Author: Maral Takmazian

Minister of Emergency Situations Andranik Piloyan arrested in suspicion of bribery

Maral Takmazian

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 11:40, 31 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 31, ARMENPRESS. The Minister of Emergency Situations Andranik Piloyan is arrested in suspicion of bribery, the Anti-Corruption Committee said.

The National Security Service conducted a large scale investigation into alleged cases of bribery, abuse of power and embezzlement committed in the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

“Numerous cases” of alleged crimes were discovered.

Suspects include Minister Piloyan, his advisor, as well as more than 10 ministry officials.

Piloyan is suspected in accepting a bribe for making actions in his capacity as minister in favor of a company which works with the ministry. Piloyan’s advisor acted as an intermediary in taking the bribe, according to the Anti-Corruption Committee.

Piloyan faces 3 counts of bribery charges under Article 311 Paragraph 3, Clause 3. He was arrested on March 30. Investigators filed a motion to court requesting to remand him in custody until the trial.

Artsakh slams UK for blatant support for Azerbaijan amid its fresh aggression

Maral Takmazian
Panorama
Armenia – March 31 2022

Artsakh’s (Nagorno-Karabakh) State Minister Artak Beglaryan on Wednesday denounced the UK for its blatant support for Azerbaijan amid the latter’s fresh aggression in Artsakh.

Britain’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces James Heappey visited Baku on Wednesday to discuss, among other things, “unresolved issues” between Armenia and Azerbaijan, while the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was discussed with the Azerbaijani ambassador in the UK.

“What does the UK have to do with Azerbaijan’s latest aggression in Artsakh and Russia’s security guarantees?” Beglaryan said in a statement.

“We saw Britain’s blatant support for Azerbaijan during the Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression in 2020. Even now, during the occupation of Parukh and Karaglukh, Britain does not hide its strategic support, and we can only guess how much and what kind of real support is on the other side of the veil,” he noted.

Beglaryan states such support is aimed at strengthening the positions of the Azerbaijani-Turkish tandem in the region as well as “striking a blow to the vital interests of Russia”, as a result of which the life and security of the Artsakh Armenians are violated.

“While human rights and democracy, “extolled” by the West, are not at all important in such dirty geopolitical games,” the minister added.

Expert: No document can prevent Baku’s barbarian regime from occupying whole of Artsakh

Maral Takmazian
Panorama
Armenia – April 2 2022

Armenian expert on Iran Vardan Voskanyan, who heads the Chair of Iranian Studies of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the Yerevan State University (YSU), dismissed the Armenian authorities’ claims that signing a peace treaty with Azerbaijan would ensure peace for Armenia and Artsakh.

“They are trying to convince us that a piece of paper called a treaty is supposed to ensure peace for the Republic of Armenia and the Artsakh Republic,” he wrote on Telegram on Saturday.

“In fact, no document can hold Baku’s barbarian regime back from occupying the whole of Artsakh and other territories vital for Armenia, if the enemy is convinced they can do it by force.

“According to the muted statements from Baku, the 44-day war stopped because the Armenian military dealt heavy blows, draining the Azerbaijani bashi-bazouks.

“We, unfortunately, have forgotten about the uselessness of the “paper spoon” Khrimian Hayrik was talking about, and have again entered a stage when they are trying to mislead us with the pernicious “idea” of preserving and strengthening our ancestral homeland, not with the sword of justice, but with a fickle piece of paper,” Voskanyan said.

The repair of the damaged gas pipeline in Artsakh completed

Maral Takmazian

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 18:06,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. The repair works of the damaged gas pipeline in Artsakh have been completed, the Artsakh Information Headquarters informed ARMENPRESS, adding that taking into account the fact that the gas pipeline did not operate for 10 days, a number of technical works are being carried out to ensure the proper, uninterrupted transportation and supply of gas to the distribution networks.

“After completing the mentioned works, the gas supply will be restored”, says the statement.

Syrian Parliament Speaker invited to Armenia

Maral Takmazian

 

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 17:39,

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador of Armenia to Syria Tigran Gevorgyan visited the People’s Assembly (Parliament) of Syria and met with Speaker Hammoud Sabbagh, the Armenian Embassy said on social media.

During the meeting both sides highlighted the role and significance of the parliamentary diplomacy in further deepening and developing the relations between Armenia and Syria.

Ambassador Gevorgyan said Armenia attaches great importance to the official recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide by the Syrian parliament, which was another evidence of the solidarity between the Armenian and Syrian peoples.

In this respect, the Ambassador conveyed the letter-invitation of the Vice Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Ishkhan Saghatelyan addressed to the Syrian side to visit Armenia on April 24.

