RFE/RL Armenian Service – 09/08/2023

                                        Friday, September 8, 2023


Moscow Summons Armenian Envoy Over ‘Unfriendly’ Moves


Russia - A view of the the building of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow, 
January 13, 2019.:


The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Armenia’s ambassador on Friday to protest 
against what it described as “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by Yerevan 
against Moscow in recent days.

The ministry listed the Armenian government’s decision to host a joint 
U.S.-Armenian military exercise, this week’s visit to Ukraine by Prime Minister 
Nikol Pashinian’s wife and the Armenian parliament’s anticipated ratification of 
the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest 
warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin early this year.

In a statement, it said Ambassador Vagharshak Harutiunian heard a “tough 
presentation” regarding these moves. He was also handed a note of protest 
against Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian’s “offensive remarks” 
addressed to Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Zakharova poured scorn on Pashinian on Monday after he declared that he wants to 
“diversify our security policy” because he believes Armenia’s military alliance 
with Russia has been a “strategic mistake.” Zakharova went on to decry 
Simonian’s “boorish” criticism of Russian peacekeepers stationed in 
Nagorno-Karabakh.

“I’m not going to respond to some female secretary,” Simonian shot back the 
following day. “It’s not my level.”

Russian-Armenian relations have significantly deteriorated over the past year, 
with Armenian leaders increasingly complaining about what they see as a lack of 
Russian support for Armenia in the conflict with Azerbaijan. The rift between 
Moscow and Yerevan has stoked speculation about a pro-Western shift in Armenia’s 
traditional geopolitical orientation.

Some of Pashinian’s political allies as well as Western-funded civic groups have 
welcomed such a prospect. By contrast, Armenia’s main opposition groups are 
seriously concerned about it, arguing that the West is not ready to give Armenia 
security guarantees or military aid.

The Foreign Ministry in Moscow insisted on Friday that Russia and Armenia 
“remain allies.”




Azerbaijan Blasts Armenia Amid War Talk


Azerbaijan - Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and presidential aide Hikmet 
Hajiyev meet with foreign diplomats, Baku, September 13, 2022.


Azerbaijan accused Armenia of “imitating” peace talks and continuing to foment 
“separatism” in Nagorno-Karabakh on Friday following Armenian claims that it is 
planning another war in the conflict zone.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and two top aides to President 
Ilham Aliyev made the accusations during an extraordinary meeting with 
Baku-based ambassadors of foreign states.

An Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry statement cited them as saying that Yerevan is 
not honoring Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements reached after the 2020 war in 
Karabakh.

“Armenia's goal is to sustain separatism in the territory of Azerbaijan with all 
possible ideological, political, military, financial and other means. In this 
way, Armenia is trying to gain time and avoid real steps that can ensure 
progress in all areas of negotiations,” they said, according to the statement.

The Azerbaijani officials also alleged that the Armenian side has stepped up 
“military provocations.” They went on to condemn as “extremely provocative” the 
election of Karabakh’s new president by local lawmakers scheduled for Saturday.

The Armenian government said earlier this week that Azerbaijan has been massing 
troops along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the Karabakh “line of contact” 
in possible preparation for offensive military operations. Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian urged the international community to take “very serious measures” to 
thwart Baku’s alleged plans.

Officials from the Armenian Defense Ministry on Friday again met with 
Yerevan-based foreign military attaches to brief them on the situation along the 
volatile border. According to a ministry statement, they said the situation 
remains “tense” because of the Azerbaijani military buildup. Armenian army units 
are therefore “continuing to take necessary actions to stabilize it and prevent 
provocations,” added the statement.

Karabakh’s army said on Tuesday that “large numbers” of Azerbaijani soldiers and 
military hardware are massing at various sections of the line of contact. It 
released purported videos of the troop movements. The Azerbaijani Defense 
Ministry said afterwards that its troops are simply engaging in routine training.




Pro-Russian Blogger, Journalist Detained In Armenia

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenia- Journalist Ashot Gevorgian (left) and blogger Mika Badalian.


An Armenian journalist working for the Russian news agency Sputnik and a 
pro-Russian blogger are among seven persons arrested in Armenia on suspicion of 
illegal arms possession and trafficking.

