09:42,
YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan has held a meeting with United States Major General Keith Phillips and Mr. Patrick Prior from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Grigoryan and the Pentagon representatives discussed “the regional and extraregional security situation” and also “attached importance to the Armenia-U.S. cooperation in the security sector,” Grigoryan’s office said in a readout.
Azerbaijanis call it the “Homeland War”. The Second Karabakh War, which lasted 44 days and was supported by the Turkish military intelligence, has fundamentally changed many things in the region. Azerbaijan regained its homeland territories while Türkiye’s influence in the Caucasus region increased. Iran suffered a strategic setback. Armenia was forced to return the lands it unjustly seized 30 years ago. The Western world could not intervene in this development that happened outside its control and was left out of the game.
A short parenthesis… Last week, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia met at the White House. In the coming days, Azerbaijani President Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan will meet in Brussels. The West is trying to get involved in the game by preparing the ground for such meetings.
Closing the parenthesis, the Second Karabakh War was also the first conventional warfare in which Turkish drones were used, as they were previously tested in Syria and Libya. The success of the UCAVs has led to the rewriting of the war doctrine.
Perhaps the most important impact of the Karabakh War was the favorable ground it created for regional peace. Those who expected more violence after the war were wrong. Ankara and Baku put forward a peace project that included Armenia to consolidate their gains and prevent further conflicts. They forced Armenia to embrace peace with a win-win approach. In this context, a normalization process was initiated between Ankara and Yerevan.
However, things are not going exactly as planned. While peace talks continue, reports of conflict occasionally come from the Azerbaijan-Armenia border. For example, three Azerbaijani soldiers lost their lives in a recent hot conflict.
The Nemesis Monument opened in Yerevan was an attempt to dynamite the fragile process. The monument is dedicated to Armenian assassins who targeted Turkish political and military figures. This was a malicious, provocative, and purposeful attempt.
As soon as Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu received the news of the opening of the monument, he activated the sanction card. “We will not allow flights from Armenia to third countries, including VIP flights,” he said.
What does this mean?
“In flights to Armenia from third countries, Turkish airspace will not be used. Planes taking off from Yerevan and heading to, for example, a European country, will have to find a longer and more costly route. This includes VIP flights as well.
However, Ankara’s reaction will not be limited to this. It is stated that more effective steps will be taken if the Armenian administration does not prevent such provocative actions. With this initial move, Ankara is sending the message, “If you don’t come to your senses, we will also block direct flights.” Saying “if provocative actions continue, the normalization process will end.”
So, did Yerevan receive this message? The first statement on the issue came from Pashinyan. Saying that the monument was opened by civil society organizations, Pashinyan used the _expression_, “The government did not make this decision. It was a wrong decision, and its implementation was also wrong.” Armenian Parliament Speaker Simonyan also said, “The monument is not a manifestation of Armenia’s foreign policy.”
It is not expected that Yerevan will remove the monument from its place due to domestic political reasons. However, it is predicted that Pashinyan and his team will be more sensitive to such provocations that could affect the normalization process in the future. As one source put it, “The stone we threw reached its target.”
ANKARA DOES NOT ACCEPT PRECONDITIONS
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu was in Moscow the day before yesterday as part of normalization talks with Syria. Türkiye, Russia, Iran, and Syria’s intelligence chiefs, as well as Defense Ministers, came together in a quadrilateral meeting to discuss normalization opportunities.
The Turkish delegation had made comprehensive preparations before going to Moscow. A message was given to the Syrian regime and other parties, “Let’s cooperate on terrorism, terrorism is a common enemy.” The importance of stability and the political process for Syrians to return to their country was emphasized at the meeting. Since the first meeting, the Syrian regime has continued to insist on “withdrawing Turkish troops from Syria.” As I have written before, Ankara cannot and will not accept this while the terrorist threat continues. Türkiye does not demand a precondition in this regard. It also strongly expresses its support for Syria’s territorial integrity.
The concrete result of the meeting was a decision to prepare a roadmap for the continuation of negotiations. The parties will work on the roadmap and present it to the leaders. This is a new stage in the normalization process. But there is still a long way to go.”
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/columns/yahya-bostan/armenia-got-the-message-ankaras-warning-sends-a-clear-signal-to-yerevan-3664242
11:30,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on May 11 that by launching a new aggression Azerbaijan wants to annul the progress recorded in Washington and disrupt the planned negotiations in Brussels and Chisinau on May 14 and June 1 respectively.
