Thursday, November 4, 2021
Azerbaijan Found Guilty In 2014 Deaths Of Armenian Captives
November 04, 2021
• Robert Zargarian
FRANCE – The building of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,
September 11, 2019
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found Azerbaijani authorities
guilty of torturing two residents of Armenian border villages who died after
crossing into Azerbaijan in 2014.
In separate rulings announced on Thursday, the ECHR ordered Baku to pay the
families of Karen Petrosian and Mamikon Khojoyan a total of 80,000 euros
($92,000) in damages.
Petrosian, a 33-year-old villager from Tavush province bordering Azerbaijan,
crossed the frontier for unclear reasons in August 2014. He was first spotted by
residents of an Azerbaijani border village and then detained by the Azerbaijani
military. Petrosian was accused of being part of an Armenian “sabotage group”
that tried to infiltrate Azerbaijan.
Petrosian was pronounced dead the following day. Baku claimed that he died of
“acute heart failure.”
The Armenian authorities rejected the claim, saying that Petrosian was murdered
or beaten to death. The United States and France expressed serious concern at
the man’s suspicious death and called on Baku to conduct an objective
investigation.
Azerbaijan - Azerbaijan soldiers escort Karen Petrosian, an Armenian villager
who crossed into Azerbaijan, 7Aug2014
The 77-year-old Khojoyan, who lived in another Tavush village, was detained in a
nearby Azerbaijani settlement in January 2014. Baku claimed that he was an armed
guide of an Armenian sabotage group that tried to carry out a cross-border
incursion. Yerevan laughed off the claim, saying that the elderly man strayed
into Azerbaijani territory by accident.
Khojoyan was freed and repatriated in March 2014. He died more than two months
later. Armenian doctors said he suffered serious injuries during his captivity.
The ECHR ruled that in both cases Azerbaijan violated articles of the European
Convention on Human Rights that guarantee people’s right to life and prohibit
torture. It said that Petrosian and Khojoyan were subjected to violence in
Azerbaijani custody.
The Azerbaijani government did not immediately react to the rulings. It can
appeal against them in the ECHR Grand Chamber.
Armenia - Mamikon Khojoyan, a 77-year-old villager detained and later freed by
Azerbaijan, is treated at a hospital in Ijevan, 5Mar2014.
In January 2020, the Strasbourg-based court handed down a similar verdict on an
appeal lodged by the parents of Manvel Saribekian, a 20-year-old resident of
another Armenian border village who was detained Azerbaijan in September 2010.
Azerbaijani authorities paraded Saribekian on national television, saying that
he was trained by an Armenian commando unit and sent to Azerbaijan to carry out
terrorist attacks. Saribekian’s family strongly denied the allegations,
insisting that he accidentally crossed the border while grazing cattle.
Saribekian was found hanged in an Azerbaijani detention center in October 2010.
Azerbaijani officials claimed that he committed suicide.
The young man’s body underwent a forensic examination after being handed over to
Armenia. Law-enforcement authorities in Yerevan concluded that he was tortured
to death.
Provincial Governor Resigns After Election Setback
November 04, 2021
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia - Shirak Governor Hovhannes Harutiunian.
The governor of Armenia’s northwestern Shirak province was relieved of his
duties on Thursday more than two weeks after the ruling Civil Contract party’s
failure to win a municipal election in the provincial capital Gyumri.
Hovannes Harutiunian topped the list of the party’s candidates for the October
17 election marked by a very low voter turnout. In a serious setback for Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian, Civil Contract finished second with about 30 percent
of the vote. It trailed a local political group linked to Gyumri’s outgoing
mayor, Samvel Balasanian.
Harutiunian held a farewell news conference in Gyumri hours after Pashinian’s
government formally accepted his resignation. He insisted that he was not forced
to resign.
“As soon as it was decided that I will be leading the list of Civil Contract’s
local election candidates it became obvious that regardless of the outcome of
the election I will not hold the post of Shirak governor anymore,” he said.
“What happened today is a logical continuation of that decision.”
“We need to understand why our citizens didn’t want to go to the polls,”
Harutiunian said when asked about reasons for the ruling party’s failure to
install Gyumri’s next mayor. Pashinian’s party respects any decision made by
voters, he added.
Despite the election defeat, Civil Contract reached a power-sharing agreement
with the election winner, the Balasanian Bloc, whose top candidate, Vardges
Samsonian, was elected as Gyumri mayor by the new city council on Monday. As
part of that deal, the ruling party will name the two deputy mayors and other
senior officials in the municipal administration.
The deal was signed on October 30 two days after two senior Gyumri officials
affiliated with the Balasanian Bloc were arrested by Armenia’s National Security
Service on corruption charges. The bloc did not publicly allege political
reasons behind the arrests.
