Author: Garik Boshkezenian

‘How long will it last?’ Nagorno-Karabakh fighting rages on

Garik Boshkezenian
Associated Press
Oct 7 2020
 
 
 
 
By AVET DEMOURIAN
 
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — The intense shelling in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh is taking its toll on the civilian population as fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces showed no signs of abating Wednesday, with one resident hunkered down in a shelter exclaiming “How can one stand it? How long will it last?”
 
Clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces in the region since Sept. 27 have killed hundreds in the worst escalation of hostilities since 1994 when a truce ended a war that raged for several years. Nagorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia for more than a quarter-century.
  
Stepanakert, the territory’s capital, has been under intense artillery barrage in recent days. Flashes of explosions could be seen from the city center on Tuesday night.
 
Local residents have been gathering in shelters to escape the violence, distraught over continued strikes on the city.
 
“Bombing … buildings and houses are destroyed. We are so afraid of it. How can one stand it? How long will it last?” Sida, one fearful resident who stayed in a shelter on Tuesday night, told The Associated Press without providing her full name.
 
Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Ovannisian said Wednesday that Stepanakert was being targeted once again by Azerbaijan along with other settlements. Nagorno-Karabakh officials said that civilian infrastructure and a few residential buildings in Stepanakert have been hit with missiles and drones.
 
Azerbaijan has rejected claims of targeting civilian infrastructure in Stepanakert. Hikmet Hajiyev, an Azerbaijani presidential aide, said in an interview earlier this week that Azerbaijani forces only targeted military objects in and around Stepanakert, acknowledging, however, that “some collateral damage” was possible.
 
The fighting in the region — involving heavy artillery, warplanes and drones — has continued despite numerous international calls for a cease-fire. Both sides have traded accusations of expanding the hostilities beyond Nagorno-Karabakh and of targeting civilians.
 
The Nagorno-Karabakh’s military said Wednesday that 320 of its soldiers have been killed in fighting since Sept. 27, while Azerbaijan hasn’t publicized its losses. Scores of civilians on both sides have also died.
 
The EU expressed concern Wednesday about the fighting.
 
“We have seen extremely worrying reports of attacks on populated areas which is taking a deadly toll on civilians. We strongly urge the sides to fully observe their international obligations to protect civilian populations,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told members of the European Parliament.
 
He voiced concern about Azerbaijan’s determination to continue the fight until Armenia’s withdrawal from the region and a strong _expression_ of support for Azerbaijan from Turkey.
 
Borrell said that he had discussed the conflict with the foreign ministers of both countries, and with those of Russia and Turkey, the main regional players closest to the conflict. Turkey has publicly backed Azerbaijan in the conflict and said it was ready to provide military assistance, should Azerbaijan request it.
 
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hailed Turkish weapons in an interview with CNN-Turk broadcast Wednesday, noting that “Turkish drones have created a huge difference.”
 
“The Turkish defense industry has developed at such a speed that, I hope in the future, with the Turkish arms our military equipment will reach a higher level,” he added.
 
While praising his main ally Turkey, Aliyev also had warm words for Russia, which has a military base in Armenia but has sought to cultivate warm ties with both rivals.
 
“We have long historic relations with Russia,” Aliyev said. “Today, Russia has developed relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan. This is an important factor”
 
Russia, the United States and France are co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, set up to mediate the conflict.
 
Azerbaijan’s foreign minister is set to attend a meeting of the Minsk group in Geneva on Thursday to present Baku’s position on the conflict.
 
___
 
Associated Press writers Daria Litvinova and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Aida Sultanova in Baku, Azerbaijan, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Lorne Cook in Brussels, contributed to this report.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Armenia prepared to defend against Azerbaijan attacks despite Macron’s call for peace

Garik Boshkezenian
Global News
Oct 3 2020
By Nvard Hovhannisyan and Nailia Bagirova Reuters

Armenia said on Saturday it would use “all necessary means” to protect ethnic Armenians from attack by Azerbaijan, which said its forces had captured a string of villages in fighting over the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ignoring a French attempt to mediate, the opposing sides pounded each other with rockets and missiles for a seventh day in the newest flare-up of a decades-old conflict that threatens to draw in Russia and Turkey.

