Monday,
Azeri Soldier Killed In Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Karabakh Armenian troops hold exercises, July 11, 2019.
An Azerbaijani soldier was killed in Nagorno-Karabakh at the weekend in what
Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army described as a failed incursion on its
frontline positions.
A statement by the Defense Army said an Azerbaijani commando squad “left behind
one corpse in the no man’s land” after being repelled by its frontline troops
deployed southeast of Karabakh on Sunday afternoon.
“The Defense Army suffered no losses. Details of the incident are being
clarified,” the statement said, adding that the “sabotage incursion attempt”
was filmed by the army’s surveillance cameras installed along the
Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” around Karabakh.
The Azerbaijani military on Monday confirmed a combat death within its ranks
but denied launching any commando raids.
According to the Trend news agency, the Defense Ministry in Baku said that an
Azerbaijani soldier, identified as Ramin Abdulrahmanov, was shot dead in front
of Karabakh Armenian positions after accidentally “losing his way.” The
ministry said it has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to help
recover his body.
The deadly incident occurred one day before a fresh meeting Armenia’s and
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministers due to be held in New York. The two ministers
most recently met in Washington on June 20 in the presence of the U.S., Russian
and French mediators co-heading the OSCE Minsk Group. The Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry described that meeting as “positive.”
It was the most serious Azerbaijani incursion attempt reported by the Karabakh
army since five Azerbaijani soldiers were killed near Karabakh in February 2017
in an overnight incident caught on Armenian surveillance cameras. Their bodies
lying in the no-man’s land were retrieved with the ICRC’s help.
Deadly ceasefire violations on the Karabakh frontlines and the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border have decreased significantly since Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met for the
first time in September 2018.
Thousands Rally In Los Angeles For Armenia’s PM
• Karlen Aslanian
U.S. -- Armenian Americans attend a rally held by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian in Los Angeles, .
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian urged Diaspora Armenians to invest in Armenia,
regularly visit their ancestral homeland and become its citizens as he
addressed thousands of them at a rally held in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Pashinian spoke before the crowd that gathered in the city’s Grand Park after
holding meetings with Armenian American organizations.
He began his hour-long speech by thanking Armenia’s worldwide Diaspora for its
“invaluable” assistance provided to the country since independence. He also
thanked those California Armenians, many of them born and raised in Armenia,
who supported last year’s “Velvet Revolution” that brought him to power.
“We hope that the Diaspora will stand by the economic revolution taking place
in Armenia just like it stood by the political revolution in Armenia,” said
Pashinian. “And I want to invite all Diaspora entrepreneurs to Armenia because
in today’s Armenia you won’t come across the obstacles that have existed
before. In Armenia, systemic corruption has been rooted out and the rule of
monopolies and oligarchy eliminated.”
Pashinian then renewed his calls for a “great repatriation” of ethnic Armenians
from the United States and other parts of the world. “Great repatriation means,
for example, physically staying and living in Armenia for one or two months
every year,” he explained.
U.S. -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian speaks at a rally in Los
Angeles, .
“Real estate prices in Armenia and Yerevan are substantially rising now,” he
said. “Buying a home in Yerevan, in Armenia means making a very good and
reliable investment … Every Armenian must have a home in Armenia.”
“Repatriation also means owning a business in Armenia and, more importantly,
having citizenship of the Republic of Armenia. Every [Diaspora] Armenian must
have Armenian citizenship,” declared Pashinian.
Pashinian proceeded on Monday to New York where he is due to give a speech at a
session of the UN General Assembly. It was not clear whether he will meet with
senior U.S. officials during his latest trip to the U.S.
On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated the Armenian leader on
the 28th anniversary of Armenia’s declaration of independence from the Soviet
Union.
“The United States welcomes the close cooperation between our nations and your
government’s commitment to democratic and economic reform,” Trump wrote in a
letter publicized by Pashinian’s press office. “We strongly support the desire
of the Armenian people, as expressed during last year’s peaceful events
throughout Armenia, to live in a democratic country that respects the rule of
law and is free from corruption.”
“I look forward to building on the partnership between our two countries in the
years ahead,” added Trump.
Pashinian, Former Security Chief Step Up War Of Words
Armenia -- Prime Miinister Nikol Pashinian and National Security Service
Director Artur Vanetsian (R) walk in downtown Yerevan, September 21, 2018.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Artur Vanetsian, the former head of
Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) forced to resign last week, have
traded fresh and more bitter recriminations.
Vanetsian hit out at Pashinian when he announced his resignation in a statement
issued on September 16. He said that the latter’s “impulsive” leadership style
is not good for Armenia and runs counter to the NSS “officer’s honor.”
Pashinian swiftly rounded on Vanetsian through his press secretary. His chief
of staff said afterwards the former NSS chief was sacked because the prime
minister was dissatisfied with his work.
Visiting the United States on Sunday, Pashinian accused Vanetsian of showing
“disrespect for the officer’s honor” by making the “statement against his
commander-in-chief.” “Would an officer do such a thing?” he told a news
conference held in Los Angeles. “Do you know what that means? That means
throwing your shoulder straps into a trash bin.”
