Category: 2017

The Baku Court of Grave Crimes on Wednesday continued the trial in the case into blogger Alexander Lapshin, who is under arrest in Azerbaijan.

Judicial investigation of this case has been completed, reported APA news agency of the country. 
The state prosecutor asked to court for time to make a statement.  
 
The trial will resume on Friday.  

After his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2011 and 2012, blogger and journalist Alexander Lapshin—who is a citizen of Russia, Israel, and several other countries—was “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan. 

In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijan—but with a Ukrainian passport—and, subsequently, he published several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities. 
Afterward, Azerbaijan issued an international search for this famous blogger. On December 15, 2016, Lapshin was detained in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk, and based on this search.

On January 26 of the current year, the Minsk city court dismissed the blogger’s appeal of the Belarusian General Prosecutor’s Office decision to extradite him to Azerbaijan.
On February 7, the Supreme Court of Belarus dismissed the appeals that were filed into this case, and upheld the aforesaid decision by the General Prosecutor’s Office.
And on the evening of the same day, Belarus extradited Alexander Lapshin to the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku, where he was taken into custody.

The ancient Forty Martyrs Armenian Cathedral of Aleppo, Syria, and which was repeatedly attacked by militants, has begun to be restored.

But a large-scale restoration is needed, and this work is expected to take at least two years.

Solely the bell tower of the church was not damaged in the fighting.

The building materials needed for the restoration have been brought.

Local residents—moreover, both the Christian and Muslim communities—have collected some of the money needed for the restoration  of this Armenian church.

YEREVAN. –The opening of borders with Armenia can be costly for Turkey, Armenian political scientist Garik Keryan believes.

The analyst said this may damage Turkey’s relations with Azerbaijan.

“I remember when the Armenian-Turkish protocols were signed in Zurich in 2009, next day the nationalists burned the Turkish flag in Azerbaijan. Of course, this did not last long, and everything returned to normal, when it became clear that these protocols would not be ratified,” he added.

According to Keryan, Turkey is well aware of what it can lose, and therefore Ankara would not rush with the unblocking the border with Armenia in the near future.

YEREVAN. – It is impossible to reach stable truce in the Karabakh conflict zone as there are no monitoring mechanisms which would allow to define those who violate the cease-fire regime, political scientist Garik Keryan said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The analyst noted that, in the case of the Karabakh conflict, there is no force that could provide guarantees that the ceasefire will be respected.

“Experience shows that if it remains to the parties, the truce is not working,” Keryan  explained.

 

 

YEREVAN. – The legal complaint filed by Swedish lawmakers against Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is based on the report from the high representative for human rights in the UN and their report for what happened 2015-2016, as well as internal human rights organizations in Turkey, Swedish MP Carl Schlyter said.

Swedish lawmakers are accusing Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crime. It is said that the suit relates to the conflict in Turkey’s Kurdish majority south-east.

“Our complaint is based on the reports regardless of the affected ethnic groups, however the most frequent reports during this time was targeting the Kurds,” he said in an e-mailed response to Armenian News-NEWS.am inquiry.

“Regarding the historic genocide targeting mainly Armenians, Turkey must abolish its current denial laws and to gain respect internationally admit the truth,” MP said.

Another imitator of the legal complaint, Riksdag member Annika Lillemets also said she supports Armenian Genocide recognition.

“Regarding your last question about the Armenian Genocide, I would like to refer to the decision by the Swedish Parliament 11 March 2010, acknowledging it as a genocide. We fully support that decision,” she said in an e-mailed letter.

Back in March 2010 majority of Swedish parliament voted in favor of resolution describing the mass killings of Armenians and other Christian minorities in modern Turkey by the end of World War I as genocide. Motion passed the vote after heated debates with 131 votes against 130.

“It needs to reconcile and reflect in order to be able to establish working relations with its neighbors and to make sure the thought of repeating it never returns. That is why we are worried today, no lessons seems to have been learnt from the past,” Mr. Schlyter added.

Recent tensions along the line of control in Nagorno-Karabakh are deeply concerning, member of the European Parliament Charles Tannock said in a statement.

“The death of two Azerbaijani civilians on July 4th is deeply regrettable and I extend my condolences to the friends and family of Zahra Guliyeva and her grandmother, Sahiba. Reports that Azerbaijani military equipment was positioned in civilian areas for the purposes of human shielding are of grave concern and such actions would constitute a contravention of the Geneva Convention,” said the lawmaker.

“A full investigation into this incident is clearly necessary and a return to the Minsk Process as a means of deescalating the current tension along the line of control is clearly in order. Armenia has agreed to the installation of the OSCE independent investigative mechanism and I call on Azerbaijan to do the same.”

YEREVAN. – Armenia assesses Iran’s balanced position on the Karabakh conflict as positive.

Vice President of the National Assembly of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov, stated the aforementioned at a press conference on Wednesday.

In his words, despite Azerbaijan’s attempts to give a regional nature to this conflict, Tehran’s respective position continues to remain objective.

YEREVAN. – The Armenian side should continue its stern policy in connection with the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict. 

Vice President of the National Assembly of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov, noted the abovementioned at a press conference on Wednesday.

He recorded that the conflict has entered a new phase, as Azerbaijan refuses the Vienna and Saint Petersburg agreements, periodically aggravates the situation, and uses its own population as a human shield.

In this connection, Sharmazanov stated that the Armenian side should continue its stern policy, and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries (Russia, US, and France) need to seek avenues for convincing—or pressuring—Azerbaijan into implementing the said agreements.

“The problem shall be resolved pacifically, within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, based on the three well-known precepts,” he stressed. “[But] the precept of territorial integrity has nothing to do with the conflict in general, since Karabakh was not part of independent Azerbaijan for a single second.”

Also, the deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament pointed to the role of Turkish political elite, especially of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in the aggravation of the Karabakh conflict.