Read more: COMMENTARY: Armenia, Azerbaijan is age-old conflict that could roil the neighbourhood

The death toll rose to at least 230 in the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan that broke away from its control in the 1990s.

Each side said it had destroyed hundreds of the other’s tanks. The Azeri side claimed gains, and President Ilham Aliyev sent congratulations to a military commander on the capture of a Karabakh village.

“Today the Azeri army raised the flag of Azerbaijan in Madagiz. Madagiz is ours,” Aliyev declared on social media. He later announced the capture of seven more villages.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of the Azeri capital Baku in celebration, waving flags and placards reading “Karabakh was and will be ours.”

It was not possible to independently verify the situation on the ground.

Armenian Defence Ministry official Artsrun Hovhannisyan said the situation was changing frequently. “In such a large war such changes are natural. We can take a position, then leave it in an hour,” he told reporters.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told his countrymen in a televised address that fighting all along the front was intense.

“As of now, we already have significant human losses, both military and civilian, large quantities of military equipment are no longer usable, but the adversary still has not been able to solve any of its strategic issues,” he said.

Armenia’s armed forces have so far held back from entering the war alongside those of Nagorno-Karabakh. But Pashinyan portrayed the conflict as a national struggle and compared it to the country’s war with Ottoman Turkey in the early 20th century.

Read more: Canada to stop military exports to Turkey if human rights abuses uncovered: Champagne 

His Foreign Ministry said Armenia, as the guarantor of Nagorno-Karabakh’s security, would take “all the necessary means and steps” to prevent what it called “mass atrocities” by the forces of Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey. A ministry spokeswoman declined to comment on what steps this could entail.

The clashes are the worst since the 1990s, when some 30,000 people were killed. They have raised international concern about stability in the South Caucasus, where pipelines carry Azeri oil and gas to world markets.

Apart from a four-day war in 2016 that killed about 200 people, the Karabakh region has mostly been calm for the past quarter-century, with Russia playing a balancing role as an ally of both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Now Azerbaijan, emboldened by Turkish backing, says it has run out of patience with decades of ineffective diplomacy that have failed to lead to the return of its lost territory.

While Russia, the United States and France have called for an end to hostilities, Turkey has said Armenian “occupiers” must withdraw and rejected “superficial” demands for a ceasefire.

Regional and military analysts say the Azeris lack the firepower to overrun Karabakh completely but may settle for territorial gains that will enable them to declare a victory and gain leverage in future negotiations.

The two sides continued to trade accusations of foreign involvement, with Pashinyan saying Armenia had information that 150 high-ranking Turkish officers were helping to direct Azeri military operations.

Both Turkey and Azerbaijan have repeatedly denied the involvement of Turkish forces, as well as assertions by Armenia, Russia and France that Syrian rebels are fighting on the Azeri side.

Azerbaijan hit back, saying in a statement on Saturday that ethnic Armenians from Syria, Lebanon, Russia, Georgia, Greece and the United Arab Emirates had been deployed or were on their way to operate as “foreign terrorist fighters” on the ethnic Armenian side.

Nagorno-Karabakh said 51 more of its servicemen had been killed, raising its total losses to 198.

Azerbaijan says 19 of its civilians have been killed, but has not disclosed its military losses. Eleven civilian deaths have been reported by Nagorno-Karabakh and two in Armenia.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7376342/armenia-azerbaijan-macron-peace-call/

Turkey ​Sends ISIS Warlord to Azerbaijan to Face Off Against Putin’s Armenian Allies

Garik Boshkezenian
The Daily Beast
Sept 29 2020
 
 
 Turkey Sends ISIS Warlord to Azerbaijan to Face Off Against Putin’s Armenian Allies
 
WHOEVER WINS… WE LOSE
 
Former ISIS fighters have been dispatched to fight in a European showdown between Turkish and Russian proxies.
 
