Author: Emil Karabekian

Asbarez: 2 Days Before 2020 War, Intelligence Pointed to Planned Attack, Says Pashinyan While Defending His Position

Emil Karabekian
by Asbarez Staff

 

 

 

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

Heavy fighting on Sept. 27, 2020 as Azerbaijan attacked Artsakh


Two days before Azerbaijan launched a massive attack on Artsakh, Armenian intelligence agencies intercepted communication between Turkish F-16 pilots, who were discussing taking part in “an important event” days later, testimony at the parliament’s select committee on the 2020 war revealed.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces at the time, General Onik Gasparyan has testified that on September 25, 2020, Armenia’s intelligence agencies intercepted audio of the radio communication between Turkish F-16 pilots, who were discussing participation in an important event on the forthcoming Sunday. Gasparyan said this prompted authorities to gradually increase the combat readiness level of the military.

During his testimony on Tuesday in front of the committee, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan acknowledged the aforementioned report, but said that intelligence reports before the intercepted pilots’ communication placed the probability of war at 30 percent.

The chair of the select committee, Andrnik Kocharuan, asked Pashinyan whether he had been briefed on the 2020 intelligence report, to which he replied that since taking office in 2018, the National Security Services had warned of probability of war on a daily basis.

“That information was reported to me, but I remember it mentioning ‘tomorrow.’ But how likely was war according to our institutions before that moment? The assessment was 30 percent. And this assessment wasn’t only based on intelligence, but also other data, including based on contacts with international partners. I received another briefing also, that there is a 30 percent risk of war and that it could be a psychological pressure on the political authorities so that they would resort to disproportional concessions,” Pashinyan said.

“Since I was elected prime minister in May 2018 and began to receive intelligence briefings, the NSS intelligence was always warning about the probability of war,” Pashinyan said, adding that different timeframes of possible attacks were being mentioned.

The revelation of the September 25, 2020 intercepted call, coupled with the the U.S. embassies of Armenia and Azerbaijan issuing hours before the September 27 attack signal that there was intelligence of high probability of an attack.

Yet during his testimony on Tuesday, Pashinyan attempted to defend his failure to prevent the war by both criticizing his predecessors’ policies and also by bit self aggrandizing.

“I feel guilty about absolutely everything, but I say, ‘OK, it’s just a declaration.’ When I start drawing up my own indictment … I enter a deadlock at some point,” Pashinyan told the select committee.

“I’m not saying that it was theoretically impossible to avoid the war,” Pashinyan told the panel boycotted by opposition lawmakers. “But the necessary condition for that theoretical possibility was a renunciation of, let’s put it this way, the Armenian vision for settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

“We could have said that we abandon our vision of viewing Nagorno Karabakh outside of Azerbaijan and taken that path, which of course wouldn’t have guaranteed that it could be possible to avoid war,” Pashinyan said when asked whether or not he believes war was inevitable.

Today, Pashinyan and his government have announced that Armenia will recognize Azerbaijan’s 26,600 square kilometer territory, which includes Artsakh.

Artsakh MFA calls on the international community to prevent Baku’s war crimes and ethnic cleansing

Emil Karabekian

 19:52,

YEREVAN, JUNE 23, ARMENPRESS. The Artsakh Foreign Ministry issued a statement about the ongoing complete blockade of the country, calling on the parties that signed the trilateral declaration of November 9, 2020, and first of all, the Russian Federation, to take all necessary measures to ensure the steady and full implementation of the assumed international obligations.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from MFA Artsakh, the statement reads as follows, “We draw the attention of the international community to the fact that for the 9th day in a row Azerbaijan continues the total illegal blockade of the Lachin Corridor, control over which, as provided for by paragraph 6 of the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020, has been assigned to the Russian Federation Peacekeeping Contingent.