Law-enforcement authorities have so far given few details of criminal 
proceedings that led to the arrests made in southeastern Syunik province on 
Wednesday and Thursday. According to them, the National Security Service (NSS) 
launched the investigation on August 24.

Another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, said on Friday that 
two of the suspects were detained while trafficking an assault rifle, multiple 
pistols, hand grenades and ammunition provided by an unnamed resident of a 
Syunik village close to the Azerbaijani border. A committee spokesman refused to 
elaborate.

A lawyer representing Sputnik journalist Ashot Gevorgian and blogger Mika 
Badalian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the weapons were found in 
Gevorgian’s car. Liana Grigorian insisted, however, that the two men “have 
nothing to do” with them and that the arrests were the result of a 
“misunderstanding.”

The lawyer also said that Gevorgian and Badalian, who is an outspoken critic of 
the Armenian government, travelled to Syunik on assignment on Wednesday and were 
taken into custody hours later.

None of the seven suspects was formally charged as of Friday afternoon. Under 
Armenian law, the investigators must indict or free them within 72 hours after 
their detention.

The Russian Embassy in Yerevan expressed concern at the arrests of Gevorgian and 
Badalian. “We will take steps to clarify the circumstances of what happened,” it 
said in a statement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, was also concerned, 
saying that the arrests may be a “provocation by those who go out of their way 
to ruin relations between the two countries.”

“The West has invested a lot of money in that,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram late 
on Thursday. “Forces seeking that have clearly become more active lately.”

The Russian-Armenian relationship has steadily deteriorated since the 2020 war 
in Nagorno-Karabakh. Tensions between the two allied states rose this week after 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian called Armenia’s reliance on Russia for defense a 
“strategic mistake” and his government decided to host a U.S.-Armenian military 
exercise.




Top U.S. Diplomat Phones Armenian, Azeri FMs


Albania - U.S Ambassador to Albania Yuri Kim speaks during the inauguration of a 
memorial in Tirana,, July 9, 2020


A senior U.S. State Department official called on Friday for the simultaneous 
opening of the Lachin corridor and “other routes” for humanitarian supplies to 
Nagorno-Karabakh in phone calls with the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign 
ministers.

Yuri Kim, the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, 
reiterated Washington’s “serious concerns over the humanitarian situation in 
Nagorno-Karabakh” when she spoke to Armenia’s Ararat Mirzoyan early in the 
morning.

“We urge all sides to work together now to immediately and simultaneously open 
Lachin and other routes to get desperately needed humanitarian supplies into 
Nagorno-Karabakh,” she wrote in a post on the social media platform X, formerly 
known as Twitter.

Kim made the same point during her separate phone call with Azerbaijani Foreign 
Minister Jeyhun Bayramov. She described their conversation as “constructive.”

According to an Azerbaijani readout of the call, Bayramov denied the 
humanitarian crisis in Karabakh, saying that Baku has not been blocking the 
Armenian-populated region’s land link with Armenia and the outside world. He 
dismissed international calls for the unblocking of the Lachin corridor as 
“interference in our country’s internal affairs.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev 
again discussed the situation in Karabakh in a September 1 call revealed by the 
U.S. State Department five days later. The department said Blinken insisted on 
the need for renewed traffic through the Lachin corridor “while recognizing the 
importance of additional routes from Azerbaijan.”

Despite struggling with severe shortages of food, medicine and other basic 
necessities, most residents of Karabakh remain strongly opposed to the 
alternative supply line sought by Baku. They believe that it is aimed at 
legitimizing the blockade and helping Azerbaijan regain full control over 
Karabakh.

Armenia’s position on the compromise solution favored by the United States as 
well as the European Union is not clear.

The official statements on Kim’s phone talks with Mirzoyan and Bayramov did not 
say whether she also discussed mounting tensions along the Armenian-Azerbaijani 
border and the Karabakh “line of contact.” Armenian officials say that 
Azerbaijan has been massing troops there in possible preparation for offensive 
military operations.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday urged the international community to 
take “very serious measures” to thwart Baku’s alleged plans. The Azerbaijani 
Foreign Ministry dismissed Pashinian’s appeal and said that Yerevan should end 
its “military-political provocations.”



Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Pro-Kremlin journalists detained in Armenia on suspicion of illegal arms trafficking

Novaya Gazeta
Sept 8 2023

The Armenian security services have detained two journalists known for their pro-Kremlin views, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported on Friday, citing Armenia’s Investigative Committee .

