Author: Vanyan Gary

"Karabakh troubles have left political arrests in the shadows"

Vanyan Gary
Oct 16 2023

  • Fatima Movlamli
  • Baku

Karabakh conflict and repression

“People had hope that after the changes in the Karabakh conflict, the Azerbaijani authorities would take a number of steps towards the rights and freedoms of citizens. But, unfortunately, in the three years since the war, we have not witnessed this.”

Human rights activist Anar Mammadli comments on the current situation in the sphere of civil rights against the background of the Karabakh conflict.

In his opinion, the escalation in Karabakh has pushed the problems with civil liberties in the country to the background. The human rights defender says that this can also be felt in the activities of international human rights organizations in connection with Azerbaijan.

Over the past three months, the number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan has increased by 31 people. The list published by the Freedom Union of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in October of this year contains the names of 235 people. In the July report of the same organization there were 204.


Anar Mammadli noted that three years ago, when the territories returned to Azerbaijani control as a result of the second Karabakh war, the authorities had great public support and solidarity. But the authorities did not change their policy regarding civil rights and freedoms.

“Human rights are still violated in the country, problems remain in the socio-economic sphere, the judicial system, and in connection with political freedoms,” he told JAMnews.

The Second Karabakh War began on September 27, 2020 and ended on November 10 with the signing of a trilateral statement by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. As a result, parts of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, including Shusha and seven adjacent districts, returned to Azerbaijani control.

On September 19-20, 2023, Azerbaijan declared an anti-terrorist operation in the Karabakh region. The military action, which lasted 24 hours, ended with the unrecognized regime in Karabakh accepting the terms of official Baku. Then, according to the terms, the illegal armed formations in Karabakh laid down their arms, and the unrecognized government announced its self-dissolution until January 1, 2024.

All detainees have been charged with terrorism, serious crimes against peace and humanity

A number of senior officials of the unrecognized NKR, including Araik Harutyunyan, who served as president of the self-proclaimed republic during the 44-day war, were arrested in Khankendi (Stepanakert) and brought to Baku.

The defeatist mood that prevailed in Azerbaijani society for more than 30 years due to the loss of territories and the deaths and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes as a result of the first Karabakh war has been replaced by enthusiasm.

Galib Bayramov, brother of opposition politician and academic economist Gubad Ibadoglu, who was arrested in July, disagrees with the opinion that the protection of political prisoners at the local and international level has weakened:

“As Gubad Ibadoglu’s brother, I want to say on the basis of a concrete case – we continue our activities at the local and international level for his release with the same consistency.

Of course, recent developments are at the top of the agenda of international organizations. But I do not believe that there has been any weakening in our activities,” he told JAMnews.

Red Cross are not allowed to visit detainee Gubad Ibadoglu

Since the first day of the start of military operations in Karabakh, at least six people have been detained for statements on social networks condemning the military actions. Most of them received 30 days of administrative detention for “disseminating prohibited information”.

One of them, journalist Nurlan Gahramanli (Libre), stated in court that he was physically abused at the police department. Activists and journalists present in court saw bruises on his arms and legs.

Over the past three days, four activists and a journalist opposing military action in Karabakh have been arrested

Afiaddin Mammadov, a defender of workers’ rights and an opponent of the war, was also detained on September 20. But unlike the others, he did not get away with administrative arrest, a criminal case was opened against him on charges of stabbing. Mammadov, who was arrested for two months of preliminary investigation, denies the charges and considers his arrest political.

According to activist Akhmed Mammadli, Afiaddin Mammadov’s arrest precisely at the time of military operations in Karabakh has negatively affected the process of his defense:

“When there are military operations in Karabakh, the defense of political prisoners in Azerbaijan in general weakens. The scenario of Afiaddin Mammadov’s arrest was prepared long ago, I think he was arrested on purpose during the military operations. It is felt that the organization of his defense is not as strong as it used to be.”

