Ashot Pashinyan, son of acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, was campaigning in Yerevan today.
“By voting for Nikol Pashinyan and his Civil Contract Party, by giving him a ‘steel mandate’, you will turn over the page of the criminal-oligarchic and criminal elements in Armenia once and for all,” Ashot Pashinyan stated while campaigning.
Back in 2016, I had written an article stating that the only way to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is “remedial secession”, and Nikol Pashinyan stole this phrase from me.
This is what first President of Armenia, candidate of the Armenian National Congress political party for Prime Minister Levon Ter-Petrosyan said during today’s press conference. “This means that if there is a national minority in a country and that national minority faces the threat of genocide, the given territory needs to be separated from the big state. This worked in Kosovo, but the situation was different back then. Back then, the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh comprised 12,500 square kilometers. According to the proposed formula, the whole territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast and the whole Lachin corridor would remain. There is no point in talking about remedial secession now. Azerbaijan has solved almost all of its problems,” he added.
13:10, 7 June, 2021
YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and Georgia resume the railway communication which has been suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, Georgia’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natela Turnava said, reports TASS.
On June 15 the first train from Yerevan will depart for Batumi.
“I would like to inform that the railway communication between Armenia and Georgia has been restored. On June 15 the first train will depart from Yerevan to Batumi, passing through Tbilisi. This means that tourists from our allied, neighboring country will visit Georgia, our seaside resorts, our capital and other tourism sites”, she said.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
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French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged Azerbaijani troops to leave Armenian territory after a series of incidents in the last weeks raised fears of a fresh surge in fighting between the Caucasus foes after a six-week war last year.
Hosting Armenia’s caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for talks in Paris, Macron said a “lot still needs to be done” to ensure the durability of the ceasefire after the 2020 conflict.
France is seen as one of Yerevan’s closest allies and has repeatedly pledged support for Armenia after its defeat in the conflict. It is also wary of the support given by NATO member Turkey to Azerbaijan in the war.
“The demarcation of the frontier should take place exclusively as part of a negotiation and without any fait accomplis on the ground and, above all, without the use of force,” Macron said.
“Azerbaijani troops must leave the sovereign territory of Armenia,” he added, without giving details on which positions they were holding.
Tensions have been running high since Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan’s military last month of crossing three kilometres over its southern border to “lay siege” to lake Sev Lich, which is shared by the two countries.
The skirmishes come in the run-up to snap parliamentary elections in Armenia on June 20, which Pashinyan announced under pressure from opposition protesters.
Macron urged the parties to return to the positions they held before the current surge in tensions, adding that “France is ready to help with discussions.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed for six weeks last year over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave of ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan controlled for decades by separatists.
The war ended with Armenia losing swathes of territory it had controlled in Azerbaijan, sparking a political crisis in the country over what many considered a humiliating defeat.
Pashinyan praised France’s support in the crisis.
“France and Armenia have privileged relations. From the start of the crisis, President Macron spoke the language of truth and this voice was heard,” he said.
June 1, 2021
Outgoing foreign minister Ara Aivayan during a farewell visit on May 31
Government said to hold off on appointing a new minister until after June 20 election
Armenia’s outgoing foreign minister on Monday said his decision to resign from his position stemmed from a belief that Armenia’s diplomats must not be put in a predicament to implement policies that would jeopardize Armenia’s sovereignty and national security. Over the weekend deputy foreign minister Gagik Ghalachyan and ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan also resigned.
Aivazyan submitted his resignation Thursday after a meeting of Armenia’s national security council, during which Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan proposed the deployment of international monitors along Armenia’s border. He also called for the withdrawal both Armenian and Azerbaijani troops from the border as a means to stem the escalating standoff at the Armenian border, which was breached by Azerbaijani forces on May 12 when they violated Armenia’s sovereignty have advanced their positions entering Armenia’s Gegharkunik and Syunik provinces.
“The reason for my decision to resign was to make sure that there are never any suspicions that this ministry could take any sort of steps or agree to any sort of ideas or initiatives that goes against our statehood and national interests,” Aivazyan said during a farewell address at the foreign ministry on Monday.
