Ending The Karabakh Conflict Opens The Way For Peace In The South Caucasus – OpEd

Emil Lazarian
Oct 30 2023
   0 Comments

By Dr. Taras Kuzio

Azerbaijan launched a military assault on Armenian-controlled Karabakh not with the goals of genocide or committing ethnic cleansing, two common accusations in the Western media, but because it had exhausted other avenues. Azerbaijan resorted to military means after three years of Armenia dragging its heels on signing a peace treaty that accepted the Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan, Russian obstruction, and Western negotiators taking a late interest in the South Caucasus only after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Armenians living in Karabakh were given the opportunity to remain and become citizens of Azerbaijan. This was the same offer given after the USSR disintegrated to millions living in other Soviet republics in January 1992. In Ukraine, some Russians, Jews, Poles, and other national minorities remained while others moved to other former Soviet republics or emigrated to Israel and Poland. 

Contrary to Western media reports, the United Nations recorded no instances of human rights abuses of the Armenian minority.  Azerbaijan’s military operation is very different to the early 1990s when three quarter of a million Azerbaijani’s were ethnically cleansed from Armenia and occupied Azerbaijani lands.

The closure of the separatist Karabakh republic completes the liberation of internationally recognised Azerbaijani territory that had been under Armenian occupation since 1994. The first stage of this process had taken place in 2020 when Azerbaijan defeated Armenia in the second Karabakh war.

The path is now open to Armenia and Azerbaijan signing a peace treaty that recognises the former Soviet republican boundary as their international border. The other Soviet republics underwent this process in the 1990s, but this escaped the South Caucasus because of Armenian nationalist irredentism and Russia playing off countries against each other.

A lasting peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan will bring peace, security, and economic prosperity to the South Caucasus if four factors are taken into consideration.

Firstly, outside powers should not attempt to revive the OSCE Minsk Group, set up in 1992 with France, the US, and Russia, because it failed to negotiate a resolution to the conflict.  Members of the OSCE Minsk Group failed to give the peace process serious consideration and insufficiently condemned Armenian war crimes in the early 1990s and the Armenian occupation of twenty percent of Azerbaijan. 

Secondly, France cannot be involved in negotiations for a post-conflict peace treaty. With a large Armenian lobby, France has always, and continues to show, its bias towards Armenia by condemning Azerbaijan in 2020 and now for seeking the restoration of its territorial integrity. At the same time, France militarily supports Ukraine in the restoration of its territorial integrity.

Thirdly, during the last three decades the Kremlin has shown a preference for freezing conflicts in Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, to maintain a Russian military presence, and not to negotiate peace agreements. Russia’s duplicity was clearly seen over the last three years when it pretended to be a ‘peacekeeper’ in Karabakh but in fact satisfied neither Armenia or Azerbaijan.

Fourthly, the US, which ignored the OSCE Minsk Group under President Barack Obama and did not participate from 2010, would in an ideal world be a strategic negotiating partner but since the 1990s, US administrations have pandered to the large Armenian lobby. The Joe Biden administration has continued in this vein by condemning Azerbaijan in seeking to restore its territorial integrity. As with France, the US does not seem to understand how this represents double standards as Washington is the largest supplier of military aid to Ukraine which is fighting to also restore its territorial integrity.

With the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France, and the US unable to act as impartial or serious negotiating partners, the only viable negotiator for a post-conflict peace treaty is the European Union (EU). The EU began to take an interest in the South Caucasus quite late following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Throughout the last two years the EU has attempted to bring Armenia and Azerbaijan together and a peace treaty was close to signing but the obstacle was always the status of Karabakh. In 2022, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement under the auspices of the EU that recognised Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, but Russia intervened and sought to derail progress by sending Ruben Vardanyan, who became a billionaire oligarch in Russia, to Karabakh to challenge Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was not strong enough to take on pro-Russian Armenian nationalists led by the ‘Karabakh clan’. The hard-line pro-Russian ‘Karabakh clan’, led by former Presidents and Prime Ministers Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsyan, had ruled Armenia until the 2018 revolution (MerzhirSerzhin) brought Pashinyan to power.

Pro-Russian forces in Armenia supported Armenian separatist ‘self-defence forces’ and separatist political leaders in Karabakh by supplying them with military equipment and other forms of assistance. Karabakh Armenians feared terrible things that would happen to them if Azerbaijan took control of the region. 

The return of Karabakh to Azerbaijan’s sovereignty frees Pashinyan’s hands to negotiate a peace treaty which he has pledged to sign by the end of this year. The pro-Russian ‘Karabakh clan’ are now at their weakest point in the last three decades, Karabakh separatist structures are disbanded, and its political and military leaders are either detained by Azerbaijan or have fled; meanwhile, Russia is no longer the great power hegemon in the South Caucasus.

A peace treaty should codify the Soviet republican boundary between Armenia and Azerbaijan as their new international frontier. After taking Azerbaijani citizenship, Armenians living in Karabakh should receive national minority rights. 

There are multiple benefits to the South Caucasus of an end to three decades of conflict. This is especially the case for Armenia which could use the stability that will emerge from a peace treaty benefit to reduce its economic reliance on Russia, join regional energy projects, normalise relations with Turkey, and reduce spending on defence and security. Sensing regional stability and improving economic prospects, many of the Armenians living in Russia would return to live in Armenia.

For the last three years, Azerbaijan attempted to lobby for a peace treaty following the second Karabakh war, but the Karabakh question and Pashinyan’s domestic weakness prevented progress. The resolution of the Karabakh question, without a huge loss of life and human rights abuses, opens the way for a lasting peace in the South Caucasus that will be of benefit to all – but especially to Armenia.

Dr. Taras Kuzio is Professor in the Department of Political Science, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy and Associate Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. Winner of the 2022 Peterson Literary Prize for "Russian Nationalism and the Russian-Ukrainian War: Autocracy-Orthodoxy-Nationality" (Routledge, 2022).

https://www.eurasiareview.com/30102023-ending-the-karabakh-conflict-opens-the-way-for-peace-in-the-south-caucasus-oped/

The California Courier Online, November 2, 2023

Maral Chavushian

1-         Azerbaijani Gaza Hostage Wrongly Added In Letter
to Biden Signed by Celebrities

            By Harut
Sassounian

            Publisher,
The California
Courier

            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

2-         As Embassy
Opens, Canada
Pledges Increased Aid for Armenian Refugees

3-         Politics or
wealth should not influence Lady Justice

4-         UCI Armenian
Studies and Armenian Association Hosts Garo Paylan

 *******************************************

1-         Azerbaijani Gaza Hostage Wrongly
Added in Letter
to Biden Signed by Celebrities

            By Harut
Sassounian

            Publisher,
The California
Courier

            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

 

We are all following the heartbreaking events that are
taking place in Israel and Gaza where thousands of
innocent people are killed, and hundreds have been taken hostage by Hamas. I
condemn all loss of life and hostage-taking regardless of nationality, race or
religion.

Throughout history, as victims of mass murders and Genocide,
Armenians understand well the tragic effects of large-scale killings. Before,
during and after the 2020 Artsakh war, the most gruesome crimes were committed
against thousands of Armenian soldiers and civilians by Azeris.

At the end of the war, Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Russia signed
an agreement that called for the exchange of all Prisoners of War. Armenia kept its end of the bargain by freeing
all Azeri prisoners immediately, while Azerbaijan is still holding dozens
of Armenians in captivity three years later. No one knows their exact number.
These detainees have been wrongly tried and sentenced to long prison terms not
only in violation of the 2020 agreement, but also the Geneva Convention. Armenian
prisoners have been tortured while in Azeri custody and an unknown number have
been killed.

To make matters worse, after occupying Artsakh last month, Azerbaijan
captured eight high-ranking Artsakh government officials, including three
former presidents, the former State, Defense, and Foreign ministers, deputy
army commander, and Chairman of the Artsakh Parliament. They are all held as
hostages with no hope that they will be released anytime soon.

