Category: 2020

Azerbaijan Sets Over 4,000 Acres of Artsakh Forests on Fire

Emil Lazarian

November 2,  2020



Azerbaijan is now burning Artsakh’s forests

In addition to targeting the civilian centers and population in Artsakh, the Azerbaijani armed forces, specifically in that past few days, have been deliberately burning Artsakh’s forests, said Artsakh Human Right Defender’s office, which added that Azerbaijan has been using white phosphorous to set the fires.

A fact-finding mission headed by Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender Artak Beglaryan released that the deliberate fires set by Azerbaijan have already burned more than 1,815 hectares (more than 4.400 acres) of forest across Artsakh. He warned that the fires, which can spread fairly rapidly, continue to burn.

”The State Service of the Emergency Situations of Artsakh is taking steps to extinguish the fires where applicable,” said a statement by the state body. “But a crisis remains imminent.”

“With this, the enemy is trying to create an environmental crisis, in addition to the humanitarian one it has already perpetrated,” added the statement by Artsakh’s Emergency Situations Service,

“Given the size and geographic stretch of the burned forests, the population of Artsakh is facing an ecological disaster, which undermines the environmental security in the region and can have long-term dangerous consequences for the life and health of the people of Artsakh. Moreover, the Azerbaijani armed forces, with these criminal methods, intend to harm the civilian population sheltered in the forests,” warned Beglaryan.

Artsakh Human Rights Defender’s office shows where the forest fires are burining

The Ombudsman emphasized that the deliberate burning of the forests by the Azerbaijani armed forces is a war crime, and called on the international community to take practical steps to condemn Azerbaijan and apply punitive measures.

“We strongly and resolutely condemn the continued employment by Azerbaijan of prohibited means and methods of warfare under international law in the course of armed aggression waged against the Republic of Artsakh beginning on September,” said a statement by Artsakh’s foreign ministry on Monday.

“Specifically, the Azerbaijani armed forces, in addition to using cluster munitions, have begun deploying phosphorus-containing incendiary ammunition in wooded areas close to the areas of the Republic of Artsakh, where some civilians from nearby villages have been temporarily seeking shelter,” the ministry said.

Official Stepanakert waned that “terror tactics” used by Azerbaijan are aimed to exterminate Artsakh’s population and urged the international community to recognize Artsakh’s independence, utilizing mechanisms adopted by the U.N. and other international bodies to salvage a threatened population.

“First of all, in this context, it is necessary to consider the consistent refusal of the Azerbaijani side to observe the humanitarian truce, since the continuation of hostilities allows the Baku authorities to further terrorize the civilian population of Artsakh. It is for this purposes that the Azerbaijani side resorts to the use of prohibited weapons, deliberate attacks on the civilian population and civilian objects, including medical units, setting itself the main task of exterminating and forcibly deporting the entire population of Artsakh,” the ministry says.

“Thirty years ago, the people of Artsakh chose the path of independence as a means to protection themselves against Azerbaijan’s deliberate policy of exterminating the Armenian population. We are convinced, that under these circumstances whereby official Baku is attempting to complete its criminal plan, international recognition of the de facto independence of the Republic of Artsakh would an urgent and proper steps by the international community to fulfill its generally accepted obligations to prevent crimes against humanity,” the Artsakh foreign ministry said in its statement.

After Anti-Armenian Vandalism, France Bans Turkey’s Grey Wolves

Ani Tigranian

November 2,  2020



Armenian Genocide memorial in Lyon and the adjacent community center

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry condemns attacks

After anti-Armenian incidents in Lyon, France stretching over the end of last week, compounded by killing of innocent civilians in Nice, France’s Interior Minister announced Monday that his country is taking steps to ban the Turkey’s ultra-right wing Grey Wolves organization, which has ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Turkey.

Last Wednesday, pro-Artsakh protesters were stabbed by pro-Turkey assailants. Over the weekend, the Armenian Genocide memorial in Lyon, as well as Armenia’s Consulate General building in that city were vandalized with anti-Armenian graffiti that included slogans such as “Grey Wolves” and “RTE,” in reference to Erdogan.

France moved to outlaw the Wolves organization, with French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announcing the proposal that is scheduled to be discussed on Wednesday.

“We strongly condemn the act of vandalism against the building of the Consulate General of Armenia in the city of Lyon, which was preceded by tincidents of desecration of the Armenian monuments in other cities of France and the massive anti-Armenian actions by the Turkish extremist organizations in recent months on the grounds of hatred,” said a statement on Monday by Armenia’s Foreign Ministry.

“The note on the building of the Consulate General of the Republic of Armenia is especially stark, as it contains a threat of recurrence of the Armenian Genocide and the glorification of the current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,” added the ministry.

“It is not accidental that such threats are being voiced against the people of Armenia when the Turkish-Azerbaijani genocidal alliance, with the involvement of the international terrorist fighters, is attempting to annihilate the Armenians in Artsakh,” said the foreign ministry. “We are convinced that the French authorities will hold the perpetrators of this vandalism and the extremist forces behind them accountable.”

