18:53,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. The units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces violated the ceasefire in the direction of Norabak at around 18:25 by using artillery fire, ARMENPRESS reports, MoD Armenia informs.
The Armenian side has no losses.
In case of any changes in the situation, the Ministry of Defense will make a statement.
00:03, 9 May 2023
YEREVAN, MAY 9, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will have a trilateral meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the President of the European Council Charles Michel on 14 May in Brussels, the European Council announced Monday.
The European Council said in a press release that Charles Michel ‘has continued to be in close contact with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to advance the EU’s efforts to promote stability in the South Caucasus and normalisation between the two countries’.
Pashinyan, Aliyev and Michel ‘have agreed to convene again on 14 May 2023 in a Brussels trilateral meeting’.
The leaders will also hold a meeting together with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on 1 June.
‘Their discussions will also be flanked by a meeting together with President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, in the margins of the upcoming European Political Community summit in Chisinău on 1 June 2023. The leaders have also agreed to continue to meet trilaterally in Brussels as frequently as necessary to address ongoing developments on the ground and standing agenda items of the Brussels meetings. President Michel equally expressed his intention to invite the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, France and Germany to meet a second time in the margins of the next EPC summit in Granada in October 2023,’ the European Council added.
News on the upcoming Armenia-Azerbaijan talks in Brussels was first by the Financial Times earlier on Monday.
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April 24, 1915: The first day of the Armenian Genocide. 1.5 million Armenians were murdered. The Armenian stories of dignity preservation and strength are never-ending, as they have been survivors of genocide and persecution since the beginning of their existence.
According to History.com, The Ottoman Turkish government officials began to round up and slaughter several hundred Armenian intellectuals. As the new Muslim government, known as the Young Turks, rose to power in 1908, the tolerance for ethnic Christian minorities like Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians progressively decreased.
The mission then became to “Turkify” the region and Armenians continued to pose obstacles and threats to the empire of deceit. In 1914, the Ottoman Empire had entered WWI on the side of Germany and the Austro Hungarian Empire. While the world was distracted by the war, Ottoman religious authorities had declared a holy war against all Christians, except those with alliances.
Slowly, the Ottoman officials began to raid Armenian households to forcibly remove them from their homes. They were then sent on death marches to the Mesopotamian desert without food or water. The marchers were stripped naked, forced to walk under the scorching sun, raped, and tortured until they died. Still, those who somehow survived the starvation and brutality were shot and killed.
Turkish officers and members of Ottoman killing squads oftentimes referred to these acts of persecution as “the liquidation of Christian elements.” The littering of Armenian corpses throughout Anatolia continued with the drowning of Armenians in rivers, throwing them off cliffs, crucifying them and burning them alive. Records show that children under five years old were taken from their families, converted to Islam and given new identities as Turks.
Of the two million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire at the time, 380,000 were able to climb their way out of ethnic annihilation and survive. The fight for survival continued as the last ones standing were divided and dispersed throughout the Middle East and Europe, initiating the growth of the Armenian diaspora. The only appropriate term to describe these systematic, mass murders the Armenian people is genocide, coined by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944, which translates to the killing of a race or tribe.
However, the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity, the Ottoman and current Turkish government have failed to tell the truth. Turkey has attempted to erase history with the concealing of files and the silencing of outside journalists to this day.
Still, scholars are fighting against such suppression of genocides. Marist College hosted a Armenian Genocide Remembrance and Heritage Event on April 12, 2023. It was organized by Iris Ruiz-Grech from the Center for Multicultural Affairs, Professors Steven Garabedian and Dr. Michael O’Sullivan to commemorate the forgotten Armenian lives lost. They explored the tactics used to spread Armenophobia throughout the empire, and how Turkish denialism has been a key factor in the lack of awareness of the Armenian struggle for survival.
O’Sullivan notes the Armenian genocide of 1915 as “a very extreme case of denialism—a refusal to talk about the past.”
“The lesson that many Armenians learn is that they have to take justice into their own hands,” O’Sullivan said. “I want to emphasize that the Armenian stories of resilience are never-ending.”
In 2020, Azerbaijan, a neighboring Turkic nation launched a full-scale military aggression, targeting a region known as Nagorno-Karabakh, 95% populated by ethnic Armenians. Azerbaijan closed their borders and cut social media access to alter the narrative to its people.