Turning to the tragic predicament of the over 200 hostages
captured by Hamas in Israel
on October 7, 2023, I support all efforts to have these hostages released as
soon as possible. Several hundred Hollywood
celebrities, including Madonna, Chris Rock, Justin Timberlake, Gwyneth Paltrow,
Jerry Seinfeld, and Tyler Perry, signed a joint letter to Pres. Joe Biden
urging him to “not rest until all hostages are released.”

Last week, an article appeared in various entertainment
magazines and websites that publicized the letter signed by the celebrities to
Biden. The press release about the letter was distributed to the media by
Melissa Zukerman, the Managing Partner at Principal Communications Group, a PR
agency in in Los Angeles.
Despite the good intentions of the initiators of the campaign, a regrettable
mistake detracted from the commendable effort.

The letter included a paragraph that said: “We urge everyone
to not rest until all hostages are released. No hostage can be left behind.
Whether American, Argentinian, Australian, Azerbaijani, Brazilian, British,
Canadian, Chilean, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Eritrean, Filipino, French, German,
Indian, Israeli, Italian, Kazakh, Mexican, Panamanian, Paraguayan, Peruvian,
Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, South African, Spanish, Sri Lankan,
Thai, Ukrainian, Uzbekistani or otherwise, we need to bring them home.”

I commend the celebrities, Ms. Zukerman and everyone else
who had a hand in preparing the letter to Pres. Biden. However, I was surprised
to see in the list of captured nationalities a reference to ‘Azerbaijani’
hostages. As I had not heard that any Azerbaijani was kidnapped by Hamas from Israel, I
wondered if that information was accurate. So, I sent Ms. Zukerman an email
asking about the veracity of the reference to an Azerbaijani hostage. She did
not reply to my email. She also ignored my follow-up email as well as a phone
message I left for her.

Having done further research, I discovered that there were
no reports about an Azerbaijani hostage, except for eight Azerbaijanis, of
which two were dual Azerbaijani-Israeli citizens, who were regrettably killed
by Hamas during the attack.

I then contacted the agent of one of the celebrities who had
signed the letter and asked her if she knew anything about an Azerbaijani who
was taken hostage by Hamas. The celebrity’s agent told me that in the version
of the letter that her client had signed there was no mention of Azerbaijan or
any other nationality. When I sent her the copy of the letter publicized in the
media, she was shocked to learn that Ms. Zukerman’s office had asked the
celebrities to sign a version of the letter that did not include the names of
the 33 nationalities; Ms. Zukerman’s office must have then sent the altered
version of the letter to Pres. Biden without informing the celebrities that
what they had signed is not what was sent to the White House. Appallingly,
these celebrities were not informed of the change in the letter either before
or after signing it. This is highly unprofessional and unethical.

So, this is how Azerbaijan was included wrongly in a letter
to Pres. Biden, making one its citizens a victim of hostage-taking, while in
reality, Azerbaijan is the one that is guilty of taking Armenian hostages.
Regrettably, Ms. Zukerman ignored all of my attempts to find out from her how
such a mistake could have happened, and why no effort was made to correct it or
at least provide a proper explanation? As far as I know, there are no
Azerbaijani hostages in Gaza
or anywhere else in the world. If I am wrong, Ms. Zukerman had plenty of
chances to correct my information but refused to do so.

Lastly, the letter stated, “No hostage can be left behind”
(www.NoHostageLeftBehind.com), which implies that all hostages in the world, no
matter who had captured them and wherever they are, should be released. Such an
all-inclusive plea should have also referred to the dozens of Armenian hostages
held in Azerbaijan.

Only when we care about all hostages without any
distinction, we can claim that we are true humanitarians.

 

************************************************************************************************************************************************
2-         As Embassy Opens, Canada Pledges
Increased Aid for Armenian Refugees

 

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly visited Armenia on October 25 and 26, and the first
Canadian embassy in Armenia
was opened during her visit, marking a milestone in bilateral relations.

During a joint press conference with Armenian Foreign
Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, Joly acknowledged ongoing efforts to promote peace
and stability in the region. However, she stressed the need for additional
actions to ensure that takes place. Joly also called Azerbaijan
to respect Armenia’s
territorial integrity, non-use of force, and the right of return for Armenians
displaced from Artsakh. She further urged Azerbaijan to honor the right of
the recently forcibly displaced Armenians from Artsakh to return and facilitate
unimpeded humanitarian access to Artsakh for their safe return. Regarding
possible sanctions on Azerbaijan,
Joly affirmed that discussions are open, emphasizing the importance of
respecting Armenia’s
territorial integrity as a key concern. Joly announced an increase in
humanitarian assistance, allocating $3,900,000 to aid those who were forcibly
displaced from Artsakh.

Mirzoyan conveyed Armenia’s
commitment to advancing peace and adhering to principles in the Granada quadripartite
declaration. He highlighted the mutual recognition of territorial integrity and
the need for border demarcation between Armenia
and Azerbaijan,
emphasizing regional unblocking based on sovereignty, reciprocity, and
equality. Prior to the press conference, Joly held private talks with Mirzoyan,
followed by extended meetings with delegations. Minister Joly also visited the
Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex to pay her respects.

Joly also met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and
President Vahagn Khachatryan as part of her visit.

Joly on Thursday, October 26 visited Jermuk, in Armenia’s Vayots
Dzor Province
where she reported that her country will join the European Union’s monitoring
mission in Armenia.

Canada
will send two observers, who will join the EU Mission, Armenian Deputy Foreign
Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan told reporters.

“It is a pleasure to be here in Jermuk, looking forward to
learning more about the work that has been done by the EU mission which Canada is
joining. Canada
is the first country outside of EU joining this mission. So, we’ll be talking
about the logistics, how we can integrate this important mission which is
important to address the humanitarian issues in the region but also the fact
that it is important to bring much peace and stability,” Joly said during her
meeting with EU observers.

She also visited Armenian combat positions on the
Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

Commander of the 5th Army Corps of Armenia’s Armed Forces
Sasun Badasyan briefed Joly on the operational situation and the occupation of
the sovereign territories of Armenia
by Azerbaijan.
Badasyan detailed that Azerbaijan
has invaded and occupied nearly 19,000 acres of territory in that area.

At the end of the visit she met with forcibly displaced
Artsakh residents.

************************************************************************************************************************************************
3-         Politics or wealth should not
influence Lady Justice

By Sylvia Iskenderian

 

It was March 1990. I was in Armenia
as a guest for International Women’s Day celebrations and to observe and report
back to the Armenian community on the devastating effect of the 1988 earthquake
in Armenia.

My two colleagues and I exuberant but with some reservation
flew to Yerevan.
Although I had been there before, I knew this time would be different. The 1988
earthquake in Armenia and
the pogroms against the Armenians in Baku and Sumgait in Azerbaijan
during the same year and the resulting refugee crisis had shaken the entire
Armenian world. We did not know what we would encounter.

It was three o’clock in the morning when we arrived at
Marriott Hotel—then known as ‘Armenia,’
in the center of Yerevan
City.

My lodging was a small dimly lit but neat single bedroom in
the second building at the back of the main hotel, overlooking some
construction across the road.

We spent the next day with our hosts who took us to Gumri (Leninakan) and Spitak
where the earthquake had struck. The scenes were catastrophic and our mood was
somber as we strode back into the Hotel lobby that evening for dinner.

Suddenly, a great commotion took place. A group of ten or
twelve men dressed in khaki uniforms hastily entered the hotel and headed
towards the dining room across from where we were standing. A few minutes later
the loud music that was playing in there instantly stopped. The men came out of
the hall and headed back to their jeep parked outside. All the bystanders in
the lobby were startled. What was happening?

The uniformed men obliged and told us that two young border
guards were shot dead during skirmishes on the border with Azerbaijan.
They were going to bring their bodies to the Opera square in Yerevan the next day.

The hotel lobby fell silent. We were all alarmed. People in
the dining room began to exit. We were completely unprepared for this. We were
speechless. Fear overwhelmed us.

