15:50,
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Mikayel Zalinyan has been appointed secretary general of the Civil Aviation Committee.
The respective decision has been signed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and is posted on e-gov.am.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
17:30,
YEREVAN, 27 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 27 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.32 drams to 484.97 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 4.92 drams to 567.71 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.02 drams to 6.78 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 4.92 drams to 622.99 drams.
The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.
Gold price up by 351.77 drams to 29657.82 drams. Silver price down by 6.24 drams to 350.43 drams. Platinum price up by 286.93 drams to 14422.74 drams.
17:22,
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Nearly 313 230 000 drams were donated to the Military Insurance Fund from July 17 to 27, the Fund said on Facebook.
29% of these donations were made through the website, 10% – through Paypal, and 61% – through bank transfer.
The donations were made by Armenians living in early 55 countries.
In the aforementioned period most of the donations were made from Armenia, the United States, Russia, Canada, France, Germany, etc.
On July 20, in response to the letters and requests of numerous Armenians who wanted to provide a financial assistance to the Army, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan urged to transfer the donations to the Military Insurance Fund.
Just 10 hours after the PM’s call, nearly 1000 transfers were made to the Fund.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
17:22,
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Nearly 313 230 000 drams were donated to the Military Insurance Fund from July 17 to 27, the Fund said on Facebook.
29% of these donations were made through the website, 10% – through Paypal, and 61% – through bank transfer.
The donations were made by Armenians living in early 55 countries.
In the aforementioned period most of the donations were made from Armenia, the United States, Russia, Canada, France, Germany, etc.
On July 20, in response to the letters and requests of numerous Armenians who wanted to provide a financial assistance to the Army, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan urged to transfer the donations to the Military Insurance Fund.
Just 10 hours after the PM’s call, nearly 1000 transfers were made to the Fund.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
14:31,
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of the Republic of Artsakh Samvel Babayan released a statement over the new National Security Strategy of Armenia.
Armenia’s new National Security Strategy was adopted on July 10 at the session of the Security Council.
“This new National Security Strategy of Armenia has a separate reference to Artsakh, titled “ensuring the security of Artsakh”, which is not accidentally combined with Armenia’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. The global and regional fundamental transformations, which have been reflected in the National Security Strategy of Armenia, have not, however, changed Armenia’s view on the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict as a key threat to Armenia and also on the use of force by Azerbaijan as a main threat in the context of this conflict.
With this document the Republic of Armenia is reaffirming the fact of being the guarantor of Artsakh’s security, outlining the following: committed to the OSCE Minsk Group’s mediation mission we continue acting from the positions of peacefully settling the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict with the principle of mutual concession.
The principle of the peoples’ right to self-determination, enshrined in the UN’s declarations, the international human rights agreements, will be on the basis of the peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, as an exclusive right of the Artsakh-Armenians to determine their own fate. Atrsakh will be transformed from the conflict object to a subject, returning to the negotiation table, thus, exercising the subjectivity of the authorities elected by the Artsakh people. There is no alternative to the international recognition of the Republic of Artsakh.
The security of Artsakh cannot be put for an auction. The Security Council of Artsakh will develop a concept for the settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict which will be put for a public debate with the participation of concerned sides”, the statement says.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
16:05,
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. During the current novel coronavirus pandemic, Armenia’s economic activity index, starting from May, is growing compared to the previous month.
According to the data released by the National Statistical Committee, the economic activity index increased by 13.3% in May compared to April, meanwhile, the index in June increased by 14.8% compared to May.
Moreover, in June, compared to May, both the industrial production, the construction volumes, the trade turnover, the services volume and the external trade turnover have increased. In particular, in June, compared to May, the expert volume grew by 14.7%, and the import grew by 13.1%. The construction volume increased by 21.6% in June compared to May.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
On July 12, 2020, fighting re-erupted between the ex-Soviet Republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, this time an Azerbaijani major general was killed, its foreign minister was fired, followed by a threat by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense to blow up Armenia’s nuclear power station. As the fog of war lifts, we can fill some of the puzzle pieces with better-established facts.
To understand this subject requires some background knowledge. The Soviet Union was assembled not to allow any constituent republic or local ethnic group to have enough critical mass to free itself either politically or economically. Stalin moved previous “republics” from one jurisdiction to another, and if that didn’t work, deported entire ethnic groups. This social manipulation took place before his 1930s reign of terror, where he rounded up people across the Soviet Union based on the slightest offense or none at all. Those lucky enough not to get shot ended up in Siberia or equivalent.
The Caucasus region of the southern Soviet Union was a mixture of many ethnic groups. The politics of that region, Stalin’s bizarre ethnic policies, and external forces determined internal jurisdictional borders. For example, the previous “Republic” of Abkhazia was placed under Georgian jurisdiction in 1932. It stayed that way until the fall of the Soviet Union. Similarly, the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was well over ninety percent Armenian in the early 1920s, was placed under Azerbaijani jurisdiction. There were many reasons for this; most prominent was the Soviet Union’s need for recognition and international acceptance. Mustafa Kemal, who headed the Turkish republican movement, proclaimed himself an anti-imperialist, which was all Lenin and follow-on, Stalin, needed to hear. Both states had an interest in carving up the Caucasus for their ends. The majority of survivors of the Turkish genocide of the Armenians ended up in the Caucasus, and the politics of demanding justice by Armenians was considered by the Soviets, a grotesque _expression_ of nationalism. It was in the combined interest of both Turkey and Stalin to quell any appearance of Armenian national demands. If an Armenian was caught with a personal handwritten genocide memoir, the price was a one-way trip to Siberia. Further, the creation of a Soviet Azerbaijani republic both moderated Armenian national _expression_ and cemented Turkish efforts to create a second Turkish state, albeit under Soviet control.
