Thursday,
U.S. To Promote Peace For ‘People Of Karabakh’
UN - U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations
General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in New York City, .
President Joe Biden has pledged continued U.S. efforts to facilitate an
Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement which he said should benefit “the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Congratulating Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Armenia’s independence
anniversary marked on Wednesday, Biden also reaffirmed U.S. support for “the
Armenian people’s democratic aspiration, sovereignty, and security.”
“The United States stands with Armenia as you continue working to combat
corruption, develop accountable institutions, strengthen rule of law, and
advance respect for human rights,” read his congratulatory message publicized by
Pashinian’s office on Thursday.
Biden also said: “Recent hostilities [on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border]
underscore the need to redouble our diplomacy so Armenia can look to a
prosperous and peaceful future, which includes normalization of relations with
neighbors.”
“We remain committed to working with you and other parties to promote a peaceful
resolution to the conflict, including for the people of Nagorno-Karabakh,” added
the U.S. president.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken similarly stressed the need for a
“long-term political settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” on August 24
when he announced the appointment of a new U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk
Group. The mediator, Philip Reeker, visited Yerevan and Baku last week amid
deadly border clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry denounced Blinken’s statement, saying that the
U.S. risks being left out of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process with its
attempts to “revive” the Minsk Group. It again claimed that Azerbaijan’s victory
in the 2020 war with Armenia put an end to the Karabakh conflict.
The outgoing U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Lynne Tracy, has repeatedly stated over
the past year that Washington considers the conflict unresolved because there is
still no agreement on Karabakh’s status.
Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leaders remain strongly opposed to any settlement
that would restore Azerbaijan’s full control over the territory.
Civic Groups Demand Armenian Police Chief’s Resignation
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia- The chief of the Armenian police, Vahe Ghazarian, speaks during a
cabinet meeting in Yerevan,July 14, 2022.
Over three dozen nongovernmental organizations on Thursday condemned the violent
break-up of a protest staged by angry parents of Armenian soldiers killed during
the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and demanded the resignation of the national
police chief.
The several dozen parents gathered at the main entrance to the Yerablur Military
Pantheon in Yerevan early on Wednesday to try to prevent Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian from laying a wreath there on the occasion of Armenia’s Independence
Day. They blame him for the deaths of their sons as well as at least 3,800 other
Armenian soldiers killed in action.
Riot police dispersed the protesters shortly before senior officials led by
Pashinian arrived at the military ceremony. At least 37 grief-stricken men and
women were dragged away, forced into police vehicles and detained in dramatic
scenes that caused uproar on social media.
The Armenian police defended the crackdown and said it must not be “used for
political purposes.” They said at the same time that the police chief, Vahe
Ghazarian, ordered an internal inquiry into his officers’ actions.
Armenia - Police detain the mother of an Armenian soldier killed in the 2020 war
in Nagorno-Karabakh at the Yerablur Military Pantheon, Yerevan, September 21,
2022.
In a joint statement, the Armenian civic groups dismissed the official
justification for the use of force, saying that it was both illegal and immoral.
They said that Ghazarian must step down.
The statement’s signatories included an NGO headed by Gayane Abrahamian, a
former pro-government parliamentarian. She said that Pashinian will bear
responsibility for the violence unless he fires Ghazarian or tells the police
general to resign.
Abrahamian believes that the prime minister should have personally talked to the
parents before deciding whether to go ahead with the wreath-laying ceremony.
“I’m sure that it was possible to somehow negotiate with those people,” she told
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Neither Pashinian nor his office has commented on the Yerablur incident so far.
The same group of parents has demonstrated regularly in Yerevan since April. The
protests were sparked by Pashinian’s remarks made in response to continuing
opposition criticism of his handling of the devastating war with Azerbaijan.
“They [critics] say now, ‘Could they have averted the war?’” Pashinian told the
Armenian parliament on April 13. “They could have averted the war, as a result
of which we would have had the same situation, but of course without the
casualties.”
