Public Radio of Armenia Armenia’s acting Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian had a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. The interlocutors continued the discussions on the steps to be taken to ease the situation on the Armenian state border due to the actions of the Azerbaijani side. Acting Minister Ara Aivazian stressed the inadmissibility of any provocation by the Azerbaijani side and consequently any encroachment on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Russia exchanged views on maintaining regional security and stability.
Author: Ophelia Vardapetian
Asbarez: State Dept. Fails to Address Bipartisan Demands for Azerbaijan’s Release of POWs
State Dept. fails to address bipartisan demands for Azerbaijan’s release of POWs
Administration Letter Unresponsive to Six Bipartisan Congressional Policy Priorities
WASHINGTON—The State Department’s response to a detailed Armenian Caucus letter was unresponsive to six specific policy priorities raised by over 100 Congressional signatories – failing to address or even mention the plight of over 200 Armenian prisoners of war still being held, abused, and killed by the government of Azerbaijan, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.
The May 6 State Department letter, signed by Naz Durakoglu, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, came in response to a February 19 Armenian Caucus letter outlining a broad range of bipartisan policy concerns. In the months since the Caucus sent this letter in February, it has forwarded two additional Congressional letters to the Biden Administration, the first calling for Armenian Genocide recognition and the second seeking a robust aid package of at least $100,000,000 for Artsakh and Armenia.
Armenian American community members and coalition partners can call for sanctions on Azerbaijan by visiting www.anca.org/907 and support robust U.S. aid to Artsakh and Armenia by visiting www.anca.org/aid.
The six policy priorities left unaddressed by the Administration’s letter are listed below.
1. Prisoners of War: The bipartisan Armenian Caucus letter stressed that Azerbaijan has refused to free Armenian prisoners of war and apprehended civilians.
The State Department entirely ignores Congressional concern for the release of Armenian prisoners of war, failing, in this letter, to even cite their existence, despite sustained Congressional pressure.
2. Azerbaijani and Turkish Aggression: The bipartisan Armenian Caucus letter identified Azerbaijani and Turkish forces as having initiated the September 27, 2020 attack that killed an estimated 5,000 people and forced more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee from Artsakh.
The State Department fails to identify Baku and Ankara as aggressors, choosing instead to speak generically of “last year’s fighting.”
3. U.S. Humanitarian Aid: The bipartisan Armenian Caucus letter called for “significant U.S. commitments” of urgently needed humanitarian aid for the people of Artsakh, to help them reconstruct their communities and rebuild their lives. (A subsequent Armenian Caucus letter called for at least $100 million in U.S. aid.)
The State Department dismisses Congressional calls for a significant U.S. commitment, citing just $5 million in humanitarian aid it has sent to support affected populations of both Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
4. Section 907: The bipartisan Armenian Caucus letter supported ending the waiver of Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, sanctioning Turkish and Azerbaijani leaders, and ceasing military aid to Azerbaijan through the Section 333 Building Partner Capacity program.
The State Department neglects to mention that the White House officially waived Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, and fails to respond to Congressional concerns about withholding U.S. aid to Baku.
5. Turkish Drones and Prohibited Munitions: The bipartisan Armenian Caucus letter cited Azerbaijan’s use of Turkish Bayraktar drones utilizing American components and technology, and also Baku’s illegal use of cluster and white phosphorus munitions.
The State Department disregards Congressional concern over Azerbaijan’s illegal use of cluster and white phosphorus munitions, and fails to address Baku’s deployment of Turkish Bayraktar drones utilizing American components and technology.
6. Foreign Mercenaries: The bipartisan Armenian Caucus letter cited Azerbaijan’s deployment of Turkish-backed foreign mercenaries, many with ties to internationally recognized terrorist groups.
The State Department refuses to address Congressional concerns about the foreign mercenaries recruited by Turkey to fight alongside Azerbaijani forces.
Russian FM Lavrov’s visit to Armenia leaves many questions unanswered
JAM News
May 6 2021
- JAMnews, Yerevan
Turkish press: Erdoğan invites US authorities to inspect evidence on 1915 events
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan speaks during a press conference in Ankara’s Presidential Complex on Apr. 26, 2021 (AA Photo)
“Ihereby call upon US authorities to come to Turkey and inspect our evidence with regards to 1915,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a press conference late Monday after a cabinet meeting, in sharp criticism of U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent recognition of 1915 events as “genocide.”
“I am speaking based on evidence, unlike Biden. We have over 1 million documents related to the 1915 events in our archives. I am wondering how many documents the United States has,” he said.
