Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

Serzh Sargsyan: Ask ‘architects of peace’ about invasion of Parukh

Tatoyan Vazgen
Panorama
Armenia –

Today, reporters addressed questions to third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan in the Komitas Pantheon about the March 24 Azerbaijani invasion of the village of Parukh in Artsakh’s Askeran region.

“Go and ask the architects of the era of peace about Parukh, Nerkin Hand!” Sargsyan said.

The former president refused to answer any more questions.

Serzh Sargsyan visited the Komitas Pantheon in Yerevan on Friday to pay tribute to statesman and former Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan on his 15th death anniversary.

Catastrophe at Turkey’s Akkuyu Nuclear Power Station – a fictional scenario

Tatoyan Vazgen
By David Davidian
The following fictional Red Cell scenario is intended to stimulate alternative thinking and challenge conventional wisdom, tying together events in operational fiction with national realities.

As Russian and Turkish nuclear engineers began the first powerup testing at the Russian-built Akkuyu Unit 1 Nuclear Power Plant, something was very wrong. In 2023, Russia suspended its construction activities at the Akkuyu Nuclear Power plant on the Turkish coast, north of Cyprus, in the wake of the Second Crimean War. Turkey was nearing a failed state with NATO demoting Turkey to observer status, and the civil war between nationalist and Islamic Turks was ravaging the country. Since the stake of Russia’s Rosatom State Corporation in the project was 99.2%, Russia has little to lose in finishing the project, so it thought. With Turkey out of NATO, not only was Russian President Putin successful in reducing NATO’s footprint, the 2022 standoff over Ukraine ended in a “negotiated stalemate,” and Russia triumphed over Turkey for the thirteenth time in history; this time Russia. The United States (US) had more critical problems with massive civil disturbances associated with COVID-19 vaccinations.
First power-up criticality tests for nuclear power reactors are somewhat of an art rather than a textbook exercise. Computer simulation and heuristics are used as a guide but are not fully deterministic. It is like driving a car for the first time. A nuclear chain reaction occurs when uranium 235 absorbs a neutron, a subatomic particle that is a constituent of every element except ordinary hydrogen. After absorbing a neutron the uranium splits (fission) and makes two to three more neutrons. If the process of neutron generation is controlled, a steady state condition is created called power is generated from the heat created. A reactor’s condition can be critical, generating no power, or be at full power. Reactor operators, engineers, and computers collect and analyze many different data points as the control rods are lifted, exposing the nuclear fuel. Control rods absorb neutrons; the deeper the control rods are into the core, the more neutrons they absorb and vice versa.
Based on the design and architectural specifications of the Rosatom’s VVER 1200 Model V-509, used in the Akkuyu power station, initial near-criticality occurs when control rods are withdrawn about 50 cm from their fully inserted position. However, at 30 cm, some of the reactor fuel appeared critical or slightly higher while others were “cold.” None of this made sense, and worse, the entire nuclear fuel array has been irradiated, making it deathly radioactive. Refueling procedures would have to be used to pull all the fuel assemblies out and inspect each of them. For every day electricity is not being generated, the Akkuyu Nuclear Joint Stock Company pays other suppliers for the power it was contracted to generate. What was left of the Turkish civil press blamed competing power companies in Turkey for sabotage.
An intelligence-gathering department of Armenia’s National Security Services (NSS), with a non-descriptive name, “The Division,” determined that Turkey was planning on reprocessing Akkuyu’s spent nuclear fuel directly for a weapons program. Turkey’s humiliation on the world front, with rumors of Armenian and Kurdish (formerly Iraqi Kurdistan) nuclear weapons, and much of eastern Turkey in a battle between friend/foe nationalist and Islamic Turks fighting a massive Kurdish insurrection, Turkey’s Supreme Military Council concluded that what remained of Turkey, minus the east and southeast, needed to be defended to the last Turk. Azerbaijan, Turkey’s so-called brother state, was busy protecting its interests, having sent soldiers across much of Turkey to protect the BTC (Baku, Tbilisi, Cayhan) hydrocarbon transport pipeline. Much of its infrastructure was damaged by Kurdish insurrection.
In the meantime, secretly, spent fuel reprocessing capabilities were being built just west of Akkuyu. Turkish scientists were well aware of Armenia’s pyro-chemical spent fuel reprocessing success. The Turks were hacking into Armenia’s servers that supposedly had the operational plans for this state-of-the-art reprocessing technology. The Division had set up a series of servers used as bait with non-functional plans for Armenia’s pyro-chemical spent fuel separation technology. Having licensed this technology to the Japanese and South Koreans, the Armenians included fake pyro-chemical separation plans to trick hackers into thinking they had successfully stolen accurate plans. Japan and South Korea set up a sophisticated computer infrastructure, further obfuscating these fake plans. Something similar, targeting Iran with an inaccurate atom bomb design, was attempted some twenty years earlier. 
Rosatom’s engineers poured over diagnostic data gathered from the initial power-on testing. They noticed that some of the software was not at the latest revisions, but they concluded this would still not account for any computational errors. The engineers subsequently tried a very conservative power up using manual instrument readings of neutron levels and heat across the core. The Russians even brought in old analog hardware instrumentation proven to work on all previous VVER reactors. Indeed something was wrong with the fuel assemblies. It would take months to replace all the fuel with new fuel. Not only were the Turks losing money, but Russians as well.