Azerbaijani jurisdiction over Nagorno-Karabakh has a role in the Bolshevik’s effort to enhance its credibility in the eyes of the then world superpower, the British. British backing for Azerbaijani control of Nagorno-Karabakh was somewhat complicated. Some of it was in reaction to the Ottoman Empire’s dismemberment and associated fear by its Muslim subjects, particularly those in British-administered India. Gandhi was already protesting British rule in India. British political support for any Muslims controlling non-Muslim peoples helped quell unrest already brewing in the post-Sykes-Picot dismemberment plan for the Middle East. With Baku floating in oil, Britain seeking concessions in oil-rich Iraq, London’s open support for demands of both Islamic and Turkish nationalist forces was in their interest, at the expense of the indigenous Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Since the early 1920s, Armenians would periodically petition Moscow to transfer Azerbaijani jurisdiction of the Autonomous Region of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. This effort was unsuccessful. In parallel, Soviet Politburo member Heydar Aliyev, the father of today’s Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, as far back as the 1970s, actively encouraged Azerbaijanis to move into Nagorno-Karabakh and attract the best and brightest Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh to Baku and other places. Haydar Aliyev’s ultimate goal was to have enough of an Azerbaijani demographic in Nagorno-Karabakh, and with their exclave of Nakhichevan, the small Armenian land separating the two regions, being compelled into an expanded Soviet Azerbaijani jurisdiction. The approaching disintegration of the Soviet Union ended Haydar Aliyev’s plans, but the issue remained unresolved.
Continuous Armenian protests broke out during the period of Glasnost and Perestroika demanding Nagorno-Karabakh unite with Armenia. The reaction in Azerbaijan was swift with the 1988 pogroms of Armenians in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait. Armenians were subsequently violently expelled from across Azerbaijan. Azerbaijanis living in Armenia were expelled. Low-level fighting had already begun across Nagorno-Karabakh. Fighting neared full-scale in early 1990 with the expulsion of over a quarter-million Armenians from the Azerbaijani capital, Baku.
In May of 1994, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a truce, and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh gained full sovereignty over this region. Since then, border clashes continued between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces. See the accompanying map. The heaviest fighting since 1994 was in April of 2016 when hundreds of soldiers died, and Armenia lost something on the order of eight hundred hectares of land.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been in an arms race, with each side attempting to tip the balance. Azerbaijan is a hydrocarbon exporting and transporting state; it has more funds dedicated to arms purchases than Armenia. However, Armenians are known as better soldiers. This difference was borne out over the past two weeks. Azerbaijan claims it has purchased over five billion dollars of Israeli high tech weaponry, including some of the world’s most advanced Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly called drones. Russia still appears as the leading supplier of arms to both sides, although Armenia being a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), has an advantage with Russia.
Azerbaijan also supplies half of Israel’s crude oil and some of Europe’s gas requirements. British Petroleum’s (BP) investment in Azerbaijan’s hydrocarbon infrastructure is seventy-five billion dollars. Azerbaijan engages in rather wide-spread political marketing of its claim that the region of Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to them based on internationally recognized borders. However, these borders were drawn by Stalin. Azerbaijan also points to UN resolutions alluding to the same. In contrast, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh exercise sovereignty over this region, rebuilt its capital, Stepanakert, that was ninety-percent destroyed by Azerbaijan shelling between 1988 and 1994. The overall death toll by the 1994 truce was 30,000.
Negotiations have dragged on for a generation. Azerbaijan demands Armenians completely relinquish the sovereignty they have over Nagorno-Karabakh in exchange for the promise of the highest degree of autonomy. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan has socialized a full generation of Azerbaijanis to hate all things Armenian. The chance of any peaceful Azerbaijani takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh is virtually zero. Armenians would be violently expelled or killed outright.
When Azerbaijan claims to offer Nagorno-Karabakh all the benefits of “broadest autonomy” under Azerbaijani jurisdiction, such offers are operationally impossible to enact. Not only was “broadest autonomy” noted during earlier negotiations multiple times, but specific references were made to Aland Islands, Tatarstan, Northern Ireland, South Tyrol, Trieste, and Catalonia by political historians in Baku. Taking Finland’s Aland Island as an example, if such status were a real offer, operationally it would mean:
Azerbaijan’s constitution would have to change, as it is currently a unitary state. If Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians were to accept autonomy under Azerbaijani rule, surely other ethnic minorities who find themselves under Azerbaijani jurisdiction, such as the Lezgin and Talysh, will demand geo-ethnic freedom. None of this is in the interest of the Azerbaijani state.
Armenian will become an official language within Azerbaijan, as will other non-Azerbaijani languages.
Nagorno-Karabakh will have a direct say in Baku’s foreign policy direction and decisions. This is not in the interest of the Azerbaijani state.
Also, if Azerbaijani demands for the return of all displaced peoples were enacted:
Armenians would return to Baku, displacing Azerbaijanis living in their former homes. Azerbaijanis, who lived in Nagorno-Karabakh, would return to either destroyed, non-existent, or weather-ravaged homes. None of this is in the interest of the Azerbaijani state or its people.
Armeno-phobia, having reached such a level in Azerbaijan, equates all evil with Armenians; inter-ethnic strife would run rampant across Azerbaijan, probably uncontrollable for years.
The reality of Armenian sovereignty over themselves and the region of Nagorno-Karabakh is in stark contrast to Azerbaijani zero-sum land claims. Azerbaijan has forced itself into an aggressive militaristic position. Anything less would appear conciliatory to Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, the guarantor of Nagorno-Karabakh’s sovereignty.