Ashot Gevorkyan, a columnist for the pro-Kremlin Sputnik Armenia news agency, and the pro-Moscow blogger Mikael Badalyan, both Armenian citizens, were detained Wednesday evening in the city of Goris on suspicion of illegal arms trafficking.

The Investigative Committee statement revealed that police searches of the pair’s apartments and cars had recovered “an AK assault rifle, live ammunition rounds, grenades, grenade detonators, pistols, bayonet knives” as well as “hemp plants”.

A lawyer representing the pair claimed that the weapons didn’t belong to them and were the property of a “third person”.

Five other people were also reportedly detained, though their names have not been disclosed.

Badalyan was arrested in July in connection to disinformation being spread about terrorist attacks being prepared in Yerevan, Sputnik Armenia reported. He was subsequently released on bail.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called the journalists’ detention a “provocation” and suggested it was aimed at sowing “hatred, fear, and distrust”.

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2023/09/08/pro-kremlin-journalists-detained-in-armenia-on-suspicion-of-illegal-arms-trafficking-en-news

Azerbaijan will allow aid into Karabakh from Armenia if aid from its side is let in, official says

Sept 8 2023
Reuters

Azerbaijan is ready to allow Red Cross aid from Armenia into the ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh enclave if Red Crescent aid from Azerbaijan is let in at the same time, Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to President Ilham Aliyev, told Reuters. Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but run by ethnic Armenian authorities, is at the centre of a rancorous stand-off, with Azerbaijan restricting movement along the only road to it from Armenia to thwart what it says is arms smuggling.

Armenia says what it calls a blockade of the "Lachin corridor", known as "the road of life" by ethnic Armenians in Karabakh, has caused acute shortages of food, medicines and other essentials. Baku says it has let the Red Cross evacuate people to Armenia for medical treatment and that its own information shows there is no shortage of basic food staples, but it has not allowed food and other supplies in for some time.

Hajiyev said in an interview on Thursday that Azerbaijan was now ready to let the Red Cross bring in humanitarian aid on condition that the Red Crescent also be allowed to bring in aid, on a different road from Azerbaijan. He said the two roads – the Lachin corridor and the Aghdam road – could be opened to aid simultaneously as part of a pilot scheme that could defuse tensions and spur long-running peace talks between Baku and Yerevan.

The idea had been discussed in a phone call between President Aliyev and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sept. 1, he said. "There was a suggestion for the simultaneous opening of the roads and Azerbaijan agreed and immediately agreed," said Hajiyev, saying that part of the Aghdam road had been obstructed with concrete blocks by Karabakh's ethnic Armenian authorities.

"Now one week has passed since the telephone call with Secretary Blinken and there is no movement." Yuri Kim, acting assistant secretary of state for the United States, spoke on Thursday of "progress toward immediately & simultaneously opening Lachin and other routes to get humanitarian supplies into Nagorno-Karabakh".

"Opening routes and direct talks are key to resolving outstanding issues," Kim said on X. Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire banker who was a top official in Karabakh's ethnic Armenian administration until February, said Azerbaijan was wrong to try to attach preconditions to allowing aid to pass through the Lachin corridor.

Vardanyan, who has accused Baku of trying to "ethnically cleanse" the enclave by choking off supplies to it – something it denies – said a Russian-brokered 2020 ceasefire deal signed by Azerbaijan after a short war was meant to ensure that the Lachin corridor remained open to Armenia. "Their President signed a trilateral ceasefire statement on November 9th (2020) and took responsibility for providing a corridor for uninterrupted connection," Vardanyan said on X on Wednesday.

"However, they now refuse to implement that commitment and are attempting to impose new preconditions for opening the Lachin Corridor."

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/health/2586636-azerbaijan-will-allow-aid-into-karabakh-from-armenia-if-aid-from-its-side-is-let-in-official-says

Yerevan Angry Over Moscow’s Inaction as Nagorny Karabakh Blockade Continues

Sept 8 2023

Russia remains cautious as Azerbaijan’s block of the region’s only gateway drags into its ninth month.

TBILISI-BASED JOURNALIST

As Azerbaijan keeps a chokehold on supplies to Nagorny Karabakh in a months-long blockade driving food and fuel shortages in the Armenian-populated territory, Russia’s reluctance in intervening to unlock the situation has soured relations between Yerevan and Moscow.

