Category: 2023

Sports: Darón Iskenderian Called up to Armenia U-21 National Team

Garik Boshkezenian
Sept 6 2023

September 5, 2023 - MLS NEXT Pro (MLS NEXT Pro) - Real Monarchs News Release

HERRIMAN, Utah Real Monarchs midfielder Darón Iskenderian has been selected by Head Coach Rafayel Nazaryan to represent Armenia's U-21 National Team as they begin preparations for the qualifying round of UEFA European Championships in 2025.

Iskenderian was brought in midway through the MLS NEXT Pro campaign and has played in 12 matches, starting 11 of them, immediately bringing a creative spark to the Real Monarchs attack, recording two goals and an assist.

The Armenian U-21 team will begin training camp on Monday, September 4 and will play two matches as they look to qualify for Euro 2025. The two matches will be played in Armenia at Abovyan Sports Complex against Albania on Friday, September 8 and Montenegro on Tuesday, September 12.

Real Monarchs have three more matches remaining in MLS NEXT Pro as they attempt to climb above the playoff line. The team will travel to Colorado Rapids 2 on September 10 before hosting the final home match of the season against Tacoma Defiance on September 15. Meanwhile, Decision Day for MLS NEXT Pro falls on September 24th when Real Monarchs take on Portland Timbers 2 at Providence Park.

https://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/darxf3n-iskenderian-called-up-to-armenia-u-21-national-team/n-6010625#google_vignette

Film: Movie review: "Amerikatsi" Brings Armenian cinema to a new audience

Ani Tigranian
Sept 6 2023
ZITA SHORT
SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

Director: Michael A. Goorjian
Writers: Michael A. Goorjian
Stars: Michael A. Goorjian, Hovik Keuchkerian, Nelli Uvarova

Synopsis: Charlie escapes the Armenian genocide as a boy by fleeing to the United States, but he returns as an adult and is arrested. He watches an Armenian couple from his prison cell, finally learning about his homeland.

During the lengthy period in which the Cold War raged on, the tensions between the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc figured prominently in a number of Hollywood blockbusters. For most, the slightly jingoistic action films of the 1980s serve as the most obvious example of anti-Soviet propaganda. Top Gun (1986) and Red Heat (1988) heavily emphasized the fact that Soviets were unemotional, robotic killing machines who lacked warmth and psychological depth. In thinking back on this period, we tend to forget about the light, fluffy comedies that attempted to view Soviet politics through a satirical lens. They were often guilty of presenting a somewhat glib analysis of the ideological and cultural differences that separate Americans from their Soviet counterparts but they serve as valuable socio-historical documents. In the modern day, the average American’s perception of post-Soviet states has radically altered, so it’s more than a little surprising to see a contemporary film that echoes the thematic concerns of Moscow on the Hudson (1985). 

In mounting a highly sentimental, feel-good comedy about the clash between American and Soviet Armenian culture, director Michael A. Goorjian must have known that he was out of step with the times. Here, he attempts to construct a delicate fable about a naïve American Charlie Bakchinyan (Michael A. Goorjian), who repatriates to Armenia in the wake of World War II. He has Armenian ancestors but his family was forced to flee Turkey during the Armenian Genocide. While in Armenia, he hopes to gain a deeper understanding of his cultural identity. He is placed in peril after befriending Sona (Nelli Uvarova), the wife of a powerful government official. As a result of this innocent flirtation, he is imprisoned on bogus charges. Initially, he responds to being isolated from the outside world by growing despondent. However, his spirits begin to improve when he realizes that he can observe the day-to-day life of a young couple living in an apartment that is located across the street from the prison. 

The plot of the film is pretty standard Hollywood fare but Goorjian makes an admirable effort to inject the story’s skeleton structure with dashes of Armenian dark humor. He casts himself as an archetypal wide-eyed American but finds room to complicate the binary between freedom-loving Americans and overly censorious Armenians. Most of the Armenian characters in the film are viewed through a sympathetic lens and while the film doesn’t offer up a sophisticated dissection of the political corruption that plagued Armenian society during this period, it thankfully avoids indulging in too many stereotypes. Then again, you can’t blame the viewers who yearn for a more dense, thematically complex picture, that might have included a more intellectually rigorous critique of Stalinist policies. 

Amerikatsi’s virtues really come to the fore during lengthy sequences in which Nerses Sedrakyan and Avet Tonoyants’s production design is allowed to take center stage. They have clearly taken great pains to accurately represent era-appropriate interior design trends and color schemes. One naturally assumes that they weren’t working with a massive budget, so it’s very impressive that they managed to invest every location featured in the film with so much texture and pathos. All of this effort also helps to infuse a relatively conventional plot with a much-needed personal touch. This sort of skilled craftsmanship is often undervalued and there is something appealing about the fact that the imagery in this film has a tactile, visceral quality that is missing from a lot of modern cinema. You can tell when something has been precisely constructed and the ‘little things’ really do play a role in elevating Amerikatsi beyond some of the limitations that typically hold period pieces back. 

