Author: Lilit Nahapetian

Azerbaijani press: No other way to settle Karabakh conflict besides Madrid Principles – MP

Lilit Nahapetian
17:56 (UTC+04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 20

By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:

A briefing on “Averting All-Out War in Nagorno-Karabakh: The Role of the US and OSCE”, which took place Oct. 18 in the Russell Senate Office Building of the US, was more aimed at promoting Armenia and getting even more help for it from the US, Azerbaijani MP Aydin Mirzazade told Trend Oct. 20.

“Nevertheless, Ambassador James Warlick, former OSCE Minsk Group co-chair from the US, and others made statements that were close to objectivity, and their essence is that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be settled within the framework of international law and the problem should be gradually solved,” Mirzazade said.

He noted that the phased plan includes withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the adjacent Azerbaijani districts of Nagorno-Karabakh, opening of the Lachin corridor, granting temporary status to Nagorno-Karabakh.

“These principles were offered and discussed many times,” the MP said. “The fact that they were repeated at a briefing in the US once again shows that there is no other way to solve this problem except these principles.”

On Oct. 19, James Warlick addressed a briefing on “Averting All-Out War in Nagorno-Karabakh: The Role of the US and OSCE”, organized by the US Congress Helsinki Commission. He noted that six elements, based on the Madrid Principles, should be an integral part of the peace agreement and be accepted as one package.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

HSBC bank provided a loan of 55 million euros to the company “Electric Networks of Armenia”.

Lilit Nahapetian
  • 09.10.2017

    •  

  • Armenia:

    •  

  • arm

6
 469

HSBC bank provided one of the largest loans during its activity in Armenia: EUR 55 million to “Armenia Electric Networks” (HETC) PB company. The funding marks a decade of partnership between HSBC and HEC. This is reported by the HEC.

The deal is based on mutual trust between the partners and their willingness to contribute to the stable operation and efficient management of Armenia’s electricity grid system. The loan funds will be used to restructure the loan of the former shareholder of HEP.

The CEO of HSBC Armenia, Paul Edgar, is optimistic about the strategic partnership with HEC. “This transaction is based on the trust and long-term cooperation between HSBC and HEC. This is also proof of our consistency, with which we want to contribute to investments aimed at the development of a stable and safe energy sector in Armenia. The transaction is part of a larger investment scheme of HEC aimed at ensuring the financial stability of HEC in the long term. This transaction will have a positive effect on the financial recovery of HEC. I consider it necessary to mention also that the loan funds are raised without a state guarantee. The financing will help to have a safer, more stable and more efficient company”, says Karen Harutyunyan, General Director of the HEC.

War or peace? Neither reigns in limbo land of Nagorno-Karabakh

Lilit Nahapetian
ReliefWeb
Oct 5 2017


Report

from Thomson Reuters Foundation

“Many people are displaced but they are in areas that are highly militarised. There’s a pressure that you have to be prepared, that war can explode at any time”

By Anna Pujol-Mazzini

TALISH, Azerbaijan, Oct 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Conflict can be long, slow and boring. Especially for the civilians stuck in its midst, living a half life that is neither full war nor genuine peace.

It is more than 20 years since a ceasefire formally ended fighting between ethnic Azeris and Armenians in the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

But the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia have regularly traded accusations of violence around the territory and on their common border.

This means villagers in the Caucasian enclave – recognised as part of Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians – cannot get back to their old peace-time existence any more than they can stay on a perpetual war footing.

Instead they are stuck in a no-man’s land, as conflict sputters on around them.

New prefabricated housing has been delivered to replace abandoned homes.

Old landmines still erupt underfoot.

Home is a warm memory and the future is bleak and uncertain.

But it wasn’t always like this.

Lida Sargsyan, an 82-year old ethnic Armenian, still remembers a time when Azeris and Armenians lived side by side.

“We used to live normally together,” she recalled, standing on a dry patch of land where pigs and cows loll in the sun.

“The Azeris were living in our houses, we were living in their houses.”

But that was decades ago – when the region was brought together under the Soviet Union – before war erupted in 1991.

By the time a truce was agreed three years later, some 30,000 people had been killed – including three of Sargsyan’s sons – and a million people had been displaced.

Clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh have intensified in the past three years, and efforts to secure a permanent settlement have all failed. There are fears that the neighbours are now closer to war over the enclave than at any time since the ceasefire.

So when, in the early hours of April 3, 2016, Sargsyan heard gunshot in her frontline village of Talish, she knew an attack was imminent.