The Russian FSB immediately began investigating what initially looked like an embarrassing quality control issue. Special effort was made to isolate and remove a single suspected faulty fuel assembly. After several months of analysis, indeed, a series of apparently random 20% enriched uranium-235 fuel pellets were identified as having been part of at least that sample fuel assembly. The presence of 20% percent enriched uranium anywhere is not an accident. If indeed the plant’s reactor engineers ignored what their instruments and computer analysis were saying, there would be a catastrophic failure of the reactor during the initial powerup, considering that no reactor simulations exist for non-homogeneous fuel in commercial power reactors. There were several other investigations begun by the FSB. Where did the 20% enriched uranium come from? Who made them into pellets of the exact VVER size, and how did the pellets make their way into the fuel assemblies?
While the intense FSB investigations were ongoing, a new set of fuel assemblies were hand-assembled, with each pellet inspected with a solid paper trail. This process took months, as did the removal of all the fuel assemblies at the Akkuyu site. After six months and the loss of nearly a quarter billion dollars of revenue, the Akkuyu-1 plant was ready for its “second initial” power-up criticality tests. This second power-up was performed manually with analog computers and the plant’s real-time computer performing millions of calculations per second with a program modified to input more sensor data. A series of analog sensors developed at Armenia’s Mergelyan Institute of Mathematical Machines in the late 1980s were modified with up-to-date sensor material, using software libraries developed jointly between Rosatom and the Armenian conglomerate that purchased Armenia’s Metsamor nuclear power facility.
The Division knew that what remained of Turkey after the Second Crimean War was firmly determined to develop nuclear weapons, considering Turkey was not part of core NATO. Armenia gained a massive boost in international respect after Metsamor’s Spent Fuel Heist. Many of the major established international intelligence agencies courted Armenian’s diplomatic corps and intelligence infrastructure, which covertly used its diaspora’s unique capabilities. Turkey going rogue nuclear will never be allowed by those powers setting the world agenda. Turkey’s designs needed to be stopped, but NATO also desired to maximize Russian losses in nuclear power technology both financially and marketwise. Rosatom had many power plants under construction worldwide, and a nuclear catastrophe outside of Russia would kill Rosatom’s international presence – nobody would want a nuclear power station based on Russian technology. Turkey’s revanchist military laments the loss of control over much of its eastern provinces, southern borders, and what appears to be a nuclear Kurdistan, formerly Iraqi Kurdistan, is destabilizing the Turkish state. What remains of Turkey looks like what was demarcated in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres. At a minimum, it would take Turkish experts several years of reprocessing to have enough fissionable material for a weapon, even if they used the Armenian pyro-chemical reprocessing technology. The Turkish military was doing its best to gather reprocessing technology from North Korea, Pakistan, and its homegrown nuclear and chemical scientists. Having hacked into Armenian, Japanese, and South Korean fake pyro-chemical reprocessing technologies, it was decided it would take too long to determine how much of these various technologies were real; after all Turkish scientists and engineers were no fools. NATO and other western powers let the Turks waste time, effort, and resources constructing traditional reprocessing facilities.
Everything was checked and double-checked before the “second initial” Akkuyu-1 power-up began. Part of the checklist included feeding sample dangerous data into analog and digital computers and the main control room panel, to ensure the integrity of the start-up process. As much effort was put into this restart as was the launch of an orbital mission from Russia’s Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The restart commenced with the reactor operators raising the control rod at a click at a time with a modified joystick that could raise the control rods not only by groups but individual fuel assemblies as well. Ten cm, twenty cm — the core was heating up, and the water pumps were running normally. The neutron flux maps looked normal. By thirty centimeters, power would start rising from zero, increasing to 10 kW, 100 kW, 1 MW, to 10 MW. The on-sight Rosatom and Akkuyu Nuclear Joint Stock Company accountants were jubilant, and after so many problems, profits would now flow. After several hours of testing, the steam turbines and electrical systems associated with the dynamos (power plant alternators) looked good. Both computer systems agreed, and all the numbers looked well within range in the control room. However, the plant was not at full power, 3200 MW, which would happen after a few more days of operational testing at 2500 MW. Finally, the plant went to pull power, and all was running normally.
Several regional powers were pushing for the consolidation of Kurdish-controlled provinces in eastern Turkey with the new Kurdistan. One of the adventures the Kurds hadn’t engaged in was the destruction of utility infrastructures. The main reason being that Turkish Kurds would incessantly squabble amongst themselves in the eastern Turkish provinces, retaining much of their tribal social structures. Israel’s investment in establishing Kurdistan was substantial. Reducing any belligerent-to-Israel Arab state into its non-Arab constituencies has always been a goal of Israel. A strong Kurdistan would fulfill much of David Ben-Gurion’s Periphery Philosophy — make friends with states on the periphery of the Arab Middle East. A classic implementation of that plan was Israeli relations with Azerbaijan, but that relationship outlived its usefulness as Iran was no longer a threat to Israel and Arabs selling oil to Israel trumped support for Palestinians.
The target was the Ataturk Dam and hydroelectric infrastructure between Malatia and Gaziantep, the third-largest dam in the world. The Turks used this dam to affect policies in Syria by restricting water along the Euphrates River. When major contributors to a power grid go offline, the first thing that traditionally happens is to take nuclear plants offline as a precaution. Many other non-nuclear power stations disconnect when a significant contributor to the electrical power system unexpectedly goes offline. Rather than going offline, those operating plants would have to supply the existing demand, way beyond their generating capabilities, damaging mainly the electrical side of the power plant. It is for this reason widespread power blackouts do occur.

