Thursday, December 3, 2020
French Lower House Also Calls For Karabakh’s Recognition
France -- A session of the French National Assembly in Paris, September 4, 2013
The French National Assembly joined the country’s Senate on Thursday in calling
for Nagorno-Karabakh’s recognition as an independent republic.
A resolution overwhelmingly passed by France’s lower house of parliament
stresses the need for a Karabakh settlement “guaranteeing the lasting security
of the affected civilian populations” and “recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The resolution was introduced by Guy Teissier, a lawmaker representing the
Republicans opposition party.
“In the face of this tragedy playing out today in the Caucasus, it is incumbent
on France and other UN member states to use all their political weight to
promote international recognition of the right to self-determination of the
Republic of Artsakh,” Teissier said during a parliament debate on the measure
passed by 188 votes to 3.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke out against such recognition
before the vote, saying that it would be counterproductive for both France and
the Karabakh peace process.
“I hear your anger, your fears, your questions that you ask,” Le Drian told
French deputies. “However, I do not share the objective of this resolution,
namely the recognition, because our Armenian friends are not asking us to do
that. They themselves haven't recognized [Karabakh.]”
The French government opposed a similar non-binding resolution passed by the
French Senate on November 25.
The Senate resolution was welcomed by Armenia but condemned by Azerbaijan. The
Azerbaijani parliament accused Paris of pro-Armenian bias and demanded an end to
French co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group.
French President Emmanuel Macron criticized Azerbaijan’s military action in
Karabakh shortly after the outbreak of the war on September 27. Macron has been
even more critical of Turkey’s strong political and military support for Baku.
Visiting Armenia late last week, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, a secretary of state at
the French Foreign Ministry, said Paris expects Ankara to withdraw Syrian
mercenaries recruited by it for Azerbaijan during the war.
Lemoyne arrived in Yerevan with a delegation of French officials, aid workers
and French-Armenian community activists on board a plane that brought a second
batch of French humanitarian assistance to Armenian victims of the Karabakh
conflict.
France is home to a sizable and influential ethnic Armenian community.
Armenian Opposition Designates ‘Interim PM’
• Robert Zargarian
Armenia -- Vazgen Manukian.
Opposition parties campaigning for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation
have chosen a man who they believe should replace him and govern Armenia until
snap general elections.
The proposed interim prime minister, Vazgen Manukian, is a veteran politician
who had served as the country’s first post-Communist premier from 1990-1991.
Manukian was nominated ahead of a fresh anti-government rally which the 17
opposition parties plan to hold in Yerevan on Saturday.
They launched street protests on November 10 immediately after the announcement
of a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the war in Karabakh won by
Azerbaijan.
In a joint statement issued on Thursday, the opposition forces, including Gagik
Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), again denounced the ceasefire agreement as a
“national disaster and treason.”
They pledged to step up their campaign for Pashinian’s resignation, the
formation of an interim government and the conduct of fresh elections. They said
Manukian should lead that government in view of his political experience and
“ability to hold productive negotiations.”
According to the statement, the caretaker prime minister designated by the
opposition would hold the elections within a year and pledge not to participate
in them or seek to hold on to power.
The statement added that the opposition coalition will announce its further
actions at Saturday’s “big rally.”
Armenia - Opposition protesters block a street in Yerevan to demand Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian's resignation, December 3, 2020.
The anti-government demonstrations held by it last month attracted only a few
thousand people. Pashinian and his political allies say their relatively poor
attendance testifies to a lack of popular support for regime change.
Pashinian insisted on November 27 that most Armenians continue to support him.
In a televised address to the nation, he accused his political opponents of
trying to “spread chaos” in the country with the help of “external forces known
to you.”
Meanwhile, small groups of opposition activists mostly affiliated with
Dashnaktsutyun continued to block streets in downtown Yerevan on Thursday
evening to demand Pashinian’s resignation. The protests briefly disrupted
traffic in much of the city center. Riot police forcibly unblocked the streets,
detaining dozens of protesters.
Armenia Insists On Karabakh’s Self-Determination
Armenia -- Newly appointed Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian, November 19, 2020.
The recent Armenian-Azerbaijani war did not end the conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh and the disputed territory’s predominantly ethnic Armenian
population must still be able to exercise its right to self-determination,
Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazian said on Thursday.
“The Azerbaijani side’s claims that the conflict has already been resolved are
unfounded,” Ayvazian told the Armenpress news agency.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be deemed settled only when the
international community recognizes the right to self-determination exercised by
the people of Artsakh (Karabakh),” he said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that the six-week war, which
resulted in sweeping Azerbaijani territorial gains, essentially resolved the
long-running conflict. Aliyev said last month that Baku insists on a full
restoration of its control over Karabakh and will not even agree to grant the
enclave an autonomous status.
Ayvazian said that Aliyev’s remarks run counter to the “essence” of the
Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the war on November 10. Citing
the agreement and recent statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin, he
insisted that “the question of Artsakh’s final status is not resolved and will
be the subject of further negotiations.”
“The two other OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries also agree on this issue,”
the recently appointed minister added, referring to the United States and France.
Ayvazian is scheduled to visit Moscow next week for what will be his first talks
with Russian Foreign Sergei Lavrov.
Later on Thursday, Lavrov, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and U.S.
Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to
“take advantage of the current ceasefire to negotiate a lasting and sustainable
peace agreement.”
“In that context, the Co-Chair countries urge the parties to receive the
Co-Chairs in the region at the earliest opportunity and to commit to substantive
negotiations to resolve all outstanding issues in accordance with an agreed
timetable,” they said in a joint statement.
Lavrov, Le Drian and Beigun also urged the conflicting parties to fully comply
with provisions of the ceasefire agreement, including the exchange of prisoners
of war and repatriation of the remains of soldiers killed in action.
“They also call for the full and prompt departure from the region of all foreign
mercenaries, and call upon all parties to facilitate this departure,” added
their statement.
In line with the truce agreement, Russia has deployed about 2,000 peacekeeping
troops along the current Karabakh “line of contact” and a road connecting the
enclave to Armenia. They are due to stay there for at least five years.
The agreement says that the peacekeeping operation can be repeatedly extended by
five more years if Armenia and Azerbaijan do not object to that. Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinian suggested on November 25 such an extension is inevitable.
Government To Compensate Civilian Victims Of Karabakh War
NAGORNO-KARABAKH - A ball lies on the ground in front of a house damaged by
shelling in the town of Martuni, October 1, 2020.
The Armenian government approved on Thursday a compensation package for civilian
victims of the Nagorno-Karabakh war.
It said, in particular, that the families of civilians killed during the war
will receive 5 million drams ($10,000) each. The government will also pay
seriously wounded and disabled individuals between 1 million and 3 million drams
in compensation.
The compensations were proposed by Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mesrop
Arakelian and approved by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet. They are
understood to cover residents of not only Armenian border villages but also
Karabakh towns and villages shelled by Azerbaijani forces.
According to Karabakh authorities, more than 40 civilian residents of the
Armenian-populated territory were killed during the six-week hostilities.
Several other civilian casualties were reported in villages located in Armenia.
The fighting also left at least 2,700 Armenian and Karabakh Armenian soldiers
dead. Their families will receive monthly benefits from a state insurance fund
set up in 2017 for military personnel. The fund also compensates soldiers
wounded in action.
The government also decided to compensate the owners of an estimated 75 village
houses in Armenia which Arakelian said were seriously damaged by Azerbaijani
shelling. Government officials did not say how much will likely be spent for
their reconstruction.
In a related development, the Armenian Ministry of Education announced impending
tuition waivers for university students who participated in the war. It said the
measure will also apply to those students whose parents fought in the army ranks.
Azerbaijan Accused Of ‘Badly Mistreating’ Armenian POWs
NAGORNO-KARABAKH -- An Azeri servicman stands guard near state flags of
Azerbaijan and Turkey at a checkpoint in the town of Hadrut, November 25, 2020
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned Azerbaijan for what it described as
“inhumane” treatment of Armenian soldiers taken prisoner during the recent war
in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“They [Azerbaijani forces] subjected these prisoners of war (POWs) to physical
abuse and humiliation, in actions that were captured on videos and widely
circulated on social media since October,” the U.S.-based group said in a report
released late on Wednesday.
“The videos depict Azerbaijani captors variously slapping, kicking, and prodding
Armenian POWs, and compelling them, under obvious duress and with the apparent
intent to humiliate, to kiss the Azerbaijani flag, praise Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev, swear at Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, and declare that
Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan. In most of the videos, the captors’ faces are
visible, suggesting that they did not fear being held accountable.”
Dozens of such videos were posted on Azerbaijani social media accounts during
and after the war that broke out on September 27. HRW said it has closely
examined 14 of them and interviewed relatives of five Armenian soldiers shown in
them.
“It is telling that some of the [Azerbaijani] servicemen who carried out these
abuses had no qualms about being filmed,” Hugh Williamson, HRW’s Europe and
Central Asia director, is quoted by the report as saying. “Whether or not the
soldiers thought they would get away with it, it is essential for Azerbaijan to
prosecute those responsible for these crimes on the basis of both direct
criminal liability and command responsibility.”
Azerbaijani military authorities dismissed such footage as a fraud late last
month, denying any systematic mistreatment of captured Armenian soldiers. In
October, they allowed several of those soldiers to speak with their families by
phone or send them letters.
HRW said although those POWs told the families that they are not being
ill-treated “there are serious grounds for concern about their safety and
well-being.”
Armenian officials have portrayed the videos as proof of Azerbaijan’s gross
violations of international humanitarian law and the 1949 Geneva Convention on
POWs in particular.
Armenia’s and Karabakh’s closely integrated armed forces have not yet given the
official number of their soldiers taken prisoner during the war stopped by a
Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10. Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman,
Artak Beglarian, said on Wednesday that his office has identified about 60 POWs
shown in the Azerbaijani videos.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has reportedly ordered Baku to provide
information about the health and detention conditions of more than 40 POWs. The
Strasbourg-based court’s “interim measures” were requested by Yerevan-based
lawyers representing their families.
“Armenia is known to hold a number of Azerbaijani POWs and at least three
foreign mercenaries,” says the HRW report. “Human Rights Watch is investigating
videos alleging abuse of Azerbaijani POWs that have circulated on social media
and will report on any findings.”
The Armenian-Azerbaijani ceasefire agreement calls for the exchange of all POWs
and civilian captives. The process has still not begun and it remains unclear
clear when the warring sides will start implementing this provision.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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