We recall that due to the provocative actions of the Azerbaijani side and the subsequent complete blocking of the road through the Lachin Corridor, starting from 15 June, all transportation of humanitarian cargo by the Russian Peacekeeping Contingent, in particular food and other essential supplies required for the survival of the 120,000 population of the Republic of Artsakh, has been stopped. The International Committee of the Red Cross is not able to carry out evacuation of seriously ill patients from Artsakh to medical institutions of Armenia, as well as deliver vital medicines to the republic. As a result, small domestic stocks of food and medicine are quickly running out, which threatens to turn the situation in the republic into a humanitarian catastrophe. 
     
Moreover, on 22 June, the Azerbaijani side installed concrete blocks on the Hakari bridge, completely blocking the driveway of the only Road of Life connecting Artsakh with Armenia, and making it technically impossible for vehicles to move along the road. Thus, in just a month, Azerbaijan turned its illegally installed and advertised checkpoint on the road within the Lachin Corridor into a military stronghold with armoured vehicles, engineering barriers and armed personnel. It once again demonstrates that all the actions of the Azerbaijani side, including the orchestrated protest of pseudo-activists, blocking of the Stepanakert-Goris road, cutting off gas and electricity supplies from Armenia to Artsakh, targeting of civilians and obstruction of agricultural work in the fields, have been deliberate and pre-planned and are aimed to make the life of Armenians in Artsakh impossible.

The authorities of the Republic of Artsakh have repeatedly warned about the negative consequences of the illegal establishment of an Azerbaijani checkpoint for the safe and unimpeded movement along the Lachin Corridor, which is now, in fact, completely stopped, and 120,000 people in Artsakh, including 30,000 children, are held hostage in their own homes. Under these circumstances, overlooking or ignoring the real state of affairs on the ground, untargeted statements and appeals, as well as the lack of specific and adequate measures on the part of the international community only encourage the Azerbaijani authorities to continue and intensify their illegal and aggressive actions.

We call on the signatories of the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020, primarily the Russian Federation, to take all necessary measures to ensure the strict and full implementation of their international obligations. We appeal to the UN Security Council, which bears the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, as well as to all responsible members of the international community, including the leadership of individual countries and international organisations, to move from words to action and, within the universal Responsibility to Protect, undertake all necessary measures to stop the war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity committed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh and its people”.

“Sixty telephone conversations with Putin” – Pashinyan on ending the 2020 war

Emil Karabekian
  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

Pashinyan on the circumstances of the Karabakh war

The Prime Minister of Armenia participated in a meeting of the parliamentary commission investigating the circumstances of the Karabakh war in 2020 and made a detailed report. In his speech, which lasted more than three hours, Nikol Pashinyan touched not only on the course of the war and the circumstances of the signing of the November statement on the cessation of hostilities, but also on the history of the negotiation process in the Karabakh conflict.

The meeting of the commission will continue on June 27, and its members will have the opportunity to get answers to their questions from the prime minister himself. Pashinyan promised to answer all questions live, except for those that would contain state secrets. The deputies will receive all the information during closed hearings.

  • “The document on unblocking roads is almost completely agreed” – Overchuk
  • “Regional players are not interested in a large-scale escalation.” Opinion from Yerevan
  • “Azerbaijan is better seen and heard in Brussels” – Armenian political scientist

Pashinyan has never said before that in order to end the 44-day war in Karabakh, Russia offered to deploy peacekeepers in the Armenian city of Meghri and around it. They were supposed to provide a connection between the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan.

“I did not agree to this. I did not agree to the creation of a layer not controlled by the Republic of Armenia, that is, the creation of a corridor through the territory of Armenia. My position has not changed: roads should be open, but they should remain under the sovereignty and jurisdiction of Armenia,” Pashinyan said.

The prime minister recalled the document on the exchange of territories between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which, in the context of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, could have been signed during the 1999 Istanbul summit. He announced that Armenian Parliament Speaker Karen Demirchyan and Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan “prevented” the implementation of this project at the cost of their lives.

Pashinyan is referring to the terrorist attack on October 27, 1999, when an armed group entered the parliament building and shot deputies and members of the government. He talks about one of the unofficial versions of the causes of the attack. Many believed that it was organized by the secret services of countries that have their own interests in the region — Russia and the United States.

