Category: 2023

After Azerbaijan imposed a blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh on December 12, vehicles of Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were still able to access the region to bring in limited supplies and transport people needing special medical attention. 

But since June 15, Baku has been denying access to all humanitarian convoys, leaving the Armenian population of roughly 120,000 to rely entirely on their own resources.

The total blockade immediately followed a shootout near the newly installed Azerbaijani border post on the road in the Lachin corridor, which connects Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. 

The Armenian government released a video of the incident that purported to show Azerbaijani border troops escorted by Russian peacekeepers advancing from the checkpoint towards Armenia over the Hakari bridge and hoisting an Azerbaijani flag at the opposite end of the bridge. The group then comes under fire from the Armenian side and retreats. 

Armenia's National Security Service (NSS) reported that its border guards stopped the Azerbaijani soldiers from advancing into Armenian territory in an attempt to plant an Azerbaijani flag there. 

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded that their servicemen did not cross into Armenian territory, and the shooting was a "military provocation" attempting to prevent the "successful functioning" of the checkpoint; it added that one Azerbaijani soldier was wounded in the incident. 

The conflicting claims are unsurprising as the border between the two countries is undelimited and undemarcated. 

Following the incident, Azerbaijan suspended all movement along the Lachin corridor "until Armenia takes full responsibility for the provocation it committed."

Nagorno-Karabakh's de facto state minister, Gurgen Nersisyan, urged the population to live frugally and cut back on consumption. "Our farms will suffice for the population's basic needs, though at the lowest levels," he said.

The total blockade came just as Karabakh Armenians had started using the Azerbaijani checkpoint to travel in and out of the region with Russian peacekeeper escort. The checkpoint's installation in late April followed a four-and-a-half-month blockade staged by Azerbaijani government-backed activists.

Eteri Musayelyan, the ICRC spokeswoman in Karabakh, confirmed to RFE/RL that the Red Cross has been unable to evacuate Karabakhis to Armenia for urgent medical care. She said vehicles carrying 25 patients were turned back after the incident.

Besides food and medicine shortages, the region has had no natural gas supply since March 22, and electricity blackouts become more frequent as the local key reservoir dries up in summer.

"External supplies of food and other essential goods into Nagorno Karabakh are suspended, there is a significant shortage of medication. There's even no chance to transport critically-ill patients in such conditions. Everything is being done to make the lives of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh impossible. This is what a policy of ethnic cleansing looks like," Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on June 22.

As Russian peacekeepers were seen in the video on June 15 escorting Azerbaijani servicemen, the Armenian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Yerevan to express "strong discontent" with the peacekeepers' action.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded on June 22 that the peacekeepers were doing a good job of stabilizing the situation and blamed the incident on the lack of a delimited border. 

Russia periodically oversees peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. These talks are not coordinated with the EU and U.S., which also mediate between the parties on a separate track. 

In her remarks, Zakharova called on Baku to "take steps to completely unblock the [Lachin] corridor for humanitarian purposes and not to hold Karabakh's population hostage to political disagreements with Yerevan."

Speaking during a visit to Armenia and the Armenia-Karabakh border, chair of the Security and Defense Subcommittee of the European Parliament Nathalie Loiseau, voiced the same sentiment. "Blocking the Lachin Corridor is illegal and must be stopped," she said. 

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry responded to PM Pashinyan's accusations on June 22, restating Baku's intention to do everything to "integrate" the Karabakh Armenians into Azerbaijan's "political, legal and socioeconomic frameworks."

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Russia on Friday urged Azerbaijan to unblock access to Nagorno-Karabakh as concern grows over a deepening humanitarian crisis in the breakaway region.

Residents of Karabakh reported new shortages of food and medicine after the International Committee of the Red Cross said Azerbaijan had blocked access for convoys delivering aid to the Armenian-populated region last week.

There have been reports of the road being totally closed after June 15 when shots were fired in an incident

in which the South Caucasus countries said in separate statements that one Azerbaijani and one Armenian border guard had been wounded. "Such steps lead to increased tension and are not conducive to maintaining a normal atmosphere around the ongoing process of normalising relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia with Russian assistance. We call on Baku to unblock the Lachin corridor in its entirety," said Zakharova.

Baku has denied imposing a blockade, but has said it has taken what it called "relevant measures to investigate the reasons for this provocation, as well as to ensure the security of the border checkpoint." Azerbaijan in April established a checkpoint at the entrance to the corridor following months of disruption caused by people who called themselves Azerbaijani environmental activists, a step it said was essential due to what it cast as Armenia's use of the road to transport weapons.

Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire banker who was a top official in Karabakh's separatist government until February, on Thursday accused Baku of trying to "ethnically cleanse" the enclave by imposing what he called a goods and energy blockade – allegations that Azerbaijan denies. Azerbaijan's foreign minister told Reuters in an interview Baku was rejecting a demand from Armenia to provide special security guarantees for the enclave's ethnic Armenians ahead of a new round of peace talks, saying they were sufficiently protected.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/06/23/russia-urges-azerbaijan-to-unblock-access-to-karabakh-a81614

 

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.

In the hushed, ornate St James cathedral in the Armenian Quarter, one of Jerusalem’s most famous photographers Garo Nalbandian is at work, straddling a ladder as he photographs a massive Armenian carpet from above.

As his camera flash illuminates the hundreds of hanging lanterns and precious paintings on the walls, two assistants scurry around wearing only socks for the artifacts’ protection.

“Sometimes I have some pieces, I fall in love after finish it,” he tells CNN.

But Nalbandian is not only one of Jerusalem’s most sought after photographers. He’s also Armenian, a member of the dwindling Christian community still living in the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem.

A quarter he fears will soon be Armenian in name only.

Armenians first settled in Jerusalem over 1,600 years ago, with their community growing in the early 20th century as Armenians from other parts of the Ottoman Empire fled from genocide. One hundred years later, however, the Armenian presence in their quarter has shrunk significantly.

This property controversy comes as Christian Armenians have felt squeezed by Jewish extremists and the ongoing and worsening Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Among the Jerusalem Old City’s four quarters, the Armenian is the smallest. But now Armenians say they’re facing an existential crisis that could be the beginning of the end of the Armenian presence in the Old City. And it’s being perpetrated, they allege, by their own religious leadership.

A deal has been signed by the Armenian Patriarchate that will hand up to 25% of the quarter to a commercial entity for a 99-year lease, according to lawyers working to stop the deal. According to the lawyers and residents, the reported intention is to build a luxury hotel on some of the land that is currently a parking lot, but is on prime real estate nestled just within the Old City walls.

Few have seen the contract itself, and those who have are not commenting publicly on how much the deal is worth.

The drama has pitted the Armenian community against its religious leader, the Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manougian. Regular protests have been held, with Armenian residents and supporters creating a human chain around the part of the quarter allegedly part of the deal.

Nalbandian’s centuries-old home, which he and his family have lived in for more than 50 years rented from the Armenian church, is part of the land transfer, he says.

Sitting in his living room with his wife and granddaughter, his own stunning photographs line the wall, as well as a massive painting of Jesus’ last supper, Nalbandian grows emotional as he describes what he fears is happening.

“I’m having nightmares every night,” he said. “Where am I going to live with my family, with my children. We are 11 people around, you know. They’re putting us into parts and we are losing our culture.”

Nalbandian and his family’s small compound is directly across from the Armenian convent and within the shadow of the Old City walls. A steady stream of tourists and priests pass the front door every day.

“I love it here. I like to be here, forever. It’s our homeland. It’s most important for me, as an Armenian to be next to the Armenian convent next to the school, next to our culture, clubs, everything between Armenians, you know, all the friends,” he said.

Nalbandian says they’ve been betrayed by their own leadership, who he also accuses of not being forthright. Nalbandian said when he went to the Patriarch’s office to inquire what happened, a secretary told him his house is included in the deal but that they are “working to bringing it back.” But he says he has yet to be shown the contract or a full map of what has been handed over.

“They are hiding the contracts. They’re hiding all the maps and everything. They’re not telling they’re selling they say they gave 99 years. Okay, you give 99 years. Show. Show us, we don’t know what our future,” Nalbandian said.

Rumors abounded about who was leasing the land. A new sign on the parking lot used by the locals gave the most concrete clue – Xana Capital. The company and its chairman Danny Rothman were also identified as the lessee by a former priest for the patriarchate who was also its Real Estate Manager Baret Yeretsian, in interviews with The Media Line and in public letters.

In recent months Yeretsian fled Jerusalem for the United States, his exit marred by angry protestors furious over the deal. Videos from the evening show Yeretsian leaving the Armenian quarter under Israeli police protection.

CNN has reached out to Yeretsian for comment.

But Yeretsian told The Media Line he is being wrongly accused, saying he was acting on Patriarch Nourhan Manougian’s orders.

“The patriarch used me as a scapegoat,” he told the outlet.

Xana Capitol and Rothman did not respond to a CNN request for comment.

But many of the residents say they don’t care who leased the land.

“It’s not important who bought it, I’m not blaming who bought it. I’m blaming why they sell it,” Nalbandian said. “This property is a property for all Armenians, all Armenians in the world.”

Earlier this month a group of volunteer Armenian lawyers from Armenia and the United States arrived for a seven-day fact-finding mission to help understand the situation and suggest remedies. A full report on the situation is expected to be published in the coming days.

At a community meeting on Sunday, the lawyers said it’s not just some homes that are at risk: The Armenian heritage museum as well as the Armenian cemetery are “possibly threatened.”