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 11/02/2020

Kalashian Nyrie 
                                        Monday, November 2, 2020
Armenia Upbeat On 2021 Economic Growth Despite Pandemic, War
Armenia -- A textile factory in Berd
Despite the coronavirus pandemic and continuing war in Nagorno-Karabakh Armenia 
expects its economy to grow by 4.8 percent in 2021, the government in Yerevan 
said in unveiling next year’s budget this week.
The document submitted to the National Assembly on November 2 calls for 1.5 
trillion drams (about $3 billion) in taxes and duties, which is higher than this 
year’s revenue pattern.
Under a revised budget for this year the Armenian government expects to raise 
only 1.32 trillion drams ($2.65 billion) in taxes and duties.
The total revenues of the state budget next year are expected to amount to 1 
trillion 569 billion drams (over $3.1 billion) and the spending pattern is 
projected at 1 trillion 843 billion drams (over $3.7 billion). The budget 
deficit is estimated at 274 billion drams or more than $551 million according to 
the current exchange rate.
In presenting the budget in parliament Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigorian 
expressed confidence that due to efficient work the government will be able to 
achieve success despite challenges posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and 
war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Deputy Prime Minister or Armenia Mher Grigorian
“Obviously, 2021 will be a tough year for all of us. But I am sure that as a 
result of our joint work we will be able to have a budget that will consider all 
possible risks and challenges, generate sufficient resources for their effective 
neutralization and counteraction, and also ensure the socio-economic stability 
and security of our country,” the vice-premier said.
According to the same document, Armenia will close 2020 with an economic decline 
at 6 percent.
“Of course, we cannot say that martial law has not affected the economy and 
budget in any way. Of course, it has and will continue to affect the revenue 
pattern of the budget, and we should think about the debt threshold accordingly. 
But I believe that we will find the balance that will allow us to get out of 
this situation,” Grigorian said.
For his part Finance Minister Atom Janjugazian did not exclude that this year’s 
economic decline may be even steeper – at 6.8 percent. “After making this 
6-percent decline forecast we once again revised our budget estimations, 
concluding that because of the hostilities [in Nagorno-Karabakh] we may expect 
an additional negative development of 0.8 percentage points this year,” he said.
According to the draft state budget for 2021, by the end of this year Armenia’s 
state debt will stand at $8 billion 850 million, and by the end of next year it 
will amount to $9 billion 215 million.
Karabakh Armenians Confirm Senior Commander’s Death
Ethnic Armenian military authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have confirmed the 
death of a senior commander as military and civilian casualties in the armed 
conflict with Azerbaijan continued to rise on Monday.
The military’s press service on November 2 released the names of 11 more 
servicemen killed in action since the start of hostilities on September 27, 
which raises the total death toll among ethnic Armenian forces to 1,174.
Among those 11 is also deputy commander of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Defense Army, 
Colonel Artur Sarkisian. Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto Defense Minister, 
Lieutenant-General Jalal Harutiunian was replaced last week after being wounded.
Azerbaijan does not reveal its military casualties, considering them a wartime 
secret.
During November 2 the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides have also accused each 
other of targeting civilian areas.
According to spokesperson of Armenia’s Defense Ministry Shushan Stepanian, at 
around 6:10 pm Azerbaijan’s armed forces opened artillery fire in the direction 
of the positions of the armed forces of Armenia and the settlement of David Bek 
in the country’s southern Syunik province. She said that one civilian was killed 
and two others were wounded by the artillery fire.
An RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondent working in Nagorno-Karabakh reported 
that the town of Martakert in the northeast of the region was again shelled by 
Azerbaijan’s armed forces today.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said on November 2 that several 
civilian settlements in the Tartar region inside Azerbaijan had been shelled by 
ethnic Armenian troops.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the ongoing conflict.
Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has called for an 
international inquiry into the alleged participation of mercenaries from Syria 
and Libya on Azerbaijan’s side in the conflict.
“This issue should be the subject of an international inquiry,” Pashinian said 
on Facebook after the Armenian side had shown videos of interrogations of two 
Syrian fighters that Armenians say were taken prisoner on the battlefield.
Both Azerbaijan and its ally, Turkey, have denied the involvement of mercenaries 
in the hostilities.
Aliyev Urges Russia To Stay Neutral In Karabakh Conflict
        • Armen Koloyan
AZERBAIJAN -- Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev gestures as he speaks during an 
address to the nation in Baku, October 26, 2020
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has called on Russia to maintain neutrality 
in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh given its status as an 
international mediator.
According to Interfax-Azerbaijan, while receiving in Baku Secretary-General of 
the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking States Baghdad Amreyev on Monday, 
Aliyev said: “The prime minister of Armenia has sent a letter to the president 
of the Russian Federation, asking for military support. This is completely 
unacceptable. And there are absolutely no grounds for that, because we are 
conducting actions in our territory, we are defeating the enemy in our lands, 
freeing them from the Armenian occupation, while we do not attack the territory 
of Armenia.”
Aliyev went on to say that as a co-chair of the Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group Russia is supposed to maintain a 
neutral position on this issue, which he said is stipulated by the mandate of 
the OSCE, whose Minsk Group co-chairmanship also includes the United States and 
France.
On October 31, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian sent a letter to Russian 
President Vladimir Putin in which, invoking a 1997 treaty with Russia, he 
formally asked Moscow “to define types and amount of assistance” that it can 
provide to Armenia. Pashinian said that the fighting between ethnic Armenian 
forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan that broke out on September 27 was 
approaching the country’s borders and that some encroachments on the territory 
of the Republic of Armenia have already taken place.
ARMENIA -- Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Armenian Prime 
Minister Nikol Pashinian during a meeting on the sidelines of a session of the 
Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Yerevan, Armenia October 1, 2019.
In response to the letter the same day, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
reaffirmed Moscow’s commitment to Armenia under the 1997 Treaty on Friendship, 
Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, saying that “Russia will render all necessary 
assistance to Yerevan if military operations take place directly on the 
