Author: Vanyan Gary

Dutch coalition MPs call for EU weapons embargo against Turkey

Vanyan Gary
Dutch News, The Netherlands
Nov 11 2020

MPs from three of the four coalition parties want foreign minister Stef Blok to put pressure on Europe to establish a weapons embargo against Nato coalition partner Turkey, broadcaster NOS said.
MPs say the embargo would be a punishment for Turkey’s involvement in the recent violence between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Nagorno Karabakh region. MPs are also concerned that Turkey could use European weapons in Libya and in eastern parts of the Mediterranean area, broadcaster NOS said.
D66, CDA and ChristenUnie MPs have submitted a motion calling for a weapons embargo, which will be discussed during Wednesday’s foreign affairs ministry budget debate.
‘If (Turkish president Recep Tayyip) Erdogan encourages military conflict rather than stability, we have to be clear: no more weapons should be sent to Turkey as long as this continues,’ D66 MP Sjoerd Sjoerdsma said.


Children of Armenia Fund continues to invest in nation’s future

Vanyan Gary
Fox 11
Nov 17 2020
By Araksya Karapetyan

LOS ANGELES – As the number of displaced families from Artsakh increases dramatically, many programs and organizations are shifting their focus to help including the Children of Armenia Fund. 

Currently, people in Armenia are dealing with a global pandemic and the aftermath of war.

COAF is providing shelter and humanitarian assistance to the many families who have nowhere to go.

Children of Armenia Fund was founded in 2004 to provide children and their families in the rural communities of Armenia with opportunities to reach their full potential.

Haig Boyadjian is the Senior Director of Development and has been with COAF for eight years.

“What we do is very comprehensive and holistic. We do infrastructure improvements in about 64 villages throughout Armenia, in addition to that, we have programs in education, health care, social services and economic development,” said Boyadjian.

Boyadjian was born and raised in Los Angeles and spent half the year living in Armenia.

In fact, he was supposed to be in Armenia right now, but because of what has transpired since September 27, he is still in Southern California. “Because of Covid and the conflict, it is a complete disaster zone in Armenia right now,” Boyadjian explained. 

Since 2018, COAF’S Smart Center in the Northern Armenia Lori Region has offered free programs and transportation for children in surrounding villages with cutting edge programs and afterschool programs. But everything, for the time being, has been shut down.

And now, because of the war and the aftermath, COAF has shifted to crisis mode.

“We have been settling these displaced people throughout our villages, providing host families and displaced people with humanitarian supplies and things like that just to get them acclimated,” said Boyadjian.

RELATED: Click here for more coverage of the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Meanwhile, he has been mourning the loss of COAF students.

“I have seen a lot of these children in our villages grow up. What’s heartbreaking for me is we’ve lost a total of nine kids from our villages who happen to be serving in the military when the attack started,” he said. 

One young man he can’t forget is 18-year-old Vahe Mkrtchyan from the small village of Lernagogh. He was described as someone full of promise. 

“Vahe was a shining example of our organization’s mission to give these children opportunities to advance themselves and he would run with them. Whatever extracurricular club we would put in, he would enroll in each one and would excel, whether it was debate or English language– name it he did it,” Boyadjian recalled.

Vahe has a disabled younger brother and Boyadjian remembered how close the two brothers were.

“Vahe was Emin’s rock — the compassion that you saw when he interacted with his younger brother was amazing,” said Boyadjian.

“Vahe was on the course of pursuing his dreams and I don’t want to say it’s in vain because he died protecting and serving his homeland, but to see an 18-year-old’s life come to a stop like that is heartbreaking,” said Boyadjian. 

Right now COAF’S mission is to focus on helping those who need it the most and to continue to focus on the future.

“We need to still continue with these programs and not neglect these kids. They are part of the new generation of Armenia, part of the nation-building progress, we need to continue on,” said Boyadjian.

COAF’s Moving Mountains fundraiser will be held on December 5 and will be televised and virtual this year.

Sarkissian, His Holiness Garegin II call on to declare Nov. 22 remembrance day of fallen heroes

Vanyan Gary

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 14:18, 13 November, 2020

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian met today with His Holiness Garegin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

President Sarkissian and His Holiness Garegin II addressed a call to declare next Sunday – November 22, a day of remembering all heroes fallen for the defense of the Homeland and hold a memorial service in all Armenian churches worldwide.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Russian peacekeeping mission in Karabakh to involve helicopter gunships

Vanyan Gary

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 10:23,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Russian Aerospace Forces Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters will be involved in the peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Eight Mi-8 and Mi-24 gunships have been delivered to an airfield in Yerevan.

The Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno Karabakh will comprise 1,960 military personnel with small arms, 90 armored personnel carriers, 380 vehicles and other equipment. Hundreds of the troops have already moved to the area of operation.

Editing by Stepan Kocharyan

CivilNet: Will Karabakh’s Dadivank remain under Armenian control?

Vanyan Gary
CIVILNET.AM

06:26

Sarhat Petrosyan, former chairman of Armenia’s State Committee of Real Estate Cadastre, says that his mapping analysis shows that Karabakh’s Dadivank Monastery remains in the territory under the control of Armenian or Russian forces.

Built between the 9th and 13th centuries and located in the Karvachar district of Karabakh, Dadivank Monastery is an important religious site for Armenians but is due to be handed to Azerbaijan per a ceasefire agreement signed by Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Russian leaders.

“We did something very simple. We embedded the map published by the General Staff of the Russian Federation onto Google Maps. This shows that Dadivank and Tigranakert remain in the territory of the Armenian (or Russian) forces,” Petrosyan wrote.

He told CIVILNET that it has been two or three days that people are discussing various unclear terms in the agreement. Others have also been urging him to go with them to the monastery and help transfer parts of it to Armenia.

Petrsoyan admits that his analysis is a preliminary calculation and that it needs more clarity and a more accurate installation.

“Let the appropriate and capable people and agencies respond. We will correct if there is more precise data,” he says.

Then he points to the next problem. The Amaras Monastery, located in Khojavend district, is 5 km out of Armenian or Russian controlled territory.

“In the case of normal negotiations, in the next few days, it is possible to try (perhaps by conceding another equivalent area) to bring back the 4th century Amaras Monastery,” Petrosyan says.

In a November 11 interview, Father Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, the pastor of the Karvachar region and the abbot of Dadivank, said, “We are not giving up Dadivank. Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan called me and said, ‘Do not touch Dadivank, do not touch the crosses, we will not give up Dadivank.’”

On the same day,  Karabakh President press secretary Vahram Poghosyan wrote that the issues of territorial concessions and the terms announced in that context had not been discussed with the authorities yet. He appealed to the residents of various districts, asking not to be in a hurry to transfer out properties.

4 Dutch political parties want EU to impose arms embargo on Turkey

Vanyan Gary

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 14:27,

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Four Dutch political parties – the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, Democrats 66, Christian Democratic Appeal and the Christian Union, want the European Union to enforce an arms embargo against Turkey, as a punitive measure on Ankara for its involvement in different conflicts in the region, including in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, NOS reports.

Today the sides submitted a motion on that during the debate of the budget of the foreign ministry.

“The Ankara government violates the international law, engaging in the armed conflicts in Libya and the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey is searching for oil there in a place which belongs to Greece”, the article says.

According to the coalition partners, the Cabinet should work on arms embargo within the EU context.

“It’s time for decisive measures”, Christian Union MP Joël Voordewind said, informing that Turkey has sent Syrian jihadists to Azerbaijan to fight against Nagorno Karabakh.

Sjoerd Sjoerdsma from the Democrats 66 said: “If Erdogan foments military conflict instead of promoting stability, we must draw a clear line: no more weapons to Turkey as long as this continues.”

“It is bad that we have to, but we want the EU to impose an arms embargo on our NATO ally. We must protect innocent civilians”, Martijn van Helvert from CDA said.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Azerbaijan fires several long-range cluster missiles at Stepanakert after midnight

Vanyan Gary

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 09:04, 9 November, 2020

STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Stepanakert City was again bombarded by Azerbaijani forces overnight November 8-9, the State Service of Emergency Situations of Artsakh said.

The situation in other towns and cities was “relatively calm”, it said.

“After midnight the [Azerbaijani forces] fired several long-range cluster missiles at Stepanakert, damaging civilian infrastructures. There are no victims in the capital city. The night proceeded relatively calm in other settlements of Artsakh,” the State Service of Emergency Situations said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Putin: Russian peacekeepers headed for Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijan & Armenia sign armistice

Vanyan Gary
RT – Russia Today
Nov 9 2020
9 Nov, 2020 22:42 


Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that Baku and Yerevan have struck a deal to end the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, and that Russian peacekeepers will be deployed along the line of contact.

The agreement will create conditions for a long-term settlement of the crisis in the interests of both peoples, Putin said shortly after midnight Moscow time on Tuesday (22:30 GMT Monday), confirming reports of the armistice Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan described as “painful” but necessary.

Also on rt.com War over? Armenia’s Pashinyan says signed declaration with Russia’s Putin & Azerbaijan’s Aliyev to END Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

According to the text of the agreement that appeared in Russian media around midnight Moscow time – when the armistice was to take effect – Russia will deploy almost 2,000 peacekeepers along the line of contact and the “Lachin corridor,” the road connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia proper.

