"Armenia is separating from Russia" – opinion on reforms in the National Security Service

Emil Lazarian
Jan 12 2024
  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

Opinion on reforms in the National Security Service

From January 1, 2024, the Investigation Department of the National Security Service of Armenia ceased its activity and its functions were transferred to the Investigative Committee.

It is this structure that will now deal with crimes that threaten the security of the state and society, including cases of treason, preparation and financing of terrorism.

According to lawyer Gevorg Davtyan, this decision may have a positive effect “if its goal is to reduce dependence on other countries, particularly Russia.” He believes that Armenia’s national security can be ensured only if “all the threads linking it to Russia are cut at once”.

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As part of this change, 47 positions of the Investigative Department of the NSC were transferred to the Investigative Committee. 39 of them are positions of investigators. However, only 17 of them expressed a desire to continue working outside the National Security Service.

A new department has already been formed in the Investigative Committee called “Main Department for Investigation of Crimes Threatening the Foundations of the Constitutional Order of the State and Public Security”.

According to Gevorg Baghdasaryan, advisor to the IC chairman, the department will conduct preliminary investigations into a significant number of crimes against public security, including terrorism, treason, espionage and usurpation of state power:

“The functions of the department include investigation of crimes against the order of governance, which are related to the security of the state, as well as the state border, such as illegal migration or illegal crossing of the state border.”

According to lawyer Gevorg Davtyan, nothing changes from the legal point of view, but technical changes have been made – the functions of the Investigation Department of the National Security Service are transferred to the Investigation Committee.

The National Security Service of Armenia is inherited from the USSR. In addition, its employees were educated in Russia, and in most cases they were hired only after compulsory training in the Russian Federation. He emphasizes that this was direct dependence on Russia.

“A certain element of independence seems to be emerging. The Republic of Armenia is trying to become legally fully independent and have a body that will never have any connection with another country, in this case the Russian Federation,” says Gevorg Davtyan.

The purpose of the change, in his opinion, is that from now on the Investigative Committee will perform the functions of the NSS with full rights. That is, it would act without outside influence, only under Armenia’s control, particularly in the investigation of crimes that threaten the security of the state.

“It is no coincidence that after the 44-day war in 2020, many people were charged with acts concerning crimes threatening exactly national security: sabotage, treason, agent activity, etc.”

According to the lawyer, there were also criminal cases when an employee of the National Security Service was charged with committing such crimes, and he “found protection in Russia.”

The lawyer is generally optimistic about the ongoing reforms and hopes that the changes will be qualitative:

“The legal prerequisites have been created, and the content suggests that specialists will be guided solely by the interests of national security.”


Israel rubs ‘Armenian genocide’ in Turkey’s face after it supports ICJ hearing

Yeghisabet Arthur
Jan 12 2024

Jerusalem, Jan 12 (EFE).- Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Friday criticized Turkey’s history, saying “we remember the Armenians,” after its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced that his country would send documents to the International Court of Justice in The Hague that support the charge of genocide brought by South Africa against Israel.

“The President of Turkey Erdogan, from a country with the Armenian genocide in its past, now boasts of targeting Israel with unfounded claims. We remember the Armenians, the Kurds. Your history speaks for itself. Israel stands in defense, not destruction, against your barbarian allies,” Katz said in a message directed at the Turkish leader on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

The Armenian genocide refers to the systematic extermination of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire during World War I through massacres, death marches, and deportations.

The Turkish government maintains that the deportation of Armenians was a legitimate action that cannot be called genocide, and many countries seeking good diplomatic relations with Turkey have avoided acknowledging the events as genocide.

Israel does not recognize the events as genocide, and this is the first time a senior Israeli official has described the events as such.

Israel has been accused of genocide by South Africa before the UN’s top court, which held its first hearing in The Hague on Thursday and Friday, with the Israeli legal team accusing South Africa of “hypocrisy.”

Katz said South Africa is violating the Genocide Convention by supporting “the Hamas terrorist organization, which calls for the elimination of the State of Israel”.

Turkey has expressed “satisfaction” with South Africa’s complaint from the outset, and a Turkish parliamentary delegation is in The Hague to follow the trial.

“I believe that Israel will be convicted there. We believe in the justice of the International Court of Justice,” the Turkish president said.