Still in her farm clothes, she jumped into her neighbour’s car and they made for Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, leaving behind her home, a husband and pictures of her three dead sons.

“We left the house without anything,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as she tried to hold back tears.

Barzani should tell the truth: This is about secession

Lilit Nahapetian
Arab News, Saudi Arabia
Oct 1 2017


Barzani should tell the truth: This is about secession 

Amir Taheri 

The Iraqi Kurdistan referendum is a fait accompli. It must be taken into account in shaping future developments, and Masoud Barzani, the man who orchestrated it, must be as pleased as Punch.
 In contemplating the future, it is important to know exactly what we are talking about. Supporters of the referendum have pinned their flag to two concepts: Independence and self-determination.
 They say Iraqi Kurds want independence. However, like all other Iraqis, they already live in a country that is recognized as independent and is a full member of the UN.
 The concept of the quest for independence applies to lands that are part of a foreign empire or the “possession” of a colonial power. Legally speaking, at least since 1932, that has not been the case in Iraq.
 Self-determination is recognized as a right under international law. It was first developed after the First World War and the break-up of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. The idea was that people in the component parts of those empires should determine their own future, especially by deciding whether or not to form states of their own.
 After the Second World War, the concept was used to provide a legal framework for decolonization as British, French and Dutch empires broke up. In the past 100 years, thanks to the concept of self-determination, over 120 new independent countries have appeared on the map.
 Self-determination was established as the right of all peoples to choose their own governments and pass their own laws rather than be subject to distant foreign rulers and lawmakers. So Iraqi Kurds already enjoy self-determination because they choose their own local and national governments and lawmakers.
 The suggestion that the Kurdish referendum was about independence and self-determination is bogus, to say the least. Trying to hoodwink public opinion can lead to dangerous complications in the future.
 So what was the referendum really about? It was about secession, which is not the same thing as self-determination or independence. Its organizers want to detach the areas where Kurds form a majority and set up a new state.
However, while self-determination is universally recognized as a right, secession is not. It is an option, not a right. At best, it may be regarded as a desire, at worst, a folly.
 Also, it has little to do with the degree of democratic development of societies. The UK is a well-established democracy but still faces secessionism from many Scots. There are secessionists in several other democracies; Quebecois in Canada, Corsicans in France, Basques and Catalans in Spain, Frisians in Denmark, Kashmiris in India and even Porto Allergens in Brazil.
The important thing is that, in all those cases, parties that support secession say so openly, seldom trying to disguise their ambition as a quest for self-determination and independence. So the first thing Barzani should do is to call a spade a spade, and openly admit that what he is seeking is secession. He should say that his aim is to break up Iraq, a multi-ethnic republic, to create a mono-ethnic Kurdish state.

Self-determination was not the issue in the Kurdish referendum, and any attempt by the Kurds’ leader at a unilateral Declaration of Independence will not end well.

Amir Taheri

Interestingly, the word Iraq, which means “lowland,” is a geographic term with no ethnic connotations. Iraqi citizenship is a civic concept, transcending ethnic, religious and racial identities. Many countries in the world are named after their majority ethnic component. Turkey is the land of the Turks and Armenia the land of Armenians. All the “stan” countries refer to ethnic majorities there. Beyond the Middle East, all but 12 of the European states are also named after ethnic components: Germany is the land of Germans and Russia the land of Russians.
 However, none of the Middle Eastern countries that emerged from the break-up of the Ottoman Empire are labeled with ethnic identities. They have historic or geographic names and regard the presence of various ethnic or religious communities within their borders as a given. Even Israel, though a special case for obvious reasons, fits into that pattern if only because 27 percent of its citizens are not Jews. They are Israelis but not Israelites.
 The Middle East has been the sphere of multi-ethnic empires for about 25 centuries: Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Roman, Byzantines, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ottomans etc. The Kurdish state that Barzani wishes to create would be the first in 2,000 years in the Middle East to claim a purely ethnic identity.
 The international community recognizes the outcome of secession only if it is achieved with the consent of the country concerned. Montenegro seceded from Serbia through negotiations and was admitted into the UN. Kosovo also seceded but without consent and is still in limbo, rejected by the UN and recognized by only a handful of nations.
 A referendum does not automatically bestow legitimacy on secession. Russia held them in Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine, and in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which it took from Georgia. No other country recognizes those secessions.
The reason is that there is no legal mechanism to recognize non-consensual secession. The International Court of Justice at The Hague made that clear by refusing to certify Kosovo’s independence. In Canada, the High Court has ruled against Quebec secession and in France Corsican secessionist demands have been thrown out by courts. In Iraq, the constitution, drafted with the full and enthusiastic participation of Barzani, excludes unilateral secession.
 Finally, secession does not feature in the programs of any of the dozen or so parties active among Kurds in Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan. So the next step Barzani must take is to enshrine secession in his party’s charter and manifesto for the next Iraqi general election in 2018. If he does that and obtains a mandate to seek secession, he could then demand that the central government in Baghdad enter into negotiations on the issue.
 In other words, any attempt at a unilateral declaration of independence could lead only to impasse, a deadly impasse.
• Amir Taheri was executive editor in chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at, or written for, innumerable publications and published 11 books.