Gathering our strength, we decided to go to the Opera Square the
next day.

In the morning one of my colleagues, the late Alice Levonian
and I walked to the Opera square carrying my hefty video camera. The square was
already packed with people. We felt we had arrived too late, and that we had no
chance to see anything up close.

However, before we could decide what to do, a crack opened
up in the crowd, everyone pushed aside, and urged us to move forward. We were
ushered through the masses and people promptly helped us on to a platform on
the side of the Statue of Alexander Spendiaryan in the middle of the square! It
was then that we realized that as the public had noticed a video camera in our
hands, they wanted to ensure that the entire event is recorded for the outside
world to see.

Over 100,000 strong crowd had gathered at the square that
morning, mourning the death of those two young soldiers.

Our hearts heavy and overcome by emotion we retuned to our
hotel. The ‘mamig’ whose job was to check on the hotel guests, asked if we
would like to interview the ‘Shahumyantsis’.

We were no journalists. We were three ladies from far away Australia who happened to be in Armenia to
gather information about the earthquake. We had little knowledge about Karabakh
and certainly knew nothing about Shahumyan.

We were taken by surprise. Where was Shahumyan anyway?
Having witnessed the previous day’s events and the heart-wrenching funeral, we
accepted the challenge. It seemed our video camera was doing a great job.

Promptly we were in my room frantically setting up an ad-hoc
interview room. Alice had the job of holding the camera, my other colleague
Silva Kebourian, held the makeshift light we borrowed from the ‘Mamig’ who had
instantly brought it from the storeroom to improve the lighting in the room.

We certainly did not have time to prepare questions. Not
that we knew what to ask!

Before we knew it, two well dressed gentlemen with grim
faces showed up at the door. They came in and sat down.

We need not have worried about the questions to ask. As soon
as we started the video running, they began telling us their story.

We heard what had happened and how it all had commenced. The
Azeri OMON forces without any warning had raided the Shahumyan Council Chambers
in January that year and taken all 12 members of the Council hostage.

At the same time, the OMON soldiers had started to attack
the town. The citizens immediately organized the defense front to protect the
civilian population who were in mortal danger.

This group of ex-Soviet officers was able to free the
hostages and after fighting for over a month, the Azeris retreated, which
stopped the attack for the time being.

However, they were troubled that they might suffer the same
fate as Armenians in Baku and Sumgait if they did not receive any
assistance. They added, “The Armenians can no longer live side by side with the
Azeris.”

This was all too much for us to grasp. After the interview
they asked if we would like to attend a rally where citizens of Getashen and
Martunashen were gathering to discuss the fate of their provinces.

We knew we were caught up in a whirlwind, and it was crucial
to document the events unfolding before our eyes.

The days ahead were solemn and hard to bear. Our visits to
the earthquake devastated zones and seeing people stunned by the enormity of
their losses, as well as the tremendous pressure of a pending war with
Azerbaijan took most of our moments.

The situation was fluid. The terrible pogroms against the
Armenians in Sumgait
in February 1988 were still fresh in our minds. Following the Soviet Union’s
new policy of ‘Glasnost ‘(openness), Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians had demanded
cessation from Azerbaijani rule and re-unification with Armenia. This
started a chain of events that saw firstly the brutal slaughter of Armenians in
Sumgait.
Azerbaijani insurgency resulted in Armenians fleeing Sumgait,
and Kirovabad, Azerbaijan.

Later in January 1990, a seven-day pogrom broke out against
the Armenian civilian population in Baku,
during which Armenians were beaten, murdered, expelled from the city. Seven
hundred people were killed or disappeared. Historical Armenian settlements were
devastated and plundered leading to the exodus of 300,000 Armenians from the
country. Additionally, over 25,000 souls had perished from the earthquake in Armenia’s
Spitak and Gumri regions.

A couple of days later we were again in the midst of a
massive crowd, this time at the foot of the ‘Mother Armenia’ statue in Yerevan
listening to the anguish and protests of the displaced people of Getashen and
Martunashen, who had just lost their homes and lands, forcefully evicted by the
Azeris in the winter of that year.

The concerns of the Shahumyan Armenians were validated. As
we returned home to Australia,
a few months later in the spring/summer of 1991, we heard about ‘Operation
Ring’ started by the USSR.

Mikhail Gorbachev ordered ‘Operation Ring’ in which the
Soviet Army and Azerbaijani OMON special forces surrounded Armenian villages in
Shahumyan. The operation involved ground troops, military, armored vehicles and
artillery. 17,000 Armenians living in Shahumyan’s 24 villages had no choice but
to flee the region not to fall into the same fate as the Armenians of Baku and Sumgait. The town of Shahumyan was totally
evacuated, the church was desecrated and Armenian homes were taken over by
Azerbaijanis.

All this was the precursor of a ground offensive that Azerbaijan launched against the Armenian
population of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian autonomous region within Azerbaijan. A
full-fledged war that began in 1992, ended with Armenians liberating their long
awaited homeland, Artsakh, in 1994.

However, after 30 years of negotiations with the mediation
of Europe’s OSCE Minsk group, neither the
status of Artsakh nor the demarcation of borders came to fruition. The
international community failed to take into consideration the thousands of
years of documented historical evidence of Armenian statehood in that territory.

Moreover, not even the legal agreement made by the
Declaration of June 12, 1921 by the National Council of Azerbaijan SSR,
“proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh an integral part of the Armenian SSR” was taken
into account. This agreement was quickly revoked by the Russian SSR and handed
over to Azerbaijan.

Consequently, Artsakh faced another war of attrition, the
now infamous 44-Day War in 2020. This time, the enemy used every conceivable
means, including horrifying banned weapons, foreign mercenaries, drones,
poisonous phosphorus, and massive atrocities that constitute war crimes, to
achieve its goal. It was not long after that when Azerbaijan imposed a total blockade
on the citizens of Artsakh.

The pleas of the Armenian communities around the world went
unheeded by the international players.

Thus, on September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan unleashed a massive
attack and relentlessly bombarded the territory for 24 hours straight.

The independent Republic
of Artsakh had no choice
but to unconditionally surrender.

The Artsakhtsis having suffered nine months of starvation
and oppression due to the blockade, knew very well that if they remained, they
would suffer the same fate as their compatriots in Baku,
Sumgait, Kirovabad,
Shahumyan, Getashen and Martunashen. There was no way they could trust the
Azeri occupiers.

The entire population of Artsakh, 120,000 people, was forced
to evacuate to avoid living under the murderous regime of Azerbaijan.
Nagorno-Karabagh—‘Artsakh’ as we know it—suddenly ceased to exist. The
Artsakhtsis lost their rights to live on their ancient homeland.

The land emptied from its inhabitants! A thriving community
razed in a single day! Now, only the heart rending sight of abandoned dogs,
cats, and horses roam the desolate streets of the Capital Stepanakert.

There is no more wash hanging out the windows of the humble
apartments. You can no longer hear the chatter of little children playing in
the school yards nor the sound of church bells ringing.

The bustling market, once full of vendors proudly displaying
their fresh produce, delicious local honey, and colorful dried fruits, is no
more. You can no more smell the enticing aroma of the freshly cooked ‘Jingelov
hatz’ in the air.

The streets are deserted and quiet. Store windows still full
of their wares stand empty and void. The faint echoes of Armenian music that
played in the stores have been silenced forever.

I remind myself the Shahumyan representative’s words 30
years ago: “Armenians can not live side by side with the Azeris.”

It is hard to fathom the international community’s sense of
justice. They cannot or choose not to understand the value humanity places on
homeland, culture and history.

If a people whose footprint goes back millennia in the
region, the existence of documented history, ancient monuments, monasteries,
castles, graveyards, villages, cities do not constitute habitat, then what
does?

The world is turning a blind eye to the truth and praising
the business of the corrupt expansionist dictators more than Human Rights and
the dignity of mankind.

