Category: 2023

Pashinyan Again Sidesteps Artsakh’s Self-Determination Issue

Arsine Chaltikian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 March 14, 2023

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

Artsakh has been under a blockade since Dec. 12, 2022


Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sidestepped the issue of self-determination for Artsakh, clearly demonstrating that his government is advocating for security for the people of Artsakh and distancing itself from a long-held principle that guided talks on Artsakh for decades.

“We have said and continue to say that the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh people’s rights and security is extremely important to us,” Pashinyan said at a news conference on Tuesday. “That is one of our main objectives.”

“It’s up to the people and the government of Nagorno-Karabakh to decide the framework of the Nagorno-Karabakh people’s rights and security,” Pashinyan added.

“Our understanding is the following: it would be better for the people of Nagorno Karabakh to be the ones pursuing that issue, the primary mandate holder, the way it actually is. There are both objective and subjective reasons for this position. We believe that this conversation must take place between Baku and Stepanakert,” Pashinyan said.

He was presumably responding to a demand put forth by Artsakh lawmakers who called on Yerevan to firmly state that it was not abandoning Artsakh’s right to self-determination.

Earlier this month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz elevated the need for Artsakh’s self-determination to be highlight in future talks during a joint press conference with Pashinyan in Berlin. The Armenian leader, however, chose to distance himself from such a statement even during an international visit.

At the same time, Pashinyan on Tuesday warned that Azerbaijan would militarily escalate matters on the borders of Armenia and Artsakh.

“My conclusion comes from Azerbaijan’s growing aggressive rhetoric, and of course we have other information as well,” Pashinyan said, adding that since Armenia has not undertake aggressive actions, it has decided to invite observers from the European Union.

“I think the international community must record that indeed there is a high danger of new escalation, and I believe that in this regard taking into account that the Lachin Corridor is closed and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Nagorno Karabakh, as well as Azerbaijan’s explicit preparation for ethnic cleansing, our position remains that it would be very relevant to send an international fact-finding mission to the Lachin Corridor and Nagorno Karabakh,” Pashinyan added.

He accused Azerbaijan of continuously altering the course of discussions, citing Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s supposed agreement to hold discussions with Artsakh representative and later changing the tenor of the talks to be about Baku’s proposed “integration of Artsakh into Azerbaijan.”

He accused Azerbaijan of continued breach of agreements and said that Baku is also “rigging” the draft peace treaty with Armenia with “boost traps” in order to continue “its aggressive policy against Armenia even after the possible signing of the agreement.”

Pashinyan said there are no meetings planned with Aliyev, saying there have to be guarantees that agreements emerging from such talks are implemented.

Asbarez: Former NATO Chief Urges EU Pressure on Baku to Lift Artsakh Blockade

Khondkarian Raffi
by Asbarez Staff

 

 March 14, 2023

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Main, Latest, News, Top Stories

Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaks to reporters in Jermuk on Mar. 14


Calls Aliyev “as much an autocrat as Putin”

The former head of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, urged the European Union on Tuesday to pressure Azerbaijan to end the more than three-month long blockade of Artsakh.

He also called on President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to immediately open the Lachin Corridor and stop the blockade of Artsakh.

Rasmussen told reporters while visiting Jermuk that while visiting Armenia, he has witnessed first-hand the consequences of Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia and called the Artsakh blockade “inhumane and illegal.”

“A few weeks ago, the International Court of Justice made a decision obligating Azerbaijan to ensure free and safe movement through the Lachin Corridor. The decision is binding, which means that Azerbaijan is obligated to open the corridor for free movement. I will send a message to the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and tell him to lift the blockade immediately,” said Rasmussen.

In the current situation, when Azerbaijan, despite the decision of the international court, continues the blockade of Nagorno Karabakh, the EU should strengthen the pressure on Azerbaijan.

“The EU has reached an agreement with Azerbaijan in the field of energy, and this can be used as a critical platform for discussing the issue,” Rasmussen said.

“Perhaps, President Ilham Aliyev is as much an autocrat as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, but I don’t think he would want to end up in the same situation as President Putin and become an international aggressor. And that’s why I once again call on Aliyev to immediately stop the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Rasmussen emphasized.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen visited the entrance of the blockaded Lachin Corridor

Before visiting Jermuk, Rasmussen traveled to the entrance of the Lachin Corridor.

AW: Armenian Cultural Foundation to host piano recital in honor of Beatrice Ohanessian

Emil Lazarian
March 14, 2023 Guest Contributor Music, Announcements 0

ARLINGTON, Mass. – The Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF) will feature noted pianist and educator Anahit Truzyan in concert on March 26 at 6 p.m. 

Truzyan is a pianist with undeniable talent and dedication to her craft, with a master’s degree and post-graduate degrees from Komitas State Conservatory.

Having performed internationally in the US, Middle East, Armenia and Russia, Truzyan has refined her craft to perfection.

In the United States, Truzyan pursued an artist diploma and continued to perform at various venues. She also served as a pianist and organist for church services, showcasing her versatility and commitment to sharing her talent with the community.

Her performances are breathtaking and manifest a deep understanding and emotional depth of music.

Truzyan’s contributions to music go beyond just performing. She is also a dedicated instructor with a private practice in the Greater Boston area, where she has inspired and mentored students of all ages and levels of experience. Her students describe her as patient, kind and endlessly creative, always finding new ways to unlock their potential and help them reach their goals.