Russia has long been Armenia’s security guarantor, but in an interview released on September 3, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that depending solely on Moscow was “a strategic mistake” because it has been unable to deliver. Russian media labelled Pashinyan’s statement as “unacceptable in tone”.

On September 5, Armenia recalled Viktor Biyakov, its ambassador to the Collective Security Organisation Treaty (CSTO), the Russia-led security alliance of post-Soviet countries. He was then appointed ambassador to the Netherlands and experts noted that he was unlikely to be replaced.

In addition, on September 6, Yerevan announced joint military exercises with the US on its territory from September 11 to 20, as part of preparation for participation in international peacekeeping missions.

Stretched in Ukraine, the Kremlin has avoided getting entangled in the blockade of the Lachin corridor. Russian peacekeepers, tasked with enforcing the 2020 ceasefire between Yerevan and Baku, did little to prevent Azerbaijan from setting up checkpoints along Lachin and shutting down traffic of goods. The Azerbaijani side claims Armenia was first to violate the terms of truce and that Baku had to take measures in response. 

Baku’s victory in 2020 in the latest war over the Armenian-populated enclave, which is inside Azerbaijan’s internationally recognised territory, left the region with Lachin as the only link to the outside world: since December 2022, Baku has gradually restricted movement through the road, until it effectively sealed it off mid-June. Trucks with aid and supplies were left stranded on the Armenian side.

Dismissing these reports as exaggerations, Baku claimed that Armenia was using the route to send ammunition into Karabakh and to otherwise sabotage Azerbaijan’s push to enforce its jurisdiction over the enclave. But closing this key passage has led to mounting tensions and reduced the room for dialogue between the sides to the conflict.

“It seems that Baku’s blockade is driven by vindictiveness,” Hans Gutbrod, associate professor at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, told IWPR. “It’s hard to see this as a calculated policy since the more constructive and conciliatory approach would be much more likely to result in a last solution.”

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two major wars over Karabakh, an Armenian-dominated autonomous region of Azerbaijan during the Soviet era. These conflicts, one from 1988–1994 and another in late 2020,  claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. 

In between these wars there were almost 30 years of chronic exchanges of fire and state-sponsored mutual threats amid futile international efforts to broker peace. 

DECADES-LONG WAR

Home to around 120,000 ethnic Armenians, the region has been de facto independent since a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Armenian troops occupied swathes of surrounding Azerbaijani lands, forming a buffer zone around the region.

In 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed all of the occupied territories and part of Karabakh itself, and effectively encircled it from all sides. Under a Moscow-brokered armistice, Russian peacekeepers were to guarantee free and safe passage between Karabakh and Armenia through the five kilometre-wide Lachin mountain pass.

In late 2022, however, Baku effectively severed this lifeline. Supplies soon began to dwindle and shops’ shelves began to empty in the region’s main city Stepanakert, Khenkendi in Azerbaijani Aid organisations called for lifting the blockade, warning of a looming humanitarian crisis. Authorities in Karabakh, which Armenians call Artsakh, claim that Azerbaijan’s goal is to starve Armenians out of the region. On August 15, authorities reported the region’s first death from starvation.

Armenia has called for an emergency meeting of a UN Security Council to discuss the plight of its protectorate.

“The people of Karabakh are on the verge of a full-fledged humanitarian catastrophe,” Armenia’s representative to the UN, Mher Margaryan, wrote on August 11.

Azerbaijan has accused Armenia of manipulating international opinion with tales of a humanitarian crisis so as to stall the process of Karabakh’s reintegration into Azerbaijan. Yashar Aliyev, Margaryan’s Azerbaijani counterpart, said that if the situation was that bad Armenia and Karabakh would have agreed to opening up an alternative, Azerbaijan-controlled supply route.

Azerbaijan has been offering to provide essential goods to Karabakh through the Aghdam road, which would link link Karabakh to mainland Azerbaijan.

While the EU backed Baku’s proposal, Karabakh residents refused it as marking the effective legitimation of Azerbaijan’s rule over the region.

“Aghdam road is a road to ethnic cleansing,” said placards held by protesters from Karabakh on July 18, as they barricaded the entry from Aghdam.

