Thursday, September 7, 2023
Prosecutors Drop Case Concerning Ex-President Sarkisian’s Foreign Trips
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Former President Serzh Sarkisian and his supporters visit the Komitas
Pantheon in Yerevan, March 25, 2022.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian has been cleared of any wrongdoing following a
more than yearlong investigation into the legality of his private trips to
Germany taken during his rule, it emerged on Thursday.
The Yerevan-based Union of Informed Citizens (UIC) said two years ago that
Sarkisian used a government plane to travel to the German resort town of
Baden-Baden on at least 16 occasions from 2008 through 2017. In a written
complaint submitted to state prosecutors, the non-governmental organization
claimed that the flights were financed by taxpayers’ money illegally and without
any justification.
The prosecutors ordered the Special Investigative Service (SIS) to look into the
claims. The SIS opened in October 2021 a criminal case in connection with what
it called a possible abuse of power. It said some of Sarkisian’s flights to
Germany appear to have been carried out in breach of official rules and
procedures for the use of the government jet.
A lawyer for Sarkisian, Amram Makinian, has dismissed the investigation as a
publicity stunt organized by the current Armenian government. He has said that
the UIC’s allegations are based on inaccurate information provided by the
government’s Civil Aviation Committee.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General said on Thursday that the law-enforcement
body, which is now called the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC), found no evidence
in support of the allegations during the probe that lasted for over 18 months.
The criminal case against the 69-year-old ex-president was therefore closed, the
office told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. The UIC leader, Daniel Ioannisian,
criticized the decision.
Sarkisian, who co-heads one of the opposition groups represented in Armenia’s
current parliament, admitted earlier in 2021 spending vacations in Baden-Baden.
But he flatly denied allegations that he visited the world-famous German resort
for gambling purposes. Sarkisian’s political allies have repeatedly accused
law-enforcement authorities of targeting him and his relatives on government
orders.
Karabakh Youths Freed By Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan - Three Karabakh Armenian men are pictured after being arrested at
the Azerbaijani checkpoint in the Lachin corridor on August 28, ,2023.
Three residents of Nagorno-Karabakh were set free and handed over to Armenia on
Thursday ten days after being arrested at the Azerbaijani checkpoint in the
Lachin corridor.
The young men were taken into Azerbaijani custody as they and dozens of other
Karabakh Armenians travelled to Armenia in a convoy of vehicles escorted by
Russian peacekeepers. Karabakh’s leadership and the Armenian government strongly
condemned the arrests.
The Azerbaijani authorities said the three detainees aged between 20 and 22 are
members of a Karabakh football team that had “disrespected” the Azerbaijani
national flag in a 2021 video posted on social media. They were placed under a
ten-day administrative arrest as a result.
Armenia’s National Security Service reported that Alen Sargsian, Vahe Hovsepian
and Levon Grigorian were handed over to its border guards deployed the near the
Azerbaijani checkpoint. The office of Karabakh’s human rights defender said it
will talk to them to find out more details of their “kidnapping” and their
treatment by Azerbaijani authorities.
Another Karabakh man, Vagif Khachatrian, was arrested at the Azerbaijani
checkpoint in late July while being evacuated by the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) to Armenia. The 68-year-old was taken Baku to stand trial
on charges of killing and deporting Karabakh’s ethnic Azerbaijani residents in
December 1991, at the start of the first Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Karabakh’s leadership rejected the “false” accusations and demanded
Khachatrian’s immediate release. The Armenian Foreign Ministry likewise
condemned Khachatrian’s arrest as a “blatant violation of international
humanitarian law” and a “war crime.”
Russia Steps Up Criticism Of U.S.-Armenian Drills
• Gevorg Stamboltsian
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Russia - A view of the Kremlin, Moscow, April 20, 2020.
Russia continued to criticize on Thursday Armenia’s decision to host a joint
U.S.-Armenian military exercise later this month.
The Eagle Partner 2023 exercise, scheduled for September 11-20, will reportedly
involve 85 U.S. and 175 Armenian soldiers. According to the Armenian Defense
Ministry, they will simulate a joint peacekeeping operation in an imaginary
conflict zone.
“Holding such exercises in the current situation does not contribute to the
strengthening of stability and the atmosphere of trust in the region,” Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The planned drills were also criticized by three Russian deputy foreign
ministers. One of them, Mikhail Galuzin, claimed that the drills are part of
NATO’s efforts to lure Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbors into its “vicious zone of
influence.”