Muhammad Al-Binshi
Updated Sep. 29, 2020 7:11AM ET / Published Sep. 28, 2020 3:33PM ET
 
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/Getty
 
ISTANBUL, Turkey—On Sunday afternoon, a video depicting a large convoy of Islamist Syrian rebel fighters yelling enthusiastically as they drove off to war circulated widely on Arabic social media. Fighters in the packed trucks, driving quickly past the group of children filming with their phones, could be heard yelling “Allahu Akbar!” and, “Our leader, 'til the end of time, is our master, Muhammad!”
 
However, what shocked those watching the video weren’t the shouts of the Syrian fighters but rather those of the children filming, who yelled back at the soldiers in a language unfamiliar to most Syrians following their country’s nine-year war. “That’s not Kurdish, right?” said one user in an online group where the video emerged. “If they were Kurds, you think they’d be cheering them on?” responded another with a laugh out loud emoji.
 
Over the next several hours, rumors swirled that the video was shot in Azerbaijan, a small Turkic-speaking nation lodged between Iran and Russia, and that the Syrian rebel fighters had been sent there to prop up the Azeri government in its war against neighboring Armenia that had begun that day. According to high-ranking Syrian rebel sources that spoke to The Daily Beast, these rumors are true. The fighters that appeared in the circulated video were part of a group of 1,000 Syrian rebel soldiers sent in two batches from Turkey on September 22 and 24.
 
“500 Hamza Brigade fighters were flown last Tuesday from southern Turkey to the Azeri airbase at Sumqayit [30 kilometers north of the Azeri capital of Baku]”, according to a source within the Syrian National Army (SNA) rebel outfit who requested anonymity. “Two days later, on Thursday, another 500 fighters from the Sultan Murad brigades rebel faction were similarly flown out to Azerbaijan.”
 
These claims were echoed by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Syrian opposition body that monitors human rights violations in the country. SOHR sources suggest more batches of Syrian rebel fighters are preparing to be deployed to Azerbaijan.
 
The Hamza and Sultan Murad brigades are known within Syrian rebel circles as factions that enjoy especially close relations with Turkey, the last remaining patron of the Syrian opposition. Sayf Balud, commander of the Hamza brigades, however, is also known for his checkered past, in particular, as a former commander within the radical jihadist group ISIS.
 
An ethnic Syrian Turkman from the town of Biza’a in Aleppo city’s northern countryside, Balud originally joined the Abu Bakr Sadiq brigades, a moderate rebel faction near his hometown that received widespread support from Gulf states in the early years of the conflict. However, coming from a small, relatively unknown family, Balud failed to climb the ranks of Syria’s rebel movement as quickly as he would have liked, and as others from more prominent backgrounds regularly did. By early 2013, Balud had joined ISIS, whose ranks were staffed mostly by foreigners who couldn't have cared less about the social status of their Syrian recruits.
 
Second Division, Third Legion
 
In July 2013, Balud appeared in an ISIS propaganda video shot in the border town of Tal Abyad after the group successfully captured the city from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). In the video, Sayf appears next to an Egyptian foreign fighter addressing a room full of two dozen captured YPG soldiers, who were assembled before an ISIS camera crew to officially repent for having joined an armed faction that ISIS’ leadership described as being “at war with God.”
 
Over the next several years, Balud’s star continued to rise, as the commander attained a level of status within ISIS that would have been unattainable in other rebel groups. Despite the large-scale defeat of ISIS across northern Syria at the hands of the YPG in 2016 and 2017, the cunning commander was able to leverage his history of fighting against Kurds to re-invent himself as a valuable client for another foreign patron: Turkey.
 
By January 2018, when Turkish backed rebel forces launched “Operation Olive Branch” to take over the Kurdish canton of Afrin located in Syria’s uppermost northwest corner, Balud regularly appeared in the group’s propaganda videos as the official commander of the newly formed Hamza brigades. His status as an ethnic Turkman, a small minority within Syria whose likeness to their Turkish kinsmen across the border has pushed Ankara to grant many coveted privileges such as Turkish citizenship and sensitive leadership positions, further endeared Balud to his new patrons.
 