Azerbaijani border guards’ treatment of Karabakh citizens at the Lachin checkpoint, most notably the arrest of a 65-year-old Karabakh resident on allegations of committing war crimes 30 years ago, has also hampered building trust between the sides.  

Humanitarian organisations, international observers and diplomats, including EU High Commissioner Josep Borrell, said that the Aghdam road cannot serve as a substitute to Lachin road, and not just because of the mistrust between the warring sides.

“Aghdam road is not an alternative,” Olesya Vartanyan, a South Caucasus analyst with the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-headquartered think-tank, told IWPR. “After you had been using one road for 30 years, get all of your supplies through that road and have an infrastructure set up, you can’t just switch away from it overnight.”    

Convened at the behest of Armenia, UN Security Council members called on August 17 for the reopening of the Lachin corridor. The Russian representative suggested using both Lachin and Aghdam for supplies.

Baku has insisted all along that the Lachin corridor is open, at least to the movement of civilians. In August Azerbaijani television aired reports showing Armenians going through the checkpoint and Baku stated that this disproved the Armenian claims of a blockade.

Reached by IWPR, Karabakh’s de-facto authorities confirmed that there “no free exit or entry to Artsakh”. 

“No goods, supplies and even medication are allowed through,” the de-facto foreign ministry said in a written response to IWPR’s query. “Sometimes Azerbaijan allows the transportation of seriously ill patients to Armenia. Two days ago [in late August] it was possible to arrange the departure of a group of students, who study in higher education institutions of Armenia or other countries. But in general the situation hasn’t changed.”

International pressure has been mounting on Azerbaijan, but Baku remains defiant, at least in its public statements.

“Internationally, the situation is so liquid that it’s no guarantee that international attention alone with be enough to lift the blockade, in whole or part,” said Gutbrod. “The West does have some leverage, but it is also facing multiple crises at the same time.”

https://iwpr.net/global-voices/yerevan-angry-over-moscows-inaction-nagorny-karabakh-blockade-continues

Armenians alarmed by reports of Azerbaijani military buildup

Eurasianet
Sept 8 2023
Lilit Shahverdyan Sep 8, 2023

Over the past few days, footage has circulated across Azerbaijani social media appearing to show increased movement of Azerbaijani troops around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the border with Armenia. 

Military shipments from Israel to Azerbaijan appear to have increased simultaneously, raising fears among Armenians of another impending attack from Azerbaijan. 

At a government session on September 7, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pointed to these developments and said that "the military and political situation in our region has been significantly aggravated over the past week."

"The rhetoric of anti-Armenian hatred has intensified in the Azerbaijani press and propaganda platforms. The policy of encroachment on the sovereign territory of Armenia continues," he added.

The military buildup has triggered particular alarm in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. The region has effectively been under Azerbaijani blockade since December, and the blockade has been particularly intense since mid-June. 

Armenian and Karabakhi officials have long spoken about Azerbaijani designs to ethnically cleanse the region using force if necessary. 

"It is obvious that Azerbaijan is preparing military operations, and simultaneously trying to exert psychological pressure on the governments and peoples of the Republics of Artsakh and Armenia, as well as to gauge the reaction of the Armenian parties and regional and global actors," wrote Artak Beglaryan, a former senior Karabakh official. (Artsakh is an alternative Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh.)

In case of an offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, the local forces are unlikely to be able to mount much of a resistance given Azerbaijan's numerical and power dominance over the roughly 120,000 Karabakhis.

There have been numerous clashes since Azerbaijan's victory in the 2020 Second Karabakh War, both in and around Nagorno-Karabakh and on the border between Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia. Several of the latter have resulted in Azerbaijani troops taking up positions inside Armenia. 

Several previous escalations were preceded by Azerbaijani media reports about "revenge operations" or claims of Armenian forces preparing to stage acts of "provocation."

This time, Azerbaijani media is mirroring Armenian allegations. State channel AzTV suggested that Armenian reports of Azerbaijani military buildup and the Armenian defense minister's cancellation of a planned trip abroad are signs that Yerevan is laying the groundwork for its own escalation.

And Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry characterized Pashinyan's warnings as "an integral part of Armenia's false political manipulation." 

