Author: Meline Chalian

JP: Iran, Egypt and Gulf cautiously watch Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict

Meline Chalian
Jerusalem Post
Oct 3 2020
 
 
Iran, Egypt and Gulf cautiously watch Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict
 
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN  
OCTOBER 3, 2020 16:02
 
Previous clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2016 and in July of this year did not receive the same level of attention.
 
The Middle East is closely watching the outcome of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This is unusual because previous clashes in 2016 and in July of this year did not receive the same level of attention. The reason that the region is watching is because of Turkey’s deep involvement in pressuring Azerbaijan to push forward and “liberate” territory as protests take place in Iran. Syrian fighters, mostly from the Turkmen minority, have been recruited to fight on the side of Baku.
 
Turkey’s ruling party, which has close relations with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, wants the region to see the conflict as both an “Islamic” conflict and one that is important to Turkish speakers. On October 1, Turkey put out a statement claiming “Jerusalem is ours,” which appears to link its foreign policy of threatening Israel to its policy of trying to fan the flames against Armenia. Ankara stands to gain in ways from the conflict that are not shared interests with Baku. For instance, Ankara wants to use it to pressure Russia in Idlib. Russia has been trying to secure the M4 highway and there are rumors of Russia-Turkish discussions behind the scenes, trying to take over the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict and link it to Syria where they have partitioned northern Syria.  
 
Iran has a more sympathetic view of Armenia. Iran’s Fars News has sought to make the conflict appear “Islamic” in order to reduce the support for Azerbaijan by Azeri protesters in Iran. There are millions of members of the Azeri minority in Iran and the country’s leadership fears any local ethnic protest because it knows that it will undermine the already tenuous regime. With Azeris in the streets chanting slogans against Armenians and against Russia and Persians, the regime moved to try to channel them in a different direction.
On Saturday, Iran’s Fars News wrote about Armenia downing an Azerbaijan military aircraft. Tehran is clearly watching closely what the outcome may be. It does not want the conflict to continue. Iran's Fars News ran a second article about Iran's view of the conflict arguing that Iran does not want spillover from the war and that it is warning the parties involved to stop.
Meanwhile, media that is sympathetic to Iran and Hezbollah has also written on the conflict. Al-Mayadeen has noted that Turkey is “declining” and thus fanning the flames in the Caucuses. The same media notes there are clashes in the countryside of Aleppo, showing how Syria is linked to the battles in Nagorna-Karabakh. One author notes, “it can be said that the Turkish-Azerbaijani military adventure in Nagorno Karabakh is on the way to an end, and it can also be said that Turkey, or President Erdogan in particular, is on the way to losing another file.” The author argues that Turkey’s leader is pressured in Syria and the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, countries that tend to oppose Turkey’s aggression, such as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have been less critical of the Azerbaijan offensive. This is because, while they view Ankara’s Muslim Brotherhood ambitions in Gaza and Libya as dangerous, they do not view Baku as a problem.
They would prefer, much as Israel appears to prefer, a good relationship with Azerbaijan and not to let Baku move too close to Turkey. Israel's close relationship with Azerbaijan, ostensibly alongside Turkey, thus upsets some of the usual patterns of the region where Ankara and Jerusalem oppose one another. This is largely because this conflict was seen as outside the Middle East alliance system until the last several weeks. Now that alliance system takes on more importance from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Caucuses as it is all knit together globally.
The general regional alliance system in recent years has cemented itself around several groups. There is the Israel-UAE-Bahrain-Jordan-Egypt-Greece-Cyprus group that is linked to Saudi Arabia’s role as well. There is the Turkey-Qatar-Gaza-Libya group that supports Tripoli’s embattled government. Then there is the Iran-Hezbollah-Houthi-Syria regime-Baghdad group that includes Iran’s allies and proxies across the region. Azerbaijan does not fit into these groupings because it has sought an independent foreign policy and not to get involved in Middle East disputes. However, it appears some countries want to link these battles to the Middle East. In a world where the US hegemonic role of the 1990s is changing rapidly, the role of major states such as Russia, Turkey and Iran are growing and that means they will try to broker deals regarding this Caucuses conflict. That has major implications for the rest of the Middle East.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Pompeo Says Violence Must Stop in Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Meline Chalian
US NEWS
Sept 29 2020
By Reuters, Wire Service Content Sept. 29, 2020


ATHENS (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday to cease hostilities as clashes continued over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Nagorno-Karabakh is inside Azerbaijan but is run by ethnic Armenians and is supported by Armenia. It broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s, but is not recognised by any country as an independent republic.

Pompeo said during a visit to Crete that he had discussed the clashes in talks earlier with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.

"The foreign minister and I addressed the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh where both sides need to stop the violence and work with the Minsk Group co-chairs and return to substantive negotiations as quickly as possible," he said.

The Minsk group was set up by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the early 1990s to encourage a resolution to the conflict. It is co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States.

France also wants Minsk Group talks.

"We will trigger in the coming days a co-ordination of the Minsk Group to clear up what happened, who is responsible and find a way out," an official at President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Tuesday.

The clashes between Armenian and Azeri forces over Nagorno-Karabakh have increased concern about stability in the South Caucasus region, a corridor for pipelines carrying oil and gas to world markets.

Both sides accuse each other of using heavy artillery in this week's clashes in which dozens of people had been killed and hundreds wounded.

(Reporting By Michele Kambas, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Exhibition of unique works of Italian art opened at the residence of the President of Armenia

Meline Chalian
Arminfo, Armenia
Sept 24 2020

ArmInfo. Under the patronage of the Presidents of Armenia and Italy, an exhibition of  unique works of Italian art has opened today at the residence of the  President of the Republic of Armenia.

According to the press service of the RA President, four paintings of  the 18th century brought from the "Paolo and Carolina Zani"  Foundation, depicting St. Mark's Square (San Marco) in Venice, are  works of famous masters Giovanni Antonio Canaletto, Bernardo Belotto,  Francesco Guardi and Michele Marieschi.  Opening the exhibition,  Armenian President Armen Sarkissian noted that it is evidence of deep  historical, close, friendly and warm relations between the peoples of  Armenia and Italy. "We talked about the exhibition about a year ago  with the President of Italy and the Ambassador. The collection is  here under the high patronage of the President of the Italian  Republic, Sergio Matarella. This exhibition is, in fact, bilateral,  because, according to the agreement, we will have our exhibition in  Italy exhibited in the Palace of the President of Italy. The  exhibition is planned to be held during my state visit to Italy. I  plan to take with me up to a dozen works of our greatest masters,  "Sargsyan said.

Touching upon the exhibits of the exhibition, the President of  Armenia called them one of the best works of world painting.

The Armenian leader also highly appreciated the role of the Italian  Embassy in Armenia and personally Ambassador Vincenzo Del Monaco in  organizing the exhibition.

In turn, the ambassador expressed gratitude to the presidents of  Armenia and Italy for organizing such an exhibition. "This initiative  is just the beginning, as the Armenian culture will soon be presented  in Rome.  These four paintings are not the result of random  selection, each of them has a special meaning. The four paintings  represent the 18th century, an exceptional period for the  Armenian-Italian bilateral relations," said ambassador. 



Heartbroken to learn of fire at Armenian church building – California Governor

Meline Chalian
Public Radio of Armenia
Sept 18 2020

California Governor Gavin Newsom has taken to Twitter to say he is heartbroken to learn about fire at an Armenian church building in San Francisco.

“I’ve experienced so many wonderful, moving moments in this church. Heartbroken to hear of this – but I know this community lives well beyond these physical walls and will continue to provide the hope and faith it does to so many,” the Governor tweeted.

A building next to an Armenian church in San Francisco’s Laurel Heights burned down overnight Thursday.

Dispatchers received reports around 4 a.m. of a fire at the building next to the St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church. Fire crews arrived on scene not long after and managed to prevent it from spreading to the church, but the building was destroyed.

“The San Francisco Fire Department responded immediately, however, the building has suffered a great loss,” V. Rev. Fr. Smpad Saboundjian and church chairman Rostom Aintablian wrote in a message to parishioners.

District Attorney of San Francisco Chesa Boudin has expressed outrage at the arson at Armenian Church.

“The Armenian community of San Francisco woke up today to an arson at their church. There is no room for this cowardly, hateful, criminal conduct in San Francisco. We stand with the Armenian community against hate,” Mr. Boudin said in a Twitter post.



Lawsuit to be filed against Armenia education minister

Meline Chalian
News.am, Armenia
Sept 14 2020

16:34, 14.09.2020
                  

Russian FM cancels Berlin trip

Meline Chalian

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 20:21,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cancelled a planned trip to Berlin for talks on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, citing a change in his German counterpart’s schedule.

Reuters reports the move comes amid tensions over the suspected poisoning by a Novichok nerve agent of  Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny who is being treated in a hospital in Berlin. Russia has said it has not yet seen evidence of his poisoning.

Opposition Prosperous Armenia opts out from confirmation vote of high court justices

Meline Chalian

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 10:32,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. The opposition Prosperous Armenia (BHK) faction of parliament opted out from the confirmation voting of the three candidates to the Constitutional Court.

“We’ve made our decision and we won’t participate in the election of the Constitutional Court judges,” Prosperous Armenia lawmaker Naira Zohrabyan said at the September 14 plenary session. “We’ve numerously said that clear procedural violations have taken place here.”

The other opposition party, Bright Armenia (LHK), joined BHK in complaining that the candidates for the high court haven’t initiated meetings with the factions.

The three candidates – Yervand Khudkaryan, Artur Ayvazyan and Edgar Shatiryan – nominated by the General Judicial Assembly, President Armen Sarkissian and the Cabinet respectively, are presented for the positions to replace justices Felix Tokhyan, Hrant Nazaryan, and Alvina Gyulumyan, who were ousted after the parliament passed on June 22 the ruling bloc’s constitutional amendments on suspending their powers. The chief justice of the high court, Hrayr Tovmasyan, was also suspended.

Reporting by Anna Grigoryan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Tonoyan calls for stronger defense cooperation between international organizations

Meline Chalian

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 21:17, 4 September, 2020

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan delivered remarks at the joint defense ministerial meeting of CIS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the CSTO countries.

He said that recently escalation of disagreements is observed in the South-Caucasian region, which in his words are the consequence of some countries expanding their ambitions.  

“The dynamically developing military-political developments in our region can be described as a conflict of geopolitical interests, the core factor of which is the absence of a common vision of security, as well as mechanisms for minimizing risks,” he said.

“Regional conflicts don’t have a solution by force, and Armenia considers unacceptable both military rhetoric and the attempts of involving new states in these conflicts with further escalation of the situation in the region.”

Tonoyan stressed that Russia’s presence in the region, as well as the deepening of the military-political cooperation between Armenia and Russia are highly important suppressing factors which contribute to regional stability and preservation of security.

He said that Armenia’s strategic interests sector’s domain includes not only the Caucasian region but the entire CSTO zone, as well as the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean region. The defense minister said Armenia is interested in peace and stability in these regions.

“In the current conditions the further deepening and expansion of multilateral defense cooperation is becoming especially important, moreover, first of all between the CIS, the SCO and the CSTO, which our countries are members of,” Tonoyan said.

 “Our world has become more interconnected, any instability in any given region is fraught with negative consequences globally. In other words, in modern conditions regional security is impossible to be ensured autonomously – outside of global security system frameworks. The escalation of any regional issue is very directly impacting overall international security. This relates not only to military-political issues, but also the pandemic, which as the experience of the majority of countries showed grew into a universal security problem,” Tonoyan said.

The Armenian Defense Minister stressed that the international community’s main objective is to build a sustainable peace which is based on ruling out the creation of new instability hotspots when some countries attempt to impose regional geopolitical ambitions.

“We proceed from the fact that the undeviating preservation of international law norms and principles plays a core role in preventing conflicts. The Republic of Armenia has always been in favor of the equal application of international law and the right of freedom of choice, reasonable globalization and international security architecture, based on the refraining from the policy “from positions of force” and maximalist approaches, rhetoric of hate and bellicose statements”.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Armenia and Russia general staff chiefs discuss bilateral military cooperation in Moscow meeting

Meline Chalian

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 16:41, 5 September, 2020

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia Lt. General Onik Gasparyan is leading a delegation to Moscow, Russia to participate in the closing ceremony of the 2020 International Army Games, the Armenian Defense Ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan said on social media.

During the visit Lt. General Gasparyan had a meeting with his Russian counterpart, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia General Valery Gerasimov.

“Bilateral military cooperation issues were discussed,” Stepanyan said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan