The Baku Court of Grave Crimes has accepted the case of 14 Armenian citizens accused of creating an armed grouping, terrorism and illegal crossing of the Azerbaijani border near the village of Gadrut.
The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on December 15, 2020, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities lost contact with the staff of several Karabakh military posts stationed in the area of the villages of Khtsaberd (the Azerbaijani name of Chailakkala) and Khin Takher (Kyokhne Taglar). On December 16, residents of the Shirak Region of Armenia blocked the Gyumri-Yerevan highway, stating that dozens of their fellow countrymen had been captured in the Gadrut District. According to the data of the Karabakh Ombudsperson, about 60 soldiers were captured in the vicinity of Khtsaberd village.
According to Azerbaijani investigators, a group of Armenian residents acquired weapons and ammunition and created an armed grouping. On November 26-27, 2020, they crossed the Azerbaijani border and took up combat positions in the forest of Gadrut village of the Khodjavend District. Until December 13, these residents of Armenia committed armed attacks on enterprises and institutions in Azerbaijan. The grouping also attacked people, made explosions and fires, the “Trend.az” quotes the investigators’ version.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 3, 2021 at 10:46 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
BAKU – Azerbaijan’s defense ministry on Wednesday said around 40 Armenian military personnel had crossed into Azeri territory on Tuesday evening and were forced to retreat.There was no immediate response from Armenia. Azerbaijan last week said Armenian forces had fired on Azeri positions, accusations denied by Armenia, amid a border row between the former Soviet countries.
YEREVAN, MAY 27, ARMENPRESS. France expresses concern over the rise of incidents on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the latest of which is the incident of capturing 6 Armenian servicemen by Azerbaijani forces overnight May 26-27, ARMENPRESS report, reads the Foreign Ministry of France.
”France calls on the sides to demonstrate maximal restraint and refrain from any type of provocations. Demarcation and delimitation between the two states should be carried out as part of negotiations between the sides, without any successive action՛՛, reads the statement.
The French Foreign Ministry reminds the May 13 statement of French President Emmauel Macron. The Élysée Palace had announced that for restoring security and stability in the region, the situation can be solved through the UNSC.
‘’Emmanuel Macron has reaffirmed commitment to the territorial integrity of Armenia and emphasized the necessity for an immediate withdrawal of the Azerbaijani armed forces form the sovereign territory of Armenia’’, reads the statement of the Élysée Palace.
Russian army engineer groups continue clearing the terrain and facilities in the region of mines
MOSCOW, May 28. /TASS/. Russian peacekeepers have not registered any ceasefire breaches or provocations against Russian military personnel in Nagorno-Karabakh, Spokesman for Russia’s Peacekeeping Contingent in the Region Colonel Dmitry Perepelkin said, on Friday.
“In the recent period, no ceasefire violations have been registered, and no provocations against Russian servicemen have been observed,” the spokesman said.
Russian army engineer groups continue clearing the terrain and facilities in the region of mines, he said.
“As of today, 1,844 buildings and over 657 km of roads have been surveyed, and 2,121 hectares of territory have been cleared, and 25,613 dangerous explosive devices have been found and eliminated,” he specified.
President Sarkissian calls on army, NSS to take toughest measures against encroachments on Armenia’s territory
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YEREVAN, MAY 19, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian issued a statement, calling on the Defense Ministry, the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the National Security Service to make all possible efforts and take the toughest measures against the encroachments on Armenia’s territorial integrity and border violations.
ARMENPRESS reports, the statement runs as follows,
”Dear compatriots,
During these days, for obvious reasons, we are all focused on our borders. The Azerbaijani armed forces violated the Armenian border in Syunik and Gegharkunik Provinces and it’s already a few days they are illegally situated in our country.
In the current situation, the unconditional responsibility of the state and state structures to bring the country out of the crisis is especially important, particularly, in terms of ensuring security.
I call on the Defense Ministry, the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the National Security Service to make all possible efforts and take the toughest measures against the encroachments on Armenia’s territorial integrity and border violations.
No less important is the use of our diplomatic arsenal with all its might. Strengthening Armenia’s international preputation, cooperation with international partners and deepening allied relations are a necessity. These relations must be built on a realistic, targetted agenda. It is necessary to launch the whole toolkit of both traditional and public diplomacy, to involve the Diaspora, to use all the resources.
The existing situation and our approach and response must be understandable to our international partners.
The society must be timely and accurately informed about the processes taking place, being sure that they are protected, that the state, regardless of political or other factors, carries out its functions.
Dear compatriots, In the current situation, national unity is again imperative: Armenia, Artsakh, Diaspora. Only then can we solve security, economic, domestic and all other problems. We must realize that we have one border, the border of the Homeland.
As a state and nation, we must have one and the same national agenda. Each of us, in Armenia, Artsakh and the Diaspora, must act within the framework of that common agenda. Only a strong, stable, united, Armenia can represent and defend the interests of Armenia, Artsakh and the Armenian people”.
