Category: 2022

ArmInfo. Armenian Human Rights Defender Kristine Grigoryan criticized the international community’s for its disproportionate and inadequate response to the facts of  torture and ill-treatment of Armenian servicemen and civilians during  and after the 44-day war in Nagorno- Karabakh in the fall of 2020.

Thus, the Office of the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of  Armenia reports, in part, “On June 22, Human Rights Defender of the  Republic of Armenia, Ms. Kristinne Grigoryan made a video statement  during the interactive dialogue with Special Rapporteur on summary  executions held within the framework of the 50th regular session of  the UN Human Rights Council (June 13 – July 8 ).

During the dialogue, in her statement the Defender highly appreciated  the work of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or  arbitrary executions stressing the need for further strengthening the  mandate and allocating more resources.

The Defender reflected on the response to torture, extrajudicial and  summary executions of Armenian civilian captives and PoW during and  after the 2020 hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh, which has been  inadequate and insufficient to say the least creating preconditions  for extrajudicial and arbitrary executions in other ongoing  conflicts.

Summing-up the Speech, as a guarantee of effective implementation of  the mandate the Defender stressed the imperative of visiting the  regions and territories more by Special Rapporteur emphasizing the  need for better understanding on the ground.

Highlighting the role of national human rights institutions as a  valuable partner to the Special Rapporteur, Defender Grigoryan  expressed her willingness for partnership.”  

ArmInfo. The OSCE Minsk Group’s further activities hardly have any prospects, Alexey Malashenko, Senior Researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International  Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO), said in an  interview with ArmInfo. 

“I consider the statements on the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship  made by Karen Donfried and Maria Zakharova in this context. This is  nothing but intricate diplomatic swordplay in the present strained  geopolitical situation. Nothing else should be expected at the  current stage,” he said. 

On June 22, Karen Donfried, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for  European and Eurasian Affairs, stated in Yerevan that, despite the  broken off contacts with Russia, the USA was willing to continue  cooperation in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the OSCE  Minsk Group.

In response, Maria Zakharova, Spokesperson for the Russian Ministry  of Foreign Affairs expressed her doubts about the sincerity of that  statement. According to her, if Washington and Paris really  appreciated thee Minsk Group, they would not have disregarded the  mandate approved by all the member-states. 

In this context, Mr Malashenko believes that all the latest talks  about the OSCE Minsk Group are an “artificial political agenda” both  for Washington, Paris and Brussels and for Moscow. And this agenda  enables the parties to convey certain messages to each other in the  best-case scenario or, in the worst-case scenario, seriously damage  the opponent’s international reputation. 

“In fact, fierce rivalry is taking place for mediation in settling  the Armenian-Azerbaijani problems now.  And the West is seeking to  gain the upper hand in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. And  neither party is capable of thinking of what the OSCE Minsk Group’s  activities could be. Clearly, it is causing damage to the peace  process itself, and the lack of results is evidence thereof. And to  resolve the current situation the mediators should abandon the policy  of escalating the regional region,” the expert said.

ArmInfo. In the autumn 2020, Moscow badly miscalculated the potential of Turkey and its President Recep Erdogan, Professor David Hovhannisyan said in an interview with  ArmInfo. 

“The scenario of the 44-day war was initially well thought out. And  it was the condition for Moscow’s consent to Azerbaijan’s aggression  against Artsakh. Under that scenario, the Azerbaijani army was  capturing the territories it actually captured – halting its advance  from time to time,” Mr Hovhannisyan said. 

And the Russian scenario was developing until Erdogan intervened in  the Russian game, which brought about a change in the situation,  especially toward the end of the war. And Moscow had to resort to  rather radical ways of persuasion to prevent the theater of war  ‘going beyond the set bounds,’ which resulted in Azerbaijan downing a  Russian helicopter gunship in Armenia’s territory. 

And Moscow has now realized its miscalculations and is seeking to  remedy the resultant situation, which is a rather difficult task to  accomplish. And Moscow major miscalculation was thinking that the  Turkish president had nothing to do in that “from the first.”  However, toward the end of the end of the war it was clear that, to  put it mildly, it was far from being the truth.

“Russia’s current problems in Artsakh are being exacerbated by the  fact that Erdogan is to be reckoned with as Russia’s ally, albeit one  of convenience, on the other platforms. And the obviously conflicting  strategic interests are not at all an obstacle to tactical  cooperation between Ankara and Moscow for common advantage, with each  of them interpreting this advantage in their own way. This  necessitates tactical agreements on various problems in different  places of the Greater Middle East,” Mr Hovhannisyan said. 

ArmInfo.There is some progress in the activities of the tripartite working group on the opening of communications in the South Caucasus, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov stated  at his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. 

“As for regional issues, we are ready to do everything possible to  facilitate the implementation of the three documents signed by the  three leaders in November 2020, January and November 2021. According  to our assessment, there is some progress in the activities of the  tripartite working group on the opening of communications. We are  discussing the issues to be agreed with the Armenian side. It seems  to me that a general idea is being formed on how to solve the problem  of organizing this work so that there are no artificial obstacles to  the movement of cars with maximum comfort. Russia will help in this  until the results are achieved. I do hope that this will happen soon.  We are also ready to provide consulting services on the work of two  commissions established for the delimitation and demarcation of  borders in Azerbaijan and Armenia in accordance with other  agreements. There are specific proposals on this. I would be glad to  discuss them with you.

“You mentioned the normalization of relations, the peace agreement  and provisions of the future agreement submitted by you. By the way,  we have heard that the Armenian side, Prime Minister Pashinyan, is  ready to hold talks on this issue. We are ready to help here with the  consent of Azerbaijan and Armenia,” Mr Lavrov said.  

ArmInfo.The ruling “Civil Contract” party of Armenia has presented its candidates to the local self-government bodies, who will lead the proportional lists in the  elections to be held in September this year.

 By decision of the board of the party, the lists will be headed by:  Alagyaz – Anzor  Urusyan Alaverdi – Aren Mkrtchyan Akunk – Hunan Rubenyan Areni – Usik  Sahakyan Berd – Vahram Sukiasyan Byureghavan – Vladimir Vardevanyan  Gyulagarak – Khachik Vardanyan Jrvezh – Robert Petrosyan Yeghegis –  Artur Stepanyan Kajaran – Armen Arakelyan Lori Berd – Arayik  Nersisyan Sisian – Armen Hakobjanyan Talin – Tavros Sapeyan Tashir –  Arman Vardanyan Tsaghkahovit – Norayr Hakobyan Charentsavan – Artur  Galstyan The elections will be held on September 25.