Category: 2021

UCLA Lecture: What Does a Small Nation Know? Armenians and the Wages of Nationalism

Boris Nahapetian
UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies
Jan 22 2021

Hayk Nahapet (Mkrtum Hovnatanian 1779–1846; cropped), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The UCLA Promise Armenian Institute presents the third in its Distinguished Lecture Series, "What Does a Small Nation Know? Armenians and the Wages of Nationalism" by Professor Ronald Grigor Suny of the University of Michigan. This lecture is co-sponsored by the UCLA Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, and the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. Dr. Sossie Kasbarian of the University of Stirling, Scotland will serve as the discussant for this lecture, followed by Q&A.

Friday, February 12, 2021
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Pacific Time)

  

The Aliyev influence: how nepotism and self-censorship rule Azerbaijan’s art scene

Emil Lazarian
The Calvert Journal
Jan 22 2021
 
Heydar Aliyev Center. Image: Istvan under a CC licence
22 January 2021
Text: Lucía de la Torre

On 2 October, 2020, days after war erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a giant Azerbaijani flag rolled down the facade of Baku’s YARAT Contemporary Art Space. The gallery, one of the main contemporary art venues in the Caspian capital, posted a picture of the building on Instagram, alongside the newly ubiquitous hashtag #KarabakhisAzerbaijan. Later that month, Turkish-born Kurdish artist Ahmet Öğüt, whose exhibition No Poem Loves Its Poet had been on show at YARAT since late May, asked for the politically-charged banner to be taken down and declared in a statement: “I refuse to allow my work to fall prey to political instrumentalisation”.

YARAT refused to take down the flag or the Instagram post, and instead decided to terminate Öğüt’s exhibition on 29 October, three weeks earlier than planned. In a comment under the post, the art gallery said that the flag was simply “a sign of support to our country and to our nation”.

The early cancellation, however, is just one example of how Azerbaijan’s apparently thriving art scene conceals something darker: a deeply nepotistic environment which routinely suppresses dissident voices while crafting an international image of Azerbaijan as a free, art-loving nation.

Artists like Öğüt, who are unwilling to support or ignore institutions’ political stances, soon see themselves falling from favour. “Over many years, as an artist, I have worked many times in conflicted areas, and have responded to the local situation with nuanced and challenging artworks,” the artist wrote on social media. “YARAT Contemporary Art Centre circulated, on social media, an image of the banner of my exhibition, next to the national flag covering the facade of its building along with a politically-motivated statement, which have nothing to do with my independent vision or the content of my exhibition.”


The incident raised eyebrows in art publications worldwide, many concerned over the interference of political ideology in the case. It is not the first time that the country has attracted attention for the wrong reasons. Governed by President Ilham Aliyev and Vice-President and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, the Azerbaijani government has been repeatedly criticised by human rights’ groups for ongoing censorship, a poor human rights record, and rampant corruption. And, like many nearby authoritarian regimes, members of the President’s family are known to own most of the country’s major businesses, earning them millions of dollars since the fall of the USSR and situating Aliyev amongst the world’s richest oil billionaires

In Azerbaijan, where the arts scene is heavy-handedly controlled by the country’s political elite, nepotism and the interference of political ideology run deep

Yet while monopolising business may be commonplace in scores of heavy-handed regimes, the Azerbaijani government’s bid to control contemporary art is just as fierce, and uses the same techniques which have seen Aliyev family members in commercial places of power.

YARAT, the gallery at the centre of the October flag incident, was founded by Aida Mahmudova, an artist, curator, and VP Mehriban Aliyeva’s niece. When interviewed by Forbes in 2015, Mahmudova, who was described as “evasive” when asked about YARAT’s links to the government, said that although the gallery receives technical support from the state, it is independent. However, Baku’s Marriott Hotel, which is allegedly connected to Aliyev’s daughters Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva according to reporters for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), is one of YARAT’s main partners.