There is also something to be said for the small scale that the film operates on, as Goorjian could never be accused of overstuffing the plot. The languid, measured pacing ensures that scenes play out in a naturalistic fashion and largely avoid straining for effect. He finds a delicate balance between mainstream comedy and culturally specific comedic references, without sacrificing the opportunity to jerk tears out of audience members. It’s not going to revolutionize Armenia cinema but it might go a long way in bringing elements of their national cinema to a wider audience. 

Armenian Genocide 2.0? One Step Closer with Armenia-US Joint Military Exercise on 9/11

Albert Nalbandian
James H. Fetzer Organization
Sept 6 2023
September 6, 2023 James Fetzer

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica published on Sunday September 3rd, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made the following statements:

Armenia’s security architecture was 99.999% linked to Russia, including when it came to the procurement of arms and ammunition. But today we see that Russia itself is in need of weapons, arms and ammunition (for the war in Ukraine) and in this situation it’s understandable that even if it wishes so, the Russian Federation cannot meet Armenia’s security needs. This example should demonstrate to us that dependence on just one partner in security matters is a strategic mistake.

In view of the fact that Russia has a mutual defense contract with Armenia, a Russian military post inside the Republic of Armenia and a Russian peacekeeping force stationed at the border between Azerbaijan and the landlocked, contested breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh to Armenians who’ve lived there since ancient times), Putin has ignored the fact that Azerbaijan’s blockade is causing Armenians in Artsakh to starve to death, ignoring the worsening, blatant humanitarian crisis with families down to rationing a piece of bread all day.

Letting thousands of Armenians starve is hardly honoring Moscow’s defense pact with Armenia. It’s a clear, sobering reality that Russia has elected to abandon its security commitment with the Republic of Armenia, allowing the 3-mile Lachin corridor separating Artsakh from Armenia as its only pathway connection to the outside world remain closed now approaching a year since December12, 2022. 90% of Artsakh’s food supply arrived from Armenia through the crucial corridor. Pashinyan stated that with Russia waging war in Ukraine for more than a year and a half, he concludes that Moscow is unable to fulfill its obligations to Armenia or deems Armenia not pro-Russian enough, and that the Kremlin no longer views its involvement in the South Caucasus as a high enough priority. In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insists:

Russia is an absolutely integral part of this region. Russia plays a consistent, very important role in stabilising the situation in this region … and we will continue to play this role Russia is an integral part of this region.

On Tuesday September 5th, the always saucy Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was far more bluntly critical of Pashinyan, claiming his comments were “public rhetoric verging on rudeness,” adding that rather than blaming others, Yerevan should take responsibility for its own actions.

In the face of continued Azerbaijani aggression in recent years, the Yerevan government as a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) also urgently requested support from fellow CSTO members Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, but that too fell on deaf ears. So running out of options, Prime Minister Pashinyan decided to increase Armenia’s ties with the West, and as a result, from September 11 to the 20th, Armenia will participate in joint military exercises with the United States. Though this may be understandable, it’s very likely yet another decisive error in judgment since relying on Washington for much of anything these days, much less for national security, invites deep trouble. Just look at what’s happening to Ukraine’s national security ever since 2014 when the US illegally overthrew its democratically elected leader and installed a neo-Nazi government in Kiev.

In a statement on Wednesday September 6th, Armenian Defense Ministry announced the joint military drills with the US, dubbed “Eagle Partner 2023,” to be conducted “in the framework of preparation for participation in international peacekeeping missions,” opening the door to a potential pandora’s box with another Ukraine scenario for Armenia. Reuters reports that a US military spokesman specified that only 75 US soldiers and 185 Armenian soldiers will take part in this rather small scale 9-day operation.  It’s likely more symbolic, sending the obvious message to Putin that he needs to intervene in Artsakh before conditions grow worse. Dmitry Peskov’s response to the announced military drill between Armenia and the US:

Of course, such news causes concern, especially in the current situation. Therefore, we will deeply analyse this news and monitor the situation.

And of course, the now US deputy Secretary of State, neocon Kiev regime changer herself Victoria Nuland, has been salivating over creating the divisive wedge between Armenia and Russia for a full decade as yet one more pro-Western neighbor on Russia’s doorstep falling into the pocket of the anti-Russian West. This all could’ve and should’ve been avoided had President Vladimir Putin simply given the ethically responsive order for his “peacekeepers” to merely do their assigned job to ensure peace prevails by forcing the Lachin reopening. But allowing Baku to commit more genocide against more Armenians is definitely not keeping the peace, nor, for that matter, in anyone’s best interest living in this treacherous world. If it wasn’t such high stakes flirting with World War III, Armenia courting favor with Russia’s chief rival is like a jealous schoolgirl flirting with another boy to make her boyfriend jealous.

Getting back to today’s dire stakes, by wilfully refusing to permit food, fuel and vital medical supplies be brought into Artsakh from Armenia, Azerbaijan is violating the Moscow brokered truce after the Azeri-Armenian 44-day war in late 2020. But even more significant is that Baku is premeditatedly starving 120,000 Armenians and resuming the genocide where Turkey left off a century ago, this time perpetrated by Azerbaijan’s Turkic brethren. The International Red Cross has a fleet of trucks sitting idly by at the border for weeks now loaded with vital emergency supplies but unable to enter Artsakh, while Russian soldiers passively look on, allowing this international crime spectacle to go on unimpeded and unpunished, essentially rendering Russia an accomplice to the international crime of genocide.