“It is natural that we draw the attention of our partners to the fact that
rapprochement with NATO would hardly have any positive results in terms of
ensuring their own security", Galuzin told the official TASS news agency. "I am
sure that the Armenian people, the Armenian public understand everything very
well and will draw the right conclusions corresponding to Armenia's long-term
security.”
Another vice-minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Armenia should instead participate
in joint exercises with Russia and other allies making up the Russian-led
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
Early this year, Yerevan cancelled a CSTO exercise which it was due to host this
fall, underscoring its unhappiness with what Armenian leaders see as a lack of
Russian and CSTO support for Armenia in the conflict with Azerbaijan.
The discontent is the main reason for growing tensions between Moscow and
Yerevan. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stoked them last week when he declared
that his government is trying to “diversify our security policy” because
Armenia’s reliance on Russia for defense and security has proved a “strategic
mistake.” Pashinian also suggested that Russia will eventually “leave” Armenia
and the South Caucasus in general. Moscow denounced his statements.
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovannisian downplayed the deepening
rift between the two allied countries.
“We always have differences with all partners,” Hovannisian told journalists.
“This doesn’t mean that they can be construed as tensions.”
For his part, Sargis Khandanian, the pro-government chairman of the Armenian
parliament committee on foreign relations, defended Yerevan’s “sovereign
decision” to host the joint drills with U.S. troops. “I think this [Russian
criticism] is also a reaction to and a result of the deepening U.S.-Armenian
relations,” he said.
Pashinian Asks World Powers To Prevent ‘New Azerbaijani Attack’
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks during a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, September 7, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pleaded with the international community on
Thursday to intervene to thwart what he described as Azerbaijan’s plans to
launch a new military attack on Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Echoing statements by other Armenian officials, Pashinian said that Azerbaijani
troops have been massing along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the
Nagorno-Karabakh “line of contact.” He said Baku is thus “demonstrating its
intention to launch a new military provocation.”
“I think the situation is such that the international community, UN Security
Council member states should take very serious measures to prevent a new
explosion in our region,” he added during a cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
The secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, made the same
appeal when he met with the Yerevan-based ambassadors of foreign countries on
Wednesday.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry was quick to deny Pashinian’s claims and blame
Armenia for rising tensions in the conflict zone. It said that Yerevan should
end its “military-political provocations,” drop “territorial claims” to
Azerbaijan and stop hampering the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani treaty.
Pashinian insisted that Armenia stands ready to sign such a treaty. He also
reaffirmed his commitment to Armenian-Azerbaijani understandings brokered by
Russia and the European Union.
Pashinian pledged in May to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh,
drawing condemnation from Karabakh’s leadership and the Armenian opposition. He
complained afterwards that Baku is seeking the kind of peace deal that would not
prevent it from laying claim to Armenian territory.
Pashinian on Thursday did not specifically request military assistance from
Russia, Armenia’s increasingly estranged ally. The Armenian government has
repeatedly accused Moscow and the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) of ignoring such requests made during the September 2022
large-scale fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
Tensions between Yerevan and Moscow have deepened since then. They escalated
further last week after Pashinian said that his administration is trying to
“diversify our security policy” because the Russians are “unwilling or unable”
to defend Armenia
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Category: 2023
Baku concentrates troops on border with Armenia: Pashinyan
Mediamax, Armenia
Sept 7 2023
Sept 7 2023
Yerevan /Mediamax/. Three Armenian young people kidnapped by the Azerbaijani side from the Lachin corridor were returned to Armenia 10 days later.
“On September 7, at the Hakari bridge site of the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border, the Azerbaijani side handed over the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh Alen Sargsyan (born on 05.07.2001), Levon Grigoryan (born on 17.05.2003) and Vahe Hovsepyan (born on 12.06.2003), to the border guards of the National Security Service of Armenia.
On August 28, they were detained by Azerbaijani border guards while traveling from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia,” Armenia’s National Security Service said in a news release.
Armenia Says Azerbaijan Preparing Fresh ‘Military Provocation’
BARRON'S
Sept 7 2023
- FROM AFP NEWS
Armenia on Thursday accused arch-foe Azerbaijan of preparing a "fresh military provocation" by massing troops on their border and near the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The ex-Soviet republics have been locked in a decades-long conflict over the mostly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan which is controlled by separatists.