The most effective way to take out the Ataturk Dam is to strike it with multiple US GBU-72 Bunker Buster Bombs created for the US and Israel to take out Iranian underground nuclear facilities. The thought to use several low-yield nuclear weapons was dismissed as radioactive contamination would flow down the Euphrates river for hundreds of miles. Israeli stealth aircraft took out the Ataturk dam, which was more like a routine training mission since Israeli pilots used to use Turkey’s eastern and southeastern areas for training when relations were good between the two states.
When Ataturk was taken out, warning lights in Akkuyu’s control room lit up, but those lit up made no logical sense together. The reactor operators expected the plant to go electrically offline and for the reactor to shut down automatically. Within five seconds, the Akkuyu’s turbine began rumbling terribly. It felt like a severe earthquake when the turbine froze, unable by itself to supply most of Turkey’s electrical demand since most of Turkey’s other electric power stations were taken offline. The turbine stopped in its tracks. True to Newton’s Laws of Motion, the turbine shaft with its blades launched through the turbine housing and the steel-reinforced turbine building wall. The warning lights in the control room lit up like a Christmas tree, as the reactor was not automatically shutting down while thousands of cubic meters per second of superheated steam was escaping from the destroyed turbine housing. Eventually, the reactor shut down with much of its core melted. 
The reactor operators noticed that the modifications made by Rosatom to monitor more data points in the reactor heat and neutron flux were not flashing. Subsequently, the FSB discovered that the changes made to the old sensors by Armenia’s Mergelyan Institute were sabotaged and deliberately made not to record a quick increase in temperature. This condition fooled the automatic reactor shutdown system and the injection of reserve cooling water and faked out the analog, digital computers, and the reactor operators in the control room, but not before a partial meltdown.
The prevailing winds were blowing north and northwest, dragging with it radioactive contamination. Time would tell the extent of how widespread the contamination was. The Akkuyu disaster served its purpose, although not anywhere near as bad as Chernobyl.
Rosatom was virtually bankrupt. Civil order in Turkey was anarchic. Greek troops occupied the European corner of Turkey from Edirne to Western Istanbul, renaming the latter Constantinople. The Greek Navy secured the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and Dardanelles.
The Kremlin pulled every FSB resource to investigate the Akkuyu disaster. Who placed the 20% enriched uranium in the fuel assemblies was never discovered. However, in the 1950s, such fuel existed in both the US and the Soviet Union, used in experimental reactors. The Russian FSB concluded the placement of the 20% enriched uranium was a diversion allowing the Mergelyan Institute’s sensors to be installed in the VVER reactor. No records show that these so-called new sensors were upgraded. Instead, they were proven to be sensors designed for the older VVER-440 reactors (such as those at Armenia’s Metsamor nuclear power plant), yet somehow they made their way into the VVER-509. Several engineering managers at Rosatom ended up in jail. The KGB concluded that the control room control panel software and the automatic reactor shutdown software were hacked or somehow modified ever so slightly to accept the VVER-440 sensors. How this happened was not immediately known. It took months to identify this, but it could only have been done by individuals who developed the sensor. Yet the developers died in the 1990s.
Armenians made no secret that they could shut down Turkey’s electrical grid. They gained this knowledge as a requirement in order to shut down parts of Nakhichevan’s electrical power system (synced to the Turkish electrical grid) when Metsamor’s spent fuel was transported into Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan. Armenian electrical power grid hackers made Akkuyu think there were no power grid issues after the Israelis bombed the Ataturk dam, directly contributing to this cascade of catastrophic events.
Yerevan, Armenia
Author: David Davidian (Lecturer at the American University of Armenia. He has spent over a decade in technical intelligence analysis at major high technology firms. He resides in Yerevan, Armenia).
(The views expressed in this article belong  only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the  views of World Geostrategic Insights). 
 

Turkish press: Book features engravings on Ottoman-era tombstones

Tatoyan Vazgen
  • March 24 2022 07:00:00

Carved decorations in the form of figurative compositions appear on mosques, madrasahs and tombs across Anatolia, but now a book of detailed research features a series of aesthetic images of tombstones from different ethnic cultures that prevailed in Turkey’s northwestern province of Edirne for hundreds of years.

A book named “Edirne’s Tombstones’ written by Cem Altınel presents a large scale of data explaining the culture, art, science, literature, politics, military, economy, trade, bureaucracy and social life of the Ottoman city through examples of tombstones reflecting the most concrete practices of Turkish art.

The book also brings to light a series of examples of cultures from different ethnic groups, such as Turkish, Greek, Jewish, Armenian, Levantine and Bulgarian, who lived in the city for hundreds of years, reflected on the tombstones by stone carving masters in Edirne.

It also aims to showcase believers’ intensity of love and their longing for loved ones in the past, evaluating the inscriptions and patterns on tombstones from an aesthetic point of view.

The latest status of some burial stones that make up the content of the book is included in the work by comparing the images in Arif Dağdeviren’s archive.

