The meeting of Presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev was held in Ashgabat, Anadolu reports.
The talks were held on the sidelines of the 15th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization.
The leaders of the two countries met at Karakum Hotel and held talks behind closed doors for 30 minutes.
17:18,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. The Human Rights Ombudsman’s staff published a report on malicious prosecution by Azerbaijan of captured Armenian servicemen and civilians, the Office of the Ombudsman said.
The report provides information on fabricated and illegal prosecutions against the Armenian POWs and civilian captives which is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
As a result of the organized 45 illegal, groundless and falsified trials, 3 persons (one of them civilian) were sentenced to 20 year, 2 persons (civilian) to 15 year, 23 persons to 6 year, 2 persons to 4 year, 13 persons to 6 year imprisonment. Materials of fake criminal cases of 2 Armenian prisoners of war are in the Ganja court of grave crimes.
5 of the Armenian POWs subjected to illegal trials were repatriated on October 19, 2021.
However, at the moment, 40 Armenian POWs and civilian captives are convicted on baseless charges in Azerbaijan.
21:32,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. It’s Armenia who will decide by which roads to ensure the connection between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan, there is no corridor issue, ARMENPRESS reports Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said in an online press conference, referring to the remark that Azerbaijan interprets the “unobstructed traffic” formulation of the 9th point of the November 9 declaration as a sovereign corridor.
“If it meant sovereign corridor, it would be written sovereign corridor, particularly, given the fact that the word corridor is already used in that document for Lachin corridor and it’s written that the Lachin corridor is under the Russian supervision. It’s more logical to think that “unobstructed traffic” means not-corridor, exclusion of corridor”, Pashinyan said.
The implementation of the 9th point of the declaration was adopted by the January 11, 2021 statement. The trilateral working group set up on the basis of the January 11 statement with the participation of Azerbaijan stated that the reopened roads will operate within the framework of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries they pass through. “The use of the roads should be based on the parity principle. This means there are two issues. The first is the issue of sovereignty, which has already been announced by the Russian Federation. We have never heard the word corridor from Azerbaijan at working level. It has been recorded by the trilateral working group that it does not exist (corridor issue-edit.). Second, why should something that does not exist be acceptable for us, why should we discuss it at all”, the PM said.
The Prime Minister spoke about Azerbaijan’s policy of blackmail. “They named it the “Zangezur corridor” and say that if Armenia does not provide a corridor, they will get it by war. Armenia must put this fact in front of the international community. And Armenia must show this as an openly aggressive policy of Azerbaijan, which must receive an adequate international assessment”.
At the same time, Pashinyan assured that Armenia is not only ready, but also interested in opening regional communications, noting that Armenia has been under blockade for 30 years, this is an opportunity to unblock. “The next issue is the issue of routes, which also contains quite a lot of nuances. And if that takes place in the sidelines of sovereignty, Armenia says that it’s ready to ensure communication between Nakhichevan and Azerbaijan and it’s Armenia who decides by which road to ensure that link, otherwise, we cannot speak about sovereignty. In other words, Azerbaijan wants to decide how to come in and go out. This is impossible”, PM Pashinyan said.
On the other hand, Armenia is interested in the restoration of railway and road communications. “Yes, Azerbaijan should get a road and a railway. In this case, we are not really talking about Nakhichevan, in this case we are talking about the Turkey-Azerbaijan connection, that is, we are talking about a great international road. I think that Armenia is also interested in that. When we look at Azerbaijan-Nakhichevan, it seems that it is the Azerbaijan-Nakhichevan connection, but it is actually about a new international road. And, naturally, Armenia should be interested in the new international road passing through its territory,” he said.
Pashinyan noted that he does not understand why Armenia should refuse to provide a road, adding that today all countries in the world are struggling for that roads, railways, gas and oil pipelines pass through their territory, in general, cargo transportations through their territory as much as possible. According to Pashinyan, on the contrary, Armenia is interested in the opening of the Turkish railway, it wants Kars-Gyumri railroad to be opened, which can be used also by Armenia to get a railway link not only with Russia, but also with Europe and Iran. “Azerbaijan understands what this means. That is why it is constantly making efforts, including by creating a nervous atmosphere inside Armenia, so that it turns out that Armenia itself is against its unblocking. Do you understand where the absurdity has reached? And today Azerbaijan clearly uses some forces, I do not know where these moods rise from, that we should not provide a road,” said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister noted that on the other hand, Azerbaijan is developing a corridor logic, and stressed that there is no corridor logic, it simply does not exist.
Letters and petitions for application of an immediate measure with respect to persons captured and deemed to be missing as a result of the military operations unleashed by Azerbaijan on Nov. 16 will be sent to the European Court of Human Rights in the next few days. This is what human rights activist Siranush Sahakyan said during a conversation with Armenpress.