Even former prosecutor to the Hague’s International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo, released an August 7th report entitled “Genocide against Armenians in 2023,” accusing Azerbaijan outright of legally meeting the definition of genocide, and recommending the case be brought before the ICC. But all it prompted was an emergency UN Security Council meeting held two weeks later on August 21st urgently calling for Azeri President Ilham Aliyev to lift the Lachin corridor blockade and allow supplies through. It changed nothing as dictator Aliyev correctly calculated that with the world in multiple energy crises now and needing oil from his Caspian reserves more than ever, the rest of the world would meekly squawk, then look the other way. He was right as without any negative consequence backing up the feeble UN pleas, why would the Aliyev dictatorship even anticipate any unwanted consequence.

If UN Security Council member Russia’s peacekeeping force is looking the other way, refusing to intercede despite clear violation of the 2020 truce signed by Baku, Moscow and Yerevan, then Aliyev remains smugly confident that starving a few Armenians in a territory Josef Stalin gave to Azerbaijan a century ago despite 96% of the residents at the time being Armenian living in their homeland for millennia, that the world wrongly still agrees technically and legally it still belongs to Azeris. Yet this morally reprehensible 1923 decision by Stalin as perhaps the world’s biggest genocidal murderer in history, is still allowed to stand in a world that doesn’t care about 120,000 people whose lives are increasingly in grave danger now.

A CNN article on Wednesday September 6th revealed the plight of one Artsakh resident, Ani Kirakosyani, from the village of Haturk, who became pregnant a month after the blockade began. With food unavailable, she’s been living off of tomatoes and beans from her garden. Public transportation in Artsakh was suspended on July 25th due to fuel shortages brought on by the corridor closure, resulting in Ani not able to receive medical care. Six months into her pregnancy, experiencing severe abdominal pain, landed her in the hospital. But the ambulance driver had to pick up six other patients along the way due to fuel rationing. Ani was told that her complications necessitated her giving birth three months premature. With her husband working with the military 100 miles away, again from lack of fuel, he could not be there with his wife when doctors told her she had a stillbirth resulting from malnutrition. By phone Ani Kirakosyani told CNN:

If not for the blockade, I would be playing with my child today.

The number of miscarriages in Artsakh have soared to four times the rate from this time last year.  Azeri military refuse to allow international media to enter the enclave since the blockade went into effect nearly nine months ago. My August 17th article on this growing humanitarian crisis reported that two days earlier on the 15th of last month, 40-year old K. Hovhannisyan became the first starvation casualty dying from chronic malnutrition caused by what appears to be a second Armenian genocide 2.0.

Olesya Vartanyan, a senior South Caucasus analyst at the non-profit conflict prevention organization Crisis Group, told Reuters that in recent days, social media footage indicates increasing Azeri military movement along the Armenia-Azerbaijan frontline, warning:

It doesn’t look good at all. 

So, the world is watching genocide repeat itself and Putin’s Russia shamefully refuses to come to Armenians’ aid in Artsakh and honor its security commitment. One can easily understand why Republic of Armenia’s Prime Minister Pashinyan is stating it was Armenia’s regretful, strategic mistake to depend solely on Russia for its security. At the same time, it’s a disgrace the world of nations just sits back passively allowing Armenians to starve to death once again a century after a million and a half perished from the last Armenian genocide. But that’s the world we’re living in today, where the value of human life seemingly grows cheaper by the day. Elites are actively committing genocide, exterminating the entire human race, with few among us aware or even care, much less dare to fight back for our species survival. With the devil’s dominion earthly affairs, in 2023 perhaps more than ever, Satin still rules over our planet.

Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate, former Army officer and author of “Don’t Let the Bastards Getcha Down,” exposing a faulty US military leadership system based on ticket punching up the seniority ladder, invariably weeding out the best and brightest, leaving mediocrity and order followers rising to the top as politician-bureaucrat generals designated to lose every modern US war by elite design. After the military, Joachim earned a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field with abused youth and adolescents for more than a quarter century. In Los Angeles he found himself battling the largest county child protective services in the nation within America’s thoroughly broken and corrupt child welfare system.

The experience in both the military and child welfare system prepared him well as a researcher and independent journalist, exposing the evils of Big Pharma and how the Rockefeller controlled medical and psychiatric system inflict more harm than good, case in point the current diabolical pandemic hoax and genocide. As an independent journalist for the last decade, Joachim has written hundreds of articles for many news sites, like Global Research, lewrockwell.com and currently https://jameshfetzer.org. As a published bestselling author on Amazon of a 5-book volume series entitled Pedophilia & Empire: Satan, Sodomy & the Deep State, his A-Z sourcebook series exposes the global pedophilia scourge is available free at https://pedoempire.org/contents/. Joachim also hosts the Revolution Radio weekly broadcast “Cabal Empire Exposed,” every Friday morning at 6AM EST (ID: revradio, password: rocks!).

7 facts "about Armenia’s departure from Russia". How they are seen in Moscow and Yerevan

Kevo Kalantarian
Sept 7 2023

  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

Is Armenia changing course from Russia to the West

The Armenian authorities have made statements in recent days that have been actively discussed in Russia. An anonymous source from the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS that “Moscow is extremely dissatisfied with the statements of the Armenian leadership. They are seen as a consequence of Western interference, an attempt “to push Russia out of the South Caucasus, using Yerevan as a means of realizing this goal.” While “Russia does not intend to leave the region”.