Tensions have escalated sharply in recent months as each accuses the other of cross-border attacks.
"The military-political situation in our region has seriously worsened," Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told his cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
He said Azerbaijan was "concentrating" troops on the border and also near the mountainous Karabakh region.
"Azerbaijan is demonstrating its intention to undertake a fresh military provocation against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia," Pashinyan said.
Azerbaijan denounced the claims as "yet another false political manipulation."
"Armenia must abandon territorial claims to Azerbaijan, to end military-political provocations, and to stop creating obstacles to the peace process," its foreign ministry said in a statement.
Armenian Defence Minister Suren Papikyan cancelled a planned visit to Cyprus "due to the escalation of the situation in Armenia," his Cypriot counterpart Michalis Giorgallas wrote on social media.
The European Union monitoring mission deployed on the Armenian side of the border said it has "increased patrolling activity… to observe any military developments."
Pashinyan's claims came ahead of snap presidential elections in the separatist enclave on Saturday and days before joint drills between Armenian and US peacekeeping forces hosted by Yerevan.
The Kremlin on Thursday criticised the drills, saying they would harm stability in the volatile Caucasus region that Moscow sees as its backyard.
"Without a doubt, the conduct of these kinds of exercises do not help to stabilise the situation or strengthen the atmosphere of mutual trust in the region," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"Russia continues to fulfil its function as a guarantor of security," he added.
Yerevan has accused Baku of blockading Nagorno-Karabakh since December, spurring a humanitarian crisis in Armenian-populated towns.
Pashinyan has criticised Moscow for failing to unblock the sole road linking Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, which is being patrolled by Russian peacekeepers.
They deployed in 2020 when Russia brokered a ceasefire ending a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan for control of the region.
Pashinyan recently said it was a "strategic mistake" for Yerevan — a traditional Moscow ally — to rely on Russia as its security guarantor.
Yerevan and Baku have fought two wars for control over the region, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but largely populated by ethnic Armenians.
The two sides have been unable to reach a lasting peace settlement despite mediation efforts by the European Union, the United States and Russia.
mkh-eg-im/jbr/ach
https://www.barrons.com/news/armenia-pm-says-azerbaijan-preparing-military-provocation-2a4bee3f
US-Armenia Military Drills Will Undermine Stability In Caucasus: Kremlin
BARRON'S
Sept 7 2023
- FROM AFP NEWS
The Kremlin on Thursday criticised upcoming peacekeeping drills between Armenian and US forces, saying the exercises would harm stability in the volatile region that Moscow sees as its backyard.
"Without a doubt, the conduct of these kinds of exercises does not help to stabilise the situation or strengthen the atmosphere of mutual trust in the region," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. He added that "Russia continues to fulfil its role as a guarantor of security."
bur/yad
Experts warn of ‘genocidal intent’ behind Azerbaijan’s blockade starving 120,000 Armenians
The Christian Post
Sept 7 2023
Experts warned a bipartisan congressional human rights commission Wednesday that the United States must be careful to avoid complicity in what they said could be an ongoing "genocide" against 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh whom Azerbaijan forces have deprived of food and other crucial supplies for months.
The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing on the ongoing blockade of the Lachin Corridor, which connects Armenians to Artsakh, a self-declared Armenian breakaway state internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan with a predominantly Christian population.
Azerbaijan sealed off the Lachin Corridor last December after regaining control of territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh after a six-week war with Armenia in 2020. Armenian forces had captured the territory in a conflict that ended in 1994.
A Russia-brokered armistice left the region connected to Armenia only by the Lachin Corridor, where Russian peacekeepers were supposed to ensure free movement.
Commission co-chair Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., led the hearing, which featured expert testimony from Luis Moreno Ocampo, an Argentine lawyer who served as the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court from 2003 to 2012; and David Phillips, the director of Columbia University's Artsakh Atrocities Project and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.
As the U.S. government conducts negotiations, Smith said U.S. Congress must determine if what is happening against the Armenians is a genocide and what the government's duty is to prevent it under the Genocide Convention, an international treaty.
Smith highlighted Ocampo's written testimony, which cautioned the U.S. for taking on a mediatory role, warning that accepting the existence of "genocide" as part of a negotiation is "complicity."
During the hearing, Smith pointed out that two empty chairs were reserved for the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), both of which did not respond to multiple invite requests.
During his testimony, Ocampo clarified that one misconception people have is that an action must involve many deaths before it's considered genocide.