Child prodigies Rebecca Lai (14) and Timothy Lai (12), students of Truzyan, will also be featured in the program.

Rebecca Lai is an eighth-grade student at Lexington Christian Academy (LCA). She began her journey with the piano under the guidance of Truzyan at the tender age of five. Rebecca has honed her skills and developed a strong technical foundation. With her unwavering dedication and hard work, she has won several awards, including the First Place Honor in Crescendo International Competition and the silver award in the American Association for Development of the Gifted and Talented (AADGT) International Young Musicians Festival. She also performs in various chamber ensembles and collaborates as an accompanist in different chorales. In September 2022, she started studying at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School.

Timothy Lai is a seventh-grade student at LCA. Like his sister, Timothy began learning piano at the age of five with Truzyan. Timothy’s exceptional musical sensitivity and quick absorption of new material is truly remarkable. He has the ability to feel the music in a way that is deeply touching. He has won the silver award in the AADGT International Young Musicians Festival. He also plays trombone and performs with different ensembles.

The Lai siblings have performed in various recitals and festivals throughout the Boston area, such as the New England Piano Teacher Association (NEPTA) recitals and Passion of Music Festival at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Beatrice Ohanessian

The recital is dedicated to the memory of Baghdad Barcarolle, Beatrice Ohanessian—Iraq’s foremost classical pianist. Born on March 15, 1927 in Baghdad, Ohanessian received her early music training from the Institute of Fine Arts majoring in piano.  Later, she continued studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with professor Max Pirani. Four years later, she earned her Licentiate from the Royal Academy of Music in performance and pedagogy, with a major in piano and a second major in voice.

Ohanessian took up music as a young girl. She studied in London and New York and went on to become a pianist for the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra. After receiving a Fulbright Scholarship, she continued her higher education at Juilliard School of Music in New York City. Upon returning to Iraq, Ohanessian was appointed the head of the piano department at the Institute of Fine Arts in Iraq. From 1969 to 1972, she taught at the University of Minnesota and Macalester College. Then, she spent the next two years teaching in Geneva and performing as a soloist throughout Switzerland.

In 1994, Ohanessian moved to the United States and settled in Minneapolis-Saint Paul with her siblings. A year later, she resumed teaching at the University of Minnesota, Macalester College, as well as the University of St. Thomas. She also served as the organist for the Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Paul. Ohanessian died of cancer on July 17, 2008 in Bloomington. She was 81 years old.

The program will include works by Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt. The event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception.




AYF Camp Haiastan announces Canada community visits

Badalian Vardan
March 14, 2023 Camp Haiastan Diaspora, Announcements 0

FRANKLIN, Mass. — AYF Camp Haiastan, the first Armenian camp in the United States, is heading north to Canada. Executive Director Kenar Charchaflian will be hosting information sessions for the Armenian communities of Toronto and Montreal.

The first session will be held in Toronto on Friday, March 24 at the Armenian Community Centre of Toronto (45 Hallcrown Pl, North York, ON M2J 4Y4) at 8 p.m.

On Saturday, March 25, Charchaflian will be delivering her presentation at the Sourp Hagop Armenian School (3400 Rue Nadon, Montréal, QC H4J 1P6) at 6 p.m.

Charchaflian will provide insight into Camp Haiastan’s programming, camper registration, logistics and staffing opportunities ahead of the 2023 summer camp season. 

  •  Bio
  •  Twitter
  •  Latest Posts
Located in Franklin, Massachusetts, AYF Camp Haiastan, was founded in 1951 and is the oldest Armenian camp in the United States. The Camp prides itself on providing a healthy and safe experience to Armenian-American youth to help them foster their Armenian identity and establish lifelong friendships.


AYF Camp Haiastan travels to Detroit

Emil Lazarian
March 14, 2023 Camp Haiastan Diaspora 0

AYF Camp Haiastan executive director Kenar Charchaflian presenting to members of the Detroit Armenian community

DEARBORN, Mich. — AYF Camp Haiastan visited Detroit on Sunday and hosted an informational meeting at the gymnasium of the Armenian Community Center.

AYF Camp Haiastan, the first Armenian camp in the United States, has been serving Armenian youth for over 70 years as the premier Armenian camping experience.

Executive Director Kenar Charchaflian and Board of Directors member Shant Saroukhanian addressed over 80 members of the Detroit community. The gymnasium was filled with former and future staff, campers, parents, AYF Senior membership and longtime supporters of the camp. 

Charchaflian and Saroukhanian described Camp Haiastan’s indelible impact on the personal growth, independence and identity of Armenian youth. The magic of Camp Haiastan was felt throughout the gym, especially when community members watched the camp promotional video. The children participated in a camp favorite game of knockout, while the parents attended a Q & A session led by Charchaflian. 

AYF Camp Haiastan executive director Kenar Charchaflian leading a Q&A session with parents

AYF Camp Haiastan will be announcing more community visits around the region ahead of the summer season.

  •  Bio
  •  Twitter
  •  Latest Posts
Located in Franklin, Massachusetts, AYF Camp Haiastan, was founded in 1951 and is the oldest Armenian camp in the United States. The Camp prides itself on providing a healthy and safe experience to Armenian-American youth to help them foster their Armenian identity and establish lifelong friendships.


