23:24,
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 11, ARMENPRESS. The situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border is tense because Azerbaijan has amassed troops there, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Monday.
“The situation is tense because Azerbaijan has amassed troops on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and around Nagorno-Karabakh. And the assessments that I gave at the Cabinet meeting haven’t changed,” Pashinyan said in an interview with Public Television.
The Righteous and People of Conscience of the Armenian Genocide
Gérard Dédéyan
Ago Demirdjian
Nabil Saleh
This book tells the stories of the Muslims, Christians, Jews and others who made a courageous stand against the mass slaughter of Ottoman Armenians in 1915, the first modern genocide. Foreigners and Ottomans alike ran considerable risks to bear witness and rescue victims, sometimes sacrificing their lives.
Diplomats, humanitarians, missionaries, lawyers and other visitors to the Empire stood up, including Tolstoy’s daughter, Alexandra; Raphael Lemkin, the jurist who first established genocide as an international crime; and the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who recognised and relieved the plight of stateless Armenian refugees. Ottoman subjects—from officials and officers to ordinary townspeople and villagers—faced near-certain death for their entire family by resisting orders and helping Armenians.
Unlike the Righteous of the Holocaust, these heroes have been systematically ignored and erased—a major injustice. Based on fresh research, and hoping to repay a moral debt to Ottoman Muslims who braved everything to rescue the authors’ forebears, this book is an important, moving testament to a grievously overlooked aspect of the Armenian tragedy.
‘[This book] has a real contemporary importance.’ – Labour Hub
Gérard Dédéyan is Professor of Medieval History at the University Paul-Valéry Montpellier III. His many publications include Histoire des Arméniens, which was awarded the Biguet Prize by the Académie française.
Ago Demirdjian is an entrepreneur–philanthropist, born in Lebanon to Armenian parents who escaped the genocide only through the altruism of the Righteous. He is a patron of Tate, The Guggenheim and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.
Nabil Saleh was a novelist and international lawyer, born in Lebanon to an Armenian mother whose parents survived the genocide. His published works include Unlawful Gain and Legitimate Profit in Islamic Law. He died in London in November 2022.
20:26, 2 September 2023
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces opened cross-border fire on Saturday at Armenian military outposts near the village of Norabak, the Armenian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
“On September 2, between 16:00 p.m. and 16:10 p.m., Azerbaijani armed forces units fired from fire arms towards the Armenian combat outposts nearby Norabak,” the defense ministry said.
Armenia and Azerbaijan said Friday they had sustained casualties in fighting along their common border, northwest of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia's Defense Ministry said two of its servicemen had been killed and another wounded in shelling near the town of Sotk. Azerbaijan said that Armenia had struck positions in the Kalbajar region using drones, wounding two Azerbaijani servicemen. It said it was taking "retaliatory measures."
Reuters was unable to verify the reports.
Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, has been a source of conflict between the two Caucasus neighbors since the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and between ethnic Armenians and Turkic Azeris for well over a century.
Despite sporadic discussions on a peace deal to agree on borders, settle differences over the enclave and unfreeze relations, tensions remain high and skirmishes along the shared border are a regular occurrence.
Reuters
https://www.voanews.com/a/armenian-soldiers-killed-in-azerbaijani-shelling-defense-ministry/7250431.html
Friday,
Main Opposition Bloc Backs Yerevan Mayoral Candidate
Armenia - Opposition mayoral candidate Andranik Tevanian (left) greets
supporters during a campaign rally in Yerevan, August 23, 2023.
The Hayastan alliance headed by former President Robert Kocharian on Friday
endorsed another opposition group running in the upcoming municipal elections in
Yerevan.
Hayastan had decided not join the mayoral race, with some of its representatives
citing grave security challenges facing Armenia as well as Nagorno-Karabakh.
Media reports attributed the de facto boycott to a lack of consensus within the
alliance on its potential mayoral candidate.
Andranik Tevanian, a Hayastan parliamentarian, disagreed with the boycott,
resigning from the National Assembly and setting up his own bloc called Mayr
Hayastan (Mother Armenia) to run for Yerevan mayor. The bloc’s main campaign
message is that an opposition victory in the elections scheduled for September
17 would pave the way for regime change in the country.
