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Author: Ani Basmajian

Ex-president says Armenian people will not beg for peace on humiliating terms

Ani Basmajian
News.am, Armenia
Dec 18 2021
17:50, 18.12.2021

Armenian ex-president Serzh Sargsyan said that the Armenian people are peaceful, but will not beg for peace on humiliating terms.

"We will not allow the traitors who surrendered the land to endlessly speculate in the name of the deceived, disappointed, suppressed by the defeat of the people, adopting anti-popular and anti-state decisions," he said.

 "The rootless populists who came to power on a wave of human emotions, expectations, inspiration very quickly forgot all their promises and attack our state with the most disgusting methods, anti-constitutional steps," he added.

"Illegal, anti-constitutional steps of the current regime take place in the conditions of cowardly behavior designed to protect the Constitution of the presidential institution, its criminal silence.

"Meanwhile, a few years ago, they would have made an elephant out of a fly, would have raised a fuss on international platforms, would have written reports, would have given interviews.

"The Armenian people are peaceful, but they will not beg for peace on humiliating terms, but will achieve a decent peace.

We will not allow the traitors who surrendered the land to endlessly speculate in the name of the deceived, disappointed, suppressed by the defeat of the people, taking anti-national and anti-state decisions," he added.

Pashinyan highlights importance of opening Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway as soon as possible

Ani Basmajian

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 11:33,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. During the Brussels meeting, the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reaffirmed the agreement and decision on constructing the Yeraskh-Julfa-Ordubad-Meghri-Horadiz railway.

Speaking at the December 16 Cabinet meeting, the Armenian Prime Minister said that this agreement was reached as a result of the discussions of the trilateral (Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan) task force dealing with the opening of regional connections.

PM Pashinyan reminded that the agreement was recorded in the November 26 Sochi meeting mediated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that this was recorded during the Brussels meeting mediated by the President of the European Council Charles Michel.

“I am underscoring that the railway will function in accordance to internationally accepted border and customs regulations on reciprocal principle, under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries. With this railway Armenia will receive access to the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation, while Azerbaijan will receive railway access to Nakhijevan,” Prime Minister Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan highlighted that if Armenia succeeds in starting some dialogue with Turkey and if the opening of border and connections is successfully achieved then this project could become more major, reminding the Yeraskh-Gyumri-Kars railway.

“Of course, before the construction itself there’s a lot to be done, to develop, announce tenders, to reach agreements. Of course, a part of this work is already done, but now we must solve this objective with practical and daily work. Certainly, we will hold narrow-format consultations in the next days to further specify our ideas, the timeframes and the roadmap. Our intention and desire is to have this railway as soon as possible. I wouldn’t want to overestimate the importance of this agreement and project, but on the other hand I don’t want to underestimate it: this is an important agreement, which, I certainly hope we will implement accurately, and which will significantly change the region’s economic, investment, political and security environment, and we must soon focus on solving this issue as well,” Pashinyan said.

Turkey appoints former Ambassador to U.S. as special envoy for dialogue with Armenia

Ani Basmajian

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 15:28,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. Turkey has appointed Serdar Kilic, former ambassador to the US, as special envoy to discuss steps for normalization of ties with Armenia, the Turkish foreign minister said on Wednesday, Anadolu News Agency reports. 

Kilic's appointment has been made with the approval of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish foreign minister said Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

Turkey, Armenia to appoint special envoys for normalizing relations — Turkish top diplomat

Ani Basmajian
TASS, Russia
Dec 13 2021
According to the Turkish top diplomat, each step in this direction will be taken jointly with Azerbaijan

ANKARA, December 13. /TASS/. Turkey and Armenia may appoint special envoys for the normalization of bilateral relations, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.

"We with Armenia will soon appoint special envoys to take steps toward the normalization [of bilateral relations]. We will also open chartered flights with the Armenian capital city Yerevan," Turkey’s NTV channel quoted him as saying.

According to the Turkish top diplomat, each step in this direction will be taken jointly with Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said back in September that Moscow was ready to continue its efforts to help Ankara and Yerevan improve their relations and saw positive signals from the sides. According to Zakharova, normalizing relations between these countries would promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region, especially on the backdrop of the "normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations in the context of the implementation of the statements signed by the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders on November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021."

Armenia and Turkey have a common border but have no diplomatic relations. The two countries’ top diplomats inked protocols on establishing diplomatic ties and principles of relations in Zurich in 2009. The documents however have not been ratified by both parties. Moreover, Armenia announced the annulment of the protocols on March 1, 2018.

AP: Armenia, Azerbaijan trade blame for border clashes..

Ani Basmajian
The Intelligencer
Dec 9 2021
Dec. 9, 2021Updated: Dec. 9, 2021 11:58 a.m.

