Author: Nahapetian Zhanna

Armenpress: Three Artsakh servicemen wounded from Azerbaijani shooting undergo successful surgery – State Minister

Nahapetian Zhanna

Three Artsakh servicemen wounded from Azerbaijani shooting undergo successful surgery – State Minister

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 10:06,

STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The life of the servicemen of Artsakh wounded from the Azerbaijani shooting are not in danger, State Minister of Artsakh Artak Beglaryan said on Facebook.

“I have just arrived from the Stepanakert military hospital and the republican medical center where three wounded servicemen have undergone a surgery. They all have undergone a successful surgery, and none of the wounded soldiers is under danger. I would like to thank our doctors for conducting their mission with high dedication and skills”, Artak Beglaryan said.

Earlier the Defense Army of Artsakh reported that in the evening of October 14 the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire at the Defense Army’s military positions located in the eastern section of the border, as a result of which 6 servicemen received a gunshot wound. They all were in serious condition.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Iran Concerned by Israel’s Drones in Azerbaijan

Nahapetian Zhanna
Oct 9 2021
Saturday, 9 October, 2021 – 05:15
Washington – Istanbul – Asharq Al-Awsat

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has said his country does not accept “geopolitical changes” in the Caucasus.

He made his remarks during talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

The American researcher and writer from The National Interest, Trevor Filseth, said that “while the comments were offered without reference to any nation, they were presumably directed at Azerbaijan, Iran’s northwestern neighbor, which has cooperated on defense issues with Israel, to Iran’s consternation.”

“We certainly will not tolerate geopolitical change and map change in the Caucasus, and we have serious concerns about the presence of terrorists and Zionists in this region,” Amirabdollahian said during a press conference.

Filseth added, “Azerbaijan and Iran have long had a difficult relationship. In 1945, the Soviet Union sought to promote a secessionist uprising by ethnic Azeris in northwestern Iran, where they have long maintained a demographic majority.

“While the uprising was crushed the following year after Moscow withdrew its support, Iran has long feared Baku’s influence on Iranian Azeris, leading it to build closer relations with Armenia.”

“Iran maintained neutrality during the six-week war from September to November 2020 between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Both countries claim the Nagorno-Karabakh region, known in Armenia as “Artsakh,” which was part of Azerbaijan during the Soviet era but maintained a majority-Armenian population and sought to join Armenia following the Soviet collapse,” he stated.

Filseth went on saying that “while Armenia won the first war in 1994, Azerbaijan decisively won the 2020 rematch—largely owing to the influence of Israeli military technology, including drones. While Azerbaijan’s consequential victory led military planners to study its outcome for lessons, Iran quickly raised concerns about Baku’s use of Israeli weaponry.”

Bloomberg revealed that Israel “supplies Azerbaijan with drones and other high-tech weapons that helped Baku tip the military balance in its favor in last year’s war with Armenia.”

The past weeks saw tension in other fields. Azerbaijan continued its controls and imposed a “road tax” on Iranian trucks moving through its territory. In the process, some Iranian lorry drivers were detained.

“The drills carried out by our country in the northwest border areas are a question of sovereignty,” the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement on the ministry website.

Tehran “will take all measures it judges necessary for its national security”, he said, adding, “Iran will not tolerate the presence of the Zionist regime near our borders.”

As Turkey’s efforts to ensure border security against irregular migration and smuggling activities continue, the 20-kilometer section of the security wall in the Caldiran district of the eastern province of Van, on the Iranian border, has been completed.

Van Governor Mehmet Emin Bilmez told Anadolu Agency that “175 kilometers of trenches have been dug. A 64-kilometer wall is being built in three stages. The installation of the 20-kilometer wall has now been completed. The stone used in the 34-kilometer wall has been produced.”

 

CivilNet: Exploring the broken promises of international law in Palestine

Nahapetian Zhanna
CIVILNET.AM

07 Oct, 2021 09:10

Stefan Ziegler is the producer of a film called “Broken – A Palestinian Journey Through International Law.” The film will be screened in multiple venues and universities in Armenia including the Golden Apricot Film Festival. The story focuses on the humanitarian consequences of the wall built between Israel and Palestine. Stefan explains what the relevance of the film is to Armenians, why understanding international law is important and why emphasis was put on education.