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 03/24/2022

Tatoyan Vazgen 
                                        Thursday, 
Moscow Calls For Restored Gas Supplies To Nagorno-Karabakh
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (file photo).
Russia has called on Azerbaijan and Armenia to resolve the issue of natural gas 
supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh as soon as possible “to avoid further aggravation 
of the difficult humanitarian situation in the region.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a weekly news 
briefing on Thursday that Moscow has been in contacts with both sides on the 
matter.
“Corresponding work is being carried out through our country’s Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Energy, as well as Gazprom. We 
proceed from the understanding that one should not aggravate what is already a 
difficult humanitarian situation, and ordinary people should not suffer,” 
Zakharova said, as quoted by Russia’s Tass news agency.
On Tuesday, the Armenian Foreign Ministry accused Azerbaijan of cutting off gas 
supply to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia on territory controlled by its military.
As a result of the second disruption of gas supply to Stepanakert and other 
towns in Nagorno-Karabakh within a space of two weeks ethnic Armenians in the 
region face difficulties in heating their homes in still freezing temperatures 
as well as in running their businesses, including bakeries.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, has been claiming 
its independence from Baku since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a 
separatist war waged in the early 1990s that also led to ethnic Armenians’ 
making territorial gains inside Azerbaijan proper.
The standoff with Baku led to another war in 2020 as a result of which 
Azerbaijani forces gained control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven 
adjacent districts that had been under Armenian control since 1994.
Some 2,000 Russian troops were deployed in the region to monitor the ceasefire 
following a Moscow-brokered truce.
Azerbaijan Accused Of Violating Line Of Contact In Nagorno-Karabakh
        • Artak Khulian
A Russian peacekeeper patrols at the check point outside Askeran in 
Nagorno-Karabakh (file photo).
Ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have accused Azerbaijan of 
violating the line of contact in the east of the region by the advancement of 
its troops denied by Baku.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s Information Headquarters, an agency affiliated with the 
mostly Armenian-populated region’s de facto authorities, said Azerbaijani forces 
had advanced in the direction of the village of Parukh in the Askeran region. It 
said it happened at around 4:00 pm (1 pm CET) on Thursday.
Representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Defense Army and the Russian peacekeeping 
force have reportedly been trying to hold negotiations with the Azerbaijani side 
to persuade it stop its further advancement and withdraw.
No information about any fighting or casualties was immediately reported in the 
context of the incident. But authorities in Stepanakert said that women and 
children of the nearby village of Khramort had been evacuated for security 
reasons.
“We urge the population to remain calm. The situation on all other sections of 
the line of contact is stable at the moment,” Nagorno-Karabakh’s Information 
Headquarters said.
In a statement released later on Thursday Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denied 
any advancement of its troops “in the territory of Azerbaijan where the Russian 
peacekeeping contingent is temporarily deployed.”
It said that “specifications of positions and locations are taking place at the 
site” and that “no clashes or incidents have occurred.”
“Armenian media artificially exaggerate the situation. The goal is to create an 
atmosphere that can cause hysteria and mislead the public. There is no reason to 
worry,” the ministry said, as quoted by the Azerbaijani news website Haqqin.az.
Meanwhile, the Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement, saying that 
“Azerbaijan’s aggressive actions once again show that official Baku continues to 
grossly violate the terms of the November 9, 2020 trilateral statement [on 
ceasefire].”
At least one civilian in the village of Khramort was injured by mortar fire as 
Nagorno-Karabakh accused Azerbaijan of violating the ceasefire in the direction 
of this and several other Armenian communities earlier this month.
Local residents were in particular alarmed by Azerbaijan’s deployment of 
military equipment at their positions situated not far from the village. The 
Russian peacekeepers set up a permanent post in the village two weeks ago, after 
which no serious incidents have been reported.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry had denied targeting civilians during those 
incidents. It had accused Armenian forces of firing at its troops deployed in 
the adjacent Agdam district.
Khramort mayor Zorik Abrahamian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in the late 
afternoon that the situation in the village was “very serious.” He declined to 
elaborate.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, has been claiming 
its independence from Baku since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a 
separatist war waged in the early 1990s that also led to ethnic Armenians’ 
making territorial gains inside Azerbaijan proper.
The standoff with Baku led to another war in 2020 in which about 7,000 soldiers 
and more than 200 civilians were killed. As a result of that war Azerbaijani 
forces gained control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven adjacent 
districts that had been under Armenian control since 1994.
Some 2,000 Russian troops were deployed in the region to monitor the ceasefire 
following a Moscow-brokered truce.
Armenian Government Criticized Over Crisis In Nagorno-Karabakh
        • Astghik Bedevian
Ishkhan Saghatelian (in the front row center) and other members of the 
opposition Hayastan faction in the Armenian parliament (file photo).
Two opposition factions in the Armenian parliament have leveled harsh criticism 
at the government, accusing it of not doing enough to ensure the security of 
Nagorno-Karabakh.
During news briefings in parliament on Thursday lawmakers representing the 
Hayastan and Pativ Unem factions, in particular, referred to the current 
situation with discontinued gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh that de-facto 
authorities in the Armenian-populated region blame on Azerbaijan.
“The current government of Armenia is trying to wash its hands, giving up on the 
Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.] issue. The Republic of Armenia thus renounces 
its obligation to guarantee the sovereignty and security of Artsakh,” Deputy 
Parliament Speaker Ishkhan Saghatelian, of the Hayastan faction, claimed.
Pativ Unem’s Tigran Abrahamian, meanwhile, criticized the government for lacking 
a long-term strategy on Nagorno-Karabakh in conditions of increased pressure on 
the region from Azerbaijan.
Tigran Abrahamian, a member of the opposition Pativ Unem faction in parliament 
(file photo).
“The problem here is not only gas supply, the problem here is not only the 
implementation of certain social programs, the problem is much more complicated, 
it is much bigger. Regardless of the fact that these issues cannot be solved 
within a couple of days, the government must have complex programs that also 
take into account the security component, because the accumulation of these 
issues, the failure to resolve these issues can lead to two major consequences – 
either there will be an exodus of Armenians from Artsakh, or it may lead to a 
new war,” Abrahamian said.
During a government session earlier on Thursday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian acknowledged that the second disruption of natural gas supply to 
Nagorno-Karabakh this month has brought the region to the verge of a 
“humanitarian disaster.”
He said that Armenia is raising this issue with the international community.
Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan 
also said that Yerevan is using all diplomatic channels to achieve a solution to 
the gas supply issue in Nagorno-Karabakh that creates humanitarian problems for 
the region’s population in conditions of still freezing temperatures despite 
early spring.
Mirzoyan also reaffirmed that Armenia is seeking peace talks with Azerbaijan 
that would, among other things, address the rights and status of Armenians in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pro-government Civil Contract faction member Arman Yeghoyan also said during 
today’s news briefings that both the government and parliamentarians are working 
with international partners on a daily basis regarding the situation with the 
discontinued gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh ‘On The Verge Of A Humanitarian Disaster’
        • Anush Mkrtchian
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian during a government session (file photo).
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has accused Azerbaijan of deliberately 
discontinuing natural gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh, claiming that the 