If ‘true Justice’ is blind because it should see only truth,
today it is blind to power, dominance and greed. Justice is blind to injustice.

4-         UCI Armenian
Studies and Armenian Association Hosts Garo Paylan

By Helena San Roque

 

The UCI
Center for Armenian
Studies and the Armenian Student Association (ASA), in collaboration with the
Center for Truth and Justice, hosted “Armenian Rebirth: The Last Plight,”
featuring Garo Paylan, at Humanities Gateway 1030 on Oct. 16.

Garo Paylan, a former Armenian member of the Turkish
Parliament, served from 2015 to 2023 for two terms as a founding member of the
pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party. Hewas subjected to an assassination plot
in 2022 for uplifting  Armenian genocide
in the Ottoman Empire—present day Turkey— killing over 1.5 million
Armenians  during 1915.

“For more than 100 years, [Armenians have] just been trying
to heal our grandparents. So I struggled in Turkey,” Paylan said.

His visit comes during the aftermath of the 2020
Nagorno-Karabakh War in the South Caucasus, a region in southwest Asia.  The war
resulted in the Azerbaijani invasion and the ethnic cleansing of over 120,000
Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, due to months of
Azerbaijani military aggression and starvation tactics. Tensions around this
region have been ongoing since the fall of the Soviet
Union in 1990 as both countries make claims to this territory.

Paylan also touched on the indifference of larger countries
toward both the Armenians and the Israeli bombings on Gaza,
expressing frustration with the United
States’ involvement in specific
international affairs. 

“Unfortunately, nobody cares about Armenians. After three
generations, we suffered another genocide because Armenian lives do not
matter.” Paylan said. “What Israel
is doing is a hate crime, and Mr. Biden cares more about some countries.”

The Biden Administration committed over $3.3 billion in
funds, including military aid, to Israel in 2022. According to an
Aljazeera report, that same year during the time of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, Azerbaijan bought $295 million worth of arms
from Israel, making it the
second largest buyer of military weapons after India. More than 60% of Azerbaijan’s weapons are from Israel as the
two countries maintain close relations. 

He explained that Armenia
lacked political leverage, unlike Turkey,
who is close with Russia,
and Azerbaijan who is also
close with Russia and Turkey.
Although Armenia is a member
of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which
guarantees support in military attacks, Paylan claimed that Russian favor had
swayed to Azerbaijan
while he served in office.

“We were told Russians were our allies, and if Turks were to
attack Armenia,
they would help us.” Paylan said. “Russians interests have changed and now they
need to sell and launder their oil to Azerbaijan after the Russia-Ukraine
war.”

Paylan urged the Armenian diaspora to unify in the midst of
the ongoing crisis, looking to other discriminated groups in the Middle East who also face pressure from larger countries.

“If we don’t unite and if we don’t stand up against Turks
and Azeris, they will attack. Because I know Turks. I know Azeris. Look at
Kurds. Look at what’s happening to the Palestinians. There are three identities
that are vulnerable in the Middle East and Caucasus.
One is the Palestinians … and Kurds … of course, and Armenians, unfortunately,”
Paylan said.

He then spoke on the ongoing conflict between Armenia and the
Azerbaijani occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. He talked about the possibility of
peace through open borders with Turkey
and Azerbaijan,
explaining that trade could help strengthen the political borders.

“If we open borders with Turkey, Turkish people will see
that Armenians are not their enemies. They will be doing trade, tourism,
whatever. Everybody will benefit from each other,” Paylan said. “So we need
this. We need this time, this five to ten years in peace. You’ll see. We’ll be
stronger. We’ll go to the point where we can defend our country.”

However, there was disagreement among some of the audience
regarding the normalization between the Turkish and Armenian border. CSULong Beach
geographic information systems master’s student Haig Minasian echoed the
disagreement over Armenia
opening its borders with Turkey.

“I think his presence is commendable,” Minasian said. “But
what he said about peace and justice being achieved through power and strength
did not make sense. He blamed Russia
as the sole betrayer, but opening the borders will expose more untrustworthy
allies.”

Minasian also stated that strengthening the Armenian economy
through open borders and trade with Turkey
and Azerbaijan
would not benefit the majority of its citizens.

“This only benefits the rich, elite Armenians. Only Azerbaijan will
have leverage, whether or not the [Armenian] economy grows,” Minasian added.

The Armenian Student Association gave an official statement
in an email to the New
University following
Paylan’s talk.

“As Armenian students, we are united by a duty to use our
diaspora privilege to help our homeland. In this, we follow Paylan’s example of
leadership and initiative through this difficult time as our people endure and
recover from ethnic cleansing,”

The statement also emphasizes the role of the diaspora
within the Armenian community: to uplift each other.

After the event, professor of history and Meghrouni Family
Presidential Chair in Armenian studies Houri Beberian resonated with Paylan’s
call for unity.

“It was good to hear a new perspective. A perspective that
seems common sense — that Armenians should unite in order to create solutions.
I hope the message of unity will be carried through the diaspora and the
republic,” Berberian said.

 

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************************************************************************************************************************************************

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RFE/RL Armenian Service – 10/30/2023

Kanayan Tamar 
                                        Monday, 


Aliyev ‘Reluctant To Meet Pashinian’

        • Ruzanna Stepanian

Armenia - Parliament deputy Armen Khachatrian.


A senior Armenian lawmaker suggested on Monday that Azerbaijani President Ilham 
Aliyev is now reluctant to hold further talks with Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian to finalize a peace accord sought by Western powers.

Aliyev and Pashinian had been expected to sign a document laying out the key 
parameters of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty at a meeting with the leaders 
of the European Union, Germany and France slated for October 5. However, Aliyev 
withdrew from the talks at the last minute, citing pro-Armenian statements made 
by French officials.

EU Council President Charles Michel said afterwards that the Armenian and 
Azerbaijani leaders will likely hold a trilateral meeting with him in Brussels 
later in October. It was confirmed last week that the rescheduled meeting will 
not take place in the coming days.

“It means that [Aliyev] doesn’t want a meeting at the moment,” said Armen 
Khachatrian, the deputy chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on defense 
and security.

Speaking in the Armenian parliament earlier in the day, Pashinian said that 
Yerevan and Baku broadly agree on three key principles of the Western-backed 
treaty discussed by them. Those include mutually recognizing the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani border dating back to Soviet times, and using late 
Soviet-era maps to delimit it, he told lawmakers.

Khachatrian claimed, however, that Baku has so far declined to formalize those 
understandings.

“They may say in the presence of international mediators that these are very 
good principles, that they agree to them … but take no real steps in practice to 
implement those principles,” he told reporters.

“Right now we see some delays, which is not good,” added the lawmaker 
representing Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party.

Still, Khachatrian expressed confidence that Western pressure will force Baku to 
stop dragging its feet. The EU urged Baku and Yerevan late last week to finalize 
the treaty before the end of this year.




Armenia Joins Ukraine-Backed Talks In Malta


Malta - Andriy Yermak (right), head of Ukraine's presidential office, meets 
Armen Grigorian, secretary of Armenia's Security Council, October 28, 2023.


In a move that could add to tensions between Armenia and Russia, a senior 
Armenian official attended peace talks initiated by Ukraine and met with the 
chief of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s staff in Malta at the weekend.

Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s Security Council, was among 
representatives of more than 60 countries who gathered on the island to discuss 
Zelenskiy’s 10-point plan to end the war with Russia. The plan calls for the 
restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and withdrawal of Russian troops 
from the country.

The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the two-day meeting as a “blatantly 
anti-Russian event” that has “nothing to do with the search for a peaceful 
resolution.”

Andriy Yermak, the powerful head of Zelenskiy’s office, thanked Grigorian for 
his participation when they met on the sidelines of the event. A statement by 
the office said Yermak praised “Armenia's decision to join the group of states 
supporting the Ukrainian Peace Formula.”

“The head of the Office of the President confirmed Ukraine's readiness to 
strengthen cooperation with Armenia, particularly in the context of European 
integration,” added the statement.

