Liana Toganian – Page 39 – Armenian Directory & News

Moscow Treating Downing of Russian Helicopter by Azerbaijan as ‘Willful Murder’

January 5, 2021January 5, 2021 Liana Toganian

January 4, 2020

Wreckage of a Russian Mi-24 helicopter shot down by Azerbaijan in Armenia

Russian military investigators are now treating the November 9 downing of a helicopter over Armenia as “willful murder,” a more serious charge than the previous “death through negligence,” Interfax reported on Monday, citing a source.

Hours before the announcement of the defeatist November 9 agreement between the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan that stopped the military hostilities in Karabakh, Azerbaijan claimed responsibility for the downing of a Russian Mi-24 military helicopter, which crashed in Armenia’s Ararat Province, killing two crew members.

At the time Baku apologized for the incident, with its foreign ministry saying it was an accident and the “move was not aimed against Moscow.” Azerbaijan said its forces decided to open fire due to heightened tensions in its war against Artsakh. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry also said at the time that the helicopter flew at a low altitude during hours of darkness and close to the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

At the time, Moscow said the helicopter was accompanying a convoy from the 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri.

Interfax said on Monday, citing the Russian source, that a case had initially been opened into a potential infringement of flying regulations that had resulted in deaths through negligence.

The reported switch to a murder charge, which could lead to a sentence of life imprisonment for those held responsible, may complicate relations between Moscow and Azerbaijan, the news agency said.

Offering its condolences, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry at the time of the crash condemned the attack saying “the tragic incident occurred far away from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, at a location, where no military clashes have been recorded during this period. From this perspective the claims of the Azerbaijani side and attempts to justify it are false and groundless.”

“We strongly condemn this assault towards the Russian Armed Forces by the Azerbaijani armed forces within the sovereign territory of Armenia,” said Armenia’s Foreign Ministry on November 9. “We are convinced that the use of force against the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will receive an adequate response.”

Fight occurs near Armenia parliament, ruling bloc MP punches demonstrator

December 29, 2020December 29, 2020 Liana Toganian

News.am, Armenia

Dec 28 2020

Fight occurs near Armenia parliament, ruling bloc MP punches demonstrator

12:08, 28.12.2020

A fight took place in front of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia between the protesters and Sisak Gabrielyan, a member of the majority My Step faction of the NA.

One of these demonstrators approaching the MP's car and asked: "Have you come to receive a bonus?"

Gabrielyan angrily got out of his car, one of the picketers pushed him, the latter started pushing the these protesters, a scuffle started, and Gabrielyan punched one of these citizens in the face.

Cursing was heard from both sides.

Sisak Gabrielyan, cursing these protesters, got back in his car and left.

The demonstrators cursed him back and threw eggs on his car.

Russia and Turkey FMs are focused on establishment of Russian-Turkish ceasefire monitoring center in Karabakh

December 29, 2020December 29, 2020 Liana Toganian

News.am, Armenia

Dec 28 2020

Russia and Turkey FMs are focused on establishment of Russian-Turkish ceasefire monitoring center in Karabakh

19:05, 28.12.2020

Tomorrow Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and Turkey Sergey Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu will be thoroughly discussing the issues on implementation of the trilateral statement on Nagorno-Karabakh that was signed by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia on November 9. As reported the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasis will be placed on the reduction of risks of military clashes and the provision of humanitarian aid to the sides.

“The establishment of a Russian-Turkish joint ceasefire monitoring center in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone will be in focus. We view the center as an element for support to settlement after the conflict. The goals of the center are to monitor the situation, particularly the collection, generalization and verification of data regarding ceasefire violations through unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Russian party is seriously concerned about the transfer of foreign mercenaries to the conflict zone,” the press release of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reads.

Armenian prime minister rejects 25,000 protesters’ calls to resign

December 28, 2020December 28, 2020 Liana Toganian

Deutsche Welle, Germany

Dec 22 2020

Opposition supporters have started a nationwide strike and set up tents in the capital. They claim they'll stay until the PM steps down, but he said he has no intention of leaving office.

Tens of thousands of workers answered the opposition ARF's calls for a nationwide strike and are demanding the PM resign

Some 25,000 Armenians descended on the capital, Yerevan, on Tuesday to set up encampments outside government buildings where they plan sustained protests to force the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Citizens are enraged at Pashinyan, who came to power in a peaceful revolution in May 2018, for what they said has called his dreadful handling of the recent six-week conflict with Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. His signing of a Russian-brokered peace deal that saw Armenia forfeit large territories to Azerbaijan has turned the people against him.

Opposition politicians and their supporters are now pitching tents adorned with Armenian flags around the capital amid chants of "Nikol is a traitor!"

"The government no longer represents us. Its decisions are illegal and, therefore, it must go," Ishkhan Sagatelyan, a leader of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) or Dashnaktsutyun party, told fellow demonstrators. He told those gathered: "We've already set up tents, we intend to stay as long as we have to, including sleeping here. Pashinyan must resign."

Another ARF leader, Gegham Manukyan, announced Tuesday that city transportation workers, as well as members of the Yerevan State University trade union and other business organizations, had joined the nationwide strike called by ARF. Manukyan said the strike.

Pashinyan is not without supporters. On Saturday, thousands of them marched alongside him on his way to the capital's Yerablur Military Cemetery to honor soldiers who died in the recent conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Television outlets showed the event but also the large crowds that lined the streets to jeer him as a traitor.

On Monday, protesters forced Pashinyan to cut short a three-day mourning tour for the country's 3,000 war dead by blocking his route to the border town of Goris. The town's mayor orchestrated the defiant act and was later arrested.

Although the frequency, scale and intensity of demonstrations have grown continuously since Pashinyan signed the peace deal, he said he has no plans to step down. On Tuesday, he took to Facebook to declare, "I will continue to perform my functions as prime minister."