According to SNA sources, Syrian rebel units now being sent to Azerbaijan by Turkey are almost exclusively led by ethnic Syrian Turkmen. “Sayf Balud is a Turkman. The Sultan Murad brigade’s commander, Fahim Aissa, is a Syrian Turkman, like Balud. Turkey only trusts factions led by Syrian Turkman to carry out these missions. These are sensitive for Turkey politically, and they don’t trust Syrian Arabs to lead them.”
 
Turkey’s intervention in Azerbaijan is indeed sensitive. After a four-year lull in fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, fighting between the two countries erupted anew on Sunday in fighting that killed two-dozen fighters.
 
Historically the Nagorno-Karabakh region has been internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. But in 1991 Armenian factions within the region declared themselves independent. Three years of war over the disputed territory ended in 1994 with a Russian brokered ceasefire. The newly declared Nagorno-Karabakh republic was soon occupied by Armenia, which has since maintained de facto control of the area. With the exception of four days of fighting in April 2016, Sunday’s clashes were the first major instance of renewed combat between both countries over the status of the area. Both sides accuse the other of having initiated the fighting on Sunday.
 
Clashes continue, with dozens more casualties reported. Fighting alongside the Azeri regular forces were 1,000 Syrian rebel fighters, among them former jihadists led by ex-ISIS commander Sayf Balud.
 
All About the Oil
 
Turkey's move to send Syrian rebels to face-off against Armenia, a longtime rival of Turkey, is just the latest in a long string of neo-Ottoman foreign adventures undertaken by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the last 6 months. Ankara has deployed both its armed forces and Syrian proxies to crack down on Kurdish PKK and YPG forces in northern Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan throughout 2020.
 
Turkey has also intervened in western Libya and waters throughout the eastern Mediterranean where its navy has threatened NATO allies France and Greece in an attempt to strongarm both countries and lay claim to gas reserves located within Greece's maritime borders.
 
In Azerbaijan, Turkey is looking to demonstrate loyalty and prop up an oil-rich regime with which it has maintained close military ties since the 1994 ceasefire. Since 2005, they have launched numerous lucrative oil and gas initiatives including a pipeline that exports 1.2 million barrels of Azeri oil per day to the European Union (EU), earning Turkey upwards of $200 million in annual transit fees. In 2006, this cooperation expanded following the launch of the South Caucasus natural gas pipeline that annually exports 8.8 billion cubic meters of much needed Azeri gas to the Turkish market, a net importer of energy.
 
In 2011, Turkey began work on an expansive natural gas production network called the Trans Anatolian Pipeline, which is projected to export 31 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas to the EU by 2026. Turkish shareholders, who own a 30 percent stake in the project, stand to make huge profits.
 
Turkey’s push to transform Azerbaijan into a lucrative oil and gas export hub is also motivated by Ankara’s desire to come out from under Russia’s shadow. Turkey depends on Russia for 40 percent of its fossil fuels, a reliance that has forced Ankara to treat Russia as a friendly nation despite the fact that the two countries share almost no common interests.
 
The “Southern Gas Corridor,” a term referring to the various pipelines emerging out of Azerbaijan, has been heavily cheered on by the EU, which also wants to break its dependence on Russian gas. No surprise then that Russia is on the other side in the ongoing dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
 
Nagorno-Karabakh is now the third theater where Russia and Turkey find themselves supporting opposite sides in an active Middle East conflict zone. In Syria, Russian support for dictator Bashar al-Assad and Turkey’s support for the country’s rebels such as Sayf Bulad and others led to direct conflict between both countries’ armies earlier this year, resulting in the death of dozens of Turkish soldiers. In Libya, the situation is reversed, with Turkey supporting Libya’s government and Russia supporting Khalifa Haftar, a renegade general and rebel leader who has sought to seize control of Libya’s lucrative oil sector and capture the capital of Tripoli.
 
In both conflicts, Sayf Bulad and the Hamza brigades have proven extremely useful to Turkey. Thousands of the group’s fighters, including Sayf Bulad, were deployed to Libya last summer to help repel a major assault launched by Russian-backed Khalifa Haftar and in the bargain reclaim territory previously captured by the general. The Turkish backed authority in Tripoli is now safely guarded against external threats, while Turkish companies are set to gain lucrative contracts in Libya’s oil and gas and reconstruction sectors.
 