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Armenia and Azerbaijan on Thursday traded blame for border clashes in which officials say at least one soldier was killed and two others were wounded amid simmering tensions between the ex-Soviet neighbors.

Armenia’s military said that two of its troops were wounded after Azerbaijani forces opened fire on Armenian positions, while Azerbaijan said Armenian forces killed one of its soldiers in what it called “a provocation.”

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old dispute over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

Moscow brokered a peace deal last November to end six weeks of fighting over the territory, during which more than 6,600 people were killed. The Russia-brokered truce allowed Azerbaijan to reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that the Armenia-backed separatists controlled.

Tensions on the two nations’ border have been building since May, when Armenia protested what it described as an incursion by Azerbaijani troops into its territory. Azerbaijan has insisted that its soldiers were deployed to what it considers its territory in areas where the border has yet to be demarcated. Clashes have been reported ever since.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks in Sochi. After the meeting, Putin said that the three leaders agreed to create, before the end of the year, mechanisms for delimitation and demarcation of the border between the two countries.

Azerbaijani press: Yerevan bloggers detail Armenian crimes during Karabakh wars

Ani Basmajian
9 December 2021 17:28 (UTC+04:00)
653

By Ayya Lmahamad

Armenian bloggers have revealed horrible truths about the crimes committed against Azerbaijanis and Armenians during the first and second Karabakh wars. 

Blogger Nairi Akhverdi posted a tweet about Armenia's occupation policy and the cruelty of Armenian field commanders and soldiers during the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s.

The blogger wrote that Armenia’s leaders strongly failed the Armenian society.

“Our leaders let us down badly. This shocked many young Armenians who were raised on ignorance, who did not know that the seven [Azerbaijani] regions were ethnically cleansed and that this story was conveniently covered with patriotic slogans of liberation,” Akhverdi tweeted.

She added that the Armenians who fought during the first Karabakh war often speak candidly about their experience.

“One veteran told me how his commander ordered his unit to dig up Azerbaijani graves and search for gold teeth. He said he watched in horror at the greed of the commander and his fellow soldiers,” the blogger wrote.

Moreover, in an address posted on social networking platforms, another Armenian blogger Roman Baghdasaryan voiced facts about the enormous scale of corruption and lies in Armenia during Serzh Sargsyan's presidency.

He recounted how the former government had lied to its people about the scale of their defeat in the hostilities of April 2016, how many Armenian diaspora leaders around the world shamefully behaved, how millions of dollars collected by Armenians living around the world to help the Armenian army during the 44-day war in 2020 had disappeared, etc.

Recently, Baghdasaryan spoke about the Gurgen Martirosyan, known as “Archbishop Pargev”, who claimed to be the leader of the self-proclaimed “Artsakh” Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

"Talk about Father Pargev, who ran away from Karabakh as soon as the war ended. Aren't you a holy father? Where did you run away to? Think about it: the holy father ran away from Karabakh, abandoned the 'Artsakh people'. And when they took Shusha in 1992, Father Pargev was making a decision about who to give the apartments in Shusha to. Who are you? How can you, the holy father, get into Azerbaijani apartments and give them away? Give away Azerbaijani apartments at your behest,” he said.

“We are not going to go to war with Azerbaijan just to make Karabakh's generals rich. I just want to remind you that when the Azerbaijanis were going to Hadrut, the Armenian military, and this is what [former Armenian Defence Ministry spokesman] Artsrun Hovhannisyan himself said Armenians were looting and plundering their own homes. Do you understand that?" he added.

Baghdasaryan also accused the separatist regime in Karabakh of shooting Armenian soldiers during the 44-days war. In particular, he said that 250 Armenian servicemen were killed by separatists' criminal actions in the direction of Sugovushan alone.

Meanwhile, the Baku-based news website Day.az said the appalling truth about the crimes committed before and during the 44-day war will be heard in Armenia for a long time to come.

10 stories of hyperinflation in history

Ani Basmajian
Dec 5 2021

  • By Amanda Push
    Stacker

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  • Dec 5, 2021

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URGENT: Azerbaijani forces attack Armenian positions from eastern direction

Ani Basmajian

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 14:46,

Last updated – 15:33 

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani military units attacked an Armenian Armed Forces position in the eastern direction of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border around 12:00, December 10.

The Ministry of Defense said that the Armenian military’s countermeasures repelled the attack. An unspecified number of Azerbaijani troops were neutralized.