Turkey is a historic ally of Israel, but after the Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Erdogan denounced Israel’s response of massive bombardment of Gaza as a “war crime,” and Israel withdrew its ambassador from Ankara at the end of October. EFE

sga/ics/mcd

FM Katz slams Turkey’s Erdogan for genocide, after Turkey backs South Africa’s ICJ case

Elizabeth Jabejian
        Jan 12 2024
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFJANUARY 12, 2024 16:18

Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in an X, formerly Twitter, post on Friday afternoon, as Turkey backed South Africa's accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice. 

Katz posted, "The President of Turkey @RTErdogan, from a country with the Armenian Genocide in its past, now boasts of targeting Israel with unfounded claims. We remember the Armenians, the Kurds. Your history speaks for itself. Israel stands in defense, not destruction, against your barbarian allies."


Katz's comments come as Israel's recognition of the Armenian genocide remains murky


Turkey providing documents for genocide hearings against Israel -Erdogan

Kalantarian Kevo
Reuters
Jan 12 2024
Reuters

ANKARA, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Turkey is providing documents for a case brought by South Africa against Israel at the U.N.'s top court on a charge of committing genocide against Palestinian civilians, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Erdogan said that Turkey would continue to provide documents, mostly visuals, on Israel's attacks on Gaza.

"I believe Israel will be convicted there. We believe in the justice of the International Court of Justice", Erdogan said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz described Erdogan as the president of "a country with the Armenian genocide in its past", and that he was targeting Israel with "unfounded claims".

Israel is not among the more than 30 countries that have formally recognised the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 as genocide. Turkey, established in 1923 after the Ottoman Empire collapsed, has always denied there was a systematic campaign to annihilate Armenians.

Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Daren Butler, Toby Chopra and Alex Richardson

Refugee Influx Challenges Armenia

Emil Lazarian
Jan 12 2024
By Mark Temnycky
The fallout from Azerbaijan’s lightning seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh still reverberates across the South Caucasus.

After several decades of conflict and thousands of dead, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic of ethnic Armenians has ceased to exist. Last year, Azerbaijan successfully launched a surprise attack to take it by force. Hundreds of residents were killed, and many more were injured.

The Azerbaijanis declared victory and forced more than 100,000 Armenians to leave the area. (Azerbaijan denies this but the allegation has support from the European Parliament.)

These refugees now reside in the Armenian mainland. While the government is doing what it can to assist them, it is struggling with an expensive new problem at a time of limited budgets.

Even before the events of September 2023, the government was facing issues with unemployment and poverty. These problems will become even more challenging given this new influx to the country of 2.8 million people.

And their presence adds to the challenges for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan following a major strategic defeat. While Armenia did not enter the conflict (because it would have lost) the erasure of Nagorno-Karabakh has angered nationalists.

Other problems abound. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), 23% of households face food insecurity, and 54% are “at risk of falling into food insecurity . . . in case of shocks.” Meanwhile, the World Bank reports that unemployment stands at 12.6%. The poverty rate is meanwhile 27%. In other words, the refugees may be welcome but their presence presents a problem.

The WFP has attempted to combat these issues by increasing food availability. The organization is also working with the Geneva International Centre of Humanitarian Demining so that areas within Armenia can be cleared and returned to agricultural production.

The government has offered to assist some refugees, but it is determining how to help them assimilate while juggling with financial constraints.

Recently, the government stated that it would issue pensions to residents from Nagorno-Karabakh. The program, while welcoming to older people, underlines that the state can only assist the most vulnerable. The exact amount is yet to be determined. To add to these complications, the pension will only be provided until June.

Meanwhile, many refugees are largely accommodated in communal facilities that were not designed for habitation. Often lacking heating and the creature comforts they were forced to leave behind, many are struggling to make ends meet.

They have had assistance of $250 each and another $125 for rent, where needed. But these are hardly sufficient, especially in the capital Yerevan, which also accommodates Russian exiles. The refugees nonetheless say they have been moved by the warmth of their reception from fellow Armenians.

Grim as the situation may be, there is more positive economic news which bodes well for the medium term. In December, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected Armenian real GDP growth of 7% in 2023 and 5% this year, even as inflation falls.

The effective cleansing of Armenians is part of a long series of forced population movements between the two former Soviet republics. When the first Nagorno-Karabakh conflict broke out during the Soviet Union’s collapse, some 700,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia and as many as 500,000 Armenians left Azerbaijan.

