, and France that mediates talks between the two warring sides.

“Today, the negotiation process is not moving,” he said. “Video conferences of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan are meaningless. It simply is meant to show that the Minsk Group is active. But is it? To be active means to act.”

While grumbling from both sides about the Minsk Group is not uncommon, such a direct attack is rare. The last time Aliyev so directly criticized the diplomats was in February and March of 2016. In April of that year, Azerbaijan launched an attack that resulted in the worst fighting since the two sides signed a ceasefire in 1994. More than 200 were killed in what has become known as the “April War” or the “Five-Day War.”

Aliyev referred to 2016 in his July 6 comments. “Justice is on our side,” he said. “We have shown that we are right both in the international arena and on the battlefield, and let no one forget about the April War.”

“Very ominous statement,” wrote Richard Kauzlarich, a former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, on Twitter. “Rather than serious negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, President Aliyev blames/belittles Minsk Group mediation – hints at military option.”

“Ilham Aliyev effectively presented the Minsk Group with a choice,” one analyst wrote on the website minval.az. “Either this incomprehensible structure, which has taken on the role of ‘negotiator,’ ‘mediator’ and so on, starts to really resolve this conflict and, to use the mildest phrase, call the Armenians aggressors and force Yerevan to respect international law in general and the borders of Azerbaijan in particular, or Azerbaijan will do it itself.”

The bellicose statements came in contrast to the relatively quiet situation on the ground. The coronavirus outbreak in both countries has corresponded to a lull in ceasefire violations, and June was the quietest month of the year so far, with no major incidents or casualties.

They come, however, as the Armenian side has been pushing its advantage on the ground. Pashinyan has been trying to get the Minsk Group to accept the ethnic Armenian de facto leadership of Nagorno Karabakh – the territory at the heart of the conflict between the two sides – as a third party in the negotiations. Azerbaijan has rejected the proposal.

The recent inauguration of the de facto leader of Karabakh was held in Shusha, the city that used to be the center of Karabakh’s ethnic Azerbaijani population. For Armenian officials, including Pashinyan, to celebrate in Shusha was seen by Azerbaijan as a provocation.

“Why is there no adequate reaction to this?” Aliyev asked, referring to the Minsk Group. “Why not say that this is a provocation, for which Armenia will be held responsible?”

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry – which has been conducting the negotiations that Aliyev has deemed “meaningless” – continues to face pressure from inside the government. Officers from the security services searched the building and three senior officials were arrested on corruption charges, the authorities announced on July 6.

The investigation comes as Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has been himself the subject of attacks about his effectiveness, leading to suspicions that he may be not long for his job. “[T]here is no doubt that after such an event, which has been launched at the highest level, the likelihood of the keeping Elmar Mammadyarov as a foreign minister drops sharply,” an analysis from the independent news agency Turan concluded.

 

Joshua Kucera is the Turkey/Caucasus editor at Eurasianet, and author of .

Turkey: Politically Motivated Conviction of Activists

Khondkarian Raffi 
Human Rights Watch
Verdict Aims to Stifle Human Rights Movement
July 6, 2020
(Istanbul) – The conviction of four human rights defenders on July 3,
2020, without evidence of any criminal wrongdoing, is politically
motivated and an effort to stifle the legitimate work of Turkey’s
human rights movement, Human Rights Watch said today.
Istanbul Assize Court no. 35 convicted Taner Kılıç, Amnesty
International Turkey’s honorary chair, on charges of membership of a
terrorist organization, sentencing him to six years and three months
in prison.  The court convicted three others on charges of aiding and
abetting a terrorist organization and imposed prison sentences of 25
months. The three are: İdil Eser, Amnesty Turkey’s former director;
Özlem Dalkıran, a rights activist and member of NGO Citizens’
Assembly; and Günal Kurşun, member of the Human Rights Agenda
Association.  The court acquitted seven others though the prosecutor
has stated he will appeal against the acquittal of two among them,
Nejat Taştan and Veli Acu. The four convicted are currently at liberty
while they appeal the verdict.
“In three years the police and prosecutors have produced not a shred
of evidence of criminal activity by any of the 11 rights defenders who
stood trial,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director
at Human Rights Watch. “Four have been convicted for their legitimate
human rights work in another trial, which demonstrates how any
independence in Turkey’s justice system has collapsed under political
pressure.”
Kılıç was first detained in Izmir on June 6, 2017, and days later
placed in pretrial detention, where he spent 14 months. His case was
combined with that of ten other rights defenders detained on July 5,
2017 in a police raid on a human rights education workshop they were
participating in on Büyükada Island, Istanbul. A German and a Swedish
national were among the defenders.
All 11 were subjected to a concerted media smear campaign suggesting
that they were involved in a conspiracy to foment chaos in the country
and alleging that they had links with a number of outlawed
organizations. The media pursuing the smear campaign were closely
aligned with the government and made allegations against the
defendants before the prosecutor’s office had prepared an indictment
against them and during their trial. Their first trial hearing was in
October 2017, and the court issued its verdict at the 13th hearing.
The decision cited no grounds for the convictions, and Human Rights
Watch is awaiting the court’s full reasoned decision.
The indictment against Kılıç alleged that he had used the encrypted
communication application ByLock on his phone. The app is alleged to
have been used by supporters of the Fethullah Gülen movement, which
Turkey deems a terrorist organization responsible for the July 2016
coup attempt. Several expert reports during the trial demonstrated
that Kılıç had never had or used the app.
In the case against the ten defendants detained on Büyükada, the
indictment cited ephemera gathered from their laptops and phones, none
of it amounting to evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
“The court’s verdict convicts four people but is an attack on the
entire human rights movement in Turkey,” Williamson said. “We hope the
higher courts will do their duty and reverse this miscarriage of
justice.”