On July 12, 2020, an Azerbaijani UAZ military jeep approached an Armenian military post in northeast Armenia. The jeep was warned off, with the soldiers running off abandoning the vehicle. A group of Azerbaijani soldiers returned, some say to retrieve the jeep, and a battle ensued. These series of events appeared to be the catalyst for the latest flare-up in the fighting. What caused Azerbaijani soldiers to approach an Armenian post? Usually, the least complicated answer becomes the leading hypotheses in such cases.
A hypothesis would be incompetence on the part of the Azerbaijani soldiers and their local Azerbaijani commanders. A competing hypothesis is that Azerbaijanis were looking for a fight. I don’t think it’s the latter unless things are disintegrating in the Azerbaijani armed forces. The Azerbaijani losses were too high for this to be planned. Not only did Azerbaijan lose some highland real estate to Armenians in battles after re-securing the jeep, but also:
Lost a major general and colonel. What these ranking officers were doing so close to the front is a mystery in itself.
Lost a dozen more soldiers in battles with Armenians.
Lost two attempts to re-take these highlands by an elite force of “highly-trained” Azerbaijani soldiers. Both attempts resulted in many Azerbaijani casualties. The second attempt, on July 22, resulted in Azerbaijani soldiers trapped and are probably POWs now.
Lost a $30M Israeli-made Hermes 900 UAV, shot down by a missile.
Lost another dozen or so UAVs, including two other Israeli models of UAVs.
Lost a Foreign Minister whose Azerbaijani President Aliyev accused of pandering to Armenians.
After these losses, the Azerbaijan Defense Ministry threatened to blow up Armenia’s nuclear plant. The Azerbaijani military placed artillery and tanks in Azerbaijani towns, so if Armenians retaliated, Baku would blame Armenians for attacking civilians. In the hours after July 12, 2020, Azerbaijani forces prevented their civilians from fleeing Azerbaijani border villages. In 1992 the same Azerbaijani “human shield” technique was used in Khojali, Nagorno-Karabakh, with many innocent Azerbaijani civilians succumbing to the crossfire.
On July 15-16, 2020, tens of thousands of protesters in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital, were chanting “Allahu Akbar”, “Death to Armenia,” and “Send us to fight” following Azerbaijan’s latest defeats on the battlefield. On the first night, protesters broke into the parliament building.
On July 15, 2020, an ethnic minority in Azerbaijan, the Talysh, threatened rallies of 150 thousand participants. Azerbaijani security forces preempted their demands for local autonomy.
Since Armenia proper was attacked, the Armenian government informed the CSTO of the events of July 12. Eventually, when it was apparent Armenia was able to protect itself, any emergency CSTO meeting was not necessary.
Turkey pledged its support for Azerbaijan by offering military equipment, including its attack drone, the Bayraktar. There are unconfirmed reports of these already in Azerbaijan.
Even before any smoke cleared, pundits claimed this latest flare-up is part of a larger Armenian plan to drag the CSTO into fighting Azerbaijan. Others claimed this latest fighting is a Turkish-Russian proxy battle, considering Russia and Turkey are becoming conflicting sides in Syria, Libya, the Gulf, the Balkans, etc. Azerbaijan claims Armenia was taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, although it is not clear how. It is dangerous to cherry-pick conjecture to fit politically desirable conclusions.
Social media participants strive to determine who started this latest fighting. It is almost irrelevant who did. The current situation does not bode well for Azerbaijan. It lost a Major general and colonel, well over a dozen soldiers, probably lost more as POWs, has an angry population out for blood, and ethnic minorities are protesting. Moreover, it has a big reset at its Foreign Ministry, which will severely hamper whatever has sufficed for negotiations.
David Davidian is a lecturer at the American University of Armenia. He was a Nuclear Reactor Engineer at a major US nuclear facility and holds three US patents. His long high technology career included being IBM Federal’s Systems Architect for the US Air Force. He has spent over a decade in technical intelligence analysis.
1 – Turkish Intellectuals Acknowledge
The Armenian Genocide on TV Program
Part III – Final
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Armenian forces repel continued Azerbaijani assault in Tavush
3 – Armenia Fights Coronavirus Pandemic As Azerbaijan Continues
Border Attacks
4- San Francisco KZV Armenian School Vandalized
5- Thunberg Wins Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity
*****************************************
******************************************
1 – Turkish Intellectuals Acknowledge
The Armenian Genocide on TV Program
Part III – Final
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
This is the third and final article on a lengthy video in which two
Turkish Intellectuals are advocating the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide by the Republic of Turkey. The discussion took place in 2015
on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The conversation
between Erdogan Aydin and Aydin Chubukchu is in Turkish with English
subtitles on the video. The name of the one hour and 37 minute-long
program is Tower of Babel. The title of the program is “Facing the
Genocide.” The Turkish discussion was translated and subtitled in
English by Ohannes Kilicdagi, PhD. Here is the final segment of the
excerpts from that discussion:
Moderator: “A question from the TV audience: ‘There are those in this
country [Turkey] who are more Armenian than Armenians….’”
Aydin Chubukchu: “It is wrong to say that genocide was carried on
Turks. It is true that they died massively. They died in the war as
soldiers. Turkish people rather died at the front where their state
sent them: In Gallipoli, Sarikamish, Yemen…Suez, Galicia….”
Moderator: “We cannot call these [Turkish] deaths genocide.”
Aydin Chubukchu: “Of course, we cannot. They died in the war.”
Erdogan Aydin: “For example, the Jewish genocide took place in
Germany. Almost three times more Germans died than Jews. But one
cannot evaluate them under the same category and express condolences
for both.”
Moderator: “You mentioned the Germans who died in the Second World War.”
