Author: Garo Vardanian

Artsakh takes additional measures to ensure security of villages near Azerbaijani-invaded Parukh

Garo Vardanian
Panorama
Armenia –

The Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) authorities are in active dialogue with the command staff of the Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in the country, the Artsakh Information Center said on Friday.

“No effort is spared for the Russian party to take relevant measures at all levels within its mission to make the Azeri troops, that invaded the village of Parukh of the Askeran region on March 24, withdraw to their starting positions,” the statement said.

At the same time, the Artsakh military is taking additional measures to ensure the security of nearby villages, it added.

“We anticipate that as a result of the sustainable work, the Russian peacekeeping mission will be able to resolve the issues that have arisen in its sphere of control. After the withdrawal of the Azerbaijani troops, the civilian population will return to their homes with additional security guarantees,” the Information Center said.

Russia accuses Azerbaijan of violating Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire

Garo Vardanian
FRANCE 24

Moscow on Saturday accused Azerbaijan of violating a ceasefire agreement by entering the Russian peacekeeping mission's zone in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the first time Russia publicly assigned the blame for violating the 2020 deal.

The Russian defence ministry also accused Azerbaijani troops of using Turkish-made drones to strike Karabakh troops, while the foreign ministry in Moscow expressed "extreme concern" over the spiralling tensions in the region.

Incidents between the armed forces of arch enemies Azerbaijan and Armenia have been frequent in recent months but Saturday's announcement was the first time since the end of the hostilities over Karabakh in November, 2020 that Moscow has accused one of the parties of violating the uneasy ceasefire.

Moscow denounced the flare-up on the 31st day of Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, with signs indicating that both sides were digging in for a protracted conflict in the pro-Western country.

The Kremlin said on Saturday that President Vladimir Putin had discussed the situation with Armenian leader Nikol Pashinyan twice — on Friday and Thursday.

"Violating the provisions of a trilateral statement of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia from November 9, 2020, Azerbaijan's armed forces between March 24 and March 25 entered the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh and set up an observation post," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

The statement added that Turkish-made drones were used to strike Karabakh troops near the village of Farukh also known as Parukh.

Russia urged Azerbaijan to pull back troops.

"An appeal has been sent to the Azerbaijani side to withdraw its troops," the defence ministry said.

"The command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent is taking measures to resolve the situation."

The foreign ministry in Moscow urged all the parties "to exercise restraint and ensure strict compliance with the existing tripartite agreements".

There was no immediate reaction from Azerbaijan.

In 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over the long-contested enclave which claimed more than 6,500 lives.

A ceasefire deal brokered by Putin saw Yerevan cede swathes of territory, with Russia deploying a peacekeeping contingent to the mountainous region.

On Saturday, the breakaway region's defence ministry said in a statement that Azerbaijani drones had killed three people and wounded another 15.

"Azerbaijan's armed forces are continuing to remain in the village of Parukh," the statement added.

Armenia called on the international community to prevent attempts aimed at "destabilising the situation in the South Caucasus".

"We also expect the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh to undertake concrete, visible steps to resolve the situation and prevent new casualties and hostilities," the Armenian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Yerevan said that the "invasion" of Parukh "was preceded by constant shelling of Armenian settlements and civilian infrastructure".

Armenia has also warned of a possible "humanitarian catastrophe" in Karabakh after gas supplies to the disputed region were cut off following repair work.Armenia's foreign ministry said earlier this week that Azerbaijani troops on Thursday moved into the village of Parukh  — under control of Russian peacekeepers  — in what they said was "a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement".

Yerevan has accused Azerbaijan of deliberately leaving Karabakh's ethnic-Armenian population without natural gas, a charge which Azerbaijan's foreign ministry rejected as "baseless".

Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and the ensuing conflict claimed around 30,000 lives.

(AFP)

Perspectives | How do Armenia’s young people see their country?

Garo Vardanian
eurasianet
Edward Rhŷs Jones Mar 21, 2022
Yerevan (photo by Edward Rhŷs Jones)

Armenia’s youth have been through a lot in the last few years: First 2018’s “Velvet Revolution,” in which young people played a significant role, and then the 2020 war with Azerbaijan, in which the fighting and dying was done overwhelmingly by young conscripts.

Add to this the great changes that the entire region and world has gone through at the same time. So what do Armenian young people think about their country’s politics, society, and the direction it is heading?

