Category: 2020

Physician, heal thyself: Armenian FM responds to Turkey’s Cavusoglu

Nahapetian Zhanna
Public Radio of Armenia
March 3 2020

Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has said Turkish top diplomat’s advise to Minsk Group Co-Chairs “invites reflection on Luke 4:23.”

“Mevlut Cavusoglu’s advice to OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on Nagorno Karabakh conflict invites reflection on Luke 4:23 – ‘Physician, heal thyself’,” Minister Mnatsakanyn said in a Twitter post.

The comments come after Mevlut Cavuşoglu advised the OSCE Minsk Group  Co-Chairs to produce more in terms of a settlement for the resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

“This solution should be in full respect of sovereignty, territorial integrity and internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan,” Cavusoglu tweeted after a meeting with the Minsk Group Co-Chairs.  

Ryanair says not cancelling Armenia flights but passengers receive emails

Eduard Nalbandian
PanArmenian,  Armenia
March 3 2020

March 3, 2020 – 11:21 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Ryanair’s flights from the Armenian capital of Yerevan to Italy’s Milan and Rome will continue as scheduled, the carrier said in a Facebook post.

The carrier said they have notified passengers that the short haul flight program (mainly to and from Italy) will be cut by up to 25% for a 3 week period from March 17 to April 8, in response to the Covid-19 virus.

Armenian passengers, however, took to social media to report that they did receive emails from the company, notifying that their March-scheduled flights to Rome have been canceled.

The Ryanair website either allows no option to book flights on March 21, 28 and April 4 – dates that were previously open for booking.

The carrier explained in a press release that they have seen a significant drop in bookings over the late March/early April period, in response to the virus.

“There has also been a significant step up in passenger no-shows on flights, particularly from and within Italy,” the airline said.

Georgian, Armenian PMs Emphasize Friendly Relations between two Countries

Toneyan Mark
Georgia Today
March 3 2020

A face-to-face meeting between Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia and Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan was held at the government administration.

At the meeting, the Head of Government thanked his Armenian counterpart for accepting the invitation and for his official visit and emphasized the friendly relations between the two countries.

“I’m glad to host you in Georgia. We work daily to deepen friendly and neighborly relations between Georgia and Armenia. We have always agreed that high-level meetings are the basis for governments to work effectively. My visit to Yerevan was very productive and impressive and today we will talk about its results in the working regime. I am sure that your visit today will bring more results for the friendly and effective cooperation between our people.

“We live in a difficult region and our governments are well aware that peace and stability are the basis for the development of our countries. First, we must look for peace and then for the economic, cultural development, education, and all the areas we are discussing today. By the unwavering determination of the Georgian people, Euro-Atlantic integration is its guarantee for peace, stability, and security and we are progressing in this direction.

“I am convinced that close and effective cooperation within the Eastern Partnership is important for both countries. Ultimately, our goal is to further deepen neighborly relations between our nations in all areas that concern our population. I am sure we will take another successful step in implementing this plan today,” the Georgian Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia also stressed the good neighborly relations between Georgia and Armenia.

“Thank you very much for the invitation and the warm welcome. Our countries have deep cultural, economic and historical ties. The continuation of our relations with Georgia is strategically important. We have opportunities and areas for wider relationship development.

“We consider the path of democratic development of our countries to be an even more important factor in the development of our peoples’ relations. This, along with many other factors, is another cornerstone of our development. Relations with Georgia have moved to a qualitatively different level over the past year and a half, and we believe that this meeting will further strengthen it. We comply with all points of our agreements. I am very pleased to visit Georgia. Our meetings are the basis for bringing our nations closer together,” Pashinyan said.

After the face-to-face conversation, an extended format of talks was also held, with members of the two countries’ governments participating in it. 

In the course of the conversation, the parties discussed all the major areas of cooperation and reaffirmed their readiness for intensive bilateral political dialogue.

They also focused on the prospects of development of trade-economic relations between the two countries and active cooperation in the fields of transport, energy, tourism, culture, education, innovation and more.

By Ana Dumbadze 

Zakharova: It’s for Armenian Foreign Ministry to comment on meeting of Minsk Group co-chairs, Turkish FM

Jane Topchian
Panorama, Armenia
March 3 2020

The Armenian public was informed about the meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. It remains unclear whether the Armenian Foreign Ministry was aware of the meeting, its agenda and purposes.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who was referred in Adekvad party leader Artur Danielyan’s Facebook post on the matter, urged Armenian experts and Facebook users to ask Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan for comments on the meeting.