“Today, around 06:00, units of the Azerbaijani armed forces launched intense artillery gunfire at military positions deployed in the direction of Sotk settlement of Gegharkunik Province, Republic of Armenia, striking the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. The intensity of the active artillery bombardment somewhat decreased after the adequate and effective countermeasures by the Armenian army. There are four wounded on our side, whom I wish speedy recovery,” PM Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.
Pashinyan said that this provocation, along with other actions by Azerbaijan, seeks to annul the progress reached during the foreign ministerial talks on May 1-4 in the United States.
“Today’s provocation also seeks to disrupt the trilateral format talks in Brussels on Sunday, as well as the five-sided talks in Chisinau planned for June 1. Experience shows that Azerbaijan needs the negotiations process only for getting an argument for escalation and war, while escalations are used exclusively for nullifying any progress achieved in the talks. This is what’s happening now,” the PM added.
PM Pashinyan also said that the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry’s May 10 statements accusing the Armenian army of violating the ceasefire are false.
“They fabricate such information for escalating the situation. If escalation is not what Azerbaijan seeks, any local incident can be swiftly resolved through achieving a preventative agreement on clarifying and exchanging information through existing communications. No such thing happened yesterday for one simple reason, because there was no incident and the Azerbaijani disinformation machine fabricated this story with a past date for escalating the situation. While the main goal of escalating the situation is to nullify and negotiations progress and disrupt the course of future negotiations,” Pashinyan said.
New checkpoint installed by Azerbaijan on the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia shows the EU must act
The Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the world, has been blocked by self-proclaimed and Baku-supported activists. This is despite a ruling by the International Court of Justice this year ordering Azerbaijan to “ensure unimpeded movement”. Similar calls have been made by states and international institutions, including the latest resolution by the EU Parliament.
Currently, only a very limited amount of food and medication is arriving in Nagorno-Karabakh through Russian peacekeepers, as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross – the only international organisation in the region. Food rationing has been introduced, with prices for basic supplies and food skyrocketing. Troubling reports also indicate children are having to take adult medication due to a lack of supplies. More than 860 businesses have suspended their activities and more than 50% of private sector employees have lost their jobs. Educational institutions are working with interruptions or have had to close. There are electricity blackouts as Azerbaijan disrupts the supply of natural gas and electricity.
The situation leaves little doubt that Baku is determined to create impossible living conditions for the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians.
And now Baku has effectively taken control of the road from Russian peacekeepers by installing a checkpoint on the corridor earlier this week. Baku has been calling for it for months, alleging – among other things – that Armenia is using the road to illegally transfer military forces to Nagorno-Karabakh. In contrast, a recent report by the International Crisis Group found Armenia withdrew all its forces after the 2020 war. This latest development once again demonstrates Russia’s inability to fulfill its peacekeeping mandate under the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement.
“There is one condition for them to live comfortably on an area of 29,000 square kilometers – they must accept our conditions,” Azerbaijan’s president Aliyev stated in his recent speech talking about Armenia.
In November, Aliyev made explicit threats to use force against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, stating if they did not meet his country’s demands “they will see our fist again”. As stated in a March 2022 European Parliament resolution, Azerbaijani officials are continuing their “systematic, state-level policy of Armenophobia, historical revisionism and hatred towards Armenians.” This creates risks for ethnic Armenians residing in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Encouraged by impunity, Azerbaijan has also resorted to provocations against Armenia itself. Azerbaijan’s tactics of gradually pushing into Armenian territory have already resulted in the occupation of 215 square kilometres near the border, threatening local populations’ security. At the inauguration of the “Great Return to Western Azerbaijan” initiative, which is an irredentist concept mostly to refer to the territory of Armenia, president Aliyev declared: “Present-day Armenia is our land.”
Azerbaijan uses these attacks to pressure Armenia to provide a land connection to Nakhichevan, an Azerbaijani exclave west of Armenia, at the expense of Armenia’s sovereign territory. Meanwhile, Armenia has agreed on many occasions to provide overland safe connection between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan across its territory.