The Armenia and Azerbaijan Conflict is a Test of International Norms: The United States is Failing

Emil Lazarian
The Strategy Bridge
March 15 2023
March 15, 2023 Timur Nersesov

“Throughout our history, we’ve learned this lesson: When dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos; they keep moving; and the costs, the threats to [America and the world keep] rising.”
—President Joseph Biden, 2022 State of the Union Address[1]

Why did Vladimir Putin risk a full-blown war in Ukraine? Why did he believe he could get away with invasion and aggression? We do not need to see into the Kremlin to appreciate the West’s role in encouraging Putin’s confidence by its response to the attack on Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan by the Azerbaijani Army in September 2020, the first outbreak of war in Europe since the 1999 Kosovo war. The West’s failure to respond to this war in ways established during and post-Cold War was a new precedent for resolving territorial disputes in Europe.

The surprise attack that launched the 44-day Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020 was, in the words of U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio, “an attack by Azerbaijani forces [that] ignited a conflict that killed more than 6,500 people and displaced almost 100,000 ethnic Armenians.”[2] The territories populated by ethnic Armenians at issue in the 2020 war were within a separatist region of Azerbaijan proper, a region Azerbaijan lost control over to local Armenians in the early 1990s in a brutal ethnic war as the Soviet Union collapsed.[3]

The U.S. and most of its allies remained neutral in this unprovoked war waged by oil-rich Azerbaijan to settle a complex post-Soviet territorial and ethnic dispute that had been frozen for nearly 30 years. This neutrality was a clear change in policy since the U.S., Russia, and France had already invested nearly 30 years in mediating the conflict under the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group.[4] None of the countries involved in mediation had a clear policy opinion as one of the sides in the conflict (Azerbaijan) broke the mediation format and decided to settle the conflict through war. This clear signal of neutrality as a European country decided to use war to settle a territory dispute was impossible to miss. With such a clear change in policy in post-war Europe, Russia could be forgiven for taking this as a signal that democracies and traditional institutions like the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and the OSCE would not interfere in Russia’s near-abroad even to restore international norms.

In spite of the West’s much stronger reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Azerbaijan has continued to test those limits. Its willingness to do so is a sign that Western policy is still undecided about what international norm it is trying to establish with the Ukraine response. This leaves open questions. What is the new international norm? Is there a level or conditions under which war will be permitted by the international community to settle disputes?

The most severe test of the West’s reaction since the 2020 war began on September 12, 2022, when Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked invasion of neighboring sovereign Republic of Armenia, killing hundreds, displacing over 7,000 people, and occupying positions inside Armenia’s borders in a few days of action.[5] Unlike the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, which many observers saw as an internal matter in Azerbaijan, this test involved an international border. That Azerbaijan saw this as a worthwhile escalation in spite of the Ukraine response makes clear that the norm, whatever it is, is not clear.

Azerbaijan’s invasion of Armenia is a case study of dictatorships targeting democratic neighbors when those dictatorships see democratic neighbors as direct threats to their regional influence. The differences between the two countries in terms of democratization and economics are critical to understanding how an autocracy could perceive democratization as a threat to its position.

Azerbaijan ranks 190th out of 210 nations on Freedom House’s Global Freedom Index, classified as a “consolidated authoritarian regime.” In sharp contrast, Armenia has repeatedly held competitive elections and expanded civil liberties and the rule of law, classified by Freedom House as a “transitional regime.”[6] Azerbaijan is also larger and wealthier than its democratizing neighbor, Armenia.

Compounding its general democratization trend, Armenia went through a revolution in spring 2018 that replaced a weakening post-Soviet oligarchic government with a popular government.[7] This change, the culmination of a growing democratic movement, received support and significant attention from the west.[8] From Azerbaijan’s point of view it would not be a stretch to think that a more popular Armenia might lead to a change in the stalemate of the Minsk Group process over the status in Nagorno-Karabakh. In other words, Azerbaijan, a totalitarian autocracy, could fear that the West may be more sympathetic to the Armenian position as Armenia drifted closer to Western norms, making the choice of war to change the status quo on the ground in the frozen conflict more attractive.

Unlike the response to Azerbaijani aggression, the response of the U.S. and European partners to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fundamentally changed the expected outcome of that war. What was originally predicted to be a quick victory for Russia, has turned into a drawn-out bloodbath. The damage to the Russian army, economy, and influence is orders of magnitude higher than what Putin must have expected the cost to be. All of these effects were achieved not only by direct U.S. and E.U. military aid, but also by the application of Western power against the diplomatic and economic resources Russia would need to fight the war. None of these effects were attempted in the case of Azerbaijan, leaving the international community with two completely different responses to two scenarios of war being used to resolve ethnic-territorial disputes between early democracies and autocratic neighbors.

Azerbaijan has not yet paid a price for its illegal attacks. While the U.S. has significantly shifted away from its traditionally neutral position in the Caucasus region—marked by the introduction of Congressional Resolutions, a change in rhetoric condemning Azerbaijan’s aggression, and U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Armenia in the aftermath of the September 2022 invasion—the overall response has still hedged toward a diplomatic solution without parallel soft-power policy changes to raise the stakes of aggression.[9]

Yet the history of the 30-year-old conflict, including the unprovoked attacks in 2020 and 2022, demonstrates that Azerbaijan does not prefer normalization, but pursues an opportunistic policy of maximalist gains through force when it believes the West will not respond. Absent a consequential response to Azerbaijan’s aggressions, it is incentivized to make such gambles even as it feigns diplomatic willingness in international forums.[10]

Thus, the U.S. and international institutions have struggled with how to respond to Azerbaijan’s overt flaunting of norms around the use of force to settle territorial disputes. U.S. policymakers have condemned Azerbaijan’s aggression without any meaningful policy changes following the condemnations. In part, this is likely driven by the fact that Azerbaijan has an abundance of oil and gas, making it an attractive energy partner alternative to Russia.[11] In addition, Azerbaijan has an aggressive ally in Turkey, a NATO member, and is a willing partner to Western powers in countering Iran.[12] However, absent effective U.S.-led sanctions, Azerbaijan has been emboldened to continue its pattern of violence against Armenia and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is a pattern that endangers the very system the U.S. claims to be preserving with its aid to Ukraine.