“Neither the Minsk Group nor Russia comments on the meeting, as they have similar contacts with different countries regularly,” Zakharova commented, recalling that the Russian co-chair also attended the meeting.

Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan took to Twitter to react to the Karabakh remarks of the Turkish foreign minister rather than the meeting itself.

“Mevlut Cavusoglu’s advice to OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is reminiscent of Luke 4:23, ‘Physician, heal thyself’,” the minister tweeted.

Meanwhile, Cavusoglu stated that the Karabakh conflict should be resolved on the basis of “Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, recognition of its international borders and sovereignty.”

It’s hard to say whether the Turkish minister will ‘heal himself’, but the important thing is for the Armenian Foreign Ministry to react to the meeting of the diplomats dealing with the Karabakh conflict settlement with the foreign minister of an unfriendly country of Armenia.

Belarus, Armenia need to promote industrial cooperation

Alex Nanijanian
BelTA, Belarus
March 3 2020
 
 
 
 
Vladimir Ulakhovich. An archive photo
 
MINSK, 3 March (BelTA) – Belarus and Armenia need to develop industrial cooperation, Chairman of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vladimir Ulakhovich told BelTA ahead of the meeting of the Armenian ambassador to Belarus with Belarusian business representatives.
 
“In cooperation with Armenia we need to take into account its possibilities not only as a country with its own market, but also as a country through which it is possible to promote jointly produced goods to the nearest markets. Cooperation is promising in such areas as mechanical engineering, woodworking, and food production. For our countries, industrial cooperation means mastering and implementing new technologies, providing logistics and marketing support in promoting products of Armenian enterprises to the European Union, and those of Belarusian enterprises to the markets of the neighboring countries,” the head of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said.
 
Another strategically important area, in his opinion, is cooperation in IT. “Belarus and Armenia have made significant progress in the area. The IT sector is developing by its own rules, and making it an interstate platform for cooperation is a very serious step that we can make,” Vladimir Ulakhovich stressed.
 
According to the chairman of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Belarus and Armenia also need to strengthen cooperation in science. “The sector is highly developed in our countries. There are innovations that can be introduced into production today,” he added.

Armenia eager to cooperate with Belarus in high technology

Frangulian Shushan
BelTA, Belarus
March 3 2020
 
 
 
 
MINSK, 3 March (BelTA) – Armenia is interested in cooperation with Belarus in high technology, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Armen Ghevondyan told BelTA ahead of a meeting with representatives of the Belarusian business circles in the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
 
According to the ambassador, in 2018 Armenia-Belarus trade totaled $50 million, 17% up over 2017, and in 2019 the trade came at $70 million. The growth did not result from a spike in one or another industry or field, Armen Ghevondyan noted. “We managed to move forward in this area thanks to concerted efforts of the two countries and entrepreneurial spirit of the business communities,” the ambassador noted. “However, I am far from thinking that we have reached the point when we can say that this is our limit,” he added.
 
Armen Ghevondyan stressed that Belarus and Armenia do not use the full potential of cooperation. “We should also take into account that the economies of Armenia and Belarus are undergoing evolutionary changes. This is primarily due to close attention of the governments to such a trend as high technology. We could hardly imagine an economy of the 21st century without it. I am sure that in addition to traditional areas of cooperation, we will also greatly boost cooperation in IT, and our enterprises in this area will not only achieve their goals, but establish closer ties,” the ambassador said.
 
He also believes that the two countries should promote interregional ties. “They should encompass even more fields of practical cooperation. This will broaden the scope of our cooperation and will have a positive impact on the indicators,” Armen Ghevondyan added.

Armenia Special Investigation Service declares search against businessman

Emil Lazarian
News.am, Armenia
March 3 2020

22:30, 03.03.2020
                  

The Special Investigation Service of Armenia has declared a search against businessman Samvel Mayrapetyan and rendered a decision to turn the amount paid as personal pledge into state revenue, as reported Spokesperson of the Special Investigation Service Marina Ohanjanyan.

Samvel Karapetyan, who is an accused-on-trial under the criminal case being investigated by the Special Investigation Service, avoided showing up at the body conducting proceedings after being summoned, and taking into consideration the above-mentioned, today, on March 3, the Special Investigation Service declared a search against him, eliminated the personal pledge selected as a pre-trial measure for him and filed a motion with the court to select arrest as a new pre-trial measure. The Special Investigation Service also rendered a decision to turn the amount paid for personal pledge into state revenue.

According to Armenian News-NEWS.am, the persons who assumed personal pledge for Samvel Mayrapetyan can’t ensure his presence at the Special Investigation Service.

