Author: Khondkarian Raffi

The Azerbaijani side continues the buildup and redeployment of forces at the frontline, but it’s hard to predict the purpose of this, Spokesman for the Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannistayan told a press conference today.

He added, however, that the Defense Army is on the alert and no action of the rival goes unnoticed.

“Units of the NKR Defense Army have been brought to a high combat readiness following the recent large-scale military actions, and the possibility of unexpected actions has considerably reduced.

Hovhannisyan denied media reports about planned mobilization in the country. “There can be no mobilization unless it is declared officially,” he said.

Artsrun Hovhannisyan said “the replenishment of the Armenian arsenal does not only depend on the Russian loan, it didn’t start with the loan and does not end with the loan.”

“A few years ago Armenia declared about the plans to replenish the army with new armaments.  There was no talk about the Russian loan at the time,” he said.

The Spokesman reminded that a huge quantity of armaments was purchased, without going into details of the types of weaponry.

By Sen. Mark Kirk

The time has come for Azerbaijan to face consequences from the United States and the international community for its blatant military aggression against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR).

After years of saber rattling, Azerbaijan’s four-day assault on the NKR earlier this month is its most egregious attack since it signed a cease-fire agreement with Armenia and the NKR in 1994. These recent military actions indicate the clear need for new measures to modify a cease-fire framework that is not working.

With no system to referee the cease-fire, Azerbaijan has become increasingly belligerent while facing no consequences for its violations. This must change.

I strongly support a congressional response, spearheaded by Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and ranking member Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that offers three pro-peace measures to bring needed oversight to a cease-fire that has been precariously self-regulated by Armenian and Azerbaijani forces for more than two decades.

First, all sides should agree not to deploy snipers along the Nagorno-Karabakh line of contact.

Second, advanced gunfire locator systems and sound ranging equipment, monitored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), should be installed along the line of contact to verify the source of any attacks.

And third, additional OSCE observers should be deployed along the line of contact to more effectively monitor cease-fire violations. There are only six OSCE observers monitoring the conflict zone — woefully insufficient given the number of cease-fire violations each day.

More than 80 members of the House of Representatives have signed the bipartisan Royce-Engel proposals, which have also been supported by the U.S. State Department and the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group.

In order for a lasting peace to be established, there must be goodwill and trust on both sides. But, while both Armenia and the NKR have affirmed their support for these peace-building measures, Azerbaijan has not. In truth, the lack of oversight on the current cease-fire framework provides useful cover for Azerbaijan’s belligerence.

U.S leadership is needed now to stop the bloody pattern in which Azerbaijan attacks the NKR, the NKR responds, and then Azerbaijan blames the Armenians for violating the cease-fire. We should no longer accept Baku’s flagrant duplicity.

I call upon the administration to raise the Royce-Engel proposals to the highest levels of the Azerbaijani government.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has faced a chorus of international criticism for human rights abuses, such as the wrongful imprisonment of Radio Free Europe journalist Khadija Ismayilova and some 20 others who have been prosecuted on politically motivated charges, according to Human Rights Watch.

Just as the international community has come together to hold the Baku government responsible for its transgressions against civil society in Azerbaijan, so too should we call it to account for its treatment of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The OSCE’s Minsk Process, which started in 1995 to bring the parties of the conflict to a peaceful and comprehensive settlement, is hanging on by a thread. If diplomacy is to endure, there must be a verifiable cease-fire in place.

The onus is on Azerbaijan to demonstrate to the U.S. and the international community that it truly wants to be a partner in peace with Armenia and the NKR. Baku must fully commit to the Royce-Engel proposals.

The choice for President Aliyev is clear: Either he subscribes to diplomatic negotiations with the Armenians under peaceful circumstances or continues with a belligerent and futile policy of attrition.

If he chooses the latter, he should know that every act of Azerbaijani aggression will only further validate the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s argument that it go the way of Kosovo. As a veteran of the Kosovo War, I truly hope Azerbaijan realizes that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should only be resolved through peaceful means.

Kirk has represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate since 2010 and was previously a five-term U.S. representative from the northern Chicago suburbs.

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has warned that the death toll from a powerful earthquake which has killed more than 250 people is likely to rise, the BBC reports.

But he also said there was evidence that people were still alive under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Mr Correa has visited some of the people affected after cutting short a visit to Rome.

At least 272 people are confirmed dead and more than 1,500 hurt by the quake, Ecuador’s most powerful in decades.

A state of emergency has been declared and some 10,000 troops and 3,500 police have been deployed in the affected areas, with an emphasis on finding survivors.

The magnitude-7.8 quake struck on Saturday evening. Coastal areas in the north-west were closest to the epicentre.

The quake is Ecuador’s largest since 1979. More than 130 aftershocks have followed.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met with Ambassadors of OSCE participating states today.

Minister Nalbandian briefed the Ambassadors on the consequences of the recent Azeri aggression along the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh.

“With its aggressive actions Azerbaijan actually tried to refuse from its international commitments of solving the issue in a peaceful way, thus grossly violating the basic principles of international law, the decisions and declarations of a number of OSCE summits and Ministerial Councils, obviously ignoring the statements on the heads of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries on the settlement of the Karabakh issue,” the Armenian Foreign Minister said.

Minister Nalbandian attached importance to the active role of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries and stressed the need to support their efforts.

The Ministry of Defense of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic has released the photos of the downed Azerbaijani MI-24 helicopter.

Moscow cannot accept accusations of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev who said some co-chairmen of the Minsk group were “contributing to freezing the conflict by their destructive activity,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday, TASS reports.

– It has been revealed that the Trabzon gendarmerie intelligence office had been watching Hrant Dink around his home for 4 months before he was assassinated.

Yasin Hayal’s relative Coskun Igci informed Trabzon gendarmerie intelligence office about the Dink murder in the summer of 2006. Hayal is the Turkish criminal who is serving a life sentence for inciting the individual who murdered Dink.

According to Selahattin Gunday’s report in Al Jazeera, it was also confirmed that 4 officials from the gendarmerie intelligence office came to Istanbul on August 2006.

Cellphone records of the officials from the intelligence office were examined and it showed that their phones were signaling from IIstasyon Cad. Odak İş Hanı No:l Bakırköy between August 8 and 11.

After that, Dink’s cellphone records were also examined and this examination revealed that his phone was also signaling from the same address at the same time. This address is close to Dink family’s permanent address.

In 2008, a lawsuit was filed against 3 of those officials due to neglect of duty. However, the fact that they had been following Dink in Istanbul wasn’t added to that lawsuit.

This information about the gendarmerie isn’t in the indictment prepared by prosecutor Gokalp Kokcu. This information also wasn’t included in the lawsuit that was filed against police chiefs like Faruk Sarı, Ahmet İlhan Guler, Engin Dinc, Ali Fuat Yılmazer, Sabri Uzun and Ramazan Akyurek.

On October 15, 2015, the information about the gendarmerie was separated from the lawsuit against police chiefs. This doesn’t mean that they are excluded from the investigation, but that the gendarmerie wasn’t in the indictment.

 

 

 

The National Opera and Ballet Theatre after Alexander Spendiaryan will stage a ballet La Boheme based on the songs of Charles Aznavour, choreographer, People’s Artist of Armenia Rudolph Kharatyan told reporters today. The one-act play will track Aznavour’s creative path.

Among the important works of 2012, Rudolph Kharaytyan pointed out the “Two suns” ballet dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

In 2016 Kharatyan will also stage “Anush” ballet, which, he said, has nothing to do with Armen Tigranyan’s famous work.

Through combination of classical and Armenian national motifs, he will try to create something that will allow the Armenian ballet to enter the international arena. He’s confident we cannot be part of world ballet with “Gayane,” because the latter is too ‘Armenian.’

“Folklore is interesting to foreigners, but within limits,” Kharatyan said.

Massis Post – Eight Armenian films will be screened as part of the third edition of the SR Socially Relevant Film Festival, a ground-breaking non-profit film festival that showcases socially relevant films with human interest stories. The festival opens on the 14th of March with a panel on Adapting the Novel to the Screen with such prolific panelists as Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, and widely published French novelist Marc Levy. The films screen from March 15-19 at The Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea and the closing night Awards Ceremony takes place at the Tenri Japanese Center on the 20th of March.

The full line-up and program of this year’s SR Socially Relevant Film Festival was announced at its Press Day, hosted at Bocca East in Manhattan, on February 2. Selected films will focus on the current topics of immigration, female empowerment, human exploitation, gender politics disability and more, and will feature distinguished personalities including Erin Brockovich, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Marc Duret and others.

Two narrative features and six shorts revolving around Armenian themes will have a special presence in this year’s film festival, including the International Premiere of 100 Years Later (directed by John Lubbock) which follows historian Ara Sarafian’s journey through Anatolia as facts of the 1915 Armenian Genocide are uncovered and dialogue is established with local Kurds and Turks.

The second feature, Who Killed the Armenians? (directed by Mohamed Hanafy Nasr), will have its World Premiere at the festival and is the first Arabic documentary on the Armenian Genocide, filmed in Egypt, Armenia and Lebanon. The film reveals rare documents, footage and interviews related to the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

The short film, Eclipse, (directed by Ara Yernjakyan) which will have its U.S. premiere, revolves around the children who suffered and the families that were destroyed during the Armenian Genocide.

Girl on the Moon, (directed by Aren Malakyan), filmed in Armenia, focuses on the first steps of disabled people and how they try to change the course of their lives through dance.

How to Cross from Jiliz to Jiliz, directed by Marineh Kocharyan and Sona Kocharyan, is about a young girl who dreams of being with her grandmother and relatives who live on the other side of the border, only a few meters away. The film will have its New York premiere.

Now I Know, directed by Anna Bayatyan from Armenia, will have its International Premiere, focusing on the theme of hope.

Shattered, directed by David Hovan, focuses on memories of war and chaos and post-traumatic stress disorder. It will have its New York Premiere.

Where is the Euphrates, Son? Directed by Rouben Pashinyan, filmed in Armenia, the film tells the story of an Armenian grandfather who arrives in Armenia as a tourist and tries to find the Euphrates River. It will have its New York premiere at the festival.

Founded by award-winning actor, filmmaker and curator Nora Armani, SR aims to satisfy a market need concentrating on everyday human stories as an alternative to the proliferation of gratuitous violence in film making.

 

 

 

Sweden sees the settlement of the Karabakh conflict through peace talks under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallström said at a joint press conference with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

“This visit provided an opportunity to better understand how you see the resolution of the Karabakh conflict. There is no military solution to the issue. We should do the utmost to prevent escalation,” Mrs. Wallström told reporters in Yerevan.

The Armenian FM said, in turn, that “Azerbaijan believes it can blackmail the Co-Chairs with primitive, provocative statements.”

“It’s strange that they do not learn lessons, because their statements produce the opposite effect. The opinion of the international community is getting more targeted year by year,” he said.

The Armenian Foreign Minister is hopeful Azerbaijan will finally come to understand that this stance gives it no privilege. As for Armenia, it will continue to work jointly with the Minsk Group with a view of reaching an exceptionally peaceful resolution to the Karabakh conflict, since there is no alternative to peace talks.”

Responding to Azerbaijani claims that Armenia wants to keep the status quo, Minister Nalbandian said: “Armenia and the Co-Chairs are interested in changing the status quo. It’s Azerbaijan ignoring the calls of the OSCE Minsk Group to reinstate the commitment to solve the issue in a peaceful way through negotiations. It’s Azerbaijan refusing to create a mechanism of investigation of border incidents. Baku insists that it [the mechanism] will contribute to the maintenance of the status quo.”

At a meeting in Yerevan the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Sweden discussed the opportunities of development of trade and economic, educational and cultural ties, cooperation in the field of healthcare.

The parties agreed upon the improvement of the legal framework and investment promotion. They attached importance to the Convention between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the Kingdom of Sweden for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital signed between the two countries.

The sides agreed to continue the high-level political dialogue, hold consultations between two Ministries of Foreign Affairs on a regular basis to further deepen the cooperation. They highlighted the IT sector as an important field of cooperation.

Edward Nalbandian and Margot Wallström touched upon Armenia-EU relations, stressing the importance of negotiations on a new Armenia-EU framework agreement.