Armenian-populated region is “on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.”
Addressing a government session in Yerevan on Thursday, Pashinian said that both 
cases of the disruption of natural gas supply to Nagorno-Karabakh this month 
happened during unprecedented harsh weather conditions in the region.
The first disruption of the supply on March 8 due to reported damage to a 
pipeline pumping natural gas from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh on a section 
passing through Baku-controlled territory lasted for 11 days as the region’s 
de-facto ethnic Armenian authorities accused Azerbaijan of not allowing their 
maintenance workers to repair the vital infrastructure.
Gas supply was resumed on March 19 after Azerbaijan reportedly repaired the 
pipeline following calls from international organizations, including the 
European Union.
But gas supply again was interrupted on March 21 when Nagorno-Karabakh’s de 
facto authorities accused Baku of having turned off the valve on the pipeline 
that the Azerbaijani side had purportedly installed during the repairs.
The disruptions of the supply of vital fuel used by people in Stepanakert and 
elsewhere in the region for heating their homes and for business activities came 
amid still freezing temperatures despite early spring.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as unacceptable behavior 
on the part of Azerbaijan in a statement issued on March 22.
Not specifically referring to the issue of natural gas supply to 
Nagorno-Karabakh, a spokeswoman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on 
Wednesday advised that “Armenia should not interfere in Azerbaijan’s internal 
affairs.”
Armenia’s prime minister today also insisted that Azerbaijan had installed a 
valve on the gas pipeline during the repairs. “This indisputably shows 
Azerbaijan’s policy towards the Armenians of Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.], 
that is, to make it impossible for them to live in their native land,” Pashinian 
said, stressing that Yerevan has widely presented the issue to the international 
community.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Soviet Azerbaijan, has been claiming 
its independence from Baku since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a 
separatist war waged in the early 1990s that also led to ethnic Armenians’ 
making territorial gains inside Azerbaijan proper.
The standoff with Baku led to another war in 2020 as a result of which 
Azerbaijani forces gained control of parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven 
adjacent districts that had been under Armenian control since 1994. Some 2,000 
Russian troops were deployed in the region to monitor the cease-fire following a 
Moscow-brokered truce.
In his remarks today the Armenian premier also insisted that “Azerbaijan will 
not be able to divert Armenia from the peace agenda.” He stressed that there is 
no alternative to “Armenia’s policy of ushering in an era of peace” in the 
region.
“With its actions and various provocations Azerbaijan is trying to divert us 
from the peace agenda in order to implement its policy of provoking new 
escalations and new wars in the region. But we should not give in to such 
provocations,” Pashinian said.
The Armenian prime minister reaffirmed that Azerbaijan’s five-point proposal for 
starting negotiations around a peace treaty with Armenia contained “nothing 
unacceptable for Yerevan.”
“It is another thing that these proposals do not address all the issues on the 
Armenia-Azerbaijan comprehensive peace agenda. We have completed the agenda with 
our reply to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, so we are ready to start peace 
talks on that basis,” Pashinian said.
Baku insists that a future peace treaty with Yerevan should be based on five 
fundamental principles, including mutual recognition of each other’s sovereignty 
and territorial integrity, mutual reaffirmation of the absence of territorial 
claims to each other and a legally binding obligation not to make such claims in 
the future, abstaining from threatening each other’s security, delimitation and 
demarcation of the border with the establishment of diplomatic relations and 
unblocking of transport links.
In a recent interview with the state-run Armenpress news agency Armenian Foreign 
Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that it is vital for the Armenian side that “the 
rights and freedoms of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians be clearly guaranteed, and 
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh be finally clarified.” “For us, the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a territorial issue, but a matter of rights,” 
he said.
Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Mirozyan said that the Russian, American 
and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group had informed Armenia that its 
proposals had been passed on to Azerbaijan. He said Baku had not responded to 
Yerevan’s proposals yet.
Pashinian today also described as odd criticism heard from the Armenian 
opposition that by agreeing to hold negotiations with Azerbaijan Armenia was 
accepting territorial integrity as a principle of normalization of relations. He 
again said that previous Armenian governments had repeatedly recognized the 
principle of territorial integrity in negotiations with Azerbaijan.
Stressing that peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan should start as soon 
as possible, Pashinian pointed to the need to speed up the process of border 
demarcation and delimitation along with steps to raise the level of border 
security and stability.
“We have proposed a mirror withdrawal of troops from the de jure established 
Soviet-era borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. But I want you to know that in 
addition to a complete withdrawal, we have also proposed local withdrawals, and 
we are now waiting for Azerbaijan’s response,” the Armenian prime minister said.
Armenia ‘Discussing’ With Russia Gas Payments In Rubles
        • Sargis Harutyunyan
A natural gas distribution station at the Armenian border (file photo).
Yerevan and Moscow are discussing the issue of payments for the Russian gas 
supplied to Armenia in rubles, Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian 
said during a question-and-answer session in parliament on Wednesday.
The Armenian official did not provide details as he answered a question from a 
pro-government lawmaker regarding the issue.
Grigorian said that the matter is part of discussions about the currency for the 
distribution of customs duties within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a 
Russia-led economic grouping of five former Soviet countries, including Armenia.
“I cannot promise that this issue will be solved now, because there are 
objective reasons. But today it is at least being discussed in a global sense, 
and I think that at some point it will become a much more specific agenda,” the 
deputy prime minister said.
For years, especially since joining the EEU in 2015, Armenia has been raising 
the issue of conducting trade in energy resources, including natural gas, in 
rubles within the EEU space.
Official reports in Armenia regularly say that the matter is part of ongoing 
discussions.
Amid Western sanctions imposed on Moscow for invading and waging an aggressive 
war against Ukraine, including a ban on transactions in dollars, euros and other 
hard currencies, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 23 that 
Russia will start forcing “unfriendly countries” – including all European Union 
states and the United States – to pay for their natural gas supplies in rubles.
The decision came after a dramatic depreciation of the Russian ruble as a result 
of the crippling sanctions imposed by the West.
Armenia is not on the list of “unfriendly countries” that Moscow published 
earlier in March. But despite being also a member of the Russia-led Collective 
Security Treaty Organization, Armenia has mostly maintained neutrality on the 
ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine.
Despite official Yerevan’s statements that it seeks trade with Russia in rubles 
when it comes to the supply of natural gas and other energy resources, Armenian 
experts are skeptical that the Kremlin will actually agree to receive payments 
in the Russian currency given the acute demand for hard currency in Russia.
In a recent interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, former governor of 
Armenia’s Central Bank Bagrat Asatrian also said that payments for Russian 
natural gas in rubles involved technical difficulties as well.
“I don’t believe that Russia will agree to that and start selling energy to us 
in rubles. Besides, it also involves difficulties related to the pricing issue. 
As you know, there is a notion of international prices for energy resources, 
which are estimated in dollars,” Asatrian said.
Annually Armenia imports more than 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas from 
Russia. At the border, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom sells it to its Armenian 
subsidiary for $165 per 1,000 cubic meters, but Armenian users pay almost twice 
as much for the natural gas supplied to their homes.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Finance Minister forecasts 5.5% inflation for 2022