Mahmudova is also the director of another of Azerbaijan’s main contemporary art galleries: Baku’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). The museum was founded by Mehriban Aliyeva in 2009, and is funded by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation (of which Mehriban Aliyeva is the President and Leyla Aliyeva the Vice-President), a charitable organisation created in memory of the former president of Azerbaijan and father of current president Ilham Aliyev. Elsewhere in Baku, another star venue on Azerbaijan’s cultural scene is the Heydar Aliyev Center. Completed in 2012, the building was designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid. The current director of the Heydar Aliyev Center is Anar Alakbarov, a former assistant to the Vice President of Azerbaijan and current assistant to the President.


The Azerbaijani government’s monopoly over smaller art galleries is no less thorough. The Qiz Qalasi Gallery, an art venue in Baku with a branch in Berlin, is headed by Emin Mammadov, who also works as Art Curator for the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. Between 2012 and 2014, Qiz Qalasi Gallery held Fly to Baku. Modern Art of Azerbaijan, a travelling exhibition supported by the Heydar Aliyev Centre that toured European capitals, where Mehriban and Leila Aliyeva hosted lavish inaugurations attended by European government officials and diplomats. In November 2020, the gallery launched Armed with the Arts, an exhibition allegedly meant to promote peace after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war, while, similarly to YARAT, openly supported the position of the Azerbaijani government and used politically-charged, bellicose language. Kicik QalArt Gallery, a project of the Art ex East Foundation and another important smaller-scale venue in the capital, although now closed, used to be owned by Olivier Mestelan, a Swiss art collector and financier. Mestelan used to sit on the board of Ataholding, an open joint-stock company that managed Atabank, one of the biggest commercial banks in Azerbaijan, now bankrupt and owned by the Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF). According to an investigation carried out in 2011 by RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, Mestelan was also claimed to be the treasurer of three offshore Panama-based companies linked to Azerfon, a Baku-based telecommunications company with links to Arzu and Leyla Aliyeva.

In light of their far-reaching involvement, the question is why the Aliyev family is so keen to embed themselves in contemporary art. Lesley Gray, a scholar researching the development of the contemporary art scene in the Arab Gulf and Caspian Sea region, explains how Azerbaijan and other countries use contemporary art as a tool to reshape the country’s international image. “Museums –– and contemporary art museums and organizations in particular –– have the potential to convey, simultaneously, both unique identity and global belonging. Inclusion in a global art movement, such as contemporary art, conveys modernity in a subtle but prescient way –– to be part of the global contemporary art world is to be part of the global elite,” she wrote in a 2017 paper.

Ultimately, Azerbaijan is not innocently interested in cutting-edge art — its Caucasian neighbours, Georgia and Armenia, with comparably fewer resources, have more diverse creative scenes with a rising number of independent initiatives. Instead, much like other oil-rich, authoritarian countries like Qatar and the UAE, Azerbaijan’s hopes to use art as a tool to attract international attention for something other than imprisoned journalists and crackdowns on free speech. By creating an international image as fervent art supporters, the Azerbaijani government masks how it has tirelessly worked to eliminate its independent arts scene, which now operates at a very small scale, online, or in exile. By supporting the flow of public money and oil wealth into art venues and projects — the most prestigious run by members of his own family — the Aliyev family has reaped a number of benefits: earning a global name as art-lovers, wiping out “problematic” creative _expression_ at home by ensuring influence with those who control funding, and using this to ensure that local art institutions align with their ideological agenda.

The Azerbaijani government’s investments in contemporary art locally are also a bridge to increasing its influence abroad. As Gray says, “art and cultural projects are used, both at home and abroad […] as a form of soft or “subtle” power to enhance political legitimacy and relevance”. Mehriban Aliyeva, through the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, has shelled out generous sums for cultural institutions such as The Palace of Versailles, Paris’ Louvre Museum, and the Vatican Museums. while the Friends of Azerbaijani Culture Foundation, a non-governmental charity which she founded in 1995, routinely organises art exhibits abroad.