territory of Armenia.”
At the same time, the Russian ministry again called on the parties to the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to halt military operations immediately, deescalate 
the situation and return to “substantive negotiations” to achieve a peaceful 
settlement.
Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Pashinian also signaled Yerevan’s agreement to 
the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, 
but said that such a move would require the consent of all parties to the 
conflict.
Last week, U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said that he believes 
that Scandinavian peacekeepers should be deployed in the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict zone.
Meetings with members of the Armenian community of Los Angeles on Friday, 
October 30, O’Brien said any armed peacekeeping force in the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict zone should not include Minsk Group co-chairs, including the United 
States, or neighboring countries.
“Any sort of Turkish mediation or peacekeeping role is a non-starter for the 
United States, as well as for Armenia,” O’Brien said.
“We believe that both countries should accept Scandinavian peacekeepers, and we 
are working with Scandinavian governments to put together a peacekeeping force 
that could be deployed into the region to keep the ceasefire,” the senior U.S. 
official added.
Commenting on O’Brien’s statement on Monday, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister 
Andrei Rudenko said that issues like this should be coordinated with the parties 
to the conflict.
“You should ask the Americans where they got these proposals and ideas from. All 
the necessary parameters of possible mechanisms should be agreed upon in 
consultations with the parties to the conflict,” the Russian diplomat said when 
asked by journalists to comment on O’Brien’s remarks.
Officials in Yerevan and Baku have not yet commented on O’Brien’s statement.
Armenian Police Vow Tougher Approach As Coronavirus Cases Spike Amid Karabakh War
Armenia -- A masked police officer patrols streets of Yerevan, July 10, 2020.
Armenia’s police have warned citizens to abide by the mandatory rule of wearing 
face masks in all public spaces or face fines as the numbers of new coronavirus 
cases and resulting deaths have soared in recent days amid continuing 
Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In what appears to be a second and much stronger wave of the pandemic Armenia 
has been recording more than 2,000 new cases and several dozen deaths a day 
during the last week or so.
Since the start of the epidemic in March, more than 93,000 people have tested 
positive for the novel coronavirus in a country with a population of about 3 
million. According to Armenian health officials, 1,391 of these people have so 
far died from COVID-19, making it one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the 
world (469 deaths per million).
According to the Health Ministry, hospitals in Armenia are overwhelmed with 
coronavirus patients, with as many as 576 people needing hospitalization 
currently on the waiting list due to the shortage of hospital beds.
The healthcare situation in Armenia is complicated by an ongoing armed conflict 
with Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh from where hundreds of wounded ethnic 
Armenian servicemen and scores of civilians have been brought to Armenia for 
treatment since the hostilities began on September 27.
Government officials and healthcare specialists in Armenia believe that the war 
situation has largely affected the epidemiological state of affairs as people – 
servicemen, volunteers, others involved in wartime activities – began to care 
less about social-distancing and mask-wearing rules, which have been mandatory 
in Armenia for months and at one point in September admittedly led to a dramatic 
decrease in the infection rate.
Deputy Chief of Armenia’s Police Ara Fidanian warned citizens on Monday that 
from now on police officers will pay greater attention to enforcing the 
anti-epidemic rules by fining those who break them. He acknowledged that in 
recent weeks Armenian law-enforcement bodies have been more preoccupied with 
duties emanating from the current martial law regime, issuing much fewer fines 
for breaking anti-epidemic rules.
“Although we have mainly focused our efforts on ensuring the legal regime of 
martial law, we are now engaging additional forces, including female police 
officers, in the fight against the novel coronavirus,” Fidanian said, adding 
that control will also cover public transport.
Failing to wear a face mask in public spaces in Armenia, including in public 
transport, may result in a fine of 10,000 drams (about $20) imposed on the 
offender. Citizens caught breaking the rule may be find an additional 10,000 
drams if they have no passport or other ID around them.
Armenia Slams Turkey, Azerbaijan As Syrian Fighters Captured In Karabakh
The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia in Yerevan
Armenia has accused Turkey and Azerbaijan of seeking to give the conflict in 
Nagorno-Karabakh an inter-religious character by bringing in jihadists from the 
Middle East to fight there.
In a statement released on November 1 Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 
that at least two mercenaries from Syria had been captured by Nagorno-Karabakh’s 
ethnic Armenian defense army during the fighting with Azerbaijan in the region.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto ethnic Armenian authorities showed videos of two men 
whom said they had been recruited in Syria by Turkey to fight for Azerbaijan for 
a monthly pay of $2,000. One of them said they were also promised an extra 
payment for each “beheaded infidel.”
“The transfer of jihadists to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone reveals the 
intentions of the Turkish-Azerbaijani leadership to give the conflict an 
inter-religious character,” Armenia’s ministry said.
“This is a completely new manifestation of the expansion of terrorism, when 
foreign terrorist fighters and jihadists from the Middle East have been deployed 
to the conflict zone in the OSCE area; it is a serious threat to international 
and regional security and stability,” the statement added, stressing that 
“Armenia will continue to undertake consistent steps in the fight against 
international terrorism, in that regard cooperating with all interested 
partners.”
Russia, France, the United States, Iran and other countries and international 
organizations have also voiced their concern about credible reports of Syrian 
mercenaries being involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh fighting.
Azerbaijan and Turkey have denied recruiting any mercenaries to fight in the 
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, instead accusing Armenia of having PKK (Kurdish 
Workers’ Party) fighters and other mercenaries fighting on its side, a claim 
discarded by Yerevan as groundless.
Yerevan’s arguments on the presence of mercenaries on the Azerbaijani side have 
also been supported by multiple investigative reports by Western journalists, 
some of which alleged that Turkey began recruiting jihadist fighters to be later 
deployed in Azerbaijan as early as July.
In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun) last month one such 
journalist, Lindsey Snell, estimated that the number of Syrian mercenaries 
fighting for Azerbaijan at one point was around 2,000.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based human 
rights organization, at least 217 Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries have been 
killed in the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