Like the powder keg that led to the outbreak of World War I, military adventurism by autocracies endanger more than just the people caught in the crosshairs of dictators. Such aggression endangers all of us. Beyond the issue of an autocracy attacking a democracy, there is a humanitarian aspect to this conflict that the Western response has not addressed. Azerbaijan is overt in its racism towards Armenians, publicly celebrated brutality, documented war crimes, and clear genocidal intent against all Armenians, those in the Republic of Armenia as well as the minority Armenian population besieged in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.[13] The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention updated an existing “Red Flag Alert” warning on September 16th, 2022, stating:

“Given the extreme racialized othering of Armenians by the Azerbaijani government, military, press, and educational system, any Azerbaijani incursions into territories that include ethnic Armenians can be expected to be characterized by genocidal atrocities.”[14]

Setting and enforcing an international norm that makes such things extremely costly for those considering them is essential to mitigating risk of a wider conflagration. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine proved what can happen when such norms break down. The Western response to that invasion showed what the international community is able to do to enforce those norms. Reversing it in one place while allowing the norm to be violated in another sets a dangerous precedent that will lead to more adventurism and testing of what a regime can get away with when it chooses war to advance its policies.

Timur R. Nersesov is an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and Iraq War veteran, with 17 years in uniform and over 12 years as a consultant to U.S. national security agencies (US Departments of Defense, State, and Homeland Security). He is also a member of the Truman National Security Project. He holds a MS degree in Analytics, and his current work centers on cloud technologies and Artificial Intelligence applications in defense and civil government. The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not represent the views of the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, the U.S. Government or any company.

Ex-NATO head visits Armenia, calling for Western military aid

Manouk Vasilian
March 15 2023
Joshua Kucera Mar 15, 2023

At a time of deep geopolitical tumult in Armenia, the former secretary general of NATO visited the country and proposed providing Armenians with Western weaponry and security guarantees.

But the former official, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was visiting as a private consultant, making it unclear whose interests and point of view he was representing.

On the two-day visit Rasmussen met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, as well as the minister of defense and chair of the national security council. He also posed for a photo at the Lachin Corridor, the road connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh that has been blocked by Azerbaijan for more than three months as Baku tries to strong-arm Armenia into signing a comprehensive peace agreement.

“The EU must push Azerbaijan to lift the blockade,” he wrote in a tweet. “If not, we risk a humanitarian catastrophe.”

While in Yerevan he also met with journalists and laid out a vision for the resolution of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian-populated territory in Azerbaijan that has been the core of the decades-long conflict between the two sides.

He envisaged Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan but with a “special status” protected by an armed international peacekeeping mission with a “robust mandate,” according to an account of the meeting by news website CivilNet. The territory would also be surrounded by a demilitarized zone. Ideally, he said, the peacekeeping mission would be mandated by the United Nations with Russian consent and with American participation.

“With all respect for the European Union, when it comes to hard security, there’s only one power on Earth we can trust, and that is the United States,” he said.

He also proposed the European Union providing military aid to Armenia to buy Western weapons.

“The European Union has a special fund called the European Peace Facility, which primarily until now has been used for Ukraine for many good reasons. But we could also consider helping Armenia within the framework of that fund. That could be [to] help to purchase Western armament, weapons, and military equipment,” he said.

Much of Rasmussen’s vision for the resolution of Karabakh’s status has echoed Yerevan’s; Armen Grigoryan, the chair of the national security council, just days earlier proposed a special status with an international peacekeeping mandate and demilitarized zone.

The element of European and American military support, though, was relatively novel, and came amid a deepening crisis between Armenia and its traditional security partner, Russia.

Just days before Rasmussen’s visit, Armenia announced that it was further reducing its participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Russia-led political-military alliance. That took place against the backdrop of a broader Armenian disillusionment with Russia’s inability or unwillingness to push back against Azerbaijani incursions in Armenia or the blockade in Karabakh.

Meanwhile, the European Union has been taking a larger role, most notably by deploying a civilian monitoring mission to Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.

Where all of this is leading is unclear, as is Rasmussen’s role in it.

He came in his capacity as the head of Rasmussen Global, a consulting firm that has lately been closely working with Ukraine on a plan for Western security guarantees there. He said he came on the invitation of the Armenian government, but did not elaborate.

The firm’s communications director did not respond to queries from Eurasianet about how his involvement in Armenia came about, who is paying him, and if he is playing any role in the formal EU or any other mediation of the conflict.

In his discussion with the journalists, Rasmussen said he saw no reason that CSTO membership would have to be an obstacle for the Western-led vision he laid out. “Obviously it’s at least a challenge communicating this to a Western audience, that Armenia is still a member of CSTO, but we have seen cooperation between Armenia and NATO, for instance, in the past,” he said. “So CSTO membership is not an obstacle in itself. It can go in parallel.”