Armenians in Paris rally in front of Azerbaijani Embassy, demand immediate release of POWs and civilians

Nahapetian Zhanna
Public Radio of Armenia
Sept 27 2021

September 27, 2021, 17:59 


Several hundred Armenians and ethnic French people demonstrated in front of the Azerbaijani embassy in Paris on Sunday, September 26, at the appeal of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF), supported by various French organizations, Jean Eckian informs from Paris.

They demanded the immediate release of Armenian prisoners of war detained by Azerbaijan since November 9, 2020, in violation of Article 8 of the statement on ceasefire and the Geneva Convention, stipulating that the abducting country must refrain from subjecting prisoners of war to “violence, physical abuse, reprisals, intimidation or discrimination.” The demonstrators also demanded recognition of the Republic of Artsakh.

Patrick Karam, vice-president of the Ile de France regional council, regretted the silence of the international community. He said, “As long as there are Armenians on earth, there will always be an Armenia!”

The highlight of the meeting was the presence of the former mayor of the city of Van, Veysel Keser, who had been removed from his post by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Keser confirmed that Turkey sent jihadists to Azerbaijan, and that a month before the outbreak of the Turkish-Azerbaijani aggression, Turkey had sent a lot of weapons and drones to Azerbaijan. He called for the Armenian hostages to be released and he paid tribute to the victims of the genocide and the victims of the aggression from Azerbaijan.

CCAF co-chair Mourad Papazian declared: “Armenia and Artsakh need us against the forces of pan-Turkism.” He added that after being received at the Elysée Palace, with Ara Toranian, by French President Emmanuel Macron, on November 12, 2020, Macron conceded: “We were cowards.”


Armenian MP: De-occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh territories is inevitable

Nahapetian Zhanna
Panorama, Armenia
Sept 29 2021

Armenian MP Hayk Mamijanyan from the opposition With Honor bloc on Wednesday shared his undelivered speech included in the verbatim of the PACE plenary session on Monday, September 27. The speech referred to the report on the snap elections held in Armenia in June.

The full text of his statement is provided below.

“Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

All of us are politicians here but I bet that any of you has ever thought that hammer can be a tool for political debate. Well “the hammer” was the main tool for the leader of the ruling party during his campaign for the early elections held in Armenia back then in June 2021. And I am not speaking figuratively. Nikol Pashinyan was rallying in all regions of Armenia shaking a hammer above his head. “…the hammer, first of all, will be broken on your head…” he said speaking about those who were supporting the opposition. These elections had nothing to the with the core values of democracy. As you can see the definition “…competitive and generally well-managed…” used in the report is not the best choice of wording for the election held under the hammer. Such wording sends a very bad and dangerous signal to those authorities of member states who are willing to conduct unfair elections. The silence of international organizations led to the physical usage of “hammer”. One of the local authorities supporting the opposition was beaten in the office of the governor. Everyone in Armenia knows about it but the security cameras were mysteriously broken. The process goes on even with the sitting members of parliament: one of my colleagues Mr. Armen Gevorgyan an oppositional member of the Armenian Parliament, member of the Armenian delegation was not allowed to attend the PACE session because of politically driven criminal charges. In fact, the almost 60% of the oppositional members of parliament are prohibited to leave the country.

Today, the 27th of September, is a sad day for my country. A year ago on this day Azerbaijan with the support of Turkey unleashed war against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. A war against peaceful people. A war with the usage of mercenaries from Middle East and restricted weapons. A war that led to partial occupation of Nagorno Karabakh and ethnic cleansings.

Some authorities try to present the outcome of the early parliamentary elections in Armenia as a sign of justification of the results of the 44-day war between Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh. As a representative of my country to PACE I am obliged to state the belief of all Armenians: the status of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic based on the right of self-determination of its people and de-occupation of the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is inevitable.”

CivilNet: The Address Nikol Pashinyan Did Not Deliver — on the anniversary of the Second Karabakh War

Nahapetian Zhanna
CIVILNET.AM

29 Sep, 2021 07:09

By Karen Harutyunyan, Editor-in-Chief, CivilNet

On the first anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Karabakh / Artsakh War, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not address the nation. If he had, what would his message have been? Here is my imaginary version. 