Head of the Confederation of Trade Unions Afieddin Mammadov arrested for the third time in the last 10 months

Activist Gulnara Mehtiyeva also believes that the preoccupation of the country’s agenda with the Karabakh processes has left the defense of those arrested on political grounds in the shadows:

“We used to have more opportunities to draw public attention to these arrests. But when there were military operations, people were naturally interested in news about the dead, about everything related to the war. So there is a priority, the news headlines are related to all that.

And that makes it harder to draw attention to political arrests. And in matters that remain out of the public domain, the authorities can easily take any illegal action.”


Seymur Hazi, deputy chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, believes that this is temporary and in time arrests with political motives will again be in the spotlight:

“At the moment there are more than 200 political prisoners in Azerbaijani prisons and all of them were arrested because of the struggle for civil liberties, democracy and welfare. They may recede into the background for a short period of time, but then they will be back on the agenda. Of course, the human cost of war becomes the most important event in society. But I think for people, the issues of freedom, welfare and democracy are very important always.”

https://jam-news.net/karabakh-conflict-and-repression-in-azerbaijan/




Gen. Harbord Submits Report on Armenia Mission (16 OCT 1919)

Vanyan Gary
Oct 13 2023

by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian

16 OCTOBER 1919
On 16 October 1919, Maj. Gen. (later Lt. Gen.) James G. Harbord submitted the final report from his intelligence mission in Armenia to the American Peace Commission (alternately known as the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at the Paris Peace Conference). The report detailed a months-long investigation into political and military conditions in postwar Europe, particularly how war and genocide in Armenia affected America’s efforts towards peace in Eastern Europe.

Col. (later Maj. Gen.) Ralph Van Deman served as the intelligence officer with the American Peace Commission, and he had advised on preliminary peace negotiations with several European nations prior to the armistice in November 1918. Van Deman was appointed chief of all counter-espionage activities within the Paris Peace Conference. [See "This Week in MI History" #18 6 December 1918] Part of his duties included membership on the Committee on Current Diplomatic and Political Correspondence. After the war, many of the reports by military attachés stationed across Europe were passed to the Military Intelligence Division in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, the Peace Conference committees could not examine these records for successive counterintelligence operations within Paris. Consequently, the American Peace Commission offered an ambitious program to amass accurate intelligence on particularly troubled regions of Europe.

Ellis L. Dresel, a military attaché to Berlin from 1915–1917 who later served as chargé d'affaires (embassy chief in the absence of an ambassador) to Germany, was selected as chairman of the new program under the American Peace Commission. This unique committee reviewed reports from military attachés in different sectors of Europe before they were presented to the multinational Peace Conference. The committee established “missions” to collect information in key regions of Europe, including the troubled areas of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. These missions were principally directed by the commission and primarily consisted of American government and military personnel. Colonel Van Deman, Maj. Royall Taylor, and Maj. Delancey Kountze served as U.S. Army representatives for this program.

One of these missions was the American Mission to Armenia, headed by General Harbord. Turkey and Armenia represented an especially fraught problem for the Peace Conference. Between 1915–1917, the Ottoman Turks had massacred between 600,000 and 1,500,000 Armenians, more than half of the Armenian population in northwest Asia. Thousands more were deported, sold into slavery or marriage to the Turks, or forcibly converted to Islam. Harbord had served as Gen. John J. Pershing’s chief of staff from 1917–1918 and, later in the war, had commanded the 4th Marine Brigade and the 2d Infantry Division before taking over the American Expeditionary Forces’ Services of Supply. Harbord’s military prestige, experience, and integrity prompted his appointment as leader of the Armenia Mission.