CivilNet: Armenian PM to Jerusalem Post: Mercenaries, Islamic terrorists and Israel are now on the same side basically

Garo Vardanian
CIVILNET.AM

3 November, 2020 13:45

The interview was originally published on Jerusalem Post

Israel has lined up with Turkey, terrorists and Syrian mercenaries in backing Azerbaijan in the current conflict with Armenia, and will eventually suffer the consequence of that unholy alliance, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview on Monday.

Pashinyan, speaking from Yerevan through an interpreter via Zoom, blasted Jerusalem for arming Azerbaijan, which he said is intent on “carrying out genocide against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Pashinyan said Israel is now very actively engaged in the conflict, “because Israeli UAVs are actively used in the war against Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Armenia recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations in early October – just two weeks after it opened an embassy in Tel Aviv – to protest arms sales to its enemy.

“I think that Israel should think about the following,” the prime minister said. “Mercenaries, Islamic terrorists and Israel are now on the same side basically. So Israel should think, is this really a convenient position for it to be?”

Israel should also ponder, he made clear, whether it really wants to be on the same side in the conflict as Turkey, which he claims has moved thousands of Syrian mercenaries into Azerbaijan to fight against Nagorno-Karabakh.

President Reuven Rivlin, soon after Armenia recalled its ambassador, called his Armenian counterpart and offered humanitarian aid. Asked whether his country would be interested in Israeli humanitarian aid, Pashinyan replied bitterly: “Humanitarian aid by a country that is selling weapons to mercenaries, which they are using to strike a civilian peaceful population? I propose that Israel send that aid to the mercenaries and to the terrorists as the logical continuation of its activities.”

Israel has emerged over the last decade as Azerbaijan’s largest arms supplier, followed by Russia and Belarus. Israel views Azerbaijan, because of its strategic location on Iran’s border and the fact that it provides Israel with a large percentage of its oil needs, as one of its most important strategic allies.

Israel’s ties with Armenia, which has strong relations with neighboring Iran, as well as with Russia, have warmed up in recent years, and before the recall of the ambassador could have been characterized as “cordial.”
Pashinyan said the involvement of Turkey and Syrian mercenaries in the conflict has badly complicated the situation: “Their presence in the region poses a threat not only to Nagorno-Karabakh, but also Iran has stated that it views it as a threat, and Russia has stated that it views it as a threat.”

The Armenian prime minister said that while in the past there was only indirect evidence that Turkey was mobilizing Syrian mercenaries to fight in Azerbaijan, now there is concrete evidence since two mercenaries were recently captured by Nagorno-Karabakh forces.

“One of them has testified comprehensively, and said that he was living in a Turkish-controlled Syrian refugee camp. He described how he was recruited, described where they became engaged, and how they crossed the border into Turkey at an official check point, but without anyone asking them any questions or checking them.”

Pashinyan said the mercenaries were being promised $2,000 a month.

The prime minister said that what was so dangerous about this situation, and why the international community should take note and action against it, is because it represents a new Turkish modus operandi – what he called a “mechanism” – in its aim to “reinstate the Ottoman Empire, as strange as that may sound.”

This “mechanism” – recruiting mercenaries from among the Syrian population under Turkish control to advance Ankara’s foreign policy goals – has already been used in Libya, is now evident in Nagorno-Karabakh, “and who knows where it will be tried next,” he said.

“This is a totally new mechanism that has been put into place, and this mechanism may be manifested in different places and in different ways” as long as the international community does not respond.

“I am very glad that many countries in the Middle East, including many Arab countries, are making the proper assessment and calling this by its name, understanding what a threat this poses to international peace and stability,” he said.

Pashinyan said that certain “shifts are taking place in the international security system, and that those shifts also contain elements of hybrid warfare. Mercenaries are engaging in that warfare. And that hybrid warfare can be manifested in different ways – it can be manifested in ways which we see in Nagorno-Karabakh, or in ways in which we are seeing in Vienna, or in Nice, in France,” all recent sites of terror, or attempted terror acts, by Islamists.

The world needs to look at this new activity by Turkey and draw the necessary conclusions, because it will use this new way of implementing its foreign policy elsewhere as well, he predicted.

“Israel should ask itself the question – is it not fighting de facto alongside mercenaries against Nagorno-Karabakh? Is this a convenient position for it? If it is, God be with it. But I think that there will be specific consequences, and you will have to face those consequences.”

Pashinyan said it was only a matter of time before Turkey’s “imperialistic ambition” will be aimed toward Israel.
Asked if he was warning that at some point Turkey would mobilize Syrian mercenaries to march on Jerusalem, the prime minister said he was not warning about anything specific, but rather about the creation of a “political environment and political atmosphere, and the gaps which have emerged in the international security system. And if there are gaps, corridors and loopholes, somebody will try to pass through them. And this won’t necessarily be in one area, or in two areas, there will be traffic in all possible directions.”

Recognizing Artsakh’s Independence Will Stop Turkey and Azerbaijan’s War on Armenians

Karapet Navasardian
The National Interest
Nov 2 2020
 
 
 
Recognizing Artsakh’s Independence Will Stop
Turkey and Azerbaijan’s War on Armenians
 
The most recent conflict among these countries over Artsakh, also known as Nagorno Karabakh,
is sadly only a sequel in the series of their historic and deadly hatred of the Armenian people.
 
by Harout Ekmanian
 
History and fate have burdened the tiny, landlocked nation of Armenia, most recently ranked The Economist’s Country of the Year, with the misfortune of not only one, but two, hostile neighbors: Azerbaijan and Turkey. The most recent conflict among these countries over Artsakh, also known as Nagorno Karabakh, is sadly only a sequel in the series of their historic and deadly hatred of the Armenian people. While the Armenian Genocide, which destroyed two-thirds of Armenia’s population, may have been the apex of the goal to annihilate Armenians in the region, its legacy persists in the conflict today.
 
