Category: 2022

Structural changes in the leadership of the Armed Forces of Armenia are a necessity. Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan stated this at Wednesday’s special meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Defense and Security.

According to him, the respective matter is particularly about endowing the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces with the functions of the First Deputy Minister of Defense.

The defense minister noted that during the last years, two institutions were basically formed within one defense department, which, in his opinion, has violated the effective operation of the defense system in Armenia and created additional bureaucratic problems.

However, in the event of a war, the main political accountability, according to the minister of defense, falls on the shoulders of the defense minister of Armenia.

"And every official must have willpower to fulfill his powers. From this point of view, the changes assumed by the government decide as clearly as possible the scope of accountability of each official," said Papikyan.

By and large, the defense minister believes that the proposed changes will make the defense ministry of Armenia more monolithic.

Also, he noted that within the defense structures of Armenia one can often come across divisions whose functions are repeated. According to the Minister of Defense, this is simply unacceptable.

Turkey should face an international court for complicity in acts of genocide against the Yazidis, while Syria and Iraq failed in their duty to prevent killings, according to an investigation endorsed by British human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy, The Guardian reported.

The report, written by a group of prominent human rights lawyers, attempts to underscore the imperative responsibility of states to prevent genocide on their soil, even if it is carried out by a third party, the Islamic State (IS).

Lawyers, United by the Yezidi Justice Committee (YJC), said that under international law, states have a responsibility to prevent the crime of genocide in accordance with the Genocide Convention. Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, chairman of the YJC, described the Yazidi genocide as "insanity".

Since 2013, it is acknowledged that there have been genocide attempts against the Yezidis, a religious minority, in Iraq and Syria. The report, prepared after a three-year investigation into the behavior of 13 countries, concluded that three of them had failed in their duty to prevent genocide.

In the case of Turkey, the committee went even further, accusing the leaders of complicity in the massacres, arguing that they had not established control over their borders to stop the free flow of IS fighters, including a significant number of Turkish citizens.

The committee said that since April 2014, Turkish officials have turned a blind eye to the sale, transfer and enslavement of Yazidi women and children and have helped train ISIS-linked fighters to fight the Kurds in Syria, thus strengthening the perpetrators of the genocide.

“Turkish officials knew and/or deliberately turned a blind eye to evidence that these individuals would use this training to carry out prohibited acts against the Yazidis,” the report says.

The report notes that similar allegations have been made against some Gulf states, including Qatar, but insufficient evidence has been provided.

The tunnel under construction in Karvachar (Kelbajar)—which came under the control of Azerbaijan after the military aggression in 2020—was flooded, informed the Talish Informer Telegram channel.

Also, it posted a respective video.

The US administration has again reaffirmed the waiver of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which bans direct military aid to Azerbaijan. In an interview with Voice of America, Brad Sherman, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, expressed his disagreement with this decision

We should not abandon Section 907 and provide any assistance to oil-rich Azerbaijan, which has unleashed an aggressive war. The aid we provide is not large, but I believe it is important diplomatically; so, it should be stopped, said the US congressman.

In his opinion, American aid for humanitarian projects in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) should be increased, and Armenia should be given the opportunity to be included in the Millennium Challenge program.

The World Bank ranked Armenia among those with above-average income. I would like it to be so, but we have to take into account the economic consequences of the terrible war, the coronavirus pandemic, Sherman said.

STEPNAKERT. – Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of Foreign Affairs David Babayan on Tuesday had a telephone conversation with Foreign Minister Vitaly Ignatev of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria).

Babayan congratulated his counterpart on his birthday, wishing him productive work and success, the Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The parties discussed the regional situation and possible developments. They stressed the need to maintain and expand the cooperation between Artsakh and Transnistria, as well as their foreign ministries.

The problem is not in the constitutionality deficit, but in the non-implementation of the Constitution in general. Lawyer, constitutional law expert, and opposition MP Aram Vardevanyan said this during a discussion dedicated to the Constitution of Armenia.

According to him, the Constitution of Armenia no longer serves its purpose and mission.

"No constitutional institution, and the Constitution is the cornerstone of governing the state, does not perform its functions in any way. International experience suggests that in such a situation the functions of ensuring the implementation of the Basic Law should be assumed by the Constitutional Court. The crisis of constitutionalism is so deep [in Armenia] that it is extremely difficult to overcome it, and the Constitutional Court plays an important role in this road," Vardevanyan said, emphasizing the big problems in terms of the composition of the Constitutional Court of Armenia.

"There have always been problems related to constitutionality, and the key to correcting them is the decisions of the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court has departed from the Constitution. For example, the Criminal Code article on grave insult. It is incompatible with the Constitution, but the Constitutional Court found it compatible. And even the European organizations protecting these [Armenian] authorities consider it problematic. There is a deep crisis of constitutionalism [in Armenia]. The first step to overcome this should be a change of power [in the country]. But then there is a titanic job to be done, as these authorities have inspired people for four years that all constitutional norms can be violated," said Aram Vardevanyan.