Azerbaijanis destroy panel reading name of Vorotan village of Armenia’s Syunik Province

December 25, 2020December 25, 2020 Liana Toganian

News.am, Armenia

Dec 24 2020

Azerbaijanis destroy panel reading name of Vorotan village of Armenia's Syunik Province

23:51, 24.12.2020

A video posted on the Internet shows how Azerbaijanis destroy the panel placed in the Vorotan village of Syunik Province of Armenia with military equipment.

Today it was reported that 12 homes in the Vorotan village of Syunik Province are being transferred to Azerbaijan. During today’s government session, Nikol Pashinyan said the issues regarding the Shurnukh and Vorotan villages may lead to certain painful situations.

On December 23, Azerbaijanis entered one of the homes in the administrative district of the Vorotan village of Syunik Province and demanded that the landlords leave the premises in an hour.

Italians believe Turkey poses major threat to entire world – survey

December 20, 2020December 20, 2020 Liana Toganian

12:00,

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. According to a survey conducted by research centers, Italians believe that Turkey is one of the most dangerous countries posing a threat to the entire world, the BBC Turkish reports.

ISPI and Ipsos research organizations asked respondents in Italy ‘Which country poses the greatest threat to the world?’

27% of Italians said it is China, 15% said Iran, while 14% said Turkey. This is the first time in 5 years that respondents in Italy are mentioning Turkey when asked this question.

According to ISPI Director Paolo Magri, Turkey’s highly aggressive foreign policy, escalation with Greece and Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean, military interventions in Syria, Libya and Nagorno Karabakh contributed to this perception among Italians.

Reporting by Sedrak Sargsyan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

116 schools came under Azerbaijani control in Artsakh as a result of the war

December 17, 2020December 17, 2020 Liana Toganian

Panorama, Armenia

Dec 17 2020

Society 10:22 17/12/2020NKR

As a result of the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), 116 schools came under the control of Azerbaijan, while 6,300 school students were deprived of their right to education, the Artsakh State TV Channel reports. According to the source, at present, only 1,191 students attend school in Stepanakert.

As the Minister of Education and Culture of Artsakh Lusine Gharakhanyan said, discussions with representatives of international structures will be held in Artsakh soon to address issues related to cultural heritage of Artsakh.

UK Statement in response to the joint statement by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Countries

December 12, 2020December 12, 2020 Liana Toganian

UK Government

Dec 11 2020

Speech

Delivered by Ambassador Neil Bush at the OSCE Permanent Council, .

Published

From:: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Neil Bush

Thank you Mr Chair.

The United Kingdom welcomes the 3 December statement by the Co-Chairs. We fully support their ongoing efforts towards securing a sustainable and fully negotiated settlement in relation to Nagorno-Karabakh. In agreeing to the existing ceasefire, we recognise that both sides had to take difficult decisions to ensure the safety and security of their people, and we urge all parties to support both Armenia and Azerbaijan in recovering from the conflict.

We urge all parties to abide by international humanitarian law and to ensure that all displaced persons are provided with necessary support and that all returns are safe, voluntary and dignified. We welcome the efforts of humanitarian agencies including the International Committee of the Red Cross and encourage all parties to continue to work with these agencies to support the displaced persons and provide much needed humanitarian support. We continue to support the efforts of the ICRC in ensuring the exchange of prisoners of war and urge all parties to ensure they prioritize this.

The UK will continue to support the efforts of the Minsk Group and its Co-Chairs. Finally, the UK echoes the calls from the Co-Chairs in their 3 December statement which whilst welcoming the progress made urges full implementation of all outstanding obligations. We encourage Armenia and Azerbaijan to receive the Co-Chairs in the coming weeks to resolve all outstanding issues.

Thank you Mr Chair.

Published

WHEN A CEASEFIRE IS NOT ENOUGH

December 11, 2020December 11, 2020 Liana Toganian

Sojourners

Dec 10 2020

A legacy of colonialism is at the crux of the Azerbaijan and Armenia conflict.

BY STEPHEN ZUNES

JANUARY 2021

THE WAR BETWEEN Armenia and Azerbaijan this past autumn was an avoidable tragedy.

The disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region has been populated since at least the second century B.C.E. by Armenians, one of the world’s oldest Christian civilizations. The Muslim Azeris and others have lived there and in neighboring areas for centuries as well, and the region was ethnically mixed (albeit majority Armenian) when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Stalin’s divide-and-rule policy for drawing borders made Nagorno-Karabakh a theoretically “autonomous region” within the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic. As the Soviet Union was breaking up and Azerbaijani persecution of ethnic Armenians increased, the Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh governments, with widespread support of their respective populations, demanded the transfer of the region to Armenia.

When Azerbaijan refused, Armenia seized the territory by force in the 1990s—along with large swaths of western Azerbaijan, populated primarily by Azeris, that were never part of Nagorno-Karabakh. Hundreds of thousands of Azeris, and a smaller number of Armenians, were victims of ethnic cleansing by both sides.

Armenian parliament besieged by protesters demanding PM’s resignation

December 9, 2020December 9, 2020 Liana Toganian

The Harrow Times, UK

Dec 9 2020

By Press Association 2020

Thousands of protesters have converged on Armenia’s parliament building to push for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over his handing of fighting with Azerbaijan.

They are angry about a peace deal that ended six weeks of fighting over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh but saw Azerbaijan take over wide areas that have been controlled by Armenian forces for more than a quarter of a century.

Armenia’s opposition parties gave Mr Pashinyan an ultimatum to resign by Tuesday, but he has ignored the demand, defending the peace deal as a bitter but necessary move that prevented Azerbaijan from overrunning the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region.