15:17, 3 September, 2021
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS. A Russian governmental website has used the term “Nagorno Karabakh Republic”, something it has avoided doing in the past.
The term was used in the procurement section of the Russian government’s single information platform in the defense ministry’s bid for buying maintenance services for the barracks of the Russian peacekeepers in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.
As part of a routine combat training session, Russian peacekeepers conducted a drill to prevent possible violations using unmanned aircraft of a simulated enemy and ensure security at observation posts in the Lachin (Berdzor) corridor of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).
Training was held at six training locations. The servicemen practiced new tactics and actions when leaving the location, loading onto the BTR-82A armored personnel carrier, blocking the conditional intruder and maneuvering to the specified line, using the hidden folds of the terrain, as well as actions to prevent the peacekeepers from violating and a possible attack on the post, using the imitation means, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
A feature of the training was the fulfillment of tasks to detect an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the area of responsibility of an observation post with the transfer of information to the command post of the Russian peacekeeping contingent through closed communication channels.
The training ended with a comprehensive training session with practical actions of military personnel and the development of tasks to maintain the combat readiness of the observation post.
The Union of Journalists of Armenia condemns the actions of the National Security Service against journalist Nairi Hokhikyan and calls on the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia to investigate and give a public assessment on the act of the state power structure against the journalist. This is stated in the statement issued by the Union of Journalists of Armenia.
“On July 29, 2021, member of the Union of Journalists of Armenia, journalist and TV commentator Nairi Hokhikyan was summoned to the National Security Service (NSS) for an interview as a witness, during which the mobile phone of the journalist was seized.
Hokhikyan offered to voluntarily provide the investigative body with the facts at his disposal, but the officers of the National Security Service neglected the journalist’s willingness and seized his mobile phone in which there were several pieces of personal and professional information. In this sense, the investigative body de facto hindered implementation of the professional activities of the journalist as well.
It should be mentioned that Nairi Hokhikyan has publicized a documentary on the 44-day war that took place in 2020 and several facts that became a topic for wide public discourse, after which the Armenian authorities have de facto started persecuting the journalist who is carrying out his professional activities. Summoning a journalist to an interview as a witness without familiarizing him or her with the specifics of the particular criminal case and committing acts against him or her that are specific to the status of a suspect (asking accusatory questions, seizing personal items) are unlawful acts and pressure against the journalist.
Nairi Hokhikyan has disclosed several details of his conversation with Jewish blogger Alexander Lapshin which shed light on the dark pages of the 44-day war, contain de facto evidential base, but the NSS have seized the mobile phone of the journalist.
The Union of Journalists of Armenia condemns the actions of the National Security Service against journalist Nairi Hokhikyan and calls on the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia to investigate and give a public assessment on the act of the state power structure against the journalist,” the statement reads.
The Armenian army has recorded the deaths of at least 66 servicemen/volunteer soldiers/reserve officers since the entry into force of the trilateral ceasefire statement signed by the leaders of Armenia, the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan on November 11, 2020.
Out of the 66 deaths, 24 were deaths that occurred during incidents such as the Azerbaijanis’ attack on Khtsaberd-Hin Tagher, the murders of Armenia servicemen encircled in the occupied territories of Artsakh, the border clashes in May-July 2021 and mine explosions.
The army has also recorded 42 non-combat casualties, including suicides, deaths from diseases, car accidents, murders and violations of rules for using weapons.
Since November 10, Azerbaijan, breaching the commitments assumed under the trilateral statement, has not only failed to return all the captured Armenian servicemen and civilians, but has also continued to seize new captives, who are up to 85 in number. Based on the Armenian army’s observations, currently, at least 30 captives have been returned to Armenia since November 10, and out of those 30, 15 have been returned in exchange of mine maps.
Since November 10, 3 Armenian servicemen are missing in action. One of them is fixed-term serviceman Norik Mkrtchyan, who voluntarily left the military unit in Vardenis on May 18. There is still no information about his whereabouts. On July 14, connection was lost with A. Nalbandyan and A. Torozyan in the Sev Lake sector of Syunik Province. To date, they have not been found, and the Ministry of Defense hasn’t ruled out their capture by Azerbaijanis. The servicemen weren’t bearing weapons.
The world community should take steps to stop persecution of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the Rossiya-24 TV channel, urging to raise a voice for ironing out this problem, TASS reported.
According to Lavrov, the Foreign Ministry and the Russian Orthodox Church have many joint projects, and one of them is the most topical – taking particular steps on protecting Christians, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.
A special forum in support of Christians is held jointly with the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate on the sidelines of the events of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
"[The forum] brings together partners from the Vatican, the Holy See, the foreign ministers of Armenia, Hungary, Belarus, Lebanon and other countries, which see a risk for further normal, calm and safe existence of Christians in the Middle East," Lavrov said.
"Hundreds of thousands of them have fled after democracy was imposed there. At first in Iraq, then in Libya and Syria. The Christian population is mostly suffering from the Syrian conflict. The Syrian Arab Republic is one of the cradles of Christianity. It is necessary to raise a voice so that the international community does not only pay attention to this problem, but takes particular measures to curb the persecution of Christians," Lavrov stressed.
15:39,
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has published another judgment against Azerbaijan, recording that Azerbaijan has tortured and illegally deprived of liberty citizen of Armenia Artur Badalyan, who got lost and found himself in the territory of Azerbaijan, ARMENAPRESS reports citing the ECHR website.
The Court obliged Azerbaijan to pay Artur Badalyan 30,000 euros in non‑pecuniary damage.
The Court said that on 9 May 2009 the applicant disappeared and was captured by the Azerbaijani forces. His relatives contacted the Armenian authorities, after which he was registered as a missing person in Armenia and a search for him was undertaken. However, his whereabouts remained unknown to his family and the Armenian authorities until 5 November 2010 when he was registered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as an Armenian captive held in Azerbaijan. Thereafter the applicant was regularly visited by the ICRC in detention until 17 March 2011 when he was released to the Armenian authorities through the mediation of the ICRC as part of an exchange of captives.
Following his arrest by the Azerbaijani forces, Artur Badalyan was held captive for 22 months in different military facilities. He claims that he was not given enough food and was often not allowed to go to the toilet, thus having to care for his needs in the cell. Moreover, he was subjected to harsh torture and mental anguish, as he was deemed to be a military prisoner, and was regularly harassed to divulge information. He was often beaten on his legs, so that he could not feel or move them. Electric wires were frequently attached to his fingers and the power switched on, causing severe pains. His cell door was hit with metallic objects, as a result of which he now suffers from a hearing disorder.
Thus, he applied to the ECHR, in accordance with Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
The Court unanimously accepted the appeal.
The Court held by six votes to one, that there has been a violation of Article 3 of the Convention (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment); that there has been a violation of Article 5 of the Convention (right to liberty and security).
The Court obliged Azerbaijan to pay the applicant, within three months from the date on which the judgment becomes final in accordance with Article 44 § 2 of the Convention, EUR 30,000, plus any tax that may be chargeable, in respect of non‑pecuniary damage.
The statements of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev and the rhetoric used by the Azerbaijani authorities are a clear indication that any prospect of “peaceful coexistence” is fraught with irreversible consequences, and endangers the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people of Artsakh, first of all, the security, life, and dignity. This is what Human Rights Defender of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Gegham Stepanyan wrote on his Facebook page, adding the following:
"The people of Artsakh have never and can never live in peace with Azerbaijan, this is a reality documented by the bitterness of years, many episodes of criminal events.
All attempts to show or stage the opposite are pointless, futile steps, the conviction of the people of Artsakh in this matter is inviolable and undeniable. The realities must be assessed truthfully and justly by all the external forces, all the international structures, which are the defenders and advocates of the right to life of a peaceful human being. The international community must finally realize that there can simply be no peaceful coexistence with a people who for years have been nourished by an indescribable "poison" of Armenophobia, who a few months ago committed the most heinous war crimes, targeting almost all the civilian settlements and population of Artsakh, tortured and inhumanely treated the Armenian prisoners of war and the bodies of the killed servicemen.
The Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict is not solved, in the situation created after the trilateral statement on November 9, the rights of the people of Artsakh are violated every day, and yet Aliev insists that the conflict is solved and threatens with a new war. The main reason for the existence of this phenomenon is that the aggressive war unleashed by Azerbaijan against the civilian population of Artsakh in the fall of 2020 has not yet received a clear legal assessment.
If Aliev has not understood for 30 years that the conflict cannot be considered resolved at the expense of the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh, then that solution must be imposed on him.
The international community must finally understand that its passive posture directly calls into question the whole ideology of universality priority of human rights protection, and gives way to human rights and freedoms to dictatorship and aggression."
In the light of the Karabakh conflict in 2021, attempts to radicalise ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis living in Georgia through disinformation narratives coming from abroad were most often spread by far-right nationalist groups, Democracy Research Institute (DRI) says.
DRI, a public policy think tank, has published results of the monitoring report concerning ar-right groups between December 2020 and June 2021.
#DRI publishes results of the monitoring of far-right groups' assemblies and demonstrations
The passive role of the State in multiethnic regions promotes confrontation between various groups and provokes retaliatory attacks.@SandAndresen https://t.co/L11v31K5p1— Democracy Research Institute – DRI (@Research_DRI) June 22, 2021
It says the state policies in multiethnic regions are ‘imperfect and deficient’, as ‘no due attention’ has been paid to the investigation of alleged hate motives when a cross was stolen from the Gagi Fortress in Kvemo Kartli region, or when it was damaged after re-erection to prevent conflict on ethnic grounds.
No attention was paid to the investigation of alleged hate motives in these cases. The Ministry of Internal Affairs completely ignored a number of indicators of intolerance during the investigation”, DRI reports.
Moreover, based on the monitoring results, there were a number of attempts by far-right extremists ‘to fuel tensions’ with ethnic Azerbaijani populations in Dmanisi and Marneuli municipalities.
Representatives of the groups and their leaders personally visited these regions and tried to organise provocations and/or to cover events in the context of extreme narratives”, the report reads.
It says that on May 17, following the Dmanisi confrontation, the Georgian March, which arrived in the region immediately, was mainly engaged in fueling escalation. Furthermore, online media platform of the ultra-nationalist group Alt-Info was biased in its coverage.
The passive role of the state in multiethnic regions and the deliberate neglect of existing problems hinders social unity and integration, promotes confrontation between various groups and provokes retaliatory attacks”, DRI says.
It further underscores that ‘without proper response from the authorities, the spread of extreme narratives and radicalisation deepens confrontation between local communities and creates serious threats of escalation’.
The far-right extremists were also attempting to discredit the Namakhvani Hydro Power Plant (HPP) protesters when they moved from the western Georgia to Tbilisi in late May.
In particular, RDI says that Guram and Alexandre Palavandishvili, who attended the rallies against the construction of the HPP, ‘insulted and physically assaulted members of civil movements and LGBT community’ sparking tension among the protesters.
11:33, 22 June, 2021
YEREVAN, JUNE 22, ARMENPRESS. The European Union is committed to supporting a stable, democratic and prosperous future of Armenia, statement by the Spokesperson over the June snap parliamentary elections in Armenia says.
“We are looking forward to working closely with all Armenian institutions, including the newly elected Parliament and government. The European Union calls on all political forces to now work together in order to effectively tackle the challenges Armenia is confronted with, in the interest of the Armenian citizens. The European Union stands ready to further strengthen our bilateral relations and to support Armenia in its important reform agenda based on the joint commitments in the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement.
According to the preliminary assessment of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) Election Observation Mission, the elections were competitive and generally well-managed within a short timeframe. Voters were provided with a broad range of options, and fundamental rights and freedoms were generally respected, with contestants being able to campaign freely. The election day, including the vote count, was assessed positively overall.
As also noted by the OSCE/ODIHR Mission, the electoral campaign was marked by intense polarisation and marred by increasingly inflammatory rhetoric among key contestants, hindering a policy-focused debate. The Mission also noted that women were notably side-lined during the election campaign.
Any complaints or appeals regarding the electoral process should be addressed thoroughly and expeditiously using the appropriate procedures as foreseen in the legal framework of Armenia”, the statement reads.