Turkey has urged swift international action against Israeli attacks that killed and wounded scores of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and Jerusalem as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned of grave consequences should Israel’s offensive endures.
“We call on the international community to intervene swiftly to stop these attacks, which will cause further loss of civilian lives,” read a written statement issued by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on May 14.
The statement came as the news reported that Israeli troops were preparing for a more comprehensive attack against Gaza as the death toll exceeded 109 as of early May 14.
“The rapid increase in civilian casualties in Israel’s airstrikes against Gaza, the damage to the schools affiliated to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees [UNRWA], injuring the cameraman and photojournalists of Anadolu Agency serving in the region, clearly reveal Israel’s disproportionate indiscriminate attacks,” the ministry stated.
“It was learned with concern that Israel started firing tanks and artillery against Gaza this time,” it added.
Erdoğan warned on May 14 that the situation may worsen in Palestine in case the Israeli attacks are not halted and called on both individual countries and international organizations to swiftly intervene.
“It is imperative that the U.N. Security Council rapidly take steps to ensure peace and tranquility in Jerusalem, in line with the decisions taken in the General Assembly. As Turkey, we are ready to actively support any initiative launched within the U.N. and to take responsibility for peace,” Erdoğan said.
Turkey’s stance based on principles
Underlining that Jerusalem is the sacred city for three main religions and that Israeli attempt to loot the city is unacceptable, President Erdoğan accused Tel Aviv of crossing all the possible limits in Jerusalem.
“To stand against Israel’s aggression in Palestinian cities, Jerusalem is duty of honor for humanity,” he said, describing Israel as a terror state. “Those who remain silent or openly back Israel’s bloodshed should know one day it will be their turn.”
Erdoğan recalled that he spoke with the leaders of 19 nations so far in a bid to coordinate diplomatic actions against Israel.
“Our stance towards Israel is principle-based,” he said, likening Turkey’s support to Azerbaijan’s efforts to liberate its territories from Armenian occupation with the current support pledged to Palestine against the Israeli offensive.
“Turkey will not remain silent on Israeli persecution in Palestine, even if the entire world ignores it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s presidential spokesperson urged the international community early on May 14 to prevent the escalation of Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people.
İbrahim Kalın said on Twitter that Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian community “are against international law and basic morality” and “must come to an immediate end.”
Noting that Turkey will keep supporting the Palestinians, he said: “We urge the world to take action now to stop the new waves of Israeli aggression.”
Vice President Fuat Oktay on May 13 denounced Israeli aggression on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Palestinians, underlining that the city “is and will remain the capital of Palestine.”
“We have Palestinian martyrs and brothers and sisters wailing under Israel’s reckless attacks and persecution,” he said.
“You drop bombs on vulnerable people. Then you go and make accusations claiming self-defense without feeling shame … This is a shame upon humanity,” he added.
Asserting that condemnations and U.N. resolutions had so far proven fruitless, he stressed that countries “trying to make Jerusalem the capital of Israel and those trying to force Jerusalem’s acceptance as the capital of Israel are complicit in this persecution, and everyone not taking a clear stance against it is also part to it.”
Separately, Turkey’s Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop also condemned Israel’s violent attacks against civilians.
“The world, especially Islamic countries, must take a common stance against [Israel’s] attitudes, occupation and policies of cruelty that are against international law,” Şentop said.
Tensions have been running high in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem over the past month as Israeli settlers swarmed in following a court order for the eviction of Palestinian families in the area.
Most recently, tensions further escalated, moving from East Jerusalem to Gaza after Palestinian resistance groups there vowed to retaliate against Israeli assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah if they were not halted.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the entire city in 1980 – a move that has never been recognized by the international community.
The Armenian community has suffered no losses as a result of recent clashes in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Chancellor at Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem Fr. Hovnan Baghdasaryan informs.
“There are no casualties among the Armenian community, no one has been displaced. There is no atmosphere of panic or fear in the Armenian Quarter, only concern, which is conditioned by the ongoing tension,” Fr. Hovnan Baghdasaryan said.
He added that all church ceremonies are held regularly, and classes are held in educational institutions, as usual. All Patriarchate offices continue their work.
“We expect that the parties will reach a speedy settlement through negotiations. We express our condolences to the relatives of all the victims and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” the Chancellor said.
YEREVAN, MAY 4, ARMENPRESS. Karen Abrahamyan has been relieved from the position of head of the general operative department of the General Staff – deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces.
The respective decree has been signed by President Armen Sarkissian based on the proposal of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Karen Abrahamyan has been appointed head of the general operative department of the General Staff – deputy chief of the General Staff on June 15, 2020.
YEREVAN, April 27. /TASS/. Two Russian peacekeepers were injured after their vehicle hit a mine in Nagorno-Karabakh and their health condition is not life-threatening, the Armenian state news agency Armenpress reported on Tuesday.