The sides also discussed a number of regional and international issues. The Armenian Ambassador thoroughly presented the regular provocations of the Azerbaijani side, particularly the latest steps on provoking humanitarian crisis in Artsakh. He also presented the latest developments in the Armenia-Turkey dialogue to the Syrian parliament speaker.

Hammoud Sabbagh accepted the invitation with pleasure and promised to inform about the decision on sending a delegation to Armenia in a short period of time.

The world failed to act in 2020 when Azerbaijan attacked Armenia. Now history repeats itself in Ukraine

Maral Takmazian
OPINION
By Stephan PechdimaldjiUpdated

A country led by an authoritarian launches an unprovoked war claiming sovereignty over historical lands. Thousands of innocent lives are upended. Fathers leave children behind to defend their country. Churches and hospitals are bombed. War crimes are committed.

Sound familiar? While this might depict events currently unfolding in Ukraine, it also describes what happened to Armenians living in their ancestral homeland of Nagorno-Karabakh when Azerbaijan started a war in the fall of 2020.

But unlike Ukraine, where worldwide condemnation of Russian aggression has been swift and severe, the world stayed mostly silent when Armenians were desperately asking for support and help. For millions of Armenians living around the world, this story is all too familiar. As victims of the first genocide of the 20th century, when more than 1.5 million Armenians were systematically exterminated by the Ottoman Turks, an event Turkey denies to this day, Armenians have come to expect that their suffering and pain is not worthy of comparable attention.

The events taking place in Ukraine and the imbalance of coverage that the Nagorno-Karabakh war received has only crystalized those feelings of frustration and exasperation. Wars are not a competition. And the people of Ukraine deserve all the help and support that the world can give them to stop Vladimir Putin’s quixotic campaign to revive the Soviet Union. But focusing on just one group undermines what other countries have endured in similar conflicts, wars, and wanton acts of violence. It gives despots cover to commit acts of violence at will and without restraint.

Strongmen like Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan share contempt for the rule of law. Had the world acted on behalf of Armenia in 2020 — or, for that matter, during the Armenian genocide in 1915 — then maybe that would have sent a stronger message to autocrats like Putin whose actions demonstrate that they believe they can carry out acts of aggression against other nations with impunity. What’s happening to Ukrainians is similar to what happened to Armenians. These are not mutually exclusive events. The parallels could not be starker.

Taking a page out of Putin’s playbook, President Aliyev used the pretext of historical revisionism to launch his unprovoked war against Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. Claiming that large parts of Armenia’s territory were Azerbaijan’s “historic lands,” Aliyev defended this belief through incendiary language in numerous speeches leading up to the war and even went so far to say that Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, belonged to Azerbaijan. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is one of the reasons why he has embarked on a campaign to erase Armenia’s history and existence in the region by defacing, vandalizing, and destroying Armenian heritage and cultural sites, including churches and monasteries that have stood for hundreds of years.

Already we are seeing Russian forces try to engage in similar efforts. For instance, Moscow drew international condemnation after an airstrike hit Babyn Yar, a Holocaust memorial site where Nazis killed thousands of Jews during World War II. Whether or not it was intentional, the ultimate message that Russia sent was clear. Similarly, images surfaced during the Nagorno-Karabakh war showing a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide in Shushi being razed by occupying Azeri forces.

Despite these parallels, the world responded much differently to each event. While Russia has rightly been sanctioned economically and labeled a pariah, Azerbaijan didn’t even get a slap on the wrist. FIFA and UEFA, the world’s largest governing body for soccer, banned Russia but rewarded Azerbaijan by allowing it to host the 2020 European Championship games. Those same games were held next door to Azerbaijan Military Trophies Park, which glorifies and extols Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War with Armenia, which basically represents a blatant disrespect for human rights as it celebrates its war crimes.

The park features a display of hundreds of helmets taken from Armenian soldiers killed during the war and wax mannequins of captured soldiers portrayed through exaggerated caricatures based on Armenian stereotypes and tropes like crooked noses and bushy eyebrows. Many of these mannequins are of people shown in their dying moments or chained to jail cells.

War should not be a zero-sum game when it comes to awareness. It is evil and represents the very worst of humanity. That is why all conflicts deserve attention. Human lives should not be measured by the size of a country or the natural resources it may have. In many ways, the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020 was a harbinger of Russia’s war in Ukraine. As with the lessons of the Armenian genocide, the world failed to learn from history. Sadly, that history is repeating itself once again.

Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/03/14/opinion/world-failed-act-2019-when-azerbaijan-attacked-armenia-now-history-repeats-itself-ukraine/ 


Artsakh Defense Army, jointly with Russian peacekeepers, fully fulfilling its mission – Security Council

Maral Takmazian

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 17:25,

YEREVAN, MARCH 11, ARMENPRESS. The Office of the Security Council of Artsakh released a statement calling on the public not to fall for fake news and follow exclusively official information.