Such spending reaps real-life rewards. In 2004, Mehriban Aliyeva was designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, a laurel given in recognition of her actions to promote international cultural exchanges. Later, in 2010, Aliyeva received a gold medal from UNESCO for her “efforts in establishing an intercultural dialogue.” Over the years, Azerbaijan has had a particularly favorable relationship with the UN body — in October 2015, at the petition of Mehriban Aliyeva, UNESCO hosted an exhibition ironically called Azerbaijan — Land of Tolerance at its Paris headquarters. At the opening, when a journalist asked Aliyeva whether the title of the exhibition lived up to the reality in Azerbaijan, considering the country has “many political prisoners in jail”, Aliyeva denied this and turned her back while security guards pushed the journalist away. The relationship was particularly favorable between Mehriban Alliyeva and Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO between 2009-2017. Their relationship came under scrutiny in 2017, when Kalin Mitrev, Bokova’s husband, was investigated by the Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor in relation to media publications about payments made by Azerbaijani companies to his accounts. Bokova then wrote a letter to The Guardian defending the rightfulness of her relationship with Azerbaijan, but never spoke openly about the money allegedly received by her husband or her stance towards Azerbaijan’s human rights abuses

But ultimately, such international praise for the Aliyev government contradicts its real-life record on art. In 2011, Azerbaijan censored its own entry to the Venice Biennale, the world’s most high-profile showcase of contemporary art, by hiding the work of one of its own artists under a piece of cloth. Moscow-based artist Aidan Salakhova’s work Waiting Bride, which showed a woman in a black veil from head to foot, and another sculpture, which showed the Black Stone of Mecca contained in a vagina-shaped marble frame, were hidden under a white cloth. The government later claimed that the artworks were “damaged during transport”, while senior sources at the exhibition clarified that the works were censored for being considered offensive to Islam..


Many independent artists, whose work does not reach Baku’s government-owned, high-profile art venues, have similar stories of censorship — although most refuse to speak publicly. The strongest voice in Azerbaijan’s independent art scene comes from Art for Democracy, an online platform founded by a group of independent artists and human rights defenders to showcase their work and raise awareness about repression in Azerbaijan.

“Almost all artistic venues and spaces are run or controlled either by someone who is close to the government, or directly by the authorities. It inevitably impacts independent art in a negative manner, because artists don’t have many options; they either need to accept the unwritten rules that restrict the full independence of the artist or they just should stop their activities,” a member of Art for Democracy told The Calvert Journal.

Ironically, perhaps most telling is that the number of cases of repression have dramatically declined in recent years. Artists, aware of the risk they face, either conform to the taste of the First Lady if they want to make a living, leave the country, or stop making art altogether.


“Artists don’t have many options; they either need to accept the unwritten rules that restrict the full independence of the artist or they just should stop their activities”


“The alternative art scene exists mostly on the internet,” said the representative of Art for Democracy. “Currently, I could claim that there is no really independent space or scene for alternative or independent art.” However, in Azerbaijan, where the government routinely shuts down websites, including all social media sites during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, online displays of art are not free of censorship. Azerbaijani artist Gunduz Aghayev found himself facing pressure from the authorities after he began sharing political cartoons online as a protest against injustice. He was excluded from art venues, and after constant persecution, left Azerbaijan in 2014. “If your political views are in opposition, you are already excluded from all projects as a problematic object. For this reason, artists try to work without touching on political issues,” he says. “In the last years of my life [in Azerbaijan], I only showed my works on social networks. I started doing digital political art. However, still I could not continue living in the country.”

It is this trend — self-censorship and exile — which is most perhaps most damaging of all to Azerbaijani art. Independent art plays a decisive role driving social and political change, and it has the power to challenge authoritarian discourses. While recent leadership changes in the Ministry of Culture hold a glimmer of hope, small initiatives and venues apprehensively emerge, and the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war will surely bring about changes in the arts scene, full creative freedom remains a distant goal. Yet as long as artists remain in fear, it remains almost impossible for real, large-scale artistic opposition to breathe.

“Creative organisations are a minority, and the source of funding for these organizations is almost entirely tied to the political elite,” says Aghayev. “For this reason, there is a certain red line in art. This line should not be crossed.”

 

Why Azerbaijan is Unfit to Rule over the Armenians of Artsakh

David Nargizian
Greek City Times
Jan 22 2021
by GUEST BLOGGER
0

Corrupt, sadistic, and run by a hereditary dictatorship, Azerbaijan is unfit to rule over others, least of all the Armenian Christians of Artsakh.