Within this context of great power struggles, Syria's rebels, once idealistic and seeking to liberate their country from dictator Bashar al-Assad, have found themselves reduced to pawns compelled to serve as mercenaries and shock troops used by Turkey to advance its foreign policy in a world where Ankara finds itself increasingly isolated. In doing so, they find themselves led by and mixed with fighters from the most vicious jihadist group the world has ever seen.
 
 
 

CNN: Armenia and Azerbaijan are clashing over a disputed region. Here’s what you need to know

Garik Boshkezenian
CNN News
Sept 28 2020

Analysis by Nick Paton Walsh, International Security Edi

(CNN)The dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh has run hot and cold since the 1994 ceasefire — one of several "frozen conflicts" that blight the post-Soviet world. Yet this weekend's clashes mark a new height in rhetoric and signs of intent.

It has many concerned that a tit-for-tat cycle of border clashes, usually diffused by international diplomacy, may continue unabated and spark a longer, nastier war.
    Control over the mountainous area of Nagorno-Karabakh. Populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians, and aided by the Armenian diaspora, it sits inside Azerbaijani territory, connected to Armenia proper by a costly highway. It is heavily militarized and its forces have been backed by Armenia, which has a security alliance with Russia. Azerbaijan has long claimed it will retake the territory, which is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani. Control over the area has become a point of nationalist — almost existential — pride in both countries.
    It's unclear what started this latest escalation. Azerbaijan says Armenia provoked them with aggression. Armenia says Azerbaijani forces attacked. Tensions have risen since July, when several days of clashes rocked the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. These clashes killed 11 Azerbaijani soldiers and one civilian, Azerbaijan said, and prompted tens of thousands of protesters to take to the streets of Baku, demanding the region's recapture. Turkey, seeking an enhanced regional role and an ally of the ethnically Turkic Azerbaijanis, has been offering support — perhaps military — and loudly backed Azerbaijan's claims.
    The normal rhythm of this conflict would anticipate diplomacy to rush in and calm the guns after 48 hours of blood-letting. But that hasn't happened yet, and the opposite is fast becoming true. Armenia declared martial law Sunday and mobilized all its forces. Azerbaijan followed with martial law Sunday, and partial mobilization Monday.
    Baku has long said it would retake the area and has oil riches to spend on forces to achieve those same ends. The conflict is so overlooked and little-known in the outside world, that some speculate the fighting may spiral out of control, with Washington too distracted and inward-looking to muster its full diplomatic might to stop it. The US has had a deputy secretary of state call both sides to "urge both sides to cease hostilities immediately," and President Donald Trump has said "we'll see if we can stop it."
    Again, Turkey and Russia find themselves on opposing sides of a febrile front line. Like in Syria and Libya, their proxies — mercenaries or allied armies — are battling for control of parts of a Middle East, or Caucasus, where a lighter US footprint has imbalanced the delicate distribution of power. Turkey has been particularly effusive in its encouragement of Azerbaijan, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying on Twitter that Armenia has "once again proven that it is the biggest threat to peace and serenity in the region. The Turkish nation continues to stand by its Azerbaijani brothers and sisters with all its means, as it has always done."
    The Kremlin has been a calmer force, with President Vladimir Putin calling Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and noting "it is important now to take all necessary efforts to prevent a military escalation of the confrontation, and most importantly — to stop military operations." But Moscow is a long-term supporter of Armenia, in weapons and diplomacy, and will be unlikely to tolerate Turkey imposing its will in its former Soviet area of influence. Putin also has a good relationship with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
    But enmity is building, given the ongoing violence in Syria, where Turkish-backed Syrian fighters are pushing against Moscow's ally, the Syrian regime. Similar tensions are growing in Libya, where Turkey is backing the Tripoli-based government with Syrian mercenaries, and Russia has sent Wagner mercenaries, according to US officials, to assist rival forces that control the East. Both Moscow and Ankara seem to spy an opening in Washington's disinterest in being the regional superpower, and Nagorny-Karabakh is the latest, longest-contested, least-expected venue for this clash to play out.
      Everyone wants calm, but nobody on the front Iines is listening yet. NATO has said both "sides should immediately cease hostilities," and added "there is no military solution to this conflict." The EU demanded an "immediate cessation of hostilities, de-escalation and for strict observance of the ceasefire" that had been coordinated by the OSCE's Minsk Group.
      Yet four years of Trump's disengagement, the pandemic, Russia's increased confidence and Turkey's bold regional posturing have created a new dynamic where the old norms can be discarded and destructive opportunities sought. Even if diplomacy suddenly shuts the fighting down in the coming hours, the renewed vigor of rhetoric on both sides means this could flare up again soon.