“That is disrespectful towards Armenia’s armed forces,” he said, likening
Vanetsian to Soviet generals who staged a failed coup d’état in August 1991.
Vanetsian hit back at Pashinian in equally strong terms on Monday, saying that
the premier is misleading Armenians and “again not thinking about consequences
of his words.” “Imagine what will happen if I suddenly start speaking up
without thinking about consequences,” he warned in written comments to the
“Hraparak” daily.
Vanetsian claimed that following his resignation Pashinian has been “sending
people to me to ask me to keep silent for a while so that the situation calms
down.” “But I can see now that he is once again breaching understandings and
making incomprehensible and, in essence, shallow populist statements,” he said.
“I insist with certitude: time will tell who or what will end up in a trash
bin,” added the 39-year-old career officer of Armenia’s most powerful security
service.
Pashinian appointed Vanetsian as NSS director two days after the Armenian
parliament elected him prime minister in May 2018. Vanetsian quickly became one
of the most influential members of his entourage, overseeing a number of
high-profile corruption investigations.
Pashinian has not yet publicly explained why he decided to the replace the NSS
chief. His spokesman, Vladimir Karapetian, suggested last week that Vanetsian
might have secret ties to Armenia’s former leadership. Vanetsian strongly
denied that.
Armenian Governor Investigated Over Violent Assault
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia -- Vayots Dzor Governor Trdat Sargsian.
An Armenian law-enforcement agency said on Monday that it is investigating a
provincial governor’s possible involvement in a violent dispute that left one
man critically injured.
The incident occurred late last week in Yeghegnadzor, the administrative center
of Armenia’s southeastern Vayots Dzor province. Ara Mkhitarian, an army
lieutenant-colonel serving there, suffered severe injuries to his head while
reportedly arguing with an assistant to the Vayots Dzor governor, Trdat
Sargsian, in still unclear circumstances.
Mkhitarian remained in a coma at a military hospital on Monday, with doctors
fighting for his life. One of them described the officer’s chances of survival
as “very small.”
According to Armenia’s Investigative Committee, Mkhitarian suffered his
injuries when he was punched by the governor’s 28-year-old aide, Harutiun
Grigorian, and fell to the ground. Grigorian was arrested and charged with
violent assault over the weekend.
Mkhitarian’s father Samvel and friends dismissed the official version of events
as they gathered outside the prime minister’s office in Yerevan on Monday
morning to demand an objective and full investigation of the Yeghegnadzor
incident. They said that the officer and his colleagues were assaulted by a
larger group of men that may have included Governor Sargsian.
“How can you knock down a 120-kilogram guy and smash his skull with one punch?”
argued Samvel Mkhitarian.
“The governor must resign and be put on trial along with his gang,” said one of
the victim’s friends.
Another protester claimed that an eyewitness who has given incriminating
testimony against Sargsian is now being bullied by the governor. “We are
demanding that the prosecutor[-general] put this case under his personal
control and ensure a fair investigation because we don’t trust the Vayots Dzor
police,” he said.
Sargsian, who is affiliated with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil
Contract party, strongly denied his involvement. “I was at home [during the
incident,]” he told reporters.
The 30-year-old governor confirmed the existence of incriminating testimony
against him. “I think it must be established who ordered such testimony and the
person who ordered the false testimony must also be held accountable,” he said.
The Investigative Committee said, meanwhile, that it is taking “urgent
measures” to “verify the Vayots Dzor governor’s participation in the incident.”
A spokeswoman for the committee, Naira Harutiunian, said investigators are
studying footage from surveillance camera placed near the scene of the
violence. “The case is overseen by the chairman of the Investigative Committee,
Hayk Grigorian,” she added.
Another U.S. Presidential Hopeful Vows Armenian Genocide Recognition
US Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks during her presidential candidacy
announcement event at the Everett Mills in Lawrence, MA on February 9, 2019.
U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has
reaffirmed her strong support for U.S. recognition of the 1915 Armenian
genocide in Ottoman Turkey.
Warren also vowed to help “strengthen the U.S.-Armenia relationship” when she
congratulated the Armenian Assembly of America on the 28th anniversary of
Armenia’s independence marked on Saturday.
“I believe that if we do not recognize the horrors of the past, we risk those
horrors being repeated in the future,” she wrote in a letter publicized by the
Assembly on Monday. “That is why I am an original cosponsor of a bipartisan
Senate resolution that recognizes the Armenian Genocide and encourages
widespread education of this tragedy.”
“I was honored to speak at the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day centennial
ceremony in April 2015 at the Armenian Heritage Park in Boston, and I will
continue supporting efforts to bring recognition to the genocide,” added the
senator from Massachusetts, a U.S. state with a sizable Armenian community.
Warren is one of the main candidates vying for the Democratic Party’s
nomination for the 2020 presidential election. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted
earlier this month showed her solidifying her status as a top contender behind
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
Biden likewise wrote to the Assembly and another Armenian-American lobby group
last week, saying that the United States must officially recognize the Armenian
genocide “once and for all.” He too had cosponsored a genocide resolution in
the U.S. Senate in the past.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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