Author: Boris Nahapetian

“Armenia attaches great importance in the development of multifaceted cooperation with Iraqi Kurdistan and we are ready to continue to take practical steps and actions in this direction.” 

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Armenia’s Consul General Arshak Manoukian told Kurdistan 24 that Armenia attaches great importance in the development of multifaceted cooperation with Iraqi Kurdistan “and we are ready to continue to take practical steps and actions in this direction.”

Read More: Armenia opens consulate in the Kurdistan Region

The Armenian Consulate General was opened in Erbil two years on Feb. 24. “We are happy to acknowledge the rich agenda and solid activities that have been shaped during this short time,” Armenia’s Consul General Arshak Manoukian said.

Political

“Today we can note with satisfaction that during the last two years we had high-level bilateral reciprocal visits, which will contribute to further deepening our bilateral relations,” he added.

On Feb. 17, President Nechirvan Barzani met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Munich, on the sidelines of the Munich Security conference.

During the meeting, they discussed the importance of Armenia’s trade relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region and also highlighted the situation of the Kurdish Diaspora in Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora in the Kurdistan Region.

“We also attach importance to promoting the collaboration between the Armenian and Kurdish Diasporas in the world,” Armenia’s Consul General Arshak Manoukian noted.

Armenia also has good relations with the Kurdistan parliament. In December last year,a delegation from Kurdistan Parliament’s Martyrs, Genocide and Political Prisoners Committee participated in the 4th Global Forum on Genocide in Armenia.

“We consider the parliamentarian cooperation as an effective format to expand bilateral relations,” Armenian Consul General Manoukian stated. “I would like to note with satisfaction that there are good prospects for promoting decentralized cooperation.”

Trade

In May 2022, the Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani met the Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan in Davos, Switzerland and discussed strengthening relations between the Kurdistan Region and Armenia, especially in the trade and investment sector. 

Read More: PM Barzani discusses trade and investment with Armenian President Khachaturyan

“We can note with satisfaction that the trade-economic relations between Armenia and the Kurdistan Region are flourishing,” the Armenian Consul added. “The trade turnover between Armenia and Iraq in 2022 reached 250 million dollars, a big part of which belongs to the Kurdistan Region.”

“Armenia considers Kurdistan Region an important partner to export its products to the Middle Eastern market,” he added. However, he said he does believe “there is still untapped potential in our trade-economic relations. “The Armenian-Kurdish business forums held in Armenia in May 2022 are productive steps to explore new ways for further deepening our trade-economic relations.”

Education

He also added they have “great untapped potential in the scientific education field. According to the statistical information, we have about 400 Kurdish students studying in private universities. We would like to encourage the youth of Iraqi Kurdistan to consider studying in Armenian public universities.”

“I am glad to note as well that the Diplomatic School of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia conducted two training programs during the last two years for the junior diplomats of various governmental agencies of the Kurdistan Region,” told Manoukian

He also announced that Armenia is ready to discuss the allocation of some scholarships for the students of the Kurdistan Region. “Since the opening of the Consulate General of Armenia in Erbil, we have expanded our academic activities,” he said.

“We also have good prospects of cooperation between universities and academic centers of Armenia and Kurdistan Region. We are ready to share with our friends the academic experience of Armenia, including genocide studies.”

Humanitarian cooperation

He also said Armenia is aware of the dire humanitarian situation of nearly one million IDPs (internally displaced persons) and refugees in the Kurdistan Region.

“In 2022, the Government of Armenia provided humanitarian assistance to the Yezidi IDPs and refugees in the Kurdistan Region,” he said.

“One of the potential fields of humanitarian cooperation is de-mining. I am glad to note that the governmental agencies of Armenia and Kurdistan Region paid reciprocal visits and signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in 2022.”

He also stressed that Armenia provided assistance to the Syrian people and cleared “affected regions from the mines and explosive materials.”

“I hope that the agreements will be fulfilled in the near future, which will help to make Kurdistan Region a more prosperous and secure place,” he said.

Nagorno Karabakh

Last Wednesday, the International Court of Justice issued a legally binding verdict against Azerbaijan, ordering it to take all necessary measures to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. Azerbaijan has continued to put a blockade on the corridor that is the only land access that connects Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

“As you may know, since December 2022, Azerbaijan in violation of trilateral declaration signed on November 9, unilaterally blocked the only lifeline that connects the people of Nagorno Karabakh to the entire world, threatening another ethnic cleansing of the Nagorno Karabakh people,” Manoukian said.

“Thirt-five years ago, in 1988, the peaceful liberation movement started in Nagorno Karabakh. The resolution, adopted by XX Session of the Nagorno Karabakh Council of People’s Deputies on February 20, 1988, was in essence a constitutional claim to replace Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh from Soviet Azerbaijan into Soviet Armenia,” Manoukian stated.

“Azerbaijani official reaction to this was rather prompt. A week later, in the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait – 20 km from the capital Baku– horrific pogroms of Armenians began.”

Arshak Manoukian added: “As The Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov says: “If anyone could doubt it before Sumgait, then after this tragedy,  no one has a moral justification to insist on preserving the territorial ownership of Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan”.

The Nagorno-Karabakh area declared independence in 1991, following the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Following the declaration, 30,000 people died in a conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over this territory, but both agreed on a ceasefire in 1994. But clashes have periodically broken out in areas near Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azerbaijani-Armenian border, including in 2020, which killed nearly 7,000 soldiers and the death of 170 civilians. Also in September, clashes erupted again.

“Despite the declarations of the international community (US, Russia, France, and other European countries and organizations) to end this inhuman act, Azerbaijan continues its policy of Armenophobia,” Manoukian stated.

“The continuing state-sponsored policy of anti-Armenianism in Azerbaijan and ethnocide against Armenian cultural heritage is yet another proof of the impossibility for a second forceful inclusion of an Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh into Azerbaijan,” he added.

TBILISI, Sept 18 (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday strongly condemned what she said were "illegal" border attacks by Azerbaijan on Armenia, using a visit to the Russian ally to pledge American support for its sovereignty.

Pelosi cast her trip to Armenia, a sliver of land the size of U.S. state of Maryland that is wedged between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Iran, as an attempt to strengthen support for what she cast as a beacon of democracy.

Speaking in the ancient city of Yerevan, Pelosi said her trip had significance following the "illegal and deadly attacks by Azerbaijan on Armenian territory" that triggered border clashes in which more than 200 people were killed.

"We strongly condemn those attacks," Pelosi said beside Armenian parliamentary speaker Alen Simonyan, who last week expressed unhappiness with the response of a Russian-led military alliance to Yerevan's request for help. read more

Pelosi, who angered China with a trip to Taiwan last month, said it was clear that the border fighting was triggered by Azeri assaults on Armenia and that the chronology of the conflict should be made clear.

The fighting "was initiated by the Azeris and there has to be recognition of that," Pelosi said.

Pelosi's remarks drew an unusually strong rebuke from Baku, which said she was endangering the peace in the Caucasus.

"The unsubstantiated and unfair accusations levelled by Pelosi against Azerbaijan are unacceptable," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"This is a serious blow to the efforts to normalize relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan," the ministry said, casting Pelosi's remarks as "Armenian propaganda".

Such a definitive apportioning of blame for the conflict goes beyond what the U.S. State Department has so far said in public. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concerns over the fighting and called for calm but did not assign blame.

Armenia said Azerbaijan shelled at least six Armenian settlements inside the border shortly after midnight on Sept. 13, attacking civilian and military infrastructure with drones and large calibre guns. Yerevan said it was unprovoked aggression.

Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, rejects those claims. Baku says Armenian sabotage units tried to mine Azeri positions, prompting soldiers to respond. Armenia says that narrative is Azeri disinformation.

Russia, which repeatedly condemned Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, considers the Caucasus as its own sphere of influence and bristles at what it casts as U.S. meddling in the region.

Moscow though, is preoccupied by the war in Ukraine which has triggered the biggest confrontation with the West since the height of the Cold War.

Russia is Armenia's major military ally, has a military base in northern Armenia and peacekeepers along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh, over which Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war in 2020.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia had enough resources to mediate in the conflict. The latest fighting ended after a Russian-brokered ceasefire.

But after appeals for help, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-led military alliance of former Soviet republics that includes Armenia but not Azerbaijan, decided on Tuesday to dispatch a monitoring mission.

Armenian Parliamentary Speaker Simonyan said he was dissatisfied with the response, likening the CSTO to a pistol that did not shoot bullets.

Speaking beside Pelosi, U.S. Representative Frank Pallone said the United States wanted to do whatever it could to be more supportive of Armenia's security.

The United States, Pelosi said, was listening to Armenia about what its defence needs were and said Washington wanted to help and support Armenia in what she cast as a global struggle between democracy and autocracy.

"We should be using our influence, our leverage showing that Armenian democracy and sovereignty is a priority," Pelosi said. "The velvet revolution was cheered globally."

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan rose to power in 2018 after anti-government protests referred to as Armenia's Velvet Revolution.

Pelosi said it was interesting that Armenia was disappointed by the response from Russia.

"It is interesting that they were disappointed they got fact finders and not protection from that relationship and we'll see what happens next," she said.

Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by William Maclean, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Alex Richardson

https://www.reuters.com/world/pelosi-condemns-illegal-attacks-by-azerbaijan-armenia-2022-09-18/

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