Author: Maral Chavushian

Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
 Tuesday
"Great Shame" – Lawmaker Garo Paylan angered by Turkey's oppression
against activists
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS. A Turkish Court didn’t allow Garo
Paylan, the lawmaker of Armenian origin, to be present at the trials
of the 10 human rights activists.
Paylan said on Twitter that he was forced to listen to the
developments from behind the door.
After the trial ended, Paylan said : “ Great Shame: Activists Idil
Eser, Özlem Dalkıran, Veli Acu, Günal Kurşun, Ali Gharaviand Peter
Steudtner have been jailed. Human rights have been jailed”.
With great sorrow Paylan said that Turkey has reached the same level
as North Korea.
He also shared a photo which was taken with the activists as they were
leaving the courtroom.
On July 5, 10 activists were arrested in Istanbul. Four have been released.
The activists are accused for being members of terrorist groups. The
jailed includes Amnesty International Turkey office head Idil Eser.
Amnesty International urged to pressure Turkey to immediately stop the
prosecution and release them.
The US has also expressed concern.

Trend News Agency (Baku, Azerbaijan)
 Wednesday
Neither military, nor economic factors allow Armenia to inflict
serious blow on Azerbaijan
June 28--The statements of Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan
that a serious blow will be inflicted on Azerbaijan and that eight
Azerbaijani servicemen were allegedly killed in the last ten days are
not true, the press service of Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said in a
message June 28.
Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry perceives the words of Armenia's defense
minister with bitter irony and states that his amateurish speech,
which is not grounded in real facts and disseminated with propaganda
aim, is nothing but lie and impudence.
Neither military, economic, human resources, nor other factors make it
possible for Armenia to inflict a serious blow on Azerbaijan, said the
ministry's message.
Azerbaijani soldiers and the up-to-date military equipment and
armaments, which have a crushing power, are capable of suppressing any
threat by the enemy, destroying it and restoring the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan, said the message.
As for the losses, it would be more appropriate if Sargsyan took up
the cases of death in the Armenian army. It is the Armenian side that
constantly hides losses at the front line and other cases of death in
the army. Sargsyan would look sincere if, instead of voicing such
delusional statements, he would correctly inform the Armenian public
about the real number of losses of the Armenian side in recent days as
a result of the retaliatory measures of the Azerbaijani army, says the
Defense Ministry's message.
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.

Armenpress News Agency, Armenia
 Monday
 We Want Europe in Nagorno Karabakh petition launched on change.org,
endorsed by MEPs, diplomats
YEREVAN, JUNE 12, ARMENPRESS. A petition entitled We Want Europe in
Nagorno Karabakh has been launched on the change.org petition website.
The petition mentions that Azerbaijan is conducting a policy of
isolation towards Nagorno Karabakh since the collapse of the USSR.
“Oil-rich Azerbaijan invests considerable effort and money to ensure
that foreign political leaders, officials, journalists and aid
organisations stay out of the territory. At Azerbaijan’s
insistence,the European Union (EU) also stays out of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In the past 20 years, no EU official has travelled there and no EU
assistance whatsoever has been provided to its population”, the
petition says.
It also mentioned that in this context, Nagorno Karabakh’s isolation
is unique, because “EU provides aid to 150 countries around the World.
It also provides aid to people in many unrecognized territories such
as Abkhazia, Transnistria and Northern Cyprus regardless of their
status. This policy is called “engagement without recognition”.
“We call on the EU to engage with Nagorno-Karabakh and support
projects to improve the living conditions of its population because EU
policies should contribute to the welfare, not to the hardship of
populations in Europe and in its periphery.
We also call on Europe to engage with Nagorno-Karabakh, because it
must be present and contribute to peace as conflict escalates on its
doorstep”, the petition reads.
The petition has been launched by AGBU Europe, and has already been
signed by Members of the European Parliament Frank Engel, Michèle
Rivasi, Bart Staes, Jill Evans, Peter Niedermüller, numerous
scientists, human rights activists, diplomats and others.