The firefight continued as of 14:30.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Russian peacekeepers promise to oversee return of all Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan

Ani Basmajian
Dec 10 2021


    JAMnewsYerevan

“The work on the return of captured Armenian soldiers is ongoing at the moment, it is positive, there is understanding. I believe that this issue should be resolved completely and the Russian peacekeepers will bring this matter to an end”, said Rustam Muradov, deputy commander of the Southern Military District. Previously, he served as the commander of the peacekeeping contingent which has been stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh since the signing of the ceasefire agreement in the fall of 2020.

Rustam Muradov oversaw all of the previous prisoner exhcanges, even after leaving the post of commander of the peacekeeping contingent.

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The Russian general also said that he regards the work on the return of prisoners “as a civil duty of peacekeepers”.

“As a military man, I understand who the prisoners of war are, what they experienced while in captivity. I remember the first flight, when we flew to Baku, and on my return I saw the faces of those servicemen when they had already flown to Yerevan, to the Erebuni airfield. They were crying, they could not believe that they had returned home”, said Rustam Muradov.

Return of the prisoners of war is a painful issue in Armenian society. According to the tripartite declaration of the cessation of hostilities on November 9, 2020, the parties undertake to return all prisoners to each other. All Azerbaijani prisoners were returned by the Armenian side, but dozens of Armenian prisoners still remain in Baku.

After the second Karabakh war, 126 prisoners of war and civilians returned to their homeland from Azerbaijan, they were returned in small groups. Baku does not report exactly how many people remain in Azerbaijani prisons. Those Armenians who remain in captivity are declared “terrorists” in Azerbaijan and are going to be tried.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov also commented on this topic on December 9. He stated that within the framework of the peacekeeping operation on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh the Russian military personnel is now focused on the return of prisoners, the implementation of infrastructure projects and the solution of other humanitarian tasks.

This refers to the demining of terrain and objects, the search for the bodies of the dead and ensuring the safety of the delivery of humanitarian supplies.

“In addition to ensuring the observance of the ceasefire, the efforts of our peacekeepers are focused on restoring peaceful life in the region and humanitarian issues are being successfully resolved”, said Valery Gerasimov.

At a briefing with the military attachés of the diplomatic missions operating in Russia, he said that the Russian Armed Forces continue to carry out peacekeeping tasks in Nagorno-Karabakh:

“More than a year ago, we managed to stop the bloody war and create conditions for the restoration of peace in the region. In order to reduce tensions and comply with the ceasefire regime, Russian peacekeepers organized watch posts and patrols in the area of the peacekeeping operation”.

UN top court to rule in Armenia-Azerbaijan feud

Ani Basmajian
Dec 7 2021
Danny KEMP
Tue, December 7, 2021, 4:02 AM

The UN's top court will decide on Tuesday on tit-for-tat requests by Armenia and Azerbaijan for emergency measures to ease tensions after last year's war between the Caucasus arch-foes.

The former Soviet republics, which battled for six weeks in autumn 2020 over Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, both allege racial discrimination by the other side.

In September, the rivals each asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) located in the Peace Palace of The Hague to take steps against the other, pending the resolution of a full case that will take years.

The ICJ's chief judge Joan Donoghue "will deliver its order on the request for the indication of provisional measures made by the Republic of Armenia" at 1400 GMT, the court said in a statement.

Its ruling on Azerbaijan's case will follow immediately afterwards.

The ICJ was set up after World War II to resolve disputes between United Nations member states. Parties that have agreed to let the court adjudicate their disputes are obliged to follow its rulings, but the court has no means to enforce them.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic Armenian region of Azerbaijan that broke away from Baku's control in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict last year claimed more than 6,500 lives. It ended in November with a Russian-brokered ceasefire under which Armenia ceded territories it had controlled for decades to Turkish-backed Azerbaijan.

– 'Cycle of hate' –

During hearings in October Armenia and Azerbaijan both accused the other of breaching a UN treaty, the International Convention on All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Armenia accused Azerbaijan of fuelling a "cycle of hate" by indoctrinating generations of people into a "culture of fear, of hate of anything and everything Armenian".

They asked judges to order the immediate release of Armenian prisoners of war and demanded the closure of Azerbaijan's so-called Military Trophies Park, where they say wax mannequins of Armenian troops with "exaggerated Armenophobic features" are displayed.

Azerbaijan meanwhile accused Armenia of laying landmines as part of a campaign of "ethnic cleansing".

It said that after the "liberation" of Nagorno-Karabakh last year, when Azerbaijani civilians tried to return to their homes they found the area had been "carpeted" with landmines by Armenia.

Azerbaijan said on Saturday it had freed 10 Armenian soldiers captured last month during fresh fighting, following Russian-mediated talks.

Armenia in exchange passed on maps of mine fields.

The swap came after Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian agreed to ease tensions last week at a rare meeting in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

dk/pbr