Aydin Chubukchu: “The one died in the clash of two armies, the other
was civilians massacred by a state. It is not the same thing. Of
course, Turks died, millions died. True. But they died in battles.
There is no state massacring them in Turkey. As for ‘being more
Armenian than Armenians’—right. If the Armenian people are oppressed
and silenced, I will be more Armenian than Armenians and try to be
their voice. If somewhere the Turkish people are oppressed and
silenced by a state then I will be more Turk than Turks and defend
them. I will be more Alevi than the Alevi and defend all who are
silenced: Circassian, Kurd, Arab, Assyrian. I will be more Armenian
than Armenians, more Assyrian than Assyrians to give them voice. This
is not an insult. If that person asking the question is trying to
insult me by saying ‘more Armenian than Armenians,’ it is my honor to
stand in solidarity with the oppressed people.”
Erdogan Aydin: In answer to a question regarding the role of Germany
in the Armenian Genocide: “They [Germans] played an essential role,
but we should be careful not to give the impression that the
[Armenian] genocide was carried out by the Germans.”
Moderator: “You say this does not acquit our Ottomans.”
Erdogan Aydin: “Exactly, because the annihilation of Armenians was
part Islamization and Turkification of this land, beginning before the
war. The policy of Islamization and Turkification of this land,
meaning the cleansing of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians served the
purpose of Germans who then made the Ottoman Empire and Enver Pasha
their collaborators, so that they would use a wider area of influence
against Russia and also please their collaborators. While pleasing the
Turan dream of their allies, Germany would use the whole Ottoman land
for its own system of exploitation…. The war was seen as an
opportunity for the elimination of distinct domestic groups. The
Ottoman sovereigns of the time aimed two main goals when they entered
the war. First is the founding of a Turan Empire from the Adriatic to
the China Wall leaning on the Germans, through their war mechanism.
Secondly, the war provided them an extraordinary free hand, as no one
could interfere in their domestic affairs. So, on this rare occasion,
they aimed to clean all distinct identities from Anatolia…. This
project is also the reason for sending millions of Ottomans, Turks and
Muslims in the first place, to their deaths. So the responsibility of
the deaths of Turks, in the question you asked, also belongs to those
following Turanism as Talat and Enver. The responsibility for the
annihilation of the whole Armenian population, kids and youth, also
belongs to Talats and Envers…. We should also underline that Armenians
had been organized here 3,000 years before Turks came from Central
Asia…. It is said that they [Armenians] were sent away from war zones.
No! This is an absolute lie. Besides the war zone, they [Armenians]
were exiled from places such as Adapazar, Izmit, Bursa, Eskishehir….
An approach that is based on the state but not the people and their
rights cannot generate democracy and justice. Similarly, people who do
not imagine fatherland with the rights of those living there but as a
piece of soil with a sovereign cannot produce real wealth and justice.
If we could carry our land into the future with Armenians who had been
there before us, we would see how much they, as a people who
constructed European-like cities 100-150 years before, would increase
our material wealth. If they were still here in Turkey, we would have
a higher rank in the unjust global income distribution. If that people
were here today, and we could oppose all powerholders, Turk, Armenian,
Kurd together, murders in Soma and Torunlar would have not happened.
So, facing the Armenian Question calmly means to re-explore
patriotism, our history, wealth, democracy, justice and humanity. It
seems we should repeat to our friends, authors, professors, academics
who try to cover it as ‘deportation’ that those who were deported were
ordinary people (pregnant women, children, the elderly), but not armed
people. We should repeat that our friends and neighbors were deported,
our humanity and conscience with them. Unfortunately, we continuously
talk about the state and its right in a country where they do not
exist. But the state is a mechanism of sovereignty with no conscience
and morality. Humans have conscience, morality, feeling of solidarity,
and their struggle for rights. Democracy is a system where the state
is the weakest and the human is the strongest…. Some of our friends
ask about documents. We should also be freed from document fetishism.
The most important document is the absence of a whole people which
once was one of the essential elements of this land. There cannot be
any document bigger than this. Moreover, a power which was
cold-blooded enough to do such inhuman things, deported, eradicated,
exiled a people, would not leave a document saying ‘I deported and
annihilated you.’ But we can already infer many conclusions from
existing documents….”
Correction: In the previous two articles, I had mistakenly transposed
the names of the speakers Erdogan Aydin and Aydin Chubukchu.
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2- Armenian forces repel continued Azerbaijani assault in Tavush
By Raffi Elliott
YEREVAN (The Armenian Weekly)—Azerbaijani special forces attempted to
capture a section of the Armenian front line on the night of July 21,
ending almost five days of relative calm. According to Armenian
Defense Ministry (MOD) Spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan, the assault was
repelled with an unknown number of casualties inflicted on the
intruders. No Armenian casualties were recorded that day.
On July 23, however, 19-year-old soldier Artur Muradyan died after
sustaining severe injuries during Azerbaijani shelling.
These reports were denounced by Azerbaijan as false. “There were no
new attacks, let alone casualties, from our side,” declared
Stepanyan’s Azeri counterpart, Vagif Dargahli. “The Armenian report is
yet another disinformation.” However, the Armenian military has
revealed that several Azerbajiani servicemen who participated in the
raid remain trapped in the no-man’s land between the opposing lines. A
search is being conducted to retrieve them. According to reports, calm
had returned to the region, with the occasional sniper fire being
heard. On the night of July 26, an Armenian soldier, Ashot Gevorkovich
Mikaelyan was killed by an Azerbaijani sniper.