Human Rights Watch says that the small numbers of Armenians now remaining should receive protection from Azerbaijan, but added that assurances from its officials were, “difficult to accept at face value after the months of severe hardships, decades of conflict, impunity for alleged crimes, in particular during hostilities, and the Azerbaijani government’s overall deteriorating human rights record.”

President Ilham Aliyev’s government seems far more concerned with the significant challenges of reintegrating the captured lands of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Some Azerbaijanis have already started to move into the area. But the integration program is far from clear.

There are numerous complications. For example, if Nagorno-Karabakh is to be integrated with the rest of Azerbaijan, then identification forms and other documents will need to be provided. How might residents obtain Azerbaijani citizenship, and what will the process entail? In addition, there are various societal matters that need to be addressed. For example, how to reopen schools and impose curriculums.

Azerbaijan may regard these as the problems of success, while Armenia deals with much tougher issues on the other side of the equation. Much needs to be done to address the numerous outstanding issues, not least the possibility of a future peace settlement to ensure the countries end the cycle of war.

Mark Temnycky is an accredited freelance journalist covering Eurasian affairs and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. He can be found on X @MTemnycky

Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.

 

Armenian Christian Refugees Need Help and Hope

Maral Takmazian
Jan 12 024

Exhausted, malnourished and traumatized.

That was how they arrived in Armenia last September.

Do you remember?

Do you remember those dreadful few days when almost 120,000 Armenian Christians fled their beloved homeland, Nagorno-Karabakh, to seek safety in Armenia?

They had already endured over nine months of deprivation and near-starvation, due to an Azerbaijani blockade. Then Azerbaijan invaded and seized the territory in which Armenians had lived for 2,500 years. Almost the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh crammed themselves into cars or other transport and joined the line to cross the narrow mountain pass into Armenia.

“On September 25, we left our house with seven people in our own car and were on the road for three days,” recalls Elizaveta, whose husband is hearing impaired. It was a journey that would normally take a few hours.

Elizaveta (left) and Hasmik with her baby born during the blockade – just three of the thousands of Christian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh whom your gifts are helping

How are they living now?

“We live by the grace of God, giving glory every evening and morning. It gives us strength to cope,” says grandmother Anahit.

Armenia is a poor country. Its government is struggling to help the refugees. But the Church, with funding from Barnabas, is supporting the neediest families – and giving them spiritual counsel too.

Elizaveta is using the money to buy food for her family.

Hasmik, a biology teacher, has used it to buy winter clothes and shoes for her children. The youngest is a baby born during the blockade.

Our project partner describes the positive effect on the refugees’ emotional wellbeing: “By providing financial aid and spiritual support, the program has brought hope, comfort and a sense of solidarity.

What next?

Some of the refugees are staying with distant relatives. Others are staying in church gyms or similar. This temporary situation cannot continue for long.

The newcomers need jobs so they can support themselves and rent proper accommodation. Then they will need furniture and equipment for their new homes.

Barnabas stands ready to help them. Will you join with us?

$36 could help with emergency needs for one Armenian Christian refugee from Nagorno-Karabakh

https://www.barnabasaid.org/us/latest-needs/armenian-christian-refugees-need-help-and-hope/

Three years, thrice displaced: A family flees Nagorno-Karabakh

Greg Madatian
Doctors Without Borders
Jan 12 2024
12 JAN 2024

Mileta pauses often while speaking about her family's former home in Martakert/Aghdara, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the journey they endured fleeing to Armenia. 

Her family has lost their home due to war three times—first in 2020, then in 2022, and most recently, in 2023. 

Her 13-year-old daughter, Mane, was in school when explosions lit the sky of Karabakh on 19 September. That day, all the students were quickly sent home. Mileta knew they would never come back.  

With no phone or internet connection, Mileta had no idea what to do or where to go to find safety, so she and her family locked themselves inside their home, terrified. A few hours later, a neighbour entered the home and urged them to leave, saying that soldiers were already advancing toward their village. Not knowing what to take with them and what to leave behind, Mileta instinctively went for the family albums.  

“I knew I had to take the photos of my family to cherish the memories, as we have nothing else left anymore,” Mileta says. "We have been stripped of our lives, left with nothing.” 