Of course, the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey have little love for their own citizens either. Azerbaijan is one of only three countries—along with North Korea and Syria—that declares itself a “constitutional republic,” but transfers power by inheritance within a ruling family. Ilham Aliyev has effectively elected himself president four times since 2003 and appointed his wife as First Vice President, just to be extra secure. The country is characterized by endemic corruption; the president’s offspring, with no clear sources of income, own banks, and mansions all over the world, according to the Azerbaijani Laundromat Project. In this oil-rich fiefdom, ordinary people lack basic rights in an “appalling” human rights environment and face endemic torture and ill-treatment of journalists, lawyers, and opposition activists. An Azerbaijani officer, who axed an Armenian colleague to death in his sleep during a NATO training in Hungary, was extradited to Azerbaijan and made a national hero. Among ordinary people, the word Armenian is used as an insult, encouraged by Aliyev personally.
 
Particularly since the attempted coup in 2016, the Turkish government also has abandoned any commitment to democratic norms, with a constitutional referendum granting Erdogan the authority to remain in power indefinitely. The government has jailed tens of thousands, seeing coup plotters in every corner, and used that excuse to jail journalists, activists, and political rivals and to destroy the country’s once independent media outlets. The country’s ruling class remains obsessed with what they still see as the “Armenian problem.” There are near-daily media attacks on Armenians as a global cabal in the press and ever-present threats and incitement by Erdogan himself, resulting, predictably, in ongoing hate crimes against the country’s remaining Armenian community, including the still “unsolved” murder of journalist Hrant Dink.
 
This long-simmering hatred has found its most recent outlet in Armenia’s conflict with Azerbaijan, closely allied with Turkey. One Turkish journalist in a government-run publication urged his government to intervene and “finish the job” of the Armenian Genocide with an “accidental” bomb in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. Of course, Turkey and Azerbaijan sometimes have diverging interests; Azerbaijan is majority Shia, while majority Sunni Turkey has often declared itself the global champion of Sunnis. But Erdogan and Aliyev are bonded in their shared antipathy towards Armenians, adopting the motto “one nation, two states.” Erdogan has now taken it up a notch, actually intervening in support of Azerbaijan—not only by holding joint military drills but also by stationing and using Turkish F-16s at the Ganja military airport, as well as recruiting hundreds of young Syrian mercenaries to fight against the Armenians. Turkey’s cabinet, and more precisely the defense minister, seems to be in charge of the Azeri army’s operations, while Azeri Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov has not been seen or heard from for at least the first ten days of the recent military escalation.
 
The center of the dispute, Artsakh, has always had a majority Armenian population and has formed an integral part of historic Armenia since it appeared on maps more than two millennia ago. In 1923, Stalin made Artsakh an autonomous enclave within Azerbaijan with the stroke of a pen, arbitrarily assigning boundaries to newly established Soviet states. But in 1988, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, the very first thing the majority Armenian population of Artsakh demanded was self-determination and re-unification with Armenia according to the Soviet laws of the time. This was even how Azerbaijan declared its own independence from the USSR. Azerbaijan refused to accept this, and only in 1994, after a brutal war, did local Armenians secure control over Artsakh. But Turkey, in solidarity with Azerbaijan, never modified its bellicose rhetoric against the Armenians. Since 1992, Ankara has helped enforce an extremely damaging economic blockade against Armenia, which must attempt to survive with over 89 percent of its borders closed.
 
Now, Azerbaijan is using not only Israeli and Turkish drones and weapons to bombard civilian towns in Artsakh and Armenia, but using wildly indiscriminate ones too. Since the first days of its attack, Azeri forces have been bombarding Stepanakert, Artsakh’s capital, with internationally banned cluster munitions via Lar-160 multiple rocket launchers, all made in Israel, killing hundreds of Armenian civilians. Azerbaijan blatantly violated three ceasefire agreements brokered by Russia, France and the United States during this month-long violence and resumed fighting.
 
Yesterday, Azerbaijan bombed a maternity hospital in Stepanakert, hours after a group of eighty genocide scholars made a statement on the imminent genocidal threat deriving from Azerbaijan and Turkey against the Armenians of Artsakh. For Armenia, a nation of three million up against the 92 million of Turkey and Azerbaijan, this is an existential battle waged by the powers who committed the first genocide of the twentieth century against them with impunity. For the international community, this should be a civilizational frontline against two murderous dictatorships driven by racial hate. After all, when such regimes get away with murder in one place, their crimes are mimicked and reach all corners of the globe.
 
 
 
Critically, it would cost the peaceful, democratic world almost nothing to stop the atrocities underway against not only the Armenians of Artsakh but also in Armenia proper. Unlike the tangled conflicts in so much of the world, in this situation peace can be secured by recognizing the right to self-determination of the Armenians of Artsakh as enshrined by the UN Charter, mounting diplomatic pressure on Turkey and Azerbaijan, as well as implementing the long-awaited U.S. sanctions against Turkey and reinstating the sanctions against Azerbaijan and its corrupt officials. It would be unconscionable not to exert this pressure on the two aggressors to avoid more losses of life.
 
Harout Ekmanian is a New York attorney specialized in international law and human rights. His views do not represent those of his employer or their clients.
 
 
 

​Russia’s Putin discussed Karabakh conflict separately with Armenian PM, Azeri president

Talar Tumanian
Reuters
Nov 2 2020
 
 
Russia’s Putin discussed Karabakh conflict separately with Armenian PM, Azeri president
 
By Reuters Staff
 
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s President Vladimir Putin discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh military conflict in phone calls with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Nov. 1 and with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev on Nov. 2, the Kremlin said on Monday.
 