The EU's civilian monitoring mission deployed on the Armenian side of the border has reported to Brussels its concerns over "rising tensions and shootings in the border regions of Armenia and Azerbaijan" and stepped up its patrols. It has not sought to blame either side for the current spike in tension, though.

The current reports of Azerbaijani military buildup come on the heels of an Azerbaijani attack on September 1 near the Armenian border town of Sotk that left three Armenian soldiers dead. 

Five days after that, Armenia announced it would hold the Eagle Partner military exercises jointly with the United States on September 11-20. The Defense Ministry said the purpose of the drills was to prepare Armenian forces for international peacekeeping missions.

The US has become a key player in the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace processes since the 2020 war, overseeing an Azerbaijan-Armenia peace process together with the EU. 

A separate negotiating track is managed by Russia, which has maintained a 2,000-strong peacekeeping presence in Nagorno-Karabakh since the end of the war. 

Russia is also Armenia's traditional military and economic strategic partner, but Armenian leaders are more and more openly questioning the efficacy of the alliance given Moscow's refusal to help it against Azerbaijani incursions and the peacekeepers' alleged failure to protect the Armenians of Karabakh. 

While prospects for peace seem bleaker than ever, the Armenian prime minister reiterated in his September 7 remarks that he was ready to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and end the decades of hostility between the neighboring countries. 

The Israel factor

Israel is one of Azerbaijan's strategic allies and key weapons suppliers.

In March 2023 Israel's Haaretz newspaper published a report detailing the extent of the Israel-Azerbaijan military partnership. It found that 92 military cargo jet flights took place between Ovda, a military air base in southern Israel, and airports in Azerbaijan between 2016 and the time of publication. 

The Armenian investigative outlet Hetq has been monitoring flights between Ovda and Azerbaijan since then. It recently found that one particular Azerbaijani Silk Road Airlines plane landed at Ovda and returned to Azerbaijan four times between August 15 and September 2. On two of these return flights, it landed in Ganja, a city close to Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Haaretz's article noted that over the years intensified Ovda-Azerbaijan flights coincided with periods of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, including the April 2016 escalation, the 2020 war, and several post-war escalations.

Elsewhere, a post on the site formerly known as Twitter by Turkish nationalist politician Sinan Ogan is being seen by Armenians as another ominous signal from a strategic partner of Baku's. 

It features an image of Ogan with the words "Khankendi is the Turkish world's pride" alongside an upside-down A, which is a symbol painted on Azerbaijani military vehicles. (Khankandi is the Azerbaijani name for Nagorno-Karabakh's de facto capital Stepanakert.)

Ogan, who is of Azerbaijani origin, placed third in the Turkish presidential election in May 23 and threw his support behind the incumbent and ultimate victor Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the second round. 

Heydar Isayev contributed reporting. 

Lilit Shahverdyan is a journalist based in Stepanakert. 

U.S. bishops’ international committee chairman calls for end to Nagorno-Karabakh blockade

Detroit Catholic
Sept 8 2023

(OSV News) — Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, called for a peaceful end to the months-long blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh that has left some 120,000 ethnic Armenian Christians at risk of what experts are calling "genocide by starvation."

"We continue to pray for an end to the conflict and this growing humanitarian crisis," Bishop Malloy said in a Sept. 7 statement. "The Holy Father's two apostolic visits to the South Caucasus in 2016 and his more recent appeal earlier this year for 'the serious humanitarian situation in the Lachin Corridor' reflects our strong hope for a resolution."

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. Attempts by the International Red Cross to deliver aid have been rebuffed.

Bishop Malloy said that Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin's visit to both Armenia and Azerbaijan in July "serves as witness to the Holy See's efforts in seeking peace.

"With the continued impasse of this conflict and the mounting consequences of this blockade, let us all be of one mind and one accord in our prayers for those suffering from this conflict — to see this impending humanitarian catastrophe averted and to see this conflict ultimately resolved through peaceful means," said Bishop Malloy.

The bishop's comments follow a Sept. 6 emergency hearing of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Congress.

"It's now a three-alarm fire that's getting worse by the moment," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who chaired the meeting and is a longstanding Catholic human rights champion.

David L. Phillips, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and director of Columbia University's Artsakh Atrocities Project testified before the commission that his project 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."

In 2020, Azerbaijan went to war with Armenia over the enclave in which 3,000 Azerbaijani and 4,000 Armenian soldiers were killed. The conflict 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. 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.