The protesting families say Pashinian thus publicly admitted sacrificing
thousands of lives.
Iranian Army Chief Warns Against Armenian Border Change
IRAN -- Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri
speaks during an international conference in Tehran, February 23, 2021.
Iran’s top army general warned on Thursday that his country would resist
attempts to redraw neighboring Armenia’s borders as he commented on recent
border clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.
“As we have stated many times, we will not tolerate changes in the borders of
the countries of the region, and we advise Azerbaijan and Armenia to solve their
problems through dialogue,” Major-General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri said during a
military parade in Tehran.
“We will not tolerate changes in the borders through war and we will not remain
silent,” he added in a speech cited by Iranian news agencies.
Bagheri echoed warnings repeatedly issued by Iranian leaders both before and
after the outbreak on September 13 of large-scale fighting at various the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border. One of those sections is close to Iranian territory
bordering Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province.
Syunik is the sole Armenian province bordering Iran. Baku has been pressuring
Yerevan to open a special land corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan
exclave through the province.
The Armenian government rejects these demands while expressing readiness to
restore conventional transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
Tehran also opposes the land corridor, fearing a loss of Iran’s common border
with Armenia.
“Iran’s border with Armenia is a historical route that must be preserved without
any change,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reportedly
stressed in a September 14 phone call with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun
Bayramov.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, likewise warned against “the
closing of the Iran-Armenia border” when he met with Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan in July. Ankara has backed the Azerbaijani demands for the Syunik
corridor.
A senior Armenian diplomat said on September 15 that Baku is planning another,
even more-large-scale military offensive in a bid to “realize the unlawful
ambitions towards establishing an extraterritorial corridor through the
sovereign territory of Armenia.”
Fresh Skirmishes Reported On Armenian-Azeri Border
• Astghik Bedevian
• Tatevik Sargsian
ARMENIA -- Firefighters work among the ruins of a house in the village of Sotk
hit by Azerbaijani shelling during border clashes, September 14, 2022.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of violating the ceasefire that
stopped heavy fighting on their border last week.
The Defense Ministry in Yerevan said one Armenian soldier was wounded when his
unit came under cross-border mortar and small arms fire on Wednesday evening.
“The enemy fire was silenced by retaliatory actions,” said Aram Torosian, the
ministry spokesman.
He clarified afterwards that the skirmish occurred near Sotk, a border village
in Armenia’s Gegharkunik province which was heavily damaged by Azerbaijani
shelling last week.
For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that early on Thursday
Armenian forces opened fire on its troops in the Kelbajar district bordering
Gegharkunik, using mortars, grenade launchers and automatic weapons. It also
claimed that an Armenian “sabotage group” tried unsuccessfully to attack their
Azerbaijani positions in the area.
Torosian dismissed the claims as “disinformation.” No further truce violations
were registered as of Thursday afternoon, the official told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service.
The fresh skirmishes were reported hours after Azerbaijani President Ilham again
blamed Armenia for last week’s fighting and threatened it with further military
action.
“I hope that this [escalation] finally taught them a lesson because they saw
that nothing can stop us,” Aliyev said during a visit to Lachin, another
Azerbaijani district sandwiched between Armenia and Karabakh. “Nobody’s phone
call, no statement or initiative will stop us.”
Meanwhile, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said that Azerbaijan is
trying to force Armenia to fulfill its “maximalist demands.” He charged earlier
that Baku wants Yerevan to fully accept the Azerbaijani terms of a bilateral
peace treaty and to open an “exterritorial corridor” connecting Azerbaijan to
its Nakhichevan exclave.
On Monday, Mirzoyan met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in New
York for talks hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines
of the ongoing annual session of the UN General Assembly. Blinken urged the two
sides to prevent further hostilities and “return to the peace process.”
The United States reportedly helped to stop the September 13-14 border clashes
which left at least 280 Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers dead.
Reposted 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.