The witness noted that the Azerbaijani security forces' blockade of the Lachin Corridor impedes access to food and other essentials, arguing that the intent to starve the Armenians is a genocidal action.
"There are many different forms of genocide. One form requires zero victim," he said. "Genocide, under Article 2-C, requires just to create the conditions to destroy the people. The crime is to create the conditions and blocking the Lachin Corridor with the life system for the Nagorno-Karabakh people is exacting the conditions."
"The physical issue is intentions. Can we say President Ilham Aliyev or anyone else in the Azerbaijani state has genocidal intentions? My thing was if you follow different quotes, then something very clear, the facts speak for themselves," he added.
"In December '22, the blockade of the Lachin Corridor started by people not formally connected to the states. However, in January this year, Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken called President Aliyev, asking him to remove it. President Aliyev didn't follow the request. In February, the International Court of Justice unanimously said to President Aliyev, 'This is creating risk for life of the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh' and ordered to open the Corridor. He did not follow. What he did instead was to create a security forces blockade."
In February, 15 judges from the International Court of Justice ordered Aliyev to remove the blockade, but the leader did not comply.
Ocampo said that Aliyev's actions send a "very clear signal" that he knows that the blockade puts lives at risk. According to Ocampo, this is a clear sign of Aliyev's genocidal intentions, as ICJ was clear about the consequences of the blockade and its impact on the Armenians.
"So when he is doing this now with security forces, obviously, he had intention to do that. That intention is confirmed because a few months later, he closed off all the traffic," Ocampo said. "For me, at this stage, there is no doubt that genocidal intentions are there."
In a report last month, Ocampo warned that there was a "reasonable basis to believe that a genocide is being committed," suggesting that starvation was being used as an "invisible genocide weapon." He called for the U.N. Security Council to intervene, which would be necessary because Azerbaijan is not a signatory to the statute that established the International Criminal Court.
Phillips agreed that Aliyev's actions could constitute genocide against the Armenians and discussed how Azerbaijan security forces are firing on Armenian farmers, shortening their food supply and terrorizing them with psychological torture.
In his testimony, Phillips argued that Aliyev has waged campaigns intended to dehumanize Armenian Christians.
Regarding the steps that the U.S. should take to prevent these atrocities, Phillips recommends enforcing the sanctions described in Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which restricts assistance to the government of Azerbaijan to prevent conflict with neighboring Armenia.
Phillips also cited the Global Magnitsky Act, which consists of targeted sanctions to combat human rights abuses and corruption.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of State announced that Blinken spoke with Aliyev about the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh earlier this month.
"[Blinken] reiterated our call to reopen the Lachin Corridor to humanitarian, commercial, and passenger traffic while recognizing the importance of additional routes from Azerbaijan," the statement read. "The Secretary underscored the need for a dialogue and compromise and the importance of building confidence between the parties. He pledged continued U.S. support to the peace process."
The bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission was established by the House of Representatives in 2008 to promote and advocate for international human rights.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/experts-warn-of-genocidal-intent-against-armenian-christians.html
Peace is possible between Armenia and Azerbaijan
The National, UAE
Sept 7 2023
The pathway to a peace deal in the South Caucasus has been long and fraught with challenges. Emotions run high within the nexus of Armenian-Azeri relations, with painful memories and distress on both sides. But from inside this torn relationship, one can see the openings (however small) and the opportunities (however faint) for creating a turnaround in the regional dynamics.
Establishing a stable, sustainable peace is certainly the order of the day. It would save lives and prevent tremendous suffering. It would also bring significant upsides for the future of both countries: a geo-economic peace dividend that boosts the South Caucasus and its surrounding regions. Peaceful regional integration would create new, flourishing transit routes and supply chains that connect Asia to Europe, promoting the resilience of the global economy. And it would unlock tremendous value from both countries, as well as neighbouring Georgia, accelerating the development of their respective strengths.
Instead, for the moment, the conflict drags on, affecting a number of countries and communities. It also raises the risk of a violent confrontation along the Armenia-Azerbaijan-Iran border, where a possible military escalation over control of Armenia’s southern region of Syunik could draw Tehran in, seeing as it lines northern Iran.
For more than three decades, Armenia and Azerbaijan have wrestled over the fate of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region with a majority Armenian population that was assigned within Soviet Azerbaijan by the USSR in the 1920s.