Armenia’s top leadership has been openly and harshly criticizing Russia’s position on the non-fulfillment of its commitments for a long time.

The incidents on the border with Azerbaijan, when the Russian Federation and Russia’s CSTO military bloc refused to fulfill their obligations to protect the sovereign territory of their ally, became a cause for discontent on the Armenian side. Another pain point for Armenia is the inaction of the Russian peacekeeping contingent deployed on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh to protect the Armenian population.

Russia’s position is considered by a significant part of the Armenian society, politicians and analysts as incompatible with the status of a strategic ally. However, Armenian political analysts in the majority do not share this opinion and do not agree with the opinion that Armenia is changing the vector of its foreign policy.

Here is a list of the events of the last few days that are seen as Armenia’s rejection of Russia, as well as a commentary by an Armenian political scientist on what it all means.

  • Pashinyan on Armenia’s problems and a “crisis of international law and order”
  • “Russia was a guarantor of Armenia’s security, but it has become a threat.” Opinion
  • “A curious proposal on Karabakh”: a document attributed to Lavrov

On September 6, the wife of Armenian Prime Minister Anna Hakobyan flew to Kiev. She is participating in the third summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen in the Ukrainian capital. This event was first organized by the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenskaya in 2021. Its goal is to unite spouses of the world’s first ladies to exchange experiences, opinions and realize joint projects.

Anna Hakobyan was one of the speakers of the summit along with the spouses of the British Prime Minister and the President of Austria, First Ladies of Albania, Cyprus, Czech Republic.

The fact that she arrived in Ukraine with a humanitarian cargo did not go unnoticed. And after her arrival she wrote on her Facebook page that she visited an exhibition dedicated to the memory of children killed in war: “Children dying in wars is a failure of all of us adults. An unforgivable, irreparable, irreplaceable failure.”

Anna Hakobyan in Kiev, at the memorial to children killed in the war

On the same day, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan said:

“In all probability, the Rome Statute will be ratified. We will discuss, understand what benefits there are, and there are many, since war crimes have been and are being committed against our country. We need it, our country needs it”.

The Rome Statute is the international treaty that established the International Criminal Court. Its creation was explained by the need for an independent court to resolve cases related to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On March 17, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin as a suspect in the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. All countries that have ratified the treaty are obliged to extradite him to the court if he is on their territory.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced that Moscow has already requested clarifications regarding Armenia’s ratification of the Rome Statute: “We will decide on our further steps based on the content of Yerevan’s response”.

Meanwhile, Armenia’s response has been voiced more than once. About a month ago, Parliament Vice-Speaker Hakob Arshakyan again said that the ratification of the document “is in no way directed against Russia, but will serve to prevent Azerbaijani encroachments on Armenia’s sovereign territory”.

  • Ratification of the Rome Statute: will the Armenian authorities go against Russia?
  • Armenia at a crossroads: will the country leave Russia’s sphere of influence

On September 2, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that “the peacekeeping forces of the Russian Federation are not fulfilling the mission entrusted to them within the framework of the trilateral declaration [on cessation of hostilities in Karabakh]”.

This was in response to a question whether he could explain what was keeping Russia from implementing the November 9, 2020 agreements, according to which it must guarantee movements through the Lachin corridor. This is the only road connecting the unrecognized NKR to Armenia. It has been blocked by Azerbaijanis since December last year. Russian peacekeepers, as Armenian experts say, “could not or did not want to unblock the road”.

Russian journalist and publisher with Armenian roots Aram Gabrielyanov wrote on Facebook that he suggested that the Chief of the General Staff of Armenia “bring the army to the streets” to change the government

Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan also spoke after Pashinyan’s interview about the fact that, according to the November 2020 agreements, the Lachin corridor should be under the jurisdiction of Russian peacekeepers.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in this regard that the Armenian side’s public rhetoric in connection with the Lachin corridor is “on the verge of rudeness.”

Alen Simonyan said in response to a request from Armenian journalists to comment on Zakharova’s words: “I am not going to comment on the words of some secretary of some department. By its inaction Russia actually keeps Artsakh in a blockade by itself”.

The Prime Minister of Armenia in an interview with France Presse talked about the humanitarian crisis in NK, the likelihood of war, the possibilities of normalizing relations with Azerbaijan and the “balancing” between the West and Russia

In the same interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the Armenian prime minister declared it a strategic mistake that Armenia’s security architecture was “99.999% linked to Russia”. And he explained, “We see that Russia itself is withdrawing from the region by virtue of the steps it takes or fails to take. […] One day we will just wake up and see that Russia is not here.”

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to this statement: “Russia is an absolutely integral part of this region, so it cannot go anywhere. Russia cannot leave Armenia.”

He said nothing about the failure to fulfill its obligations – neither on Armenia’s borders nor in the Lachin corridor. He only mentioned that the situation has changed: “But this does not mean that Russia is going to curtail its activities in any way.

The fact that relations between Armenia and Russia are going through hard times is already openly stated. The Armenian authorities have never criticized Moscow in such a direct way before.

