Author: Aram Torosian

Asbarez: In Welcoming European Parliament Resolution, Artsakh Calls for Sanctions Against Baku

Aram Torosian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Main, Latest, News, Top Stories

Azerbaijanis, claiming to be environmental activists, have been blockading the Lachin corridor since Dec. 12


The Artsakh Foreign Ministry on Friday welcomed the adoption of resolutions by the European Parliament on EU-Armenia and EU-Azerbaijan relations, expressing its belief that the measures, including the recommendations on imposing sanctions on Azerbaijani officials, will be an important contribution to efforts to lift Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh and prevent its plans to carry out ethnic cleansing and genocide in Artsakh.

The European Parliament, with an overwhelming majority, adopted a resolution, in which it called on Baku to end the blockade of the Lachin Corridor and comply with the order of the International Court of Justice, which last month urged Azerbaijan to ensure “unimpeded movement” along the road.

“We support the call by the European Parliament on the European Council to impose targeted sanctions against Azerbaijani government officials, if the order of the International Court of Justice of February 22, 2023 is not immediately implemented,” the Artsakh foreign ministry said.

“We consider it important that in its resolutions the European Parliament has clearly acknowledged that the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, which has lasted for more than three decades and has resulted in tens of thousands of casualties, immense destruction and the forced displacement of thousands of people, remains unresolved,” the foreign ministry added.

In particular, members of the European Parliament expressed its legitimate and justified concern over the fact that the ceasefire statement of November 9, 2020, introduced following the 44-day war waged by Azerbaijan in 2020, has not been fully implemented. Deadly military clashes continue to erupt periodically, the ceasefire has been violated repeatedly resulting in hundreds of casualties and the occupation of new territory by Azerbaijani troops, including the territory of the Republic of Armenia, and since December 12, 2022, civilian traffic between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh along the Lachin Corridor has been blocked, which has a negative impact on deliveries of food and other essential supplies to Artsakh.

In its resolution on EU-Azerbaijan relations, the European Parliament also recognized and condemned Turkey’s expansionist and destabilizing role in the South Caucasus, which manifested itself, among other things, in sending Syrian mercenaries to the conflict zone to fight on the side of Azerbaijan, and expressed the position that for Turkey to play a constructive role in the region, it should reconsider its unconditional support for Azerbaijan and take tangible steps towards normalizing relations with Armenia.

“We share the position of European Parliamentarians that sustainable and lasting peace cannot be achieved through military means and the threat or use of force, but requires a comprehensive political settlement in accordance with international law, including the principles enshrined in the UN Charter, the 1975 OSCE Helsinki Final Act, in particular non-use of force, territorial integrity and equal rights and self-determination of peoples, as well as the Basic Principles of the OSCE Minsk Group of 2009,” added the Artsakh foreign ministry.

“To this end, we concur with the European Parliament members that comprehensive peace requires an end to all violence and addressing the root causes of the conflict, including those related to ensuring the security and the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh and determining its final status, and the issue of the prompt and safe return of all refugees and internally displaced people to their homes,” said the Artsakh Foreign Ministry.

“We are confident that the resolutions of the European Parliament, including its recommendation to impose targeted sanctions against Azerbaijani government officials, will become an important contribution to the common efforts to end the blockade and stop Azerbaijan’s criminal plans to commit ethnic cleansing and genocide in Artsakh,” concluded the foreign ministry statement.

The former NATO Secretary General called on Aliyev to immediately stop the blockade of Artsakh

Aram Torosian

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 17:40,

YERERVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. Former Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to immediately open the Lachin Corridor and stop the blockade of Artsakh, ARMENPRESS reports, Rasmussen announced during a briefing with journalists in Jermuk.

"Yesterday I had meetings in Yerevan, and today I visited the southern regions of Armenia in order to see with my own eyes the consequences of Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia. I am in Jermuk, and the mayor told me what a negative impact the Azeri attack had on the city, particularly on the tourist life. Today I visited the beginning of Lacin Corridor. As you know, that corridor is the only link between Armenia and the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. That road has been under blockade since December of last year. This blockade is neither humane nor legal. I met with people who live in Nagorno-Karabakh and they told me about the critical situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The blockade means that only very small amounts of food or medicine can be delivered to Nagorno-Karabakh, which means a shortage of food and life-saving medicine in Nagorno-Karabakh. We are facing a humanitarian crisis that could turn into a humanitarian disaster. That blockade is illegal. A few weeks ago, the International Court of Justice made a decision obliging Azerbaijan to ensure free and safe movement through the Lachin Corridor. The decision is binding, which means that Azerbaijan is obliged to open the corridor for free movement. I send a message to the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and tell him to lift the blockade immediately," said Rasmussen.

