Author: Ophelia Vardapetian

“It is high time the Azerbaijani leadership understands that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue will be resolved within the framework of realization of the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination and Azerbaijan’s responsibility for the aggression against the self-determined Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said in comments to Armenpress.

He said “Baku’s constant statements that the Karabakh conflict should be solved within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan “distort the essence of the negotiation process.”

Asked about the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister’s statement about a possible summit on Nagorno Karabakh in Paris in August this year, the Deputy Foreign Minister said: “We highly value the efforts of all the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries aimed at organizing a meetings on the highest level. However, it is at least inexpedient for one of the invitees, not the inviting side, to speak about a meeting, which is still under consideration.”

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has called the Russia-mediated meeting with Azerbaijani President as useful for easing tensions in the long-running Karabakh conflict.

“The trilateral meetings play a positive role,” President Sargsyan said in an interview with .

“Of course, the situation at the conflict zone is much calmer than three, five or six months and even a year ago. The Azerbaijani forces keep shooting from time to time, but mostly use weapons of small calibers,” the President said.

Serzh Sargsyan said in St. Petersburg the parties agreed to strengthen the monitoring of the ceasefire regime, develop a mechanism of investigation of incidents in the conflict zone under the auspices of the OSCE.

“We also agreed to continue the meetings in trilateral format. The negotiation process under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group will also continue,” he added.

Pope Francis wrapped up his three-day visit to Armenia. The farewell ceremony of Pope Francis took place at Zvartnots Airport.

Before the departure Pope Francis had a short conversation with Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan, after which the anthems of Armenia and Vatican were played.

 

 

On his final day of his stay in Armenia, the Pope will visit the Khor Virap monastery near the Turkish border where he will release doves in the direction of Mount Ararat. The monastery is revered as the site where St. Gregory the Illuminator, the founder of Christianity in Armenia, was imprisoned.

The monastery is revered as the site where St. Gregory the Illuminator, the founder of Christianity in Armenia, was imprisoned.

After a prayer in Armenian and Latin, Pope Francis and Catholicos of All Armenian Karekin II will head for the observation deck overlooking Mount Ararat. The religious leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Roman Catholic Church will release doves in the direction of the closed border between Armenia and Turkey as a sign of peace.

The Pope will later bid farewell to Armenia, the first Christian nation and will leave for Vatican after a farewell ceremony at Zvartnots Airport.

By Harut Sassounian
The California Courier

Despite ‘Sultan’ Erdogan’s insults and threats, the German Parliament went boldly forward last week and recognized the Armenian Genocide. In retaliation, Turkey immediately withdrew its ambassador from Berlin.

The historic Bundestag resolution, adopted with a near unanimous decision (1 vote against and 1 abstention), is titled: “In remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire 101 years ago.” According to ARD television, 74% of the German population agrees that genocide was committed against Armenians. Another revealing survey cited by “Der Spiegel” magazine found that 91% of the German public does not trust Erdogan!

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, fed up with Erdogan’s repeated blackmails, decided to put Turkey’s megalomaniac dictator in his place, while Pres. Obama has to muster the courage to do so! The German leadership had to fend off not only the Turkish regime’s attacks but also sharp criticism from many of the three million Turks living in Germany.

After the Parliament’s decision, Erdogan arrogantly declared: “We have nothing in our past to be ashamed of, but those countries that often accuse Turkey of ‘Armenian genocide’ have the blood of millions of innocent victims.” Turkey’s minister of justice Bekir Bozdag was just as brazen, as he told Germans: “First you burn the Jews in ovens, and then you come and accuse the Turkish people of genocide.” Erdogan and Bozdag must be reminded that Germany, unlike Turkey, long ago admitted the Nazi-era crimes, apologized for the Holocaust, and paid billions of dollars in compensation.

It remains to be seen if ‘big mouth’ Turkish leaders would dare to take punitive actions against Germany, besides the routine withdrawal of their ambassador, as they do each time another government acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. Should Erdogan decide to go beyond making empty threats, such steps would backfire on Turkey as Germany is its largest trading partner. Turkey’s economy is already in serious trouble after Russia banned the import of Turkish goods and discouraged its citizens from going to Turkey as tourists because of the downing of a Russian jet by the Turkish military near the Syrian border last year.

Turkish leaders have already damaged their country’s interests by making provocative and scandalous announcements which have helped to publicize worldwide the German Bundestag’s action on the Armenian Genocide. Thousands of newspapers, websites, TV and radio stations covered the German decision and the Turkish outbursts. It is noteworthy that the international media paid particular attention to the German Parliamentarians’ admission that their country, a military ally of Turkey during World War I, was complicit in the Armenian Genocide.

The New York Times and The Times of London, two of the most prestigious newspapers in the world, published powerful editorials on June 3 reaffirming the facts of the Armenian Genocide, supporting the German’s Parliament’s decision, and urging Turkey to confront its dark past.

In an editorial titled, “Yes, It’s Genocide,” The New York Times wrote: “… It was a genocide, the first of the 20th century…. The Armenians are fully justified in their quest for a historical reckoning…. President Obama, who as a candidate in 2008 pledged to recognize the events of 1915 as a genocide, has failed to do so…. The Germans, who have admirably confronted the terrible genocide in their own history, did the right thing in defying Mr. Erdogan’s threats.”

The London Times’ editorial, “Genocide Denial: The mass slaughter of Armenians needs to be acknowledged by Turkey,” was just as impactful: “The German resolution is right not only in its message but also in diplomacy. Turkish pique is regularly directed at allies who recognize the Armenian genocide. That response is worse than undignified and ahistorical: it is a denial of suffering on an unspeakable scale that poisons the politics of Europe to this day, and it needs to be challenged. The slaughter of Armenians was not, as Turkish apologists maintain, one of the unplanned but inescapable tragedies that happen in wartime. It was a specific campaign of deportation and mass killing by the Ottoman regime.… Modern Germany and its statesmen have expressed repeatedly their nation’s remorse for genocidal barbarism in the last century. It is long past time for Turkey to do the same.”

Having recognized the Armenian Genocide and acknowledged its own share of responsibility and complicity, Germany now has to make appropriate amends to Armenians, thus setting a venerable example for Turkey, not only in recognition, but also in restitution!

German Green party leader Cem Ozdemir, a German-Turk who proposed a resolution to recognize the 1915-16 mass killings of Armenians in Turkey as genocide, is under police protection after receiving death threats, the Sunday edition of reports.

“We are thoroughly used to abuse and insults, but we have never experienced such a high number of death threats,” the head of Ozdemir‘s office Marc Berthold told Die Welt.

The Berlin police  increased their presence around Ozdemir‘s flat on Thursday following the almost unanimously approved  recognizing the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Ozdemir said that extremists were not unique to Germany. “Right-wing radicalism is not a German privilege. Unfortunately it also exists in Turkey and among German Turks,” Ozdemir told the newspaper.

Most death threats come from Turkish nationalists. “I will come to Germany and  kill you,” one man tweeted. Another twwet reads: “We should honor this loose assimilated German Cem Ozdemir with a shoot in the head.”

The threats, whether they arrive with flyers, mail, e-mail or Twitter, are now forwarded by Ozdemir office directly to the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germanyand analyzed there.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic will leave Paris St-Germain at the end of the season, the BBC reports.

The 34-year-old Sweden striker’s contract with the French champions expires in the summer, and he has been linked with Manchester United, Los Angeles Galaxy and AC Milan.

“I am very proud,” he said. “I came like a king, I leave like a legend but I will be back.”

PSG said Ibrahimovic leaves as “the greatest striker and one of the very best players in the club’s history”.

Ibrahimovic is the club’s record goalscorer despite only joining the club in 2012, his 152 goals coming in 178 appearances.

“Azerbaijan again resorted to its terrorist acts last night, targeting civilian objects in populated areas,” Spokesman for the NKR President David Babayan told .

He described the actions as “non-humanitarian” and typical of a terrorist state.

Babayan said Artsakh Defense Army is taking all measures to restrain the activeness of the rival. “According to the data of our intelligence, they are in panic, and have incurred a great number of losses. This comes to prove that the Azerbaijani authorities are pursuing a criminal policy, including against their own citizens,” David Babayan said.

“We respect the norms of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions. The peaceful population should not serve a shield for the troops. However, this is what Azerbaijan is doing,” the Spokesman said, stressing that “this is typical of criminals and terrorists.”

He said the activeness of the past few days is connected with the negligence of the international community and stressed the need to take a harsher stance on Azeri actions.

David Babayan denounced the statements of participants of the UN Forum in Baku, particularly the ex-Prime Minister of Spain, for describing Azerbaijan as an example of tolerance and democracy. He said the failure to punish the terrorists and even encourage them is unacceptable. “They will once fall victim to terrorism they glorify today.”

Against the background of the recent provocative actions of Azerbaijan, including the attempts to unilaterally denounce the agreements on ceasefire, David Babayan stressed the need to accelerate the implementation of confidence-building measures and mechanisms of investigation of border incidents.

“Azerbaijani terrorism is not only a challenge to Karabakh, it is a moral and political challenge to democracy and civilization,” Babayan concluded.

Statement
by Armenia in Relation to the Seventh Forum of the
United Nations Alliance of Civilisations

In the early hours of April 2, 2016 Azerbaijan unleashed large-scale offensive operations against Nagorno-Karabakh thus violating trilateral agreements of 1994 on cease-fire and of 1995 on the cease-fire consolidation, signed by Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, which do not have time limits. Azerbaijan has violated basic principles of international law, the decisions and declarations adopted by the OSCE Summits and Ministerial Councils, blatantly disregarding the statements of the presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries – the Russian Federation, United States of America and the French Republic, on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution.

From the very beginning of the Azerbaijani offensive the civilian infrastructures and civilian population, including children and the elderly, became intentional and indiscriminate targets. Among the first civilian victims were a 12 year old boy who was killed in front of the school building as a result of a Grad missile attack and two other schoolchildren wounded.

In one of villages in Karabakh three elderly persons, including a 92 year old woman, were brutally tortured, mutilated and killed. Moreover, three captive soldiers of the Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces were beheaded by Azerbaijani armed forces in ISIL style, which was subsequently celebrated in the towns and villages and publicized through social networks. Furthermore, during the exchange of bodies of the deceased between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan carried out through the mediation of the International Committee of Red Cross and the Office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman in Office, it was registered that the bodies of deceased transferred by the Azerbaijani side had the evidences of severe torture and mutilation.

Those barbaric acts of Azerbaijan, going beyond elementary norms of civilized world constitute violations of core international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Convention on the Rights of the Child, etc. In this context, it is also imperative to specifically mention the blatant violation by Azerbaijan of Geneva Convention of 1949, which inter alia addresses groups exposed to specific risks, such as children, women and elderly and its additional protocols of 1977, 1989.

Azerbaijan demonstrates its total disregard for international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Persistent violations of human rights inside Azerbaijan, consistent attacks and imprisonment of its civil society representatives, the media and human rights defenders, coupled with the regular dissemination of intolerance and hatred against the Armenian people provides breeding ground for the criminal military adventurism of the Azerbaijani regime.

At the time of the gathering of the Seventh Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan continue to violate the cease-fire, with new human losses. Since the beginning of Azerbaijani aggression and up today as a result of Azerbaijan’s aggression hundreds were killed and wounded, including civilians. This is a manifestation of the absurdity of celebrating more peaceful and socially inclusive world, building mutual respect among peoples of different cultural and religious identities in a country, which is engaged in barbarity and killings a few hundred kilometres away from the venue of the Forum. This is an affront to the image and the integrity of the Alliance.

In this dire situation the convening of the Seventh Forum should have been cancelled in Azerbaijan – a country that grossly violates the very aims, principles, values of the Alliance of Civilizations.

Armenia remains committed to the purposes of the Alliance and remains its Friend. However, given the circumstances. Armenia does not join the consensus on the Declaration of the Seventh Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations. Therefore, in the absence of consensus the Declaration cannot be adopted.

Armenia rejects the Seventh Forum, to be held in Baku, in its entirety, including its outcome.

On April 19, the following text was send to the member states of the United Nations Alliance of Civilization.

A threatening note was left for a family in Tujunga because they hung an Armenian flag from their home, according to detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department, reports.

Hasmik Chatalyan contacted police at about 12:30 p.m. on Thursday after the threatening note was discovered in her family’s mailbox.

The married mother of two said she hung the flag on her house in the 10000 block of Pinyon Avenue in honor of her fallen heroes in Armenia.

At one point, the note reads, “You will be hurt.”

“Being threatened in my own home, it was shocking,” Chatalyan said.

Detectives took the note into evidence and said they would test it for fingerprints.

Officials said the act was being investigating as a “hate incident” and that hate crime charges could potentially be brought in the future.

“My kids are home and I don’t know who is going to come up to my house and try to put the flags down or break-in and hurt me, because in the letter it says, ‘You’re going to get hurt,’” Chatalyan said.

Neighbors on the same block said their car was egged last year after they put an Armenian flag on their vehicle.

“Violated, angry and frustrated,” Tujunga resident Adelaida Yian said. “Why do people have so much hate in their hearts?”

In response to the suspect’s threats, the Chatalyan family kept the Armenian flag up and hung a second flag as well.

They also called on other Armenian families to place flags on their homes.

“I grew up here, but I’m also from Armenia and I’m proud of my country and I will not let anybody put that down,” Chatalyan said. “I will not let anybody tell me how to love my country.”