Yet that iniquity could materialize due to the recent 44-day war by Azerbaijan, Turkey, and terrorist jihadis against the Artsakh Republic (Nagorno-Karabakh) and Armenia.

Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan.

The November 9, 2020 armistice could force democratic, Armenian-governed Artsakh (pop. 150,000) into Azerbaijan’s (pop. 10 million) despotic grip.

Since the war began, mainstream media have rarely pointed out Azerbaijan’s depravity and long-standing abuse of Armenians.

In the 1920s, Stalin transferred the ancient Armenian provinces of Artsakh — 96% Armenian — and Nakhichevan to Turkey’s friend, Azerbaijan.

The delusional tyrant mistakenly believed that this would lure Turkey into the USSR’s web.

That injustice has brought Artsakh nothing but agony.

Even before the transfer, Azerbaijan had been massacring Armenians in Artsakh and Baku.

Unlike 3000-year-old Armenia, no country named Azerbaijan existed before 1918.  Its inhabitants didn’t even call themselves Azeris until the 1930s.

Artsakh’s Long Nightmare

Artsakh was officially autonomous within Soviet Azerbaijan, but the latter held the real power.

Artsakh’s Armenians were persecuted due to raw Azeri fanaticism, not the Soviet system.

  • Armenians sank from 96% to 76% of Artsakh’s population by 1988, the result of repression, deportations, economic warfare, and murder by Azerbaijan.
  • Then-KGB Major General Heydar Aliyev (Azeri dictator Ilham Aliyev’s father) acknowledged importing Azeris into Artsakh to replace Armenians that he had exiled.
  • Azerbaijan maliciously closed many Armenian schools, orphanages, and libraries.
  • Armenian language inscriptions on ancient monuments were depicted as Azeri.
  • Museums were looted of artifacts that proved Artsakh to be an ancient Armenian province.
  • Even the name Artsakh was banned.
  • Large quantities of meat, dairy products, and wool were directed to Azerbaijan instead of to needy local Armenians.
  • Baku frequently imprisoned local Armenian leaders who protested, but gave Azeri gangs free rein.

Breaking Free

Artsakh voted to exit Azerbaijan in accordance with Soviet law in 1988 and international law in 1991 as the USSR dissolved. In response, Azerbaijan massacred Armenian civilians in Artsakh, Baku, Ganja, and Sumgait.

Baku Pogrom against Armenians.

The ensuing war ended in 1994 in victory for Artsakh’s Armenians.  Armenians fled the rest of Azerbaijan, and Azeris fled Armenia.

Artsakh became self-governing, reformist, and widely respected. It maintained representative offices in Washington D.C., Europe, and elsewhere.

Azerbaijan proceeded to gorge on revenue from its gas and oil fields. Yet it still mirrored its Soviet self: repressive, corrupt, violent, and anti-Armenian.

Artsakh became doubly determined to never again submit to Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s Post-Independence Horrors