Dear Compatriots,

Today is September 27, the anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Karabakh War. A war that cost us more than 4,000 lives. Hundreds of boys are still missing. Dozens of prisoners suffer in Azerbaijan’s prisons. I thought those boys would forgive us for remaining “a month or two longer” in captivity. But the months pass and they do not return. We do not have clear information about their numbers or condition. Sometimes, when our boys do return, they are accompanied by the bodies of other prisoners.

One year later, many questions remain unanswered. More than 2,000 cases of crimes committed during the war are being investigated. 

The truth is that we lost the war because of the enormous amount of corruption in the country and in the armed forces, and because we had been deceived by myths about our boundless power – a myth that I myself believed. 

There are many questions that need answers in order for us to understand the reasons for Armenia’s defeat. As a society, as a state, as a nation, we must try to find the answers to these questions and prevent the recurrence of such a calamity in the future.

Today, however, I would like to answer questions about my share of guilt and responsibility.

Did I comprehend the full complexity of the Karabakh conflict after taking office in 2018?

In the post-revolutionary euphoric environment, I failed to understand the existential significance of the Karabakh issue for our state and our people. My pronouncements that “I began the negotiations from my own personal starting point”, and that “we are negotiating for whatever we want”, that “the settlement of the Karabakh conflict must be acceptable for the people of Armenia, the people of Artsakh and the people of Azerbaijan” had no analytical basis and were simply my heart’s desires. 

I naively believed that I had taken unprecedented and clever steps. I did not understand the tremendous diplomatic work carried out by my so-hated predecessors. They, in fact, had worked to reach a basic negotiation principle, which was the realization of the right of the people of Nagorno Karabakh to self-determination through the free _expression_ of their will.

At that time, I was only guided by my rejection of everything that came before me. Since the day I came to power, those who were in power before me constantly accused me of selling out lands, realizing very well the fatal state of the Karabakh negotiations. I swallowed that bait, which resulted in the hopeless statement “Artsakh is Armenia. Period.” Another one of my obvious diplomatic failures was the primitive Munich debate, in which I participated without properly doing my homework. 

Today, I am struggling to answer this question: Could I have prevented the war? 

I do not know. Perhaps. But at the very least I should have tried not to bring war closer to us.

I naively thought that “the victorious battles in July 2020 proved that there is no military solution to the Karabakh issue“, that “we will have a new war, and new territories“, that “Turkey will not interfere“.

My other question is this: Could I have stopped the war?

I thought that “we’d be able to break the enemy’s backbone“, and then I did not dare stop the war so that “people would not say ‘Nikol, traitor’“.

It’s true that I did not have the courage of a leader at a time when many people and many things could still be saved.

I regret all of this. I truly do.

Dear Compatriots,

I used to say “Artsakh is Armenia. Period.” but one year after the war, Armenia’s leader can no longer set foot in Artsakh. This is the harsh reality. 

To the relatives of the dead, the missing, the captives, the wounded:

I understand the impossibility of what I ask, but please forgive me.

—

*All phrases in quotes are excerpts from Pashinyan’s statements of the last three years.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 09/24/2021