“In general, diplomats are perceived as conformist and adaptable individuals keen to avoid conflicts,” Aivazyan said. “I believe that in these difficult times we do not have a right to do that, and I am confident that there will be principled diplomats among us who will become role models for our society.”
While Aivazyan did not elaborate on concrete government policies and decisions that prompted his resignations, Pashinyan went on the defensive in his quick response through his press secretary.
“While we thank Mr. Aivazyan for his service, we believe our national and state interests require Mr. Aivazyan to provide a public explanation about who or how steps were going to be taken that could jeopardize our country’s national or state interests,” Pashinyan’s press secretary Mane Gevogyan told Armenpress on Monday.
A government spokesperson said Tuesday that the post foreign minister will likely remain vacant at least until the June 20 parliamentary elections. The spokesperson told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Tuesday that ministerial duties will be performed by one of Armenia’s deputy foreign ministers, without naming him.
June 3, 2021
Photos posted on social media revealed the degrading treatment of soldiers’ remains at a morgue in Abovian
Public outrage escalated over the authorities’ treatment of the remains of soldiers who perished during the Artsakh war resulting in the firing of the director and two other employees of a morgue in Abovian on Wednesday, after photos circulating on social media revealed bags full of remains strewn in a basement.
Since military actions in Karabakh ended in November, hundreds of relatives of soldiers have been demanding the return of the remains of their loved ones.
According to the authorities, 200 corpses and 400 body parts of dead soldiers are currently kept at the Abovian morgue, where authorities are tasked with identifying the deceased through DNA samples provided by families. Officials say that DNA samples taken from them match those of nearly 100 families of the missing soldiers, reported Azatutyun.am.
The delay in the government’s response has frustrated the families of the deceased soldiers, some of whom have refused to claim the bodies identified because they say they did not trust the forensic results.
On Monday, angry relatives of soldiers took matters into their own hands and forced their way into the various morgues to inventory the remains. At the Abovian morgue, the relatives found plastic bags filled with human remains dumped in a basement that was not refrigerated. Those photos soon began circulating on social media causing an uproar.
At first, Armenia’s Health Ministry denied that the remains had been kept in degrading conditions. Later, Acting Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan issued a public apology to the families of soldiers, saying she should have personally inspected the Abovian morgues.
A video of the Abovian morgue basement posted on social media further exacerbated the scandal, prompting more protests.
On Wednesday the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Youth Organization of Armenia along with the ARF Nikol Aghbalian Student Organizations staged protest in front of the Health Ministry calling for Avanesyan’s resignation and expressing outrage and fury at the manner in which the remains of the soldiers, who gave their lives in defense of the homeland, had been disrespected.
Avanesyan, the acting health minister, reprimanded Avanesian Mher Bisharyan who heads the state center of forensic medicine overseeing the Armenian mortuaries, prompting him to fire the employees at the Abovian morgues.
“We fired them because they didn’t perform their duties properly,” Bisharyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. He said they should have placed the remains on stretchers and stored them in a more orderly way.
Bisharyan claimed that the remains were taken to the Abovian facility because a refrigerated morgue truck where they were kept until May 28 broke down. He said they were “temporarily” stored in the basement due to a lack of space in the morgue’s refrigerated rooms.
The official added that the remains were transported on Tuesday to a refrigerated facility in Martuni.
Artash Khachatryan, a pathologist at the Martuni morgue confirmed to news.am on Thursday that the remains from Abovian had been transferred there.
Military expert Tigran Abrahamyan, the head of the analytical center Henaket, on Monday reacted to caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement on Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war in Artsakh.
“Nikol Pashinyan’s statement that he is proud of our defeat in the war amounts to self-incrimination,” he wrote on Facebook.
Incidentally, Abrahamyan is on the list of candidates of the Armenia bloc running in the snap parliamentary elections slated for June 20.
“This statement should mark the last chapter of his tenure in political, legal and moral terms,” he said.
The expert stated Pashinyan’s statement made the “real mission of his image” and the reasons for Armenia’s defeat in the war clear to the Armenian society.