“The incident occurred three days ago. A vehicle hit an anti-tank mine. Two servicemen were wounded. As of now, they are staying at a medical center and their health condition is not life-threatening,” the news agency quoted a spokesperson of the Interior Ministry of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as saying.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, 2020 with intense battles in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. On November 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10.
Under the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides maintained the positions that they had held, some districts passed over to Baku’s control and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line and the Lachin corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh. The statement also envisaged an exchange of prisoners of war under the “all for all” principle.
After the Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh stabilized. Dozens of thousands of Karabakh residents who had fled their homes during the hostilities returned to the region with the help of the Russian peacekeeping contingent.
U.S. president Joe Biden’s historic declaration last Saturday that the Ottoman Empire’s systematic killing and deportation of 1.5 million Armenians in the early 20th century was a genocide came just a few hours before Montreal-area Armenians gathered at the Armenian monument on the edge of Autoroute 440 in Laval to mark Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.
Official U.S. position
The mid-afternoon event drew not only people of all ages from the Armenian community, but also many elected officials from the federal, provincial and municipal governments.
Biden’s declaration, which now reflects the official U.S. government position, came after five successive U.S. presidents danced for decades around the Armenian issue, while specifically avoiding use of the word “genocide.”
Most observers have seen this long-standing non-commitment as the result of the U.S. government’s not wanting to alienate its long-time ally, Turkey, which succeeded the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
A strategic decision
Since the end of World War II, the Americans have maintained a U.S. Air Force presence of 5,000 personnel at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey (which has been a NATO ally since 1952), and the U.S. continues to value the base for its strategic placement between the Middle East and Europe.
According to the U.S.-based Armenian National Institute, at least 30 countries have now recognized the Armenian genocide. However, the United Nations has yet to do so. The UN’s position is that it does not comment on events which took place before its founding in 1945.
Laval’s support for Armenians
Laval, which is home to a sizeable community of Armenians, has been at the forefront in taking positions with regards to Armenia’s past and more recent history. The Armenian genocide monument was erected on a small parcel of land donated by the City of Laval.
As well, in 2004, former Laval-Centre MP Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral successfully guided the adoption of a motion in the House of Commons overwhelmingly acknowledging the 1915 Armenian genocide while condemning it as a massive crime.
And last year, when a jurisdictional dispute between Azerbaijan and Artsakh escalated into warfare, Laval became the first Canadian city to pass a resolution expressing recognition for the independence of the predominantly Armenian-populated Artsakh, which is supported by the Republic of Armenia.
Overdue acknowledgment
In an interview with the Laval News, Maher Karakashian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, noted that last year the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives recognized the Armenian genocide. It remained only for the country’s president to follow. No American president had referred to the Armenian genocide since Ronald Reagan during the 1980s.
‘Both morally and politically, this puts pressure on Turkey’
“We’ll see in the future if it will have repercussions with the superpowers of the world,” Karakashian said. “Both morally and politically, this puts pressure on Turkey. Because Turkey being a member or NATO, and NATO being led by the United States, there will be pressure. Although I see today that Ankara again officially objected or refused this recognition.”
Support from local MPs
Laval-Les Îles MP Fayçal El-Khoury, who attended the ceremony with fellow-MP Annie Koutrakis, said the U.S. government’s statement was important not only for Armenians, but for justice as a whole.
“I and my colleague, Annie, will always stand up for the Armenian cause, just as we do for the Greek cause because they are so similar,” he said, alluding to the oppression the two peoples suffered under Ottoman rule.
“I would like to congratulate the entire Armenian community worldwide for the announcement and position taken by President Biden – I believe that it was a long time coming,” said Koutrakis.
“As my colleague Fayçal mentioned, being of Hellenic origin, this is a cause that is especially close to my heart. “For, as you may know, as Greeks, we also have struggled to get the Pontic genocide, or even the greater Greek genocide, recognized worldwide, and we will continue towards that,” she added. “We share a history with our Armenian brothers and sisters. The Armenian community is very close and in my heart.”
President Joe Biden’s Statement on Armenian Remembrance Day, APRIL 24, 2021
Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring. Beginning on April 24, 1915, with the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople by Ottoman authorities, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in a campaign of extermination. We honor the victims of the Meds Yeghern so that the horrors of what happened are never lost to history. And we remember so that we remain ever-vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms.
Of those who survived, most were forced to find new homes and new lives around the world, including in the United States. With strength and resilience, the Armenian people survived and rebuilt their community. Over the decades Armenian immigrants have enriched the United States in countless ways, but they have never forgotten the tragic history that brought so many of their ancestors to our shores. We honor their story. We see that pain. We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.
Today, as we mourn what was lost, let us also turn our eyes to the future— toward the world that we wish to build for our children. A world unstained by the daily evils of bigotry and intolerance, where human rights are respected, and where all people are able to pursue their lives in dignity and security. Let us renew our shared resolve to prevent future atrocities from occurring anywhere in the world. And let us pursue healing and reconciliation for all the people of the world.
The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today.