“We are already receiving reports from the families of missing persons and captives and are exploring the incidents. We will also take into consideration the processes unfolding within the scope of the interstate complaint so that we rule out repetition,” Sahakyan said.
According to her, the primary objective is to protect physical immunity and life of people. Although the European Court of Human Rights doesn’t apply an immediate measure in the form of release, Sahakyan recalled the processes unfolding in the United Nations International Court of Justice (Armenia has submitted a claim to the Court with the demand to apply urgent measures against Azerbaijan, and with this, Armenia, inter alia other demands, insists on the immediate return of Armenian prisoners of war and the closure of the war trophy park.
After Azerbaijan’s provocations made on Nov. 16, nearly 10 families of persons deemed to be missing and captives are in contact with human rights activists, who are currently working intensively. There are cases of capture and soldiers gone missing affirmed in the video.
Siranush Sahakyan and Artak Zeynalyan are dealing with this matter, and since there is an interstate complaint, Representative of the Republic of Armenia before the European Court of Human Rights Yeghishe Kirakosyan is also involved.
Baykar General Manager Haluk Bayraktar (2nd L) and İvchenko Progress General Manager İgor F. Kravchenko (2nd R) at SAHA EXPO, Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 12, 2021. (AA Photo)
Turkey’s drone magnate Baykar has signed a contract with the Ivchenko-Progress, one of the leading engine companies in Ukraine for the procurement of engines for its Combat Unmanned Aircraft System (MIUS) project, according to a company statement Friday.
The deal was signed between the parties at the SAHA EXPO Defense and Aviation Hybrid Fair organized by SAHA Istanbul.
Ivchenko-Progress will supply the AI-322F Turbofan engine for MIUS under the agreement.
MUIS will be jet-powered, with a payload of up to 1.5 tons. The autonomously maneuvering craft will be capable of operating in tandem with piloted aircraft and may carry air-to-air missiles.
Haluk Bayraktar, CEO at Baykar, said that Ukraine and Turkey are two strategic partners, noting that his company’s Akıncı Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was already powered by the AI-450 engine of Ivchenko Progress.
“With the new contract, we will install the AI-322F engine, produced jointly by Ivchenko Progress and Motor Sich, in our unmanned fighter aircraft. I hope that this deal will further the strategic cooperation between the two countries.”
Baykar also said MS500 Turboprop Engine Technical Specification Agreement for Bayraktar Akıncı with the Motor Sich, another Ukrainian engine-making giant was also signed at the fair.
Bayraktar said that they created an alternative for Akıncı with the MS500 engine and that the engine would be integrated into the vehicle. Stating that the MS500 is a technologically advanced engine like the AI-450, Bayraktar said that this engine will fly Akıncı next year.
Motor Sich JSC Marketing and Sales Manager Pavlo Kasai, for his part, said that with each agreement, the security and strength of the two countries increased as well as their cooperation.
According to Ukrainian sources, the country will supply an AI-450 Turboprop engine for Akıncı UAV and AI-25TLT Turbofan engine for MIUS from 2021 to 2030. In the 10-year period, Ukraine is expected to export more than 500 engines to Baykar with a total value of more than $600 million.
The MIUS is expected to make its maiden flight before 2023.
In the event that Russia’s neighbours, as a result of interaction with each other, do not lose their sovereignty in a way that benefits the United States or China, any changes in the balance of power between them have no fundamental significance for Moscow, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Timofei Bordachev.
A year ago, on November 9, 2020, thanks to the peacekeeping intervention of Russia, the Second Karabakh War ended. The victims included thousands of military personnel and civilians of Azerbaijan, Armenia and residents of the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Throughout all the hostilities, Moscow maintained a restrained position based on the idea outlined by the President of Russia in his speech to the participants of the Valdai Club meeting on October 22, 2020, about the destructiveness of the conflict between two peoples equally close to Russia. It was this position, despite numerous appeals to Russia to take one side or the other, that ultimately made it possible not only to achieve a cessation of hostilities, but also to significantly strengthen Russia’s posture in the South Caucasus region.
Due to the fact that Russia is a dominant power in terms of its aggregate capabilities throughout the surrounding region, an assessment of the impact of this conflict on international politics cannot be given without also assessing how Moscow considers the processes taking place on its periphery, given its own security considerations. Moreover, it’s precisely this aspect of the whole story that seems to be fundamental when we try to go beyond a purely descriptive analysis of the situation. In other words, the most important thing is how and why Russia itself behaved that way it did a year ago and, accordingly, what decisions it can make in the future in relation to this or another region close to its borders.