In a welcome development and to help stabilise the situation on the border, in January 2023 the European Union deployed the EU Mission in Armenia (EUMA), a monitoring mission tasked with observing the situation at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. The mission operates on the Armenian side of the border, given that Baku refuses to collaborate. EUMA was welcomed by Armenians, however its mere presence does not prevent a new large-scale military attack by Azerbaijan.
Experts warn of a growing risk of a significant military escalation, leading to possible crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. The power vacuum associated with Russia’s war in Ukraine creates an additional layer of vulnerability risking Armenia’s fragile democracy, while sending a message that the use of force can go unpunished. This would certainly benefit Russia, which is trying to undermine Armenia’s democracy.
In the light of considerable power imbalance between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the EU must use its leverage against both and step into more active mediation. The crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh requires direct talks between Baku and Stepanakert under an international mechanism to ensure Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians’ rights and security. In the face of ongoing threats, it is obvious the population there cannot live under the rule of Azerbaijan’s regime. It is critical the newly set-up checkpoint is withdrawn.
The UN has done little to date. In a recent letter to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a group of Armenian NGOs have requested an urgent mission to Nagorno-Karabakh – to the Lachin corridor as well as to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. In contrast to the EUMA, such a mission would have an explicit human rights mandate and provide independent reporting.
Without proper and urgent international attention and intervention, we will be witnessing a major human rights emergency that can be prevented.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/nagorno-karabakh-eu-human-rights-armenia-azerbaijan/
Armenian officials have urged F1 to ‘raise a voice of protest’ against Azerbaijan’s ‘ethnic cleansing policy’ in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been ongoing since 1988 with a series of wars and periods of ‘low-intensity conflict’.
The Nagorno-Karabakh region is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, although some territory is controlled by the breakaway Republic of Artsakh.
In recent years, the Armenian population has been expelled from the Azerbaijan-controlled area.
In a strongly worded statement released on Thursday, Armenian officials said: “The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia calls on the organisers of the “2023 Formula 1 Grand Prix” European tournament and the international sports community to raise a voice of protest regarding the ethnic cleansing policy of the Azerbaijani authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The Ministry draws the attention of the sports community to the fact that since December 12, 2022, the Republic of Azerbaijan has illegally blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to both Armenia and the world, creating an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“On February 22, 2023, the United Nations International Court of Justice satisfied Armenia’s claim, obliging Azerbaijan to open the Lachin Corridor immediately.
“To this day, Azerbaijan has not only failed to comply with the court’s decision but has also cut off gas and electricity supplies.
“On April 23, the Azerbaijani authorities set up an illegal checkpoint on the humanitarian corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, taking 120,000 Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh hostage.
“With this policy, the Azerbaijani authorities are trying to ethnically cleanse the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing them to leave their native land.
“The organisation of the “2023 Formula 1 Grand Prix” European tournament in Baku aims to cover up the policy of extermination of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“We call on the organisers and participants of the “2023 Formula 1 Grand Prix” not to be part of the cover-up of the policy of ethnic cleansing.”
F1 and the FIA have been contacted by GPFans for comment on the Armenian statement.
https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/106355/armenia-f1-condemn-azerbaijan-grand-prix-ethnic-cleansing-policy/
France’s Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna began a visit to Azerbaijan on Wednesday to hold talks with longtime leader Ilham Aliyev on easing tensions with Baku’s arch-foe and Caucasus neighbor Armenia.
Baku and Yerevan have been locked for decades in a territorial conflict over Azerbaijan’s Armenian-majority region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Colonna’s trip comes as both Western nations and Russia — which has traditionally mediated the conflict — accused Azerbaijan of violating the Moscow-brokered ceasefire that ended a 2020 war with Armenia.
Tensions flared again this week, with Baku setting up a checkpoint on the only land link between Armenia and Karabakh.
Colonna is due to hold talks with Aliyev — who became president after his father’s death in 2003 — and her Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.
France has moved to make efforts to mediate the conflict in recent months, with Russia distracted by its Ukraine offensive.
A French diplomatic source said the visit was important but was taking place in a “tense” context, describing relations with Baku as “difficult in recent months.”
After visiting Baku, Colonna will travel to Yerevan before making her way to Georgia’s capital Tbilisi on Friday.
Washington, D.C. – In a recent letter to the Armenian Assembly of America this week, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) expressed its continued solidarity with the Armenian community and people, particularly in Artsakh, where the continued blockade of the Lachin Corridor has caused a humanitarian crisis for the Armenian people since December 2022.