Highs and lows

The “Velvet Revolution” was heavily backed by young people: Armenians in their late teens and twenties were by some margin the age group most likely to participate in street protests, strikes (at school or the workplace), and most likely to participate in online discussions.

Young Armenians broadly continue to see their revolution as a success. Data from the Caucasus Barometer (CB), a project of the Caucasus Research Resource Centers, show that in 2020 around 60 percent of young Armenians were “somewhat” satisfied with the revolution’s outcomes, compared to around 6 percent who were “not at all” satisfied. But these proportions were the same as in the population as whole, suggesting that even though young people invested more in the revolution, they don’t feel they have gotten more out of it.

Approval of the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, which came to power in the revolution, has stumbled. Despite still commanding a modest majority, his Civil Contract Party lost 11 seats in the 2021 elections. Many feel the country’s long-standing problems remain, and the war has only added to them.

Young Armenians consistently point to the economy as Armenia’s most significant problem. In the most recently published CB data from 2020, those between 18 and 25 were around twice as likely as the general population to say that corruption was one of the two most important issues facing the country; they also were considerably more inclined to identify “low quality of education” or “low wages.”

War and peace

The 2020 war disproportionately affected young people. According to available data, the median age of an Armenian soldier who died in the conflict was just 23. In the first war between the two sides, in the 1990s, it was 29.

Still, younger people in Armenia’s heavily militarized society are consistently more likely to view the army in a positive light compared with other age groups, according to February 2021 survey data from the International Republican Institute. That survey found that 57 percent of 18- to 35-year-olds viewed the army in a “very favorable” light, compared with 47 percent of 36- to 55-year-olds and 43 percent of those 56 years and older. Meanwhile, 29 percent of 18- to 35-year-olds held a “very favorable” view of both the work of the police and the prime minister’s office, and 13 percent thought similarly of the work of the president’s office.

But there is reason to be skeptical of these numbers, given cultural taboos around criticizing the military. One man who spoke to me on condition of anonymity – someone who had himself served in Karabakh – revealed something that few would openly admit: He resented that the loss of the Armenian-occupied “buffer” around Nagorno-Karabakh was mourned more than the “kids sent to defend it.” These attitudes are seldom heard in public.

Attitudes between generations

Global liberalizing trends also have been touching Armenia’s traditionally conservative society, especially among young people.

In their 2020 report, the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Pink Armenia found that homophobic and transphobic hate speech, including from elected officials and the media, largely goes unchallenged in Armenia. It also found that LGBTQ+ people were often characterized as “perverts,” as antipatriotic, or as pawns in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories involving George Soros. The tendency was particularly strong during the war, when LGBTQ+ people were seen as an “enemy within,” or otherwise the benefactors of a double standard (that is to say, they were perceived as receiving a level of compassion from the international community that was not extended to Armenia in its conflict with Azerbaijan).

CB data presents a generational divide. One question in the most recently published survey found that an overall majority of Armenians (over 90 percent of all age groups above 30) would not “do business with a homosexual.” Younger Armenians were increasingly unlikely to agree with that position, particularly in the capital, Yerevan: There, 75 percent of those between 18 and 29 said they would not “do business with a homosexual.”

Chougher Maria Doughramajian, an LGBTQ+ rights activist who works with Pink Armenia, ascribed these differences to the fact that younger people more often speak English and are connected to the rest of the world. “LGBTQ+ people are frequently targeted and exploited by political parties for political gains,” she told me. “But today’s youth have more access to information through different media, as compared to their parents and grandparents.”

The most recently published CB data also show that people in their late teens and twenties are more likely than any other age group to approve of “women of their ethnicity” marrying any other given ethnicity. There are limits: only 10 percent of 18-29-year-olds would approve of marriage to a Turk. (When asked about Azerbaijanis – not shown on the graph below – that number was closer to 8 percent.)

This is also a question that speaks to changing attitudes around women’s agency: Armenia’s women have long been seen as more equal in public life than the regional standard. The UNDP’s gender inequality index (which measures women’s education levels, representation in parliament, and labor force participation) placed Armenia 54th in the world in 2020, ahead of all of its neighbors.

But attitudes about women’s role in the family appear to be more traditionalist. A MeToo-style movement called “The Voice of Violence” was met with public skepticism and has struggled to change attitudes around not merely harassment and abuse, but empowerment and change more generally.

