Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Two Armenian Soldiers Freed By Azerbaijan
Armenia - A view of an area in Armenia's Syunik province where Armenian and
Azerbaijani troops are locked in a border standoff, May 14, 2021. (Photo by the
Armenian Human Rights Defender's Office)
Azerbaijan released on Tuesday two Armenian soldiers who went missing near the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border in July.
The soldiers, Aramayis Torozian and Artur Nalbandian, were flown to Yerevan from
Baku by a Russian military plane.
The Russian Sputnik news agency reported that they were freed in exchange for an
Azerbaijani serviceman arrested in Nagorno-Karabakh late last month. It said the
prisoner swap was brokered by Major-General Rustam Muradov, the outgoing
commander of Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Karabakh.
According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, Nalbandian and Torozian disappeared
in thick fog early on July 14 after a military vehicle driven by the latter
headed to a disputed portion of the border located in Armenia’s Syunik province.
The soldiers were believed to have strayed into Azerbaijani-controlled
territory. Authorities in Azerbaijani never issued any statements on their
capture and whereabouts.
The incident occurred in a border area where Azerbaijani forces reportedly
advanced several kilometers into Armenian territory in May. They have since been
locked in a standoff with Armenian troops.
Dozens of other Armenian soldiers remain in Azerbaijani captivity. Most of them
were taken prisoner in Nagorno-Karabakh shortly after last year’s
Armenian-Azerbaijani war.
Many of these POWs have been given lengthy prison sentences in recent months in
trials condemned by the Armenian government. Yerevan regularly demands their
unconditional release, saying that they are held in breach of a Russian-brokered
agreement that stopped the six-week war. Baku says the agreement does not cover
them because they were captured after the ceasefire took effect in November.
Armenia Deplores Turkish-Azeri Drills Near Karabakh
A Russian peacekeeper stands guard on a road in the town of Lachin on December
1, 2020.
Official Yerevan criticized Azerbaijan and Turkey on Tuesday for holding joint
military exercises near Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced the start of the exercises on Monday,
saying that they are taking place in the Lachin district which was mostly
retaken by Baku shortly after last year’s war over Karabakh.
A 5-kilometer-wide stretch of the district currently serves as the sole overland
link between Armenia and Karabakh. It is controlled by Russian peacekeeping
forces deployed in the disputed territory under the terms of a Russian-brokered
agreement that stopped the war last November.
The Defense Ministry in Baku said the drills are aimed at improving the
interoperability of Azerbaijani and Turkish troops “during combat operations.”
It did not specify the number of soldiers involved in them.
“We regard the conduct of the Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercises near the
borders of Armenia, Artsakh (Karabakh) and the Lachin corridor as an action
damaging de-escalation steps … and undermining efforts to establish a lasting
peace, security and stability in the region,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry
spokesman, Vahan Hunanian, said in written comments.
There was no public reaction to the drills from Moscow.
The recently appointed Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Igor Khovayev,
held talks in Yerevan with Armenia’s and Karabakh’s leaders on Monday.
Turkey provided decisive military assistance to Azerbaijan during the war.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev thanked Ankara for that aid when he and his
Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited in June the Karabakh town of
Shushi (Shusha) captured by the Azerbaijani army in November.
Armenia’s Former Chief Prosecutor Arrested
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Outgoing Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian speaks with journalists,
Yerevan, September 13, 2013.
Aghvan Hovsepian, Armenia’s former prosecutor-general, was arrested on Tuesday
on a string of corruption charges denied by him.
Hovsepian, 68, served as prosecutor-general from 1998-1999 and 2004-2013. He
went on to become the first head of a newly created law-enforcement agency, the
Investigative Committee, in 2014. He ran the committee until the 2018 “velvet
revolution.”
The Special Investigation Service (SIS) said Hovsepian was charged with bribery,
money laundering and illegal entrepreneurial activity. It claimed that he also
misappropriated properties worth 800 million drams ($1.6 million) while in
office.
A statement by the SIS did not specify the source of a 190 million-dram bribe
allegedly paid to Hovsepian or name “a number of companies” which it said were
illegally managed by him during his tenure.
“In the interests of the criminal case, we cannot give other details at this
point,” a spokeswoman for the law-enforcement agency, Marina Ohanjanian, told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Hovsepian’s lawyer, Gagik Khachikian, said his client strongly denies the
accusations carrying up to 12 years in prison and will challenge his arrest in
court.
“Aghvan Hovsepian is in a combative mood,” Khachikian wrote on Facebook.
“Naturally he does not accept the accusations. I am convinced that all the
bubbles will quickly burst.”
Hovsepian used to be one of Armenia’s most powerful state officials. As chief
prosecutor, he played a major role in a government crackdown on the opposition
launched after the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. Dozens of opposition
members, including Nikol Pashinian, were jailed on controversial charges at the
time.
Hovsepian resigned in June 2018 one month after Pashinian swept to power as a
result of mass protests that toppled the country’s former leader, Serzh
Sarkisian.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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