Spain - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Ukrainian President 
Volodymyr Zelenskiy meet in Granada, October 5, 2023.

Yermak also spoke of “a new context” in Ukrainian-Armenian relations, pointing 
to Zelenskiy’s first-ever meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
held during the European Union’s October 5 summit in Granada.

The two leaders spoke in the Spanish city one month after Pashinian’s wife, Anna 
Hakobian, visited Kyiv to attend the annual Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen 
held there. Hakobian also delivered Armenia’s first humanitarian aid to Ukraine 
since the start of the Russian invasion.

The Russian Foreign Ministry listed Hakobian’s trip among “a series of 
unfriendly steps” taken by Yerevan against Moscow when it summoned the Armenian 
ambassador a few days later.

Russian-Armenian relations have deteriorated further since then. Pashinian last 
week again accused Russia of not honoring its security commitments to Armenia 
and defended his efforts to “diversify” his country’s foreign and security 
policies. He made clear, though, that Yerevan has no plans yet to demand the 
withdrawal of Russian troops from Armenia.

Incidentally, neither Grigorian nor his office issued a statement on his meeting 
with Yermak as of Monday evening. Grigorian posted on his Facebook page instead 
readouts of his meetings with other foreign officials attending the Malta talks.




Dozens Reported Dead During Karabakh Exodus

        • Susan Badalian

A satellite image shows a long traffic jam of vehicles along the Lachin corridor 
as ethnic Armenians flee from the Nagorno-Karabakh, September 26, 2023.


At least 64 people died during last month’s mass exodus of Nagorno-Karabakh’s 
population resulting from an Azerbaijani military offensive, an Armenian 
law-enforcement agency said on Monday.

More than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians, the region’s virtually entire remaining 
population, fled to Armenia in the space of a week. The hundreds of cars, buses 
and trucks carrying them caused a massive traffic jam on a 50-kilometer road 
connecting Armenia to Stepanakert. It reportedly took them at least 30 hours to 
reach the Armenian border.

A spokesman for Armenia’s Investigative Committee, Gor Abrahamian, told RFE/RL’s 
Armenia Service that 64 refugees died during the arduous journey due to a lack 
of medicine, medical aid, food and heating.

The Armenian authorities maintain that Karabakh’s depopulation is the result of 
“ethnic cleansing” carried out by Azerbaijan. Baku denies forcing local 
residents to flee their homes.

Citing tentative data from Karabakh authorities, Abrahamian also said the 
24-hour hostilities, which broke out on September 19, left that more than 200 
Karabakh soldiers and nine local civilians, including three children, dead. 
Thirty other soldiers and 12 civilians remain unaccounted for, he said.

It is not clear if they might be among some 50 people who went missing during 
the September 25 explosion at a fuel depot outside Stepanakert. At least 220 
Karabakh residents died in the powerful blast and a fire sparked by it.

Earlier this month, Armenia’s human rights ombudswoman, Anahit Manasian, accused 
Azerbaijani troops of committing war crimes during the assault. “There are many 
bodies, including of civilians, transported from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia 
that carry signs of torture and/or mutilation,” Manasian told reporters.

The Investigative Committee put the number of allegedly tortured Karabakh 
Armenians at 14.




Karabakh Leader Hopes For Mass Repatriation


Armenia - Samvel Shahramanian, the Nagorno Karabakh president, is interviewed by 
Artsakh Public TV, Yerevan, October 28, 2023.


Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population, which fled to Armenia following 
the recent Azerbaijani military offensive, could and should be able to return to 
its homeland, Karabakh’s exiled president said over the weekend.

Samvel Shahramanian also defended his decision to accept the Azerbaijani terms 
of the ceasefire that stopped the September 19-20 offensive. It allowed more 
than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians, including military personnel, to “safely leave 
Artsakh,” Shahramanian said in an interview with Karabakh television posted on 
social media. He noted Russian peacekeepers’ failure to try to stop the assault.

The Azerbaijani demands accepted by him included the dissolution of Karabakh’s 
government bodies and armed forces. In addition, Shahramanian signed a decree on 
September 28 saying that the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), 
set up in September 1991, will cease to exist on January 1.

“Hours after the start of the hostilities I realized that we are alone in the 
face of that aggression,” Shahramanian told Artsakh Public Television. “It can 
be said that the Russian side was acting like an observer, and we had to solve 
our issues on our own.”

“It was clear to us that we must stop the hostilities because we were greatly 
outnumbered and the longer we held out the more casualties we would have 
suffered,” he said, adding that his administration managed to “save the lives” 
of not only the surviving Karabakh soldiers but also civilians.

Shahramanian implied that his September 28 decree is null and void when he was 
confronted by dozens of angry Karabakh refugees in Yerevan on October 20. He 
sounded more ambiguous on that score in his latest interview.

Nagorno-Karabakh - A view of laundry hanging on clotheslines at an abandoned 
residential area in Stepanakert, 10 October 2023.

“Without going into details, I want to state that we know the validity and 
impact of that document and we will get to discuss it,” said the Karabakh leader.

Shahramanian further made clear that one of his top priorities now is to assert 
“the right of our citizens displaced from Artsakh to return home.”

“Various political centers -- the American, European and Russian ones -- are 
interested in the issue of the return of the population,” he said. “I think that 
Azerbaijan is also interested in that because they are accused by the 
international community of forcibly deporting the population. And I think that 
negotiations should start on that issue.”

The Azerbaijani government has said that the Karabakh Armenians are free to 
return to their homes if they agree to live under Azerbaijani rule. Only a few 
dozen of them are thought to have stayed in the depopulated region.

Shahramanian was elected president by Karabakh lawmakers just ten days before 
the Azerbaijani offensive. His predecessor Arayik Harutiunian, who was arrested 
by Azerbaijan after the assault, was seen as a figure more loyal to Armenian 
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

Pashinian’s political allies have openly blamed the Azerbaijani takeover of 
Karabakh on the leadership change in Stepanakert. Shahramanian dismissed their 
accusations. But he was careful not to echo Armenian opposition claims that 
Pashinian himself precipitated the fall of Karabakh with his decision to 
recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over the territory.


Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

After Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia is prepared for anything

Hambik Zargarian
Actual News Magazine, UK
Oct 30 2023
Ekim 30, 2023

While more than 100,000 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh are resettled as best they can in Armenia, many want at all costs to go to the north, near the capital, Yerevan, considered safer than the south, where the fear of Azerbaijan’s imminent invasion is growing due to skirmishes near the border and military tests between the country and its Turkish ally.

After about forty minutes traveling the increasingly mountainous roads north of the Armenian capital, Yerevan, the truck filled with donations from the diaspora finally stopped at the gates of the village of Nor Hachn.

In an abandoned and ruined building, which appears to be a former primary school, Armenian volunteers from all over the world display shoes, clothes, blankets and hygiene products for the fifty refugee families from Nagorno-Karabakh settled there. in vacant housing in the small municipality.

Far from the hubbub of children trying on pants and sweaters, Nela Danielyan, standing in a corner of the large room, is lost in her torment. She, who has experienced all the conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh since 1991, resettled for the first time far from the southern Armenian borders.

“This time it’s different,” she said to Duty. Before, I always had hope of returning home. But there, it won’t be possible and I feel safer in the north with all the provocations [des dernières semaines] in border regions. »

Even though Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has pledged to respect the rights of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and offer amnesty to the fighters, fears of “ethnic cleansing” persist. Especially since after several decades of conflict, neither party has confidence in the other.

Visiting Armenia a few days ago for the opening of the Canadian embassy in Yerevan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, announced that she will increase humanitarian aid to $3.9 million. to “save the lives of civilians” like Nela Danielyan. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 100,000 Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh.

Of this number, more than half are now in the north of the country. Several refugees are found in the surrounding regions of the capital, such as in Nor Hachn, but a very large majority have come to join family in Yerevan.