A 2020 war between Azerbaijan and Armenia shifted the issue in favour of Baku, which had long been seeking to reclaim control of the region as a matter of national sovereignty. But that left an open question as to how the relationship between Azeri authorities and Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh would progress.
Fortunately, Baku and Yerevan began to take steps towards peace. The US, EU and Russia have all tried to move the initiative forward, hosting talks in different cities between Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. But the comprehensive deal they began to pursue now risks being derailed.
A dispute over the Lachin Corridor, the main road into Nagorno-Karabakh, has cut off vital supplies to an estimated 120,000 Armenians for more than eight months. Civilians, including about 30,000 children, are desperate for fresh food, fuel and medical goods. The International Committee of the Red Cross, among other leading voices, has described a dire lack of basic necessities, while UN experts warn that vulnerable populations are at risk of going hungry.
A humanitarian intervention urgently needs to be found, one that would stop the immediate suffering and prevent malnutrition levels that could very soon turn deadly. The solution could be a multinational aid delivery, co-ordinated with both Baku and Yerevan. There could be humanitarian air cargo flights to Ganja or cargo drone deliveries into Stepanakert and remote villages of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Diplomatic assistance from a trusted partner in the Arab and Muslim world would be a powerful positive force
Creative solutions can be found once a principled compromise is reached – there simply needs to be a well-balanced diplomatic intervention that will give both sides a face-saving way to climb down from the current impasse.
The region needs a fresh approach to peacebuilding, with out-of-the-box ideas. Countries in the Global South could be crucial for providing a platform, with a climate of goodwill and understanding of both sides.
Diplomatic assistance from a trusted partner in the Arab and Muslim world would be a powerful positive force.
Azerbaijan has warm ties with countries in the Mena region, anchored in its membership in the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation. Armenians have a history of close friendship and integration with the Islamic world, encapsulated by a decree of the Prophet Mohammed in 626 AD that put the Armenian people and their church under his patronage and protection. Today, the Matenadaran museum in Yerevan houses a prestigious collection of Islamic manuscripts, including a copy of the Prophet’s Covenant with the Christians of the World.
MORE FROM COMMENT
How should we view the latest stand-off in the South Caucasus?
The values of Islam – foremost, peace, compassion and care for humanity – create a unique diplomatic climate for potential reconciliation. They create a level of comfort and a safe space for both sides to be meaningfully heard. In that spirit, diplomats can help Armenia and Azerbaijan deescalate the current crisis, first by finding a point of compromise over urgent humanitarian needs. That will subsequently create the time and space required to find greater common ground.
“There are no real, fundamentally insurmountable problems between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said Laurence Broers, an Associate Fellow with Chatham House focused on the South Caucasus. “With determination, intelligence and a sensible view you can overcome all of the obstacles.”
To achieve peace and stability, the two sides need to trust each other, with a facilitator that can help build that trust. Both sides will have to come to terms with their shared history. There is much to forgive and multitudes of grief that need to be transcended. An authentic, compassionate platform for dialogue could help Armenians and Azerbaijanis reconnect with their shared humanity.
“In the past, Armenians and Azerbaijanis had social norms of how to live together … they experienced happy and sad moments together,” Ahmad Alili, the director of a think tank in Baku, told me. They need to get together and talk.
Both sides have experienced the burden of war and share a will to live in safety and prosperity. If they can find the way to a peaceful co-existence, it will be transformative for the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. And it will set history in the positive direction we all want to see.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/2023/09/07/nagorno-karabakh-pashinyan-baku-yerevan/
Azerbaijan and Armenia accuse each other of military build-up
Reuters
Sept 7 2023
LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Thursday of moving troops close to their joint border as tensions over the future of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave rose even as the two countries said they remained committed to a peace process.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but run by ethnic Armenian authorities, is at the centre of a rancorous standoff, with Azerbaijan restricting movement along the only road to it from Armenia to thwart what it says is arms smuggling.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday accused Azerbaijan of conducting an "ongoing military build-up along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border", according to Armenian state news agency Armenpress.
Armenia's foreign ministry, which said Yerevan was not interested in military escalation and was ready to continue efforts to secure a peace deal, said the information had been confirmed by various sources.
Azerbaijan's foreign ministry rejected the Armenian assertion in a statement which 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.
Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, told Reuters that Azerbaijan's armed forces were conducting pre-planned drills in preparation for the autumn and winter.