Consolidation is unconditional guarantee of our victories – President Sarkissian

Garik Boshkezenian

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 20:09,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian addressed the Armenian people on September 27 on the occasion of the aggression launched by Azerbaijan against Artsakh, noting that consolidation is the unconditional guarantee of the victories of the Armenian people.   

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Office of the President, Sarkissian said, ‘’Dear compatriots in Armenia, Artsakh and Diaspora,

This is another military aggression by Azerbaijan, which is a war against the entire Armenian people. This war is directed against the right of the people of Artsakh to living freely, against having a dignified, peaceful life and future.

I feel deep sorrow for the victims of the large-scale military aggression by Azerbaijan, including a child and a woman’, Armen Sarkissian said, emphasizing that the Defense Army of Artsakh again proved that it’s ready to swiftly reacting to any military operation.

President Sarkissian said that they are expecting adequate reaction from the international community, particularly the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair countries, international organizations and individuals.

‘’By these steps Azerbaijan overtly shows to the international mediators and international community that it does not wish to settle Artsakh issue through negotiations and foster regional peace and stability, it continues to violate universal values, targets civilians, hospitals and communications.

We hope that the international community will initiate urgent measures to stop the war unleashed by Azerbaijan’’, the President said.

‘’Dear compatriots,

The victory achieved in the Artsakh war (1994 – edit.) is a result of our unity and consolidation, today the preservation of that victory is the sacramental duty of each of us.

The fate of our Motherland depends on us, our unity, solidarity and discipline.

We need to unite.

Consolidation is the unconditional guarantee of our victories. At this moment we have to put aside all the political disagreements and personal confrontations and become a strong back for our Armed Forces.

We have to act together, even if we have different thinking, worldview and ideas.

The capacities and potential of each of us in Armenia, Artsakh and Diaspora should be used for the sake of the Motherland.

God bless our army.

God bless us all. ”

Editing and translating by Tigran Sirekanyan

Nagorno-Karabakh talks stalled, Azerbaijan’s president says

Garik Boshkezenian
TASS, Russia
Sept 19 2020
From his point of view, Armenia "has actually disrupted the negotiation process"

BAKU, September 19. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has given a negative assessment to the current state of the talks aimed at resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and claims that that they have been nearly mothballed.

"I assess negatively the current state of negotiation. I believe that the people of Azerbaijan completely agree with me. In fact, the talks are not ongoing," Aliyev said in a televised interview with national channels.

From his point of view, Armenia "has actually disrupted the negotiation process."

"Therefore, their absurd statements and provocative steps make talks senseless," Aliyev added.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs – Russia, France and the United States.


FM: July battles demonstrated Armenia’s capacities to defend itself, its population and borders

Garik Boshkezenian
Panorama, Armenia
Sept 19 2020
Politics 13:51 19/09/2020 Armenia

The July battles demonstrated Armenia’s capacities to defend itself, its population and borders. Moreover, the battles vividly demonstrated that there can be no military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said in an interview to Al-Akhbar newspaper.

Question: What are the reasons for the recent clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan?

Answer: There are many reasons, but the underlying reason is that this is a renewed attempt by Azerbaijan to impose unilateral concessions on Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh through use of force and threat of force. But what is more important in this regard, is that it was a miscalculation by Azerbaijani side which showed that their current capacities do not match with their well known intentions.