Sports: Huge match-fixing scheme uncovered in Armenian soccer

Khondkarian Raffi
EurasiaNet.org
July 8 2020
Ani Mejlumyan Jul 8, 2020

Armenian soccer club FC Lokomotiv Yerevan in action against Pyunik 2 in June 2019. Lokomotiv was one of several Armenian clubs implicated in a match-fixing scandal. (photo: Facebook, FC Lokomotiv Yerevan)

A lengthy international investigation into Armenian soccer has exposed a massive match-fixing conspiracy.

The investigation was conducted by Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) and Interpol and implicated 54 people and five clubs in Armenia’s First League (which is in fact the second division in Armenia; the top is the Premiere League). Forty-five people have received a lifetime ban from international soccer and the five clubs have been disqualified for two years.

“The decisions were made after the Football Federation of Armenian (FFA) received undeniable evidence from international organizations and law enforcement agencies,” FFA President Armen Melikbekyan said in a July 2 statement announcing the investigation’s results.

Melikbekyan was elected president of federation in December following the departure of his predecessor, Artur Vanetsyan, who was head of both the NSS and FFA during the time that the matches were fixed but then fell out with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The investigation began during Vanetsyan’s tenure at the FFA; he has since become a prominent government critic, but the soccer investigation seems not to have a political tinge to it.

Evidence for the scheme was gathered over a year and a half, Artur Azaryan, the general secretary of FFA told local website vnews.am. “UEFA has provided us with a detailed report on each team’s games for the season, as well as the individual actions of all the players and their chances of participating in the match-fixing.”

Many of the implicated players were foreign, in particular Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Latvian. Several of them had had previous records of match fixing.

Kirilis Grigorovs, a Latvian national, was involved in match-fixing controversies in Latvia, Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Cyprus before signing on with FC Yerevan in September 2019.

Midfielders and goalkeepers were disproportionately represented among the named players, as match fixing typically depends on defensive “lapses.”

“If we look closely, you see that none of the goalkeepers were locals and the central midfielders also mostly were foreign,” said Rafael Khalatyan, the editor of armfootball.com, in an interview with Eurasianet. “These people were exposed in match fixing scandals in other countries, like Egor Lugavoy from Torpedo, Yuri Okul, a coach from Ukraine who was disqualified in Ukraine and now has been disqualified with FC Aragats, Vitali Ridlevich from Belarus also played for Aragats. In other words, they were people who knew how the process of match fixing worked.”

It’s not clear who organized the scheme, and the NSS and FFA have not given any clues. Second-tier soccer in the former Soviet Union is widely susceptible to match fixing, as the teams have few fans, the matches aren’t televised, and the outcomes are of interest mainly to bettors. Neighboring Georgia also has been the subject of several match-fixing scandals and investigations.

“In this particular case there were a suspicious number of bets [on the fixed matches] in Asia, especially China,” said one source with an Armenian bookmaker, speaking to Eurasianet on condition of anonymity.

As a result of the investigation, the FFA has tightened the restrictions for licensing a club for the First League. The people implicated in the scheme will not face charges as match fixing isn’t a crime under Armenian law, but the FFA is trying to change that. “We have applied to the Ministry of Justice to come up with a legislative initiative and to define a relevant article in the Criminal Code,” Azaryan said.

 

Ani Mejlumyan is a reporter based in Yerevan.

Armenia coronavirus: nearly 650 patients in serious or critical condition

Khondkarian Raffi

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 11:38, 2 July, 2020

YEREVAN, JULY 2, ARMENPRESS. There are no major changes in Armenia in terms of the coronavirus situation, Minister of Healthcare Arsen Torosyan said at the Cabinet meeting, adding that 593 new cases and 6 more deaths have been confirmed in the past one day.

“The situation with the healthcare system almost is the same, the intensive care units are full of patients. There are two-three beds, and we are managing to place patients who are in serious and critical condition in these beds”, he said, adding that the number of those in serious and critical condition is nearly 650. 44 people are switched to ventilators. As of this morning, 11 coronavirus infected people are waiting for hospitalization. 80 patients are waiting for their transportation to coronavirus designated hospitals.

He informed that the number of hospital beds is increasing in provinces. He will personally visit today the provinces to get acquainted with the process.


Chess: Levon Aronian: Now I’m back to work and life

Khondkarian Raffi
Panorama, Armenia
July 1 2020

Leading Armenian chess player Levon Aronian says now he is “back to work and life” after a long absence from social media.

“As many of you, I am getting used to be working remotely. It’s not ideal, but a lot of time can be saved,” the GM wrote on Facebook.

“Other news are – I cooked so much lately that I finally started making edible dishes (smile)!

“As usual listened to heaps of music, rediscovered some artists. Highly recommended in classical music – Maria Grinberg and Tatiana Nikolayeva and in vocal jazz – Andy Bey,” he said.

“I’m mostly spending my days in Yerevan, sometimes I get out to nature with friends.

“Being unable to exercise due to quarantine is a bit annoying. So far, just doing free weights and some basic things at home with Ponchik [dog].”

It makes Aronian’s first social media post after the tragic death of his wife Arianne Caoili in March.

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 23-06-20

Khondkarian Raffi

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 18:49,

YEREVAN, 23 JUNE, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 23 June, USD exchange rate is up by 0.44 drams to 479.43 drams. EUR exchange rate is up by 4.04 drams to 541.13 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate is up by 0.07 drams to 6.97 drams. GBP exchange rate is up by 2.51 drams to 596.55 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price is up by 442.26 drams to 27157.21 drams. Silver price is up by 5.41 drams to 275.29 drams. Platinum price is up by 11.60 drams to 12639.51 drams.