“Azerbaijan cannot be trusted. They say there will be peace, but those are just nice words,” says Vladimir Khachatryan, 67, who came to pick up a box of food offered by the Armenian Red Cross at a service point in the capital.

“We feel safer here. If we stayed in the border areas, we couldn’t be sure that something else wouldn’t happen and that we would have to relive the same traumas again,” adds his wife, Nargiz Khachatryan, in her sixties.

While any aid to refugees is welcome, it does not respond to their growing fear of an invasion of the country by Azerbaijan.

In fact, another territorial conflict is looming on the horizon. President Aliyev has always wanted to recreate a corridor crossing Armenia to connect Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, which would allow road traffic to bypass Iran and provide land continuity with its Turkish ally. And Ilham Aliyev has said in the past that he was ready to take it by force if necessary.

“Azerbaijan is trying to draw an equivalence between the Lachin corridor and this future Zanguezour corridor. And this equivalence advances Azerbaijan’s objectives [notamment de la guerre de 2020] which are not reasonable with regard to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia”, explains Taline Papazian, lecturer and lecturer at Science Po Aix-en-Provence and member of the NGO Armenia Peace Initiative .

Armenia also recognizes Azerbaijan’s right to have a road linking its territory to Nakhichevan. Since the end of the 2020 war, Yerevan has always said that a transit right could be discussed in cooperation with Baku. However, it is unthinkable for Armenia that an extraterritorial corridor would be created over which the country would have no say and would receive no compensation.

“The Armenians’ fear is that Azerbaijan will do as it pleases, as it has become accustomed to doing for three years. Never punished. Never sanctioned. Nothing ever happens, so why not continue a strategy that, so far, has proven particularly successful? And Azerbaijan clearly has the means to do it [sans être sanctionné] », adds Mme Papazian.

This fear was recently confirmed by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who warned that Azerbaijan could soon invade Armenia. In addition, Azerbaijan and Turkey began joint military exercises last week in Nagorno-Karabakh, but also in Nakhchivan.

Probably too busy in Ukraine, the former Russian ally seems to have completely abandoned Armenia in its conflict against Azerbaijan. He who was supposed to ensure the maintenance of peace in Nagorno-Karabakh has visibly failed in the task and Armenia seems to find itself more alone than ever.

There are obviously some Western capitals trying to get closer to Armenia, such as Washington or Paris, with whom Yerevan organized military exercises for the first and whose capital received promises of arms deliveries from the second. But would these countries come to the aid of Armenia if it were attacked by its neighbor, richer, better armed and supported by Turkey? Nothing is less sure.

“I think everyone understands the challenges perfectly. But beyond the declarations in the case of an invasion of southern Armenia, will there be anything else? Will Armenia receive diplomatic support? Will Armenia receive military support? Personally, I think not, or very little,” analyzes Taline Papazian.

Even in Armenia, which did not send its army to Nagorno-Karabakh during the Azerbaijani offensive of September 19, there does not appear to be any appetite for a military confrontation that could spill the conflict across the entire region. territory. Even if the opposition is having a field day against the Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, who is accused of being a traitor for having abandoned Nagorno-Karabakh.

In this context, peace, even with a bitter taste, seems the only possible outcome to protect Armenian sovereignty.

“When you are in a situation where your adversaries are determined and more powerful than you, you have no allies and you are not sure what military support you might have [en cas d’invasion], peace therefore becomes absolutely necessary. And this is what the Armenian government is trying,” explains M.me Papazian.

Peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, however, are currently at a standstill.

Still looking deep in her torment, Nela Danielyan takes a moment before responding. “I just hope that no matter what happens, I can stay Armenian,” she finally says, a tremor in her voice, as she leaves the donation center with a mountain of blankets for herself and her family. .

https://actualnewsmagazine.com/english/after-nagorno-karabakh-armenia-is-prepared-for-anything/

Travel: Easier visas for UAE tourists means now is the time to discover Armenia’s enchanted wonders

Parkev Tvankchian
Zawya
Oct 30 2023
TRAVEL AND TOURISM

From a Grape Spa to a majestic monastery

Press Release

TRAVEL AND TOURISM

UAE: Armenia, a land of breathtaking landscapes, rich history, and warm hospitality, has recently made travel more accessible for UAE adventurers with streamlined visa regulations.

This enchanting country offers an array of unique experiences, including the coveted Grape Spa, making it an ideal destination for intrepid explorers seeking new adventures.

Visa simplification: Armenia has simplified its visa requirements for UAE citizens, making it easier than ever to explore its wonders. UAE passport holders can now enjoy visa-free travel to Armenia for up to 180 days within a year. This change aims to encourage cultural exchange, tourism, and deeper connections between the two nations.

A visit to a Grape Spa: Nestled in the heart of the picturesque Ararat Valley, Armenia's hidden gem, the Grape Spa, offers a serene environment for indulging in grape-based treatments. With Armenia's wine culture dating back thousands of years, the Grape Spa celebrates this heritage by offering therapeutic treatments such as vinotherapy baths, grape seed facials, and massages using local grape oils. It's a truly rejuvenating experience that seamlessly combines wellness with the country's rich viticultural traditions.

Historical treasures: Armenia boasts a rich cultural heritage, with ancient monasteries, churches, and historical sites waiting to be explored. Marvel at the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Geghard Monastery, take in awe-inspiring vistas from the Tatev Wings cable car, or stroll through the charming streets of Yerevan, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Every corner of Armenia tells a captivating story that fuels the imagination.

Scenic landscapes: The diverse landscapes of Armenia cater to every nature enthusiast. From the serene waters of Lake Sevan, known as the "Jewel of Armenia," to the stunning peaks of the Armenian highlands, the country is a paradise for hikers, adventurers, and those seeking tranquility in nature.

Warm hospitality: Armenia's well-deserved reputation for warm hospitality welcomes visitors with open arms, treating them like family and fostering unforgettable memories and connections with the local culture.

As Armenia opens its doors to UAE tourists, there has never been a better time to explore this gem of the Caucasus. From the convenience of new visa rules to rejuvenating your mind and body with the power of grapes, Armenia is a unique destination just waiting to be discovered.

About Armenia Travel

Armenia Travel is the official tourism website of Armenia and is managed by the Tourism Committee of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia. Their mission is to help guests explore its hidden corners, discover what is yet undiscovered, and create great memories.

Visitors can find all the essential travel information, from obtaining Armenian visa to other useful information about Armenia.

Website: https://armenia.travel/en
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armenia.travel/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArmeniaTravelOfficial/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNFaMANXTIAs5ms88CZeNwQ

For media enquiries, please contact:
Paul Estorffe 
Black Watch Communications
[email protected]

https://www.zawya.com/en/press-release/companies-news/easier-visas-for-uae-tourists-means-now-is-the-time-to-discover-armenias-enchanted-wonders-eovdns8a

Lemkin Institute: Statement on the October 1 UN Mission to Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh

Markos Nalchajian
                 Oct 28 2023

October 28, 2023

The Lemkin Institue of Genocide Prevention is disappointed with the outcome of the UN mission’s visit to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on October 1, which took place after the entire Armenian population of Artsakh had already fled due to forcible displacement following the recent Azerbaijani invasion. It is difficult to understand what the purpose of such a mission was and why there was never more pressure for Azerbaijan to allow a mission into Artsakh during Azerbaijan’s 9-month blockade of the region that led up to the invasion. The Lemkin Institute calls on the UN to prepare a proper mission to the Republic of Artsakh, one that is inclusive of international team members from countries neutral to the conflict to conduct a thorough analysis of the current situation on the ground. In order to ensure the rights of the Armenians in Artsakh, the UN must act with professionalism, impartiality, and commitment to the values presented in the UN Charter.