As reported earlier, on January 24, the Special Investigation Service granted the motion of businessman Samvel Mayrapetyan’s attorney and allowed the businessman to leave the country, and the pre-trail measure for him was changed with personal pledge.

Newspaper: Armenia PM instructs lawyers to study legal arrangements for cancellation of constitutional referendum

Torgomian Varazdat
News.am, Armenia
March 3 2020
Newspaper: Armenia PM instructs lawyers to study legal arrangements for cancelation of constitutional referendum Newspaper: Armenia PM instructs lawyers to study legal arrangements for cancelation of constitutional referendum

10:00, 03.03.2020
                  

YEREVAN. – Past daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: A rather interesting situation has arisen in the RA in the run-up to the April 5 [constitutional] referendum in terms of the moods related to the coronavirus [in the country]. According to Past newspaper’s information, given the rather unpredictable situation, the authorities are currently discussing several options, including the possibilities of insuring themselves.

According to information we have received, the Prime Minister instructed a group of lawyers the day before to study the legal arrangements for the cancelation of the constitutional referendum, which will enable to take drastic decisions on the issue, if necessary.

In particular, it is not excluded that proceeding from the development of the events till March 20, the referendum will also be canceled temporarily, postponing it to autumn.

But this is only one of the options, and in case of extreme need.


Newspaper: Armenia Investigative Committee offers deal to defendant in case of illegal adoption of children

Baghdasarian Karlen
News.am, Armenia
March 3 2020

10:15, 03.03.2020
                  

YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: About a month ago, investigators urged Liana Karapetyan, the director of Yerevan’s “Children’s Home” SNCO, an accused in the illegal adoption case, to tell something important about the case, in exchange promising to release her. Liana Karapetyan’s son, Davit Sahakyan, gave this information to Zhoghovurd daily.

As it is known, on November 22, 2019, the NSS [National Security Service] had issued a statement according to which, it uncovered numerous cases of child adoption by foreigners in gross violation of the RA legislation. And in the illegal adoption case, charges are brought against obstetrician-gynecologist Razmik Abrahamyan, director of Yerevan’s “Children’s Home” SNCO Liana Karapetyan, and Arshak Jerjeryan, and on February 28, accused Liana Karapetyan was released on a 6mn [dram] bail.

And, behold, Karapetyan’s son passed on interesting details to Zhoghovurd daily. “During the interrogation, one of the investigators said to my mother: ‘Mrs. Karapetyan, we have phone recordings where you are happy to hear about the news of the decision to adopt a child.’ Can you imagine? These people don’t even know that adopting a child is in the best interest of the child. My mother said, in surprise: ‘Yes, of course I’m happy.’”

Azeri Response to fabricated claims of Armenians about Khojaly events

Alex Nanijanian
Modern Diplomacy
March 3 2020
Response to fabricated claims of Armenians about Khojaly genocide
on March 3, 2020
 
By Fuad Chiragov
 
Khojaly, one of the worst human tragedies of the 20th century still waits to be recognized by international community. Unfortunately, still some persistently deny the facts and tirelessly repeat fabricated conspiracies to avoid responsibility for the crime which, first of all, is disrespect for the souls of children, women, elderly and other victims of the crime. This piece is written as a response to such claims which is penned by Mr. David Davidian, however any expert who is familiar enough with details of the conflict would not be able to find any substantial argument in the mentioned writing. All fabricated arguments in the piece were debunked in the past and they do not stand against even mild criticism that are based on well-known history and facts.
 
Mr. D. Davidian starts his first argument with the claim that “the borders granted them (Azerbaijan) jurisdiction by Joseph Stalin”. This is beloved and tirelessly repeated claim of Armenian leadership and mere attempt of distort of historical facts and manipulate observers who might not familiar with details. They claim that as if Nagorno-Karabakh had never been part of Azerbaijan and it was Stalin’s decision “to grant”, “to allocate”, “to transfer”, “to hand over”, “to pass” or “to award” from Armenia to Azerbaijan or in Russian verb “передать”. In fact, the decision of the Bolshevik rulers of the region at that time regarding Nagorno-Karabakh was not передать, this verb was not used in any documents of that period. The decision explicitly used the Russian verb оставить, which means “to keep” or “to preserve” within Azerbaijan. As you might already understand how some commentators intentionally jumble translation from Russian to English. Furthermore, all historical records of that period demonstrate how in 1920 G. K. (Sergo) Ordzhonikidze, a member of the politburo of the Communist Party, first suggested in his telegram to Stalin and Georgy Chicherin to create autonomous Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan.
 
The second argument that Mr. David Davidian in his piece put is that Khojaly was place from where Azerbaijan was launching indiscriminate shelling on Armenian positions. This claim is completely groundless since there is not any single record of international observers or journalists on the ground stating that Khodjali was exactly that place where Azerbaijan positioned heavy armament, long range artillery or any other military equipment to launch shelling on Armenian positions. Neither Azerbaijan at that time being drowned in complete domestic political instability and struggle among different political factions did have any capability and central military command to plan any military operations on ground. In fact, according to the international observers and journalists Khojali being surrounded for several months did not have military backup from outside neither people of the city could reach other parts of Azerbaijan. The local civilians were protected only by militias with light weapons which in the end easily destroyed by well-trained and equipped military units. Therefore, calling civilian population of Khojaly as “a target needing neutralizing” is inhumane, amoral and cynic approach and another attempt of justification of crime. Also, the author did not provide any evidence or reliable source that prove that any serviceman of the Russian 366 Mountain Rifle group was killed by the attack from Khojaly. Unfortunately, here by pointing the Russian military unit the author also tries to put blame on Russians rather than Armenian military.
 
Mr. Davidian in his piece argues that before the assault on Khojaly Armenians warned the civilians about coming operation, while he does not give any evidence for it neither there is not any reliable source for defending this claim. Also there is no reliable evidence proving that the human casualties among civilians happened as result of crossfire on the corridor allegedly Armenian troops created for the civilians to leave. Contrary, the former President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan in his interview to Thomas de Wall confessed that “before Khojalu, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We needed to put a stop to all that. And that’s what happened.” In his memoirs Markar Melkonian, brother of famous Armenian volunteer commander Monte Melkonian who was considered a terrorist by Americans also confirmed the deliberate assault on the civilian population. In fact, the confession of the former Armenian leader is enough to qualify the events in Khojaly not just crime against humanity but simple genocide according to international law.
 
Mr. D. Davidian in his piece refers so-called interview of the former Azerbaijani president A. Mutalibov to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta arguing that he said that Khojaly was result of “the Azerbaijani political engineering of events”, organized by the opposition Popular Front. The former president several times stated that he never made such statements and his comments were distorted by Armenian nationalists to built conspiracies for international audience. Ayaz Mutalibov in an interview to Regnum News Agency said that: “Any reference to me stating that the Popular Front facilitated to the fall of Khojaly is blatant lie. I said only that the Popular Front took advantage of the situation to come to power” after the event.
 
Interestingly, the author tries to build another conspiracy around the death of Azerbaijani journalist Chingiz Mustafayev who was killed by an Armenian sniper on the frontline when he was recording another fight saying “lost his life under mysterious circumstances”. It was Chingiz Mustafayev who recorded on video all vandalism against civilians that cannot be denied. The author also somehow relates the closure of ANS TV of Vahid Mustafayev who is a brother of Chingiz with the release of the video on Khojaly in 2017. In fact, the ANS TV owned by Vahid was closed down not in 2017 but year before in 2016 and that decision has nothing to do with the video. The fact about that Mustafayev videoed the same bodies of the civilians postmortem mutilated, surrounded by Azerbaijani soldiers has very simple explanation. It is not what the author tries to imply. The simple explanation is that when Azerbaijanis left the area for a while with the helicopter with full of human bodies and came back to get the rest, Armenian soldiers came after the corps to cut different human parts to prove for their superiors that they killed more people in order to get more rewards.
 
On the other hand, the author questions the authenticity of facts and photos about the genocide in Khojaly. In fact, it is not just Azerbaijani journalist who recorded the tragic events on the ground. Then many leading international outlets reported about it. Among them was Frederique Lengaigne who is now a documentary film-maker, but in 1992 she was working for the Reuters agency in Moscow who also photographed those terrible scenes.
 
In the end, the author mentions the claims of Armenians around the village of Maragha without any reliable reference where Azerbaijanis allegedly committed act of vandalism against civilians in an attempt somehow justify events in Khojaly that happened after Khojaly.
 
All these allegations were rebuffed by the reputable international organization Human Rights Watch. The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Holly Cartner, in her letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia dated 24 March 1997 placed direct responsibility for the civilian deaths with Armenian forces and dismissed the argument that Azerbaijani forces obstructed the flight of, or fired on Azerbaijani civilians.
 
Overall, the piece of Mr. David Davidian as I wrote in the beginning doesn’t stand any criticism. A set of claims and statements in the piece are logically inconsistent, they contradict each other, therefore any serious observer cannot believe that all are true at the same time. Which is very obvious from this piece is that it is another desperate attempt of denial, justification, building different conspiracies and escape from the responsibility at the same time.