Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

JP: Can Armenia-Azerbaijan military claims be compared to Israel’s past wars?

Vorskanian Yeghisabet
Jerusalem Post
Oct 7 2020
 
 
Can Armenia-Azerbaijan military claims be compared to Israel’s past wars?
 
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN   OCTOBER 7, 2020 20:24
 
 
The lopsided numbers shows what modern war looks like.
 
 
Azerbaijan and Armenian armed forces have been fighting for over a week and a half, and social media accounts linked to their respective defense ministries are engaged in an information war to make it appear as if the other side is losing heavily.
 
The numbers of tanks, vehicles and weapons each side claims to have destroyed is beginning to outpace some of the numbers on some fronts in the 1967 Six Day War – except with few of the actual gains on the ground to show for it.
  
Azerbaijan’s social media accounts now claim that it has destroyed up to 250 Armenian tanks and armored vehicles. They also say Azerbaijan has destroyed another 150 military vehicles, jeeps or supply trucks and neutralized 270 artillery pieces and multiple rocket launchers.
Baku also asserts it has hit more than 60 air defense systems, including an S-300 system, and smashed eight armories and 11 command and control centers.
The definition of an “air defense system” may be quite broad, considering some are only basic machine-gun emplacements. Since the numbers all seem to neatly end in a zero, it should be assumed they are estimated, or perhaps exaggerated.
Azerbaijan has released much drone footage showing the destruction of some 40 Armenian T-72 tanks, according to reports. This suggests that while the figures may be estimates or for propaganda purposes, there have been many losses on the Armenian side.
As for the Armenians, they claim to have destroyed whole divisions’ worth of Azeri materiel. Some 127 drones have been shot down, as well as 16 helicopters and 17 planes; four larger Smerch rocket launchers have been hit, and 416 Azerbaijan military vehicles have been destroyed.
The numbers also suggest that both sides have lost more than the Syrians and the Jordanians lost in 1967, although they have not yet outpaced the Egyptian front, where hundreds of Egyptian tanks and thousands of vehicles were destroyed or abandoned during fierce fighting in the Sinai peninsula.
Even if they are remotely accurate, the size of the losses illustrates the size and impact of the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh. It also illustrates how information warfare and propaganda spread through the media can make it appear that one side, or the other, has suffered devastating losses.
The number of UAVs, for instance, that Armenia claims to have downed is unprecedented. The number of artillery pieces that Azerbaijan says it has struck and air defense systems taken out is also more than in many past wars.
For instance, Israel’s operation in the Bekaa Valley in 1982, designed to suppress Syrian air defense in Lebanon, hit some 29 surface-to-air missile batteries; but if Baku is to be believed, it has now surpassed that number.
Israel destroyed the batteries in around two hours, but it has taken the Azeris a week or so. However, the use of drones by Azerbaijan – particularly loitering munitions, many of them Israeli made – illustrates the effectiveness of these weapons.
The lopsided numbers, whereby Azerbaijan claims to have destroyed much of Armenia’s air defenses, while Armenia claims to have downed much of Azerbaijan’s drone fleet, portrays the face of modern warfare. It is about using sensors to identify enemy positions, vehicles and targets, while the other side uses radar and electronic means to identify threats.
Both sides then seek a technological overmatch to neutralize the enemy’s platforms.
This can result in extremely lopsided conflicts, like the US waged against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 1991. Once a side gains control of the air and can hunt down enemy tanks and air defenses, the enemy must rely on long-range rockets and other desperate means. Either way, the use of sensors to find and eliminate targets can make large armored forces vulnerable.  
The Azeris and Armenians are now finding out what other countries have learned in past conflicts: no plan survives after contact with an enemy force. Both sides brought different types of forces to the battlefield, but it is not clear whether one side has a major advantage.
Although the Armenians have been pushed back bit by bit, there is still a question when they will feel they have been strained to breaking point on the ground – or if their ability to resist will be enough to wear down Azerbaijan’s forces.
 