Rasmussen’s interlocutors in Yerevan made little comment on his proposals for Western military partnership. Pashinyan’s office said merely that the two “exchanged ideas on regional developments and security challenges.”

At a press conference later, Pashinyan did not touch on Rasmussen’s visit or relations with the West, but reiterated his criticism of the CSTO.

“My assessment is that the CSTO, willingly or unwillingly, is leaving the Republic of Armenia,” he said. And this worries us.” Still, he insisted that he “didn’t see a crisis” in relations with Russia in spite of “some mutual concerns.”

Note: This piece has been updated to credit Civilnet for its account of the meeting between Rasmussen and journalists.

Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet’s former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.

A year in, Armenian war probe questions its first general

Boshkezenian Garik
March 15 2023
Arshaluis Mgdesyan Mar 15, 2023

Over a year since the Armenian parliament set up a commission to probe the causes and course of the 2020 Second Karabakh War, precious little information has been shared with the public. Whatever it concludes will likely stay classified.

The parliamentary opposition has boycotted the commission’s work, dismissing it as a sham aimed at absolving the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Yet its work continues. On February 23 the investigative commission got around to interviewing its first high-ranking witness: Eduard Asryan, currently the chief of the General Staff, who served as head of the Operations Department of the Armed Forces during the war.

Andranik Kocharyan, the ruling Civil Contract party MP who heads the commission, assured the public that the general “conveyed important information that could be decisive for our conclusion.“

That could be the extent of what the public comes to know about his testimony.

Kocharyan said Prime Minister Pashinyan, who founded Civil Contract and who presided over Armenia’s defeat in the war, would be summoned to the commission as well.

Individuals are testifying on a voluntary basis so far, he said, adding that he was working on changing parliamentary regulations to compel those who don’t want to appear.

The Second Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended in November 2020 with a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement. According to official data, 3,812 Armenians died in the war, and 217 are considered missing.

After several months of recriminations and domestic turmoil, Pashinyan’s party, Civil Contract, held on to its mandate in a snap parliamentary election in June 2021.

Since then, there have been calls from various parties for an investigation into the circumstances of the conflict, with Pashinyan’s supporters and the opposition publicly blaming each other for the war and law enforcement agencies opening criminal cases against individual soldiers. After extended rancorous debate, the parliamentary commission was established on February 10, 2022. It was tasked with studying the political, military and diplomatic aspects of the conflict, as well as assessing the activities of state institutions and persons responsible for managing the war. Initially, the term of the commission’s activity was set for six months, but in October it was decided to extend that for another six months.

From the very start, it has faced legitimacy concerns.

The parliamentary opposition, which consists of two blocs, the Armenia alliance and I Have Honor, view the commission as pointless and boycott its work.

“The culprits of the war and the defeat in this war are the current authorities. This commission is called upon not to reveal the circumstances of the war, but to appoint the perpetrators. We cannot participate in this,“ Hayk Mamijanyan, chairman of the parliamentary faction of the opposition bloc I Have Honor, told Eurasianet.

To ensure broader representation on the commission, the authorities invited representatives of extra-parliamentary forces and relatives of dead servicemen to participate.

Later, the leader of the Liberal party, Samvel Babayan, who served as secretary of Nagorno-Karabakh’s security council during the 2020 war, quit the commission. Explaining his decision, he said: “The rules of the game are not respected.”

Two other political forces, Fair Armenia and Sovereign Armenia, whose leaders periodically meet with the prime minister within the format of consultations with extra-parliamentary forces, continue to work with the commission.

Mkrtich Harutyunyan, 58, from the Ararat region of Armenia, whose son Karapet Harutyunyan, 29, has been missing in action since 2020, told Eurasianet he is optimistic about the commission’s work.

He hopes to find out details about the criminal case regarding the disappearance of his son, though he acknowledges that may not happen soon.

He has viewed videos showing PoWs captured during October 2020, around the time his son disappeared and believes Karapet is currently in Azerbaijani captivity.

Harutyunyan blames the higher army command for the capture of his son, who signed up as a volunteer.

“During the war in October 2020, our sons were taken by bus towards Zangilan and left there. They were taken prisoner. A criminal case has been initiated. There is an investigation. We, the parents, were assured by the director of the National Security Service of Armenia [Armen Abazyan] that very soon all the circumstances of the case regarding our sons would be revealed,“ Mkrtich Harutyunyan said. (Zangilan is a region of Azerbaijan that had been controlled by Armenian forces prior to the 2020 war.)

Over 2,000 criminal cases have been initiated on various episodes of the war. Experts say this approach is unlikely to yield a general picture of the causes and course.

“It is necessary to investigate and answer questions regarding the root causes of the military failures of the Armenian side. For example, how was the military-political situation in the region assessed before the start of the war, how good was the armament of the Armenian army, were there any omissions in the management of the army that led to irreversible consequences? How did intelligence work? It is also necessary to investigate the orders of higher-ranking military and officials during the war, which caused the death of many military personnel,“ Artur Sakunts, head of the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, said in an interview with Eurasianet.

Many doubt that the public will ever come to learn such details.

In 2019, before the Second Karabakh War, there was a similar probe into the four days of fighting in April 2016. Then, too, the authorities promised answers to the public’s burning questions. But the findings of the probe were classified.