The Lemkin Institue of Genocide Prevention is disappointed with the outcome of the UN mission’s visit to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on October 1, which took place after the entire Armenian population of Artsakh had already fled due to forcible displacement following the recent Azerbaijani invasion. It is difficult to understand what the purpose of such a mission was and why there was never more pressure for Azerbaijan to allow a mission into Artsakh during Azerbaijan’s 9-month blockade of the region that led up to the invasion. If the United Nations is not going to take genocide seriously, it would be better if it sent no missions at all to regions that have experienced genocide.

According to the UN, “the mission aimed to assess the situation on the ground and identify the humanitarian needs of both the people remaining and those who are on the move”. Despite the complex purpose of this visit by the mission, the assessment itself and the statement on the outcome of that assessment were completed within one day, begging the question of just how seriously the UN mission could have taken the task of an assessment on the ground. It is worth mentioning that this was the first UN visit to the region in 30 years.

Prior to this visit, concerns about the consistent political insecurity of Armenians in Artsakh and threats to the Armenian population within the region had been raised several times within UN bodies. Two UN Security Council meetings were convened on the topic of ongoing threats to the Armenians of Artsakh (on August 16, regarding the full blockade imposed on the Republic of Artsakh by Azerbaijan, and on September 21, regarding the Azerbaijani military attack on the Armenian population in Artsakh). In both meetings, the majority of the Security Council’s member states condemned Azerbaijan’s actions, stating that they posed a threat to the security and well-being of the region’s Armenians and discouraged any peacemaking efforts in the region. In addition to these condemnations, the International Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan on two separate occasions (on February 22 and July 6, 2023) to reopen the Lachin Corridor—the humanitarian route connecting the Republic of Artsakh with Armenia. All statements and ICJ orders have been ignored by Azerbaijan.

The Lemkin Institute has issued multiple Red Flag Alerts for Azerbaijan since the Lachin Corridor was blockaded in December 2022, as well as an Active Genocide Alert and SOS alerts indicating an extremely high risk of genocide for the Armenians in Artsakh. Given the UN representatives' clear knowledge of the risks to the Armenian population in Artsakh (as demonstrated by the convening of two Security Council meetings on the topic), it is very surprising to us that the mission would visit this region only after the end of the Azerbaijani offensive and after the exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians from the former Republic. The fact that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev donated USD $1 million to the UN Human Settlements Program on September 30—just one day prior to the mission’s deployment to Nagorno-Karabakh—only increases our concerns regarding the honesty and transparency of the mission.

In examining the mission’s operation and statement, we found numerous controversial points. First, the mission arrived in the region only after the end of the bloodshed and exodus of the Armenians, and it only lasted only one day. In the briefing by Stephanie Dujarric, spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, it was stated that “they [the members of the mission] got to see quite a bit”. However, in the context of a full-blockade, followed by military invasion and ethnic cleansing, 24 hours alone is certainly not sufficient to adequately assess the situation on the ground. Second, the information on the number of Armenians remaining in Artsakh (from 50 to 1,000) contradicts the numbers given by the former Ombudsman of Artsakh, Artak Beglaryan, who has argued that there are not more than 40 people remaining in the region at the moment. And third, as for the text of the statement itself, the UN visited certain unspecified parts of the city of Stepanakert, where it “saw no damage to civilian public infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and housing, or to cultural and religious structures”. However, there is verifiable photographic evidence of the destruction of civilian infrastructure in the city of Stepanakert, as it was bombed by Azerbaijan during its military offensive. In addition to this limited access to Stepanakert, the team visited Agdam City—which was under Azerbaijani control and uninhabited by Armenians, and therefore not crucial for the agenda—and the Lachin Corridor, which was surveyed after the entire population had been forced to flee. It is notable that the UN mission failed to include any representatives from the Armenian mission to the UN, and it did not visit the Syunik region to speak with Armenian refugees who were forced to leave Artsakh. The concluding statement is extremely vague and uninformative.

With all of this said, the Lemkin Institute considers the operation of the mission to be unsuccessful, as it failed to accurately present or assess the reality of the situation in the Republic of Artsakh. We strongly believe that undertaking the “mission for the sake of a mission” and making a“statement for the sake of a statement” are not adequate responses to situations as serious and as dangerous as what has unfolded in the South Caucasus. We question the scruples and integrity of this mission. The vague operating principles and assessments of the UN mission, which lacked any specific goals, methodology, or recommendations, severely risks undermining the trust that the international community collectively places in the work of the United Nations.

The Lemkin Institute calls on the UN to prepare a proper mission to the Republic of Artsakh, one that is inclusive of international team members from countries neutral to the conflict to conduct a thorough analysis of the current situation on the ground. This reality, which is the result of a conflict that has endured for three decades, cannot be assessed in one day. In order to ensure the rights of the Armenians in Artsakh, the UN must act with professionalism, impartiality, and commitment to the values presented in the UN Charter.


https://www.lemkininstitute.com/statements-new-page/statement-on-the-october-1-un-mission-to-artsakh%2Fnagorno-karabakh

UN faces scrutiny over mission to Nagorno-Karabakh after Armenian displacement

Paul Hambardsumian
MEDYA News
Oct 30 2023

The Lemkin Institute of Genocide Prevention, a US-based non-governmental organisation, has expressed deep disappointment with a recent United Nations mission to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), following an Azerbaijani invasion and the forced displacement of the region’s Armenian population.

The Institute called for a more comprehensive and impartial assessment of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, criticising the timing, brevity and transparency of the mission.

“It is difficult to understand what the purpose of such a mission was and why there was never more pressure for Azerbaijan to allow a mission into Artsakh during Azerbaijan’s 9-month blockade of the region that led up to the invasion”, said the Institute in a written statement on Saturday. “If the United Nations is not going to take genocide seriously, it would be better if it sent no missions at all to regions that have experienced genocide”, they added.

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The aim of the UN mission was to assess the humanitarian needs both of the remaining population and of those displaced by the conflict, which resulted in the displacement of most of the Armenian population following the lightning offensive launched by Azerbaijan in the region on 20 September. This offensive eventually resulted in Azerbaijan taking control of Nagorno-Karabakh. Ethnic Armenians in the enclave had been defending the self-declared Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh for three decades.

The Lemkin Institute voiced concerns about the effectiveness of the mission, which was completed in a single day, raising doubts about the depth of the assessment. The mission was the first UN visit to the region in three decades.

Prior to this visit, international concerns had been raised about the safety of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, with the UN Security Council holding meetings and the International Court of Justice issuing several orders against Azerbaijan. The Lemkin Institute had issued several alerts warning of the high risk of genocide for Armenians in Artsakh, further emphasising the need for international intervention.

In its statement, the Lemkin Institute expressed scepticism about the credibility of the mission, citing discrepancies in population estimates, doubts about the damage assessment, and the limited scope of the mission.

The Institute further criticised the mission for failing to include representatives of the Armenian Mission to the UN and also for not visiting the Syunik region to speak with Armenian refugees.

The UN mission on 1 October reported no signs of violence against civilians following the latest ceasefire and expressed surprise at the abrupt evacuation of the local population, leaving between 50 and 1,000 ethnic Armenians in the Karabakh region.

https://medyanews.net/un-faces-scrutiny-over-mission-to-nagorno-karabakh-after-armenian-displacement/

Armenia to offer refugee status to displaced Karabakhis

Adrine Hakobian
eurasianet.org
Oct 30 2023
Lilit Shahverdyan Oct 30, 2023

In a cabinet session on October 26, the Armenian government approved the creation of a "temporary protected status" for displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the new status would facilitate the protection of their rights in the local and international arenas. 

The law automatically applies to the over 100,000 ethnic Armenians of Karabakh who fled to Armenia following Azerbaijan's forceful seizure of the territory on 19-20 September. That offensive – which came after a 9-month blockade that had caused severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine, and other essential supplies – resulted in the disbanding of the local army, the Artsakh Defense Force, on September 21. A few days later, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic itself, which had governed the region for three decades, began the process of formal dissolution. 

The Armenian government is only now beginning to grapple with the issue of the displaced persons' status.