Tatoyan Vazgen

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 16:10,

YEREVAN, MARCH 21, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Finance of Armenia Tigran Khachatryan commented on the possible inflation in the country and said that the management of inflation is in the toolkit of the Central Bank and the Bank aims at returning the inflation to the limits defined by law.

“This means that inflation by the result of 2022 will be within 5.5%, a 1.5% deviation is also possible. The Central Bank has stated that these performance indicators will be executable and, despite the temporary difficulties existing today in the region and the world conditioned by the possible changes in prices of food and energy, they will be manageable, and in the end of the year we will have an actual inflation by law”, he said.

The minister said the calculation of increase in price of individual goods is not a general calculation. “If the food basket consists of several goods, then the sum is taken into account when determining the inflation rate”, he said.

G7 top diplomats to discuss situation around Ukraine on March 17

Tatoyan Vazgen

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 09:46, 17 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS. Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers will hold online talks on March 17 to discuss the situation around Ukraine, TASS reports citing the Japanese foreign ministry.

Japan will be represented by Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

The ministers will discuss the current situation around Ukraine and will exchange views on further actions and steps to strengthen cooperation within G7.

Ombudsman releases new report on violations of Artsakh people’s rights by Azerbaijan

Tatoyan Vazgen
Panorama.am 
Armenia –

The Artsakh Human Rights Ombudsman’s Staff has published a trilingual (Armenian, Russian, English) interim report on ‘’The Violations of the Rights of the People of Artsakh by Azerbaijan in February – March 2022,’’ which was sent to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, organizations with a primary human rights protection mandate and international human rights organizations, the Ombudsman’s Office said on Friday.

The report briefs on the violations committed by Azerbaijan against the life, health, physical and psychological integrity of the people of Artsakh after the adoption of the trilateral statement on November 9, 2020.

The first section presents facts about the Azerbaijani criminal actions in the direction of the border communities of the Republic of Artsakh in February – March 2022. From March 7 to 12, 2022, the Azerbaijani side used a 60 mm grenade launcher, a total of 57 projectiles were fired at various regions of Artsakh. During that time, the ceasefire regime was continuously violated by firearms targeting residential houses and other civilian infrastructures. One civilian was injured. 

The second section presents the humanitarian consequences of the disruption of gas supply by Azerbaijan in the territory of Artsakh. 65% of the schools in the country where 60% of the total number of students receive education are heated with gas. Due to the lack of proper heating, classes in all secondary schools have been suspended. The attendance of children in kindergartens is 22%. 12 kindergartens have ceased their activities at all, and some of them are working for a half day. 90% of secondary vocational education institutions, art schools, medical and music collages, children’s creative centers heated by the use of gas have completely ceased their activities.

70% of health organizations and hospitals are heated by the use of gas, where 419 citizens are currently receiving inpatient treatment, including 46 children in the children’s hospital, and 51 newborns and mothers in the maternity hospital. Hundreds of entrepreneurs also suffer great losses as a result of the gas supply disruption. Gas stations were particularly hard-hit causing personnel downtime, greenhouses operating with gas supply were also affected.

The third section presents the manifestations of psychological terrorism and information attacks carried out by Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh which are aimed at creating an atmosphere of fear, despair among the civilian population under the threat of use of force and compelling the people to leave their homes.

The report was prepared on the basis of studies conducted by the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Staff, visits to various communities, educational and health institutions, communities, private conversations with citizens, as well as the information received from state-authorized bodies. The report aims to document the cases of violations of rights of the people of Artsakh by Azerbaijan and their various manifestations, to draw the attention of international structures and human rights organizations to the situation in Artsakh.

Asbarez: California Elected Officials Mark the 34th Anniversary of the Sumgait Pogroms

Tatoyan Vazgen
by Contributor

 

 March 1, 2022

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Main, Latest, News, Top Stories

A house belonging to an Armenian family pillaged by Azeris in Sumgait in 1988

Elected Officials in California marked the 34th anniversary of the Sumgait Massacres by Azerbaijan and urged the Biden Administration to end U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan, in a series of statements and posts on their social media pages, reported the Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region.