The position in question—known to Armenians as “Anvakh” (Fearless)
Ridge—nestled on the border between Tavush and the adjacent Azeri
province of Tovuz was also the target of a previous disastrous Azeri
assault on July 16 at the tail end of the latest round of fighting
which broke out 10 days ago and killed four Armenian and 12 Azeri
servicemen, as well as one civilian. The repeated targeting of the
site has led some Armenian analysts to speculate about the position’s
strategic importance to Azerbaijani military objectives.
On Tuesday, the Armenian Ministry of Defense displayed a number of
downed Azeri Air Force Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) at a press
event in Yerevan. According to the MOD, the Azeri Airforce lost a
total of $150 million worth of foreign-supplied drone equipment. On
display were several Israeli-made Elbit SkyStriker, Harop, Thunder-B
and Orbiter combat drones, including, as analyst Emil Sanamyan pointed
out, at least some trophies that appear to have been shot down during
the 2016 Four Day War, with at least one dating from 2011.
Additionally, the medium-size, multi-payload Hermes 900 which Armenia
claimed to have shot down last week, was notably absent from the
display. Baku, in turn, says it downed two Armenian UAVs—a claim which
has been denied in Yerevan.
UAVs have played a significant role in the most recent round of
fighting on the border, exemplifying the increased reliance that both
militaries have placed on them in the last decade. UAVs are now
employed in multiple roles when deployed in operational theaters
including reconnaissance missions, artillery spotting and—more
recently—lethal payload delivery. Azerbaijan became the first country
to successfully employ an Israeli-designed ‘suicide drone’ during the
2016 fighting when one was deployed against a military utility vehicle
traveling to the front line. That incident gained further controversy
when Israel’s Justice Ministry later revealed that what the firm
described as a “demonstration” was actually a strike that injured two
ethnic Armenian fighters, leading to a temporary ban on exports of
such weapons systems.
With over three dozen drone kills claimed since 2011, Armenia holds a
global record for the number of Israeli-made UAVs shot down, leading
some to question the effectiveness of the technology. The Armenian Air
Defense Command asserts that domestically-modified 9K33 Osa
surface-to-air missiles allowed them to down the sophisticated Hermes
900 UAV. However, perplexed analysts have also inquired about evidence
of certain UAVs being captured intact—rather than shot down—suggesting
that Armenia has been able to hack them in-flight. Alternative
theories include loss of contact or poor handling by remote pilots.
The recent fighting was also notable for featuring the first
combat-use of domestically-manufactured Armenian UAVs which reportedly
successfully carried out the kill-mission on Azerbaijani Major-General
Polad Gashimov—the highest-ranking Azeri officer to ever die in
action. Armenian drones were also involved in damaging or destroying
at least three Azeri armored vehicles which were seen being retrieved
from the battlefield with special equipment.
Claiming victory, Armenia called on Azerbaijan to avoid similar bouts
of adventurism in the future and pledge to maintain peace. “We hope
that after the failure of its latest military adventure Azerbaijan
will be more responsible in maintaining and strengthening the
ceasefire regime,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan
on Tuesday. She echoed a suggestion by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan
last week, that new mechanisms be implemented to avoid conflict
escalation, including international monitoring missions and a direct
line of communication between the opposing militaries.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is said to have been conducting
shuttle-diplomacy between the two sides, pleading for an immediate end
to the skirmishes and a halt to artillery fire and drone attacks. The
Moscow-led CSTO’s lackluster response, which failed to blame
Azerbaijan for the incident, was not well-received in Yerevan which is
also a member-state.
Margarita Simonyan, the ethnic-Armenian head of Russia Today (the
Russian state-owned news service) suggested that the CSTO’s response
was appropriate given Armenia’s “anti-Russian sentiment.” She accused
Armenian authorities of provoking Russia by arresting former-president
Robert Kocharyan and refusing to recognize the invasion of Crimea.
“Russia has every moral right to spit on you and grind you into the
ground,” she wrote on her Telegram channel. CSTO member-states have a
treaty obligation to come to the aid of all other member-states in the
event of military aggression by foreign states.
Adding fuel to the fire, the CSTO’s official Twitter account tweeted a
link to Simonyan’s remarks, thus giving them credibility. However, the
tweet was quickly removed, and an apology was issued. Citing a
technical error, the post read, “The opinion of [Simonyan] is
completely contrary to the official position of the CSTO Secretariat.”
The CSTO has yet to condemn Azerbaijan’s invasion of Tavush.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
3 – Armenia Fights Coronavirus Pandemic As Azerbaijan Continues
Border Attacks
As of Monday, July 27, Armenia has recorded a total of 36,996 cases. A
total of 26,243 of these patients have since recovered while 9,833
cases remain active. The death toll as a direct result of
complications from COVID-19 stands at 700.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a Facebook live on July 24 that
considering the recent escalations on the Armenia-Azerbaijan state
border, the situation with COVID-19 was not the Government’s first
priority over the past few days. Pashinyan noted that for the first
time since June 14, the number of active coronavirus cases has dipped
below 10,000. This, according to the PM, is very important information
and there are reasons to claim that the country has not only entered
the stage of overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic but also strengthened
its resistance to the second wave of the virus, which is expected in
the fall.
Pashinyan also said that certain people have once again started
spreading disinformation about COVID-19 and the anti-epidemic
guidelines introduced by the Government. He went on to explain that
compliance with the anti-epidemic rules (which includes wearing a face
mask) is the reason behind the decreasing numbers. Pashinyan stressed
that wearing a face is an unpleasant experience for everyone,
including himself, but it is one of the main reasons behind the
positive dynamics that the country has registered. He noted that the
recent statistics should encourage everyone to more strictly follow
the anti-epidemic regulations, otherwise the country will very soon
end up in a situation similar to June.