 

California Governor comments on attack on Armenian center in San Francisco

Vorskanian Yeghisabet

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 20:47,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 18, ARMENPRESS. Governor of California Gavin Newsom commented on the arson attack on the Armenian center near the St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church of San Francisco in a Twitter post.  

“I’ve experienced so many wonderful, moving moments in this church. Heartbroken to hear of this — but I know this community lives well beyond these physical walls and will continue to provide the hope and faith it does to so many”, the California Governor tweeted.

A building next to an Armenian church in San Francisco’s Laurel Heights was burned overnight Thursday and the church’s leaders believe it was arson. The building has suffered a great loss. It housed an auditorium called Vasbouragan Hall, as well as offices for St. Gregory Armenian Church and other various organizations.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenpress: Armenian PM holding meeting with ministers, provincial governors and MPs

Vorskanian Yeghisabet

Armenian PM holding meeting with ministers, provincial governors and MPs

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 19:36,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. A meeting has kicked off in the headquarters of the Civil Contract Party led by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The meeting is attended by ministers, provincial governors and the ruling My Step faction MPs.

Before the start of the meeting Speaker of Parliament Ararat Mirzoyan told reporters that it’s a regular meeting.

No other details are available about the meeting agenda.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Gross salary fund of Armenia’s employed citizens comprised about 127 billion AMD in July 2020

Vorskanian Yeghisabet

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 10:02, 24 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, ARMENPRESS. The gross salary fund of employed citizens of Armenia amounted to 127 billion 391 million AMD in July 2020, Prime Minister Nikol Pashiyan said on Facebook.

“This is the money paid to the employees, and for which income tax was calculated. The same amount in June 2020 comprised 120 billion 846 million AMD, and in July 2019 – 117 billion 627 million AMD. According to the verified data, if in July 2019 the gross salary was distributed among 606,465 and in June 2020 among 609,302 jobs, in July 2020 the gross salary was distributed among 613,062 jobs. If in July 2019 the average salary per job comprised 193,955 AMD, in June 2020 it was 198,335 AMD, whereas in July 2020 it already comprised 207,795 AMD”, the PM said.

Pashinyan stated that starting from April 2020 the government has adopted a number of anti-crisis measures aimed at keeping the jobs and preventing the decline of salaries. According to him, this official data proves that all these measures were effective. The PM said the aforementioned figures were formed exclusively based on the reports presented by the economic entities.

 

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenian festival returning as drive-thru event

Vorskanian Yeghisabet
MassLive
Aug 30 2020
Today 6:58 AM

By Cori Urban | Special to The Republican

Members of St. Mark Armenian Church in Springfield will continue their more-than-25-year-old tradition of serving traditional Armenian dinners and baked goods, but this year the food will be served in drive-thru style rather than at an in-person festival.

The new Fest-To-Go Drive Thru will allow customers to bring home the same meals and baked goods always offered at the parish’s annual Armenian Festival, but they will procure them from the safety of their cars.

The COVID-19 pandemic is responsible for the change, but church members did not want to cancel their largest fundraiser so decided to shift to the drive-thru model.

Among the reasons for the change rather than cancellation were the financial component and tradition.

“Rather than cancel our festival, we decided that we can hold our fest in a way that is safe for everyone,” said David Jermakian, a St. Mark parishioner and Fest-To-Go organizer/volunteer. “We put on a great event and feel that the community looks forward to it each year, and during these difficult times we hope our food will bring some joy to the community.”

The drive thru will take place on Saturday, Sept. 5, 4 to 7 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 6, noon to 5 p.m., at the church, 2427 Wilbraham Road, Springfield.

Dinners — served with rice pilaf, pita bread and tomato/cucumber salad — feature chicken kebabs and losh kebabs (Armenian beef/lamb burger).