“The issues of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have been discussed in detail,” the Kremlin said in a statement without elaborating.
 
The talks took place as fierce battles continued along the front line of a conflict that has killed at least 1,000 people, and possibly many more.
 
Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but is populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians.
 
Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh
 
 
 
 
 
 

Turkish-Russian Rivalry Enters Deadly New Phase

Toneyan Mark
The Times of Israel
Nov 2 2020

Andrew A. Leonard

Turkish-Russian relations are being strained by a series of regional standoffs throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and the Caucasus Region. Combustible in nature, these geopolitical flashpoints have sucked in a motley crew of state and non-state actors, resulting in humanitarian crises, destruction of urban infrastructure, and the forced reordering of localized political regimes.

Nowhere is this predicament more visible than in Idlib province, Northern Syria. Over the course of the Syrian Civil War, it has become hotly contested by multiple state and non-state players and is the last major holdout of myriad rebel factions opposing the Assad regime. On October 26th a Russian airstrike targeted the training camp of a Turkish-backed group based in Idlib, killing dozens. The Russian foreign ministry all but acknowledged its escalatory strike in a statement released later that day. “The Russian side reiterated its unfailing solidarity with the Syrian people, support to its sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov during a meeting with Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riyad Haddad. The group targeted, Faylaq al-Sham, has been instrumental in furthering Ankara’s interests in the Syrian Civil War. According to a tweet by Omer Ozkizilcik, an Ankara-based analyst at the Middle East Foundation with expertise on rebel factions in Northern Syria, the strikes were designed to disrupt Turkey’s influence in Idlib. “Attacking the HQ of Faylaq al-Sham is nothing ordinary. The group is responsible for protecting the Turkish presence in Idlib and an essential part of the Turkish-Russian ceasefire agreement,” the tweet read. In response to the airstrikes, Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan chastised Moscow, insisting “Russia’s attack targeting the Syrian National Army forces training centre is a sign that a lasting peace and calm is not wanted in the region.”

The next day, Turkish-backed rebels under the National Front for Liberation umbrella (of which Faylaq al-Sham is apart) launched a barrage of rockets and artillery fire at government-held positions in retaliation for the deadly Russian airstrikes. The recent spike in violence jeopardizes a joint Russian-Turkish ceasefire brokered in March that halted a Moscow-backed Syrian offensive to retake Idlib proper. The assault began in late 2019 and quickly overwhelmed the outgunned rebels. Eager to establish a protective buffer zone on its southwest border, Turkey deployed troops and military hardware to Idlib in late February 2020. By reinforcing rebel defenses in a campaign dubbed Operation Spring Shield, Ankara sought to prevent a rout of opposition forces and subsequent influx of Syrian refugees at the Syrian-Turkish border. In the end, Turkish drone and artillery strikes proved instrumental in halting the offensive, which ultimately displaced, killed, or injured thousands of civilians.

Moscow’s recent attempt to stir the pot may galvanize Turkish resolve against perceived threats to its southern border, which has previously been besieged by wartime refugees. If the past is indicative of future trends, Ankara may replicate Operation Spring Shield and flood Northern Syria with more soldiers, munitions, and heavy weaponry aimed at the Syria Arab Republic (SAR). Sustained attacks against its ailing client state will force Moscow to double down in the Levant, where its military assets have been deployed for over five years.

A recent flare-up in hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region has drawn in Turkey, who has thrown its political and military weight behind Baku, a fellow Turkic-dominated state. Humanitarian devastation in hotly contested Azeri territories (Nagorno-Karabakh included) held by ethnic Armenians has drawn the attention of The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “We are seeing civilian injuries and deaths, including children…Hundreds of homes and key infrastructures like hospitals and schools have been destroyed or damaged by this heavy artillery fire, by airborne attacks including missiles,” said ICRC spokeswoman Laetitia Courtois. Armed with Turkish and Israeli drones, the Azeris have gained the upper hand in a conflict which has killed thousands by most accounts. Thus far, three ceasefires have been broken since hostilities began on September 27. Shortly after the initial Russian-brokered ceasefire on October 10th, Turkey issued a statement calling on Armenia to completely withdraw from the Nagorno-Karabakh region as a precondition for peace talks. This position complicates the Russian-led mediation effort not only because it supports a radical departure from the 30-year status quo, but also highlights Turkey’s uncompromising stance on the conflict. On October 13th, Turkish politician Devlet Bahceli insisted that “Armenia was the side that violated the ceasefire as expected. Negotiating with the killer returned as bullets and bombs. Nagorno-Karabakh should not be taken on the table [through diplomacy], but should be taken via hitting Armenia in the head.”

The rise of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has confounded Russia’s ability to reign into orbit its satellite state. His grassroots ascendance to power in 2018 was based in part on an anti-corruption platform which resulted in the overthrow of Russian-backed political elites. Bereft of his preferred patronage levers, Putin has had marginal success in curbing Pashinyan’s Western-leaning policies, and animus between Moscow and Yerevan has emerged.

In light of cooling relations between the neighbor states, Russia has been reticent to fully back Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis. Until Armenia’s territorial integrity is violated, the Kremlin likely has little appetite for another proxy conflict with Turkey over a semi-autonomous mountain region with little strategic value. Indeed, a new armed intervention on behalf of Armenia would likely stretch thin Moscow’s military assets, which are currently deployed in Syria, Libya, and Ukraine. In the same vein, Turkish force projections in Syria, Libya, and the eastern Mediterrean risks overreach as well.