The theory was based on the fact that in November 1999 an OSCE summit was to be held in Istanbul, where the heads of Armenia and Azerbaijan could sign some document. It was about the mediators’ proposal for a territorial exchange: Azerbaijan ceded to Armenia the Lachin corridor connecting it with Nagorno-Karabakh, and in return received part of the territory of the Meghri region, that is, the same corridor to Nakhichevan. This option was considered unacceptable by many Armenian politicians, including Vazgen Sargsyan and Karen Demirchyan. After the terrorist act in the Armenian parliament, the documents were not signed.

“This document actually records the death of the fundamental ideas of the Armenian side about the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem,” he said.

Pashinyan said that although the document has not gotten legal force, proposals of such content continue to appear at the negotiating table.

The prime minister believes that the document on the exchange of Meghri for Nagorno-Karabakh had nothing to do with the right to self-determination and violated the principle of the territorial integrity of both Armenia and Azerbaijan:

“This is nothing but an act of recognizing Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. Otherwise it is impossible to formulate. If you give away part of your territory in order to get Karabakh from Azerbaijan, then this means that you recognize Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, and you put your own territory up for auction.”

How Yerevan evaluates the installation of the Azerbaijani flag on the Hakari bridge and the ban on movement along the Lachin corridor. Comments of the Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, MPs and Ombudsman of Armenia

In 2018, Pashinyan announced that he would start negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict anew, from scratch. He now explained that as of May 2018, he had two options to avoid it:

  1. “Azerbaijan should have actually recognized the interim status of Nagorno-Karabakh according to the logic of the Kazan document. It couldn’t be. Why did Azerbaijan have to accept what it rejected 7 years ago, and for the sake of which it started the April four-day war [2016]?”
  2. “I had to not only recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, but also agree to the status quo established around Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, and also to dismantle the existing status quo within Nagorno-Karabakh itself. It is impossible to imagine, even if we evaluate the situation from today’s point of view.

The prime minister assumes that for Armenia, the statement of the OSCE chairman made back in December 1996 may be news: “The legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh should be determined on the basis of the right to self-determination, which will give it a high status of autonomy within Azerbaijan.”

Pashinyan recalls that hostilities ceased on November 9, and the fall of Shushi played a pivotal role. He said that he has in mind the strategic role of the city, and not the symbolic one:

“After the loss of Shushi, Stepanakert, in fact, would be under attack, pressure on Martuni would inevitably increase, and most importantly, 25,000 of our soldiers would be under the threat of encirclement.”

According to the prime minister, the November announcement was the fifth attempt to stop the war.

He presented to the parliamentary commission details of the attempts and details from conversations with Vladimir Putin. Initially, the Azerbaijani side presented the following preconditions for a ceasefire:

  • “Surrender of Fuzuli without a fight,
  • the retreat of the Armenian forces along the Araks to the Khodaferi reservoir so that the reservoir would be under the control of Azerbaijan,
  • return of Azerbaijanis Guliyev and Askerov, who are serving sentences for murders and kidnappings in Karabakh, with the possibility of returning captured Armenians.”

These conditions were unacceptable for the Armenian side. In addition, according to Pashinyan, Baku did not link the fulfillment of these requirements with the cessation of hostilities, but only promised “a humanitarian truce to organize the funeral of the dead.”

Several attempts at a truce were unsuccessful. Baku not only did not support the ceasefire, but also intensified “its offensive actions, inflicting missile strikes on Stepanakert, Martakert, attacking Hadrut.”

Pashinyan says that along with attempts to prevent attacks, Armenia also made diplomatic efforts:

“The issue of deploying Russian military observers on both sides of the line of contact was considered, who would monitor the situation and record violations of the ceasefire. However, Azerbaijan constantly shied away from such a decision and conducted more intense hostilities.”

Russian media, citing a “diplomatic source”, reported that Washington is forcing representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh to agree to a meeting with the Azerbaijani side.

According to Pashinyan, 20 out of 60 telephone conversations with Putin during this period took place on November 8 and 9, when the text of the tripartite statement was discussed. He agreed to start these negotiations on the condition that the document does not contain provisions regarding Shushi and the corridor through the territory of Armenia. For his part, he offered to return the Aghdam region instead of the Hadrut region.

Pashinyan said that he signed the statement on the morning of November 9, but Azerbaijan refused to sign this version of the document and put forward new demands.

“The culmination of the process was the evening of November 9, when it became clear that Azerbaijan was making new additions to the agreed document. This meant that the text I had signed in the morning was no longer valid.”

According to him, Azerbaijan did not accept the proposal of Aghdam instead of Hadrut, there was no mention of Shushi and the creation of a corridor through the territory of Armenia in the text. It was only about the cessation of hostilities, the return of 7 regions around NK, the creation of the Lachin corridor and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers here and in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“But at the moment when the President of the Russian Federation said that Azerbaijan was proposing to add a clause on the return of enclaves in the Tavush region to the text, I stated that I ruled out the possibility of signing such a document,” Pashinyan said.

After some time, the parties managed to agree on removing the clause on enclaves from the document. It was signed, according to the Armenian prime minister, after “difficult, lengthy” discussions, in parallel with reports “about the intensification of hostilities and the accumulation of a large number of drones in the sky over Stepanakert.”

The Ombudsman of Nagorno-Karabakh published an extraordinary report on the consequences of the blockade and included personal stories of people in it. Details of the report, as well as assessment of the situation by the Armenian Foreign Ministry

What needs to be done to reach a truce and stop the war? For the first time, Pashinyan addressed this issue with the President of Russia on October 13. Putin said that “one can try to talk about ending the war in exchange for the return of 5 regions” around NK, which were under the control of Armenia after the first Karabakh war. A few days later, on October 19, in a telephone conversation, the Russian president confirmed that the war could be stopped according to the Russian plan developed many years ago.

“And the condition is as follows: 7 regions are returned in the 5 + 2 format, the issue of NK-Armenia communication through the Lachin corridor is being resolved, Russian peacekeepers are deployed in Karabakh, the status issue remains unresolved, it is postponed for an indefinite future,” Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister of Armenia agreed, but the Azerbaijani side stated that it expected to receive all 7 regions at once.

According to an official statement from the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the Armenian-Azerbaijani talks scheduled for June 12 in Washington were postponed “at the request of the Azerbaijani side.”

The Prime Minister says that on October 19 he learned from the President of Russia about another condition from Baku. It was about guarantees for the return of Azerbaijani refugees to Shushi, who “accounted for 90 percent of the population of Shushi without any restriction on further increase.”

Baku also proposed the construction of a new road for the unhindered movement of Azerbaijanis:

“According to the proposal, all Azerbaijanis should have direct and unhindered access to Shushi, and not just those living in Shushi. For example, 50,000 Azerbaijanis could come to those living in Shushi, there could not be any restrictions. And they could stay.”

Pashinyan did not accept the offer. He says he was worried that the Lachin corridor would not operate, Azerbaijan could close it at any moment, because Shushi would not enter the Lachin corridor, and it would pass a few meters from Shushi. He believes that “recent events”, that is, the blocking of the Lachin corridor, proved him right.

As for the “fall of Shushi”, Pashinyan expects that the circumstances of the loss of the city should be clarified in the framework of the initiated criminal cases. He emphasizes that all his instructions concerned the strengthening of Shushi and the organization of the defense of the city. And he received assurances that he would stand. Contradictory information came from the President of Nagorno-Karabakh and from the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

“Before signing the tripartite statement, I was also informed that a part of Shushi was under the control of the NK Defense Army,” he said.