Nahapetian Zhanna 
                                        Friday, 
Armenian Parliament Approves Community Enlargement
        • Karine Simonian
Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Civil Contract party preside over 
parliamentary hearings on a controversial enlargement of Armenia's communities 
sought by the government, Yerevan, September 22, 2021.
In a move strongly condemned by its opposition minority, the National Assembly 
approved on Friday a controversial government proposal to merge the vast 
majority of Armenian cities and villages into much bigger communities.
A government bill passed by lawmakers will turn 441 existing communities into 38 
administrative units that will resemble districts. Armenia will have a total of 
79 communities, including the capital Yerevan, as a result.
Most of the current communities already consist of multiple villages and/or 
small towns consolidated by the former Armenian government.
The current government has opted for a further community consolidation, saying 
that it will make local self-government and budgetary spending on communities 
more efficient.
Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosian 
defended the measure during a parliament debate. He said government experts have 
concluded that good governance and socioeconomic development is highly 
problematic in rural communities with fewer than 3,000 residents.
Sanosian assured their residents that every small Armenian village will retain 
its administration subordinate to the wider community leadership. “No settlement 
in Armenia will be liquidated or renamed,” he said.
Many elected community heads are strongly opposed to the consolidation. The 
country’s two main opposition groups have also denounced it as arbitrary and 
unfounded.
Lawmakers representing them walked out of the parliament at the start of 
Friday’s debate in protest against what they called an unconstitutional bill.
Hayk Mamijanian of the opposition Pativ Unem bloc claimed that the government is 
pushing through the bill to get rid of elected local officials affiliated with 
or sympathetic to opposition parties.
Government officials have denied any political reasons for the community 
enlargement.
Armenian Speaker’s Brother Wins Government Contracts
        • Naira Nalbandian
Armenia- Speaker Alen Simonian chairs a session o f the National Assembly, 
Yerevan, September 13, 2021
A road construction company run by parliament speaker Alen Simonian’s brother 
has won in the last few months two government contracts worth $1.4 million, 
raising suspicions of a conflict of interest and even corruption.
The investigative publication Hetq.am revealed this week that the relatively 
small firm called EuroAsphalt won a recent government tender for paving rural 
roads around Aparan, a small town in Armenia’s central Aragatsotn province. It 
signed a relevant contract with the local government on September 19 after 
pledging to carry out the road works for 287 million drams ($595,000).
In June, EuroAsphalt was contracted by the Armenian Ministry of Territorial 
Administration and Infrastructures to repair country roads in northwestern 
Shirak province. The repairs were supposed to cost the state 386 million drams.
EuroAsphalt had an authorized capital of just over $100 when it was founded by 
two little-known individuals in 2018. Simonian’s brother Karlen became its 
executive director early this year.
Karlen Simonian also manages another construction company called EuroAsphalt-1. 
It was registered in February 2021 and was worth 140 million drams at the time.
Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikian, who served as minister of territorial 
administration until recently, insisted on Thursday that EuroAsphalt won the two 
contracts as a result of transparent and fair tenders, rather than its chief 
executive’s government connection.
“If people have information about corruption schemes, let them make it public, 
for God’s sake,” said Papikian.
Civic activists see a cause for concern, however. Varuzhan Hoktanian of the 
Armenian affiliate of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International 
said that the integrity of tenders won by individuals linked to state officials 
has long been in serious doubt in Armenia. He said an Armenian Finance Ministry 
division in charge of state procurements must therefore scrutinize the contracts 
granted to EuroAsphalt.
“When such tenders are won with amazing consistency by relatives or cronies of 
state officials there are corruption risks involved,” agreed Artur Sakunts, a 
veteran human rights campaigner. “This must definitely become a subject of 
investigation.”
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian for years alleged corrupt practices in the 
administration of tenders won by such individuals when he was in opposition to 
Armenia’s former governments. He claimed to have eliminated “systemic 
corruption” in the country after coming to power in 2018.
Alen Simonian is a close associate of Pashinian. A spokeswoman for the 
parliament speaker told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Friday that he will not 
comment on his brother’s business activities for now. She said at the same time 
that he is ready to answer questions submitted in writing.
Simonian also raised eyebrows when he appointed a businessman and friend of his 
as chief of the Armenian parliament staff days after becoming its speaker in 
August.
The businessman, Vahan Naribekian, owns a company supplying furniture to the 
National Assembly and various government and law-enforcement agencies. According 
to Hetq.am, the company has won 148 supply contracts since the 2018 regime 
change.
Karabakh Conflict Unresolved, Insists Armenia
        • Astghik Bedevian
Nagorno Karabakh -- Pedestrians walk past a poster bearing a flag of 
Nagorno-Karabakh in Stepanakert on November 24, 2020,
Official Yerevan dismissed on Friday Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s fresh 
claim that Azerbaijan ended the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with its victory in 
the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire last November.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a thing of the past,” Aliyev declared on late 
on Thursday, addressing a session of the UN General Assembly.
“Azerbaijan no longer has an administrative-territorial unit called 
Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said, adding that the international community should stop 
using the Armenian-populated territory’s name.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unresolved,” countered Armen Grigorian, 
the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council. “The issue of Nagorno-Karabakh’s 
status still awaits a solution and we see that solution within the framework of 
the OSCE Minsk Group.”
The U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Lynne Tracy, has repeatedly made similar 
statements in recent weeks.
“We do not see the status of Nagorno-Karabakh as having been resolved,” Tracy 
insisted on September 13 in remarks condemned by the Azerbaijani Foreign 
Ministry.
Aliyev ruled out on July 22 any negotiations on Karabakh’s status, saying that 
Yerevan must instead recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over the disputed 
territory.
Later in July, the U.S., Russian and French diplomats co-chairing the Minsk 
Group issued a joint statement calling for a “negotiated, comprehensive, and 
sustainable settlement of all remaining core substantive issues of the 
conflict.” They said the conflicting parties should resume talks “as soon as 
possible.”
The Karabakh issue was on the agenda of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s 
talks with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian held on Thursday on the 
sidelines of the UN General Assembly. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, 
the two men reaffirmed their governments’ intention to continue to strive for 
“stabilizing the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, first and foremost in the OSCE 
Minsk Group format.”
Le Drian also met separately in New York with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat 
Mirzoyan.
Yerevan Still Hopeful About Turkish-Armenian Rapprochement
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
Armenia -- Armen Grigorian, the secretary of the Security Council, at a news 
conference in Yerevan, .
The Armenian government still hopes to normalize Armenia’s relations with Turkey 
despite apparent preconditions set by Ankara, a senior official in Yerevan said 
on Friday.
Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, said Yerevan is 
ready to start a Turkish-Armenian “dialogue without preconditions” and discuss 
all thorny issues during a “gradual” normalization process.
Grigorian did not explicitly deny that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian offered 
earlier this month to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We 
believe that a dialogue at a high and the highest levels is one of the ways of 
normalizing those relations,” he told reporters.
Erdogan claimed last week to have received the offer from Pashinian through 
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili. He appeared to make such a meeting 
conditional on Armenia agreeing to open a transport corridor that would connect 
Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave.
In his earlier comments on Yerevan’s overtures to Ankara, Erdogan cited 
Azerbaijan’s demands for a formal Armenian recognition of Azerbaijani 
sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Asked about the apparent Turkish preconditions, Grigorian said: “The Armenian 
side has stated on numerous occasions … that relations with Turkey should be 
normalized without preconditions because whenever there are preconditions it’s 
hard to make progress on any issue. So we hope that the normalization of 
relations will be without preconditions.”
Armenian opposition leaders have denounced what they see as Pashinian’s secret 
overtures to Erdogan. They say that Ankara continues to make the establishment 
of diplomatic relations with Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian 
border conditional on a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement favorable to Baku.
Turkey provided decisive military assistance to Azerbaijan during the six-week 
war in Karabakh stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire last November.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Artsakh FM meets Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians

Nahapetian Zhanna
Public Radio of Armenia
Sept 10 2021
September 10, 2021, 15:36

 Less than a minute

On September 10, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh David Babayan was received by Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians His Holiness Karekin II  in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Various issues related to the current situation in Artsakh and the church-society relations were discussed during the meeting.

David Babayan expressed his gratitude to the Catholicos of All Armenians for keeping Artsakh in the focus of attention, his substantial contribution to the process of developing and strengthening our country, emphasizing the key role of the Armenian Apostolic Church in preserving the independent Armenian statehood and Armenian national identity.

Head of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan also participated in the meeting.

Police officers use force to open interstate road blocked by farmers

Nahapetian Zhanna
Panorama, Armenia
Sept 9 2021

SOCIETY 16:03 09/09/2021 ARMENIA

Dozens of grape farmers from Taperakan village of Armenia’s Ararat province blocked the major highway connecting capital Yerevan to southern Meghri town on Thursday to protest against low grape procurement prices.

The protesters demand that grape processing companies purchase grapes at a price of 150 drams instead of current 120-130 drams. The road was blocked for some time after which occur officers used force to open the highway. 

Russian MFA: Moscow closely following peace treaty talks in Yerevan and Baku

Nahapetian Zhanna
News.am, Armenia
Sept 9 2021
19:26, 09.09.2021

Moscow is closely following the discussions on the conclusion of a peace treaty and the solution to the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status in Yerevan and Baku, said Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova.

“Unfortunately, there are still principled disagreements between the sides over political issues, and this is exactly why we consider the unwavering implementation of all the provisions stated in the trilateral high-level statements of 9 November 2020 and 11 January 2021 primary. Of course, this first and foremost concerns maintenance of the ceasefire regime, solutions to complex humanitarian issues, as well as the lifting of blockade of economic and transport ties in the region. We hope these actions will help create conditions to achieve normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and a final political settlement,” Zakharova stated.