He reminded that he last visited Armenia in 2012 as the Secretary General of NATO. "A lot has changed since that day, and I met the Prime Minister, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, and expressed satisfaction with the efforts they are making to strengthen democracy in Armenia. I am here at the invitation of the Armenian government to help Armenia strengthen its ties with the European Union and the West in general," he said.

Gegharkunik Governor briefs Russian Ambassador on consequences of 2022 Azerbaijani attack

Aram Torosian

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 16:46,

YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS. Governor of Gegharkunik Karen Sargsyan held a meeting with Russian Ambassador to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin who’s visiting the province on March 10. 

In a statement posted on social media, Sargsyan said he discussed with the ambassador the roadmap of cooperation signed between Gegharkunik and Russia’s Omsk in August 2022, which enables to cooperate in economy, education, culture, healthcare, environmental protection, tourism and other vitally important areas, which in turn will contribute to expanding economic relations.

The governor also briefed the ambassador on the consequences of the 13-14 September 2022 Azerbaijani aggression against border settlements in Gegharkunik, the current situation in these settlements and the actions for overcoming it.

Music: Local composer’s ‘An Armenian Trilogy’ documentary to premiere on DPTV

Aram Torosian
March 9 2023
Local composer’s ‘An Armenian Trilogy’ documentary to premiere on DPTV
By GARY GRAFF |
PUBLISHED: March 8, 2023 at 12:07 p.m. | UPDATED: March 8, 2023 at 12:08 p.m.

Dan Yessian released “The Freedom, The Fear and The Faith: An Armenian Trilogy” nearly eight years ago, and it’s remained a high point in a career that’s full of awards and achievements.

In 2014 the Farmington Hills-based composer was asked by his church priest to write a piece commemorating the centennial of the genocide in which 1.5 million Armenian families were murdered by the Turkish Ottomans. Yessian created an evocative three-movement, 22-minute duet between piano and violin, composed on one of the late Burt Bacharach’s old pianos. It was performed in 2017 by the Armenian Philharmonic and became the subject of a documentary by Yessian that will have its broadcast premiere at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 12, on Detroit Public Television (Channel 56).

“My objective was to musically interpret the feelings of my grandparents, whose stories reflected their escape from Turkey,” explains Yessian, 78, founder of Yessian Music, which also has offices and studios, run by his sons, in New York, Los Angeles and Hamburg, Germany. And while most of his composing work is shorter form for commercial clients, “An Armenian Trilogy” allowed him to stretch himself beyond that.

“This is the culmination of all my musical experience,” Yessian notes. “It was quite a feat for me in trying to make something interesting enough that would portray what (the genocide) was — which I never thought I’d be capable of doing. So this is something I could leave for my family, and for posterity, per se. It’s a passion.”

Yessian will appear during Sunday’s broadcast of the documentary, interviewed by DPTV’s Fred Nahat. The “Trilogy” itself is available via Amazon, iTunes and Spotify.


Azerbaijan accuses Russia of ‘distorting the facts and spreading inaccurate information’ about shooting at Armenian car

Aram Torosian
NEWS.am
Armenia – March 8 2023
12:40, 07.03.2023

The Ministry of Defense (MOD) of Azerbaijan issued a statement and accused the MOD of Russia of "distorting the facts and spreading inaccurate information" about the shooting at a police vehicle in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

In this way, Azerbaijan is not only trying to "substantiate" the fact of its sabotage, but also to create an "informational pretext" for its future aggressive actions, as well as prerequisites for withdrawing the Russian peacekeeping troops from Nagorno-Karabakh and carrying out ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Artsakh.

Earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am reported that at around 10am on March 5, a sabotage group of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces targeted and opened fire on a staff shift vehicle of the Passport and Visa Department of the Artsakh Police. Three Artsakh policemen were killed and one was injured as a result. Baku, in turn, reported the death of two Azerbaijani servicemen.