“Armenian gangs, who were at least 150,000 to 300,000 people, carried out massacres in Turkish territory. Furthermore, they partnered with Russian forces to fight against us. Ottoman authorities took precautions,” he said, underlining the crimes perpetrated by the Armenian gangs at the time.
Erdoğan also once again voiced Turkey’s proposal to set up a joint history commission.
“Turkey’s stance hasn’t changed. 1915 events can only be enlightened by historians, not politicians. We have yet to receive a response from our counterparts on our offer to set up a joint history committee, even though we have guaranteed to keep our archives open,” he said.
“US President Biden’s biased statement on 1915 events is destructive for Turkish-American bilateral relations. We believe that Mr. Biden’s statement was due to pressure from radical Armenian figures,” he added.
“The relocation of Armenians was within the Ottoman Empire, not a deportation to another country. A week’s time was given to prepare and those with an excuse were exempted from the relocation,” Erdoğan said.
The President also underlined the U.S.’ past crimes, including the Vietnam War, the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan and others, emphasizing that there were many incidents in U.S. history that could be labeled as “genocide.”
“We have nothing to learn from anybody on our own past. Political opportunism is the greatest betrayal to peace and justice. We entirely reject this statement based solely on populism,” Çavuşoğlu said in a Twitter post.
With the acknowledgement, Biden followed through on a campaign promise he made a year ago. Mainly hailing from Ottoman Armenians, Armenians in the U.S. constitute significant communities in East Coast and California.
Turkey’s position on the 1915 events is that the death of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties, added by massacres from militaries and militia groups of both sides. The mass arrests of prominent Ottoman Armenian politicians, intellectuals and other community members suspected of links with separatist groups, harboring nationalist sentiments and being hostile to the Ottoman rule were rounded up in then-capital Istanbul on April 24, 1915, commemorated as the beginning of later atrocities.
Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as “genocide” but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.
Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue.
Why Turkey calls Biden’s Armenian genocide remark a "serious mistake"
MSN – Source CBS News
April 28 2021
Why Turkey calls Biden’s Armenian genocide remark a “serious mistake”
April 28 2021
Why Turkey calls Biden’s Armenian genocide remark a “serious mistake”
Pinar Sevinclidir
Istanbul — Turkey and the U.S. have once again found each other at odds after President Joe Biden’s characterization of the Ottoman atrocities committed against ethnic Armenians more than 100 years ago as genocide. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called Mr. Biden’s statement “baseless, unfair and untrue.”
Erdogan said the American leader’s “wrong step” would hinder bilateral relations, and he hinted strongly at hypocrisy, urging the U.S. to “look in the mirror.”
Breaking with previous administrations, Mr. Biden described the deadly forced deportation of well over a million Armenians from the Ottoman Empire — modern-day Turkey — at the beginning of World War I as “a genocide.”
“Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” Mr. Biden said in a statement on April 24, widely recognized as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.
His use of the word brought immediate, sharp condemnation from Turkish officials. The country’s foreign ministry said the words would not change history, and it summoned the U.S. Ambassador in Ankara to deliver a formal complaint.
Even political rivals inside Turkey closed ranks over Mr. Biden’s statement. Turkey’s leading opposition Republican People’s Party echoed the government’s criticism and called the statement “a serious mistake.”
What happened in 2015, and since?
Historians say that in the summer and autumn of 1915, Armenian civilians were forced from their homes and marched through the valleys and mountains of Eastern Anatolia (Turkey) towards the Syrian desert. Armenian leaders say 1.5 million civilians died of starvation and disease as about 90% of the ethnic group in Anatolia were driven from their homes.
Turkey’s government says Armenian armed gangs posed a national security threat as they were colluding with Western-allied Russia to enable the occupation of eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey admits that Armenians were deported, but it disputes the numbers, putting the death toll at a few hundred thousand and insisting there was no intention of eliminating a race of people. Since the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, modern-day Turkey’s state policy has been to reject any description of the treatment of the Armenians at the time as genocide.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first Turkish leader to offer condolences for the Armenian deaths when, in 2014, he acknowledged that the events of 1915 had “inhumane consequences,” and expressed hope that those who had died were at peace.
Historian Umit Kurt is skeptical of the defense offered by Turkish officials of the deportations. He told CBS News that officials who deny the charge of genocide should explain why Armenian properties were seized and then sold off by the state. The homes were distributed among local Ottoman elites and Muslim refugees quickly after the Armenians were forced out, virtually erasing the ethnic group’s longtime presence in the region.
“The seizure of properties shows the Ottoman rulers never expected Armenians to return.” Kurt told CBS News.
U.S.-Turkey relations
The decision by the U.S. leader to use the highly-charged word was “political,” Faruk Logoglu, a former Turkish Ambassador to the United States, told CBS News. “Biden’s decision is likely to stir the hornet’s nest, and it will have medium and long-term consequences for Turkey-U.S. ties.”
For sure, Mr. Biden’s remark couldn’t have come at a more delicate time for the two NATO allies.
© Provided by CBS News U.S. kicks Turkey out of fighter jet program 04:00
The relationship has been strained for years over Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems. The Russian missiles are considered a threat to NATO’s own defense systems in the region, and it all comes at a time when Russia is locked in a standoff with the West over its actions in eastern Ukraine — the sharp edge of Russia’s geographic sphere of influence.
The U.S. sanctioned Turkey specifically over the purchase of the Russian missile systems and kicked the country out of the project with NATO partners to develop the advanced F-35 fighter jet.
The rift between Turkey and the U.S. has also deepened in recent years over America’s support for Kurdish rebels in Syria. The U.S. has relied for a decade on the Syrian Kurds as an affective ally in the fight against ISIS extremists, but Turkey considers Syria’s Kurdish militias terrorists with links to the PKK, an armed separatist group fighting for greater autonomy in southern Turkey.
© Provided by CBS News Ongoing impact in Syria after U.S. leaves 01:59
In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Biden said he’d “spent a lot of time” with Erdogan, and he called him an “autocrat.”
On Monday night, Turkey’s government said Mr. Biden would meet his Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of a NATO summit in June. The genocide remark will be just the latest issue adding to the tension in the room.
Armenian voices today
Survivors and descendants — including a vocal Armenian diaspora in the United States — have campaigned for decades to get other governments across the world to recognize the killings as an act of genocide. About 30 countries have now characterized the events that way.
Recent history has also been marked by trauma for the roughly 60,000 ethnic Armenians who still live inside Turkey. The assassination of a prominent Armenian journalist, Hirant Dink, by a Turkish ultra-nationalist in 2007 showed that the small community could still be targeted.
A recent survey conducted by a foundation set up by Dink’s family found that Armenians are still the most-maligned minority group by Turkish media outlets.
Azerbaijan started building trench near Armenia village, says community head
News.am, Armenia
May 2 2021
17:43, 01.05.2021
The Azerbaijani side has started building a trench at the highlands near Khnatsakh village in Syunik Province of Armenia. The head of Syunik’s Tegh enlarged community, Nerses Shadunts, told Armenian News-NEWS.am about this.
“It is not that they [the Azerbaijani] came, they are building in our area. There was an arrangement between us that they would not stand there and we would not stand there either. But now that we’re focusing on one point, they do so that they come, stand [there]. Besides, sometimes our shepherds graze the animals there, and they [the Azerbaijani] probably don’t like that. They are standing in their area, have set up an observation post, are doing engineering work. And immediately in front of them, at a distance of 5-10 meters, our army puts up, close so that the village will not be visible.
What can we do? We have nothing in our hands. This is not a local government issue. (…). We are working with our army corps to alleviate the situation. The area of the village and all the adjacent heights are under the control of the adversary. No delimitation work has been done yet,” said the head of Tegh community.
According to Shadunts, the Azerbaijanis in the area have become more aggressive. “They used to be friendly when they came. [But] gradually their moods are changing, they are becoming aggressive, they do not let the shepherds approach,” he said.
According to the head of Tegh community, there are no problems for agricultural work in the region, except for Aravus vilage where the issue will also be resolved in 1-2 days. “Shepherds in our area are told, ‘Do not go near!’ They [the Azerbaijanis] try to create an atmosphere of fear among the shepherds at that outpost.
There ware no obstacles for the field work; our people are not cowards. In the winter, 4-5 months ago, they sold about 60 percent of the small cattle because we did not have winter pastures [any more],” said Nerses Shadunts, adding that there is currently no large-scale emigration from Syunik’s border communities.
Newspaper: Work of Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan working group on unblocking transport links reaches deadlock?
News.am, Armenia
May 1 2021
09:26, 01.05.2021
YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd newspaper of Armenia writes: Rumors have been circulating for a long time that the work of the tripartite working group on the matter of unblocking transport links has reached a deadlock. Zhoghovurd daily found out from its sources that even meetings are not convened.
Let us inform that a tripartite working group was set up—at the suggestion of RF [Russian Federation] President Putin—jointly chaired by the deputy prime ministers of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, to implement the agreements reached in the trilateral document signed on November 9-10. The first meeting of the group took place on January 30, the second—on February 6. From the Armenian side, the group is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan.
Zhoghovurd daily asked Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan why the working group does not hold meetings, whether the discussions are deadlocked. In response to our question, the deputy prime minister responded in short: “We have held 5 meetings, has not entered a deadlock, the experts are working.”
Two Russian peacekeepers wounded in Artsakh landmine explosion
Artsakh’s ESS issues new statement over explosion of Russian peacekeepers’ vehicle – EDITED
14:26,
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS. The Emergency Situations Service of the Interior Ministry of Artsakh has issued a new statement, commenting on the information provided earlier by the spokesperson of the Service about the explosion of a vehicle of the Russian peacekeepers.
ARMENPRESS reports, according to the statement of the Emergency Situations Service of Artsakh, the Service learned about the information from the Armenian media and has no other information about the incident. ”To verify the information, you can contact the press service of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh”, reads the statement.
Earlier, talking with ARMENPRESS, spokesperson of the Service Hunan Tadevosyan had told that the vehicle had exploded on an anti-tank mine. ‘’2 servicemen are wounded who are now at a medical center with no life-threatening injuries’’, Tadevosyan had said.
Why Biden recognized the Armenian genocide
eKathimerini, Greece
Turkey’s relationship with the United States, the world’s most important country, the biggest economy, the country with the largest geopolitical influence and the one most of the rest of the states have many reasons to want her as a close ally, has been upset with Joe Biden’s decision to recognize the Armenian genocide.
With this action, the US sent the message that it doesn’t ascribe to Turkey the same importance that it held for decades in the eyes of all previous administrations. The alliance will continue, but the context will be different.
But why did this happen now? Mainly for three reasons:
First, President Biden has a very close relationship with the Armenian community in the US (same as he does with the Greek one) and there are some leaders that do keep their promises to the voters.
Second, Tayyip Erdogan’s behavior has rubbed the entire US political system the wrong way. With his anti-western rhetoric, the attacks on Israel, his special relationship with Putin, the Turkish President has achieved something not easy, turn both parties in the US against him.
His “friendship” with Donald Trump was personal and did not reflect the attitude of the majority of the Republican party toward him.
With the intense frustration developing in Washington for Erdogan’s behavior, mostly regarding the acquisition of the S-400 air-defense system from Russia, but also his moves on other fronts, such as Syria and, to a lesser extent, in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, moves that the US opposes, the number of influential people in positions of power in Washington that are friendly to Ankara keeps decreasing.
The third reason that Joe Biden decided to recognize the Armenian genocide, maybe the most important, is the US President’s character and personality.
Biden is part of a rare breed of politicians who believe in principles and values, without this precluding his being realist, as shown in certain cases.
The US President believes that, in order for a country to be a real friend and ally to the US, and not a momentary partner, it must respect democratic freedoms and human rights and to follow rules in its international behavior, something it is now quite clear is not the case with the unpredictable Turkish President who envisages a “Great” Turkey, which would extent to the “borders of (his) heart.”
Biden told Erdogan he Plans to Call 1915 Events ‘Genocide,’ Sources Say
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York in Sept. 2019. (Reuters photo)
President Joe Biden told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday that he intends to recognize the events of 1915 as genocide, sources familiar with the conversation told Reuters, which said the move may be a potential blow to the already frayed ties between the U.S. and Turkey.
Major media outlets, among them The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Guardian, quoting Biden Administration sources, on Wednesday reported that Biden would use the word genocide to characterize the events of 1915. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told The New York Times that an announcement would be forthcoming Saturday.
Biden’s predecessors, starting with President Barack Obama, have referred to the Armenian Genocide as “Medz Yeghern”—the Armenian term used to describe a great calamity. Biden is expected to break with that tradition.
Biden held a telephone conversation with Erdogan on Friday, a day before the worldwide Armenian Genocide remembrance day.
The White House readout of the call did not mention the discussion around the Armenian Genocide. Erdogan’s statement on the call also did not cover the topic.
“President Biden spoke today with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, conveying his interest in a constructive bilateral relationship with expanded areas of cooperation and effective management of disagreements,” the White House said in a statement. “The leaders agreed to hold a bilateral meeting on the margins of the NATO summit in June to discuss the full range of bilateral and regional issues.”
Reuters reported on Friday that a statement from the Turkish presidency said Biden and Erdogan agreed on “the strategic character of the bilateral relationship and the importance of working together to build greater cooperation on issues of mutual interest.”