Thousands of native Armenians have been and currently are being killed. However, American media continues to describe the war as a “conflict.” This is not a conflict—this is a fight for survival that continues to be ignored. The gradual conquering of the lands of native people is a recurring story. We see this happening in Ukraine and many other places around the world today. Yet, the media around the world continually chooses to ignore the struggles of the Armenians because it is not profitable.
Garabedian concluded his presentation with a quote from William Saroyan that embodies the Armenian resilience and culture that goes unnoticed: “Go ahead—destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing, and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia.”
09:56,
YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Artsakh Sergey Ghazaryan has said that Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) considers President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev’s ultimatum statements and threats to unleash a new war to be absolutely unacceptable.
In an interview with ARTSAKHPRESS, FM Ghazaryan said that the people and authorities of Artsakh remain committed to the path of freedom and independence they have chosen, and no threats or difficulties created by Azerbaijan can make them turn off this path.
Below is the interview published by ARTSAKHPRESS.
How would you comment on the statement made by the President of Azerbaijan on 18 April that the Armenians living in Karabakh should either accept Azerbaijani citizenship or look for another place of residence?
This is not the first time that the President of Azerbaijan has made statements that reveal the true intentions of Azerbaijan to ethnically cleanse Artsakh and expel its indigenous population from their historical homeland. The blockade imposed on Artsakh by the authoritarian leadership of Azerbaijan for more than four months is just one of the tools for the implementation of those criminal plans. Through coercion, the threat and use of force, Azerbaijan is essentially trying to force the people of Artsakh to accept the illegal demands of Azerbaijan, which contradict, inter alia, the peremptory norms of general international law.
The fact that the leadership of Azerbaijani is no longer hiding their criminal intentions demonstrates the insufficiency of the international response and engagement in efforts to end the ongoing blockade of Artsakh and prevent the genocidal intentions of Azerbaijan. In fact, the Azerbaijani authorities, acting in an environment of absolute impunity and permissiveness, are increasingly expanding the scale and geography of their crimes committed against the people of Artsakh and Armenia.
In this regard, I would like to emphasise that States, both individually and collectively, have an obligation to take effective and decisive measures to prevent the most serious crimes, primarily genocide and crimes against humanity, including ethnic cleansing and forced displacement. At the same time, the direct responsibility for preventing such crimes rests with the UN Security Council, a body that not only has the appropriate mandate, but also the necessary tools to stop the criminal intentions of Azerbaijan against Artsakh and its people.
In this context, it is regrettable that despite the commitment to prevent such serious crimes, representatives of some international organisations and states make political efforts that indirectly promote Azerbaijan's illegitimate position and encourage their genocidal policy. We believe that such an approach by international actors, particularly those involved in the settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict and normalisation of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, is not only unacceptable and counterproductive, but also fraught with unpredictable consequences for the entire region.
How would you comment on the statement of the Azerbaijani President that Karabakh is an internal affair of Azerbaijan?
The Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict has never been considered as an internal affair of Azerbaijan, neither during the existence of the Soviet Union, nor in the subsequent period of the formation of independent states on the territory of the former Soviet Union. This is evidenced by the fact that after Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Armenia and Azerbaijan gained independence, the international community created a special mechanism for the settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict – the Minsk Process. The decision to create an international format to determine the final political status of Artsakh indicated that the community of States did not recognise Artsakh as part of independent Azerbaijan. In turn, Azerbaijan's consent to be involved in the Minsk Process was also a recognition of the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was not an internal matter of Azerbaijan.