On September 5, many Russian media published information that “Armenia recalled its permanent and plenipotentiary representative to the Collective Security Treaty Organization”.

Viktor Biyagov was immediately appointed Armenian Ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

However, Russian experts did not take this circumstance into account and linked the recall to Armenia’s dissatisfaction with the position of the military bloc.

The problems with the CSTO are explained by the lack of a clear position on the incursion of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces into the sovereign territory of Armenia.

“Since May 11, 2021, Azerbaijan has used armed forces three times and occupied approximately 140 square kilometers of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. What do we expect from the CSTO in this regard? A statement of this fact in the form of a clearly formulated political assessment. To refrain from such an assessment by saying that there is no border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is to say that there is no CSTO zone of responsibility. And if there is no zone of responsibility, there is no organization itself,” said the Armenian Prime Minister on November 23, 2022 during the meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council in Yerevan.

Armen Grigoryan on cooperation with the United States, the possibility of a new war, Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, Russian peacekeepers and Russia’s fulfillment of its obligations

On September 11, the joint Armenian-American military exercise “Eagle partner 2023” will start in Armenia. They will last for 10 days.

“The purpose of the exercise is to increase the level of interaction between units participating in international peacekeeping missions within the framework of peacekeeping operations, exchange of best practices in the field of command and control and tactical communication, as well as to increase the readiness of the Armenian unit for the planned assessments of the “Operational Capabilities Concept” of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program,” the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

In Moscow, this information caused concern. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:

“This causes wariness, especially in the current situation. Therefore, we will deeply analyze this news and monitor the situation.”

Andrias Ghukasyan’s opinion on the Armenian-Russian relations and the possibilities of military cooperation with France

Political analyst Areg Kochinyan does not believe that Armenia is changing course and the statements voiced are anti-Russian rhetoric:

“The country’s authorities are simply openly expressing their disagreement or dissatisfaction with Russia’s policy. In particular, on the Karabakh issue. This does not mean that the country is pursuing an anti-Russian policy. The Prime Minister of Armenia openly states that Russia’s policy and actions do not satisfy the Armenian people. And this is an objective reality. Today the lives of 120 thousand Armenians of Artsakh are actually in danger – because of the blockade and hunger,” he told JAMnews.

In recent days, the political analyst notes numerous publications in the Russian media, “stirring up hysteria”. As a vivid example he cites the discussion of information about the recall of Armenia’s representative in the CSTO.

“Recall is a diplomatic procedure, it is called recalling an ambassador for consultations. And Armenia has not recalled him, but has already appointed him Ambassador to the Netherlands. As far as I understand, a new representative will soon be appointed to the CSTO.”

Kochinyan explains the “artificial hysteria” with the intention to use this information in the future to justify his inaction in the eyes of his own and Armenian society:

“This is a preparation in case of another invasion of Armenia’s sovereign territory by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces. There is every reason to believe that Azerbaijan is preparing for large-scale military actions.

Armenia is trying to bring this issue to the international level. It is trying to be on the same page with the entire civilized world, which is on the other side of Russia in the Ukrainian issue. Thus, the country creates additional security guarantees for itself”.

Political analyst Hovsep Khurshudyan believes that the Armenian authorities should resort to tough measures, including going to the international court

Commenting on the provision of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, says that it was necessary to “work with Russia” before sending it. He believes that this work has been done.

And statements by the Armenian Prime Minister about a new approach to Armenia’s security architecture, considers the accusation concerning Armenia’s political elite, not Russia:

“It is strategically wrong for any state to build its security policy in the logic of relations with one state.”

I am convinced that the Armenian-American military exercises to be held next week should be viewed in the logic: Armenia realizes that Russia’s guarantees are not enough.

The political analyst calls worries about the possible ratification of the Rome Statute a false narrative. He reminds that the process started long before the arrest warrant for the Russian president was issued:

“The Armenian side has always openly explained to the Russian Federation that this is necessary for the country in the logic of the process of bringing the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan to justice. And Putin, of course, will not be arrested if he comes to Armenia. Steps can be taken in this direction – Armenia can join the Rome Statute with reservations”.

Kochinyan believes that Armenia needs to increase its resilience and work with those partners with whom there is a convergence of interests. “I don’t think anyone will ever give us any guarantees or is obliged to give them,” was his response to a question whether Armenia receives signals of possible support from the West.

https://jam-news.net/is-armenia-changing-course-from-russia-to-the-west/

A 20-year-old girl in Azerbaijan is accused of spying in favor of Armenia

Varazdat Torgomian
Sept 7 2023
  • JAMnews
  • Baku

An eco-activist in Karabakh and an Armenian spy

A young girl has been brought to court in Azerbaijan on charges of high treason. Fidan Aliyeva is accused of espionage in favor of Armenia, transferring information about Azerbaijan through an employee of that country’s special service.

  • 7 facts “about Armenia’s departure from Russia”. How they are seen in Moscow and Yerevan
  • Azerbaijani army officer addresses Vagif Khachatryan’s relatives
  • Meeting with Macron. Amid impeachment threats, Georgian president continues European tour

Aliyeva, 20, has been charged under Article 274 (treason against the homeland) of the Criminal Code. Under this charge, he faces up to 20 years or life imprisonment. However, according to Azerbaijani law, women and men over 65 are not sentenced to life imprisonment.