Hayastan’s parliamentary group discussed the vote during a meeting chaired by
Kocharian. In an ensuing statement, it said they decided to back Tevanian’s bloc
in the polls. The statement did not specify whether Kocharian or other senior
Hayastan figures will actively participate in the election campaign.
Kocharian has kept a low profile in recent months, raising questions about his
political future. The 68-year-old ex-president’s politically active son Levon
was present at Tevanian’s inaugural campaign rally held on Wednesday.
Other major mayoral candidates include Tigran Avinian, Yerevan’s deputy mayor
representing the ruling Civil Contract party, former Mayor Hayk Marutian and
former Labor Minister Mane Tandilian leading the opposition Aprelu Yerkir party.
Avinian said on Thursday that Civil Contract expects to win a majority of seats
in the city council that will appoint the next mayor of the Armenian capital.
Karabakh Leader Offers Russian-Mediated Talks With Azerbaijan
Nagorno-Karabakh - Gurgen Nersisian delivers a video address on Facebook, August
25, 2023.
Russia should be asked to organize negotiations between representatives of the
Azerbaijani government and Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership, a senior official in
Stepanakert said on Friday.
“I believe that we should appeal to Russia, all actors taking an interest in the
situation [in and around Karabakh] with a proposal to organize a meeting with
Azerbaijan on the existing situation, security issues and the disastrous
humanitarian situation in Artsakh,” Gurgen Nersisian, the Karabakh premier, said
in a video message posted on Facebook.
“The results of that meeting should be presented to our public and appropriate
decisions should be made afterwards,” added Nersisian.
Azerbaijani officials and Karabakh representatives were reportedly due to meet
in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia in early July for talks organized by Western
mediators. Karabakh sources said it was rescheduled for August 1 but then
cancelled by the Azerbaijani side. Baku wants such negotiations to be held in
Azerbaijani proper, according to them.
A spokeswoman for Arayik Harutiunian, the Karabakh president, confirmed last
week that he accepted an Azerbaijani proposal to hold the meeting in the
Azerbaijani town of Yevlakh on August 5. She said Stepanakert cancelled it for
security reasons after Azerbaijani security forces arrested a seriously ill
Karabakh resident as he was evacuated to Armenia through the Lachin corridor.
Nersisian said the talks should take place at the Karabakh headquarters of
Russian peacekeepers or “in any other safe venue” because “nobody can guarantee
the physical security of our citizens in Azerbaijan.” They must also be held
“with the participation of a third party,” he said.
Baku maintains that the dialogue must focus on Karabakh’s “reintegration into
Azerbaijan” rejected by Stepanakert. The Karabakh leadership says it must first
and foremost address the Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor which has
caused severe shortages of food, medicine and energy in the Armenian-populated
region. It has dismissed an alternative, Azerbaijani-controlled supply route
proposed by the Azerbaijani side.
Nersisian charged that Baku’s key aim is to commit “genocide” or at least force
the Karabakh Armenians to leave their homeland.
“Therefore, claims that making concessions in response to Azerbaijan’s demands
could give us a breathing space are unserious,” he said. “They are baseless
illusions. On the contrary, they would further complicate our situation.”
France Said To Seek UN Security Council Resolution On Karabakh
• Astghik Bedevian
France - France's President Emmanuel Macron walks on the day of the annual
Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, July 14,
2023.
France is reportedly planning to propose a UN Security Council resolution
against Azerbaijan’s continuing blockade of the Lachin corridor and the
resulting humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The French daily Le Figaro reported on Wednesday that the draft resolution which
Paris is “preparing to submit” to the council is designed to help Karabakh’s
ethnic Armenian population left “on the verge of starvation.” It gave few other
details.
The French Embassy in Yerevan did not confirm or refute the report. It pointed
to French President Emmanuel Macron’s interview with another French publication,
Le Point, published earlier on Wednesday. Macron said that his government will
keep pressing for the reopening of the Lachin corridor and the resumption of
urgent relief supplies to Karabakh.
The Security Council discussed the worsening humanitarian crisis in Karabakh
last week during an emergency meeting initiated by Armenia. Although most of its
members, notably the United States, France and Russia, urged the lifting of the
Azerbaijani blockade, the Council stopped short of adopting a relevant
resolution or statement.
