20:21,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Within the framework of the Paris Peace Conference, the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a meeting with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Ahmad Khan, the PM’s Office said.
During the meeting, the interlocutors discussed issues related to international justice and law, as well as other topics of mutual interest.
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan meets with his Iranian counterpart, Ibrahim Raisi, in Tashkent, Uzebakistan on Nov. 10
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan complained to Iran’s President Ibrahim Raisi that for that past three years Armenia has refused to guarantee a road through its sovereign territory to Nakhichevan, referencing his scheme to carve a “corridor” through Armenia.
“During the last three years, after the second Karabakh war, Armenia has refused and continues to refuse to abide by its obligations and ensure passage to Nakhchivan through the major part of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said, the Trend news agency reported.
“It is their [Armenia’s] choice and I think they made a huge mistake,” Aliyev said during a meeting with Raisi in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The Azerbaijani leader emphasized that Iran has announced the construction of bridges over the Arax River, which he said “has great potential.”
Last month Azerbaijani officials said that a “corridor” through Armenia had “lost its appeal,” announcing that Baku has opted to create a link to Nakhichevan through Iran.
Despite this announcement, however, Azerbaijani officials, as well as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, continue to press Armenia to move forward with the project, which Yerevan unequivocally has rejected.
Yerevan has called the so-called “Zangezur Corridor” scheme a territorial claim by Azerbaijan.
Iran has also voiced its opposition to any effort that would alter the existing borders in the region and, in the past, has rebuked Ankara and Baku for advancing the “corridor” scheme.
“We carried out an anti-terror operation in September, which put an end to separatism in Azerbaijan. It paved the way for more active development of Azerbaijan and creates a favorable environment for the entire region,” Aliyev told Raisi.
“I am happy that as a result of the joint work of the representatives of Iran and Azerbaijan, an agreement for the construction of a railway and a highway along the southern bank of the Arax River was achieved,” Aliyev said, expressing confidence that this project “will be implemented in a short time and will become another direction of the North-South transport corridor.” .
“In other words, as a result, we will have two routes, one through Astara, one through Aghbend, and both routes will serve to strengthen the fraternal relations between Iran and Azerbaijan, and will be accessible to our neighbors and partners from other countries,” the Azerbaijani leader added.
Aliyev and Raisi also discussed the regional alliance project know as the “3+3” format, which envisions an alliance between Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia and Turkey that would bolster economic relations and allow for settling of conflicts without Western interference.
A summit of foreign ministers of the “3+3” countries was held in Tehran last month. Georgia has announced that it would not take part in the scheme, because of its decades-long enmity with Russia. Armenia, on the other hand, has decided to engage in talks to advance this formula.
Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry on Friday accused Armenia of “endangering” the peace process between the two countries and criticized Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan of spreading “fake rhetoric and accusations” against Baku in international forums.
Speaking at UNESCO summit on Thursday, Mirzoyan accused Azerbaijan of blockading Artsakh for ten months as part of its state sponsored ethnic cleansing.
“It is unacceptable that Armenia, which committed mass murders and crimes against humanity during almost 30 years of military aggression against Azerbaijan, continues to hypocritically accuse Azerbaijan of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Armenians who voluntarily went to Armenia,” Aikhan Hajizade, the spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry, said in a statement.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 9, 2023 / 17:39 pm
Peace talks between the Christian nation Armenia and its Muslim neighbor Azerbaijan hit a snag this week when the Azerbaijani government issued a demand that eight villages along the border be turned over.
The demand follows a military campaign by Azerbaijan in which it seized control of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in September, resulting in the emptying of nearly all Christians from the region.
Armenia is one of the few Christian countries in the region and is landlocked by the larger, Muslim nations Azerbaijan and major regional power Turkey on either side.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that the eight villages are historically part of Azerbaijan and that they are being occupied by the Armenian military.
The issue was raised by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in a phone call with European Council President Charles Michel this past week, according to Armenian-American news source Asbarez. Asbarez reported that after the conversation with Michel, Aliyev opted not to attend a peace talk scheduled for Sunday.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a Tuesday statement that Armenia was “once again hindering peace agreement negotiations” by refusing to “hand over eight Azerbaijani villages, which are still under occupation.”