Fidan Aliyeva was detained by the State Security Service several months ago. Her case is currently being considered by the Baku Court of Grave Crimes.

According to Radio Liberty, Aliyeva was among the participants of the protest that started on December 12, 2022 and lasted 138 days on the section of the Lachin-Khankendi road passing through the territory of Shushi. It is alleged that she sent information, videos and photos to an Armenian intelligence officer whom she met through a Telegram channel. Some of the images are reportedly taken from different parts of Baku.

Experts weigh in on the meaning and possible resolution of the Lachin corridor blockade

However, Fidan Aliyeva refutes the accusations. She claims that the accusations of spying in favor of Armenia are not true. Because she thought that the person she met in Telegram was Russian. According to her, she communicated with this person for personal purposes, not for information transfer.

“At first I didn’t know he was Armenian at all. My goal was to get to know him as an ordinary person. I had no other purpose than to provide information about Azerbaijan.”

As for the photos and videos sent, Aliyeva said that the man with whom she was communicating sometimes asked her to take photos in certain places and send them to him, which she did.

The judicial investigation into Aliyeva’s case is ongoing.

From December 12 last year until April 2023, a group of Azerbaijani citizens calling themselves eco-activists gathered on the Lachin-Khankendi road. The Armenian side accused the Azerbaijani authorities of being behind these actions and blocking the part of Karabakh where Russian peacekeeping forces are temporarily stationed.

On April 23, Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint on the border with Armenia, at the beginning of the Lachin-Khankendi road, and explained this by the illegal transportation of weapons from Armenia into Azerbaijani territory. Armenia does not accept this accusation and considers the establishment of the border checkpoint contrary to the trilateral declaration.

https://jam-news.net/a-20-year-old-girl-in-azerbaijan-is-accused-of-spying-in-favor-of-armenia/




Russia says it’s working with both Armenia and Azerbaijan as tensions rise

Kajoyan Gevork
The Print, India
Sept 7 2023
REUTERS
07 September, 2023

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday it was working with both Armenia and Azerbaijan in its role as a security guarantor in the south Caucasus, after Armenia said Azerbaijan was concentrating forces near the border between the two countries.

Armenian state news agency Armenpress cited Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as saying Azerbaijan was conducting an “ongoing military buildup along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border”.

Reuters could not independently verify the alleged build-up.

https://theprint.in/world/russia-says-its-working-with-both-armenia-and-azerbaijan-as-tensions-rise/1750594/

Azerbaijan concentrates forces on border with Armenia, near Nagorno-Karabakh: PM

Jirair Kafian
Iran Front Page
Sept 7 2023
ByIFP Media Wire

Azerbaijan has amassed its troops on the border with Armenia and the demarcation line with Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a Cabinet meeting. He has described the situation as explosive.

“In the past week, the military-political situation in our region has deteriorated. This is because, in the past few days, Azerbaijan has been amassing troops along the line of engagement in Nagorno-Karabakh and on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Anti-Armenian rhetoric and hate speech have intensified in the Azerbaijani press and on propaganda platforms,” the Armenian premier said.

Pashinyan urged the international community and UN Security Council member countries to take serious steps to prevent another explosion of tensions in the region.

“Armenia is ready and willing to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan and we reiterate our commitment to the global agenda on the basis of agreements [signed] in Brussels and Prague as well as the tripartite agreement (between the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia),” he added.

Russia announced on Thursday it was working with both Armenia and Azerbaijan in its role as a security guarantor in the south Caucasus.

Moscow has maintained peacekeepers in the region since a 2020 war in which Azerbaijan seized back significant amounts of territory it had lost to Armenian forces in the 1990s after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Lawmaker, bishop urge action as 120,000 Armenians face ‘ethnic cleansing’

Arpi Talalian
Sept 7 2023
People visit a cemetery on the day of the Armenian nationwide mourning for those killed in a military conflict over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh in Yerevan, Armenia, Dec. 19, 2020. (OSV News photo/Vahram Baghdasaryan, Photolure via Reuters)

September 7, 2023
By Gina Christian

A U.S. lawmaker and a Catholic bishop are calling for action to end a months-long blockade that has left some 120,000 ethnic Armenians at risk of what he and other experts are calling “genocide by starvation.”

“It’s now a three-alarm fire that’s getting worse by the moment,” said Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, speaking as he chaired a Sept. 6 emergency hearing of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. The session followed a similar one led by Smith on June 21.

For the past nine months, Azerbaijan has closed the only road leading from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh (known in Armenian by its ancient name, Artsakh), a historic Armenian enclave located in southwestern Azerbaijan and internationally recognized as part of that nation.

The blockade of the three-mile (five-kilometer) Lachin Corridor, which connects the roughly 1,970 square mile enclave to Armenia, has deprived residents of food, baby formula, oil, medication, hygienic products and fuel — even as a convoy of trucks with an estimated 400 tons of aid is stalled at the single Azerbaijani checkpoint.

According to BBC News, local journalist Irina Hayrapetyan has reported that some residents have fainted from hunger while waiting in line for subsistence rations. Attempts by the International Red Cross to deliver aid have been rebuffed.