“Some online news websites and social media accounts are circulating information according to which “self-defense formations” are being created in various communities of the Republic. We are announcing that the Defense Army of Artsakh, jointly with the Russian peacekeeping contingent, is fully fulfilling its missions. The news on the formation of additional structures is false to the extent of there not being any necessity of such detachments in practice. We are urging not to give in to fake news and follow only official information,” the Office of the Security Council said in the statement.

FY2022 Omnibus bill calls for aid to Armenia and Artsakh

Maral Takmazian
panorama.am
Armenia –


Tonight, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an Omnibus Appropriations Bill wrapping up Fiscal Year 2022 spending that calls for “not less than” $45 million for Armenia and $2 million for humanitarian demining in Artsakh, reported the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly).

The measure also requires “that prior to any initial obligation of funds appropriated under title IV of the Act for assistance for Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Secretary of State shall consult with the Committees on Appropriations on the proposed uses of such funds.”

The inclusion of aid comes on the heels of a letter spearheaded by Congressional Armenian Caucus Vice-Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) along with Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), as well as another letter by Caucus Members Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Jim Costa (D-CA), who urged the leadership of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs to include an additional $50 million in humanitarian aid to Artsakh.

The bill itself includes language on Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, and also requires a report on the likelihood of military action against Artsakh “not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.”

There has been widespread reporting of the Aliyev regime’s continued violations of the November 2020 ceasefire terms, including the killing of Armenians in cross-border shootings. This week alone, Azeri forces blocked repair of damaged main gas supply to Nagorno Karabakh amid reports that they cut the pipeline themselves, under cover of war in Ukraine. Just yesterday, an Armenian soldier was killed, and another wounded, in a ceasefire violation on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. In addition, Artsakh officials have reported today that Azerbaijan’s army is “actively” using high-caliber mortars and automatic weapons to target Artsakh’s rural communities forcing farmers to suspend “all types of agricultural work.” Moreover, for the last two days and counting, the people of Artsakh have been deprived of a vital gas supply pipeline while the Azeri military refuses access to determine the cause or fix the damage. Meanwhile, Artsakh recently sent over 14 tons of humanitarian aid to help aid the Ukrainian people.

Last week, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released a report regarding Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) which found that, according to Chairman Menendez, “the State Department failed to comply with reporting requirements for reviewing U.S. assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan.”

Further, according to Chairman Menendez, the GAO report “found that over several years, the Department of State and Department of Defense failed to meet statutory reporting requirements to Congress on the impact of U.S. assistance on the military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

Other key findings from the report included that the State’s reporting to Congress from FY2014-FY2021 did not address required elements, including the impact on proposed assistance on the military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan; State’s Memorandums of Justification contained limited or no details regarding quantity of assistance, status of the military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the impact of U.S. assistance on the military balance, or the impact of the assistance on peace negotiations; State’s 2021 guidance did not provide detailed instructions to agencies about reporting requirements to Congress; and that State and DoD did not document their consideration of waiver requirements from FY2014-FY2020, including how they determined assistance would not be used for offensive purposes against Armenia.

“As the world bears witness to the ongoing devastation in Ukraine, we urge continued vigilance to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its ongoing attacks against the Armenian people,” said Assembly Congressional Relations Director Mariam Khaloyan.

Russia takes control of Zaporozhskaya nuclear power plant, says defense ministry

Maral Takmazian

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 13:20,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Russian military are guarding and controlling the territory of the Zaporozhskaya nuclear power plant, official representative of the Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Monday, TASS reported.

“Russian servicemen are guarding and controlling the area around the Zaporozhskaya nuclear power plant”, Konashenkov noted.

According to Russian Defense Ministry’s representative, the workers of the power plant continue servicing facilities, they also control the level of radiation. “The level of radiation is normal”, he stated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people “who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years”. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 02/14/2022

