Author: Parkev Tvankchian

The predominantly Muslim nation of Azerbaijan has landed on a persecution advocacy group's list of the worst countries for Christian persecution over its policies toward neighboring Armenia.

The United States-based International Christian Concern (ICC), which tracks the persecution of Christians worldwide, released its 2023 Persecutors of the Year report this week. 

The publication lists Azerbaijan among the top 10 nations hostile toward the faith. The list includes Nigeria, North Korea, India, Iran, China, Pakistan, Eritrea, Algeria and Indonesia.

Sandwiched between Turkey and Iran, Azerbaijan has warred with Armenia for decades over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which consists of as much as a 98% majority Christian population, most of whom identify as Armenian Apostolic, according to ICC.

The two nations have entered into conflict at least twice over the last century, but following a monthslong blockade earlier this year, Azerbaijani forces commandeered Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-known to Armenians as Artsakh, in September. 

The region was previously controlled by ethnic Armenians as the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh, a de facto independent state internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan. 

After a six-week war with Armenia in 2020, Azerbaijan regained control of territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. An armistice brokered by Russia left the region connected to Armenia only by the Lachin Corridor. Nagorno-Karabakh had been under varying degrees of blockade since December 2022 and was completely cut off from Armenian supplies in mid-June before the September offensive. 

"Azerbaijan's end game is clear: to rid its borders of Christianity either by forcing the Armenian people and their faith out of Azerbaijan or destroying the people and historical sites," the report states. 

ICC highlights the language employed toward Armenians by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, who "uses derogatory rhetoric, such as barbarians, rats, and vandals, to describe and dehumanize the Armenian people."

In 2012, Aliyev tweeted, "Our main enemy is the Armenian lobby."

"Armenia as a country is of no value," he tweeted "It is actually a colony, an outpost run from abroad, a territory artificially created on ancient Azerbaijani lands."

Despite the ancient heritage of Armenia as the world's first Christian nation, the report points to what it described as the international community's "ill-informed understanding of the ancient cultural heritage of Armenia."

Videos that surfaced of the 2020 conflict between the two nations showed Azerbaijani forces "intentionally destroying" Christian cultural landmarks like the centuries-old khachkars, or cross-stones, and churches such as the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, one of the largest Armenian churches in the world.

"For most people living in the region, to be Armenian is to be Christian," the report stated. "Therefore, persecution against Armenians and Armenian residents of NK is persecution against the body of Christ."

Until the September invasion, the region had a predominantly Christian population. The 24-hour Azerbaijan September offensive killed at least 200 ethnic Armenians, including 10 civilians. Over 400 were wounded. 

Officials last month estimated more than 100,000 Armenians were forcibly displaced from the region. 

Of the displaced, roughly 32,000 have taken up accommodation offered by the Armenian government, while others chose to stay with friends or relatives in Armenia.

In October, Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan of "ethnic cleansing," warning that "in the coming days, there will be no Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh."

That prospect has raised international concern from organizations across the political spectrum, including the National Council of Churches (NCC), which released a statement reiterating its support for the Armenian Orthodox Church, one of the 37 member communions of the NCC.

"While genocide typically takes place methodically over months and years, the NCC believes we may indeed be witnessing a continuation of genocide against the Armenian people, one that is borne of supremacy as in other genocides, but rather than consume the perpetrators in swift and orchestrated killing, unfolds over the long term in disparate acts of ethnic cleansing," the NCC statement reads. 

"As we have noted with alarm the illegal, humanitarian blockade of the region and the destruction of critical infrastructure, and observe the steady stream of refugees flowing through a single geographic conduit to safety, can we not assume this is, in fact, what is happening?"

Between 1915 and 1923, an estimated 1.5 million Armenian Christians died after they were expelled from the Ottoman Empire, now known as Turkey. Turkey denied the existence of the Armenian Genocide, and it took over 100 years before the mass killing was finally acknowledged as a genocide by the U.S. government.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/azerbajian-lands-on-list-of-worst-christian-persecutors.html

UNICEF has warned that refugee children arriving in Armenia are at risk of deteriorating mental health without immediate support.

On Thursday, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, began a visit to China with the aim of defending the bloc’s “risk reduction” strategy towards its first trading partner and laying the foundations for holding a summit this year.

Borrell’s visit, which was postponed twice this year, is scheduled to continue until Saturday, during which he will discuss a range of issues, including bilateral relations, international issues, and trade.

Borrell began his visit, on Thursday, with “interesting talks in Shanghai with European companies about economic and trade challenges,” he wrote on the “X” platform.

“We have to meet these challenges,” Borrell said. Because neither we nor China can ignore the other party’s market.”

On Friday, Borrell will hold talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

European Energy Commissioner Cadre Simson during a conference in Beijing on Thursday (EPA)

Borrell wrote on “X” that “this visit is important to discuss relations between the European Union and China and major regional and global challenges with government authorities, university professors and representatives of the business community.”