That probe was also chaired by Andranik Kocharyan, the head of the commission looking at the 2020 war.

Sakunts told Eurasianet: “We do not know what conclusion the authorities came to as a result of the previous investigation. In this regard, I do not think that this time the circumstances of the 2020 war will be fully disclosed and the society will receive answers to its questions.”

Arshaluis Mgdesyan is a journalist based in Yerevan.

https://eurasianet.org/a-year-in-armenian-war-probe-questions-its-first-general


"Azerbaijan has territorial designs on Armenia" – Nikol Pashinyan

Garnik Zakarian
March 15 2023
  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

Nikol Pashinyan press conference

“The risk of new escalation is very high both along the border with Armenia and in Nagorno-Karabakh,” the Prime Minister of Armenia said during a regular press conference. Nikol Pashinyan came to this conclusion “from the aggressive rhetoric of Azerbaijan” and “some information” he had received. He considers it important that Armenia be able to prove that it is not responsible for the escalation, as Baku is trying to claim.

“We have solved this problem along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border [referring to the deployment of EU civilian observers monitoring the situation]. Nagorno-Karabakh also has this tool and I hope it will work properly. We are talking about the Russian peacekeeping forces and the facts they publish,” Pashinyan said.

The prime minister spent more than four hours answering journalists’ questions. He spoktalkede about the possible signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and the need for international guarantees for the implementation of these agreements. Pashinyan also explained how Armenian-Russian relations are currently being maintained and how he assesses Armenia’s membership in the CSTO military bloc.

  • “Baku is trying to speak in ultimatums” – Secretary of the Council of Armenia
  • “Hundreds of bullets fired”: details of the death of Armenian policemen in NK
  • The active phase of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. Who will mediate?

This is how Pashinyan characterized a statement by the “Community of Western Azerbaijan” organization about the desire of Azerbaijanis who lived in Armenia before the conflict to return to their homes, a political initiative is supported by the President of Azerbaijan, who, at a meeting with representatives of this organization, said: “The current Armenia is our territory.”

Pashinyan believes that “this is an illegal and obvious encroachment on the sovereign territory of Armenia”, more proof that “Azerbaijan has territorial claims.”

He stated that forced migrants from Nagorno-Karabakh, in particular from Hadrut and Shushi, are also presenting their demands to the Armenian government regarding the realization of their rights, and that according to the tripartite statement signed at the end of hostilities in November 2020, these people should have already returned to their homes. According to Pashinyan, the Armenians who once lived in the Nakhichevan autonomy and were evicted thence are also “raising questions today” before the Armenian government:

“For the entire last century, forced de-Armenization took place there, and after a while not a single Armenian remained. Armenians evicted from Azerbaijan have the right to demand compensation. I believe that these people will fight for their rights.”

He mentioned the pogroms against Armenians and deportations from Baku, Sumgayit and Kirovabad, emphasizing that Azerbaijanis living in Armenia were not subjected to pogroms and were not forcibly deported:

“Moreover, in our archives there are documents that the government of Soviet Armenia paid compensation to Azerbaijanis, just astronomical amounts.”

Political observer Suren Surenyants believes the March 5 shootout was a coordinated effort

According to Nikol Pashinyan, a meeting between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan is not yet scheduled. He said that he has never avoided such meetings, but that there should be guarantees for the implementation of the agreements reached as a result.

As an example he cited the Brussels format, with ten unfulfilled agreements. Pashinyan listed the return of Armenian prisoners of war from Baku, the start of work on the activation of the railway, and mutual withdrawal of troops on the border with Azerbaijan. The prime minister believes that this is a “fundamental problem”, which he also discussed with the mediator of these negotiations and head of the European Council, Charles Michel.

“They say that when there are no negotiations, the risk of escalation increases, this is true. But Brussels has shown us that there are negotiations that not only do not reduce the risk of escalation, but increase it. A few days after the meeting in Brussels, Azerbaijani troops invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia [referring to the events of September 2022].”

Pashinyan said that Yerevan is ready to continue negotiations, but that all agreements must be fulfilled:

“If Azerbaijan uses the negotiations only to justify the escalation, then this is not an acceptable option. Negotiations should become a guarantee of stability. I am ready to take responsibility for signing a document that will not be a dream document, but will not give reason to be ashamed of it.”

The Prime Minister believes that the meeting in Prague with the participation of the President of France was the most effective of the negotiations organized by mediators so far. He says that Baku wants to work “with less efficiency, in the Brussels format”, Azerbaijan does not like the presence of France. In this case, Pashinyan proposes to expand the list of participants to include representatives from Germany or the United States.

Trilateral negotiations took place in Munich with no clear result or change in position.

The Prime Minister said that a couple of days ago, Azerbaijan received a response to Armenia’s proposals regarding a possible draft peace treaty.

“It should be emphasized that we see some progress, but the further we go deeper, the more fundamental problems appear,” Pashinyan said.

He listed the following issues:

  • “Azerbaijan is trying, through a possible agreement on peace and the establishment of relations, to formulate territorial claims against Armenia,
  • with proposals on the text of the peace agreement, Baku is trying to get a mandate to carry out genocide or ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, signed, among other things, by Armenia,
  • Azerbaijan is pursuing such a line that we do not even have a system of guarantees for the execution of the agreement.”

According to him, all these points are red lines for Armenia.