The U.S. on Wednesday denied claims that it is trying to prevent the key UN body
from condemning the Azerbaijani blockade. “We have not seen a draft resolution,”
the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan told the Armenpress news agency.
France, which is home to a sizable Armenian community, has been the most vocal
international critic of the eight-month Azerbaijani blockade. Baku has
repeatedly accused Macron and other French officials of siding with Armenia in
the Karabakh conflict.
CCAF, a coalition of leading Armenian Diaspora organizations in France,
announced on Thursday that the municipal administrations of Paris and several
other French cities and districts have decided to send an aid convoy to
Karabakh. It said their mayors, including Anne Hidalgo of Paris, will personally
escort on August 30 ten trucks loaded with basic necessities to an Armenian
border checkpoint adjacent to the starting point of the Lachin corridor and try
to ensure their passage to Karabakh.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
20:21,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, ARMENPRESS. On August 23, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a telephone conversation with Zbigniew Rau, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
Minister Mirzoyan briefed his Polish counterpart on the worsening crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh resulting from Azerbaijan's 8-month-long illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor, the foreign ministry said in a readout.
Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized that there are no sufficient conditions in almost all spheres of life and even the basic rights of 120,000 people are violated. Ararat Mirzoyan emphasized that before the blockade, around 90% of the food consumed was imported from Armenia. Today, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh are deprived not only of those supplies, but also of possible humanitarian support even from the ICRC.
Foreign Minister of Armenia emphasized the imperative to prevent Azerbaijan's intention to subject Nagorno-Karabakh to ethnic cleansing, stressing that the calls are no longer enough and clear actions of the international community are needed.
Ararat Mirzoyan, reaffirming Armenia’s commitment to establishing stability in the South Caucasus, emphasized that by creating a humanitarian catastrophe in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan is hindering the negotiating efforts of Armenia and the international community, including the EU.
European Union observers and their car have come under shelling by Azerbaijani troops, the Armenian defense ministry has claimed.
“At around 0:20 p.m. (11:20 a.m. Moscow time) on August 15, Azerbaijani army units opened gunfire at European Union observers, who were on a patrol mission in the Verin Shorzha area, and their car. No one was wounded,” it announced on Tuesday.
In late June, top diplomats from the EU nations agreed to deploy a two-year civilian mission to Armenia. It was tasked to build up trust in border areas and create conditions for the normalization of the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
The mission includes around 100 members, including about 50 unarmed observers.
A group of prominent Israelis, including academics, journalists, rabbis, artists, businessmen and activists, have written a letter appealing to President Isaac Herzog asking him to intervene in the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region between Azerbaijan and Armenia, according to Armenia’s Embassy to Israel.
The Nagorno-Karabakh region is home to around 120,000 residents, most of whom are of Armenian origin.
The region has been effectively under a siege by Azerbaijan for the past eight months, making it difficult to move essential goods such as food and medicine.
"The State of Israel has close ties with Azerbaijan, which is responsible for the situation in the region, and has the ability to promote the end of this crisis. By virtue of these ties, Israel also has a moral obligation to intervene and not stand by,” the letter to President Herzog stated.
President Herzog visited Azerbaijan earlier this year and met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to discuss strengthening ties between the two countries.
Azerbaijan, which borders Iran and has a Jewish population of about 20,000, maintains close strategic and economic ties with Israel.
Israel is a major exporter of arms to Azerbaijan, accounting for 69 percent of Azerbaijan’s major arms imports as of 2020, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Azerbaijani forces armed with Israeli weapons were decisive in Azerbaijan’s victory in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020.
The armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan took place in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and lasted 44 days.
Three ceasefires were brokered by Russia, France, and the United States but they were unsuccessful in ending the conflict. A ceasefire was successfully brokered by Russia following the capture of Shusha, the second-largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh, by Azerbaijani forces.
Despite the end to hostilities, Armenian prisoners of war were still held captive by Azerbaijan and were subjected to extreme abuse, torture, executions, and numerous human rights violations. The exact number of prisoners of war is unknown.