— Originally published in Asharq Al-Awsat.

Canadian ICT Business Mission to Yerevan in the Republic of Armenia, 29 September – 4 October 2017

Lilit Nahapetian
Canadian Trade Commissioner Service
Friday
 
 

Date: September 29-October 04, 2017
Venue: DigiTec Expo, Marriott Hotel Yerevan, site visits
Location: Yerevan, Armenia
Target Audience: Canadian ICT companies interested in doing business in Armenia and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Focus areas of the mission: Digital Economy and Enterprise Innovation, IT Security, Big Data and Education.
Sector: Information and Communications Technologies

The ICT mission has two components and companies can choose to participate in either or both:

1. B2B and optional booth at DigiTec Expo (29 September – 1 October): At the DigiTec Expo, participants can conduct B2B meetings with both Armenian and international companies. In the last two years, multinational participants included Huawei, Ericsson, WMware as well as Oracle, IBM and Microsoft technology centres. Companies can also choose to join the Canada stand, and participate in presentations and forums.

2. Canadian ICT Forum & Round Table (1 – 4 October): Following the Expo (2 October), the TCS will organize the Canadian ICT Forum with the objective to learn more about the challenges and opportunities of the Armenian ICT market directly from government and industry experts. The following day (3 October), the delegation will visit the Centre for Creative Technologies (TUMO), where a round-table will be hosted on the issues of ICT, education and skilled workforce. Upon conclusion of the official part of the mission, participants can join cultural programming or continue with B2B meetings (4 October). 

Background: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is one of the fastest growing sectors in Armenia, and Armenia already has a Canadian ICT business presence. The Armenian government strongly supports the business community by welcoming international companies, developing special economic zones and creating a strong investment climate with customs and tax privileges. As a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Armenia can be an entry point to a market of 180 million people with an annual GDP of USD 4 trillion. The mission is an excellent chance to learn more about these opportunities, and to forge linkages with local and global companies active in Armenia.
  • Compare your product/service with international competitors
  • Develop a first-hand understanding of the opportunities and challenges of doing business in foreign markets
  • Gain insights and market intelligence
  • Increase visibility of your product or service
  • Meet academic or research entities
  • Meet foreign education institutions and/or organizations
  • Meet innovation collaborators or industrial R&D partners
  • Meet key commercial entities, industry players, and potential buyers, investors and/or partners
  • Meet key regulatory bodies
  • Participate in networking events
  • Pitch your product /service to selected audiences
  • Receive on-the-ground assistance from the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service
  • Networking event
  • Pavilion/exhibit
  • Product pitch to select audiences
  • Seminar
  • Site visits

The Trade Commissioner, , is specialized in the ICT sector for the Russian, Armenian and Uzbek markets and can provide information on this and other local events as well as advice on business development in the region. Services from the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service are offered free of charge to Canadian companies and organizations.

To ensure the mission program fits your needs, to help structure preliminary meetings, plan the Canada booth and work with the hotel to keep a hold on preferred rate rooms, please send an indication of interest by 31 August 2017 to .

 

Azerbaijani press: Karabakh Liberation Organization stages rally to protest Armenian MPs’ visit to Baku

Lilit Nahapetian
PrevNext
+2
  • A
  • A+
  • A-

A group of members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization have held a rally outside the Azerbaijani parliament to protest the Armenian MPs’ visit to Baku.

 

The protesters chanted slogans such as “Go away, representatives of Armenia!” “Shame on you who have invited the Armenians!”, “The Armenians leave Baku right away”, etc. The angry protesters then trampled on the Armenian flag but could not burn it as the police intervened.

 

The protesters said in a statement that the inviting of the Armenian MPs to the Euronest Parliament Assembly’s conference in Baku is disrespect to the souls of the martyrs and treason against the entire people of Azerbaijan.