On 19 September, Azerbaijan launched an attack on various areas in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region that is a self-proclaimed republic internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but has traditionally been home to many ethnic Armenians. 

After a ceasefire agreement was reached 24 hours later, more than 100,000 people from the region fled to neighbouring Armenia. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in Armenia have been providing aid, including mental health care, to displaced people like Mileta and her family.

Before the war erupted, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh endured 10 months of blockade by Azerbaijan. During the last three months, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find food in totally isolated Karabakh, and Mileta's family ate only once each day. She says that pretty much every displaced person she met on the road had stomach problems from months of malnutrition.  

Mileta’s family managed to get to the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh from Martakert/Aghdara with the little gasoline they had. On the way, chaos erupted. There were rumors that civilians would be evacuated. Nobody knew whether the Lachin corridor connecting Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh would be open for them to flee.

The rumors turned out to be false. The vast majority of people ended up sleeping wherever they could while waiting for their next move. Mileta and her children slept in their car in Stepanakert/Khankendi, not knowing where to go or what to do. Finally, Azerbaijan opened Lachin corridor on 24 September, and Mileta’s family passed through to Armenia. 


THE TOLL OF DISPLACEMENT

Mileta recalls how hard her family worked to renovate their home in Martakert/Aghdara over the past few years. They dreamed of turning the ground floor into a dental clinic, so that when her son graduated from university, he could come back to their town and work as a dentist.

Her family does not know whether they will stay in Armenia, as they would have to start over from scratch. Stress, insomnia, and uncertainty have set in. Mileta still wonders whether they will ever be able to go back to their homeland.  

“Wherever I am, it is not home for me," says Mileta. "I left my father’s cemetery, the church where I used to pray, and my home, which our family built with our own hands."

MSF teams have seen a high number of psychosomatic issues among displaced people from Nagorno-Karabakh in the villages of Ararat and Kotayk. Many people we see have been displaced three or four times during the past year, and many continuously experience grief, bereavement, and a feeling of disempowerment. Adults predominantly express fear while in children, the accumulated anxiety has resulted in sleeping disorders and enuresis.  

Anxiety about the future is the dominant theme for almost every person that MSF teams have met and spoken to. “I have to start from zero, and my biggest burden is to take care of my kids,” says Anyuta, another displaced person from Nagorno-Karabakh. “The trauma we went through is unfathomable, after months of blockade and food scarcity. But now we have lost our home on top of it."

MSF teams are visiting vulnerable families in the Kotayk and Ararat regions of Armenia— including hotels and apartments where displaced people are temporarily living—to offer mental health support and assess the most critical social needs. Since October 2023, MSF has provided 1,655 mental health consultations and distributed more than 200 non-food item kits.


https://msf.org.au/article/stories-patients-staff/three-years-thrice-displaced-family-flees-nagorno-karabakh

Event: A “Frozen Conflict” Boils Over: Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023 and Future Implications

Greg Madatian
Jan 12 2024

January 18, 2024 | 12:00 pm | Eurasia Program

On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijani forces initiated a massive attack on Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated and effectively self-governing region inside internationally recognized Azerbaijani territory. Russian peacekeepers, stationed in the area since 2020, did not step in to stem the fighting but intervened to arrange for a cease-fire. Within 24 hours, the Nagorno-Karabakh leadership gave in, and, for the first time, Baku could claim full control over the contested territory. Despite being portrayed in the West as a “frozen conflict,” there had long been a risk of renewed violence in Nagorno-Karabakh. Since the autumn of 2020, the situation in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, has been kinetic and fast-moving, regularly drawing in the active mediation of external actors, including the US. The fighting in September and the subsequent mass exodus of the 100,000-strong Armenian population from Nagorno-Karabakh may end up being only the latest chapter in further violence and displacement to come.

Join us to discuss local, regional, and global consequences of the latest developments of the dispute, including policy implications and recommendations.

 

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https://www.fpri.org/event/2024/a-frozen-conflict-boils-over-nagorno-karabakh-in-2023-and-future-implications/
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Healthcare Minister Anahit Avanesyan questioned in COVID-19 response probe

Hagop Kamalian

 14:48,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Healthcare Minister Anahit Avanesyan has said she’s been questioned by law enforcement agencies in the case on alleged abuses and embezzlement committed during the COVID-19 response.

