Backlash in Armenia as EU backs Nagorno-Karabakh aid via Azerbaijan

Kalantarian Kevo


 

ByAni Avetisyan

Proposals to send humanitarian aid to Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijani-controlled land appear to have been backed by the EU, causing outrage in Armenia.

Supplies to the region have repeatedly been cut off since the blockade of the Lachin Corridor began in December, with the situation again deteriorating since mid-June.

On Saturday, EU Council President Charles Michel appeared to back proposals by Azerbaijan to send supplies via Aghdam.

‘I emphasised the need to open the Lachin road. I also noted Azerbaijan’s willingness to provide humanitarian supplies via Aghdam’, Michel said.

His statement came after a round of talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev earlier that day.

The Lachin Corridor is the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint under its control at the start of the corridor in late April — a move seen as a violation of the November 2020 ceasefire agreement, which states that the Lachin Corridor falls under the control of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh.

As the region grappled with food and energy shortages under blockade, Baku has proposed sending humanitarian aid and supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh through Aghdam.

Stepanakert swiftly rejected Baku’s proposal.

Michel’s statement was condemned in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, with critics calling for the reopening of the Lachin Corridor instead of the establishment of alternative routes.

Azerbaijan dismisses claims of an ongoing blockade and humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, despite local and international reports indicating food and medicine shortages in the region.

On Tuesday, fifteen Armenian organisations jointly stated that the Lachin Corridor ‘has no alternative’.

‘Instead of addressing the root cause of the humanitarian crisis, the discussion of “alternative” routes, such as Aghdam, diverts the attention of the international community from the source of the problem: the illegal blockade of the humanitarian corridor by the Azerbaijani government and the policy of ethnic cleansing’, read their response to Michel’s statement.

Several organisations in Nagorno-Karabakh also issued a more pointed statement on Monday.

‘We emphasise and remind that the support provided at the cost of trampling on the dignity of people in a humanitarian catastrophe cannot be accepted from a country that can offer nothing but hatred, suffering, and pain’, stated the organisations in Nagorno-Karabakh.

David Babayan, adviser to Nagorno-Karabakh’s president and a former foreign minister, condemned the EU Council President’s statement as ‘dangerous’.

‘There is a decision of the international court [of Justice], which says that the corridor should be [reopened]’, Babayan told Armenian media. ‘So where does Aghdam come from?’

Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special envoy to the South Caucasus, also backed Baku’s proposal to provide Nagorno-Karabakh with humanitarian aid through Aghdam, stating that ‘every offer should also be used, not as an alternative to Lachin but as a complement to it’.

The humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh has continued to deepens as the region remains under total blockade since mid-June, when Azerbaijan barred Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh from using the Lachin Corridor to supply the region.

Currently, only the International Commitee of the Red Cross can use the corridor to transfer people requiring medical assistance to Armenia. Despite assistance provided by the Red Cross, local authorities have warned of an increase in mortality rates and miscarriages due to the lack of food and medicine. 

In an effort to save energy and food in the region, Stepanakert has introduced rolling blackouts and rationing across Nagorno-Karabakh, in addition to suspending public transport last week.

They have also called for ‘indefinite rallies’ in the hope of attracting international attention, with President Arayik Harutyunyan leading a sit-in protest in central Stepanakert.

[Read more: Thousands rally in Stepanakert against blockade]

 For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.

https://oc-media.org/backlash-in-armenia-as-eu-backs-nagorno-karabakh-aid-via-azerbaijan/

Yerevan Says Welcomes Canada’s Decision To Join EU Mission On Armenian Border

Hovik Karapetian
UrduPoint

 Sumaira FH

The Armenian Foreign Ministry on Thursday welcomed Canada’s initiative to join the European Union’s observer mission on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – 20th July, 2023) The Armenian Foreign Ministry on Thursday welcomed Canada’s initiative to join the European Union’s observer mission on Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.

“We welcome the initiative of Canada to become part of (the EU Mission) in Armenia & view it as an important contribution for the Mission’s role in enhancing stability & peace in the South Caucasus region,” the ministry tweeted.

In early May, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the EU observer mission in Armenia does not guarantee the country’s security but is still important, as it draws the attention of the international community to the problems in the region.

On February 20, the EU announced the launch of its civilian mission on the Armenian side of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The stated purpose of the mission is to promote stability and facilitate conditions conducive to the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The mission has a total of 100 personnel, including some 50 unarmed observers.

The decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh flared up in September 2020, marking the worst escalation since the 1990s. Hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered trilateral ceasefire declaration signed in November 2020. The two former Soviet states agreed to the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in the region. Since then, there have been occasional clashes along the border.

In 2022, Yerevan and Baku, mediated by Russia, the United States and the European Union, began discussing a future peace treaty. In May 2023, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Yerevan was ready to recognize Azerbaijan’s 86,600-square-kilometer (33,430-square-mile) territorial integrity, which includes Nagorno-Karabakh. If Armenia does not change its position on the issue, Baku and Yerevan could sign a peace treaty in the near future, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/world/yerevan-says-welcomes-canadas-decision-to-jo-1726419.html

Role of Russian peacekeepers paramount amid tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh — diplomat

Emil Lazarian
 TASS 
Russia –
Commenting on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement that Russian peacekeepers must leave Nagorno-Karabakh by 2025, Maria Zakharova noted that Ankara is not a party to the November 9, 2020, joint statement from the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. The work of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh is of the utmost importance amid the continued tensions in the region, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a briefing Thursday.

“Russian peacekeepers continue to play an important stabilizing role in Nagorno-Karabakh; their main function is to uphold the ceasefire regime,” she said. “Considering the persisting tense situation in the region, their work is as important as ever.”

Commenting on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement that Russian peacekeepers must leave Nagorno-Karabakh by 2025, Zakharova noted that Ankara is not a party to the November 9, 2020, joint statement from the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The diplomat pointed out that the Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict area based specifically on this document, and it was this document that outlined the terms of the contingent’s stay in the region and the parameters for its potential five-year extension.

“The upholding of peace in the South Caucasus meets the interests of both Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as regional [powers], including Turkey. In this regard, we note the important cooperation with our Turkish partners within the joint Russian-Turkish Center in the Aghdam District,” the diplomat added.

https://tass.com/world/1649699

Anger as abbot told to hide his cross on visit to Western Wall with German minister

Manouk Vasilian
The Times of Israel

Story by ToI Staff • Yesterday 4:33 PM

AChristian abbot was asked Wednesday by an official at Jerusalem’s Western Wall to hide his cross while accompanying Germany’s education minister to the holy site, drawing censure and an apology in the latest incident of Jewish-Christian tensions in the capital’s Old City.

The incident, which took place outside the prayer area of the Jewish holy site, was filmed and posted online by a reporter for German news outlet Der Spiegel.

Nikodemus Schnabel, the abbot of the Old City’s Dormition Abbey, was stopped by a woman who was said to be an employee of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the Haredi-dominated state-run body that administers the site.

The footage shows the woman telling Schnabel the pectoral cross he was wearing was “really big and inappropriate for this place” and asking him to stow it away, as Germany’s Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger stands by.

“This is very harsh, you’re not respecting my religion. You’re hindering me from my human right,” Schnabel says. “This is not a provocation, I am an abbot. This is my dress. The cross is part of my dress code. I’m a Roman Catholic abbot. You want me to not dress as my faith, that is the reality.”

The visit eventually took place as planned, but Schnabel continued to complain about the incident on Twitter, calling it “not so nice” and blaming the hard-right government, which was sworn in almost seven months ago.

“It is painful to see how the climate in this wonderful city is changing more and more for the worse under the new government,” the abbot wrote. “Jerusalem is big enough for everyone!”

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation issued a statement apologizing “for the distress that was caused,” but defending the actions of the woman while also noting that the site is open to all and there are no rules “on this issue” there

“The usher approached and innocently and politely asked whether the cross could be covered to prevent discomfort as happened recently in the Old City, out of a desire to respect the guest and the place. After he refused, his entry was of course not prevented and the usher respected [this] and headed off,” the statement read.

While there have long been occasional incidents of vandalism and harassment against Christian clergy in Jerusalem’s Old City, there has been a noticeable rise in attacks in recent months.

In November, two soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces’ Givati Brigade were detained on suspicion of spitting at the Armenian archbishop and other pilgrims during a procession in the Old City. In early January, two Jewish teens were arrested for damaging graves at the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion.

The next week, the Maronite community center in the northern city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha was vandalized by unknown assailants over the Christmas holiday.