Nearly 2,000 Russian troops have been stationed in the Nagorno-Karabakh region as a peacekeeping force, with a mandate to remain there for five years after the end of the war.
However, Armenia claims that the Russian forces deployed in the region do not intervene or prevent human rights violations by the Azerbaijanis towards the Armenian people.
18:45, 9 August 2023
YEREVAN, AUGUST 9, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani military forces have again opened gunfire at farmers in Nagorno-Karabakh, this time in the village of Sarushen, the Nagorno-Karabakh police said in a statement Wednesday.
A civilian vehicle was damaged as a result of the shooting.
“On August 9, the Shosh Precinct of the Askeran Regional Police Department received a report that around 10:50, civilians working in the wheat fields in Sarushen, Askeran came under various caliber small arms fire from Azerbaijani military outposts deployed in the administrative territory of the Sargsashen village, Martuni region. Fortunately no one was hurt,” police said in a statement.
A Ford-Transit vehicle owned by a farmer was damaged.
The agricultural work was suspended and the incident was reported to the Russian peacekeeping command, police added.
10:21, 8 August 2023
YEREVAN, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. As a result of Azerbaijan's ongoing blockage of the only road linking Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) and Armenia, the Lachin Corridor since 12 December 2022, there has been a severe shortage of medications and food, along with constant stress among the population, the Nagorno-Karabakh Ministry of Healthcare said Tuesday.
The consequences of the blockade have led to an increase in the rate of diseases and complications.
“Among the total number of deaths over the seven months (January-July), there has been a recorded increase in mortality from cardiovascular diseases by more than 2 times. This includes a 66% increase in mortality from acute and chronic heart failure, a 20.8% increase in mortality from acute myocardial infarction, and an 8.8% increase in mortality from brain paralysis.
“The mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases further increased in July, reaching a preliminary 2.6 times compared to July of the previous year. This includes 2.5 times increase in mortality from acute heart failure, 4 times increase in mortality from acute myocardial infarction, and 3 times increase in mortality from brain paralysis.
“Over the course of seven months, the number of deaths caused by malignant neoplasms has increased by 15.9%. Among the reasons for the increased mortality, factors such as the shortage or absence of necessary medications, changes in quality of life, severe limitations on adequate medical assistance and reduced viability are highlighted.
“During the same period, there has been an increase in new cases of acute cerebrovascular accidents (stroke) and acute myocardial infarctions among the population by 26% and 9.7% respectively.
“From January to July, there has been a recorded increase of 24.3% in newly diagnosed cases of malignant neoplasms.
“From January to July, compared to the same period of the previous year, the level of anemia among pregnant women under medical observation has reached around 90%. This is due to inadequate nutrition and the absence or insufficiency of appropriate medications.
“Although there was no increase in the overall number of abortions during the first half of the year, there was a sharp fourfold increase in the number of medically indicated abortions in July. Stress, improper nutrition and the lack or absence of medications worsen the already distressing situation.
“In July, there has been an increase in cases of fainting (collapses) reported by the Republican Emergency Situations Service. Compared to July of the previous year, cases of fainting have increased by 91%. Very often, there are cases where a person faints, but before the arrival of emergency medical assistance, the individual regains consciousness, and the incident is not actually documented.
“In July, there was also a sharp 5.6-fold increase in emergency calls for cases of high blood pressure compared to the same period last year.
“The increase in the mentioned and other indicators of mortality and morbidity is due to serious health problems caused by the blockade and subsequent complete siege of Artsakh. This includes the shortage or absence of medications and medical supplies, inadequate nutrition of the population, stress, suspension of scheduled surgeries and examinations, restricted access to medical care in Armenia and abroad, and so on.
“The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Artsakh warns that in the event of the continued full siege of Artsakh by Azerbaijan, the mentioned and other indicators will further worsen, leading to the loss of many lives or a deterioration in their health.
“The healthcare system is doing everything possible to mitigate the consequences of the serious problems it is facing. However, the complete blockade of movement of persons, vehicles and cargo through the Lachin Corridor makes it simply impossible to provide systemic and comprehensive healthcare solutions,” the Nagorno-Karabakh Ministry of Healthcare said in a press release.