  • The U.S. State Department says Azerbaijan has “significant human rights” problems, including: unlawful/arbitrary killing; torture; arbitrary detention; political prisoners; heavy restrictions on the press; incarceration of/violence against journalists; severe restrictions on political participation; systemic government corruption; torture of [LGBTQ] individuals; and the worst forms of child labor. Azerbaijan “did not prosecute or punish most officials who committed human rights abuses.”
  • The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom cites Azerbaijan for “engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.”
  • Europe’s Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) named President Ilham Aliyev its 2012 “Organized Crime and Corruption Person of the Year.”
  • Azerbaijan is guilty of “arbitrary arrest and detention of opposition politicians, civil society activists, human rights defenders and critical journalists,” says the European Court of Human Rights.
  • Freedom House ranks Azerbaijan as “Not Free” — worse than the Congo and Cuba.
  • Reporters Without Borders rates Azerbaijan’s press freedom as 168th out of 180 countries, — worse than Pakistan and Somalia.
  • International human rights organizations have rebuked Azerbaijan for repressing and forcibly assimilating its Lezgin and Talysh peoples.
  • Azeri Lieutenant Ramil Safarov was prosecuted and imprisoned for beheading Armenian Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan at a 2004 NATO program in Hungary. Under questionable circumstances, Hungary later dispatched Safarov to Azerbaijan.  He was hailed as a national hero, awarded a medal, and promoted.
  • Azerbaijan has perpetrated the utmost brutality since the earliest days of Artsakh’s struggle and during the recent war. Azeri troops have abused, mutilated, and beheaded Armenian civilians and soldiers.  Armenian POWs have been summarily executed. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have decried these war crimes. Azerbaijan has still not released all POWs despite pledging to do so and continues its attacks in violation of the armistice.
  • In the 1990s, Azerbaijan imported Afghan Mujahedin, Chechens, Pakistanis, and terrorist Turkish Grey Wolves to fight Armenians. The recent war saw Azerbaijan and Turkey bring in thousands of jihadists and ISIS terrorists from Syria, Libya, and elsewhere. In so doing, Azerbaijan has violated the UN convention against using mercenaries. Draw the appropriate conclusion about a political culture that deploys terrorists and thugs.
  • Like Turkey, Azerbaijan has long desecrated and destroyed multitudes of Armenian churches and monuments. YouTube’s “The New Tears of Araxes” shows Azeri soldiers obliterating a large 9th century Armenian cemetery in Nakhichevan. UNESCO is being prevented from inspecting Armenian monuments Azerbaijan has just taken control of.
  • The Azerbaijani Laundromat was — and may still be — a multi-billion dollar money laundering racket run by Azeri kleptocrats and the Aliyev clan. German, Italian, Slovenian, and other European officials were bribed to whitewash Azerbaijan’s human rights record.
  • Azerbaijan covertly bankrolled a PR junket to Baku in 2013 for several Congresspersons and 32 staff from IL, NJ, NM, NY, OK, and TX. They were lavished with rugs and other gifts which the Office of Congressional Ethics ultimately made them surrender. Azerbaijan funded the junket through a Dallas-based organization affiliated with renegade Turkish imam Fethullah Gülen.
  • Human Rights Watch says Azerbaijan intentionally struck Artsakh’s “homes, businesses, hospitals, schools, the local water supply“ and Holy Savior Cathedral in the recent war.
  • ‘‘Within the next 25 years, there will be no state of Armenia in the South Caucasus. These people … have no right to live in this region,” declared Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry spokesperson in 2004. A year later, Baku’s mayor told a German delegation, “Our goal is the complete elimination of Armenians. You Nazis already eliminated the Jews in the 1930s and 40s, right?”

“We [Azerbaijanis] must kill all Armenians — children, women, the elderly.  [We] need to kill [them] without [making a] distinction.”  After Azeri soccer manager Nurlan Ibrahimov posted that in October, the Union of European Football Associations banned him.

These kinds of venom have resulted in the horrors we see above.

  • Some Azeris have threatened to bomb Armenia’s nuclear power plant. Last year Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry formalized the threat.
  • In sheets of newly released Azerbaijani postage stamps, an Azeri in a hazmat suit is spraying Artsakh with chemicals, suggesting Armenians are vermin to be exterminated.
  • Azerbaijan’s territorial ambitions have included not just Artsakh but also Armenia. In December, Aliyev once again claimed parts of Armenia while beside him Turkish President Erdogan glorified Turkey’s 1914-23 genocide against millions of Armenians and Assyrian and Hellenic Christians. Azerbaijan and Turkey’s intentions are obvious.

Now You Know

Now you know why Artsakh’s Armenians have fought and died to live free from Azeri rule.  In their place, you’d do the same.

Artsakh is at least as deserving as other states that since the 1990s have achieved self-determination through international support, such as East Timor, Montenegro, and South Sudan.

Regardless of the recent war’s outcome, if the international community cannot see the justice of Artsakh’s case and effectuate a remedy consistent with self-determination, then there is no justice.

David Boyajian is an independent writer whose efforts focus on commentary and investigative reports regarding the Caucasus. His work can be found at http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/David_Boyajian.

  

The process of demarcation of the Armenian state borders is being accompanied by threats from Azerbaijan, and gross violations of human rights

Eduard Nalbandian
 Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia  
 Jan 22 2021

Today The Human Rights Defender addressed the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the UN and the CoE Secretary Generals, the UN and the CoE Commissioners for Human Rights, the PACE and the OSCE PA Presidents, the ECHR President, the PACE Co-Rapporteurs on Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as other partners, including several ombudspersons and their associations with questions on the illegitimacy of the process of determining Armenia's state borders and gross human rights violations.