It was an attempt by Azerbaijani side to show a military advantage over Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, which indeed was a failed one. The July battles demonstrated Armenia’s capacities to defend itself, its population and its borders. Moreover, the July battles vividly demonstrated that there can be no military solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Question: What is the Turkish role in fuelling the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan?

Answer: We have been witnessing Turkey’s destabilizing role not only in our region but in all other neighboring regions. The projection of power, intrusion and interference in the South Caucasian region do not contribute in any way to the peaceful resolution of the conflict and to regional peace, security and stability. 

During the battles in July, Turkey has been the only country that was taking a one-sided supporting and fueling the maximalist approaches of Azerbaijan. That support was accompanied by a very aggressive approach toward Armenia and the Armenian people:

First, Turkey publically encourages Azerbaijan to take a harder stance against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh by openly communicating its support, including in military matters.

Second, Turkey came up with military posturing against Armenia by initiating large scale military exercises in the vicinity of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh with very provocative moves.

Third, there is ongoing Turkish military build-up in Azerbaijan, which is strengthening and expanding their presence thereon.

Fourth,  there are reports of recruitment of foreign terrorist fighters in Syria with aim to be transferred to Azerbaijan.

We saw the outcome of similar behavior of Turkey in other regions which inflicted immense suffering on the people living in those regions. Thus, we have to be very vigilant in maintaining and strengthening regional peace and security.

Question: Do you consider Turkey's statements in response to recognition of the Armenian Genocide from several countries, including the US Congress, the French Senate and others?

Answer: What we consider and what should be considered is the fact that Turkey’s policy of denial of the Armenian Genocide has failed particularly in recent times. The new wave of recognition of the Armenian Genocide has been marked by both continuity and change on the perception of this issue.

This struggle for truth, historic justice and human rights has been ongoing for several decades in all continents. However, there is new emerging important dimension in recognition of the Armenian Genocide and that is the security threats posed by Turkey to its neighboring regions and peoples. Nobody wants history to repeat itself again and again and we need to acknowledge not merely the past but to prevent recurrences of new atrocities today and in future. A state and its leadership who justifies Genocide and supports terrorist groups engaged in identity based atrocities is threat which needs to be clearly defined as such.

Question: Azerbaijan accused Russia of arming Armenia. What is your comment?

Answer:  Armenia and Russia are allies and our relations are developing based on the logic of allied relationship. Russia is a main supplier of military equipment and armaments to Azerbaijan as well and thus these accusations neither justified nor sincere.

The full interview can be accessed .

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2020/09/19/FM-July-battles/2363684


CPP’s Armenian Student Association fundraises for wounded soldiers overseas

Garik Boshkezenian

Sept 7 2020

  • by Diana Vasquez September 7, 2020

BY: DIANA VASQUEZ | @dsvasquezz

This summer, Cal Poly Pomona’s Armenian Student Association fundraised toward the Armenian Wounded Heroes Fund in response to the overseas conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the bordering territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Sept. 2 marked the 29th anniversary of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s, though there continue to be many disputes over the territory including the recent clashes in July, which prompted the Azeri to protest in the capital of Baku and call for war against Armenia.

The president of the Armenian Student Association, fourth year civil engineering student, Talar Galoustian said she keeps communication with presidential cohorts from other universities and through these conversations learned of the Armenian Wounded Heroes Fund. The organization provides first aid kits, infrastructure upgrades and mental and physical rehabilitation to Armenian soldiers.

“I think we raised our total amount within 24 hours,” said Galoustian. These funds help the organization provide medical kits to soldiers in the field.

ASA members socialize and bond on their annual Big Bear trip. (courtesy of Andre Nazarian | ASA Photographer, Winter 2018)

The club focuses on social issues and keeping Armenian culture alive through activism and education at CPP, according to Galoustian. ASA members encourage others to sign petitions, fundraise and spread awareness through their Instagram account.

The ASA would have normally celebrated the republic’s declaration with a festival during this time, but such a celebration was not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to ASA Treasurer Soseh Thomasian.