On the question of public participation in governance, Armenia’s youth are the first generation to grow up knowing only a post-Soviet state in which some semblance of a civil society exists. Their attitudes toward democratization, human rights, and popular engagement with politics are mixed.

According to the CB data, young Armenians aged 18-29 were 0.8 percentage points less likely than the general population to have attended a public meeting in the previous six months; they were also 1.5 points less likely to have volunteered and 4.5 less likely to have signed a petition in the same timeframe.

But they were also around 6 percentage points more likely to have donated money to charity, with around 44 percent saying they had done so in the last six months. And 37 percent of the same age group reported “rather” or “fully” trusting NGOs compared with 28 percent of the wider population.

On matters of democratic participation, there was also a degree of promise: Young Armenians were very slightly (3 points) more likely to say they would “certainly” or “most probably” vote in a theoretical election held the next Sunday than the population as a whole.

East or west?

When it comes to young Armenians’ geopolitical perspectives, they tend to take a pragmatic approach. CB data shows that among the 45 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds who “rather” or “fully” support membership in the European Union, 63 percent also “rather” or “fully” support membership of the Russia-dominated Eurasian Economic Union, the EAEU. (Among the wider population, 40 percent “fully” or “rather” support EU membership while 47 percent “fully” or “rather” support EAEU membership.) Russia and Europe both, after all, have a strong enough influence on modern Armenian life, and the data suggests that Armenians don’t see much point in picking a side. (The data were collected before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month, which has hardened regional views both favoring and fearful of Russia).

Given these age differences, do young Armenians resent their parents’ generation? We don’t have data on this question, but the young people have I spoken with said that, for the most part, they do not.

Tatevik, a university student, pointed out that her parents had grown up in an entirely different country, under a system with fewer alternatives. She recalled a conversation with her godfather in 2018 in which she expressed her disappointment with the outcomes of the revolution. He told her: “You may think that you did not succeed, but you proved to my generation that there is an alternative.”

She finds hope in that.

 

Edward Rhŷs Jones is a writer and researcher based in Yerevan, Armenia.

Caucasus Barometer data was provided by the Caucasus Research Resource Center. The author’s attitudes, opinions, and conclusions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the CRRC Armenia.

Moscow ready to support negotiations between Baku and Yerevan – Foreign Ministry

Garo Vardanian
Panorama, Armenia

Russia welcomes the readiness of Armenia and Azerbaijan to begin preparing a peace treaty and is ready to facilitate the negotiation process between the two countries, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"We welcome the readiness of Baku and Yerevan to start preparing a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia and reaffirm our commitment to fully assist the negotiation process," RIA Novosti quoted Zakharova as saying at a briefing on Thursday.

She added that it is still too early to talk about possible timeframes for signing the peace treaty.

Nikol Pashinyan, Vladimir Putin refer to Armenia’s application to OSCE MG Co-chairs

Garo Vardanian

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 20:16,

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a telephone conversation with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, ARMENPRESS was infomred from the Office of the Prime Minister.

The interlocutors discussed the situation around Nagorno Karabakh, referred to the implementation process of the agreements stipulated in the trilateral statements of November 9, 2020, January 11 and November 26, 2021. Nikol Pashinyan and Vladimir Putin also referred to Armenia's application to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs regarding the organization of negotiations on a peace treaty.

The Armenian and Russian leaders exchanged views on the Armenian-Turkish dialogue, the latest regional developments, and the situation in Ukraine.

Issues related to the forthcoming official visit of the Prime Minister of Armenia to the Russian Federation were also discussed.

Armenia Central Bank revises economic growth forecast for 2022

Garo Vardanian

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 16:15,

YEREVAN, MARCH 15, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia has revised its forecast for the economic growth of the country for 2022.

The Bank now forecasts 1.6% economic growth for the year, President of the CBA Martin Galstyan said at a press conference today.

“The economic growth forecasts have been lowered from the previous 5.3% up to 1.6%”, he said.

The Central Bank says the impact of current sanctions against Russia on Armenia’s economy will be reflected by significant slowdown of the economic growth rates.

The decline in forecast is mainly conditioned by certain drop in the field of industry. “We were forecasting that the industry branch must have grown by 1.6 in 2022, however, under these new developments when we see that there are some problems in mining industry, processing industry, the industry branch is set at -4.7%”, he said.