"It's part of the regular planning process," said Hajiyev, accusing Armenia in turn of concentrating troops on the border and of purchasing new weaponry systems.
He said ethnic Armenian forces inside Nagorno-Karabakh had also come out of their regular barracks and deployed to front line positions in what he said was a high level of alertness.
Armenia did not comment on its own troop movements.
"Our strategy is about deterrence and deterring any armed or illegal military actions or provocations against Azerbaijan," said Hajiyev.
Russia, which 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, said on Thursday it was continuing to fulfil its role as a security guarantor in the South Caucasus.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticised Armenia's decision to host a joint exercise involving 85 U.S. soldiers next week as unhelpful however.
"In this situation, holding such exercises does not contribute to stabilising the situation in any case and strengthening the atmosphere of mutual trust in the region," Peskov said.
"But Russia continues to fulfil its functions as a guarantor of security, Russia continues scrupulous, consistent and constructive work with both Yerevan and Baku."
Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Alexandra Hudson
Planned Armenia-US military drills threaten to become embarrassment for Moscow
Sept 7 2023
Armenia’s latest move to secure a range of allies amid claims from Yerevan that it was a mistake to rely solely on Russia as a strategic ally that could guarantee its security threatens to become an embarrassment for Moscow—Armenia's Defence Ministry said on September 6 that Armenian and US forces will hold joint military exercises beginning next week.
Armenia—embroiled in mounting tensions with Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region and an Azerbaijani blockade that the enclave’s ethnic Armenian population says threatens households with starvation—said that the September 11-20 "Eagle Partner 2023" exercise with US forces would focus on "stabilisation operations between conflicting parties during peacekeeping tasks".
A US military spokesperson was reported by Reuters as saying that 85 US soldiers and 175 Armenian soldiers will take part in the drills, adding that the Americans—including members of the Kansas National Guard, which has a 20-year-old training partnership with Armenia—would be armed with rifles and would not be using heavy weaponry.
The drills, set for Yerevan, would be the first of their kind.
Pointing to the blockade of Karabakh, Yerevan has accused deployed Russian peacekeepers of failing to do their jobs.
Armenia, frustrated with its traditional strategic ally Russia over a perceived lack of assistance in dealing with an aggressive Azerbaijan, must know the military exercises will rile the Kremlin.
Olesya Vartanyan, senior South Caucasus analyst at non-profit conflict prevention organisation Crisis Group, told Reuters that Armenia was sending a signal to Moscow that "your distraction [with the Ukraine war matters] and the fact that you are so inactive plays towards our enemy", meaning Azerbaijan.
Responding to the announcement of the exercise, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Of course, such news causes concern, especially in the current situation. Therefore, we will deeply analyse this news and monitor the situation."
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has lately accused Russia, which has a military base in Armenia, of failing to protect his country against continuing aggression from Azerbaijan. He pointed to the Ukraine war distracting Russia from the situation in the South Caucasus and said relying only on the Russians to ensure security for Armenia has proved a mistake.
In recent months, Armenia has been building up relations with a range of countries, including Iran, France, the US and India. While India tends to back Armenia, through the provision of arms in particular, its rival Pakistan, like Turkey, serves as an ally to Azerbaijan.
Russia has a military base in Armenia and projects itself as the pre-eminent power in the South Caucasus, the three countries of which were until 1991 part of the Soviet Union.
Vartanyan was further reported as saying that Armenia and Azerbaijan may be closer to a potential peace agreement than they have been for years, but there was also a significant risk of a major new military escalation between them.
The analyst said footage on social media in recent days showed increasingly frequent Azerbaijani military movements near the front line between the two countries. "It doesn't look good at all," she said.
https://www.bne.eu/planned-armenia-us-military-drills-threaten-to-become-embarrassment-for-moscow-291573/?source=armenia
Film Review: ‘Amerikatsi’ Review: A Prisoner in His Homeland
The New York Times
Sept 7 2023
The actor-director Michael Goorjian explores the urge to reconnect with one’s roots in this movie about an American who moves to Soviet Armenia.
Sept. 7, 2023, 7:00 a.m. ET
In the late 1940s, the Soviet Union invited Armenians living abroad to resettle in Soviet Armenia. In “Amerikatsi,” the actor-director Michael Goorjian imagines one such journey and finds an unusual way to express the aching urge to reconnect with one’s roots.