Though the foreign ministry statement does not specify which villages it is referring to, Thursday report by Asbarez said that “an entry in the Azerbaijan’s president’s website mentions seven villages in Armenia’s Tavush Province [northern Armenia] and one village in the Ararat Province [central west Armenia] bordering Nakhichevan, which in the 1990s fell under Armenia’s control.”
The Azerbaijani foreign ministry demanded Armenia hand over the villages to “demonstrate a constructive and just position in the peace process” and to show they “understand the realities in the region properly.”
Azerbaijan said that though there are “ample opportunities for peace and stability in the region,” there is “no alternative” to Armenia ceding the villages to Azerbaijani control.
According to Asbarez, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded to Azerbaijan’s demands in an Armenian Public Television interview on Tuesday.
Asbarez reported that “Pashinyan said the future of these contested lands should be decided through a delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border” and that “he hinted that Yerevan is open to considering territorial swaps as part of that process.”
Both former Soviet territories, the two nations have been engaged in on-again, off-again conflict for decades. Tensions reached a breaking point once again on Sept. 19 when the Azerbaijani military launched what it called “anti-terrorism measures” to assert its control of the majority ethnically Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The campaign resulted in over 200 dead Armenians and a mass evacuation of over 100,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Despite ongoing peace talks, the two nations have continued to exchange periodic fire and to engage in minor clashes at their border.
During the Sept. 19 conflict, Pashinyan publicly conceded Azerbaijan’s right to Nagorno-Karabakh and staunchly denied that Armenian troops were helping ethnic Armenians in the enclave.
Since Azerbaijan seized Nagorno-Karabakh, Pashinyan has been a vocal advocate for peace between the two countries and has proposed that any peace agreement be based on each nation respecting each other’s territorial sovereignty.
During a presentation at the annual Silk Road International Conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Oct. 26, Pashinyan said that both Armenia and Azerbaijan must “mutually recognize each other’s territorial integrity.”
Pashinyan said that both nations’ borders must remain at their current sizes, with Armenia at 29,800 square kilometers and Azerbaijan at 86,600 square kilometers.
“This encyclopedic reference,” Pashinyan said, “was meant to ensure that statements made by Armenia and Azerbaijan about recognition of each other’s territorial integrity leave no room for claiming that by recognizing the other country’s territorial integrity, one of the countries has in mind only a part of its internationally recognized territory.”
U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a Wednesday press conference that peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan is a “priority” for the United States and that “it’s something that the department will continue to engage towards.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255968/azerbaijan-demands-armenia-hand-over-8-villages-it-says-are-under-occupation
In this interview, exclusive for CounterPunch, professor of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nerses Kopalyan, breaks down the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. After providing a historical context for the conflict from a political science point of view, he analyzes the ways in which the media unpacks the region and presents historical and contemporary analogs. Kopalyan is the author of World Political Systems After Polarity (Routledge, 2017).
Daniel Falcone: Can you provide a historical context and give us a brief background of the region following Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive?
Nerses Kopalyan: As a political scientist, the framework I have in studying this is different from that of historians. International law and contemporary developments per the international system largely remain indifferent to history. Russia and countries like Azerbaijan are authoritarian regimes weaponizing and revising history to meet a certain weaponized narrative. After 1918, Armenia and Azerbaijan became Soviet socialist republics. Nagorno-Karabakh was made an autonomous oblast in the Soviet Union within the administrative territories of the state of Azerbaijan. It was, however, 90% Armenian. It has a historical Armenian presence; the evidence is indisputable.
Throughout the Soviet period, especially in the 1960s and beyond, you had this whole process of de-Stalinization and Moscow’s approach was very different. Things started coming to a head in 1988 when the Soviet Union started disintegrating. With glasnost and perestroika, you saw nationalist movements. New forms of identity construction developed where you were no longer a Soviet citizen. You were a Ukrainian first. You were a Kazakh first. You were an Armenian first. You were Georgian first, etc., etc.
And with these movements the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians basically started their whole self-determination movement saying that “Nagorno-Karabakh has no reason to be part of Azerbaijan, and therefore, we are seeking to basically detach ourselves and be independent.” The result was international violence; it broke out between local forces, Azeri forces and Soviet forces that initially tried to mitigate the conflict.