Reflecting on the “shared experience” of the Jewish and Armenian peoples as targets of genocide in the 20th century, the JCRC appreciated the two communities building “strong bonds of solidarity over decades through ongoing joint advocacy and collaboration.”
“At this time of year when both of our communities pause to remember our histories, and as we join with the Armenian community in the coming days to commemorate their experience of genocide, it is fitting and necessary as well that we pause to bring attention to the plight of the Armenian community in Nagorno Karabakh/Artsakh.”
In 2020, the JCRC called upon the U.S. to intervene during the 44-day war and to deescalate the conflict, and once again “calls upon the United States Congress to meet the pressing humanitarian and recovery needs in Artsakh.”
“We cannot sit idly by as the Armenian people face the risk of another extraordinary humanitarian disaster,” the statement concluded.
“The Assembly welcomes this statement of solidarity with the Armenian people of Artsakh and appreciates our close and continued partnership with JCRC and the Jewish community,” said Assembly Co-Chairs Anthony Barsamian and Van Krikorian. “We hope other interfaith, government, and civic organizations will follow suit and express similar sentiments to help bring an end to the inhumane blockade on the Lachin Corridor and the genocidal policies of the Aliyev regime.”
JCRC is an umbrella organization with 45 Member Organizations.
Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.
###
NR# 2023-17
Thursday,
Ruling Party Raps Armenian Church
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia – Catholicos Garegin II blesses worshippers after Easter mass at St.
Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral, Yerevan, April 9, 2023.
A pro-government lawmaker hit out at the Armenian Apostolic Church on Thursday
after its supreme head, Catholicos Garegin II, lamented “deepening intolerance”
in Armenia and defended his earlier calls for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
resignation.
Garegin implied earlier in the day that the “fatherly appeal” made by him in the
wake of the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh is still valid.
“Sadly, we can see that the situation in our country remains perilous and
worrying,” he told several media outlets in a rare interview. “Also, wrong and
unacceptable statements are made … with regard to the status of Artsakh
(Karabakh). Also worrying is the disunity, discord and spirit of intolerance
deepening among our people, and in this sense we have a lot of work to do.”
Garegin appeared to allude to Pashinian’s latest comments on the Karabakh
conflict condemned by the Armenian opposition and Karabakh’s leaders as
pro-Azerbaijani.
Armenia - Maria Karapetian, a parliament deputy from the ruling Civil Contract
party, July 27, 2022.
Maria Karapetian, a parliament deputy representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract
party, responded by accusing the Armenian Church of meddling in politics and
refusing to accept the supremacy of the state authorities.
“Maybe it would be a better solution not to talk about any political topic at
all and to talk only about spiritual topics,” she said on the parliament floor.
Karapetian also denounced Garegin’s homily read out during the Easter mass at
Yerevan’s Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral on April 9.
In that message, Garegin expressed concern at what he described as the erosion
of “national-spiritual security of our people” and threats to “centuries-old
sanctified traditions and our value system.”
“Indeed, when justice and truth cease to be the core of our undertakings and
activities in state and public life, we will continue to face manifestations of
pilatism,” he told hundreds of worshippers in what looked like a thinly veiled
attack on the government.
Armenia – Catholicos Garegin II leads Easter mass at St. Gregory the Illuminator
Cathedral, Yerevan, April 9, 2023.
The ancient church, to which the vast majority of Armenians belong, enjoyed
strong government support until the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought
Pashinian to power. His frosty relationship with Garegin has increasingly
deteriorated since then.
Garegin and other senior clergymen joined the Armenian opposition in calling for
Pashinian’s resignation following Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war. The prime
minister openly attacked them when he campaigned for the June 2021 parliamentary
elections.
Pashinian and members of his government have since boycotted Christmas and
Easter liturgies led by Garegin. They have also effectively excluded the
Catholicos from official ceremonies to mark major national holidays and
remembrance days.
Armenia, India, Iran Mull Transport Corridor
Armenia - Senior Armenian, Indian and Iranian diplomats meet in Yerevan, April
20, 2023.
Senior diplomats from Armenia, India and Iran explored the possibility of
creating a new transnational transport corridor during first-ever trilateral
talks held in Yerevan on Thursday.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said that they discussed “issues relating to
regional communication routes” and broader “prospects for trilateral cooperation
in various fields.”