“Any document that will be signed must have guarantees of fulfillment, preferably international,” he said.

He maintained that official Yerevan “is not playing for time” and is ready to sign a peace treaty, but that Armenia needs guarantees.

Yesterday NK and Azerbaijan representatives once again met at the HQ of the Russian peacekeeping forces

Pashinyan believes that Armenia should promote the issue of security and rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh on international platforms, consistently present its positions.

“Azerbaijan is taking every step to justify the existence of a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh at the international level. We need to further substantiate the facts of the humanitarian crisis, ethnic cleansing and the danger of the Armenian genocide in NK, which will create the possibility of sending an international fact-finding mission to Nagorno-Karabakh without the consent of Azerbaijan.”

According to him, sending a fact-finding mission to the Lachin corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh is expedient right now, in a situation where “the road connecting it with the world is blocked by Azerbaijanis, there is a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan is clearly preparing for ethnic cleansing.”

The Hague International Court of Justice decision has decided to oblige Azerbaijan to enact interim measures to unblock the Lachin corridor

Journalists were interested in whether Armenia would be a guarantor of the security of the Armenians living here in the event of a possible new escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh. In response, Pashinyan emphasized that the November 9, 2020 statement states that Russia is now the guarantor of security:

“The point is not that Armenia refuses this responsibility. Unfortunately, after the defeat in the 44-day war in 2020, Armenia cannot fulfill this function.”

Despite calls by the international community and the Hague, the Lachin corridor is still blocked

“Our relations are in a normal state, which does not mean that there are no worries on both sides,” Pashinyan said.

He is confident that there is no crisis in relations with Russia, as there is a conversation going on and the existing “objective problems” are being discussed in working order.

The day before, at the initiative of Armenia, he had a phone call with Vladimir Putin. According to Pashinyan, he spoke with Putin about the danger of escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh, presenting his “concerns about the problems that are on the face in the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers deployed there.”

Armenia refused the quota for the post of Deputy Secretary General of the CSTO. What does this mean and what could be the consequences? Political observer Hakob Badalyan does not believe that Armenia will have to “pay dearly” for this decision

The prime minister reiterated that Armenia does not intend to leave the CSTO military bloc:

“My opinion is that voluntarily or involuntarily, the CSTO is in fact leaving Armenia. And that worries us.”

Yerevan refused its quota for the post of Deputy Secretary General of the CSTO. Pashinyan said on this occasion that the country would accept this position, but the country’s authorities do not want to give their people the “wrong signal”:

“If it adds another factor to the security of Armenia, we will use it. If not, then we see no reason to take on this position, at least based on the logic of being honest with our people.

According to Pashinyan, in the event of the final withdrawal of the CSTO from Armenia, Yerevan should try to ensure its security needs in all possible ways.

Several Armenian political analysts weigh in on Sergei Lavrov’s interview with RIA Novosti

Pashinyan was asked about the veracity of accusations by former Armenian authorities regarding the problems in the army that arose with the coming to power of his team, specifically that since 2018 the country has not acquired weapons. Pashinyan called this statement nonsense. According to him, in 2018-20 more weapons were acquired than in the previous ten years combined:

“I believe that we lost the war because the 5th column operated in our army. If you look carefully, you will see this. I think that in the near future they will become so public that this statement will not seem so strange.”

He recalled that more than fifty soldiers are accused of espionage, high treason and failure to properly perform their direct duties. According to him, these actions directed by the “former authorities” harmed not the political power, but the statehood and independence of Armenia.

On a recent message from the Russian Foreign Ministry on the upcoming EU civilian mission to the Armenian border

“As a result of the invasion on May 12, 2021, as well as the military actions of September 2022, Azerbaijan occupied the sovereign territories of Armenia. This problem cannot have a one-step solution, and there is no need for hasty action.

The territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Armenia are a red line for us, but we see the need for a strategic, long-term, lasting, deep and comprehensive solution to these problems,” he said.

He stated that since 1994 Azerbaijan has taken control of the sovereign territories of Armenia.

According to the Prime Minister, peace is the best way to ensure security, and Armenia strives for peace, which is possible only with good relations with all countries in the region. According to him, Azerbaijan is not inclined to resolve and normalize relations, since it has military superiority.

Pashinyan believes that the following thought is hidden in the context of Baku’s statements: “We won the war, there is nothing to negotiate, you must sign what we say.” Pashinyan declared: “Yerevan does not agree with this.”

https://jam-news.net/nikol-pashinyan-press-conference/

The undesirables: Simonyan and Gabrielyanov as personae non gratae in Armenia

Emil Lazarian
March 15 2023
  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

Personae non gratae in Armenia

“I am not a supporter of restrictions. People like Margarita Simonyan and Aram Gabrielyanov should come to Armenia and see what antipathy they arouse in the majority of Armenian society with their notorious statements, ridiculous accusations and labeling,” Ashot Melikyan, head of the Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Speech, believes.

In his opinion, the vocabulary and behavior of Russian media managers of Armenian origin, recognized as “undesirable persons”, testifies to their “arrogance and inability to politely express their thoughts and opinions.”

The Prime Minister of Armenia recently stated that Russians declared personae non gratae “are obliged to respect Armenia, including the authorities elected by the people.” In response, Margarita Simonyan and Aram Gabrielyanov declared Nikol Pashinyan a “traitor” and “deceiver”, expressing their “disgust” with him.