Jerusalem’s Armenian community buildings were also targeted by vandals, with multiple discriminatory phrases graffitied on the exterior of structures in the Armenian Quarter. On a Thursday night in late January, a gang of religious Jewish teens threw chairs at an Armenian restaurant inside the city’s New Gate. Vandalism at the Church of the Flagellation occurred the very next week.

And in March, a resident of southern Israel was arrested after attacking priests with an iron bar at the Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Gethsemane.

Some tie the rise in aggressive behavior recently to the composition of the current Israeli government, which is made up of ultra-Orthodox and extreme-right factions fiercely protective of Israel’s Orthodox Jewish character and strongly opposed to public displays of Christian worship.

President Isaac Herzog earlier this month condemned the growing trend, calling it “a true disgrace.”

“I utterly condemn violence, in all its forms, directed by a small and extreme group, towards the holy places of the Christian faith, and against Christian clergy in Israel,” Herzog said at a state memorial ceremony for Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl.

“This includes spitting, and the desecration of graves and churches,” he added, noting that the phenomenon has been on the rise “in the last weeks and months especially.”

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.

 

Armenpress: Armenia, United States military top brass meet in Washington D.C.

Hunanian Jack

 09:54,

YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. The Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, First Deputy Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Edward Asryan has held a brief meeting with the United States military’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Thursday.

The meeting took place within the framework of the conference in Washington D.C. marking the 30th anniversary of the U.S. National Guard’s State Partnership Program.

The importance of the State Partnership Program with Kansas was emphasized during the meeting, the defense ministry said in a readout.

Swedish embassy in Baghdad stormed, set alight over Koran burning plans – Reuters

Boshkezenian Garik

 10:02,

YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in central Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning, scaling its walls and setting it on fire in protest against the expected burning of a Koran in Sweden, Reuters reports.

All Baghdad embassy staff were safe, Reuters reported citing a statement by the Swedish foreign ministry press office. The Swedish foreign ministry condemned the attack and highlighted the need for Iraqi authorities to protect diplomatic missions.

Thursday’s demonstration was called by supporters of Shi’ite cleric Muqtada Sadr to protest the second planned Koran burning in Sweden in weeks, according to posts in a popular Telegram group linked the influential cleric and other pro-Sadr media.

Sadr, one of Iraq’s most powerful figures, commands hundreds of thousands of followers whom he has at times called to the streets, including last summer when they occupied Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone and engaged in deadly clashes.

Swedish police on Wednesday granted an application for a public meeting outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on Thursday, the police permit showed. Police said in the permit two people were expected to participate.

Swedish news agency TT reported that the two planned to burn the Koran and the Iraqi flag at the public meeting, and included a man who set a Koran on fire outside a Stockholm mosque in June

Swedish police denied several applications earlier this year for protests that were set to include burning the Koran, citing security concerns. Courts have since overturned the police’s decisions, saying such acts are protected by the country’s far-reaching freedom of speech laws.

A series of videos posted to the Telegram group, One Baghdad, showed people gathering around the Swedish embassy around 1 a.m. on Thursday (2200 GMT on Wednesday) chanting pro-Sadr slogans and storming the embassy complex around an hour later.

“Yes, yes to the Koran,” protesters chanted.

Iraq’s foreign ministry also condemned the incident and said in a statement the Iraqi government had instructed security forces to carry out a swift investigation, identify perpetrators and hold them to account. By dawn on Thursday, security forces had deployed inside the embassy and smoke rose from the building as fire-fighters extinguished stubborn embers, according to Reuters witnesses.

Iraqi security forces later charged at a few dozen protesters still milling around outside the embassy in an attempt to clear them from the area. Protesters had earlier briefly thrown rocks and projectiles towards the large number of security forces gathered.

Late last month, Sadr called for protests against Sweden and the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador after the Koran burning in Stockholm by an Iraqi man.

After the burning, the man was reported to police for agitation against an ethnic or national group. In a newspaper interview, he described himself as an Iraqi refugee seeking to ban the Koran, the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God.

Two major protests took place outside of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the aftermath of that Koran burning, with protesters breaching the embassy grounds on one occasion.

The governments of several Muslim countries, including Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Morocco issued protests about the incident, with Iraq seeking the man’s extradition to face trial in the country.

The United States also condemned it, but added that Sweden’s issuing of the permit supported freedom of _expression_ and was not an endorsement of the action.

WATCH: Nagorno Karabakh struggles to survive disastrous humanitarian consequences as grocery store shelves go empty

Emil Lazarian

 10:16,

STEPANAKERT, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. A video filmed in Stepanakert city’s largest supermarket shows the disastrous humanitarian consequences of the Azerbaijani blockade of Nagorno Karabakh – all shelves are empty.