Russia’s hands-off approach to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict may give it greater flexibility to outflank Turkish backing of Baku in other arenas. The recent airstrike in Northern Syria on Turkey’s pet proxy, Faylaq al-Sham, is likely meant as a warning to Ankara to scale back its support for Azerbaijan’s offensive. But this rationale can be a two-way street. Turkey could checkmate the Kremlin’s Idlib attack by ramping up military aid to Baku, further tipping the scales in Azerbaijan’s favor while driving up regional instability in one fell swoop. A Russian headache would certainly ensue from such a scenario, per its status as the Caucasus Region’s traditional power broker.

In war-torn Libya, Turkey and Russia have each backed opposing sides in an effort to achieve regional aspirations. Ankara’s endgame is extracting energy resources from the beleaguered Government of National Accord’s (GNA) Exclusive Economic Zone in exchange for arms and diplomatic backing, while Russia seeks to further its own regional influence vis-a-vis General Khalifa Haftar, a remnant of the bygone Gaddafi era. Both parties have outsourced their “boots on the ground” to non-state actors; Moscow has relied on the services of the Wagner Group, a shadowy, Russia military contractor who specializes in maintaining its benefactor’s plausible deniability, while Turkey has added Syrian mercenaries to the myriad tribal forces constituting the GNA army. Ankara’s military intervention came as Haftar’s foreign-backed forces were near the outskirts of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in late-2019. Backed by Turkish drones and warships, GNA forces repelled Haftar’s coalition of African and Russian mercenaries and captured a wide swath of northwestern Libya. Ankara’s actions secured not only the future viability of the GNA, but also its stake in shaping western Libya’s future political trajectory and reaping its offshore gas reserves.  Despite Ankara’s initial success in turning the momentum in the GNA’s favor, a Turkish-led counteroffensive to take Sirte, one of Haftar’s strategic strongholds, was routed by a Russian air campaign in July. The ensuing stalemate was an implicit admission by both Russia and Turkey that further escalation amounted to a zero-sum game, and on October 23rd a ceasefire was formalized.

As Turkish and Russian interests collide on shared battlefronts, the proximity of their respective armed forces narrows. Subsequently, the potential for military miscalculation increases between the two regional heavyweights. Putin and Erdogan share similar leadership qualities; while both are shrewd tacticians, their egos which must be satisfied in one way or another. As the past has shown, overreach by one leader will warrant a forceful response from the other. Add to this climate a dash of nationalistic fervor, and one gains a better understanding of just how dangerous the Turkish-Russian rivalry is becoming.


The United Nations is a paper tiger

Bedik Zaminian
Online Opinion, Australia
Nov 2 2020
 
 
 
 
By Peter Bowden – posted Monday, 2 November 2020
 
The Armenia and Azerbaijan war is a superb example of the UN’s problems. This war is a territorial dispute over the Armenia-backed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, located inside Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan are two former Soviet republics in the Caucasus. The dispute between Yerevan and Baku, respective capitals of each country, is over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, predominantly ethnic Armenian. The Soviet authorities merged it into Azerbaijan in 1921.After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenian separatists seized it in a move supported by Armenia. In that war 1991 -1994, about 30,00 people were killed. An independence referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh on 10 December 1991, approved by 99.98% of voters. Armenia, a Christian country, the official date of state adoption of which is 301 AD, has faced political and economic instability since it gained independence from the former USSR.Corruption is a big problem. Azerbaijan, on the Caspian Sea, has been under the authoritarian grip of a single family since 1993. It has a Muslim majority.With approximately three times the size of its rival, in population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), boosted substantially by large oil and gas reserves, Azerbaijan can better dominate a war of attrition.
 
The New York Times reports (19 October,2020) that three weeks of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave that is part of Azerbaijan under international law, has settled into a brutal war of attrition. The Armenians are defenceless against the Azerbaijani drones that hover overhead and kill at will. About 300 – 400 Armenians have been killed in the current conflict.
 
Azerbaijan has deployed firepower superior to Armenia’s, using advanced drones and artillery systems that it buys from Israel, Turkey and Russia. But it has failed to convert that advantage into broad territorial gains, indicating more conflict to come.
 
 
 
Heydar Aliyev, a former officer of the KGB, ruled Azerbaijan until his death in October 2003. He handed over power to his son, Ilham, only weeks before. Ilham has made his wife, Mehriban, Azerbaijan’s first vice president.Turkey, with ambitions to be regional power in the Caucasus, has thrown its weight behind oil-rich and Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan.Armenia is hostile towards Turkey over the killing of Armenians by Turkey under the Ottoman Empire during World War I.The Young Turk regime killed 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923, a massacre which Turkey denies. The veracity of the Armenian genocide, details of which can be found on several websites, is widely accepted.
 
Readers in the West may be ideologically inclined to support Armenia. Others of us believe that if the people in a region vote for independence then they must be given that independence. Barcelona is a good example. Other reasons exist for intervening. The Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations states that it was established to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations provides that the UN seek solutions to conflict. The Security Council is the organ with primary responsibility, under the United Nations Charter. The Charter gives the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.
 
Has the United Nations done anything on the Armenian Azerbaijan conflict?The UN Security Council has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to immediately halt the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and urgently resume talks. The Secretary General has issued his standard “Tut! Tut! Naughty Boys!” But that is all. The UN has implemented more than 70 peace keeping operations since its inception. Even the threat of intervention by the Blue Helmets would ensure that the bombing and shelling, mostly of civilians, would stop. But it has done next to nothing.
 
Why? Is it because most of us have only the haziest idea of where these two countries are located? And we do not care? Why do we not demand of our own government to initiate peacekeeping steps? Is it because the United States, usually a prime mover on UN peacekeeping resolutions, is too preoccupied with Donald Trump and his election? Is it because the United Nations is mostly a paper tiger? It will step in when the United States urges, but not of its own initiative? The writer of this opinion piece seeks other opinions.
 