There is also a certain decline in construction field, and accordingly the Central Bank is forecasting 7% growth for this branch compared to the previous 16.8% forecast. The forecast for the growth in services has also been lowered from 5.9% to 3.2%. The only sector that will have some positive development based on the previous forecasts is agriculture.

While forecasting the growth in the GDP, the Central Bank took the fiscal policy that was supposed to be before the shock. Change in the fiscal policy is not reflected yet in this forecast of the GDP.

Turkish press: Azerbaijan sends Armenia 5-point proposal to renew relations

Garo Vardanian
 ISTANBUL MAR 11, 2022 – 10:41 PM GMT+3

Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov speaks to Anadolu Agency (AA) in an interview at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Turkey, March 11, 2022. (AA Photo)

Azerbaijan sent a proposal containing five conditions to normalize relations with Armenia, the country’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said Friday.

Bayramov, who is in Turkey to attend the Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF), told Anadolu Agency (AA) that Azerbaijan is waiting for Armenia’s response.

"This is a really nice opportunity for Azerbaijan if they sincerely want to normalize relations," he said. He noted that Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani territory in complete disregard of United Nations Security Council resolutions for over three decades had posed an obstacle on the way to establishing diplomatic ties.

Bayramov continued by saying that Azerbaijan’s liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 eliminated the factor of occupation and that Baku is in favor of normalizing ties with Armenia despite the difficulties and issues of the past.

The Azerbaijani military routed the Armenian forces in 44 days of fierce fighting in the fall of 2020, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russia has deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers for at least five years to monitor the peace deal.

"Armenia has not responded to our offer for about a year. To show its goodwill, Azerbaijan recently made a new proposal to Armenia," Bayramov said, adding that Baku awaits Yerevan’s response.

Bayramov said the two sides would take steps in line with Armenia’s response afterward.

Azerbaijan’s one-page proposal outlines main principles in line with international relations and does not contain anything "out of the ordinary," according to Bayramov.

One of the points in the proposal includes the demarcation of the borders between the two countries, which Azerbaijan had proposed to solve, but Armenia had consistently brought preconditions to address it.

Highlighting that preconditions are unacceptable to launch the process, Bayramov said a bilateral cooperation group needs to be established and the new group needs to start work as soon as possible.

Bayramov had previously said that Azerbaijan "fully supports" the normalization of relations between neighboring Turkey and Armenia.

Following years of frozen ties, the neighboring countries of Turkey and Armenia have announced they seek to normalize relations amid efforts for regional integration and cooperation in the South Caucasus. In December, the two countries appointed special envoys to normalize relations.

The borders between the two countries have been closed for decades, and diplomatic relations have been on hold. Armenia and Turkey signed a landmark peace accord in 2009 to restore ties and open their shared border after decades, but the deal was never ratified and ties have remained tense.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey have historically been complicated. During the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict last year, Ankara supported Baku in its war that saw it liberate Azerbaijani territories from Yerevan's occupation.

Opposition MP: Armenia authorities’ silence over Azerbaijan proposals raises large number of questions

Garo Vardanian
 NEWS.am 
Armenia –


11:26, 12.03.2022

The minister of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan stated that a 5-point proposal aimed at the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations was addressed to Armenia. Tigran Abrahamyan, an MP from the opposition "With Honor" Faction in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia (RA) and a security expert, wrote this on Facebook Saturday morning. He added as follows:

"One of them refers to the delimitation/demarcation process of the borders, but the Azerbaijani diplomat did not provide details on the other points.

Armenia’s authorities have not conveyed any information, have not clarified about, have not informed the Armenian society about their approaches to this proposal.

If the statement of the minister of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan on the proposal being passed to the RA corresponds to the reality, then the RA authorities’ maintaining silence on it raises a large number of questions.

Most likely, there is or has been a process between Azerbaijan and Armenia behind the scenes, the course of which has left its impact on the events—in particular, the sharp tension—being observed in Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] these days,.

The immediate publicizing of these proposals is important just because it will reveal a lot about the situation around RA and Artsakh and Azerbaijani ambitions."

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 03/09/2022

Garo Vardanian 
                                        Wednesday, March 9, 2022


Armenian Opposition To Boycott Presidential Inauguration

        • Astghik Bedevian

Armenia - Senor lawmakers from the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances 
talk during a parliament session in Yerevan, August 24, 2021.