Baked goods will include cheese boreg (ready-to-bake filo dough triangles with cheese filling), choreg (traditional, slightly sweet bread with sprinkled sesame seeds on top), paklava (sweetened layers of filo dough with walnut filling), khadayif (sweetened, shredded filo dough with custard filling — also available by the pound for pre-orders), nazook (rolled pastry with sweet buttery filling), khurabia (tender butter cookies rolled in powdered sugar), katah (slightly sweet bread with sweet buttery filling) and Armenian string cheese (mild, moist braided cheese, smooth with a nutty accent).

“We’re fortunate to have great chefs in our parish who have their specialties that they prepare for the Fest every year, either in their homes or through baking workshops,” Jermakian said. Though baking workshops are not as feasible this year, baked goods still will be prepared in parishioners’ homes. The dinners will be prepared by shifts of parishioners at the church while following social distancing and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

One dollar from each dinner purchased will be donated to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. “During this unprecedented time of COVID-19, we know that many people in our community are experiencing food insecurity, and the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts is helping people in need throughout our region and the need continues to rise,” Jermakian said. “We want to do our part to support an organization that is on the front lines helping individuals and families.”

In addition to the donation to the Food Bank, proceeds from the Fest-To-Go will benefit the ministries of St. Mark Armenian Church.

The church went months with no in-person services, from mid-March through July 26, which has been difficult both spiritually and financially for members. “Not being able to be together with our church family was very hard,” he said, but the church streamed Sunday services on Facebook Live each week, and the pastor provided weekly spiritual talks via Zoom, which kept church members connected.

Following CDC guidelines, St. Mark’s now offers in-person services.

An online ordering system for the Fest-To-Go can be found on the church’s website,

stmarkarmenianchurch.org/2020-aftg-order-form, which is an easy way to read descriptions of each food item, select a pick-up time and pre-pay. Quantities will be limited, and online pre-ordering and pre-pay is recommended by Sept. 3.

A printable order form can be downloaded from the St. Mark website, stmarkarmenianchurch.org, and mailed to the church (2427 Wilbraham Road, Springfield, MA 01129). To place a phone order, leave a message at 413-783-5793.

Though online ordering is encouraged, card, check (made payable to St. Mark Armenian Church) and cash will be accepted for drive-up orders.

The Fest-To-Go will be observing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines; those picking up order are asked to remain in their cars and wear a mask.

For more information, call 413-783-5793 or 413-727-2586.


‘I was too young to become a mum’: Teenage pregnancies in Armenia

Vorskanian Yeghisabet
OC Media
Aug 21 2020

 21 August 2020

By

Armine Avetisyan

The Kanaker-Zeytun maternity hospital in Yerevan. Photo: Yerevan Municipality.

Though the rate of teenage pregnancies in Armenia is declining, it remains substantial. Meanwhile, the stigma of unwanted pregnancy continues to lead teenagers to self-administer abortion medication without medical supervision.

‘I was 15 years old. Those were the best days of my life. My boyfriend and I lived for each other.’ Anna, now 25-years-old, (not her real name) told OC Media. ‘Then I realised I was pregnant.’

‘My boyfriend was 16’, she recalled. ‘Using protection didn’t cross our minds. We were just kids.’

‘One week, my period was late. A neighbour who was studying at the Medical University realised I was pregnant. She bought a pregnancy test for me, which came out positive. Later, my boyfriend and I bought 10 more tests. They were all positive.’

Anna’s experience is not unusual. Even though the number of teenage pregnancies has fallen in recent years — it halved between 2000 and 2015 — teenagers between 15-19 still account for 4% of all pregnancies in the country. 

Worse still, pregnant teenagers also face a harsh social stigma, even when they are victims of rape.

‘There are children who have consensual sex and get pregnant. There are also children who are victims of violence,’ Tatevik Aghabekyan, the head of the Sexual Violence Crisis Centre told OC Media. ‘Children are often afraid to tell their parents about their pregnancies, so they conceal them.’ 

According to Aghabekyan, 90% of underage pregnant women are married. In some villages in Armenia, it is common for girls to marry as adolescents. Armenian law allows children to marry at 16 if the child’s legal guardians consent and the other party to the marriage is at least 18 years old. 