“It is a violation of every kind of law,” Bishop Mikael A. Mouradian of the California-based Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg told OSV News in a recent interview, ahead of a Sept. 1 webinar presentation on the issue for the Institute of Catholic Culture.

That was the consensus among speakers at the Sept. 6 hearing, which was co-hosted by Democratic Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts and featured expert witnesses Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who served as the first chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court from 2003-2012; and David L. Phillips, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and director of Columbia University’s Artsakh Atrocities Project.

Smith blasted U.S. inaction on the Azerbaijani blockade, saying that a “response in bland bureaucratic language does not count, not when people are being subjected to genocide.”

He announced plans to introduce a bill for the “Nagorno-Karabakh Human Rights Act,” and opened the Sept. 6 session by noting his long-running concerns, dating back to at least 2013, about human rights abuses under Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev.

Moreno-Ocampo reiterated his conclusions from his Aug. 7 report, stating that the blockade violated Article II(c) of the 1948 Genocide Convention — to which the U.S. is a signatory — by “creating conditions to destroy people.”

He noted that declarations of genocide are often obscured, as “normally people believe genocide requires many persons dying, killings, gas chambers.”

In contrast, “one form (of genocide) requires zero victims,” said Moreno-Ocampo, since the terms of the Genocide Convention only require that one condition be deliberately violated before the signatories’ duty to prevent and punish genocide is invoked.

At the same time, “the issue, and normally the most difficult issue, is the intentions” of the offending nation, he said.

Moreno-Ocampo noted that President Aliyev’s reinforcement of the blockade after U.S. requests to end it indicated an intent to destroy those trapped in the enclave.

Most urgent is “to prevent the harm for these 120,000 people,” he said.

Echoing his Aug. 7 report, Moreno-Ocampo said that U.S. failure to recognize the situation as genocide and respond accordingly “could be considered complicity.”

“Stop the denial. Recognize the genocide,” he said.

In his testimony, Phillips documented a long list of atrocities by Azerbaijan against the region’s residents, describing them as “actions to erase the Armenian physical, religious and cultural presence in Artsakh and eventually the Republic of Armenia, which has now been whittled down to a fraction of all of its Christian population and churches.”

He pointed to satellite documentation of these efforts, which are chronicled by Cornell University’s Caucasus Heritage Watch initiative.

Phillips said the Artsakh Atrocities Project he leads has collected “information on Azerbaijan’s systematic effort to drive Armenians from their homeland through killings, ethnic cleansing and deportations,” thereby constituting “crimes against humanity.”

He noted the “numerous verified cases of Azeri soldiers mutilating dead bodies, beheading and executing both combatants and civilians, and using banned weapons such as cluster bombs and white phosphorus gas” during a 2020 war launched by Azerbaijan on the enclave.

That war — in which 3,000 Azerbaijani and 4,000 Armenian soldiers were killed — had been preceded by a 1992-1994 struggle between Armenia and Azerbaijan for control of the region, which had declared its independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991. Some 30,000 were killed and more than 1 million displaced in that conflict. Russia brokered a 1994 ceasefire, and in a 2017 referendum, voters approved a new constitution and a change in name to the Republic of Artsakh (although “Nagorno Karabakh Republic” also remains an official name).

Philips said Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor ultimately “constitutes a second Armenian genocide,” referencing the 1915-1916 slaughter and starvation of up to 1.2 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire. The atrocities were the basis for lawyer Raphael Lemkin’s development of the term “genocide.”

He also noted Azerbaijan’s refusal to comply with a February 2022 order by the International Court of Justice to ensure “unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions,” as well as calls from “international leaders such as the U.N. Secretary General, the U.S. Secretary of State, and the President of France” to abide by the order.

“History shows that appeasement exacerbates consequences,” he warned. “A world order to which Americans aspire requires a response when crimes against humanity are committed, lest perpetrators conclude that they can escape criminal prosecution, asset freezes and travel bans.”

With the area surrounded by Muslim-majority Azerbaijan, the blockade amounts to “a pure and simple religious (and) ethnic cleansing,” Bishop Mouradian told OSV News in a Sept. 6 text message. “If the Armenians of Artsakh were Muslims, they wouldn’t be treated as they are now.”

Bishop Mouradian (who did not attend the hearing) said Congress “should without any delay put up a bipartisan human rights act … a law that should be put directly in practice to prevent yet another Armenian Genocide.

“That is inevitable if things continue like they are now,” he said.

https://catholicreview.org/lawmaker-bishop-urge-action-as-120000-armenians-face-ethnic-cleansing/

Tensions rise between Armenia and Russia as officials trade accusations

Shushan Frangulian
Sept 7 2023
 7 September 2023

ByArshaluys Barseghyan

Already tense relations between Armenia and Russia have grown more heated in recent days, after Armenia sent its first delivery of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, withdrew its representative from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), and announced joint military exercises with the US.

On Tuesday, Armenian media reported that the country’s government had sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine for the first time since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The delivery of aid was reportedly facilitated by Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who attended a summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen in Kyiv organised by Ukraine’s First Lady on 6 September. 

