Giorgi Gogia, Associate Director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at the Human Rights Watch, referred to the wrongful conviction of 13 Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) from Shirak by a Baku court on Thursday.
“Azerbaijan’s prosecution of Armenian prisoners of war on illegal border crossing charges is a breach of Geneva Convention III,” he .
Captured combatants should have been afforded POW status and returned after hostilities ended, he added.
One of the four Armenian servicemen seriously wounded in the Azerbaijani attack on the Armenian positions at the Gegharkunik border section on Wednesday remains in critical condition, Armenia’s acting Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan told reporters on Thursday.
She refrained from replying to a question about whether or not she had visited the injured soldiers. She only said that they maintain constant contact with the military doctors.
Avanesyan said that the wounded soldiers are being treated at the military hospital, but provided no details of the injuries they have sustained.
“I answered what I considered necessary,” she said, urging reporters to follow the statements of the Defense Ministry.
Three Armenian soldiers were killed and four others were wounded in border clashes provoked by the Azerbaijani forces on Wednesday.
Breaching the ceasefire, the Azerbaijani military once again opened fire at the Armenian positions stationed at the Gegharkunik section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on Thursday, at around 8:40am, the Defense Ministry said.
A short shootout followed. One Armenian serviceman, said to be a senior lieutenant, sustained a gunshot wound as a result of the fresh Azerbaijani provocation, the ministry said.
A US district appeals court in Washington, D.C., has rejected Turkish government motions to dismiss two lawsuits filed by protesters who were attacked by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan security guards in May 2017, Turkish Minute reported on Wednesday, citing local media.
The cases against Erdogan’s guards stem from an altercation on May 16, 2017, outside the residence of the Turkish ambassador in Washington. Demonstrators, mostly ethnic minorities of Kurdish and Yazidi descent, protesting the policies of the Turkish president were attacked by his bodyguards during a visit by — and within view of — Erdogan.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday decided to allow both cases filed on behalf of over a dozen plaintiffs, the victims of Erdogan’s bodyguards’ attack, to proceed, upholding the district court’s decision of February 2020 that Turkey isn’t entitled to immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
Turkey alleges that the demonstrators posed an imminent threat to Erdogan’s safety, but video footage shows Turkish authorities and pro-Erdogan supporters running to attack the protestors, surrounding women and elderly men while punching, kicking and throwing them to the ground.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday refrained from commenting on acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s proposal to deploy Russian border guards along the entire Armenian-Azerbaijani border, TASS reported.
“Contacts with Yerevan continue, I have nothing more to add,” Peskov replied, when asked what the Kremlin’s view of Pashinyan’s initiative was.
Separately, Peskov said Moscow has contributed significant efforts towards reinstating the ceasefire on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, and work here is still marching on.
“Yesterday, the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border worsened. You know that Russia’s representatives made major efforts to restore the ceasefire. This work is continuing, and Russia is carrying on its contacts with Yerevan and Baku in order to ensure the full implementation of the trilateral agreements,” he explained.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Pashinyan proposed deployment of CSTO observers along the entire Armenian-Azerbaijani border to monitor the situation.
“I believe that a possible solution to the deadlock might be the deployment of a CSTO observer mission along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, which is provided for by the CSTO regulations. If such a mission proves to be impossible within the CSTO framework, there may be other acceptable international formats, including the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship,” he said.
“Given the current situation, I feel that it makes sense to consider the deployment of Russian border guard posts along the entire Armenian-Azerbaijani border, which would allow for demarcation and delimitation work without the risk of armed clashes. We are going to discuss this issue with our Russian colleagues,” Pashinyan noted.
The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is not stabilizing despite the efforts exercised by the Armenian government and the international community, Armenia’s Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
An agreement restoring the ceasefire at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border was reached at the mediation of the command of Russian peacekeeping forces on Wednesday, hours after the Azerbaijani forces provoked clashes by attacking the Armenian positions at the Gegharkunik border section, killing three Armenian soldiers and wounding four others.
However, the Azerbaijani military again violated the ceasefire early on Thursday, opening fire at the Armenian positions, as a result of which another Armenian soldier was injured.
“Azerbaijan continues to use aggressive rhetoric and carry out aggressive actions, leaving unanswered all the proposals of the international community for a long-term political settlement of the situation,” the caretaker PM said.
Pashinyan recalled the statement issued by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on April 13, in which they called for a high-level political dialogue to be resumed under the auspices of the co-chairs. He underlined that Azerbaijan has so far failed to respond to this appeal, while Armenia has repeatedly declared its readiness to resume negotiations at any time in the proposed format.
“We have also voiced our readiness to engage in a dialogue on issues beyond the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship. Nevertheless, Azerbaijan is trying to undermine any opportunity for dialogue by discrediting with its inflammatory rhetoric and actions the trilateral statements of November 9, 2020, and January 11, 2021. In particular, despite the 8th clause of the trilateral statement of November 9, Azerbaijan keeps holding fictitious trials on Armenian prisoners of war, hostages and other detainees and sentencing them to many years of imprisonment.
“Special attention should be paid to the fact that almost all convicts were captured after November 9 in the area falling under the peacekeepers’ responsibility. If we compare this with the large-scale counter-propaganda against the peacekeepers underway in Azerbaijan, as well as with the fact that Azerbaijan has not yet signed the mandate of the peacekeepers, it becomes obvious that this series of actions is targeting the peacekeepers, that is, it goes against stability and peace in Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.
In Pashinyan’s words, Azerbaijan also takes consecutive steps to discredit the idea of unblocking regional communications. Despite the fact that either the 9th clause of the statement issued on November 9, 2020, or the statement of January 11, 2021 makes no mention of a corridor and no specific routes are indicated therein, Azerbaijan continues to raise the issue of a corridor, pointing to specific routes and destinations, he said.
“I have repeatedly stated that Armenia has never discussed and will not discuss anything under the logic of a corridor, and with the above-mentioned formulations Azerbaijan is trying to hinder the opening of regional communications. This is not only an important concern for us, but also one of our government’s priorities.
“We definitely consider that all transport and economic communications should be reopened in the region. Armenia should get transit routes through Azerbaijan to Russia, Central Asia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in the meantime, Azerbaijan will have transport communication with Nakhichevan, Georgia, Iran through Armenia. To implement this program, customs checkpoints will have to be set up at the relevant border points, which should be crossed on both sides in accordance with the internationally accepted procedures of border and customs control, such as those adopted within the CIS,” Pashinyan said.
Security expert, I’m Honored bloc MP Tigran Abrahamyan urges the authorities to reveal details of the Moscow talks mentioned in the Defense Ministry’s statement and the terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire with Azerbaijan.
An agreement restoring the ceasefire at the Armenian-Azerbaijan border was reached at the mediation of the command of Russian peacekeeping forces on Wednesday, hours after the Azerbaijani forces provoked clashes by attacking the Armenian positions at the Gegharkunik border section.
Earlier, the Defense Ministry of Armenia said the “adversary launched the attacks ahead of the talks in Moscow, Russia”.
“Not a single senior Armenian official has offered an explanation over the Moscow negotiations, which the Defense Ministry referred to in its statement yesterday and what the meeting was about,” Abrahamyan wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
“Moreover, no information has been provided on the terms or details of the ceasefire agreement reached with Moscow’s mediation yesterday.
“So far, the leadership of Armenia has not expressed an official position on the package of proposals submitted to our country, with all possible countries revealing various details of it, except for Armenia,” the expert said.