Avanesyan served as Deputy Minister of Healthcare during 2018-2021 under then-Minister Arsen Torosyan.

“I’ve been summoned to questioning. I was questioned either in late November or in December of 2023,” Avanesyan told reporters. She did not elaborate. 

Multiple arrests have been made so far in the criminal investigation into alleged abuse and embezzlement during the COVID-19 response.

Displaced Karabakh Armenians should be given possibility of returning in safety and dignity – Commissioner Mijatović

Arbi Tashjian

 15:31,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS. “Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities should ensure focus on human rights protection in their peace talks and establish strong human rights safeguards for all persons affected by the conflict”, said the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, as she published her Observations following her visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh, from 16 to 23 October 2023.

“It was the first time in decades that a human rights mission of this kind was able to visit the Karabakh region,” Mijatović’s office said in a press release.

“The visit was prompted by the mass displacement of over 101,000 Karabakh Armenians who fled to Armenia in the space of only a few days at the end of September. It followed Azerbaijan’s military action on 19 and 20 September, its subsequent full control over the region and the prolonged disruption in the movement of people and access to essential goods, services and energy supplies experienced by Karabakh Armenians as a result of a nine-month blocking of the road along the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan. In Armenia, the Commissioner spoke with Karabakh Armenians who had left and were staying in shelters provided by the authorities," the Commissioner's office said. 

Mijatović also visited Stepanakert, where she "witnessed empty streets, abandoned premises and almost no sign of the presence of civilians."

"On the basis of what she could hear and see, the Commissioner concluded that at the end of September 2023, Karabakh Armenians found themselves abandoned without any reliable security or protection guarantees by any party, and that, for them, leaving home was the only reasonable option available. While welcoming the efforts made by the Armenian authorities to provide all those in need who arrived from the Karabakh region with the first basic assistance, the Commissioner stressed that Karabakh Armenians who fled to Armenia, and in particular those belonging to vulnerable groups, should be guaranteed access to all necessary support in the immediate, medium and long term. “Council of Europe member states should maintain a focus on providing financial support to ensure that the humanitarian needs of displaced persons and their host populations can be fully met”, added the Commissioner. The Commissioner stressed that recently-displaced Karabakh Armenians in Armenia should be given the possibility of returning in safety and dignity – even if it seems hypothetical for most at the moment – including by finding flexible solutions, in particular as concerns their citizenship and legal status. Pending a possible return, ways should be promptly found, including by establishing security guarantees, for Karabakh Armenians to temporarily access their homes or places of habitual residence, and visit graveyards where loved ones are buried. It is incumbent on the Azerbaijani authorities to ensure that property left behind by Karabakh Armenians is protected from looting, theft or being taken over. The few ethnic Armenians who have stayed in the Karabakh region should also benefit from all human rights protection, including by having their freedom of movement secured."

The Commissioner also expressed hope that all internally displaced persons who so wish will be able to return as soon as possible in safety and dignity. "More generally, the Commissioner stressed that all persons displaced by the long-lasting conflict have the right to return to their homes or places of habitual residence voluntarily and under conditions of safety and dignity, regardless of whether they have been displaced internally or across borders,” reads the press release issued by Mijatović's office. 

“All allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law and serious human rights violations reported in relation to the conflict need to be effectively and promptly investigated, the perpetrators brought to justice and if found guilty after a fair, independent and impartial trial, sentenced and punished. This includes allegations relating to the circumstances of the blocking of the Lachin corridor, the mass displacement of Karabakh Armenians and the military operation of 19 to 20 September”, said the Commissioner. She added that this must be done through a victim-centred approach that treats the victims and their families with sensitivity and compassion. A comprehensive approach to dealing with the past and addressing the serious human rights violations committed in the context of the conflict over the Karabakh region should also be put in place. “Other human rights issues addressed in the Commissioner’s Observations include the need to protect people from mines and explosive remnants of war; the situation of persons detained in connection with the conflict, including the conditions of their detention and level of contact with their families; and the importance of clarifying the fate of missing persons throughout the region and to provide answers to their families. Lastly, the Commissioner called on the authorities in both countries to combat hate speech and promote mutual understanding and trust, including by involving civil society in establishing human rights-compliant memorialisation and reconciliation processes,” the Commissioner’s office said in the press release.