The two opposition alliances represented in the Armenian parliament said on 
Wednesday that they will boycott the inauguration ceremony of the country’s new 
president elected by lawmakers last week.

The deputies representing the Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances already 
boycotted the two rounds of balloting through which the pro-government majority 
in the National Assembly installed Minister of High-Tech Industry Vahagn 
Khachatrian as president. They said he does not meet constitutional provisions 
requiring the presidency to be a “really neutral institution consolidating the 
society.”

Pativ Unem’s Hayk Mamijanian said on Wednesday that Khachatrian himself has 
admitted being a member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team.

“He is Nikol Pashinian’s president,” Mamijanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. 
“We see no reason to attend the inauguration ceremony of Nikol Pashinian’s 
presidency.”

“They did not elect a president of the Republic of Armenia,” agreed Hayastan’s 
Ishkhan Saghatelian. “They just installed a member of their team as president. 
Therefore, we are not and will not be part of that process.”

Artur Hovannisian, a senior lawmaker from Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, 
denounced the opposition boycott. “I believe that the opposition deputies are 
being disrespectful towards the Armenian statehood,” he said.

Just like his predecessor Armen Sarkissian, who unexpectedly resigned in 
January, Khachatrian will have largely ceremonial powers. Addressing the 
National Assembly before the votes, the 62-year-old economist made clear that he 
will be helping the Armenian government implement its domestic and foreign 
policies.

Khachatrian will be sworn in on Sunday during a special session of the 
parliament that will also be attended by Armenian dignitaries and foreign 
diplomats.

A parliament spokesperson said that all former presidents of the republic, 
including Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, have also been invited to the 
ceremony. Kocharian and Sarkisian lead Hayastan and Pativ Unem respectively.

Sarkisian’s office said that he will not attend Khachatrian’s inauguration. 
Saghatelian was confident that Kocharian will also boycott it.

Levon Ter-Petrosian, another ex-president critical of Pashinian, is also 
unlikely to accept the invitation. Khachatrian was a senior member of 
Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) party until joining the current 
government last August.

The HAK’s deputy chairman, Levon Zurabian, took a dim view of Khachatrian’s 
election last week. He described the new president as an “obedient stooge” of 
Pashinian.



Baku Accused Of Blocking Gas Supply To Karabakh

        • Susan Badalian

Nagorno Karabakh - A view of Stepanakert, November 27, 2020.


Officials in Stepanakert on Wednesday accused Azerbaijan of obstructing repairs 
on the sole pipeline that supplies natural gas to Nagorno-Karabakh.

The gas supplies from Armenia were cut off on Monday night after a section of 
the pipeline passing through Azerbaijani-controlled territory was knocked out by 
an apparent explosion.

The accident left Karabakh’s households, schools and other entities without 
heating. It also forced local bakeries and other vital businesses reliant on gas 
to suspend their work.

The authorities in Stepanakert said that for the second consecutive day the 
Azerbaijani side did not allow Karabakh sappers and utility workers to access 
the presumed site of the accident, ascertain its causes and finds ways of 
restoring the gas supplies.

Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, said it therefore remains 
unclear what caused the disruption. The pipeline may well have been blown up by 
Azerbaijani forces, he said, adding that some Stepanakert residents heard on 
Monday the sound of a powerful explosion coming from the area around the 
Azerbaijani-controlled town of Shushi (Shusha).

Karabakh’s National Security Service likewise said that it is looking into the 
possibility of an Azerbaijani sabotage attack.

Azerbaijani officials made no statements on the accident as of Wednesday 
afternoon. Russian peacekeeping forces stationed in Karabakh reportedly 
discussed with them ways of restoring the gas supplies.

The disruption followed an increase in truce violations along the 
Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” in and around Karabakh. Stepanian claimed 
that it could be part of Baku’s broader efforts to intimidate the Karabakh 
Armenians and cause them to leave the territory.



Azeri Mortar Fire Reported In Karabakh (UPDATED)


Nagorno-Karabakh - A view of the village of Khramort.


Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have accused Azerbaijan of shelling several 
local villages in continuing efforts to force their ethnic Armenian residents to 
flee their homes.