Bishop Mikael A. Mouradian of the California-based Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg told OSV News Sept. 6 that Congress "should without any delay put up a bipartisan human rights act."

The bishop said that without a law in place he feared another Armenian genocide "is inevitable if things continue like they are now."

Smith, who criticized U.S. inaction on the Azerbaijani blockade, plans to introduce a new bill, the "Nagorno-Karabakh Human Rights Act", for Congress to take action.

https://www.detroitcatholic.com/news/u-s-bishops-international-committee-chairman-calls-for-end-to-nagorno-karabakh-blockade

Russia protests to Armenia over comments by speaker of Armenian parliament

Sept 8 2023

Reuters 

Russia on Friday summoned the Armenian ambassador to protest grievances including comments made by the speaker of the Armenian parliament about Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the ministry said in a statement.

The statement also criticised what it said were a number of "unfriendly moves" by Armenia, including planned joint exercises with the U.S. and humanitarian aid shipments to Ukraine.

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/2586724-russia-protests-to-armenia-over-comments-by-speaker-of-armenian-parliament

Rabbis protest Armenian usage of the Holocaust as a foreign propaganda tool

i24, Israel
Sept 8 2023

Ariel Kogan

A group of 50 leading European rabbis sign a joint letter condemning the Armenian leadership for using Holocaust rhetoric in a campaign against Azerbaijan

Protests erupted this week across the European Union, the United States, and Muslim countries against the constant use of the Holocaust as a propaganda tool by the Armenian government. 

A group of 50 leading European rabbis (RCE) signed a joint letter on Wednesday condemning the Armenian leadership for using Holocaust rhetoric in a campaign against its neighbor, Azerbaijan.

“Expressions such as ‘ghetto,’ ‘genocide,’ ‘Holocaust,’ and others are… inappropriate to be part of the jargon used in any kind of political disagreement,” read the rabbis' letter addressed to Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and President Vahagn Garniki Khachaturyan.

This joint letter by European rabbis was in response to an article written by Rabbi Zamir Isayev, head of the Sepharadi-Georgian community in Baku. He cited shocking examples of Armenian officials' use of terms such as "Holocaust" and "ghetto," and who published a video comparing Nazi atrocities to the current social media photos of Armenians in the separatist enclave in Azerbaijani Karabakh.

Rabbi Isayev explained to i24NEWS how the ethnic Armenians are "claiming that they are 'dying like Jews in the ghettos from starvation.’” 

But the Rabbi said, “They also post Instagram stories of weddings with huge cakes, seek to hire extra staff for restaurants, and advertise discounted shish-kebabs.”

“Officials in the enclave, who have blocked the road used by the Azerbaijani government to bring all the necessary products, claim that it is better to die than to accept 'Hitler's handouts'," Rabbi Isayev continued, adding that Armenian claims of "famine" in the enclave echo the "Palestinian genocide" narrative of which Israel is falsely accused.

Isayev, who is an Israeli citizen and served in the IDF, noted that "Iran has been pushing the 'genocide' theme with all its might, spreading lies and fabricated images, accusing us of 'starving millions of Palestinians in Gaza.'" 

“The Iranians have gone to international organizations with delusional demands for sanctions on Israel, which has fought such lies for decades, publishing photos of the gap in the quality of life in between the majority of the population in Gaza and its wealthy local leadership. Today, Azerbaijan is in the exact same situation: not a single piece of unbiased media emerges from the enclave. Social media, though, reveals a completely different picture." 

Isayev's article received the support of 30 rabbis around the world, including Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag, head of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada; Rabbi Abraham Weill of Strasbourg and the Rhineland in France; Rabbi of the Caucasian community in the world Yaniv Naftaliev; Rabbi of Poland Mordechai Schudrich; Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Vienna Jaron Engelmayer; Rabbi Eliyahu Hamara, founder of the Latin American Rabbinical Conference and president of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA); Zsolt Balla, the state Rabbi of Saxony and Federal Military Rabbi of Bundeswehr; Chief Rabbi at Geneva Izhak Dayan; Senior Rabbi of the S&P Sephardi Community of the UK Joseph Dweck; Chief Rabbi of Belgium Avraham Gigi, and many others.