Yet many unwanted pregnancies occur outside of marriage, resulting from both consensual relationships and rape. A lack of adequate support networks and fear of social stigma leads many teenage girls to self-administer abortion medication without proper medical supervision — sometimes with severe consequences. 

The budding pregnancy terrified Anna and her boyfriend. Her neighbour helped her procure and administer abortion pills. ‘We didn’t go to the doctor. I was terrified by the thought that my family or acquaintances would find out.’

‘I took abortion pills. That day, I lost so much blood that I thought there wouldn’t be one drop of blood left in me. My friend stayed with me but I didn’t know where my boyfriend was. A week later, he came to see me and said we should separate.’

Today, Anna has been married for three years and now wants a child, but the abortion pills severely impacted her reproductive system. ‘Those drugs wrecked my body. I am going through a difficult phase of fertility treatment. I am terrified by the thought of not being able to become a mother.’

Obstetrician and gynaecologist Tatev Davtyan told OC Media that Armenian women should be conscious of the dangers of self-administering abortion medication. ‘Every woman should understand that any pregnancy can be the last one. It doesn’t matter whether it was the first or the third.’

‘Women should not play with their health’, she added, recalling numerous cases of women who had attempted to self-administer abortions through medication, and ending up in the hospital. 

Davtyan said she had not personally treated any underage pregnant women at her practice. She said the youngest ones who visit her are 18 years old, including women who became pregnant from extramarital affairs and rush to terminate their pregnancies.

‘They come here scared. They don’t tell their parents about it.’

Many teenage pregnancies are the result of the rape of children by adults, Tatevik Aghabekyan, the head of the Sexual Violence Crisis Centre, told OC Media, adding that far too often children remain silent. 

‘Children blame themselves for what has happened’, she said. ‘They believe that no matter what they say, society will either blame the child or her parents, so they keep silent about what they have suffered.’

According to Aghabekyan, it is of the utmost importance for society not to isolate these children and to help them return to normal life.

In 2018, Aghabekyan’s centre supported four teenage girls who were pregnant, including a girl whose mother tried to keep her away from medical and psychological professionals with Aghabekyan only permitted to speak to the girl in the hospital.

‘With all four of these children, there was one common thread: none realised what had happened to them. Even the growing belly and pains were not associated with pregnancy. They were children who had not recieved proper sex education and were unaware of what was happening to them.’

In 2019, the Sexual Violence Crisis Centre dealt with a shocking case — a 13-year-old girl with an intellectual disability who gave birth that summer. 

Aghabekyan said the 13-year-old mother did not realise she had become a parent, though she hugged her baby at the hospital.

‘She still calls her baby a doll. In her imagination it’s a doll. She always repeats, “When I earn money, I will take my doll home.”’

By Armine Avetisyan

Armine Avetisyan is a print and broadcast journalist from Armenia who has covered social and political issues in the country since 2007. She holds a Master’s Degree from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA).


Armenia reports 288 new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours

Vorskanian Yeghisabet

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 11:05, 5 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 5, ARMENPRESS. 288 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the last 24 hours, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Armenia said. The total cumulative number of confirmed cases has reached 39586, with 30850 recoveries.

478 people recovered from the disease over the past day.

2 people died, raising the death toll to 770.

This number doesn’t include the deaths of 228 other individuals infected with the virus who died from other pre-existing conditions, according to authorities.

The latest fatalities both had underlying health conditions.

1848 tests were done over the past 24 hours. The number of the total tests is 170012.

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenia appoints new Ambassador to Belgium, EU

Vorskanian Yeghisabet

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 13:45, 4 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 4, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian formalized PM Nikol Pashinyan’s recommendation and appointed Anna Aghajanyan to replace Tatul Margarian as Armenia’s Ambassador to Belgium and Head of the Permanent Mission to the European Union, the President’s Office said.

Margarian, who was concurrently covering Luxembourg, was dismissed from this position as well.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Israel revolutionized Azerbaijan’s drone arsenal. Are the weapons working?