The video was released by Human Rights Defender of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) Gegham Stepanyan’s office.

In a statement released on Thursday, Stepanyan called for an immediate international intervention to help stop the suffering of the people of Nagorno Karabakh.

“Humanitarian situation in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is deteriorating hour by hour. All shops and groceries are empty. Complete absence of food and basic necessities inflict sufferings on 120,000 people, including 30,000 children. The Ombudsman’s Office reports from the ground, documenting the disastrous humanitarian consequences and asking for immediate international intervention,” Stepanyan said in a statement.

Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the rest of the world, has been blocked by Azerbaijan since late 2022. The Azerbaijani blockade constitutes a gross violation of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire agreement, which established that the 5km-wide Lachin Corridor shall be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Furthermore, on February 22, 2023 the United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.  Azerbaijan has been ignoring the order ever since. Moreover, Azerbaijan then illegally installed a checkpoint on Lachin Corridor. The blockade has led to shortages of essential products such as food and medication. Azerbaijan has also cut off gas and power supply into Nagorno Karabakh, with officials warning that Baku seeks to commit ethnic cleansing against Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh. Hospitals have suspended normal operations and the Red Cross has been facilitating the medical evacuations of patients.

[see video]

Apricot Capital has launched a foreign currency trading platform in its mobile application

Kalantarian Kevo

 11:05,

YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Apricot Capital, a licensed investment company in Armenia, has launched a foreign currency trading platform in its mobile application.

From now on, customers can make real-time foreign exchange conversions with the primary currency pairs (US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, Chinese Yuan, etc.) at global cross rates through the Apricot Capital application.

The Apricot Capital platform grants entry to currency transactions and trading in international securities markets at a competitive rate and the ability to observe the result of the transaction directly on the account.

To utilize Apricot Capital’s currency conversion tools and other platforms, one must become an Apricot Capital client by completing all the mandatory procedures once. Upon successful validation, resident, and non-resident citizens of the Republic of Armenia fund brokerage accounts in the specified minimum amount, after which the client gets access to the mobile application.

The Apricot Capital mobile app is available on the App Store and Google Play. It is a reliable platform through which Apricot Capital offers its clients a wide range of brokerage services. Apricot Capital’s commercial infrastructure ensures the high-quality execution of transactions with various financial instruments through a wide network of partnerships with leading European and American brokers and financial companies.

Darfur Now director Ted Braun visits Armenia

Hunanian Jack

 17:20,

YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. U.S. filmmaker Ted Braun will visit Armenia July 20-25, 2023, to conduct workshops and masterclasses for aspiring and emerging documentary filmmakers as part of the U.S. State Department’s American Film Showcase (AFS) program, the U.S. Embassy said in a press release.

AFS is the premier American film diplomacy program of the U.S. State Department. In partnership with U.S. Embassies, AFS organizes screenings, workshops, and master classes in more than 60 countries per year. AFS offers global audiences insight into American society and culture through film, and empowers local filmmakers with tools to tell their own stories.

The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan is partnering with the Investigative Journalists NGO (Hetq) and the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, to organize intensive workshops and masterclasses with Ted Braun on documentary storytelling and conflict reporting for aspiring and emerging documentary filmmakers and mid-career journalists. 

“Documentary storytelling has the power to inspire us, and shape the world around us.  The U.S. Embassy is proud to bring Ted Braun to Armenia, whose films have shown the impact documentary filmmakers can have to raise awareness of social justice issues, and advance positive change,” said U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Kristina Kvien.

Writer/director Ted Braun is best known for his award-winning documentary film Darfur Now, which raised international awareness of the genocide in Western Sudan and sparked a global social action campaign, and his feature documentary Betting on Zero, which exposed allegations of global economic corporate crime. He is a professor at the University of Southern California’s (USC) School of Cinematic Arts where he teaches screenwriting and is the Joseph Campbell Endowed Chair in Cinematic Ethics.

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 20-07-23

Emil Lazarian

 17:26,

YEREVAN, 20 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 20 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.99 drams to 386.29 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 1.65 drams to 432.76 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.01 drams to 4.26 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 2.09 drams to 498.16 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 58.52 drams to 24532.88 drams. Silver price up by 0.82 drams to 310.67 drams.