In addition, the Armenian side has always emphasised that the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict is primarily a matter of human rights and freedoms, and first of all, the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination. In this sense, according to international obligations, including those assumed by the state of Azerbaijan, issues of human rights and freedoms are of direct and legitimate interest to all States and are not exclusively an internal matter of any one State. There are many examples in the world where certain countries and international organisations have directly intervened in conflict situations to prevent genocide, massacres and other serious human rights violations. In situations where human rights and freedoms, including the collective rights of peoples, are systematically and grossly violated, only intervention of the international community and the free exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination can ensure a peaceful and civilized resolution of such situations, without resorting to the use of force, violence, forced deportation and ethnic cleansing.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing blockade, massive violations of the individual and collective rights of the people of Artsakh, and other aggressive actions, the efforts of the official Baku to present the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict as their internal affair are a clear attempt by the leadership of Azerbaijan to get carte blanche from the international community to continue the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh and expulsion of its indigenous people from their native lands. We consider Aliyev's ultimatum statements and threats to unleash a new war to be absolutely unacceptable. The people and authorities of Artsakh remain committed to the path of freedom and independence they have chosen, and no threats or difficulties created by Azerbaijan can make us turn off this path.
Are negotiations between Artsakh and Azerbaijan possible?
The Republic of Artsakh has been and continues to be committed to the peaceful settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict. We believe that lasting peace in the region can and should be achieved through negotiations and on the basis of mutually acceptable approaches. Unilateral coercive measures can, of course, contain the issue, but this will be temporary, as evidenced by the 70-year existence of Artsakh within the Azerbaijan SSR. The political issues of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict settlement should be discussed in an agreed and internationally recognised negotiation format based on the equal rights of the parties and in the presence of strong international guarantees for the implementation of their commitments.
As for the addressing of urgent technical and humanitarian issues, such contacts between the parties began after the ceasefire established by the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020. On 11 April, the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh, through the Russian peacekeeping mission, sent a proposal to the Azerbaijani side to hold a meeting at the place of deployment and with the mediation of the command of the Russian peacekeeping forces to discuss urgent humanitarian issues. However, there was no response from Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan has been trying to politicise these contacts in order to eliminate the need for an international mechanism for the settlement of the conflict. By rejecting the international mechanism of dialogue with the official Stepanakert, Azerbaijan is trying to avoid the implementation of possible agreements. Involvement of the international community in the dialogue between Artsakh and Azerbaijan is the only way to guarantee a comprehensive settlement of the conflict.
What is your position on the assertion of the Azerbaijani side that, according to the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, the borders between the union republics are considered state borders and, therefore, Karabakh is recognised as an integral part of Azerbaijan?
First of all, it should be noted that the Alma-Ata Declaration has never been considered as a political and legal basis for the settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict or the determination of the status of Artsakh. This is indicated by the fact that by the time this declaration was adopted, negotiations on the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict settlement had been underway for several months already within the framework of the Zheleznovodsk process, through the mediation of the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan. After the signing of the relevant declaration, the conflict settlement process continued with the mediation of Russia, the CIS, and the CSCE/OSCE. As part of the negotiation process, international mediators developed the basic principles and elements of the settlement, according to which the status of Artsakh was to be determined through a legally binding _expression_ of will of its population. Thereby, the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination was recognised and a mechanism was proposed for its implementation. Thus, the parties involved in the conflict and the international mediators were not guided by the Alma-Ata Declaration when developing the basic principles of the settlement.
Moreover, the Alma-Ata Declaration, like any international document, must be guided by the objectives and principles of the UN Charter and other universal norms of international law. Therefore, the Alma-Ata Declaration contains the same principles and norms as the UN Charter, including the right to self-determination.
In this regard, we consider it necessary to emphasise that in case of massive and serious human rights violations and discriminatory policies, the right to secession based on the principle of self-determination of peoples prevails over the principle of territorial integrity of states. This formula, in particular, is described in the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States, and is also enshrined in the jurisprudence of various countries.
13:18,
YEREVAN, APRIL 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has again called for the development of international mechanisms guaranteeing the implementation of a possible peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Without such mechanisms, a new war or escalation could happen even a day after signing the treaty, Pashinyan warned.
Speaking about the mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity by Armenia and Azerbaijan, PM Pashinyan said that Armenia itself offered to attach the maps of the Armenian and Azerbaijani SSRs – approved by the USSR – to the treaty as the basis of territorial integrity of the two countries.
“But it is here that we reach the biggest and most difficult problem, Nagorno Karabakh. And there is a nuance, which has been highly urgent during the past sixteen years, but we haven’t addressed it. The problem is that usually we address and have addressed the future of Nagorno Karabakh, but it is important to address the issue of Nagorno Karabakh’s situation at any moment during the existence of the conflict,” Pashinyan said. He said he attempted to do this several times during the past five years, but regrettably the issue transforms into a dispute between the opposition and the government, which is also normal.