There are many other examples where the United Nations has failed to implement its peace keeping charter. Syria is another good example What started as a nonviolent uprising in the mainly Sunni province of DarÊ¿Ä, in southern Syria, that the first major protests occurred in March 2011. A group of children had been arrested and tortured by the authorities for writing antiregime graffiti; has escalated into a full-fledged civil war. The war was essentially a sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims. The Shia sects being represented by the Alawite faction. The regime of Bashar Al Assad cracked down violently, and civil war broke out. The US and several other countries joined in support of the rebels. Al Assad was confirmed by an unopposed referendum in July 2000. He was confirmed again on 27 May 2007 with 97.6% of the vote.
 
97.6% of the vote appears very suspicious, somewhat like Alexander Lukashenko’s 80% in Belarus. Once again, the UN could have supervised this election. There are many dictators. Freedom House tells us that there are 50 dictatorships in the world (19 in Sub-Saharan Africa, 12 in the Middle East and North Africa, 8 in Asia-Pacific, 7 in Eurasia, 3 in the Americas and 1 in Europe).
 
 
 
It may be because the governments of this world are unwilling to give the United Nations too much power. They are wary of creating a world government. The five superpowers at the Security Council (China, Russia, France, United States, United Kingdom) would lose their veto of ” substantive ” issues.
 
But it is conceivable that they may be willing to create a world policeman. A United Nations policing force, assigned the sole task of preventing world conflicts. Countries would regularly assign troops to the extent that they were judged economically capable.
 
The policeman would have a limited number of tasks. To stop wars, ensure elections at reasonable intervals, ensure that the elections were not rigged, police commitments in international agreements. The world would be a safer and happier place with an effective world policeman.
 
China might present a problem. Xi Jinping recently had himself elected for life .It is indubitably a dictatorship, one that squashes numbers of its citizens (Uighurs, Tibetans,) and plays heavily in foreign trade and in the South China Sea. It is the world’s second largest power and also has veto power in the Security Council. The alliance of South East Asian Nations on China, The Quad, eventually spreading across the nations of this world, may convince Xi that he does not have world support.
 
 
 
 

ANCA: Bayraktar drones deployed by Azerbaijan against Armenian civilians contain parts and technology from U.S. firms

Adrine Hakobian
Public Radio of Armenia
Nov 2 2020
ANCA: Bayraktar drones deployed by Azerbaijan against Armenian civilians contain parts and technology from U.S. firms

Battlefield evidence confirms that Turkey’s Bayraktar Drones – deployed by Azerbaijan against Armenian civilians in Artsakh – contain parts and technology from U.S. firms, U.S.-based affiliates of foreign firms, and firms located in NATO ally countries (UK, France, Germany, Austrian, and Netherlands).

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is providing this information documenting violations of U.S. and international law – including U.S. Arms Export Control laws – to the State Department, Pentagon, Justice Department and the U.S. Congress.

Airborne Modem Transceiver
ViaSat
Carlsbad, CA

Antenna
Comant Industries
Fullerton, CA

GPS Receiver
Trimble Navigation
Sunnyvale, CA

Fuel Filter
Hengst
Camden, SC – US affiliate of German firm

Stub Bus Coupler
MilesTek
Lewisville, TX

GPS Navigation Unit
Garmin
Olathe, KS – U.S. affiliate of Swiss firm

Optical Unit
Wescam
Orlando, FL – U.S. affiliate of Canadian firm

Radar Altimetre
Smart Microwave Sensors
Irvine, CA – U.S. affiliate of German firm

Sealed Fuel Reservoir
Beringer
Greenville, SC – U.S. affiliate of French firm

CANADA:

Antenna Radio Transmitter and Amplifier
MicroHard Systems
Calgary, Canada

EUROPE:

Engine
AeroShell
Hague, Netherlands

Fuel Pump
Andair
United Kingdom


Deployment of terrorists to Karabakh conflict zone a serious threat to international and regional security – Armenian MFA

Kalantarian Kevo
Public Radio of Armenia

Nov 2 2020

On November 1, during the military actions the military units of the Artsakh Defense Army captured the second terrorist fighter employed by the Azerbaijani side in the military hostilities against Artsakh, who introduced himself as Yusuf Alaabet al-Hajji, a resident of the village of Ziyadiya in the Jisr al-Shughur region of Idlib province of Syria.

Another terrorist fighter captured by the Artsakh Defense Army on October 30 introduced himself as Mehrab Muhammad Al-Shkheir from the Syrian city of Hama.

“The Armenian side has repeatedly voiced out about the recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters and jihadists by Turkey from various “hot spots” in the Middle East, particularly from Libya and the areas under its control in Syria, and their subsequent transfer and deployment to the region with the purpose of committing atrocities against the people of Artsakh,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a Statement.

It noted that the above-mentioned fact is not merely confirmed by the intelligence services of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, a number of our partners and international community, but also by the direct testimonies of the terrorists.

“In their testimonies the above-mentioned terrorists provided detailed information about their recruitment process, the expected monthly payment for fighting against “kafirs” (infidels), the extra payment for each beheaded “infidel”, as well as about their envisaged terroristic plans. The transfer of jihadists to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone reveals the intentions of the Turkish-Azerbaijani leadership to give the conflict an inter-religious character,” the Foreign Ministry stated.

It said “this is a completely new manifestation of expansion of terrorism, when foreign terrorist fighters and jihadists from the Middle East have been deployed to the conflict zone in the OSCE area; it is a serious threat to the international and regional security and stability.”

“Armenia will continue to undertake consistent steps in the fight against international terrorism, in that regard cooperating with all interested partners,” the Foreign Ministry stated.