Garo Ghazarian, an attorney from Los Angeles, told the community meeting the deal “is more than just about the use of commercial purposes.”

“The task and challenge for everyone, the Armenian Church, the community, the clubs and Armenian organizations alike, is to overcome all risks which threatens the integrity and the indivisibility of our community within the Old City of Jerusalem,” he said.

Arman Tatoyan, a former Deputy Minister of Justice for the Republic of Armenia and human rights lawyer, told CNN that the group had already established “there will be violations if the contract is implemented is executed. And our purpose is to prevent the execution.”

Alongside the fallout from the community the Palestinian Authority as well as Jordan, which oversees Christian and Muslim religious sites in Jerusalem, has withdrawn recognition of the patriarch as a result of the real estate deal.

Manougian, who declined CNN’s request for an interview, has been avoiding the community, residents say.

Last Sunday, a ceremony was held at St. James’ cathedral to install new Deacons. Typically, the Patriarch would attend such events, but he was not in attendance.

But his deputy, Archbishop Sevan Gharibian, did speak to CNN after the ceremony, acknowledging that a deal had been struck for part of the quarter, but claiming they’re working to cancel it.

“We have rented it to the other company that is all. But about 99 years there. But we are doing our best to cancel it if we can,” he said.

Gharibian said he did “not know” why the land was leased in the first place but defended the Patriarch’s relative silence on the matter.

“We don’t answer to any, every question, every talking. Let them talk. Later we will see who is right. Because these people also have their personal trouble with the Convert, you know they want something for some reason, revenge, I don’t know,” he said. “The body is working about these things. Not everybody must know what they are doing. They will spoil it or destroy it what we are doing,” he said.

But even if the deal is canceled, the damage has been done.

“They don’t have a God. They have money,” Nalbandian said of the Patriarchate. “If they have one blood of Armenia, they don’t do this.”

• Can Eker

EnergyPortal.eu

The impact of electric vehicles (EVs) on the global energy market has been a hot topic in recent years, with countries around the world embracing the transition to cleaner and more sustainable transportation. As a landlocked country in the South Caucasus region, Armenia is no exception to this trend. The government’s commitment to promoting the use of electric vehicles and the potential benefits they bring to the country’s energy market cannot be overstated.

Armenia’s energy market has long been characterized by its dependence on imported fossil fuels, primarily natural gas and petroleum products. This reliance on imports not only exposes the country to fluctuations in global energy prices but also poses significant challenges to its energy security. In this context, the adoption of electric vehicles offers a promising opportunity for Armenia to diversify its energy sources, reduce its dependence on imports, and improve its overall energy security.

One of the key factors driving the growth of electric vehicles in Armenia is the government’s commitment to promoting their use. In recent years, the Armenian government has implemented a range of policies and incentives aimed at encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles. These include tax exemptions for electric vehicle owners, reduced import duties on electric cars, and the establishment of a network of charging stations across the country. These measures have contributed to a steady increase in the number of electric vehicles on Armenian roads, with the number of registered electric cars in the country growing from just a handful in 2014 to over 500 in 2020.

The increasing adoption of electric vehicles in Armenia has significant implications for the country’s energy market. As more and more electric vehicles hit the roads, the demand for electricity is expected to rise, creating new opportunities for the development of renewable energy sources. Armenia has abundant renewable energy potential, particularly in the areas of solar and wind power. The government has set ambitious targets for increasing the share of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix, aiming to generate 26% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

The growth of electric vehicles in Armenia also presents an opportunity for the country to develop its domestic energy storage capacity. As electric vehicles become more widespread, the need for efficient and reliable energy storage solutions will become increasingly important. This presents an opportunity for Armenia to invest in the development of advanced battery technologies and energy storage systems, which could not only support the growth of electric vehicles but also help to stabilize the country’s power grid and reduce its reliance on imported energy.

Moreover, the transition to electric vehicles has the potential to bring significant environmental benefits to Armenia. The transportation sector is a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the country, contributing to a range of health and environmental problems. By replacing conventional vehicles with electric alternatives, Armenia can significantly reduce its emissions and improve air quality, contributing to a cleaner and healthier environment for its citizens.

In conclusion, the impact of electric vehicles on Armenia’s energy market is multifaceted and far-reaching. The adoption of electric vehicles offers a promising opportunity for the country to diversify its energy sources, reduce its dependence on imports, and improve its overall energy security. At the same time, the growth of electric vehicles presents new opportunities for the development of renewable energy sources and energy storage technologies, as well as significant environmental benefits. As the Armenian government continues to promote the use of electric vehicles and invest in the necessary infrastructure, the country is well-positioned to capitalize on these opportunities and reap the rewards of a cleaner, more sustainable, and more secure energy future.

https://www.energyportal.eu/news/the-impact-of-electric-vehicles-on-armenias-energy-market/38341/