“During the entire course of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination were placed side by side. This actually recorded realities which we cannot admit, but regardless of admitting or not, they exist. In this context, the right to self-determination means that you, as a beneficiary of the right to self-determination, are raising the issue of revising your, so to say, nominal A status. Theoretically this could mean to revise the A status and make it a B status, or revise it and not change it, or revise it and make it A+1 or A-1 status,” Pashinyan said. But without noting the A status, with this logic there can’t be any talk about any future status, meaning the self-determination.
“If you raise the issue of self-determination it means you are part of something. If you are a part of something, you’ve either already self-determined or don’t have the need to self-determination. Now, with our own hands, during the time known to you, we have created this negotiations, political, geopolitical reality, cemented it, but after that we’ve said we want a B status for Nagorno Karabakh, but we’ve never publicly accepted the A status. We’ve lied to ourselves with this, the people of Armenia, the people of Nagorno Karabakh,” Pashinyan said, adding that there won’t be peace until they face this fact. Pashinyan said he considers his political commitment to be peace. In this context, Pashinyan attached high importance to the development of an international mechanism for dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert to ensure the implementation of the rights and security agenda of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh.
“It is highly important that international mechanisms guaranteeing the possible peace treaty implementation get developed, otherwise war or new escalation could erupt the next day of the signing of the treaty,” Pashinyan said.
He also highlighted the opening of economic and transport connections, noting that as stipulated by the 9 November statement, the roads must be reopened under the sovereignty and legislation of the parties.
New details have become known about the Azerbaijani who was found a few hours ago by the youth of Achanan village of Syunik Province, and who had crossed the border of Armenia with his friend and was being sought for three days.
It was found out that after killing the security guard of the maintenance station of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine pipeline, this Azerbaijani had livestreamed on the smartphone of this security guard, and the respective video has already been disseminated.
At around 6:30pm on Wednesday, the police received a call from the Kapan city medical center, informing that an ambulance team was dispatched to the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine pipeline maintenance guard post in the Shgharshik-Banavan enlarged community, where they found a man's dead body.
And today, information was disseminated that the aforesaid murder was committed by the second Azerbaijani who infiltrated the settlements of the Sisian city of Armenia.
"They came through Nakhichevan, reached the mountain on the right side above Vahanavank, and the murder took place in Shgharshik settlement," said a source of 168.am.
According to this source, after committing the murder, this Azerbaijani took the smartphone of the murdered custodian of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, went livestream on that phone, threatened the Armenians, and left with no trouble. There are reports that he passed through Kovsakan to the Armenian territories occupied by Azerbaijan.
"I announce to the whole world. I swear in the name of the only God, in the name of the God who created us. We have come, arrived [in] Armenia. We shed the blood of Armenians. We have beheaded 400-500 Armenians. Even now we are still alive, we are not dead. God willing, we will not die. And even if we die, forgive our sins. We are not traitors to the motherland, we are the guardians of the dignity of the motherland," this Azerbaijani said in the livestream video.
It was this Azerbaijani who was caught near Kapan city a little while ago.
And Gor Abrahamyan, spokesperson of the Investigative Committee of Armenia, had written as follows on Facebook today: "At the moment, we have not received any information through investigation that the crime was committed by Azerbaijanis. If, beyond speculation, some people may have known, certain information about the perpetrators of the crime in general, then they can and are obligated to report [it] to the body conducting the proceedings."
According to the statement of the Ministry of Defense (MOD) of Armenia, on Monday between 1am and 2am, a serviceman of the armed forces of Azerbaijan was found and detained in the territory of Armenia. There was another soldier with him, and the search for him continued for three days.
Azerbaijani media, citing the MOD of that country, had reported the disappearance of two Azerbaijani servicemen. It was said that they had gotten lost in the direction of Nakhichevan due to bad weather and low visibility.
These Azerbaijanis were in Bnunis village of Syunik Province, and they had knocked on the door of a local resident’s house. The first detained Azerbaijani was found in Ashotavan village.