On 16 October 1919, General Harbord submitted his "Report of the American Military Mission to Armenia" to the American Peace Commission. The report summarized the mission’s expedition through Armenia and Asia Minor and included a lengthy history of Armenia and its relations with the Turks and Russians; interviews of government officials, victims, witnesses, and perpetrators of the genocide; and recommendations for the Peace Conference to limit further conflict in the region. According to the so-called Harbord Commission, the only way towards peace between Armenia and Turkey at the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was for the United States to include Armenians in mandates and relief aid ordered for the whole of Asia Minor and the former empire. The report cautioned that relief solely for Armenians would potentially lead to further bloodshed and emphasized that “temptation to reprisals for past wrongs will be strong for at least a generation.”

—-
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Long-Standing Ties Between Armenia and Russia Are Fraying Fast

Vanyan Gary
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Oct 13 2023
Russia failed to stop Azerbaijan’s attack on Nagorno-Karabakh and the flight of Karabakh Armenians. Consequently, Armenia will be looking elsewhere for security guarantees.
Alexander Atasuntsev

The conflict in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh has not just ended in the worst possible way for Armenia, but for Russia, too. Despite Moscow’s bombastic rhetoric and its criticism of Armenia’s leaders, it’s clear that the failure of Russia’s peacekeeping efforts has jeopardized its long-term presence in the South Caucasus.

The 24 hours of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh in September that resulted in the capitulation of Karabakh Armenian defense forces to Baku revealed that Azerbaijan was more wary of Western sanctions than Russian military might. Despite being formally allied within the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Yerevan will no longer be seeking security guarantees from Moscow.

Armenia is the only post-Soviet country where Russia’s influence has grown steadily since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1992, Russian border guards were stationed on Armenia’s borders with Iran and Turkey. In 1995, a large Russian military base was opened in Armenia’s second city of Gyumri. And in 2020, a Russian peacekeeping mission was deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh after the Second Karabakh War.

Russia’s peacekeeping mandate in Nagorno-Karabakh was unclear, however, with its viability resting only on Russia’s continuing political and military authority. In essence, it came down to both sides being unwilling to risk the death of a Russian soldier.

That all changed with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which has devoured the Kremlin’s military capabilities and destroyed much of its authority. By the fall of 2022, when Azerbaijan attacked Armenian territory, it was clear Moscow was not willing to intervene. And during the one-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023, Moscow showed again that it was not prepared to risk a conflict with Baku (even following the death of Russian soldiers).

Moscow’s attempts to justify its blunders haven’t been convincing. Of course, Russian officials are partially correct when they blame Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for renouncing Armenia’s territorial claims to Nagorno-Karabakh. But, at least formally, Armenia had never advanced such claims. More importantly, it’s unclear why such a statement by Pashinyan would annul Moscow’s guarantee to Karabakh Armenians. After all, Russia’s past recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of Georgia, and Transnistria as part of Moldova, did not prevent it from deploying peacekeepers to those regions.

The failure of Russia’s peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh—which now looks likely to be wrapped up—puts into question its entire military presence in Armenia. Since the 1990s, that presence has been based on an alignment of interests between Moscow and Yerevan. Now these interests are rapidly diverging.

Up until 2020, it was customary to assume that Moscow’s goal in the South Caucasus was to preserve the status quo. That was why Yerevan looked for Russian help—which never materialized—during the Second Karabakh War. It’s still an open question whether Moscow could have done more to stop that conflict before it ended in a catastrophic defeat for the Armenians. If it could indeed have done more and chose not to, that was a big mistake, paving the way for Turkey to take on a bigger role in the region and leaving Armenia vulnerable.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, all other regional issues—including those of the South Caucasus—have faded into the background for Moscow. Certainly, entering into a conflict with Azerbaijan and its main supporter, Turkey, would not bring Russia any closer to victory in Ukraine.

One option open to Russia could have been to increase arms exports to its ally Armenia, but Moscow needs all the weapons it can get for its war against Ukraine. Yerevan has even complained that Moscow is refusing to supply weapons for which it has already paid, forcing Armenia to turn to Indian suppliers instead. There have even been suggestions Armenia might buy Western arms.