Maral Takmazian 
                                        Monday, February 14, 2022
Russian, Armenian Officials Again Discuss Talks With Turkey
February 14, 2022
RUSSIA - Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, June 18, 2021.
Deputy parliament speaker Ruben Rubinian on Monday discussed with a senior 
Russian diplomat the upcoming second round of negotiations on normalizing 
relations between Armenia and Turkey.
Rubinian, who represents Armenia in the negotiations, had already spoken with 
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko ahead of his first meeting with 
Turkish negotiator Serdar Kilic held in Moscow on January 14. Ankara and Yerevan 
described that meeting as “positive and constructive.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Rudenko discussed with Rubinian by phone the 
implementation of the latter’s “understandings” with Kilic reached in Moscow as 
well as their second meeting that will take place in Vienna on February 24.
“The Russian side reaffirmed its readiness to further assist in the search for 
common ground between Yerevan and Ankara in the interests of stability and 
sustainable development in the region,” read a statement released by the 
ministry.
According to the official Armenian readout of Rubinian’s phone call with 
Rudenko, the two men expressed hope that the Vienna meeting will be productive.
Earlier this month, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan voiced cautious 
optimism over the success of the Turkish-Armenian dialogue which has also been 
welcomed by the United States and the European Union.
Ankara has for decades linked the establishment of diplomatic relations with 
Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border to a resolution of the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Turkish Foreign Minister 
Mevlut Cavusoglu has repeatedly made clear that his government will coordinate 
the Turkish-Armenian normalization talks with Baku.
Armenia Not Evacuating Embassy In Ukraine
February 14, 2022
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
UKRAINE -- View on Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky monument and Saint Sophia Cathedral 
on Sofia square in Kyiv, 14Mar2016
Armenia indicated on Monday that it has no plans yet to follow the example of 
Western nations and evacuate its diplomatic missions in Ukraine despite the 
looming threat of a Russian invasion.
It also refrained from urging Armenian nationals to leave the country.
“We are closely monitoring developments in Ukraine,” said Vahan Hunanian, the 
Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman.
“Armenia’s diplomatic missions in Ukraine (the Embassy in Kyiv and the Consulate 
General in Odessa) work normally, being in constant contact with Armenian 
citizens, who will be given additional recommendations, if necessary,” he added 
in written comments.
The United States, most European Union member states and other Western nations 
have fully or partly pulled their diplomatic staff out of Kyiv in recent days as 
they stepped up their warnings of an imminent attack by Russia on Ukraine. They 
have also told their citizens to leave the country.
In addition, a number of European airlines have suspended their flights to 
Ukraine for security reasons. By contrast, daily flights between Yerevan and 
Kyiv, carried out by Ukrainian airlines, are continuing unabated.
Belarus - Multiple rocket launchers fire during the Belarusian and Russian joint 
military drills at Brestsky firing range, February 4, 2022.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine but 
denies it plans to invade. At the same time, Moscow has demanded far-reaching 
“security guarantees” from the West, including a pledge not to admit Ukraine to 
NATO and to scale back NATO military presence near its borders. Western powers 
reject these demands.
Armenia, which has close political, military and economic ties with Russia, has 
been careful not to publicly comment on the deepening international crisis. The 
South Caucasus state has become even more dependent on Moscow for security since 
the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ukraine is home to an estimated 120,000 ethnic Armenians. Most of them are 
Ukrainian citizens.
Boris Yeghiazarian, a Ukrainian-Armenian painter and activist living in Kyiv, 
said on Monday that he does not know of any local Armenians who have fled the 
country because of the deteriorating situation on the Ukraine-Russia border.
Yeghiazarian said many members of the Armenian community are ready to “take up 
arms” and defend the country “just like Ukrainians.” Only a small percentage of 
them have pro-Russian views, he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia Jolted By Another Earthquake
February 14, 2022
        • Satenik Kaghzvantsian
        • Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - New apartment blocks in Gyumri constructed for people who lost their 
homes in the 1988 earthquake, 15Oct2012.
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake struck Armenia and neighboring Georgia late on 
Sunday, causing brief panic among some people.
According to the Armenian seismic protection agency, the epicenter of the 
earthquake was at a section of the Armenian-Georgian border about 40 kilometers 
north of Gyumri. Tremors were felt in Yerevan and six of Armenia’s ten provinces 
as well as Tbilisi and southern Georgia.
The quake did not kill or injure anyone. The Armenian Ministry of Emergencies 
reported minor damage caused to buildings in Yerevan, Gyumri and three other 
towns.
Many Gyumri residents rushed out of their homes immediate after the quake, which 
knocked out power supplies in one of the city’s districts. The supplies were 
restored about 90 minutes later.
“Residents can return to their homes,” the Ministry of Emergencies said in a 
late-night statement. It urged them not to “succumb to panic,” saying that they 
should only expect weaker aftershocks.
The ministry’s seismic protection service recorded 165 aftershocks by Monday 
morning. A senior official from the service, Sos Margarian, described the 
earthquake as “moderately powerful.”
“It’s probably the strongest since the Spitak earthquake,” Margarian said, 
referring to 1988 calamity that killed more than 25,000 people and devastated 
much of northwestern Armenia, including Gyumri.
The latest tremors came one year after two quakes measuring at magnitude 4.7 in 
their epicenters jolted some Armenian regions in the space of one week. The 
authorities urged residents of Yerevan and surrounding communities at the time 
to stay outdoors for several hours.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.