Local residents told that these Azerbaijanis had knocked on the door of a local resident’s house for a long time, the landlady had opened the door, seen masked soldiers, closed the door, and called the police. The Azerbaijani, who was caught by the locals, was in civilian clothes.
Bununis and Ashotavan villages are quite far, about 20km away, from the Azerbaijani positions,.
Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan had stated in parliament Wednesday that according to the information they have, the second Azerbaijani soldier had said in the border village not long after crossing the border that he had regretted it and wanted to return.
10:34,
YEREVAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. Lawmakers observed a moment of silence during the plenary session of parliament in honor of the Armenian troops who were killed in action during the April 11 Azerbaijani attack.
Vice Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan praised the troops for their selfless actions.
“They fought selflessly, they inflicted heavy losses upon the enemy, the adversary has many casualties. Unfortunately the Armenian side has casualties as well, we have four killed soldiers and six wounded. Let’s wish swift recovery to our wounded troops and honor the memory of the fallen troops with a moment of silence,” Rubinyan said at the session.
PanARMENIAN.Net - Lawmaker Andranik Kocharyan from the ruling Civil Contract party has said that Azerbaijan has tried to violate Armenia's border in different parts in recent days, but the residents of the villages have prevented Baku's attempt.
"Residents of our villages are capable of realizing their rights on these areas at the moment," he said, Sputnik Armenia reports.
According to Kocharyan, both the border troops of the National Security Service and the counterintelligence forces of the Ministry of Defense have recorded some facts, about which clear information will be provided.
"This will create a new situation, I suppose a favorable situation, which means that we must be the masters of what is ours," he added.
The lawmaker did not deny that the Azerbaijani military advanced 100-150 meters into Armenian soil days ago.
Asked whether the Armenian side has managed to return to their initial positions since, Kocharyan said: "I can’t say. If you asked me tomorrow, I would answer your question”.
The International Criminal Court is headquartered in The Hague
The Russian foreign ministry on Thursday said that Moscow expects that the matter of Armenia’s membership in the International Criminal Court will be resolved amicably among allies, and once again blasted the European Union for meddling in the region.
Russia also said that “there has been no discussion” on an Azerbaijani proposal to open a checkpoint along the Lachin Corridor, a term Baku has proposed as a pre-condition for opening the road, which has been blockaded since December 12, despite its insistence that there is no such blockade.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during a press briefing on Thursday that the topic of Armenia’s membership in the International Criminal Court has been a topic of discussion during high-level meetings in both Moscow and Yerevan.
“I do not consider it necessary to publish the details of those contacts,” said Zakharova. “We assume that this issue will be resolved in a mutually acceptable way as customary for allies.”
Armenia’s Constitutional Court last week said the the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court did not contradict with Armenia’s Constitution. On Tuesday, Moscow issued a stern warning to Armenia about its membership in the court, which has issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
During the same briefing, Zakharova also accused the European Union of have “destructive intentions” in the region and not being interested in building confidence between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The comments stemmed from a statement made by the head of the EU’s monitoring mission in Armenia Markus Ritter, who told a German news program that because his group had no access to Azerbaijan, it was unable to determine whether Azerbaijan was preparing to attack Armenia, as some in Yerevan have said.
“If there is no attack by Azerbaijan this spring, it can be said that the EU mission has been successful,” Ritter added.
Zakharova said that Moscow understands the deep divisions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but believes that the sides can come to an agreement.
“The main thing is to create an appropriate atmosphere for them, an appropriate basis for such agreements, mutual understanding, and to contribute to that mutual understanding, and not the other way around,” Zakharova said.
She said that statements such as the ones made by Ritter “only confirm the validity of our conclusions regarding the destructive intentions and actions of the European Union in this region.”
“Brussels is clearly not interested in confidence building and rapprochement between Azerbaijan and Armenia. And with its incompetent, constant, unprofessional, unwise, and dishonest actions, it is provoking disagreements between Baku and Yerevan. And, in my opinion, we can all see it, and it is simply not possible to conceal it,” said Zakharova.
“Of course, it is unfortunate that the EU does not think about what unpredictable consequences its irresponsible policies can have for peace and stability in Transcaucasia. We call on them to abandon such confrontational scenarios,” added Zakharova, who said that it was Russia’s efforts that ended the war in 2020.