These peacekeepers will move in as the Armenian armed forces withdraw, and will stay for five years, according to the draft. An automatic five-year extension of their mandate is envisioned, unless any of the parties objects six months before its expiration.

Neither Armenian nor Azerbaijani forces are supposed to advance beyond their current positions. This leaves the remaining territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region somewhat surrounded, with only a 5-kilometer-wide corridor to Armenia proper, under protection of the Russian peacekeepers.

A new road is supposed to be built through the Lachin area over the next three years, to connect Armenia with Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. In parallel, another road will be built through Armenia to connect Azerbaijan with its enclave of Nakhichevan in the southwest. Until then, Russian border troops will supervise the existing road traffic through Armenia to Nakhichevan.

Also on rt.com Azerbaijan & Armenia at war: What you need to know about bloody conflict over long-disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh (MAP)

The agreement also provides for the exchange of prisoners and bodies of the dead, and the return of “all refugees and internally displaced persons” in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas, to be supervised by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In theory, this would mean the return of both ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis displaced by the conflict since 1991, though it is unclear how that will function in practice.

Nagorno-Karabakh was an ethnic Armenian enclave within the borders of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, but seceded from Baku in 1991 as the Soviet Union began to collapse. A 1994 armistice froze the conflict with ethnic Armenian forces in control of most of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as surrounding territory of Azerbaijan proper. 

Renewed clashes over the region began in late September, and continued despite multiple ceasefires arranged by Moscow, and even one mediated by the US. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Azerbaijan received active support from NATO member Turkey, while Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance with Russia.


Armenian FM briefs Canadian counterpart on situation in Nagorno Karabakh

Vanyan Gary
Public Radio of Armenia
Nov 6 2020

Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan briefed his Canadian counterpart François-Philippe Champagne on the situation in Nagorno Karabakh.

“Today civilians in Stepanakert and Shushi were again under heavy shelling. Foreign terrorists brought over by Turkey for Azerbaijan fight against Artsakh. Much appreciate support and action of our friends,” FM Mnatsakanyn wrote on Twitter after the phone conversation.

François-Philippe Champagne said, in turn, stressed the need for a ceasefire in Nagorno Karabakh, and added that “allowing humanitarian assistance is a priority.”

“We’re working with allies to stop foreign interference and call on external forces to stay out of the conflict to end civilian casualties,” the Canadian Foreign Minister said.

Armenia, Artsakh Rights Defenders Report on Use of WMDs by Azerbaijan

Vanyan Gary

November 6,  2020



A report was issued detailing Azerbaijan’s use of weapons of mass destruction against Artsakh

The Human Rights Defenders of Armenia and Artsakh have published a report on the use of incendiary weapons of mass destruction containing chemicals that are being used against Artsakh by the Azerbaijani armed forces, Armen Tatoyan, Armenia’s Human Rights defender said on Friday.

The report is based on evidence collected on the ground and include photos of civilians injuries, maps, illustrations and data. Specific findings are based on studies from the Mkhitar Hearts Military Medicine School of the Yerevan State Medical University.

Through detailed analysis, the report demonstrated the use of chemical agents by Azerbaijan against civilians and forests in Artsakh, causing severe long-term damage to the peaceful population and the environment, specifically impacting the areas of Nngi, Sghnakh, Aknaghbyur, Taghavard, Togh, Karin Tak.

The report warns of the long-term effects of the damage to the life and health of the civilian population.

The joint fact-finding missions of the two Human Rights Defenders revealed that overall approximately 1,815 hectares (4,485 acres) of forest area was damaged almost in all regions of Artsakh.

Considering the specificities of the ammunition, this number may increase even if its use is discontinued.

Moreover, it was also reported that in civilian communities of Nngi, Taghavard, Aknaghbyur, the damage to important infrastructure, such as gas lines, has also impacted the civilian population.

The current ad hoc report established the following facts, irrespective from the concrete type of the chemical element of the used ammunition:

  1. the used ammunition has nature of massive destruction;
  2. ammunitions contain chemical elements;
  3. are used towards forests, causing mass fires and long-term severe damage to environment;
  4. according to expert assessments, the fire, caused by this type of weapon is not stopped even with the extinguishing materials or water;
  5. the forests where these ammunitions were used, are located close to the civilian communities;
  6. according to the fact-finding activities, civilians, who were probably damaged from the use of the ammunition, are hiding from attacks of Azerbaijani military forces in those forests;
  7. the use of this ammunition against civilian objects is prohibited by the international law and may entail to war crime.