“Not only should he not be re-elected, but also he should not have the opportunity to participate in the public and political life of the country.
“Even in this seemingly hopeless situation, Armenia and Artsakh have a chance of revival, which is based on the total absence of Pashinyan from our life,” Abrahamyan said.
The fact-finding activities of Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) Arman Tatoyan in Gegharkunik and Syunik Provinces have confirmed that on May 12 and 13, Azerbaijani military threatened shepherds (border residents of Armenia) with weapons, while illegally being in the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.
Specifically, in the region falling between Sev Lich (Black Lake) and the village of Vernishen in the Goris community of Syunik, Azerbaijani forces approached the shepherd of the village who was grazing the animals on the dawn of May 12, threatened him, and with a show of weapons demanded that he leaves the barn and the pasture, the ombudsman said in a statement on Tuesday.
The fact-finding activities of the human rights defender have demonstrated that the barn of the shepherd of Vernishen is located in the area of the pasture permanently used by the residents of Akner, Vernishen and a number of other villages, in the area falling between Sev Lich and Vernishen civilian community. Sev Lich is located in the territory of the Republic of Armenia.
In the area of the barns in the pastures of Verin Shorzha village of the Vardenis community of Gegharkunik, around 10 Azerbaijani servicemen approached the shepherd of Verin Shorzha village on May 12, and threatened him with a show of weapons, speaking to him also in the Armenian language.
On the same day, when six shepherds from Vardenis and Ayrk villages grazed their large and small cattle around the water basin near the same pasture located in the territory of the Republic of Armenia, dozens of Azerbaijani servicemen approached them, threatened them with a show of weapons and gave them 5 minutes to leave, otherwise they threatened to take them as captives.
Similarly, on 13 May about 50 Azerbaijani servicemen threatened the shepherd of Verin Shorzha village with a show of weapons and demanded him to leave, otherwise threatening to kill or take him as a captive.
Moreover, on May 12, a shepherd from the village of Kut in Geghamasar went to the barn in his pasture located adjacent to the village and discovered around 50 Azerbaijani armed servicemen.
During the ombudsman’s visit, it became apparent that the pastures are allocated to the people on the basis of rent by the legal documents of the local authorities. Therefore, the issue is related to the illegal deprivation of legal rights.
According to the shepherds, they no longer have access to the pastures. Moreover, in Kut for example, the residents mentioned that they are obliged to not to send the animals to the pastures.
The issue is the fact that the Azerbaijani armed servicemen ae physically present in the pastures that legally belong to the people, and in some cases, it is impossible to use the pastures since they fall under the Azerbaijani line of fire.
At the same time, the shepherds informed that they could not even approach the pastures, as in the event of such an attempt, the Azerbaijani armed servicemen would open fire. This also applies to the hayfields.
These circumstances mentioned by the shepherds are confirmed also by the evidences obtained by the human rights defender, such as the legal documents on the use of the pastures, the studies on the ground, relevant photographs, etc.
“The ombudsman’s fact-finding activities of May 12 and 13, 2021, evidences that the Azerbaijani servicemen, being armed, committed criminal acts against the border residents, threatening to kill or taking as captives unarmed civilians, illegally demanding to leave their pastures and barns that belong to them by the legal documents provided by the competent authorities of the Republic of Armenia.
“The Azerbaijani forces have violated the internationally recognized rights of the border resident of Armenia; rights which are also enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, which are the rights to life, to physical and mental immunity, to property, and other fundamental rights. Moreover, the Azerbaijani servicemen were wearing balaclavas (masks) when they were communicating with the civilians.
“It is evident that in order to protect the border residents of Armenia from such illegal actions, a security zone should be created around the Gegharkunik and Syunik region, along all the sections of the border with Azerbaijan.
“The issue is that such actions are not unique. The fact-finding activities of the Human Rights Defender in recent months have registered other cases of violation of the rights of shepherds living on the border by the Azerbaijani armed servicemen,” Tatoyan said, sharing a photo showing an example of a pasture which is under Azerbaijani line of fire.