In 1991 full-out war broke out between the indigenous population of Nagorno-Karabakh seeking independence from Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani state. The Republic of Armenia got involved in the sense that a lot of volunteer units and troops from the Republic of Armenia went and joined to support, protect, and participate in the protection of the Armenian community. What was a conflict between the Nagorno-Karabakh population seeking to secede from Azerbaijan ended up being an interstate conflict because Armenia got sucked into it. Armenia said that Nagorno-Karabakh needed to be an independent state.
Daniel Falcone: Can you talk about how the geopolitical configurations around the world are impacting the conflict? How are the more powerful nations impacting the region and what does that mean for human rights and the Armenians?
Nerses Kopalyan: The United States does not have tunnel vision so they’re not forgetting Taiwan or Ukraine just because the Palestinian-Israeli issue is there, and they’re not forgetting the South Caucasus. The Israeli conflict has been getting a lot of attention in the United States for obvious domestic reasons, but I would caution not to conflate the broad rhetoric and the political emphasis on it from the highly diplomatic, technocratic, and military components involved. America’s priority remains the defeat of Russia in the Ukraine War because that is more specific to the broader global and geopolitical configurations. Israel’s component in that context is getting a lot of international attention, but I don’t think it’s shifting policies as far as other parts of the world and other conflict zones are concerned. Israel is engaging in extreme and preemptive behavior, essentially the Bush doctrine on steroids.
The United States preaches human rights, but human rights matter until they conflict with America’s strategic interests. Foreign policy then, is based on prioritization, so human rights are prioritized until this priority conflicts with the ultimate priority, the national interest.
We see this play out in the South Caucasus. There’s a large body of evidence of the human rights violations that Azerbaijan continues to engage in. It is an authoritarian predatory regime.
And the approach of the United States and the West is: “We hope Azerbaijan isn’t too egregious with their human rights violations so we can somehow justify basically sweeping it under the rug due to our own (1) oil interests, (2) European energy security interests, and (3) ‘the Iran factor.’” Azerbaijan is presented as a buffer against Iranian interests, so the U.S. position is always “this abuser has important characteristics that are consistent with our strategic interests.”
This is the Western posture when human rights conflict with strategic interests. And so, when we saw the entire ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh taking place, the West didn’t come out and cite crimes against humanity. The European Parliament did of course, but not the European Commission, not many European countries, and certainly not the United States. If they said it’s forced removal, that’s a violation of international law. It might force their hand to take diplomatic steps.
Daniel Falcone: It’s been said that oil flows freely in Azerbaijan, but information not so much. Could you comment on how Western media outlets cover this situation? Could you offer some sources that people could use to get a better handle on this conflict without corporate or establishment interference? Further, do activists for the Palestinian cause identify with the Armenians in this conflict in your estimation?
Nerses Kopalyan: I would encourage access to local journalism. EVN Report, for example, stands out. Further, Hetq in Armenia does a lot of investigative reporting, so there’s solid content there. Anything outside of that, as you noted, it’s either an issue of corporate interest or towing the line with respect to state policies. Now, why am I not mentioning Azerbaijan? When you have one of the worst authoritarian regimes in the world, where there is no independent media, I can’t speak of local journalism. There, everything from think tanks to academics to pundits receive directives from Baku. Authoritarianism and the misinformation utilized by authoritarians create this false parity in information.
If you don’t have a domestic audience that is intrinsically invested in the human rights violations that are happening outside of the country or other parts of the world, news outlets are only going to cater to the local and domestic audience. So those factors also remain important. And, of course, the positions of government are very important. We can’t deny that. As a result, the perception is that The United States has a very neutral position on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
I think at the basic human level, absolutely, the Palestinian activists understand the human suffering that the Armenians are going through. But when it gets to the political level, their sympathy becomes a lot more complicated. When we see the social justice movements in the United States, many of them are expressing solidarity or sympathy with the Palestinians, but this is a byproduct of entrenched ideational perspectives, such as decolonization. Those configurations are not so applicable to the South Caucasus and developments in Armenia.
When we study human rights organizations as institutions, they become forces of their own, in need of self-reproduction or self-perpetuation. This is known as path dependency. So, when institutions develop in size, structure, and modality thinking, they tend to prioritize self-preservation as opposed to covering every issue that they’re supposed to address.
Powerful human rights organizations have turned a blind eye to certain human rights violations because from their lens they are detrimental to their institutional interests. As a matter of fact, in the United States, do not expect any robust modality of activism to the suffering of any international people unless you have a huge constituency in the country. Not that many people, for instance, discuss what’s been going on in Myanmar.
8 November 2023
Human rights and sustainability researcher Dr Maria Armoudian from Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland has won the Royal Society Te Apārangi Early Career Research Excellence Award for Social Sciences.
Dr Maria Armoudian, a senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations in the Faculty of Arts, has won the prestigious Early Career Excellence Award for Social Sciences from the Royal Society Te Apārangi.
The award acknowledges Dr Armoudian's research, leadership and mentoring work to advance the interconnected goals of sustainability, human rights and good governance.
The Royal Society’s commendation says her third book, Lawyers Beyond Borders: Advancing International Human Rights through Local Laws & Courts (University of Michigan Press, 2021), “represents the definitive work on the inception and development of a global movement to redress survivors of egregious human rights violations, such as genocide and torture.”
Based on court records, government, NGO and media reports, as well as interviews with advocates and survivors, Lawyers Beyond Borders examines the 40-year pursuit to redress and restore human rights for those the international legal-political systems have failed.
The book also highlights efforts to build new pathways to justice, using human ingenuity, ideas and creative advocacy, says Dr Armoudian.
“Although the international justice system has failed the millions who need it most, namely, those who have suffered the gravest violations, Lawyers Beyond Borders shows how through ideas and creativity, and despite limited budgets compared to their powerful opponents in many cases, committed advocates are helping repair the damage.”
“And with rising authoritarianism, record levels of violent conflict and climate change, solving the injustice crises is more urgent than ever,” she believes.
Such is the interest in the work that eight of Dr Armoudian's recent international and national conference presentations involved findings and analysis from the book: including at the Midwest Political Science Association, Australasian American Studies Association, International Studies Association, and Western Political Science Association.
Following its publication, she was also invited to join the advisory board of the international legal Center for Truth and Justice, and to become a co-director of the University of Auckland’s flagship research centre, Ngā Ara Whetū for Climate, Biodiversity and Society.
As the granddaughter of Armenian genocide survivors who lost everything – brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends, indigenous lands, homes, and everything except for the clothes on their backs – she is profoundly grateful to the Royal Society for acknowledging her work to support others who are suffering similar fates.
“Some have the world’s attention, so many do not, such as the Armenians in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh. I’m deeply thankful to my friends, family, colleagues, and community who have supported me in my darkest hours. I owe them everything, including my continued existence.
“I will use this award to continue advancing the interlinked goals of human rights, sustainability and good governance. I dedicate it to all survivors of genocide, torture, ethnic cleansing and dispossession of their indigenous lands, homes, and communities, and to all lawyers, journalists, activists and scholars working to remedy grave injustices.
“As one person on a very large, dispersed international team, I will continue to work for your redress and recovery.”
I dedicate [this award] to all survivors of genocide, torture, ethnic cleansing and dispossession of their indigenous lands, homes, and communities, and to all lawyers, journalists, activists and scholars working to remedy grave injustices.
Other works by Dr Armoudian include Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World (Prometheus Books, 2011) and Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs, and Increasingly Perilous Future (Routledge, 2016).
She is the host and producer of the Scholar’s Circle podcast and a regular media commentator and opinion piece writer for New Zealand and international publications, including The Washington Post, The New York Times syndicate, the Los Angeles Times syndicate and the Colombia Journalism Review.
She is also a radio broadcaster, musician and former journalist who worked as both a city commissioner in Los Angeles for six years and the California State Legislature for eight.
The Early Career Research Excellence Award for Social Sciences is awarded annually for the encouragement of early career researchers currently based in New Zealand for social sciences research in New Zealand.
Julianne Evans | Media adviser
M: 027 562 5868
E: [email protected]
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2023/11/08/human-rights-champion-wins-top-royal-society-award.html
20:19, 9 November 2023
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Within the framework of the 42nd session of UNESCO General Conference in Paris, Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan on November 9 held a meeting with the Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay, the Foreign Ministry of Armenia said in a statement.
''At the meeting Ararat Mirzoyan touched upon the consequences of the ethnic cleansing of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, presenting the efforts of the Armenian Government to meet the priority needs of more than 100,000 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Minister Mirzoyan emphasized the importance of realizing the right to education for about 21 thousand refugee children of school age, noting that most of them had already been provided with the opportunity to realize the right to education.
In this context, the Minister of Foreign Affairs appreciated UNESCO's rapid deployment of the UNESCO emergency mission to Armenia for the assessment of educational needs of refugee children.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and the Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay touched upon the issue of preserving the Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mirzoyan expressed concern about the serious risks of their destruction, desecration or appropriation, stressing the need for the active involvement of UNESCO in the protection of cultural monuments.
The importance of sending a fact-finding mission of UNESCO to Nagorno-Karabakh to conduct independent monitoring and mapping of cultural monuments on-site was emphasized by both sides,'' reads the statement.
Teni Apelian (Photo: zulal.org)
The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will hold an “ԱԲԳ for Children” program of 2023 on Sunday, November 19, at 3 p.m. in the Shahinian Solarium in NAASR’s Vartan Gregorian Building, 395 Concord Avenue, Belmont, MA.
Led by Teni Apelian, the event will be called “Ghapama” after the Armenian pumpkin delicacy and will celebrate autumn with traditional songs and games in Armenian. The event is free to all, and children up to age 10 accompanied by an adult are welcome.
Teni Apelian is one of the singers and arrangers in Zulal, the Armenian a cappella trio, and a collaborator on educational and language projects supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Apelian’s foremost passion lies in discovering and sharing the ancient melodies that help us define the Armenian musical character and connect to our roots. As an educator, she taught Armenian folk music at the Hovnanian School in NJ and has been a facilitator at Zarmanazan (an Armenian language immersion program in the French Alps) since its inception.
For more information, contact NAASR at [email protected].
18:36, 8 November 2023
The Secretary General of the Armenian Human Rights Defender's Office Nina Pirumyan also participated in the conference entitled "Torture and other ill-treatment: the role of National Human Rights Institutions.’’
The aim of the international conference was to study and define the role and challenges of states and human rights institutions in addressing and preventing the risks and root causes of torture and other forms of ill-treatment.
Anahit Manasyan presented to international partners the experience of working as a human rights defender in the Republic of Armenia as a national preventive mechanism.
The work of the Public Council attached to the Defender and the culture of cooperation with civil society organizations on issues related to torture and other forms of ill-treatment were noted.
During separate discussions, Ms. Anahit Manasyan presented issues regarding specific mechanisms for identifying, addressing and ensuring rights against torture and other forms of ill-treatment of forcibly displaced persons, emphasizing the importance of the mentioned issue in the context of recent events, in particular the forced deportation of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.
In that context, the issues raised within the framework of the fact-finding work carried out by the Human Rights Defender were emphasized.
The Human Rights Defender has reached a number of agreements on further cooperation with partners who are members of the Global Alliance of National Institutions and expressed her readiness to participate in new initiatives related to the protection of human rights.
19:48, 8 November 2023
20:38, 8 November 2023
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan violated the right to a fair trial of Vagif Khachatryan, an Armenian by nationality, during the implementation of an obviously simulated and false trial.
The Deputy Chair of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs Rustam Bakoyan said on social media.
"I am a villager, not a terrorist"
Vagif Khachatryan of Armenian nationality uttered these words in the Azerbaijani court. The arrest of the latter was from the beginning a continuation of an obvious war crime, and the criminal legal processes carried out against him after all this are a vivid proof of gross violations of human rights in a totalitarian country like Azerbaijan.
Despite its membership in the Council of Europe and ratification of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Azerbaijan violated the right to a fair trial of Vagif Khachatryan, an Armenian by nationality, during the implementation of an obviously simulated and false trial.
Vagif Khachatryan denied his participation in the so-called "Meshal events" and apologized in Armenian, literally saying that he was not there. In other words, the person, in fact, did not accept the criminal charges brought against him, while the translator, deliberately and obviously acting in the domain of anti-Armenian practices within the framework of Azerbaijani state policy, conveyed to the audience that Khachatryan apologized to the Azerbaijani people for all the incidents committed by Armenians.
During the entire judicial process, Vagif Khachatryan's thoughts were distorted, as a result, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
I have sent urgent letters to my international colleagues to ensure the immediate return of Vagif Khachatryan to the Republic of Armenia within the framework of their powers.
I have requested that the political level officially acknowledge that the trial held against Vagif Khachatryan is entirely false and aims to conceal the criminal anti-Armenian activities of Azerbaijan and the implemented military tactics,'' Bakoyan said.