Reflecting on the overseas conflict, Soseh Thomasian, a second-year civil engineering student said, “Sometimes it does feel depressing or sad how there is some people who just don’t know Armenians, unless they know Kim Kardashian or any other celebrities…because there’s more to Armenians. Our ancestors and family members have gone through a lot for us to be where we are today.”

Thomasian visited Armenia and has seen firsthand the consequence of conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and how it affects families of fallen soldiers.

“We’ve met these people, or we’ve seen the situation that they are living in and how difficult it is for them,” said Thomasian

According to history professor Mahmood A. Ibrahim, whose areas of study include the Middle East and Islam, the border dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan dates back centuries to when the territory, then called the Transcaucasian Federation, was controlled by many empires until the beginning of the 20th Century.

It was in the early 1920s, that the Soviet Union created a federation of the three modern day regions of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The area was recognized as three socialist republics aimed to dissolve nationalities among Armenians and Turks and to spread socialism. Joseph Stalin created the region of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, but disregarded the area’s ethnically Armenian population.

“As a Palestinian man myself, I have suffered the same sort of redrawing of the maps and giving the territory to some other people who are outsiders. I lost my village, I lost my land, and I lost my country,” said Ibrahim.

Ibrahim added that during the collapse of the Soviet Union, ethnic Armenians in this territory declared their independence from Azerbaijan and sparked what is known as the Six Year War lasting from 1988 to 1994.

The overseas tension hit home for Talar M. Kilijian, a third-year industrial engineering student. Kilijian lives near the Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan Armenian School whose campus has been vandalized with hateful words.

“I’m in San Francisco right now and that school is down my street, literally, and I went there for like 12 years,” said Kilijian, “I was shocked that there were people with that kind of mindset.”

Kilijian is distance learning from the Bay Area but said that the ASA is a community at CPP that has helped her feel more at home for the three years she has been involved in the organization.

“The first club that I joined was the ASA because I really didn’t know anyone in Pomona, and I wanted to make friends,” said Kilijian. “It has helped me make better connections for sure.”

Students interested in joining the Armenian Student Association can email Galoustian at [email protected] or visit the ASA’s contact page at https://mybar.cpp.edu/organization/Hayer/roster.

Students who wish to learn more about the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic can email Ibrahim at [email protected] or visit

https://thepolypost.com/news/2020/09/07/cpps-armenian-student-association-fundraises-for-wounded-soldiers-overseas/

Statue of Komitas unveiled in Montreal

Garik Boshkezenian
Public Radio of Armenia
Sept 6 2020

A statue of Komitas Vartabed has been unveiled in Montreal, the Armenian National Committee of Canada reports.

Dr. Megerditch Tarakdjian is the sculptor of the monument.

The father of Armenian Folk Music, persecuted in 1915, survived the genocide physically, but was driven into emotional trauma by it.
Thanks to him, thousands of our folk songs survived the Armenian Genocide.

Born on on September 26, 1869 , Komitas (Soghomon Soghomonian) was an Armenian priest, musicologist, composer, arranger, singer, and choirmaster, who is considered the founder of the Armenian national school of music and is recognized as one of the pioneers of ethnomusicology.

On April 24, 1915, the day when the Armenian Genocide officially began, he was arrested and put on a train the next day together with 180 other Armenian notables and sent to the city of Cankiri in northern Central Anatolia, at a distance of some 300 miles.

His good friend Turkish nationalist poet Mehmet Emin Yurdakul, writer Halide Edip, and  U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau intervened with the government, and, by special orders from Talat Pasha, Komitas was dispatched back to the capital, but the nightmare he had experienced left a deep ineradicable impression on his soul. Komitas remained in seclusion from the outer world, absorbed in his gloomy and heavy thoughts – sad and broken.

In the autumn of 1916, he was taken to a hospital in Constantinople, Hôpital de la paix, and then moved to Paris in 1919, where he died in a psychiatric clinic in Villejuif in 1935. the following year, his ashes were transferred to Yerevan and buried in the Pantheon that was named after him.