In this context, it seems reasonable to select three major features that characterise the Russian approach to the development of its “near abroad”. First, for Russia, only one issue regarding the strategic position of its neighbours is of fundamental importance — whether they are independent powers, or represent a territorial base for other countries, whose intentions may contravene those of Moscow. Second, for Russia, the state of affairs among nations that share its common geopolitical neighbourhood, and remain associated with it for historical reasons, cannot just be viewed in the context of interests; there are also ethical considerations. And, finally, like any other nuclear superpower, Russia looks rather calmly at the processes of the changing balance of power between all other states. This last point seems to be the most important for the interpretation of Russian politics, especially regarding other former Soviet republics.
The armed conflict in the South Caucasus did not lead to significant changes in Russia’s foreign policy considerations regarding the countries that took part in it. Unlike the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and the preceding coup in Kiev, when the Ukrainian state actually lost its sovereignty, both Transcaucasian powers retained the ability to make foreign policy decisions relatively independently. Of course, there has been some strengthening of cooperation between Baku and Ankara, and now the Azerbaijani authorities are forced to listen more closely to the interests of their Turkish partners.
However, in the aftermath of the conflict, Azerbaijan did not become a base for the potential deployment of forces hostile to Russia in the event of possible war. As for Armenia, the strengthening of Russian influence there also did not lead, as one could have feared, to a disproportionate increase in Russia’s obligations towards this country or the loss of its sovereignty. The arrival of Russian peacekeeping forces in the South Caucasus has created conditions for a more active diplomatic involvement of Moscow in regional affairs, which also reduces the likelihood that Azerbaijan or Armenia will be significantly influenced by foreign powers with potentially hostile intentions regarding Russia’s basic interests and values.
When it comes to the states which border Azerbaijan and Armenia, Iran and Turkey, as a result of the last war, have become even more involved in the affairs of states in the post-Soviet space. Over the past year, we could observe several examples of how Turkish and Iranian interests manifested in the South Caucasus, as well as the involvement of these states in a diplomatic dialogue with Russia on these issues. In fact, we are witnessing a process of Ankara and Tehran gradually being pulled into what we still call post-Soviet space, where Russia is militarily dominant.
We know that a part of the Russian establishment and the expert community is concerned about this process and even worries about it. However, if we take into account the general balance of power between Russia and the two powers of interest, then the last word in any dispute will always be from Moscow. Moreover, Iran is now the enemy of the West and will remain so in any foreseeable future, and Turkey under President Erdogan has not demonstrated the ability to reconcile with its formal NATO allies. As a result, the development of relations with these states, to a great extent, depends not on the dynamics of the global balance of power, but on the ability of Russia itself to build diplomatic and power interaction with them.
We saw that Russia’s role intervening in the conflict and providing for its resolution were not only the result of calculated interests, but also a certain moral choice. Despite the fact that Armenia is a formal ally of Moscow within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, Azerbaijan shares a common geopolitical space with Russia, characterised by a significant number of human and cultural ties. This complex nature of relations with both powers essentially compelled Russia to retain a strong ethical component in its decision-making.
While in this particular case adherence to a moral choice became one of the reasons for Russia’s political success, in the future we cannot exclude the possibility that it will be more difficult for Moscow to remain impartial and maintain equal distance from both conflicting parties. This, in fact, concerns practically any potential hotbeds of tension in the space surrounding Russia, except Ukraine or Georgia, where it deals not with the interests of these countries themselves, but with the will and pressure of external powers.
However, even such unique features of interaction with its neighbours can only have a corrective effect on the most significant factor determining the nature of relations between Russia and its neighbours — its unique military capabilities. In this case, it is not even of fundamental importance that Russia is far superior in its power capabilities to all neighbouring countries except China. Of fundamental importance is the general position of Russia as one of the three nuclear powers, and that its security depends not on the regional, but on the global balance of power.
In the event that Russia’s neighbours, as a result of interaction with each other, do not lose their sovereignty in a way that benefits the United States or China, any changes in the balance of power between them have no fundamental significance for Moscow. Therefore, whether we like it or not, Russia’s participation in the affairs of states located on its periphery will always be dictated to the greater extent by the aforementioned ethical considerations. The fact that, as a result, its positions will become more convincing is connected exclusively with the geopolitical position of Russia and the place it occupies in the power composition of Eurasia.
10:06, 8 November, 2021
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The servicemen of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Artsakh have delivered together with philanthropists around 2 tons of humanitarian aid to the needy and large families of Khnushinak village, the Russian defense ministry said.
“A charity campaign was held today in Khnushinak village together with the Merci association, which was attended by all residents. Large families have been provided with economic items, clothing, shoes. 10 large families live in this community”, representative of the Russian peacekeeping contingent Dmitry Tusidi said.