 

The letters state that the process of determining Armenia's borders with Azerbaijan is being carried out by Azerbaijan under open threats of war against the entire population of Armenia. The President of Azerbaijan speaks about the Armenian people worldwide and the population of Armenia in the language of ethnic cleansing and open threats of genocide, as does the President of Turkey. Following the example of the President of Azerbaijan, in general, public figures openly insult the dignity of the Armenian people and incite hostility on the basis of ethnicity (specific evidence is attached).

 

As a result, the border demarcation process in specific settlements of Syunik and Gegharkunik regions of Armenia has already led to gross violations of internationally recognized human socio-economic [property, etc.] rights and seriously endangered people's rights to life and physical immunity. The best interests of children to live and develop in a peaceful, non-violent environment have been violated. The security of the state borders of the Republic of Armenia has been endangered.

 

In other words, the process is unaccompanied by the requirements of the rule of law and as thus, it has absolutely no legitimacy.

Therefore, it should be stopped immediately and be subject to a fundamental review.

 

The letters of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia emphasize that internationally absolutely unacceptable mechanical approaches are the only methods being used in the process of determining the borders, including the use of a GPS or Google Map application of a private company. No internationally recognized criteria are taken into account.

 

There are no professional approaches at all, no commission work is carried out, no preliminary inventory and assessment of people's needs is carried out, and there are no proper legal bases.

In the immediate vicinity of the civilians of Armenia or in the settlements themselves [For example, in the large communities of Goris and Kapan, Syunik region, on interstate or intercommunity roads, or directly on the sidewalk, directly in the settlement], Azerbaijani soldiers, i.e. armed men, were deployed.

 

The tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020 or any other document does not set an accessible and predictable schedule for the people on the process of determining the state borders of the Republic of Armenia.

 

Due to all of this, the impermissible speed of the border demarcation process and especially the lack of proper information directly related to the rights of border residents has led to uncertainty and unpredictable situations.

 

The ombudsman's letters state that any human rights process must be based on the rule of law and, consequently, on internationally recognized human rights [which are also guaranteed by the Constitution within our country]. This is a fundamental principle of democracy.

 

It is obvious that in the current situation, the entire process of determining the borders of the Republic of Armenia as described above undermines the foundations of the international human rights system, and completely contradicts the very basic principles for which modern international law has been established since World War Two: to guarantee human rights and peace.

 

Individually signed letters are sent to each of the international organizations and colleagues, in accordance with the jurisdiction vested in each recipient, with each correspondence supported by detailed analysis.

 

———————-

По вопросам нелегитимности процесса определения государственных границ Армении и его сопровождения грубыми нарушениями прав человека Защитник прав человека Армении сегодня обратился к действующему председателю ОБСЕ, генеральным секретарям Совета Европы и ООН, комиссарам Совета Европы и ООН по правам человека, председателям ПАСЕ и ПА ОБСЕ, председателю ЕСПЧ, содокладчикам ПАСЕ по делам Азербайджана и Армении, а также ряду других коллег, включая омбудсменов и их ассоциации.

 

В письмах отмечено, что процесс определения государственных границ Армении с Азербайджаном происходит в условиях очевидных угроз войны со стороны Азербайджана, звучащих в адрес всего населения Армении. Президент Азербайджана, как и президент Турции, говорят обо всем армянском народе и населении Армении языком открытых угроз этнической чистки и геноцида. Президент Азербайджана, и следуя его примеру азербайджанские общественные деятели открыто оскорбляют достоинство армянского народа, разжигают вражду по признаку этнической принадлежности (приложены конкретные доказательства).

 

В результате всего этого, процесс определения границ в конкретных населенных пунктах Сюникской и Гегаркуникской областей Армении уже привел к грубым нарушениям международно признанных социально-экономических [имущественных и так далее] прав человека и поставил под серьезную угрозу права людей на жизнь, физическую неприкосновенность и другие права.

 

Подорваны наилучшие интересы ребенка – жить и развиваться в мирной, ненасильственной среде. Поставлена под угрозу безопасность государственных границ Республики Армения.

То есть, процесс сопровождается абсолютными нарушениями требований верховенства права и не имеет легитимности.

Следовательно, процесс необходимо немедленно приостановить или подвергнуть принципиальному пересмотру.

 

В письмах Защитника прав человека Армении подчеркивается, что в процессе определения границ применяются только совершенно неприемлемые на международном уровне механические подходы, в том числе с использованием GPS или приложения карты частной компании Google. Не принимаются во внимание никакие международно признанные критерии.

Полностью отсутствуют профессиональные подходы, не ведутся работы комиссий, не проводится предварительная инвентаризация и оценка потребностей людей, отсутствует соответствующая правовая база.

 

В непосредственной близости от мирных жителей Армении или в самих населенных пунктах [например, в укрупненных общинах Гориса и Капана Сюникской области, на межгосударственных или межобщинных дорогах или непосредственно в населенных пунктах путем разделения тротуаров] размещены азербайджанские солдаты, то есть вооруженные люди.

 

Трехсторонней декларацией от 9 ноября 2020 года или любым другим документом не установлен доступный и предсказуемый для людей график о процессе определения государственных границ Республики Армения.

 

В результате этого, недопустимая скорость процесса определения границ и особенно отсутствие надлежащей информации, напрямую связанной с правами жителей приграничных поселений, привели к неопределенности и необоснованным непредсказуемым ситуациям.

 

В письмах Защитника прав человека зафиксировано, что в основе любого процесса, касающегося человека, должно быть верховенство права и, следовательно, международно признанные [в нашей стране, также гарантированные Конституцией] права человека. Это основополагающий принцип демократии.

 

Очевидно, что в нынешней ситуации весь вышеизложенный процесс определения границ Республики Армения подрывает основы международной системы прав человека, полностью противоречит тем самым основным принципам, в соответствии с которыми, после Второй мировой войны, было создано современное международное право, с целью гарантирования прав человека и мира.

 

Каждой из международных организаций и партнеров в соответствии с их компетенцией и подробным анализом направлены отдельные письма.


https://www.ombuds.am/en_us/site/ViewNews/1496

Artsakh commends European Parliament’s stance on Karabakh conflict

Jirair Kafian
Public Radio of Armenia
Jan 22 2021

– Public Radio of Armenia

Artsakh’s Foreign Ministry has commended the position of the European Parliament on the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, expressed in the resolutions on the Implementation of Common Foreign and Security Policy as well as on Common Security and Defense Policy of January 20, 2021 – the annual reports 2020.

“We share the assessments of the European Parliament related to the events caused by the use of military force by Azerbaijan, as well as the ways out of this situation. In particular, it is important to stress the viewpoint of the European Parliament on the need to ensure the security of the Armenian population in Nagorno Karabakh, to preserve the Armenian cultural heritage, to ensure the safe return of internally displaced persons and refugees to their former places of residence, and to exchange the prisoners of war and the bodies of the deceased without delay,” the Ministry said in a statement.

“We acknowledge the importance of duly investigating all the alleged war crimes and bringing those responsible to justice. It is noteworthy that the European Parliament also specifically called for an international investigation into the alleged presence of foreign fighters, terrorists and the use of cluster munitions and phosphorus bombs,” the Ministry added.

It welcomed the European Parliament’s support for the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen for a comprehensive settlement of the conflict founded on the Basic Principles proposed by the international mediators.

“We join the European Parliament’s condemnation of the destabilizing role of Turkey, which seeks to undermine the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group for the sake of its ambitions of playing a more decisive role in the conflict settlement process,” the statement reads.

“We share the view of the European Parliament that a lasting settlement has not been found yet We are convinced that a comprehensive and just settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict can be achieved on the basis of the recognition of the right to self-determination realized by the people of Artsakh and the de-occupation of the territories of the Republic of Artsakh,” the Ministry stated. 

Armenians request Larnaca authorities to rename the street called Grey Wolves

Arsine Chaltikian
Public Radio of Armenia
Jan 22 2021
– Public Radio of Armenia

The Armenian National Committee of Cyprus has applied to the Larnaca City Hall, requesting to rename the street called BOZ KURT (Gray Wolves).