A week ago, Aram Gabirelyanov, a Russian journalist and the founder of the News Media holding, was not allowed into Armenia. And in October 2022, Margarita Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of the Rossiya Segodnya international news agency and Russia Today TV channel, and Konstantin Zatulin, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, were banned from entering Armenia.

Recently Dmitriy Peskov said that he had a negative attitude towards such decisions, and expressed the hope that in the foreseeable future, bilateral relations between Russia and Armenia “will be free from such events.”

Among those declared undesirable persons there are also “non-Russian Armenians”, representatives of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun party. The names of at least four of them are known. They are banned from entering the country due to the “attack on the motorcade led by the Prime Minister of the government delegation on June 1, 2021 at the Armenian Embassy in Paris.”

  • Armenia to leave the CSTO Russian military bloc? Opinion from Yerevan
  • Volodin’s statement: what is behind it? Comment
  • “Phantom pain from the loss of the province”: Armenian political scientists on Lavrov’s interview

During a March 14 press conference, Pashinyan answered a question about why some Russian media personalities have been declared “undesirable persons” in Armenia. He said that Armenia is a sovereign state that has the right to use tools to prevent encroachments on its interests, and “the aforementioned persons are obliged to respect Armenia, including its authorities, elected by the people.”

“If they allowed themselves one percent of what they did with Armenia in relation to the countries where they live, they would not be able to enter their home without a visa,” Pashinyan said.

The prime minister recalled that decisions to recognize someone as persona non grata are made by the relevant state bodies in accordance with the country’s legislation.

According to political scientist Surenyants, Russia and the CSTO are unscrupulous partners, but failing a major upset, Armenia will not leave the Russian military bloc.

“I never said anything about any corridor, but I said and will speak personally of Pashinyan, that he is a degenerate and a traitor to the Armenian people, that he sold and betrayed all the Armenian interests that he could betray and sell, that he hates Russia and is deceiving Putin, ”Margarita Simonyan responded to Pashinyan’s statement.

Simonyan believes that it was for these words that she was banned from entering, but under the current government she was not going to come to Armenia. And she is embarrassed by the wording of the refusal – “for disrespect”, since it “still needs to be earned.”

“So correct your wording: Margarita Simonyan is denied entry to Armenia for disgust with the current government,” she wrote.

Political analyst Hovsep Khurshudyan weighs in on the blockade of the Lachin corridor

On March 9, Russian journalist and publisher Aram Gabrielyanov posted on Facebook that he was not allowed to enter Armenia. He stated that he would sue the Armenian government and force them to allow him entry:

“In fact, Armenia is corroded by the rust of betrayal and groveling before Turkey. There is an attempt to destroy fraternal relations with Russia and the Russian people. No wonder even the security forces call him Tork [Turk] Nikol. […] I won’t let the homeless deprive me of my father’s homeland.”

After Pashinyan’s comment at a press conference in another post, he announced that his interests in court would be represented by “the office of a well-known lawyer in Armenia, Aram Vardevanyan.” This is a former deputy from the Hayastan opposition faction of the Armenian parliament, who also defended the interests of ex-president Robert Kocharyan in court.

Gabrielyanov writes that the court will consider not only the lawsuit in connection with the ban on entry to Armenia against the Armenian authorities, but also the second:

“The second lawsuit is against Pashinyan personally. If he does not prove that I demanded the creation of a Zangezur corridor in Armenia, then efendi [“sir” in Turkish] Nikol will have to answer for it.”

Gabrielyanov promises to prove in court that “Nikol was and remains a deceiver.” The journalist believes that “more than 80 percent of the population of Armenia show disrespect for the elected prime minister”:

“And what, the authorities will not let them into their homeland too? You can’t publicly swear at the authorities. I am glad that Nikol knows the practices of Turkish dervishes and can read the thoughts of Armenians!”

On a recent message from the Russian Foreign Ministry on the upcoming EU civilian mission to the Armenian border

Ashot Melikyan says that Simonyan, Gabrielyan and others, declared undesirable persons, “are used by Russian propaganda as the main agents of counter-propaganda against Armenia.”

In his opinion, Simonyan has long ceased to be a journalist — she is a “Kremlin propagandist”, “speaker of the Putin regime” and is ready to hang any label on the Armenian authorities and the country itself in order to earn the favor of the Kremlin.

Melikyan holds that those declared “undesirable” use the same lexicon as the Armenian opposition:

“In some cases they begin to speak on behalf of the people, declaring Pashinyan a “traitor” to the people, etc., that is, these are the thoughts that we are already tired of hearing from the radical opposition, which is in fact the fifth column of the Kremlin in Armenia.”

In Melikyan’s view, these media managers are in fact Russian agents serving the interests of the 5th column operating in Armenia.

Melikyan believes that “words had to be answered with words, not with prohibitions.” He also believes that not only the authorities, but also the Armenian media should respond to such statements.

“Media that consider themselves of high quality, serving the public interests of the country, and not the narrow interests of individual political forces, should respond to such statements and put their authors in their place.”

In his opinion, it is necessary to ask Armenians their opinion about those declared undesirable, and to publish them. He believes that only pro-Kremlin oppositionists will speak positively about them;

“Of course, there will be harsh criticism, antipathy, if not hostility, even disgust towards people who pretend to protect the Armenians, but sling mud at Armenia and the Armenian people on Russian TV.”

https://jam-news.net/personae-non-gratae-in-armenia/