Siranush Sahakyan, a specialist in international law and a representative of the interests of Armenian prisoners in the ECtHR, believes that the videos were made under duress

Pashinyan also touched upon the former leaders of Armenia. He mentioned the article of the first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan “War or Peace? Time to think”, which talked about the need for compromises:

“To briefly formulate what Ter-Petrosyan said, it will turn out: it is impossible to maintain the status quo for a long time, let’s not engage in self-deception and cherish vain hopes, we have no allies on the issue of the independence of Karabakh.”

He stressed that Ter-Petrosyan does not give a clear and literal answer to the question of what status Nagorno-Karabakh will eventually have, whether it will be independent, whether it will be part of Armenia or Azerbaijan. According to him, this article has become “another factor aggravating the confusion in the Karabakh issue.”

According to the prime minister, the second president, Robert Kocharyan, deprived Nagorno-Karabakh of “any independence”, excluding Karabakh from the negotiations:

“Moreover, he deprived Nagorno-Karabakh of the only internationally recognized status, which made it possible to sit at the same table with representatives of Russia, the United States, France, Azerbaijan and Armenia. This, in fact, was the end of the international subjectivity of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

He also criticized third President Serzh Sargsyan, recalling his team’s “dubious slogan” that “bad negotiations are better than the best war”:

“The worst negotiations gave Azerbaijan time to prepare for the best war for it. With this slogan, they tied Armenia hand and foot, so that Armenia and Karabakh at some point X would be in a hopeless situation.”


https://jam-news.net/pashinyan-on-the-circumstances-of-the-karabakh-war/

Armenia-EU ties undergo stable development, including in security – Grigoryan

Emil Karabekian

 16:01,

YEREVAN, JUNE 20, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan on June 20 met with a delegation led by Member of the European Parliament Nathalie Loiseau, the Chair of the European Parliament Security and Defence Subcommittee.

“Welcoming the delegation’s visit to Armenia, I emphasized that the Armenia-EU bilateral relations are undergoing stable development, which includes the security sector. I appreciated the activities of the EU civilian mission in Armenia and emphasized that it contributes to having a more stable and safer region,” Grigoryan said on social media.

MEP Loiseau thanked for the reception and said that it is necessary to take practical steps to strengthen the bilateral friendly relations and cooperation especially in such difficult political conditions for Armenia.

Armenpress: Armenian Defense Minister participates in the opening ceremony of the Paris Air Show

Emil Karabekian

 19:50,

YEREVAN, JUNE 16, ARMENPRESS.  On June 19, Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan took part in the opening ceremony of the Paris Air Show in the “Le Bourget” airport within the framework of his working visit to France at the invitation of French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Ministry of Defense of Armenia, visits to exhibition booths of French military-industrial enterprises and meetings with company leaders are planned.

Connecticut Genocide Commemoration Committee supports FAR with 2023 proceeds

Emil Karabekian
 Guest Contributor Community News, Diaspora 0

The House Chamber in the Connecticut State House during the opening prayer for this year’s commemoration

The Armenian Genocide Commemoration Committee of Connecticut donated all income from this year’s annual program to the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) project supporting orphaned children in Artsakh. It was the Committee consensus that, given the current challenges in Artsakh, this year’s speaker, topic and donations should focus on Artsakh.

“We are pleased to donate $6,200 toward this worthy project,” stated committee chair Melanie Kevorkian Brown. “We appreciate the generosity of our Armenian American community donating toward this invaluable effort to care for and nurture the orphaned children in Artsakh. The FAR orphan initiative was timely and fitting.” 

The Connecticut Committee held its annual program commemorating the 108th anniversary of the Genocide on April 22, 2023 at the historic Connecticut House Chamber at the State Capitol in Hartford. The keynote speaker was Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) executive director Aram Hamparian. The mission of the committee, in addition to honoring the memory of the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide and its survivors, is to support programs and events to inform the public and remember the Genocide. The committee is in the process of establishing a suitable permanent Genocide memorial. It also assists in the legislative mandate to provide Genocide-related curricula in the public schools. Additionally, the committee seeks to present information about developments in the Diaspora and in Armenia.

FAR is dedicated to honoring the past, empowering the present and ensuring the future for people in Armenia, Artsakh and Javakhk. Born from the immediate need to provide emergency assistance in the wake of the devastating 1988 earthquake, FAR provides hope, guidance, opportunity and empowerment to those in need. Its work is focused mainly through five chief program areas: education, child protection, economic development, healthcare and social services. Through critical projects in these areas, FAR implements life-changing support, such as providing refuge and help to children who have suffered abuse and abandonment; empowering youth to excel in school and access higher education; and transforming healthcare professionals into medical ambassadors in their communities. 

According to FAR’s executive director Garnik Nanagoulian, the organization has been providing support to families and children who have lost their fathers in the Artsakh wars since the four-day war in 2016. This support has been made possible through the generosity of communities across the country, including the Knights and Daughters of Vartan and the Connecticut Genocide Commemoration Committee.

“Thanks to the support we receive, FAR has been able to reach out to about 400 children who have experienced the loss of their fathers on the battlefield in Artsakh,” stated Nanagoulian. “Among them are 8-year-old Lina and 12-year-old Sergey from Syunik Marz. Their mother Meri shared, ‘It’s been tough for me to be a single mom, but my kids are my backbone, my motivation to live and move forward. I am grateful for the support we receive, as my only wish is to help my kids have a dignified future.’”

“The impact of the Connecticut Genocide Commemoration Committee’s contribution for these children cannot be overstated. It provides them with an opportunity to grow up in a healthy and nurturing environment, receive an education and eventually be able to compete on equal footing with their peers,” Nanagoulian concluded.




96% of Armenia’s population has broadband internet access

Emil Karabekian

 13:22, 6 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 6, ARMENPRESS. 66% of Armenia’s settlements have broadband internet, and 96% of the country’s population have internet access, Deputy Minister of High Tech Industry Avet Poghosyan has said.

“The government is focused on the program of ensuring broadband internet access in settlements, and the 2021-2026 government program has a goal to ensure broadband internet access in 80% of the settlements by 2026. The goal of this event is to bring together expects and find solutions,” the deputy minister said at the 2023 European Connectivity Summit – Connecting the Unconnected: Europe & Beyond in Yerevan.

“At this moment, broadband internet connection is ensured in 66% of settlements, at the same time I want to mention that 96% of the population has the opportunity to use broadband internet. We are also talking about the remote, small settlements with small populations where investments aren’t expedient economically. In this case I see the solution through incentivizing operators to provide internet access there or through subsidy. We have a toolkit now, the government is ready to subsidize the communities which will make such a bid. As of this moment none of the communities have done so, which means that the internet availability is in a rather good condition,” Poghosyan said.

Armenia has a leading position globally in terms of internet access, he added. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hakob Arshakyan shared this opinion.

Arshakyan highlighted the role of internet in education, transport and logistic systems.

He said that Armenia attaches great importance to ensuring internet access in communities.

Armenian Economy Minister visits China, meets with CITIC Construction executive

Emil Karabekian

 12:42, 6 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 6, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan is on a visit to China.

In a statement, the ministry of economy said that Kerobyan has met with CITIC Construction Vice President Yang Jianqiang to discuss the possibility of the company’s participation in the road construction, home building and reservoir construction projects envisaged in the 2021-2026 government program.

United Nations official and others in Armenia hacked by NSO Group spyware

Emil Karabekian
The Guardian, UK
Ma 25 2023
Hacking

At least a dozen victims were found to have been hacked by Pegasus during clashes in the region in 2021

Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
Thu 25 May 2023 11.00 BST

Researchers have documented the first known case of NSO Group’s spyware being used in a military conflict after they discovered that journalists, human rights advocates, a United Nations official, and members of civil society in Armenia were hacked by a government using the spyware.

The hacking campaign, which targeted at least a dozen victims from October 2020 to December 2022, appears closely linked to events in the long running military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Previous investigations into spyware abuses by NSO Group’s clients have already established – with “substantial evidence”, according to researchers – that Azerbaijan is a government client of NSO Group.

Microsoft says China-backed hacker targeted critical infrastructure in US and Guam

The news is significant because the use of Pegasus, a military-grade spyware that can hack into and remotely control any phone, has never been documented inside a military conflict.

An NSO spokesperson said the company could not comment on the new report by Access Now and others because it had not been shared with NSO.

It said that previous investigations into allegations of “improper use of our technologies” by clients resulted in the termination of multiple contracts.

The investigation was conducted by researchers at Access Now, CyberHUB-AM, the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Amnesty Internationalʼs Security Lab, and Ruben Muradyan, an independent mobile security researcher.

The hacking of the Armenia-based individuals was first discovered in November 2021, two months after a series of clashes along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border claimed at least 200 lives in the most serious escalation of violence since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.

Apple began sending notifications to mobile phone users who they believed had been targeted with state-sponsored spyware. Anna Naghdalyan, a former Armenia foreign ministry spokesperson was hacked at least 27 times between October 2020 and July 2021, at a time when she was still serving as a spokesperson for the ministry.

Researchers said the timing of the attacks put her “squarely in the most sensitive conversations and negotiations related to the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis”, including the ceasefire mediation attempts by France, Russia, and the US and official visits to Moscow and Karabakh.

Naghdalyan told Access Now that she had “all the information about the developments during the war on [her] phone” at the time of her hacking, and that she now feels there is no way for her to feel fully safe.

“Even if you have the most secure system on your phone, you cannot be secure,” she said.

Experts said the development showed the risks of spyware being used to add fuel to geopolitical fires.

“This raises important questions about the safety of international organisations, journalists, humanitarians and others working around conflict. It should also send a chill down the spine of every foreign government whose diplomatic service has been engaged around the conflict,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab.

Other victims include Karlen Aslanyan, a Radio Azatutyun journalist who was covering the Armenian political crisis that erupted after Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 conflict. At least one guest on Aslanyan’s popular Armenian show – Kristinne Grigoryan – was hacked a month after she appeared on the programme. Another journalist, Astghik Bedevyan, who was closely covering the conflict, was also hacked in May 2021. The report lists several other journalists, professors, and human rights defenders whose work centred on the military conflict.

Access Now said that five of the 12 hacked individuals have elected to remain anonymous, but that they include a UN representative who does not have the UN’s consent to come forward.

Access Now and its partners said they believe the hacking was done by a customer of NSO Group, though the data could not conclusively be linked to a specific client.

They added that, given the individuals’ work on the conflict, it is possible that Armenia’s government may also have been interested in hacking the individuals, but said there is no other evidence to suggest that Armenia has ever been a Pegasus user. Indeed, the country is believed to be a user of a different spyware product named Predator, created by Cytrox, a business rival of NSO.

Other evidence points to Azerbaijan as an NSO customer, including findings by the Citizen Lab that some Pegasus one-click infections linked to infrastructure that masqueraded as Azerbaijani political websites. Amnesty Techʼs research has also identified Azerbaijan-linked domains that point to Azerbaijan as a likely Pegasus customer.

The embassies of Armenia and Azerbaijan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NSO has said it investigates credible reports of its spyware being abused by government clients. NSO Group was placed on a blacklist by the Biden administration in 2021, after the commerce department said it found the company had supplied its technology to foreign governments that used it to maliciously target government officials, journalists, business people, activists and embassy workers.

Azerbaijan’s Aliyev says there is real chance of peace deal with Armenia

Emil Karabekian
May 25 2023
Fargo, ND, USA / The Mighty 790 KFGO | KFGO
Thomson Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said during a meeting in Moscow on Thursday that there are serious grounds for normalising relations with Armenia based on mutual recognition of territorial integrity.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at loggerheads for three decades, fighting two wars over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. In recent months, both sides have expressed increasing willingness to sign a permanent peace agreement, even as regular skirmishes have continued.

https://kfgo.com/2023/05/25/azerbaijans-aliyev-says-there-is-real-chance-of-peace-deal-with-armenia/