Armenian Defense Ministry: Yerevan denied Baku’s statements about the shelling of Azerbaijani positions

Aram Torosian
March 6 2023

March 6 – BLiTZ. On March 6, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia made an official statement regarding the information of the Azerbaijani government that the Armenian side opened fire on the joint border.

The Armenian Defense Ministry denied the statements of Azerbaijan and called them invalid. According to the press service of the Armenian Defense Ministry, the country’s military forces did not fire at the border with Azerbaijan. Law enforcement agencies of Armenia reported that this is not the first time that the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has been spreading false information.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry proposed to gather Armenia and Azerbaijan at the table regarding peace talks.

TASS: The Russian Defense Ministry said that the ceasefire was violated in Russia’s zone of responsibility in Karabakh

Days after first high-profile talks, a deadly clash in Karabakh

Aram Torosian
March 6 2023
John Horan Mar 6, 2023
The Lachin corridor connects Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh

A shooting in Nagorno-Karabakh on March 5 left three Karabakhi Armenian police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers dead. 

Naturally, Azerbaijan on the one hand and Karabakh and Armenia on the other are offering vastly different accounts of what happened. 

The incident comes just as Azerbaijan-Karabakh talks seemed to be picking up steam, and nearly three months into the blockade of Karabakh by Azerbaijani government-sponsored activists. 

Those activists are camped out near the town of Shusha, on the road that forms the Lachin corridor, Karabakh's only lifeline to Armenia and the outside world. 

The Azerbaijani defense ministry's account of the incident suggested that Armenian vehicles were attempting to bypass the blockade — which Baku denies is a blockade — in order to transport "military equipment, ammunition, and personnel" from Armenia to Karabakh. 

Azerbaijani army units had attempted to "stop and inspect" some such vehicles which had been using the "Khankandi-Khalfali-Turshu dirt road," it said. (Khankandi is the Azerbaijani name for Stepanakert, the administrative center of Nagorno-Karabakh.)

"The opposing side opened fire and there were casualties and injuries from both sides as a result of the firefight," it added. 

The ministry said that the only road that can be used between Armenia and Karabakh is the "Khankandi-Lachin road" and that the use of the detour constitutes a violation of the November 9, 2020 Russian-brokered peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. 

It called on the Russian peacekeeping contingent, deployed in the area under the same agreement, to intervene. 

Karabakh's de facto foreign ministry, meanwhile, said "a group of saboteurs from the Azerbaijani armed forces" crossed into Karabakh-administered territory and "committed an armed attack on a patrol car of the passport and visa directorate" of the Karabakh police, killing three officers and wounding another. 

This incursion represents a violation of the trilateral agreement, it said. 

Armenia's foreign ministry supported that version, adding that the police vehicle that was attacked was on its way from Stepanakert to villages inside Nagorno-Karabakh and that there was nothing in it besides documents and a service pistol. It dismissed as "absurd" Baku's accusation of personnel and weapons being transported from Armenia to Karabakh. 

Azerbaijan has long made such claims, including that Armenian and Karabakhi forces have continued to lay mines since the 2020 war that ended in Azerbaijan's victory.

The International Court of Justice, the top court of the United Nations, ruled on February 23 that Azerbaijan should ensure movement on the blockaded Lachin corridor. In its ruling it rejected Azerbaijan's request that the court demand new measures related to allegations that Armenian forces are continuing to plant land mines on Azerbaijani territory. 

A day before the clash, Azerbaijani media reported that an Azerbaijani soldier had been killed when a mine "planted by Armenians" blew up (the location of that incident was not reported).

Azerbaijan's defense ministry said the March 5 incident demonstrates the need for establishing Azerbaijani checkpoints on the Lachin corridor. 

This demand was issued recently by President Ilham Aliyev in parallel with moving back from Baku's demand for the establishment of a seamless transportation link from mainland Azerbaijan to the Nakhchivan exclave through Armenia known as the "Zangezur corridor."

Karabakh's foreign ministry said that the timing of the "attack" — four days after the most public yet meeting between Azerbaijani and Karabakhi representatives — indicated that there was no point in negotiations. 

"Through its actions Baku is openly demonstrating its rejection of talks as a means for resolving any issues," it said.

John Horan is Eurasianet's Caucasus editor.