The PM noted that the Government’s goal is to be more prepared for the
expected second wave of the virus. About 700 people have died in
Armenia after battling the coronavirus and this, according to
Pashinyan, is a horrible statistic. Besides wearing a face mask, the
discipline of business entities and people in general also played a
key role. Pashinyan said that the Government has tried to loosen
restrictions as much as possible and if a certain restriction is still
in place, it means that lifting that restriction is not possible or
reasonable at this point. He noted that the relatively stable
situation is still not a guarantee that the country will not register
an increase in the number of confirmed cases in a few days.
Last week, Health Minister Arsen Torosyan met with a team of German
medics who are in Armenia to help local medical staff in their fight
against COVID-19. The meeting took place with members of the German
medical mission and Germany’s Ambassador to Armenia Michael Johannes
Banzhaf. Torosyan thanked the team for being willing to come and share
their expertise, noting that the experience of developed countries is
combating the virus is valuable for developing countries. The medical
team worked alongside Armenian doctors at the St. Gregory the
Illuminator Medical Center, Surb Astvatsamayr Hospital and the Police
Medical Hospital.
The mission was made possible with the combined efforts of Armenia’s
Health and Foreign Affairs Ministries, the German Government, the
German Embassy in Armenia, the EU and the World Health Organization.
On July 22, WHO sent 28,000 protective medical gowns and 20,000 N95
respirator masks for healthcare workers in Armenia. The WHO acquired
the supplies with the financial support of the EU. The Health Ministry
will distribute the PPEs to healthcare facilities which need them.
**********************************************************************************************************************************************
4- San Francisco KZV Armenian School Vandalized
The Krouzian-Zekarian Armenian School and its adjacent Armenian
Community Center in San Francisco were vandalized overnight on July
23, with what appeared to be Azerbaijani-centric graffiti, along with
expletives and anti-Armenian messages plastered all over the exterior
walls of the building. Community and school officials were on site to
assess the damage. Police are investigating the incident as a hate
crime.
A GoFundMe has been created to help the school recover:
www.gofundme.com/f/kzv-vandalism-repair-fund.
This comes days after Azerbaijani’s instigated violence and attempted
to disrupt a peaceful protest organized by the Armenian Youth
Federation in front of the Azerbaijani Consulate in Los Angeles to
condemn Azerbaijan’s brazen attacks on Armenia’s Tavush Province.
Hate acts against Armenians by Azerbaijanis have surged around the
world. In Moscow last week, a group of Azerbaijani stomped on apricots
from Armenia at a local open air market, and began displaying signs to
not sell to Armenians. In Berlin, on July 23, a car belonging to the
Armenian Ambassador to Germany was set ablaze on Wednesday night.
Armenian cafes were set on fire last week in Kiev, Ukraine
This act of hate is the first time an Armenian school has been
vandalized since January 2019, when both Ferrahian Armenian School and
AGBU Manoogian-Demirjian School in the San Fernando Valley of Los
Angeles were vandalized with Turkish flags.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on July 24 urging
Armenian citizens and members of the Armenian community living abroad
to be vigilant and not give in to any provocations.
“The expanding geography of these actions and the involvement of
Azerbaijani officials in actions against diplomatic missions of the
Republic of Armenia indicate that they are directed by Azerbaijani
state structures. We strongly condemn actions aimed at inciting ethnic
clashes in different countries, which is another manifestation of
Baku’s irresponsibility and fully fits into Azerbaijani leadership’s
rhetoric and policy of inciting hostility between the two peoples
without geographical restrictions,” the statement said.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on Armenians to immediately
contact local law enforcement bodies, Armenian community structures
and diplomatic representatives of the Republic of Armenia in such
situations,” said the statement.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
5- Thunberg Wins Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity
The inaugural Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity has been awarded to Greta
Thunberg. The young Swedish environmental activist was selected among
136 nominees (corresponding to 79 organizations and 57 personalities)
from 46 different countries.
Thunberg’s foundation will donate the award money of 1 million euros
to charitable projects combating the climate and ecological crisis and
to support people facing the worst impacts, particularly in the Global
South. Her foundation will make its donation starting with giving
€100.000 to the SOS Amazonia campaign, led by Fridays For Future
Brazil to tackle Covid-19 in the Amazon; and €100.000 to the Stop
Ecocide Foundation to support their work to make ecocide an
international crime.
Jorge Sampaio, Chair of the Grand Jury of the Prize, has emphasized
the broad consensus of this choice and pointed out “the way Greta
Thunberg has been able to mobilize younger generations for the cause
of climate change and her tenacious struggle to alter a status quo
that persists, makes her one of the most remarkable figures of our
days”.
Sampaio has also stressed her enormous responsibility in consolidating
her pedagogical role and her leadership in the fight against climate
change, as a condition for sustainable development, towards which the
attribution of this Prize aims to contribute.
The Grand Jury, composed of internationally renowned personalities
from the fields of science, technology, politics and culture, has
highlighted Thunberg’s charismatic and inspiring personality, but also
the force of her singular and distressing message capable of arousing
disparate feelings, and her capacity to make a difference in the fight
against climate change.
The President of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Isabel Mota,
emphasized that “By awarding this Prize, the Foundation highlights its
commitment to urgent climate action, fostering communities that are
more resilient and better prepared for future global changes, while
also protecting, in particular, the most vulnerable”.
Greta Thunberg said: “I’m extremely honoured to receive the Gulbenkian
Prize for Humanity. We’re in a climate emergency, and my foundation
will as quickly as possible donate all the prize money of 1 million
Euros to support organizations and projects that are fighting for a
sustainable world, defending nature and supporting people already
facing the worst impacts of the climate and ecological crisis —
particularly those living in the Global South.”
The Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, named after Armenian businessman,
art collector and philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian, is awarded
annually, in the amount of 1 million euros, It aims to recognize
people, groups of people and/or organizations from all over the world
whose contributions to mitigation and adaptation to climate change
stand out for its novelty, innovation and impact.
***********************************************************************************************************************************************
**********************************************************************************************************************************************
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requested to provide their names, addresses, and/or telephone numbers
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Monday,
Armenian Government’s Pick For Constitutional Court Criticized
• Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - Vahram Avetisian, Yerevan, July 23, 2020.
Relatives of protesters killed during the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan
and supporters of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian have deplored the
Armenian government’s choice of a candidate to replace one of the three
Constitutional Court judges controversially dismissed last month.
The government formally nominated Vahram Avetisian, a senior law professor at
Yerevan State University (YSU), to the court last week and expects the Armenian
parliament to confirm him in the coming weeks. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s
My Step bloc enjoys a comfortable majority in the National Assembly.
Eight relatives of the unrest victims and 50 current and former activists
imprisoned during the 2008 crackdown on the Ter-Petrosian-led opposition issued
at the weekend a joint petition urging the government to withdraw Avetisian’s
nomination.
In particular, the signatories, among them several senior members of
Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) party, argued that his father,
Davit Avetisian, upheld prison sentences handed to opposition members and
supporters when he served as a senior Court of Cassation judge from 2008-2016.
They said that Vahram Avetisian cannot act independently and impartially also
because he has never publicly condemned Armenia’s former ruling regime and its
use of force against protesters who challenged the official results of the
February 2008 presidential election in which Ter-Petrosian was the main
opposition candidate.
One of the signatories, Grigor Voskerchian, is a member of the HAK’s governing
board who was arrested in 2008 and spent 18 months in prison. “My personal
interest is to see an independent person elected to the Constitutional Court,”
he said.
“If [Avetisian] is appointed a Constitutional Court judge he will definitely
deal with some issues related to his father,” Voskerchian told RFE/RL’s Armenian
service on Monday. “If he doesn’t want to bear responsibility for [decisions
made by] his father he should make a statement.”
Avetisian dismissed the objections to his candidacy on Sunday, saying that they
are fuelled by individuals motivated by their “parochial and factional
interests.” In a Facebook post, the nominee said he finds it “pointless” to
argue with them.
Responding to the criticism, Pashinian’s press secretary, Mane Gevorgian, said
the government’s decision to pick Avetisian was based on his professional
background and track record. “Mr. Avetisian’s candidacy will be discussed in the
National Assembly, and deputies will have a chance to ask all questions
preoccupying the public and receive answers to them from Mr. Avetisian,” said
Gevorgian.
Lilit Makunts, My Step’s parliamentary leader, said she and other pro-government
lawmakers will likely meet Avetisian next week and ask him to set the record
straight. Makunts stressed at the same time that Avetisian has “no direct
connection” with any of the politically motivated court verdicts stemming from
the 2008 bloodshed and arrests.
Pashinian played a key role in Ter-Petrosian’s 2007-2008 opposition movement and
was among the ex-president’s political allies imprisoned in the post-election
crackdown. He fell out with Ter-Petrosian after being released from jail in 2011.
President Armen Sarkissian and an assembly of Armenia’s judges are due to name
two other nominees for the Constitutional Court.
The parliament approved last month constitutional amendments calling the gradual
resignation of seven of the court’s nine members installed before April 2018.
Three of them are to resign with immediate effect. Also, Hrayr Tovmasian must
quit as court chairman but remain a judge.
Tovmasian and the ousted judges have refused to step down, saying that their
removal is illegal. They have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights
(ECHR) to have them reinstated.
Azerbaijan, Turkey To Hold Joint War Games
• Emil Danielyan
Azerbaijan -- Azerbaijani and Turkish troops hold a joint military exercise, May
1, 2019.
The armed forces of Azerbaijan and Turkey will start joint exercises on
Wednesday two weeks after deadly hostilities on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border
which led Ankara to promise more military assistance to Baku.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced on Monday that the “large-scale”
exercises will involve warplanes and artillery and air-defense systems. It did
not specify the number of soldiers that will take part in them.
A ministry statement cited by Azerbaijani news agencies said ground forces of
the two states will simulate joint operations in Baku and Azerbaijan’s
Nakhichevan exclave from August 1-5. It said separate drills involving the
Turkish and Azerbaijani air forces will be held in these and three other
locations from July 29 through August 10.
The ministry also said that the war games will take place in accordance with a
Turkish-Azerbaijani defense treaty and an annual plan of bilateral military
cooperation. It did not link them with the July 12 outbreak of heavy fighting at
a western section of Azerbaijan’s border with Armenia which lasted for several
days and left at least 17 soldiers dead.
Turkey - Turkish and Azerbaijani flags displayed during joint exercises held by
the air forces of the two countries near Konya, 3Ma32015.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry expressed concern over the drills. A ministry
spokeswoman said they are part of Baku’s “provocative actions” aimed at
obstructing international mediators’ efforts to de-escalate the situation at the
border and kick-start Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
Turkey has blamed Armenia for the flare-up and reaffirmed its full support for
Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Yerevan has decried the Turkish
reaction, accusing Ankara of trying to destabilize the region, undercutting
international efforts to resolve the conflict and posing a serious security
threat to Armenia.
Immediately after the border clashes, a high-level Azerbaijani army delegation
flew to Ankara for talks with Turkey’s top military and defense industry
officials. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told it that the Armenians “will
certainly pay for what they have done” to his country’s main regional ally.
Another Turkish official expressed readiness to supply Turkish-made military
drones and missiles to the Azerbaijani army.