Vorskanian Yeghisabet
Jerusalem Post
July 21 2020
 
 
 
 
 
Drones have played a major role in the recent clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
 
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN   JULY 21, 2020 20:26
 
Armenia held an exhibition on Tuesday. It wasn’t a normal kind of exhibition though. It was devoted to pieces of drones that Armenia says it shot down or captured from Azerbaijan during the recent conflict.
Among the items were a plethora of drones, many of which social-media users identified as Israeli. Drones have played a major role in the recent clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia. They have been used to help Azerbaijan target Armenian positions, and some have crashed on both sides. 
 
However, in the shadowy world of drones and defense-company exports, tracking where the drones came from and how many were downed is a complex task.
 
This isn’t the first time Armenia has said it found Israeli drones being used by Azerbaijan. In 2016, a ThunderB drone crashed or was shot down in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to the Flight Global website. What is new is that photos of drones being shot down or used in operations have been published almost daily since clashes began on July 12.
 
Azerbaijan has used UAVs to document its operations, showing off video of attacks on Armenian positions through video links from drones hovering overhead. This means Baku has integrated drones deep into its armed forces.
 
Armenia’s display of destroyed Azerbaijani drones on July 21 is a message to Baku and to Israel that the drones keep crashing. At least that’s what it looks like on the surface. Rob Lee, a former US marine who says on his Twitter bio that he is a PhD student at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, has documented the drone conflict over Armenia and Azerbaijan.
 
“The Armenian Ministry of Defense showed off some of the Azerbaijani UAVs and loitering munitions that crashed or were downed during the conflict including the Israeli-made ThunderB, Orbiter 3 and SkyStriker,” he wrote Tuesday. The photos seem to show that several intact drones were captured, and numerous pieces of drones, perhaps after being shot down, were found.
 
