Author: Albert Nalbandian

Turkey and Georgia aim to establish peace and stability in the South Caucasus region, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Thursday.

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Georgian counterpart Ilia Darchiashvili in Istanbul, Çavuşoğlu said: “We are determined to continue our bilateral ties and regional cooperation on the international arena with Georgia, a friendly, neighboring and strategic partner, through deepening relations.”

Çavuşoğlu also said that Turkey is continuing efforts for the 3+2 Caucasus platform.

Ankara has made frequent calls for a six-nation platform, the 3+3 format, comprising of Turkey, Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia for permanent peace, stability and cooperation in the region, describing it as a win-win initiative for all regional actors in the Caucasus.

Turkey believes that permanent peace is possible through mutual security-based cooperation between the states and people of the South Caucasus region.

However, Georgia had told Daily Sabah that it would not participate in such a format due to Russia’s presence.

Diplomatic ties between Russia and Georgia, which aspires to join the European Union and NATO, collapsed after Moscow occupied two of the latter's territories in a conflict and recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where Russian troops are now garrisoned. Most of the world, however, continues to consider them as part of Georgia.

“Turkey is one of the leading countries strongly supporting Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We wish that the South Ossetia and Abkhazia conflicts are solved through peaceful means and the territorial integrity of Georgia,” Çavuşoğlu underlined, adding that Ankara also supports Tbilisi’s European-Atlantic integration.

Çavuşoğlu also congratulated Georgia for bringing together the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Tbilisi.

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan this month held their first one-on-one talks since the 2020 war between the arch-foes for control of the Karabakh region.

Held in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the talks were expected to build on an agreement the Caucasus countries' leaders reached under European Union mediation in May to "advance discussions" on a future peace treaty.

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, previously referred to as Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, with the Armenian army attacking civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violating several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.

During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and around 300 settlements and villages that had been occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years.

The fighting ended with a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020, which was seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia.

On another note, Çavuşoğlu also announced that the foreign, transportation and energy ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan would meet in Tashkent on Aug. 2.

“The purpose of these meetings is this; recently, it seems difficult and impossible for products in Asia and Central Asia to be delivered to European markets via Russia, especially due to the war with Ukraine. Therefore, the importance of the middle corridor and the position of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey increases,” Turkey’s top diplomat explained.

“We would like to include Georgia in such meetings in the coming period. We need to work together on logistics and energy. This is important in terms of the economic development and stability of our region, important in terms of international markets, and extremely critical in terms of making our region an energy base,” he added.

Furthermore, he announced that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also plans to visit Georgia following the foreign minister's own visit to the country for the preparations of the third high-level strategic cooperation council.

ARF Bureau member Mourad Papazian

Mourad Papazian, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau and a co-chair of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF) announced on Thursday that he has taken legal steps to reverse the ban placed on his entry to Armenia by the authorities.

“I have decided to restore my right within the legal establishment, and for that I have entrusted my court defense to Member of Parliament Artsvik Minasyan to represent me, and attorney Siranush Sahakyan, whom I authorize to handle the necessary actions,” Papazian said on in a statement published on social media.

On July 14 Papazian arrived in Armenia on a flight from France only to be escorted by Armenia’s National Security staff to a holding area, where he was told that he was banned from entering the country and that he had been declared a persona non-grata.

The government action drew widespread criticism, including from the ARF Bureau, the CCAF leadership, as well as the ARF Western U.S. Central Committee, which in an announcement condemned the government for refusing entry to Armenia for any Armenian.

After weeks of silence on the matter, the government last week stated that the reason for expelling Papazian from Armenia was his alleged role in an anti-government protest in Paris in June 2021, when Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was in the French capital on an official visit.

Papazian called this line of reasoning a “lie,” saying he had traveled to Armenia on at least four occasions since June 2021, the most recent of which was a trip accompanying the mayor of Paris on a visit to Armenia in May of this year.

Papazian said in his statement on Thursday that Minasyan has already filed a complaint to Armenia’s NSS on July 25 calling for the department to reverse the entry ban.

“By law, the NSS has 5 days to issue an answer, and based on that we will decide how to proceed,” Papazian explained.

The Armenian Bar Association is deeply concerned about the lack of due process in the continued detention of opposition political figure Avetik Chalabyan. As a first-time accused in a non-violent case, his pre-trial detention in prison – now over two months – shows blatant disregard for due process and the rule of law. In accordance with the code of criminal procedure of the Republic of Armenia and internationally accepted standards of human rights, detention is only permissible when there is a reasonable basis to conclude that alternative pre-trial measures, such as bail, house arrest, or travel restrictions, would be inadequate.  The accused contends that the case as well as this disproportionate pre-trial detention are politically motivated, pointing out that the prosecution has not shown and the court has failed to articulate any “reasonable basis” for this detention.  More troubling still, Avetik Chalabyan’s is not an isolated case of such shortcomings in the administration of justice in recent years.

Over the past three decades, the Republic of Armenia has committed itself, under its own domestic laws and under international treaties, to respect and uphold the internationally accepted principles protecting human rights and assuring the rule of law: a fair trial, presumption of innocence, evidence-based decision making on the public record, and non-interference by political forces in the judicial process.  The Armenian Bar Association calls on the authorities to provide due process to this accused and the others, to protect human rights as they have committed to do so, and to uphold the rule of law.