 “On this solemn day of remembrance, we reflect on what the state-sponsored incitement of racist violence can lead to when left unchecked – and deplore the Azerbaijani government’s ongoing institutionalized dehumanization of the Armenian people,” said Nora Hovsepian, Esq, ANCA-WR Chair. “We join with friends of Armenia and advocates of human rights in thanking our elected officials for marking the 34th anniversary of the pogroms and call on the U.S. Government to stop providing military aid to the tyrannical regime in Baku and materially empowering them to continue invading and occupying Artsakh and Armenia,” she continued. 

Congressional Armenian Caucus Vice-Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) released a statement, where he honored the victims of the pogroms by stating “These are the horrific consequences when aggression and hatred grow unchecked – and it is why, whether these crimes against humanity occurred one year, thirty years, or a hundred years ago, we can never allow them to go unrecognized.” “More than that, it is why the United States must fully step into its role as a defender of democracy and peace around the world. We must not relent in our calls for the safe and unconditional release of the remaining Armenian prisoners of war and captured civilians, for the end of U.S. assistance to the Aliyev regime, and for stronger efforts to support democracy in Armenia and a free, independent Artsakh. So let us pause to remember those who suffered in the atrocities of the Sumgait and Baku pogroms. But let us also recommit ourselves and our nation to doing everything we can, today, to bring liberation to our Armenian brothers and sisters abroad, once and for all,” he continued. 

Fellow member of Congress and Caucus member, Brad Sherman, also issued a statement, honoring the memories of the victims of the Sumgait Pogroms by stating “This stark reminder remains evident today as the government of Azerbaijan continues its state-sponsored policy of aggression against Armenia and Artsakh. The world witnessed the consequences of Azerbaijan’s unchecked hatred against Armenians during the invasion of Artsakh in 2020 as Azeri forces committed horrendous war crimes against Armenian civilians, including women and the elderly, and illegally imprisoned Armenian POWs after the cessation of hostilities. Many POWs are still held by Azerbaijan.” 

“Today marks the 34th anniversary of the Sumgait Pogroms when innocent Armenian civilians were tortured and massacred,” stated CA Congressmember Tony Cárdenas and member of the CA Congressional Armenian Caucus. “As we honor their memory, we continue to call for the safe and unconditional release of all Armenian POWs illegally detained by the Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan,” he continued.

California State Senator Anthony Portantino who became the first elected official from the U.S. to visit  Artsakh since the end of the 44-day war, in November of 2021, shared a photo from his trip in a destroyed residential home and stated “Today we commemorate the tragic pogroms against Armenians in Sumgait/Baku & call attention to decades-long persecution that continues. Unprovoked invasion/aggression against Artsakh by Azerbaijan is state-sponsored hostility against Armenians. It is critical we condemn/speak out.” 

Fellow Senator Melissa Melendez, tweeted “Today marks the 34th anniversary of the first of several government-encouraged massacres to eradicate the Armenian population and cultural influence from Azerbaijan. Injustice should concern everyone. As human hatred destroys life, human charity has the power to preserve it”

Assemblymember Chris Holden, who authored ACR-105 and led the effort to connect California and the Syunik Province as sister states, stated “On February 27, 1988, and for three days to follow, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians living in Azerbaijan. The pogroms shattered and devastated the Armenian community. This was an eruption of the the years of racist anti-Armenian propaganda by Azerbaijani government, dehumanizing the Armenian residents of Azerbaijan and creating an explosion of mass violence. In 2020, the Azerbaijani authorities incited violence and trauma once again for Armenians living in Armenia and their diaspora. This is why ACR-105 Sister State with Syunik is so important to me. We set precedent for the future with our action or inaction and today, we are creating long-lasting ties to thread forward a better tomorrow. There is power in our solidarity and there is even more so, when we acknowledge the wrongs committed and human rights violations and urge for justice today. I ask the Biden Administration to Zero-out U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan and strengthen Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act restrictions on U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan until their ongoing aggression ends.”

LA City Councilmember Kevin De Leon and ANCA-WR endorsed candidate for the 2022 Los Angeles Mayor honored the victims by stating “February 27 marks the somber anniversary of the pogroms committed against Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, and Maragha by Azerbaijan. I wish to extend my voice to honor the victims of these pogroms. Acts of Armenophobia, however, have continued over the past two decades, including the invasion against the Republic of Artsakh in late 2020, threatening to destroy the very culture of Armenians. I urge the Biden Administration to take swift and decisive action to end ongoing aggressions by Azerbaijan against the Republic of Artsakh, especially in the face of security threats by Russia that aim to destabilize the region.”

Fellow LA City Councilmember, Mitch O’Farrell who represents the Little Armenia neighborhood, stated “Today we pause to remember the gruesome anti-Armenian pogroms that were carried out with unspeakable cruelty in Soviet Azerbaijan. Over several days in 1988, ethnic Armenians in Soviet Azerbaijan were chased down, brutally attacked and killed by violent mobs in the industrial city of Sumgait. People were killed in public places and even in their own homes. These events were the first in a series of additional violent pogroms and clashes that resulted in a mass exodus of Armenians from Soviet Azerbaijan, and eventually a full-scale war in the region. While these events took place in the waning years of the Soviet Union, they reverberate to this day and were matched in cruelty during the recent violent and unprovoked invasion against the Republic of Artsakh. I am deeply proud to represent Little Armenia and so many in the Armenian community. Today, I join the Armenian-American community in calling on the Biden Administration to end U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan and strengthen Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act restrictions on U.S. military assistance to that country.”