 

“As long as our lands are under occupation, our daughters in captivity, our sons like Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev in hostage, Armenians cannot be allowed to Baku under any circumstances. This practice should be ended once and for all. We insist that these shameless MPs who represent the Armenian regime be ejected from the conference and leave Azerbaijan immediately,” the statement said. 

US Congress’ representative delegation to visit Armenia

Lilit Nahapetian 
Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
 Saturday
US Congress' representative delegation to visit Armenia
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. By the initiative of
Armenian-American congresswoman Jackie Kanchelian Speier a delegation
of US congressmen will visit Armenia on September 17, Voice of America
reports.
The delegation includes congressman Frank Pallone who brought
assistance to Armenia after the Spitak earthquake, ethnic Armenian
congresswoman Anna Eshoo, congressman David Valadao, congresswoman
Tulsi Gabbard and congressman Jim Sensenbrenner.
“This is perhaps the largest congressional delegation’s visit to
independent democratic Armenia”, congresswoman Jackie Kanchelian
Speier told Voice of America, adding that the agenda of the visit is
quite full. As for the goals of the visit, they are numerous: “The
first one is to strengthen our friendship, help Armenia to get rid of
corruption phenomena still existing in the country, create new
opportunities for providing assistance to Armenia aimed at development
of democracy”.
This visit has a sensational significance for the congresswoman. “Of
course, for us who have Armenian origins it is very important to visit
the homeland, get acquainted with the historical homeland, feel and
touch it”, she said. “I would like for Armenia to receive huge amount
of assistance since I consider Armenia as our partner in a region that
is under aggressive actions of Russia”.
The Congressmen are going to discuss with the Armenian side the issue
of strengthening Armenia’s energy independence since at the moment
Armenia depends on Russia in terms of energy supplies, which ,
according to the congresswoman, wants to restore the Soviet Union. “I
am convinced that Armenia doesn’t want to again become a Soviet
Armenia”.
Jackie Kanchelian Speier highlights Armenia’s huge potential in
development of technological field and Armenian Ambassador to US
Grigor Hovhannisyan’s perfect work on strengthening the
Armenian-American ties. The US is ready for expanding the political
and economic relations with Armenia.
“We want to strengthen the relations with Armenia so that Armenia will
never have to worry about the threat of its sovereignty”, she said.
Another advantage of Armenia is the Armenian Diaspora. Numerous
Armenians that have serious achievements in the US want to restore the
link with Armenia, and the Congressmen will discuss also these
prospects during their Armenia visit.

Armenia’s Ministry of Culture Seeks Return of Ancient Armenian Church Bell from Iran

Lilit Nahapetian
  • Armenia

    •  

  • Latest

    •  

  • News

10 hours ago

Ancient Armenian church bell (Photo: Armenpress)

YEREVAN (Armenpress) – The Armenian Ministry of Culture is planning to discuss the issue of transporting an ancient Armenian church bell back from Iran with Tehran officials.

“The ministry of culture is planning to discuss this matter with the Iranian side with the purpose of solving the issue in line with international legal norms and procedures,” Deputy Minister Arev Samuelyan told Armenpress.

The Ministry of Culture contacted the ministry of foreign affairs for comprehensive information regarding the process.

According to the deputy minister, the return of cultural values to Armenia has happened in the past. For example in 2011, an Aivazovsky painting was returned to Armenia’s national gallery after being stolen 21 years earlier.

Iranian media said an ancient bell belonging to one of the Armenian Churches of Van, which due to unknown reasons appeared in north-western Iran, will be returned to the Holy Cross Church of Akhtamar.

Turkish media said the bell was given to Van’s St. Mariam Church on July 7, 1377. The bell reportedly appeared in Iran during wartime, and is still housed in a history museum in Urmia.

Aliyev Blames ‘Armenian Lobby’ for Report on $3 Billion Slush Fund

Lilit Nahapetian
  • Armenia

    •  

  • Artsakh

    •  

  • Featured Story

    •  

  • Latest

    •  

  • Top Stories

11 hours ago

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with his wife and vice-president Mehriban Aliyeva

BAKU—Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday blamed the “Armenian Lobby” for a new investigative report detailing how Azerbaijani elite used an estimated $2.8 billion slush fund to influence and lobby lawmakers in Europe and pay for extravagant purchases.

Aliyev, through his press secretary, said that American philanthropist George Soros and his henchmen—the “Armenian Lobby”—concocted the report released by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project on Monday to smear Azerbaijan.

The report details how thousands of payments from Azerbaijan were channeled through four shell companies in the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2014 to buy the “silence” of politicians and officials.

“Neither the president, nor members of his family have any relation to the charges contained in the report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project,” said Aliyev’s press office statement. “The dirty deeds of George Soros need to be investigated,” it said. “The Armenian lobby working in concert with him has been waging a smear campaign against the president of Azerbaijan and members of his family.”

The OCCRP and several press outlets in Europe, Russia and the United States collaborated on the report, entitled “The Azerbaijani Laundromat,” which states that “there is ample evidence of its [the sluch fund’s] connection to the family of President Ilham Aliyev.”
The report that has created shockwaves across Great Britain has prompted some members of parliament to call Prime Minister Theresa May to order an investigation into how companies registered there were able to operate such a huge money laundering scheme on behalf of Azerbaijan’s ruling elite.

Tim Farron, the former Liberal Democrat leader, led calls for an inquiry, saying this was what happens “when the corporate landscape is too lightly regulated,” reported the Guardian.

“We need a full investigation to see that dirty money has not been used to buy influence in the UK. The Azerbaijani government is guilty of systematic human rights abuses and it would appear the regime has been making payments on an industrial scale,” Farron was quoted by The Guardian as saying.

The OCCRP collaborated with the Danish newspaper Berlingske, which received a trove of leaked bank records that revealed the $2.8 billion slush fund, through which vast sums of money were laundered through a series of shell companies.

From 2012 to 2014, when the Azerbaijani government was rounding up opposition activists and journalists, members of the country’s ruling part were using the secret slush fund to pay off European politicians, buy luxury items, launder money and pay for high-end private schools in the United States.

“Meanwhile, at least three European politicians, a journalist who wrote stories friendly to the regime, and businessmen who praised the government were among the recipients of Azerbaijani Laundromat money. In some cases, these prominent individuals were able to mobilize important international organizations, such as UNESCO and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, to score PR victories for the regime,” said the OCCRP.

The report also details more than 16,000 transactions were carried out by the four shell companies registered in the UK and pits Danske Bank, a major European financial institution and the largest bank in Denmark, at the center of the scandal.

The OCCRP said that Danske Bank “turned a blind eye to transactions that should have raised red flags. The bank’s Estonian branch handled the accounts of all four Azerbaijani Laundromat companies, allowing the billions to pass through it without investigating their propriety.”

“A majority of the payments went to other secretive shell companies similarly registered in the UK, indicating that the full extent of the scheme may be much larger than is currently known. Large amounts also went to companies in the UAE and Turkey,” added OCCRP.

Read the entire OCCRP report entitled “The Azebaijani Laundromat.” 

Music: Pan-Armenian Symphony Orchestra to perform at Gramophone Awards 2017 in London

Lilit Nahapetian
Public radio of Armenia
Aug 30 2017
16:23, 30 Aug 2017

The newly-formed Pan-Armenian Symphony Orchestra will perform at the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2017, widely regarded as the Oscars of the classical music world. Performing under their conductor Sergey Smbatyan, the Orchestra will join some of the biggest names in classical music as Gramophone Award winners past and present take to the stage to celebrate the 40th anniversary of these prestigious awards, which celebrate the very best of the last year of classical music.

Several high profile guests from Armenia are also expected to join the celebrations.

For the second year running, the ceremony will be live-streamed on medici.tv, so classical music lovers from all around the globe will have the opportunity to watch all of the performances, acceptance speeches, and glamour of the night unfold. Many tens of thousands of people are expected to watch.

The Pan-Armenian Symphony Orchestra is comprised of Armenian musicians from all around the world, and players are drawn from other high-profile orchestras such as the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, and the National Orchestra of France. Their conductor for the Gramophone Awards performance, Sergey Smbatyan, is not only the Founder, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia, but is also an ‘Honoured Artist of the Republic of Armenia’.

The glittering event on September 13, which for the first time takes place in the stunning venue of 8 Northumberland Avenue, London WC2, honours the most outstanding recordings of the previous year in 12 categories, with one of these named as Recording of the Year on the night. Other awards announced at the event include an Artist of the Year (voted for by Gramophone’s readers), a Young Artist of the Year, a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Label of the Year.

The shortlist of nominated recordings can be found here, and the winners of each category will be announced on September 1.

James Jolly, Gramophone’s Editor-in-Chief, says: “We’re delighted to be joined once again by an orchestra for the Awards. Drawing on some of the finest Armenian orchestral musicians from ensembles all around the world, the Pan-Armenian SO will add a truly international dimension to the event. And we also look forward to some Armenian orchestral music during the course of the evening played by people who clearly respond to its magic.”