Thursday,
Armenia Blames Azerbaijan For Deaths Of Karabakh Children
• Susan Badalian
Nagorno-Karabakh - The photos of Leo and Gita, Karabakh children found dead in
Martakert on July 8, 2023.
Armenia on Thursday blamed Azerbaijan’s blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh for last
week’s deaths of two young Karabakh children whose mother had to leave them
unattended to get some food.
The 3-year-old Leo and his 6-year sister Gita were found dead in a car in the
town of Markatert on July 8 one day after disappearing from their home in the
nearby village of Aghabekalanj.
Their single mother, Vera Narimanian, left them home alone to go to Martakert to
receive sunflower oil and sugar as humanitarian aid. They were gone after she
returned to the village about two hours later.
“I spent the whole night searching for them with the police, firefighters and
army but didn’t find them,” Narimanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on
Wednesday.
“I will be devastated for the rest of my life,” she said.
The infants were caught on security cameras going to Martakert on foot late on
July 7. A town resident found them dead in his car the following morning. He
said that one of the car’s doors was not locked.
The Karabakh police suggested that Leo and Gita died in their sleep from
vehicular heatstroke. But the spokesman for another law-enforcement body
cautioned on Wednesday that this is just one of the theories considered by
investigators.
“Necessary forensic tests have been ordered … and intensive investigative work
is underway,” he said.
“The 7-month blockade of the Lachine Corridor and total siege of
Nagorno-Karabakh people is having an irreversible and devastating impact on the
lives of people: [Nagorno-Karabakh] resident children 3 y/o Leo and 6 y/o Gita
died as a consequence of the serious humanitarian situation,” tweeted Armenian
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan. “In the 21st century. This should not be
tolerated.”
Azerbaijan tightened the blockade on June 15, completely blocking emergency
supplies of food, medicine and other essential items to Karabakh which were
carried out, in limited quantities, by Russian peacekeepers and the
International Committee of the Red Cross. It thus significantly aggravated the
shortages of basic foodstuffs in the Armenian-population rationed since January.
Officials in Stepanakert say they are especially concerned about growing child
malnutrition resulting from the blockade.
“When I tell our kids to draw anything they want, they draw fruits because they
miss them,” the director of a local kindergarten told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service
on Thursday.
Arrest Warrant Issued For Former Armenian Defense Chief
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia - Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian speaks during a press conference in
Yerevan, June 28, 2017.
Armenian prosecutors have issued an international arrest warrant for Vigen
Sargsian, a U.S.-based former defense minister and opposition figure facing what
he sees as politically motivated charges.
The move comes five months after he was charged with abuse of power in
connection with the distribution of government-funded housing to Armenian army
officers and their families.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General claims that in early 2018 Sargsian
illegally ordered a Defense Ministry commission to allocate 26 apartments in
Yerevan to military personnel and ministry officials who were not on an official
waiting list for those homes.
Sargsian strongly denied that right after being indicted in February. He said
that the apartments were given in accordance with rules set by the Armenian
government and based on their recipients’ “combat background and merits.” He
challenged the current government to release the list of those officers.
Sargsian, who has lived in the United States since 2019, claimed that Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration ordered his “political persecution” to
keep him from returning to Armenia. He also complained that investigators have
not tried to question him despite knowing his phone number and e-mail address.
A prosecutor overseeing the case countered at the time that “in the materials of
the criminal case there is no information about where he lives now.”
Armenia - Vigen Sargsian, the Republican Party's top election candidate, speaks
to reporetrs outside a polling station in Yerevan, December 9, 2018.
Norayr Norikian, a lawyer representing eight other military officers who missed
out on free apartments because of the alleged wrongdoing, brushed aside the
prosecutor’s claim on Thursday.
“Vigen Sargsian periodically gives interviews, makes comments,” Norikian told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Armenian law-enforcement bodies are well aware of
his place of residence and, I think, address as well.”
The arrest warrant issued for Sargsian this week means that they have to
formally start looking for him. The criminal investigation will be suspended in
the meantime.
Sargsian, 48, served as defense minister from 2016-2018 in the administration of
President Serzh Sarkisian. The latter was forced to resign in April 2018 amid
nationwide protests led by Pashinian. Vigen Sargsian stepped down immediately
after Pashinian was elected prime minister in May 2018.
Sargsian topped the list of the former ruling Republican Party’s candidates in
snap parliamentary elections held in December 2018. According to their official
results, the party narrowly failed to clear a 5 percent vote threshold to enter
the Armenian parliament.
The prosecutors indicted Sargsian on February 8 just as the parliament allowed
them to bring separate corruption charges against Seyran Ohanian, another former
defense minister who now leads the parliamentary group of the main opposition
Hayastan alliance.
Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian asked the National Assembly to lift
Ohanian’s immunity from prosecution on January 20 one day after 15 Armenian
soldiers died at their makeshift barracks destroyed by a major fire. Hayastan
says that the case against Ohanian is aimed at defusing public anger over the
deaths.
Next Aliyev-Pashinian Meeting Slated For July 15
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Belgium - Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian and European Council President Charles Michel pose for a picture in
Brussels, May 14, 2023.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian expressed hope on Thursday that he and
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev will move closer to a peace treaty between
their countries at their next meeting slated for Saturday.
“My meeting with the president of the European Union Council [Charles Michel]
and the president of Azerbaijan is scheduled to take place in Brussels on
Saturday, July 15,” Pashinian told a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
“I have confirmed my participation in the meeting and hope to make progress
towards the peace treaty during the meeting,” he said.
The Brussels meeting was originally scheduled for July 21. It is not clear why
it was brought forward.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Pashinian and Aliyev by phone
earlier this week. He said he told them that the United States remains committed
to facilitating an Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement.
According to the U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, during his
call with Aliyev, Blinken stressed “the need for creativity, flexibility, and
compromise in the negotiations” and reiterated U.S. calls for the lifting of
Azerbaijan’s seven-month blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Washington hosted late last month another round of peace talks between the
Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. Pashinian cautioned last week that
progress made by them was “not significant.”
“Unfortunately, the text of the peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan is
not yet ready for signing,” he said.
Speaking in Baku on Tuesday, Aliyev underscored the significance of Armenia’s
recognition of Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh which was declared by
Pashinian in May. “Now, however, the time has come to put those words to paper,”
he said.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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