Goorjian plays Charlie, a naïve, bumbling American who returns to Armenia years after being spirited away as a boy during the genocide. Despite befriending a Soviet official’s wife (Nelli Uvarova), he gets thrown in jail as a suspicious interloper. Charlie languishes behind prison walls, and is mocked and beaten by guards. As awful as that sounds, the film’s tone stays on the light side, even hokey, warmed by Charlie’s hopes.
Charlie finds an escape from despair by gazing into an apartment visible from his barred windows. He realizes that the man he’s watching, a bearish, temperamental painter named Tigran (Hovik Keuchkerian), is a guard in the prison’s watchtower and turns out to be Armenian. So Charlie takes to eating his meager meals at his window, following along with Tigran’s marital woes, dinner toasts, and attempts at painting.
The setup eloquently symbolizes the predicament of many who, like Charlie, left their homelands very young. His heart beats Armenian even if he speaks English, yet a nagging distance wards off total belonging. But he schemes indirect ways to communicate with the guard and finds a kindred spirit.
It’s an intriguing scenario, though not always played out skillfully. For better and worse, we feel Charlie’s confinement fully, as he watches another’s life go by and yearns for a proper home of his own.
Amerikatsi
Not rated. In Armenian, English and Russian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters.
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- Director
- Michael A. Goorjian
- Writer
- Michael A. Goorjian
- Stars
- Michael A. Goorjian, Hovik Keuchkerian, Nelli Uvarova, Mikhail Trukhin, Jean-Pierre Nshanian
- Rating
- Not Rated
- Running Time
- 1h 55m
- Genre
- Drama
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/07/movies/amerikatsi-review-a-prisoner-in-his-homeland.html?searchResultPosition=2
‘I can’t slam doors and withhold dinner!’ Top Armenian rider compares horses with husbands
Horse and Hound, UK
Sept 7 2023
The only Armenian dressage rider competing on the international stage, Carrie Schopf, at the European Dressage Championships. Credit: Ben Clark
Anyone who has ever ridden understands the sense of partnership between human and horse. However, Carrie Schopf, Armenia’s sole international dressage rider, takes it a step further. Competing at the European Dressage Championships with her partner of five years, the chestnut gelding Saumur, Carrie likened their relationship to “more of a marriage”.
After scoring 67% in the grand prix test, Carrie explained that, however much she loves her horse, they hadn’t quite seen eye to eye in the Riesenbeck arena.
“Anyone who has been married or in a long-term relationship knows what that can be like,” says Carrie, 66.
“My horse really uses critical moments as a discussion point. I don’t have big expectations with him – some days he goes for a 73 and other days he has an issue with me. Today was an issue day, not a serious issue as we still scored over 67% but certainly an under-achieving day. But that’s OK! I ride for myself, and I enjoy it. I enjoy cheering for other riders who don’t ride for themselves. I don’t have a sponsor and I am an amateur.”
Carrie explains how she never wants to pressurise Saumur to perform perfectly, even though he’s not always as sharp as she’s hoping for, but they have fun.
“He just was going to underperform today,” she says. “My husband says I’m too soft. Perhaps sometimes I should be more assertive and say, ‘Today you cannot underperform’.
“But it’s a difficult balance. You love your horse and want to be really kind to him, but on the other hand you have to be a showman. And if your horse has a bad day, what am I going to do? I would have liked it if he wanted to give me a bit more, but I wasn’t going to scream at him! I can’t slam doors, tell him he’s going without dinner, tell him to get out of the house – all the things you can do in a marriage!” she jokes.
Although both of Carrie’s parents are Armenian, she was born in the US and is based “down the road” in Germany. After her European Dressage Championships test, she was heading off to ride her other grand prix horse, a mare.
“I find it interesting to compare the two,” said Carrie, who believes the mare might be her Olympic ride for 2024 – if she can control her hot side.
“Saumur is a gelding, though he was a real boy for a long time. Mares are so much more black and white, it’s yes or it’s no. My mare is opinionated, but I can talk with her in a whisper. I have a feeling that if I did raise my voice, she would raise her voice, and then I’d talk a bit louder, and she would talk a bit louder – and in the end we’d find a compromise. With Saumur, he just sulks. He says, ‘Why don’t you like me now?’.
Carrie was lying in 24th spot at the midway stage of the grand prix, out of 32 combinations to compete so far.
https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/dressage/european-dressage-championships-armenian-rider-carrie-schopf-837056