The Armenian community, which had been instrumental to the social, economic, and cultural fabric of the society, was subjected to the most violent massacres deportation, leaving behind their ancestral homes and property from 1988-1992. The anti-Armenian pogroms were the culmination of decades-long discrimination, harassment, and persecution. The first anti-Armenian massacre was carried out in the industrial city of Sumgait, not far from the capital city of Baku. Although the official Soviet tally listed 26 victims, according to unofficial sources and eyewitness accounts, the death toll was significantly higher and exceeded several hundreds. During the course of three days, from February 26-29, 1988, Azerbaijani mobs, assisted and encouraged by the country’s authorities, massacred, burned, raped, mutilated and harassed ethnic Armenians whose personal information were provided beforehand.

Armenian homes were looted and destroyed, while the large-scale killing of Armenians were carried out indiscriminately, without regard to age or gender. Following the Sumgait tragedy, the pogroms in Kirovabad (Gandzak), Shamakhi, Shamkhor and other cities resumed in November of 1988, culminating with the heinous pogrom against Armenians in Baku in January 1990, leaving a more than 500 Armenians dead. The Baku Pogrom marked the final exodus of Armenians in Azerbaijan.

The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region is the largest and most influential nonpartisan Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues in pursuit of the Armenian Cause.

FLYONE Armenia’s Yerevan-Moscow regular direct flights kick off

Tatoyan Vazgen

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 16:19, 1 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian airline FLYONE Armenia started operating today the Yerevan-Moscow-Yerevan regular direct flights.

In a statement the company said that the flights will be operated from the Zvartnots International Airport with convenient timetable and affordable prices, twice a week – on Mondays and Fridays.

The ceremony of the launch of the direct flights took place at the Zvartnots International Airport today.

“Today we are launching together the FLYONE Armenia’s regular flights to Moscow. This event is of special importance for us, and the company is planning to increase the frequency and number of flights in the future”, Aram Ananyan, Chairman of the Board of FLYONE Armenia, said during the ceremony.  

General Director of the company Mircea Maleca said in turn: “The resumption of regular, direct flights to the Russian Federation is of special importance for FLYONE Armenia. By overcoming all the obstacles, we can assure now that all our passengers can confidently depart for Moscow, visit their relatives, friends in Russia or just visit for tourism or working purposes”.

All the tickets, but also additional services can be purchased from the website www.flyone.am or through the mobile application, available in the Google App or App Store, also all partner agencies.

FLYONE Armenia (www.flyone.am) started its operations in 2021. On 27 October 2021, the Civil Aviation Authority of Armenia offered us the National Air Operator Certificate, assigning the IATA 3F code, which contains 2 characters and ICAO FIE code- 3 characters.

The airline’s fleet consists of Airbus A320 aircraft, on which we will operate both scheduled and charter flights. Each aircraft has 180 seats and meets all International Air Transport Association (IATA) and EASA safety standards. Also, in pandemic conditions, the aircraft is equipped with HEPA air filters, which remove 99.97% of viruses and bacteria.

FLYONE (www.flyone.eu) was launched in 2016 on the Republic of Moldova market and is currently one of the leaders in the aviation market there. FLYONE has received IOSA certification, the highest safety standard in operational management. As well, it has been ranked multiple times in 2018, 2019 and 2020 in the TOP 10 “Most punctual company” according to the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) category.




US Congressman calls for unconditional release of remaining Armenian POWs and captured civilians

Tatoyan Vazgen

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 10:58, 1 March, 2022

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. US Congressman Adam Schiff issued a statement condemning Azerbaijani attacks on Armenians in Sumgait (1988) and Baku (2000) and ongoing aggression against Armenia and Artsakh, the Armenian National Committee of America reported.

Rep. Schiff’s full statement is below:

“Yesterday, we marked the 34th anniversary of the Sumgait and Baku pogroms. Beginning on February 27, 1988, and for three days following, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians – leaving hundreds of civilians dead and injured and women and girls were raped. Some victims were thrown from windows and burned alive. Tens of thousands were forced to flee.

After two years, it was estimated that only 40,000 of the 250,000 Armenian residents of Baku remained in Azerbaijan. On January 13, 1990, organized Azerbaijani mobs turned on them, too, killing hundreds and injuring many more.

The pogroms came as a direct result of years of vicious, racist anti-Armenian propaganda by Azerbaijani authorities, dehumanizing the Armenian residents of Azerbaijan and laying the groundwork for mass violence. Azerbaijani authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities and deny the government’s role in instigating the attacks.

As we reflect on yesterday’s anniversary, we honor the victims of this ghastly injustice and pledge to speak out against hatred so that history will not repeat itself. But tragically, more than three decades later, that is exactly what has happened. Beginning on September 27, 2020, and over 44 days, Azerbaijani forces once again targeted and murdered innocent Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, and displaced tens of thousands more. Today, Azerbaijani aggression against the people of Armenia and Artsakh continues. Armenian soldiers are still illegally detained and subject to torture while thousands of civilians still live in danger. Religious and cultural Armenian sites that have fallen under Azerbaijani control are under constant threat.

These are the horrific consequences when aggression and hatred grow unchecked – and it is why, whether these crimes against humanity occurred one year, thirty years, or a hundred years ago, we can never allow them to go unrecognized. More than that, it is why the United States must fully step into its role as a defender of democracy and peace around the world. We must not relent in our calls for the safe and unconditional release of the remaining Armenian prisoners of war and captured civilians, for the end of U.S. assistance to the Aliyev regime, and for stronger efforts to support democracy in Armenia and a free, independent Artsakh.

So let us pause to remember those who suffered in the atrocities of the Sumgait and Baku programs. But let us also recommit ourselves and our nation to doing everything we can, today, to bring liberation to our Armenian brothers and sisters abroad, once and for all”.