Some Armenian outlets reported earlier in October that the Balasanian Bloc is
facing strong pressure from the central government to cut a power-sharing deal
with Pashinian’s party and even cede the post of mayor to it. Senior party
figures denied such pressure.
Armenia, Azerbaijan ‘Not Holding’ Border Demarcation Talks
November 04, 2021
• Naira Nalbandian
• Tatevik Sargsian
ARMENIA -- Azerbaijani (L) and Armenian army posts at the Sotk gold mine on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border, June 18, 2021
Armenia and Azerbaijan have still not begun negotiations on demarcating their
contested border, a senior Armenian diplomat insisted on Thursday.
Tensions have run high at several sections of the long border where Azerbaijani
forces reportedly advanced a few kilometers into Armenian territory in mid-May.
Armenia has repeatedly demanded their unconditional withdrawal. Azerbaijan
maintains that its troops took up new positions on the Azerbaijani side of the
frontier.
Russia proposed later in May that Yerevan and Baku set up a commission on border
delimitation and demarcation. President Vladimir Putin reiterated late last
month Russian offers to act as a mediator in such talks with Soviet military
maps at its disposal.
“As long as there are no [border] delimitation negotiations it is too premature
to speak about what maps and documents we will be guided by,” Armenian Deputy
Foreign Minister Vahe Gevorgian told reporters. “When such negotiations start we
will address those issues.”
The Aliqmedia.am news service reported last week that that Putin will host fresh
talks between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev on November 9 on the first anniversary of a Russian-brokered
ceasefire that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Citing unnamed Armenian
diplomatic sources, the publication claimed that Aliyev and Pashinian will sign
two documents envisaging the demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and
its opening for cargo traffic.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan did not rule out afterwards the possibility of
an Armenian-Azerbaijani summit while saying that it is not planned yet. His
Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov said on Thursday that he has “no
information” about such an encounter.
Aliyev complained, meanwhile, that Yerevan has still not responded to Baku’s
proposals to sign an Armenian-Azerbaijani “peace treaty” and start demarcating
the border on the basis of recognizing each other’s territorial integrity.
Armenian leaders have repeatedly called for demarcation talks. The secretary of
Armenia’s Security Council, Armen Grigorian, said last week that Yerevan is
still awaiting “positive signals on that score from Azerbaijan.”
Armenian Health Ministry Seeks COVID-19 Health Pass
November 04, 2021
• Nane Sahakian
Armenia - Police officers talk to women not wearing mandatory masks on a street
in downtown Yerevan, November 2, 2021.
The Ministry of Health advocated on Thursday the introduction of a mandatory
health pass for entry to cultural and leisure venues following record numbers of
coronavirus cases and deaths registered in Armenia.
Health Minister Anahit Avanesian said the ministry will circulate later in the
day a relevant draft decision that will be discussed by an interagency
commission.
It would require people to produce, starting from December 1, the health pass
showing that they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or have had a recent
negative test in order to visit bars, restaurants and other public venues.
Armenians working for public or private entities already have to get inoculated
or take coronavirus tests twice a month at their own expense. The draft Ministry
of Health directive cited by Avanesian would require such mandatory testing to
be done once a week.
Armenia - People line up outside a mobile vaccination center in Yerevan's
Liberty Square, September 24, 2021.
The purpose of the proposed measures is to speed up vaccinations and thereby
contain the latest wave of coronavirus infections in Armenia. Speaking at a
weekly cabinet meeting earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian
complained that the vaccination process remains slow despite having accelerated
in recent weeks.
Avanesian told the cabinet that more than 852,000 vaccine shots have been
administered in the country of about 3 million to date. Only about 264,000
people have received two doses of a vaccine, she said.
Daily coronavirus cases have steadily increased since June, reaching record-high
levels late last month. The Ministry of Health reported a record 62 deaths from
COVID-19 on Tuesday.
The ministry’s National Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that
the respiratory disease killed at least 41 more Armenians on Wednesday. The
center also said that as much as 19 percent of about 12,200 coronavirus tests
carried out across the country came back positive.
Armenia - Health Minister Anahit Avanesian speaks during a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan, November 4, 2021.
Avanesian said Armenian hospitals remain overwhelmed by the increased number of
infected people in need of urgent care.
“We have a slight drop in the number of citizens awaiting hospitalization but
[hospital] beds still don’t stay vacant for a single second,” she told Pashinian
and fellow ministers.
Pashinian made clear that the government still has no plans to impose lockdown
restrictions and will continue to concentrate on its immunization campaign. For
his part, Education Minister Vahram Dumanian said he is unlikely to again extend
school holidays that end on November 7.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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