Two more letters condemning the use of the Holocaust by Armenian officials were written by rabbis from Muslim countries and the American "Israel Heritage Foundation,” established by Holocaust survivors.

It should be noted that 500 rabbis from the EU are planning to visit Baku in November 2023 for the biennial congress of the Conference of European Rabbis, which will be held at the invitation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who will act as the honorary host.

Azerbaijan is now considered a key ally of Israel in the fight against Iran. It has no history of anti-Semitism, and for nearly a millennium Azerbaijanis have protected their Jewish community. At least twice it hosted tens of thousands of Jewish refugees – during the pogroms in the Pale of Settlement and the Holocaust.

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/analysis-opinion/1694183792-rabbis-protest-armenian-usage-of-the-holocaust-as-a-foreign-propaganda-tool

"There is a risk of internal clashes": on elections in unrecognized NKR

POLITICO
Sept 8 2023

YEREVAN, Armenia — Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has hauled in Armenia’s ambassador for a dressing down over what it says amount to a string of hostile steps that have seen the country, formally an ally of Moscow, distance itself from the Kremlin in recent days.

In a statement on Friday evening, officials said Vagharshak Harutyunyan had been called in for “difficult” talks after Armenia signed off on the “transfer of humanitarian aid to Kyiv’s Nazi regime.”

Yerevan announced earlier this week it would provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine as Russia steps up its strikes against infrastructure and civilian targets, while Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, made an official visit to the country in a rare show of support.

At the same time, Armenia — which is a member of the Moscow-led CSTO defense pact — recalled its envoy to the military bloc on Tuesday. In another decision condemned by Moscow’s spurned foreign ministry, Armenia said on Wednesday it would host joint military exercises with U.S. soldiers next week.

The move came days after Pashinyan told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that “our dependence on Russia for security was a mistake” amid escalating tensions with neighboring Azerbaijan. The CSTO has previously refused requests from Yerevan for support, despite pleas from the country’s government.

In June, Pashinyan indicated a growing rift between his country and Moscow, saying “We are not Russia’s ally in the war with Ukraine. And our feeling from that war, from that conflict, is anxiety because it directly affects all our relationships.”

At the same time, Armenia has been accused of becoming a hub for the re-export of restricted goods to Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine. However, in an interview with POLITICO in June, Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakan Safaryan insisted it was working with both the U.S. and the EU to close existing loopholes.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are at odds over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inside Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized borders but controlled by its ethnic Armenian population.

In the wake of a brief but bloody war in 2020, Azerbaijan has taken over control of entry and exit to the region, and aid organizations say they are unable to deliver supplies of food and fuel, warning a humanitarian crisis is now unfolding. Azerbaijan denies the claims, insisting local Armenians must lay down their weapons and submit to being governed as part of the country.

Pro-Russian blogger, Sputnik journalist detained in Armenia

UKRINFORM, Ukraine
Sept 8 2023


08.09.2023 08:41

Pro-Russian blogger Mika Badalyan and Sputnik Armenia journalist Ashot Gevorkyan were apprehended in Armenia on suspicion of illegal arms trafficking.

This was reported by the spokesman for the Investigative Committee, Gor Abraamyan, Ukrinform wrote with reference to Radio Svoboda.

The spokesman specified Badalyan and Gevorkyan were detained in the Syunik region on September 6 and 7. In total, seven persons were taken into custody in the case of illegal arms trafficking.

The Russian Embassy in Armenia is yet to clarify the circumstances of the incident and is monitoring the developments, as per reports.

The state-owned Russian media group Rossiya Segodnya, of which Sputnik Armenia is part, also reported that it is monitoring Gevorkyan's detention and "expects compliance with all procedural norms."

"Possible provocations aimed at undermining the friendship between the fraternal peoples of Russia and Armenia must be stopped immediately," the company said in a statement.

Earlier, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia criticized the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh, stating that it is not fulfilling its task, and also stated that Armenia's dependence on only one country, namely Russia, was a "strategic mistake". According to the politician, Russia itself is leaving the South Caucasus. He emphasized that none of the Western powers that Russia is talking about are pushing Yerevan to break with Moscow.

As reported earlier, the USA and Armenia will conduct joint military exercises.

https://www.ukrinform.net/amp/rubric-society/3758526-prorussian-blogger-sputnik-journalist-detained-in-armenia.html