Such statements fuelled speculation about a direct Turkish intervention in the
Karabakh conflict. Successive Armenian governments have relied on a military
alliance with Russia and, in particular, the presence of a Russian military base
in Armenia to prevent such a scenario. The base has up to 5,000 soldiers mostly
deployed along the closed Armenian-Turkish border.
Analysts believe Moscow would strongly oppose Turkish military presence in a
region regarded by it as a zone of Russian geopolitical influence. Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Ankara to exercise restraint in its
reaction to the upsurge in Armenian-Azerbaijani tensions when he spoke with his
Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu by phone on July 23.
Armenia - Armenian and Russian troops hold joint military exercises.
The Turkish and Azerbaijani militaries have held joint exercises on an annual
basis for the last several years. They will apparently combine ground troop
maneuvers with air force drills for the first time.
Russian-Armenian exercises are also held regularly. A military official in
Yerevan said last week that an Armenian army regiment and the Russian troops in
Armenia will take part in Russia’s Caucasus-2020 war games scheduled for
September.
In preparation for these drills, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered on
July 17 a snap "combat readiness check" of some 150,000 troops deployed in
Russia’s southern and western military districts bordering. Azerbaijani Defense
Minister Zakir Hasanov telephoned his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoygu the
following day to discuss the military event. Shoygu reportedly assured him that
it is not connected with the latest escalation in the Karabakh conflict zone.
Armenia, Azerbaijan Urged To Restart Peace Talks
Armenia -- Armenian soldiers hold a military exercise in Tavush province
bordering Azerbaijan, July 21, 2020.
U.S., Russian and French mediators have urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to gear up
for “serious substantive negotiations” on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict after recent deadly clashes on their border.
In a weekend statement, the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group also
welcomed the current “relative stability” along a section of the border where
heavy fighting broke out on July 12 and left at least 17 soldiers from both
sides dead.
The hostilities largely stopped on July 16. The conflicting parties have since
reported sporadic ceasefire violations mainly involving small arms.
An Armenian army soldier, Ashot Mikaelian, was shot dead at the volatile border
section early on Monday in what the Defense Ministry in Yerevan described as
Azerbaijani sniper fire.
“The Co-Chairs appeal to the sides to take advantage of the current reduction in
active hostilities to prepare for serious substantive negotiations to find a
comprehensive solution to the conflict,” read the statement. “The Co-Chairs
stress once more that refraining from provocative statements and actions,
including threats or perceived threats to civilians or to critical
infrastructure, is essential during this delicate period.”
“The Co-Chairs note that recent public statements criticizing the joint efforts
of the co-chairing countries, and/or seeking unilaterally to establish new
“conditions” or changes to the settlement process format are not conducive to
resuming a constructive dialogue,” it said.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev lambasted the mediators and threatened to
withdraw from further peace talks just days before the flare-up on the border
between Armenia’s northern Tavush province and Azerbaijan’s Tovuz district.
Aliyev specifically blasted their regular assertions that the Karabakh conflict
cannot be solved militarily.
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meets with OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs,
Yerevan,27May,2019
For his part, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said last Thursday that
Karabakh must become a “full-fledged party to negotiations” mediated by the
Minsk Group co-chairs. The remark led Azerbaijan to claim that Armenia is
seeking to change the format of peace talks. Baku has long refused to directly
negotiate with the disputed territory’s ethnic Armenian leadership.
In their latest statement, the mediators -- Andrew Schofer, Igor Popov and
Stephane Visconti -- expressed readiness to meet soon with Aliyev and Pashinian
“or their designees.” Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, they have not
visited the conflict zone or met Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders elsewhere,
organizing instead two video conferences with the foreign ministers of the two
warring nations.
The American, Russian and French envoys also emphasized that they continue to
stand for a Karabakh settlement the key elements of which they had laid out in a
March 2019 statement.
In that statement they said that “any fair and lasting settlement” must involve
“return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control;
an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh providing guarantees for security and
self-governance; a corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh; future
determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally
binding expression of will.”
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.
Armenian high school graduates, who have received high scores as a result of joint exams but have not been admitted into a university, as well as their parents are rallying outside the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport in Yerevan. They demand a meeting with Minister Arayik Harutyunyan.
The participants of the rally are holding posters reading, “We demand education”, “The voice of young people shall be heard”, and the like.
One of the parents who organized the rally asked the participants to practice social distancing to avoid police warnings. The organizer next entered the ministry building to inform the staff about the protest action and their demand to meet with the minister.
Ofelia Kamavosyan, a public relations officer at the ministry, stepped in to talk to the protesters and, asking them to meet with Deputy Minister Grisha Tamrazyan, however the latter turned down her offer.
“We have stated that we want to meet only with the minister. The applicants’ right to education has been trampled and violated, which must be restored,” a parent said.
Referring to Arayik Harutyunyan’s statement on Sunday that the applicants had been duly notified of the changes in the procedure for filling out the applications before the exams, the protesting parent insisted that the minister had no idea what a proper notice meant.
“A document has not been handed to the applicants, neither has it been sent by post or e-mail. The Assessment and Testing Center has also failed to notify [the applicants]. What proper notification is the minister talking about? He says 57,000 people are following his page, I am sorry but there may be no applicants among those 57,000,” the protester stated.
The parent claims the issue failed to be resolved after their meeting with the deputy minister, adding Harutyunyan avoids meeting with them, because he does not know the legal acts.
“Yesterday he went live from his office, if he thinks he is right, let him come out to meet us, we will ask each other questions and you will see that he is not right,” he said.
The education minister has called on those school graduates who have not been admitted to a university to apply to a distance learning program, an offer strongly rejected by them.