The prosecutor’s office in Stepanakert said on Wednesday evening that the 
Azerbaijani army is “actively” using mortars and automatic weapons to target the 
rural communities, mostly located in Karabakh’s east, as well as local roads. 
The gunfire forced local farmers to suspend “all types of agricultural work,” it 
added in a statement.

No casualties were reported.

Karabakh’s Defense Army said earlier in the day that Azerbaijani forces fired 
mortars towards the village of Khramort for the second consecutive night on 
Tuesday. Nobody was hurt as a result, it said.

In another statement issued afterwards, the Defense Army said Azerbaijani forces 
also opened mortar fire at another village in eastern Karabakh, Khnushinak.

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that its troops did not target any 
civilian areas or infrastructure in Karabakh. It said they only shot back at 
Karabakh Armenian forces which it claimed violated the ceasefire on Tuesday and 
Wednesday morning.

Located roughly 30 kilometers east of Stepanakert, Khramort borders the Aghdam 
district handed back to Azerbaijan following the 2020 war. It is home to more 
than 100 families.


Nagorno-Karabakh - A handout photo purportedly shows fragments of an Azerbaijani 
mortar shell that landed in a village in eastern Karabakh, March 9, 2022.

Tensions around the village rose in mid-February when Azerbaijani troops 
reportedly wounded a Karabakh Armenian soldier and fired on local farmers 
cultivating their land. A tractor used by them was hit by the gunshots before 
Russian peacekeeping forces intervened to rescue the farmers.

Baku claimed that the latter fortified Armenian military positions in the area 
under the guise of agricultural work. Karabakh officials shrugged off the claim.

Later in February, Azerbaijani troops broadcast through loudspeakers placed on 
their positions an Armenian-language message telling Khramort residents to stop 
working in their orchards and leave “Azerbaijan’s territory.” “Or else, force 
will be used against you,” it warned.

The menacing broadcasts ended a few days later, after negotiations held by 
Russian peacekeepers and the Azerbaijani side.

The Russians had to intervene again at the weekend to stop exchanges of 
automatic gunfire between Azerbaijani and Karabakh Armenian forces deployed 
outside Khramort.


Nagorno-Karabakh - A Russian soldier of the peacekeeping force controls a 
vehicle at a checkpoint on a road outside Stepanakert, November 26, 2020.

The Karabakh Defense Army reported the first Azerbaijani mortar fire on Monday 
evening. Khramort residents interviewed by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service spoke of 
several explosions near their homes.

“I worked in our garden with my children,” said Hasmik Andrian, a local woman. 
“The blast was very strong. They said it was a mortar. We got very scared.”

“Every time we go to bed we fear that they will attack, strike the village 
overnight,” she said. “Every time we wake up in the morning we thank God for 
having slept safely and for the fact that nothing happened, that my kids are 
with me.”

Like many other people in Khramort, Andrian wants a permanent Russian military 
presence in or around the village. “If there are Russian posts here we will 
sleep normally,” she said.

Karabakh’s human rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanian, charged on Tuesday that the 
reported shelling of Khramort was part of Baku’s efforts to intimidate the 
Karabakh Armenians and force them to leave the disputed territory.

In recent months, Azerbaijani army units have also been accused of regularly 
opening small arms fire at other Karabakh villages. In one of them, Karmir 
Shuka, a private house was damaged by gunfire in early February.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2022 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

Syrian-Armenian talks to enhance bilateral relations

Garo Vardanian
March 6 2022

SANA
7th March 2022, 05:09 GMT+11

Damascus, SANA-The Syrian-Armenian Friendship Committee at the People's Assembly discussed on Sunday with Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia in Damascus, Dikran Kevorkian, means of enhancing bilateral relations on the occasion of the thirty years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Syria and Armenia.

Head of the Committee, Lucy Aske Nyan ,stressed the importance of working to develop those relations at all levels in order to serve the common interests of the peoples of the two friendly countries, which are tied by historical, social and family ties.

Members of the Committee praised Armenia's honorable stances towards Syria at international forums and suggested establishing an Armenian cultural center in Syria to enhance cultural communication between the two countries.

For his part , Ambassador Kevorkian expressed his country's willingness to develop relations with Syria in all domains , stressing Armenia's support for Syria and its readiness to participate in the reconstruction process by contributing to the rehabilitation of the affected areas in coordination with the United Nations in preparation for the return of the people there.

MHD Ibrahim/Mazen Eyon