Armenian gymnastics coach deported from Qatar upon arrival without explanation

Aram Torosian

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 14:09, 7 March 2023

YEREVAN, MARCH 7, ARMENPRESS. The coach of Armenia’s gymnastics team has been deported from Qatar shortly after arriving there for the world cup series, sports officials revealed Tuesday.

“As soon as we arrived in Doha to participate in the world cup series, coach Hayk Nazaryan was deported for five years during passport control,” the head coach of the Armenian team Hakob Serobyan said at a press conference. “We don’t know why. He stayed in the airport for hours before being sent back to Armenia.”

Serobyan said that Nazaryan visited the country before without any problems.

Turkish press: Trapessac, Shrine of Bastami among landmarks collapsed after Türkiye quake

Aram Torosian
 ISTANBUL FEB 17, 2023 – 9:36 AM GMT+3 
EDITED BY BUSE KESKIN

The medieval fortress Trapessac, Darb-ı Sak in Turkish, was severely damaged after the earthquakes, Hatay, Türkiye, Feb. 15, 2023. (AA Photo)

Trapessac, (Darb-ı Sak in Turkish) a medieval fortress that played a crucial role in the Crusader Princedom of Antakya, one of Türkiye's earthquake-stricken cities, was severely damaged in addition to many historical landmarks such as the Bayazid Bastami Shrine.

Earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.7 and 7.6, the epicenter of which was Kahramanmaraş, lead to the historical castle that was built on the mountain foot to collapse.

The Knights Templar built Trapessac in the 12th century, along with the nearby fortress at Bagras, to guard the Syrian Gates, a key passageway between the coastal region of Cilicia and inland Syria.

After a fierce two-week siege, the castle fell to Saladin in 1188. The castle's strategic location between the Principality of Antioch and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia made it a desirable target for both groups, and several attempts were made to retake it, including by Leo I of Armenia in 1205 and the Templars in 1237, but both efforts were unsuccessful.

The medieval fortress Trapessac, Darb-ı Sak in Turkish, was severely damaged after the earthquakes, Hatay, Türkiye, Feb. 15, 2023. (AA Photo)

Hetoum I regained control of the fortress in 1261 after the Mongols captured it, but it was surrendered to the Mamluks in 1266 to ransom his son Leo. Baybars took possession of the fortress in 1268, and in 1280, Abaqa Khan briefly regained control of it during his campaign to sack Aleppo, but ultimately abandoned it when he withdrew from Syria.

The rubble and huge rocks moving from the castle blocked the entrance of the shrine of Bayazid Bastami.

The entrance of the Shrine of Bayazid Bastami, consisting of four rectangular-planned, barrel-vaulted spaces were blocked with stones falling from the castle, Hatay, Türkiye, Feb. 15, 2023. (AA Photo)

Bastami was a prominent Sufi who renounced all worldly pleasures to be closer to Allah, and this devotion ultimately led him to a state of "self-union," which many Sufi orders believe is necessary to attain unity with God.

Bayazid's grandfather was a Zoroastrian who converted to Islam, and the name "Bastami" refers to his family's origin in the town of Bastam. Sorushan had three ascetic sons named Adam, Isa and Ali. Bayazid, the son of Isa, was also an ascetic and spent most of his childhood isolated in his house and the mosque, but he still welcomed people to discuss Islam with him.

Those who heard that the tomb was damaged came to visit the tomb from all over Türkiye.

Former French Prime Minister meets Artsakh residents in Goris who are unable to return home due to blockade

Aram Torosian

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 17:13, 21 February 2023

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a meeting with the delegation led by the former French Prime Minister, Mayor of the French city of Le Havre Édouard Philippe.

During the meeting the Armenian Prime Minister attached importance to the consistent development of the Armenian-French relations and highlighted Édouard Philippe’s efforts in strengthening the ties. PM Pashinyan highly appreciated the former French Prime Minister’s visit to Armenia.

Édouard Philippe said that he visited Syunik province, where he evaluated the situation on the ground in Goris and met with the Armenians of Artsakh who are unable to return home to Nagorno Karabakh because of the closure of the Lachin corridor. In this context, the continuous attention and consistent steps by the international community in the direction of unblocking the Lachin corridor with the purpose of overcoming the humanitarian, environmental and energy crisis in Nagorno Karabakh was highlighted.

Views were exchanged around processes taking place in the region.