Without security guarantees or arms supplies, there is little reason for Armenia to remain in the CSTO military alliance. Apart from joint military exercises, for many years the only reason for Yerevan to be a member of the CSTO was the option of buying Russian weapons at a discount.

It’s obvious that no country (not only Russia) can give Armenia a cast-iron security guarantee: any such guarantor would have to be ready to risk an armed conflict with Azerbaijan. But diplomatic tools can also serve as a restraining factor, and there are currently more of these available to the West than to Russia.

Unhappiness with Moscow has already pushed Yerevan to make several fateful decisions. In October, Armenia ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which means that if Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Armenia, he will be arrested.

The idea of joining the ICC first arose following the Azerbaijani attack on Armenia in September 2022, and videos showing Azerbaijani soldiers executing Armenian prisoners. Back then, Yerevan said that ICC membership would be another lever over Baku. But when the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March, it must have been clear to Armenian officials how the Kremlin would react—and yet Armenia went ahead with the ratification.

Nor has Yerevan attempted to hide the real reasons for its decision, with Pashinyan stating: “We took the decision to ratify the Rome Statute when it became clear to us that the CSTO and the instruments of the Russian-Armenian strategic partnership were not enough to ensure Armenia’s external security.”

Moscow’s reaction was predictable, with Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the ratification an “extremely hostile” step. In the following days, suppliers of Armenian brandy to Russia began to experience problems at customs.

In the past, Russia has blocked imports of goods to punish countries like Moldova and Georgia that it sees as pursuing a pro-Western course. But the tactic has never met with much success. If anything, it has had the opposite effect: Moldova received European Union candidate status in 2022, and Georgia could receive it later this year. It can’t be ruled out that Armenia will follow in their footsteps.

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

https://carnegieendowment.org/politika/90768

By:
  • Alexander Atasuntsev

More Than 100,000 Ethnic Armenians Have Left Karabakh – OpEd

Vanyan Gary
Oct 9 2023
   0 Comments

By Paul Goble

Yerevan has announced that more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians have now left the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and both Armenian and Russian commentators say that almost all of the fewer than 20,000 remaining will leave soon, with few of them ever returning despite Baku’s pledges to treat them equally.

According to Russian commentators, the depth of hatred between Armenians and Azerbaijanis is so deep and the fears of Armenians that Azerbaijanis will mistreat them so widespread that there is no other likely outcome, even though Baku might like to have a few Armenians there to bolster its case that it supports everyone’s rights.

But in fact, several of them observe, just as a Russian general once said that Russia needs Armenia but doesn’t need Armenians, so now Azerbaijan needs Karabakh but doesn’t need Karabakh Armenians. It will be happier if the population there becomes almost exclusively ethnic Azerbaijani. 

Armenian flight is likely to accelerate as Baku moves ethnic Azerbaijanis into the region. Initially, most of these will be people who left in the early 1990s; but others will come as well – and as they do, Qarabagh will become an Azerbaijani majority region and Armenians will have even more reason to think they should leave (svpressa.ru/society/article/390116/).

A miniscule number of ethnic Armenians may return this winter if they are unable to find housing or jobs in Armenia. Yerevan is currently providing more than 50,000 of them with temporary housing; but that falls far short of the number who need it, even far short of the more than 80,000 Karabakh refugees who have already registered with the Armenian government.

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at [email protected] 

Asbarez: Russian Peacekeepers Dismantle 2 Permanent, 1 Temporary Posts in Artsakh

Vanyan Gary
by Asbarez Staff

 

 October 6, 2023

 

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Main, Latest, News, Top Stories

Russian peacekeeper in Artsakh


Moscow Denies Reports of Ending Peacekeeping Contingent Mission

During the past 24 hours, the Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh have dismantled two permanent and one temporary observation posts, the Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

“During the day, two permanent observations posts in Shushi and Askeran region and one temporary post in the Market region were closed after the disarming [of the Artsakh Army] and leaving the areas,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Moscow added that the inventory of arms that were handed over by the Artsakh Defense Army is ongoing.

A government source told the Tass news agency that reports that Russia is planning to end its peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh are not true.

“Reports by a number of media outlets suggesting that a Russian Defense Ministry delation is discussing with Baku and Yerevan the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh is not true,” a diplomatic source told Tassl

“We are discussing planned contacts regarding the current activities of the peacekeepers,” added the source.

Again citing an unnamed diplomatic source, the official Tass news agency reported on Friday that a Russian military delegation will visit Yerevan later on Friday to discuss with Armenian officials time frames for the Russian withdrawal from Karabakh.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry spokesperson, Aram Torosyan, said, however, that he has “no information” about the visit. No Russian-Armenian talks on the issue have been scheduled so far, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday that the peacekeepers could not have thwarted the September 19 attack on Artsakh because Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan downgraded their mandate with his decision to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Artsakh. Putin acknowledged that there are virtually no Armenians left in Karabakh.

Armenians decry use of Israeli arms in Karabakh invasion

Vanyan Gary 
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2023/1005/Armenians-decry-use-of-Isra__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!sZFH81hLvH5vovWejDq4IwfCb9XpwNltR1w1NrFPJLOkphsLZCtgv9i0Rr8DPyV48_zBLkqwVatEevEqHw$
 
eli-arms-in-Karabakh-invasion 


Weeks before invading Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan received weapons
shipments from Israel. Azerbaijan went on to recapture the region, causing
thousands to flee - and bringing Israel's national interests in the Caucasus
to light.

By Isabel Debre Associated Press
October 5, 2023
|
TEL AVIV
Israel has quietly helped fuel Azerbaijan's campaign to recapture
Nagorno-Karabakh, supplying powerful weapons to Azerbaijan ahead of its
lightning offensive last month that brought the ethnic Armenian enclave back
under its control, officials and experts say.

Just weeks before Azerbaijan launched its 24-hour assault on Sept. 19,
Azerbaijani military cargo planes repeatedly flew between a southern Israeli
airbase and an airfield near Nagorno-Karabakh, according to flight tracking
data and Armenian diplomats, even as Western governments were urging peace
talks.

The flights rattled Armenian officials in Yerevan, long wary of the
strategic alliance between Israel and Azerbaijan, and shined a light on
Israel's national interests in the restive region south of the Caucasus
Mountains.

"For us, it is a major concern that Israeli weapons have been firing at our
people," Arman Akopian, Armenia's ambassador to Israel, told The Associated
Press. In a flurry of diplomatic exchanges, Mr. Akopian said he expressed
alarm to Israeli politicians and lawmakers in recent weeks over Israeli
weapons shipments.

"I don't see why Israel should not be in the position to express at least
some concern about the fate of people being expelled from their homeland,"
he told the AP.

Israel has a big stake in Azerbaijan, which serves as a critical source of
oil and is a staunch ally against Israel's archenemy Iran. It is also a
lucrative customer of sophisticated arms.

 "There's no doubt about our position in support of Azerbaijan's defense,"
said Arkady Mil-man, Israel's former ambassador to Azerbaijan and current
senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel
Aviv. "We have a strategic partnership to contain Iran."

Azerbaijan's September blitz involving heavy artillery, rocket launchers,
and drones - largely supplied by Israel and Turkey, according to experts -
forced Armenian separatist authorities to lay down their weapons and sit
down for talks on the future of the separatist region.

The Azerbaijani offensive killed over 200 Armenians in the enclave, the vast
majority of them fighters, and some 200 Azerbaijani troops, according to
officials.

There are ramifications beyond the volatile enclave of 4,400 square
kilometers (1,700 square miles). The fighting prompted over 100,000 people -
more than 80% of the enclave's ethnic Armenian residents - to flee in the
last two weeks. Azerbaijan has pledged to respect the rights of ethnic
Armenians.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has termed the exodus "a direct act
of an ethnic cleansing." Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry strongly rejected the
accusation, saying the departures are a "personal and individual decision
and [have] nothing to do with forced relocation."

Israel's foreign and defense ministries declined to comment on the use of
Israeli weapons in Nagorno-Karabakh or on Armenian concerns about its
military partnership with Azerbaijan. In July, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav
Gallant visited Baku, the Azerbaijan capital, where he praised the
countries' military cooperation and joint "fight against terrorism."

Although once resource-poor Israel now has plenty of natural gas off its
Mediterranean coast, Azerbaijan still supplies at least 40% of Israel's oil
needs, keeping cars and trucks on its roads. Israel turned to Baku's
offshore deposits in the late 1990s, creating an oil pipeline through the
Turkish transport hub of Ceyan that isolated Iran, which at the time
capitalized on oil flowing through its pipelines from Kazakhstan to world
markets.

Azerbaijan has long been suspicious of Iran, its fellow Shiite Muslim
neighbor on the Caspian Sea, and chafed at its support for Armenia, which is
Christian. Iran has accused Azerbaijan of hosting a base for Israeli
intelligence operations against it - a claim that Azerbaijan and Israel
deny.

"It's clear to us that Israel has an interest in keeping a military presence
in Azerbaijan, using its territory to observe Iran," Armenian diplomat
Tigran Balayan said.

Few have benefited more from the two countries' close relations than Israeli
military contractors. Experts estimate Israel supplied Azerbaijan with
nearly 70% of its arsenal between 2016 and 2020 - giving Azerbaijan an edge
against Armenia and boosting Israel's large defense industry.

 "Israeli arms have played a very significant role in allowing the
Azerbaijani army to reach its objectives," said Pieter Wezeman, senior
researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which
tracks arms sales.

Israeli long-range missiles and exploding drones known as loitering
munitions have made up for Azerbaijan's small air force, Mr. Wezeman said,
even at times striking deep within Armenia itself. Meanwhile, Israeli
Barak-8 surface-to-air missiles have protected Azerbaijan's airspace in
shooting down missiles and drones, he added.

Just ahead of last month's offensive, the Azerbaijani defense ministry
announced the army conducted a missile test of Barak-8. Its developer,
Israel Aerospace Industries, declined to comment on Azerbaijan's use of its
air defense system and combat drones.

But Azerbaijan has raved about the success of Israeli drones in slicing
through the Armenian defenses and tipping the balance in the bloody six-week
war in 2020.

Its defense minister in 2016 called a combat drone manufactured by Israel's
Aeronautics Group "a nightmare for the Armenian army," which backed the
region's separatists during Azerbaijan's conflict with Nagorno-Karabakh that
year.

President Ilham Aliyev in 2021 - a year of deadly Azerbaijan-Armenian border
clashes - was captured on camera smiling as he stroked the small Israeli
suicide drone "Harop" during an arms showcase.

Israel has deployed similar suicide drones during deadly army raids against
Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.

"We're glad for this cooperation, it was quite supportive and quite
beneficial for defense," Azerbaijani's ambassador to Israel, Mukhtar
Mammadov told the AP, speaking generally about Israel's support for the
Azerbaijani military. "We're not hiding it."

At a crucial moment in early September - as diplomats scrambled to avert an
escalation - flight tracking data shows that Azerbaijani cargo planes began
to stream into Ovda, a military base in southern Israel with a
3,000-meter-long airstrip, known as the only airport in Israel that handles
the export of explosives.

The AP identified at least six flights operated by Azerbaijan's Silk Way
Airlines landing at Ovda airport between Sept. 1 and Sept. 17 from Baku,
according to aviation-tracking website FlightRadar24.com. Azerbaijan
launched its offensive two days later.

During those six days, the Russian-made Ilyushin Il-76 military transport
lingered on Ovda's tarmac for several hours before departing for either Baku
or Ganja, the country's second-largest city, just north of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In March, an investigation by the Haaretz newspaper said it had counted 92
Azerbaijani military cargo flights to Ovda airport from 2016-2020. Sudden
surges of flights coincided with upticks of fighting in Nagorno-Karabkh, it
found.

 "During the 2020 war, we saw flights every other day and now, again, we see
this intensity of flights leading up to the current conflict," said Akopian,
the Armenian ambassador. "It is clear to us what's happening."

Israel's defense ministry declined to comment on the flights. The
Azerbaijani ambassador, Mammadov, said he was aware of the reports but
declined to comment.

The decision to support an autocratic government against an ethnic and
religious minority has fueled a debate in Israel about the country's
permissive arms export policies. Of the top 10 arms manufacturers globally,
only Israel and Russia lack legal restrictions on weapons exports based on
human rights concerns.

"If anyone can identify with [Nagorno-Karabakh] Armenians' continuing fear
of ethnic cleansing it is the Jewish people," said Avidan Freedman, founder
of the Israeli advocacy group Yanshoof, which seeks to stop Israeli arms
sales to human rights violators. "We're not interested in becoming
accomplices."

This story was reported by The Associated Press

EUMA Observers talk to people to report to EU how conflict affects daily life

Vanyan Gary

 18:07, 5 October 2023

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS.The observers of the European Union Mission in Armenia are talking to local people to report to the EU how the conflict is affecting people’s daily lives, the EUMA announced this on its X page.

As part of human security patrols, EUMA monitors regularly talk to local population, such as a shepherd from Navur village, to report to the EU how the conflict affects their day-to-day life. EUMA contributes to human security of local population at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border areas, the statement of the EU civil mission reads.

PM Pashinyan congratulates German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Unity Day, invites to visit Armenia

Vanyan Gary

 13:23, 3 October 2023

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory message to the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Olaf Scholz, on the occasion of the national holiday, Unity Day.

The message, published by the Prime Minister's Office, reads as follows,

"I warmly congratulate you and the people of Germany on the occasion of the national holiday, Unity Day.

“This significant event that took place 33 years ago has become the symbol of the confirmation of the unity of the German people and Europe.

“Germany is one of Armenia's reliable and stable partners, an active supporter of democratic and economic reforms in our country, as well as the expansion of Armenia-EU cooperation.

“I must note with satisfaction that in the current year the interstate relations between Armenia and Germany have greatly intensified, high-level mutual visits have taken place.

“I recall with warmth our meeting in the framework of my working visit to Germany in the spring of this year, during which we had constructive discussions on political, security, trade-economic, energy, educational, cultural issues and other spheres of bilateral relations.

“We attach great importance to the existing high-level political dialogue between our states and appreciate Germany's efforts in the process of maintaining and strengthening peace and stability in our region, as well as your personal involvement in the five-sided negotiations aimed at establishing peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“I sincerely hope that with joint efforts we will record new success in the framework of bilateral and multilateral cooperation for the benefit of our peoples.

“Once again, I congratulate you and the people of Germany on the occasion of Unity Day, wishing you further progress.

“I cordially invite you to visit Armenia at a time convenient for you."

State Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh, Minister of Internal Affairs and Head of National Security Service are in Armenia

Vanyan Gary

 18:31, 3 October 2023

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 3, ARMENPRESS. State Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh Artur Harutyunyan, Nagorno-Karabakh Minister of Internal Affairs Karen Sargsyan and head of the National Security Service Ararat Melkumyan have been in Armenia for several hours.

State Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh Artur Harutyunyan confirmed the information in a conversation with "Armenpress", adding that they have arrived in Armenia today.

Earlier, the Azerbaijani media circulated news about the "arrest" of the former presidents of Nagorno-KarabakhBako Sahakyan, ArkadiGhukasyan, as well as the speaker of the National Assembly Davit Ishkhanyan. Probably, the statement is about another illegal kidnapping of an official of Nagorno-Karabakh.