“The parties agreed to continue the trilateral consultations aimed at closer
cooperation,” it said in a statement. No other details of the talks were
reported.
Meeting in Yerevan in October 2021, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his
Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar called for an Armenian-Indian
transport link that would pass through Iran and its Chabahar cargo port in
particular.
India has built and operates two terminals at the Gulf of Oman port to bypass
Pakistan in cargo traffic with Iran, Afghanistan and central Asian countries.
The Indian government has also proposed Chabahar’s inclusion in the
International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) project initiated by
Russia, Iran and India in 2000. The project envisages a 7,200-kilometer-long
network of maritime and terrestrial routes stretching from Mumbai to Moscow.
Mirzoyan suggested after the 2021 talks with Jaishankar that Indian companies
use Chabahar for cargo shipments to not only Armenia but also neighboring
Georgia, Russia and even Europe. According to Indian media reports, an Armenian
government delegation promoted this idea when it visited New Delhi in early
March.
Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security
Council, reportedly backed the ambitious project during a July 2022 trip to
Yerevan.
Armenia has long maintained a cordial relationship with Iran and has deepened
its ties with India in the last few years, notably through a series of contracts
signed with Indian arms manufacturers. All three nations have reported
significant increases in their trade with Russia since the Russian invasion of
Ukraine and the resulting Western sanctions against Moscow.
Pashinian Responds To Karabakh Criticism
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian addresses the National Assembly, April
18, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian complained on Thursday that his statements are
often misunderstood by Nagorno-Karabakh’s leaders after they accused him of
effectively siding with Azerbaijan.
Pashinian made clear on Tuesday that his administration unequivocally recognizes
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. He also said he is ready to sign an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal that would commit the two South Caucasus states
to recognizing each other’s Soviet-era borders.
In a joint statement issue on Wednesday, the five political groups represented
in the Karabakh parliament said Pashinian’s remarks are “consistent with the
position of official Baku.” They again accused him of undermining the Karabakh
Armenians’ right to self-determination which was for decades supported by
international mediators.
Responding to the criticism, Pashinian said: “We need to delve into issues
because if we don’t thoroughly understand their essence we will always make
mistakes and we already did. This is what my statement was all about. I respect
and appreciate the views of Artsakh’s National Assembly but what I said is a
different thing.”
“They usually misunderstand me [in Stepanakert] and it’s possible that they
misunderstood me this time as well,” he told reporters.
A Karabakh opposition figure, Davit Galstian, dismissed the explanation when he
spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“Our self-determination was formalized by the [Karabakh] Supreme Council in 1991
and Armenia’s authorities must reckon with that and at least not relegate the
Karabakh Armenians’ self-determination to the background,” he said. “Yet in his
speeches Nikol Pashinian tries to … trample underfoot our right to
self-determination.”
Karabakh leaders have repeatedly criticized Pashinian ever since he signaled in
April 2022 his readiness to “lower the bar” on Karabakh’s status acceptable to
Armenia. Pashinian and his entourage also stopped making references to
Karabakh’s self-determination in their public statements.
Armenian opposition leaders have been even more critical of Pashinian’s latest
pronouncements.
Oskanian Also Rejects Pashinian’s Claims About Karabakh Peace Plans
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian speaks at a conference of his
ORO opposition alliance in Yerevan, 25Feb2017.
Former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian has joined the Armenian opposition in
accusing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of grossly misrepresenting international
peace proposals on Nagorno-Karabakh made before the 2020 war with Azerbaijan.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament earlier this week, Pashinian again claimed
that the so-called Madrid Principles jointly drafted by the United States,
Russia and France essentially recognized Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan.
Opposition leaders and other critics brushed aside his claims, saying that
Pashinian is simply trying to justify his readiness to agree to the restoration
Azerbaijani control over Karabakh.
They argue that the framework peace accord, originally put forward in 2007 and
repeatedly modified in the following decade, on the contrary upheld the Karabakh
Armenians’ right to self-determination. The latter would be able to determine
the dispute region’s internationally recognized status in a future referendum.
Oskanian, who served as Armenia’s foreign minister from 1998-2008, made the same
point in a 30-minute video message posted on Facebook late on Wednesday. He
portrayed the Madrid Principles as a key diplomatic achievement of the Armenian
side squandered and renounced by Pashinian.