 But there is a problem with Armenia’s display. It appears some of the drones have been used before in various displays dating back to 2016 and 2012. In the murky world of drone sales and claims of shoot-downs, it may be that the supposed upending of Azerbaijan’s drone force was not all it appears.
Let’s start with what we know. The most recent edition of the Drone Databook that was compiled by Bard College’s Center for the Study of the Drone says Azerbaijan has eight different types of drones, all acquired from Israel. These include the Aerostar, Orbiter 1K and Orbiter 3 from Aeronautics.
The Orbiter 1K is what is known as a “loitering munition,” or kamikaze drone. The drone behaves like a drone, hovering around, until it finds a target and then slams into it like a cruise missile. In February 2019, Aeronautics reportedly completed new sales to Azerbaijan. The country has a hunger for Israeli kamikaze-style drones. The Washington Post reported in 2016 that it used an IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries) Harop against Armenians as well. Armenia has complained about the 2016 incident.
According to the Drone Databook, the Harop arrived in Azerbaijan in 2011 along with others purchased by Baku. These included the Elbit Systems Hermes 450 and Orbiter 1K acquired the same year. That means that as far back as 2011, Azerbaijan was trying to revolutionize its drone arsenal.
Using drones in targeted killings or armed attacks is a relatively new phenomenon. The US rapidly increased its use of armed drones during the global war on terrorism. By 2011, only a handful of countries had armed drones, and small Azerbaijan was one of them. By 2016, the country had acquired the Orbiter 3 and the large Heron TP for surveillance. In 2018, it also procured Israel’s Hermes 900 and SkyStriker, according to the book. The SkyStriker sale, reported in January 2019 by the Azeri Defence website, took Baku’s drone arsenal to the next level.
The Drone Databook provides only a snapshot of the number of drones Azerbaijan has acquired. It claims the country has 100 SkyStrikers and 50 Harops, while it had a handful of larger surveillance drones like the Hermes 900 and 450. Azerbaijan also acquired licenses to make two types of Aeronautics drones locally through its Azad Systems.
This means the overall amount cannot be determined. Some of them were also lost in battle. Armenian forces claimed to have downed at least 22 by 2018. Now that list is apparently larger.
Elbit Systems says in an online document that the SkyStriker can hover over a target for up to two hours with a 5-kg. warhead and has a range of 20 km. Flight Global says the Orbiter 1K can fly for several hours with a small 1- to 2-kg. warhead. The Harop, by contrast, can fly much further with a warhead of around 15 kg.
Armenian sources have published numerous photos online since July 12, showing what they claim are downed Israeli drones. A SkyStriker was shown upside down in the dirt on July 20, and another alleged SkyStriker was shown with two men posing next to it on July 17. An Orbiter 3 was found in a grassy field on July 18.
Drone footage was used by both sides, but Azerbaijan’s drone footage is much clearer than Armenia’s. Armenia uses locally made drones and doesn’t appear to have the same level of technology as Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan says it shot down at least one Armenian drone on July 16.
According to Lee’s analysis of Azerbaijani videos of attacks on Armenian targets, there are other Israeli weapons being used. A July 15 video appears to show a SPIKE NLOS from Israel’s Rafael, he wrote. He has identified several videos that may be from NLOS missiles. Most of these strikes were on July 15. Azerbaijan’s use of the SPIKE family of missiles dates back to at least 2016, when Azeri media reported its use.
Rafael makes a large number of SPIKE missiles that are used by 33 countries. It says 30,000 missiles have been sold and 5,000 fired, but it does not reveal details about all customers and does not comment on Azerbaijan. The NLOS has a range of 30 km. and is a non-line-of-sight missile. Rafael also makes the SPIKE ER2, or extended-range missile, which has a range of 10 km.
The outcome of the clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia have not been decisive, but tensions appear to be rising. Both Russia and Turkey are now playing a role, as well as Iran, which has offered to mediate. These large countries all are involved in discussions about Syria as well. That means the conflict in the Caucuses could have larger implications. Turkey has said it wants to supply Azerbaijan with more weapons, including its own Bayraktar drones. Russia could replenish Armenia’s arms.
Israel has found itself in the middle of controversy over Caucuses conflicts before. Pro-Russian groups in Georgia, backed by Russian MiG-29s, shot down Israeli-made Hermes 450 drones, according to a UN report in 2008.
Russia learned from Georgia’s use of drones that it needed more drones of its own and purchased 10 IAI Searcher MK II drones in 2015, eventually manufacturing them as its own “Forpost” UAV, according to Russian media. Defense24 media reported in 2016 that Russia would stop producing the drones with an Israeli license due to US pressure.
But Russia appears to have kept making drones anyway, some based on Israeli models. In 2019, Russian media reported that Russia would stop using the former Israeli payloads, basically the optics, and use its own.
Israel’s influence over the use of drones in conflicts is massive, dating back to the 1970s. It now appears to overshadow the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The question social-media analysts are asking is whether Armenia is telling the whole story about drones it allegedly shot down or that crashed and whether the Israeli drones are successful.
Drones crash for numerous reasons, and loitering munitions are supposed to crash as part of their target sequence; they may even be redirected at the last minute if a target changes for some reason. Drones also malfunction for other reasons, such as losing communications. Drones can be shot down, but air-defense systems have found it increasingly complex to shoot down smaller and slower drones.
While a variety of systems exist to shoot them down, it’s not clear if Armenia has these systems. Some claims of drones being shot down also appear, on closer inspection, to be largely mythical stories. For instance, in Libya, dozens of drone shoot-downs have been claimed, whereas the overall number, according to Drone Wars UK, is only around 14 during the months of April and May.
Because Israeli authorities do not comment on Azerbaijan’s alleged use of Israeli drones, and the companies do not comment, it is difficult to judge with any transparency how effective Baku’s use of drones has been and how effective Armenia has been at shooting them down. The footage alone, however, shows that Azerbaijan was effective in using them to help with artillery targeting and also to publish the video as part of information warfare against Armenia to showcase Azerbaijan’s abilities.