The reasons for the request for name change were presented to the Deputy Mayor.

The Deputy Mayor promised that the issue would be examined by the Municipal Council.

The Armenian National Commission will closely monitor the process and inform the community.

The ultranationalist Grey Wolves group is linked to a top ally of the Turkish president and is seen as a militant wing of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is allied with Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish parliament.

The Grey Wolves was a nickname given to members of a fringe Turkish movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.

The group was recently outlawed in France after its members desecrated the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Lyon. 

Baroness Caroline Cox: I have seen videos and photos of mutilations, torture and beheadings of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh

Kevo Kalantarian
Panorama, Armenia
Jan 22 2021

Despite the ceasefire, reports continue of atrocities perpetrated by Azerbaijani forces on Armenian military and civilian prisoners, Baroness Caroline Cox, a member of the British House of Lords said during hearing on the Nagorno-Karabakh – Question held on January 18 in the House of Lords.  

Baroness Cox, in particular, raised the question what assessment the UK Government has made of the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

In response, Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State noted that the Minister for the European Neighbourhood has spoken four times to the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers, most recently in November, when she welcomed the cessation of hostilities. "We recognize that both sides have had to make difficult decisions to ensure the safety and security of their citizens. We of course remain deeply concerned by allegations of war crimes, desecration of cultural heritage and the humanitarian situation, and continue to raise these with all concerned parties," said the minister. 

Baroness Cox, next informed that she had visited the region in the aftermath of the war. 'During and since my visit, I have seen videos and photos of mutilations, torture and killings—there have been beheadings of Armenians —and heard of Azeris taking phones from prisoners, filming their torture and killings and sending these back to their families. Will Her Majesty’s Government act with great urgency to ensure that Azerbaijan is called to account for the continuing, well-documented atrocities, or will they allow Azerbaijan to maintain impunity?" the asked.

Minister of State responded that the government continue to raise these issues at the highest level atrocities need to be fully looked at. 

  

Armenian-American Mari Manoogian appointed Minority Vice Chair of Michigan House Committee

Alex Jidarian
Public Radio of Armenia
Jan 22 2021
– Public Radio of Armenia

Asbarez – Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives Jason Wentworth (R-Farwell) on Thursday appointed State Rep. Mari Manoogian (D-Birmingham) to serve as Minority Vice Chair of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy for the 101st Legislature.

“It is an honor to be appointed to serve as Minority Vice Chair for the Committee on Energy,” said Rep. Manoogian. “Michigan has an opportunity to lead the nation in delivering clean, renewable, reliable energy to our residents, to chart the course for building infrastructure befitting of the advances in electric vehicle technology, and to ensure fair and safe energy worker conditions,” Rep. Manoogian said in a statement.

“As the daughter of a retired utility worker and Chief of Staff for the Utility Workers Union of America, I know the critical role this industry plays in providing good paying jobs that can support a family and keeping our state’s economy powered. I look forward to working with Chairman Bellino (R-Monroe) and my colleagues on the committee to create an energy future that works for everyday Michiganders,” she added.

Rep. Manoogian was also reappointed to serve on the House Committee on Commerce and Tourism.

Russian peacekeepers help another group of refugees return to Nagorno-Karabakh

Lilit Nahapetian
TASS, Russia
Jan 22 2021
Another 87 refugees were brought from Yerevan to Stepanakert by buses, the Russian Defense Ministry said

MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. Russian peacekeepers have escorted a group of 87 refugees from Armenia to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

– World – TASS

"Russian peacekeepers continue to facilitate the return of refugees to their homes. Another 87 refugees were brought from Yerevan to Stepanakert by buses. A total of 50,390 refugees have returned to Nagorno-Karabakh so far," the statement reads.

The mission of Russian peacekeepers is to ensure the safe return of refugees, provide them with humanitarian assistance and restore civil infrastructure facilities. They also monitor the situation in the region and the implementation of ceasefire agreements on a round-the-clock basis at 27 observation posts.

On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting from November 10. The Russian leader said that Azerbaijan and Armenia would maintain the positions that they had held and Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to the region.