Oskanian insisted that the U.S., Russian and French mediators “effectively
recognized that Karabakh is not a part of Azerbaijan and that the people of
Karabakh must decide their future through a referendum.”
“I really don’t understand Nikol Pashinian’s logic here,” he said. “Maybe Nikol
Pashinian should be asked to explain the logic behind his desire to sign a peace
treaty with Azerbaijan based on mutual recognition of the two countries’
territorial integrity.”
Pashinian likewise alleged last October that the peace plans largely accepted by
former Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian called for Armenia’s
“capitulation” to Azerbaijan. The Russian Foreign Ministry bluntly denied
similar claims made by him in 2021.
Opposition Lawmakers Forced Out Of Armenian Parliament
Armenia - Security guards use force against oppositon deputies occupying the
parliament rostrum, .
A group of opposition lawmakers were forcibly removed from Armenia’s parliament
on Thursday after occupying its podium in protest against Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian’s latest statements on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The incident happened after one of those lawmakers, Taguhi Tovmasian, refused to
leave the rostrum after finishing her speech during a heated debate on the
parliament floor.
“I will not allow you to again spread lies, cast doubt on Artsakh’s being
Armenian or the history of the Armenian people from the country’s number one
podium,” declared Tovmasian, who heads the parliament committee on human rights.
“Enough is enough. Sober up and accept your share of responsibility,” she said,
urging like-minded members of the National Assembly to join her protest.
About a dozen other opposition deputies heeded her appeal. Parliament speaker
Alen Simonian responded by ordering security officers to force the
oppositionists out of the parliament auditorium.
The officers working for the State Protection Service (SPS), an agency providing
bodyguards to Pashinian and other high-ranking state officials, executed the
order after a 4-minute scuffle with the mostly female deputies. The SPS chief,
Sargis Hovannisian, was on hand to oversee the use of force condemned by the two
opposition blocs represented in the parliament.
“They are now not allowing us to return to our workplace,” Tovmasian told
reporters after the chaotic scene. “This is a blatant violation of the law,
human rights and deputies’ rights.”
The debate, which began on Tuesday, was meant to center on the implementation of
the Armenian government’s five-year policy program approved by the parliament’s
pro-government majority in 2021. Pashinian’s remarks on the conflict with
Azerbaijan proved to be its main focus.
Pashinian made clear that his administration unequivocally recognizes
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and is also ready to sign an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal that would commit the two South Caucasus states
to recognizing each other’s Soviet-era borders.
Opposition leaders portrayed this as further proof of their claims that
Pashinian is helping Baku regain full control over Karabakh. Karabakh’s main
political factions also denounced the Armenian premier.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. The operation of US biological laboratories on Ukrainian soil is the grossest violation of human rights and runs counter to international treaties, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova said.
“The US creating laboratories on Ukrainian soil to test biological agents, actually deploying biological weapons, is the grossest, most shameless and large-scale violation of human rights; it effectively destroys the very notion of human value, the value of human life and well-being,” she said at a plenary session of the State Duma on Tuesday where the final report of the parliamentary panel looking into the work of US biolabs in Ukraine was presented.
According to the ombudswoman, such actions grossly contradict the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Biological Weapons Convention and other international acts. “We realize that Ukraine is a border state and inevitably such actions will affect the lives and well-being of Russian citizens. Moreover, this is a real threat to all of mankind,” she added.
Moskalkova emphasized that to date, there hasn’t been a proper reaction from the international community and international human rights structures to the US’ bioaggression, even as it also unfolds in Armenia, Georgia and other countries. “I support [the report on the operation of US biological laboratories in Ukraine] and ask to continue measures on [ensuring] biosecurity, expand the geography of the investigation and insist on creating an international commission to investigate the operations of such biolabs,” she concluded.
16:35, 7 April 2023
YEREVAN, APRIL 7, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Chief of Staff of the US Army Europe and Africa Operations Directorate Brigadier General Patrick Ellis visited Armenia April 5-7, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.
“During his working visit to Armenia April 5-7, Brigadier General Patrick Ellis met with Ministry of Defense officials to discuss efforts to strengthen U.S.-Armenian defense cooperation. Brigadier General Ellis also visited the 12th Peacekeeping Brigade’s training facility in Zar and the Armenian military academy,” the embassy said.