Armenia also withdrew their representative from the Russian-led CSTO on Tuesday, after increasingly frequently voicing criticism of the organisation regarding its perceived failure to intervene after Azerbaijan attacked Armenian territory in September 2022. 

[Read more: Armenia slams Russia for ‘absolute indifference’]

A day later, on 6 September, Armenia’s Defence Ministry announced that a joint military training exercise with the US would take place from 11–20 September in Armenia to help train Armenian forces for peacekeeping missions.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the news ‘cause for concern’, particularly in ‘the current situation’. 

‘Holding such exercises does not contribute to stabilising the situation’, he noted in a statement on Thursday, ‘or strengthening the atmosphere of mutual trust in the region’. 

The exchange of critical statements between the two countries has increased significantly in recent weeks. 

Shortly after Armenia’s Foreign Ministry condemned Russia’s ‘absolute indifference’ towards Azerbaijani attacks on Armenian territory, Prime Minister Pashinyan on 2 September stated that Russian peacekeepers had ‘failed to implement their mission’ in allowing the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, and that it was a ‘strategic mistake’ to depend on one partner. 

Speaking to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Pashinyan explained that Armenia’s security architecture had been ‘99.999% linked to Russia’, leaving the country with little military support or supply of ammunition following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

‘After tasting the bitter fruits of this error post-factum, we are [now] taking feeble attempts to diversify our security policy’, said Pashinyan. 

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, on 5 September responded to Pashinyan’s comments, stating that it was important to take responsibility for one’s own actions, rather than attempting to shift the blame. 

‘This is the difference between a politician and a statesman, and a person passing by who does not think about his country’s national interests’, said Zakharova.

Peskov added that while ‘new events’ had changed the situation in the region, this did not mean that Russia would ‘limit its activities in some way’. 

‘Moreover, Russia continues to play the role of security guarantor’, said the Kremlin spokesperson. 

Peskov also responded pointedly to Pashinyan’s comments suggesting that Russia might leave the region ‘by virtue of a number of steps it takes or fails to take’. 

‘Russia is an inseparable part of that region, therefore it cannot leave anywhere. Russia cannot leave Armenia’, said Peskov. He added that Russia played a ‘consistent, very important role’ in stabilising the region and tackling conflict, and would continue to do so. 

At the end of August, Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated that Armenia was to blame for the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, considering it a consequence of Armenia’s recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of the territory of Azerbaijan. The assertion prompted a scathing response from Armenia’s Foreign Ministry. 

On 1 September, Armenia sent the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to parliament for ratification. 

If ratified by parliament, Armenia will officially join the ICC. Amongst other commitments, this would oblige the country to arrest Russia's president Vladimir Putin if he were to enter Armenia, as the ICC issued an arrest warrant earlier this year for Putin and Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of war crimes committed in Ukraine. 

The Armenian government re-launched the process of ratifying the Rome Statute at the end of 2022. 

Ratifying the statute would allow Armenia to apply to the ICC to make Azerbaijani war crimes the subject of international legal investigations; Armenia’s parliamentary speaker suggested on Wednesday that this was the country’s primary motivation in seeking its ratification. 

Following Armenia’s Constitutional Court ruling earlier this year that the Rome Statute complied with the country’s constitution, Russia warned Armenia that Yerevan’s intent to ratify the Rome Statute could have ‘extremely negative consequences’. 

[Read more: Russia ‘criticises’ Armenia’s International Criminal Court ratification]

Maria Zakharova commented on Tuesday that Russia had requested clarification from Armenia on the subject, and would decide their next steps based on the content of Yerevan's answer.


https://oc-media.org/tensions-rise-between-armenia-and-russia-as-officials-trade-accusations/

Azerbaijan rejects Armenian accusation of military build-up

Mike Maghakian
Jerusalem Post
Sept 7 2023

By REUTERS

 


Azerbaijan on Thursday dismissed an allegation it was building up its forces on the border with Armenia and close to the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave as false, calling it a "fraudulent political manipulation."

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was earlier on Thursday cited by Armenian state news agency Armenpress as saying that Azerbaijan was conducting an "ongoing military build-up along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border."



"In this situation, holding such exercises does not contribute to stabilizing the situation in any case and strengthening the atmosphere of mutual trust in the region"

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov

Tensions between Baku and Yerevan remain high over the fate of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan's territory but is run by ethnic Armenian authorities which Azerbaijan wants to disband.


Azerbaijan's foreign ministry on Thursday rejected Pashinyan's assertion about a purported military build of its forces in a statement that called on Yerevan to end what Baku called "military and political provocations."

"These claims are…part of another fraudulent political manipulation," the foreign ministry said.


Russia has maintained peacekeepers in the region since a 2020 war in which Azerbaijan seized back significant amounts of territory it had lost to Armenian forces in the 1990s after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Moscow, which has hosted peace talks between the two countries, said on Thursday it was continuing to work with Armenia and Azerbaijan in its role as a security guarantor in the South Caucasus.


Russia has maintained peacekeepers in the region since a 2020 war in which Azerbaijan seized back significant amounts of territory it had lost to Armenian forces in the 1990s after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Moscow, which has hosted peace talks between the two countries, said on Thursday it was continuing to work with Armenia and Azerbaijan in its role as a security guarantor in the South Caucasus.


https://www.jpost.com/international/article-758012