Those eligible for the new temporary protected status are persons registered as residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, persons living in Armenia or abroad whose last registered address was in Nagorno-Karabakh, and persons who were not registered in Nagorno-Karabakh but lived there and were registered by the Armenian Migration and Citizenship Service as entering the country after September 19. 

Those who hold citizenship of a country other than Armenia are not eligible, as their protection is deemed to be under the jurisdiction of the relevant country.

It's not clear whether the new law applies to the roughly 20,000 displaced persons who resettled in Armenia after Azerbaijan captured territories in the 2020 Second Karabakh War that had previously been administered by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Refugees from Hadrout, Shusha, and other regions have long sought a legal status defining their position but were not granted any after their displacement three years ago.

The other option former Karabakh residents have, Prime Minister Pashinyan said, is to seek Armenian citizenship. 

This remark triggered surprise and offense among many Karabakhis, who thought they already were citizens, since they have been issued Armenian passports since 1999. 

Artyom Sujyan, an advisor to the minister of justice, told CivilNet that the passports were issued under an agreement between the ministers of internal affairs of the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as international travel documents.

"The government has asserted its position in numerous cases, even presented this position in the European Court, that the fact that the people of Nagorno-Karabakh have passports of RA does not mean that they are considered RA citizens," said Sujyan. 

Indeed, Karabakh Armenians' passports bear the special code "070," and they have never enjoyed the political rights of citizens of Armenia such as the vote. 

The new law allows them to apply to become full-fledged Armenian citizens and gain political rights and social entitlements such as a state pension. But doing so will render them ineligible for the social assistance provided to those registered as refugees. 

The new protected status has a term of one year and can be extended through a new decision. The refugee certificates will be issued in January. 

According to the UN Refugee Convention of 1951, which Armenia is a signatory to, all persons recognized as refugees in Armenia will be regarded as such in all other signatory countries as well. 

Artyom Sujyan, the advisor to the justice minister, said that refugee status holders get certain benefits and stronger guarantees in other countries and cannot be expelled or deported from states where they seek refuge.

Meanwhile, the Armenian government has allocated one-off financial assistance of 100,000 AMD ($250) to all displaced persons (including children) from Nagorno-Karabakh and 50,000 AMD (about $125) to cover rental prices and utilities. For November and December, a separate program was approved providing additional monthly payments of 40,000 AMD ($100) to all the refugees. 

Lilit Shahverdyan is a journalist based in Stepanakert. 

https://eurasianet.org/armenia-to-offer-refugee-status-to-displaced-karabakhis

Azerbaijan says most points of peace agreement with Armenia agreed upon

Andranik Taslakhchian
Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Oct 30 2023
Burc Eruygur 

ISTANBUL

Azerbaijan on Monday said it is committed to a peace deal with Armenia and most of the points of a draft agreement have been agreed upon by both sides.

“Azerbaijan's proposal regarding the peace agreement is still valid. Therefore, the next steps should be taken mostly by Armenia. To date, most of the points of the peace agreement have been agreed between the parties,” Elnur Mammadov, Azerbaijan’s deputy foreign minister, told state news agency Azertac.

Mammadov said a peace deal with Armenia will be “more convenient and easier” after Azerbaijan fully restores its sovereignty over its internationally recognized territories in Karabakh.

Relations between the two former Soviet republic have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement, and also opened the door to normalization.

This September, the Azerbaijani army initiated an anti-terrorism operation in Karabakh to establish constitutional order in the region, after which illegal separatist forces in the region surrendered.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has also expressed his commitment to signing a peace agreement with Azerbaijan, and that he hopes a draft deal will be completed in "the next few months."

Earlier this month, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev raised the national flag in Karabakh, saying "we had been waiting for this day for more than 30 years."

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/azerbaijan-says-most-points-of-peace-agreement-with-armenia-agreed-upon/3038037

"Entrust Armenia’s security to an American private company" – political scientist

Emil Lazarian
Oct 30 2023
  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

Ensuring Armenia’s security

“If we do not take decisive action, the situation will end with [an Azerbaijan] attack on Armenia, and the Armenian authorities will be forced to ask Russia to intervene. And the price will be the corridor [“Zangezur corridor”, which the Armenian authorities refuse to give to Azerbaijan],” Armenian political scientist Areg Kochinyan says.

He proposes to hire an American private military company to solve the country’s security problems in the short term – at least for 2-3 years – until reforms in the defense sector are completed.

In an interview with a local publication, the analyst talked about the likelihood of a new war or escalation, approaches to the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, and the position of mediators.

  • “It is not necessary to provide security only with the army” – Pashinyan
  • Meeting in “3+3” format. Opinion from Yerevan: “There are risks, no benefits”
  • Armenia-Azerbaijan talks. Will Aliyev go to Brussels and what to expect?

“There are dozens of private military companies in the states that also work with foreign governments. The key to solving our short-term security problem is right here.”

Meghri is the section through which Azerbaijan intends to obtain the so-called “Zangezur corridor”. The Ijevan direction is in the neighborhood of enclaves whose return is demanded by the Azerbaijani authorities. Areg Kochinyan believes that the invasion of Azerbaijani armed forces is most likely in these areas.

The analyst emphasizes: this step certainly indicates a change in the vector of Armenia’s foreign policy, but its ally, Russia, “itself has already changed its vector with regard to Armenia.”

This is not the first time Kochinyan has also said that Armenia should immediately leave the Russian CSTO military bloc, abandon the military base stationed in the country, and “rethink Armenian-Russian relations.” He says that in the short term, economic strikes from Russia may have a strong negative impact. But the economic, energy, infrastructure and all other problems Armenia will face are quite solvable.

Military expert Leonid Nersisyan believes that “Baku will not occupy, for example, the southern region of Armenia, Syunik, but will resort to a new escalation”

Kochinyan sees the preconditions for a perfect storm that will lead to a new war or escalation in the region. He considers the failure of the Pashinyan-Aliyev talks scheduled for late October in Brussels a step in this direction.

According to him, after Azerbaijan’s recent military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, there is no more status quo that existed at the time of signing the statement of November 9, 2020.

“Now the mediators are competing over which platform this document will be formed. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, is trying to get the maximum before that.”

Baku’s plans now include he “Zangezur corridor”, in which Russia is also interested. This explains Azerbaijan’s reluctance to participate in the negotiations on the Western platform and sign a document based on the principles laid down in Granada.

Kochinyan’s list of “destabilizing elements” leading to a new escalation:

  • US inconsistency: “the statement by Acting Deputy Secretary of State Yuri Kim that the US will not tolerate ethnic cleansing against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and Baku’s impunity afterward.”
  • position of the Russian Federation: if the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict is resolved, Russia will find itself as a “ship without a harbor” in the region, so Moscow needs a new escalation to have an excuse to “save Armenians”;
  • the failure of the Brussels meeting, after which the West was in a sense out of the game;
  • Azerbaijan’s readiness for military action.

Saakashvili writes that Armenia is “overdue for European integration,” but recent developments give the region a new chance.

The political analyst says that it is better for Armenia to negotiate directly with Azerbaijan, or with Azerbaijan and Turkey, than to go to the Russian capital. He declared a meeting mediated by the Russian side the worst option, as it creates a “three against one” situation.

According to Kochinyan, it is critical for Russia that a settlement not take place, so it is important to first change its political vector towards the West:

“Attempting a settlement in a situation while the Russian Federation has such a level of influence in the region, especially in Armenia, is just self-deception.”

He believes that if the West is left out of the negotiation process, it will react to a possible escalation by “expressing deep concern, appealing and condemning”.

But if the Western platform can be maintained, one can expect to negotiate with Azerbaijan. In particular, he speaks of the desirability of organizing a meeting of foreign ministers in Washington. According to Kochinyan, this would be a step backward compared to the Brussels meeting, which was to be held with the participation of the leaders of the two countries, but in this way the West would not be finally thrown out of the process.

https://jam-news.net/ensuring-armenias-security-suggestions-of-a-political-scientist/