The European Union stated that this visit, which is part of a series of high-level dialogues with Beijing, “is supposed to lead to a European-Chinese summit during the year.”

No “disengagement”

Sino-European relations have witnessed tension since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Beijing, which calls for respect for the territorial integrity of all countries, refrained from condemning Moscow’s attack.

Brussels is seeking to reconcile its determination to reduce its dependence on the Asian giant, especially on the economic level, and maintain strong ties with the world’s second economic power in areas such as trade, climate and human rights.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that the European Union wants to “reduce risks” with China, but not to “disengage,” which means reducing relations further.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin announced on Wednesday that “China is satisfied with the visit of High Representative Borrell,” which “will give new impetus to the two parties’ joint efforts to meet global challenges and maintain peace and stability in the world.”

The Chinese spokesman said, during a routine press conference: “In light of the instability of the international situation and the increasing global challenges, only solidarity and cooperation will allow the international community to confront them better… China and Europe, as two major global powers, two major markets, and two great civilizations, have broad common interests.” .

dispute

Von der Leyen, who made an official visit to China in April, announced last month the opening of a European investigation into the Beijing authorities’ support and assistance to national electric car companies.

She justified this measure by the need to defend European industry against cars sold at “artificially low prices,” as she said, in global markets.

China denounced the investigation, stressing that it would harm its trade relations with the European Union, and stressed: “This is just protectionism.”

China began using electric motors in cars a long time ago, and has surpassed Europe in this field, especially in technology related to batteries.

Its manufacturers are relying on the huge domestic market, the largest in the world, to conquer Europe.

In early October, the Union revealed a list of strategic areas that should be better defended against competing countries such as China, at the forefront of which is artificial intelligence.

During his visit, Borrell will also address the war in Ukraine, at a time when China confirms its neutral position, which is criticized by the European Union.

Armenia's ruling Civil Contract party managed to score another victory on October 10 as the newly elected Yerevan city council chose Tirgan Avinyan to be the capital's mayor. 

Avinyan, a former deputy mayor and a close ally of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, won by a margin of 32-5, with 28 members not voting. 

The Mother Armenia alliance, led by Andranik Tevanyan and backed by Armenia's parliamentary opposition, and the National Progress party, led by former mayor and second-place mayoral candidate Hayk Marutyan, boycotted the vote. 

In the city council election held on September 17, the ruling Civil Contract party came in first but won only 32.5 percent of votes, amid a meager 30 percent turnout. Seats are distributed based on proportional representation, i.e. voters choose a party, which presents a list of candidates, the number-one spot on the list being the mayoral candidate.

The result initially bred hopes that the three opposition groups that won seats – National Progress, and Public Voice parties and the Mother Armenia alliance – could put together a coalition and pick Marutyan to lead the city once again.

Such an alliance almost came together but failed as two of the council members-elect of Public Voice, a party led by fugitive media personality Vardan Ghukasyan, were facing criminal charges and could not participate in the session. The remaining members of Public Voice then decided to take part in the mayoral vote, breaking ranks with the other opposition parties, which boycotted in the hopes of thwarting the vote and triggering another council election. 

The Republic party, which also won seats on the council, meanwhile, has long been supportive of Civil Contract. It signed a memorandum of cooperation with the ruling party and supported Avinyan. The party is led by Aram Sargsyan, the brother of late former Defence Minister Vazgen Sargsyan.

The Yerevan municipal election was seen as a test for Prime Minister Pashinyan and his party, whose popularity has declined precipitously since winning the June 2021 snap parliamentary election (which in turn was called because of Armenia's defeat in the Second Karabakh War seven months earlier). 

The prime minister said after the council vote that Avinyan's election as mayor was "a win for democracy" and the "revolution" that brought Pashinyan and his party to power in 2018.

Hayk Marutyan, the leading opposition candidate and erstwhile ally of the ruling party, said that Civic Contract should not be allowed to govern with a minority of seats. Marutyan accused the Republic and Public Voice parties of supporting Avinyan directly and indirectly.  For now, he is keeping his seat on the council. 

The country's two most prominent opposition groups, the former ruling Republican Party and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (which form the Armenia alliance in parliament), did not contest the election.

Some in Armenia had hoped that the election would see the emergence of a third force in the country and break the binary that has characterized Armenian politics for the past few years of the unpopular Civil Contract vs. the discredited Republicans and their allies.  

But there was widespread voter apathy and preoccupation with the security situation amid Azerbaijan's military buildup along the border and around Nagorno-Karabakh. Indeed, just two days after the election, Baku launched its lightning offensive that resulted in the region being emptied of its Armenian population. 

Election watchdog European Platform for Democratic Elections concluded that the poll was "free and fair, with no major systemic violations" despite low turnout and "the misuse of administrative resources by the ruling party."

https://eurasianet.org/armenian-ruling-party-hangs-on-to-yerevan-mayors-seat