Nearly 1000 residents of the village received an aid on the sidelines of the campaign.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Roads remain under jurisdiction of countries through which they pass – Russian Deputy PM tells Pashinyan
21:54, 5 November, 2021
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Alexei Overchuk.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister welcomed Mr. Overchuk’s visit to Armenia, noting that it is a good opportunity to discuss the current agenda. “I would like to note that I highly appreciate the works of the trilateral working commission chaired by the Deputy Prime Ministers of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. I hope that we will finally be able to reach concrete solutions.
I would like to say the following in this regard. Armenia is committed to the statements of November 9 and January 11, which refer to the unblocking of all transport and economic ties in the region. But I would like to emphasize that the statements made by Azerbaijan regarding the corridors have a negative impact on the efficiency of our work and atmosphere, especially considering that in our trilateral statements there are no remarks about corridors.
My impression is that Azerbaijan is trying to impose its perceptions on the commission, which, of course, is unacceptable for us. I would like to reaffirm that Armenia is interested in opening and unblocking regional transport and economic infrastructure. I have repeatedly stated publicly that we are ready to go to concrete solutions, the essence of which should be the following. Armenia should get road and railway communication routes through Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan should receive railway and road communication routes through Armenia, including one connecting Azerbaijan to the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic.
Our documents are about the unblocking of economic and transport infrastructures, our position is the following. What do we offer? The railways that existed during the Soviet era must be restored; the highways that existed during the Soviet era, including those connecting the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic with Azerbaijan, must also be restored.
We are ready for such solutions. We have concrete proposals, it should be emphasized that according to the January 11 statement, about which we have talked many times, we should also negotiate on customs control, phytosanitary control, border control and other possible types of control. This is what is stated in our statements of November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021. I want to confirm once again that Armenia is interested, ready, and we hope that in the near future we will be able to reach concrete solutions to these issues. We are constructive,” Prime Minister Pashinyan said.
Alexei Overchuk thanked the Prime Minister for the meeting and for highly appreciating the activities of the working group comprised of the Deputy Prime Ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation.
“We are really working within the mandate that you, together with the leaders of the other countries, granted us in the framework of the statements of November 9-10, 2020 and January 11, 2021. I would like to note that we are in constant touch with our partners and deputy prime ministers. We have held 8 meetings, 4 of which were in-person, the other four were held remotely.
At the same time, we talk on the phone almost every day, discussing various options to find more optimal, more acceptable solutions for all parties. You know that road construction experts also worked, who examined the roads. Today we have a very good understanding of what those roads really look like. Based on these data, after the 8th session of the joint working group held on October 22, it seems to us that we will reach concrete solutions. They are based primarily on that the roads remain under the jurisdiction of the countries through which they pass.
You also mentioned and it is enshrined in the statements that all kinds of controls should be carried out. We agreed that such control should be exercised based on the parity principle, and we also discussed it, including how and from where to start unblocking automotive infrastructure. We want to discuss it with you today and think about how to move forward,” Alexei Overchuk said.
A criminal case has been initiated on the killing of 27 police officers on October 4, 2020 when the Azerbaijani military targeted the Cultural House in Shushi during the Artsakh 44-day war. Around 500 police officers were at the hall of building and were about to leave for the frontline, when the air strike came, the President of Union of Informed Citizens NGO Daniel Ionisyan reported.
In his words, the criminal case is launched according to Article 365of the Criminal Code, which is a breach of guarding or patrolling regulations during war or military actions.
“The crime is punished with imprisonment for the term of 3 to 8 years. However, I want to stress that for the future it is more important not just punishing those responsible for this tragic incident but educating the police leadership about their actions during the war time,” Ionisyan added.
14:57, 2 November, 2021
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Gnel Sanosyan says it is unclear what maps will be used to determine the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but underscores that for example all pre-1920 maps include the Al Lakes as territories of Armenia, thus if these maps were to be used the changes in this section would be in favor of Armenia.
“There are different discussions, different maps,” Sanosyan told reporters. “Regarding what maps will be used as a basis, what matters is what legal status these maps will have. That is, even if these maps are Soviet-era maps, they must be legally clarified and accepted by all sides for it to be the basis.”
Speaking about the maps from the 1920s, he said that in this case significant changes could happen. When asked about which side would benefit in case of these changes, he said: “In terms of the Al Lakes, in our favor, because as far as I know the Al Lakes are mentioned as territories of Armenia in all maps prior to the late 1920s. The lakes are on this side of a certain line on these maps.”
Al Lakes are presently not under Armenian control.
Nevertheless, the minister again stressed that it is unclear at this moment which maps will be used.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan