Wednesday, June 2, 2021
EU President Talks To Armenian, Azeri Leaders
BELGIUM -- European Council President Charles Michel speaks during a media
conference at an EU summit in Brussels, May 25, 2021
The European Union’s top official met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian in Brussels and spoke with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev by phone
on Wednesday to discuss the continuing border dispute between their countries.
European Council President Charles Michel called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to
fully comply with a Russian-brokered agreement that stopped their war over
Nagorno-Karabakh last November.
A spokesman for Michel said he also told Pashinian and Aliyev that the EU is
“ready to provide expertise on border delimitation and demarcation and to
support confidence building.”
“The European Union also encourages both parties to cooperate, as matter of
urgency, on the return of detainees and full transparency with regard to mine
fields, and other important humanitarian issues,” the official, Barend Leyts,
added in a statement. “The EU is providing almost 20 million euros ($24.4
million) in humanitarian assistance and will continue to be engaged.”
According to an Armenian government statement on Pashinian’s talks with Michel,
the head of the EU’s main decision-making body welcomed Yerevan’s efforts to
find a peaceful solution to the dispute that broke out after Azerbaijani troops
reportedly crossed several sections of the border and advanced a few kilometers
into Armenian territory three weeks ago.
The statement cited Pashinian as calling for an “adequate” international
reaction to “Azerbaijan’s provocative actions.” It said he also discussed with
Michel the possible deployment of international observers along contested
sections of the border which he proposed on May 27.
An EU foreign policy spokesman welcomed Pashinian’s proposal on May 28. The
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry effectively dismissed it earlier this week, however.
Armenian Authorities Accused Of Disrespecting War Dead
• Susan Badalian
Armenia - The bodies and body parts of Armenian soldiers killed in action are
stored at a morgue in Abovian.
The director and two other employees of a morgue were fired on Wednesday as the
Armenian authorities faced accusations of showing disrespect to the bodies of
Armenian soldiers killed during last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
At least 3,800 of them died during six weeks of heavy fighting with Azerbaijani
forces stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire in November. Hundreds of others
remain unaccounted for.
Their relatives have regularly staged protests in recent months to demand that
the Armenian government do more to recover the bodies of their loved ones or
shed more light on their whereabouts. Many of them distrust official data on
still unidentified bodies of dead soldiers kept at Armenian morgues.
On Monday, some angry relatives forced their way into the mortuaries to count
the number of corpses and body parts stored there. They took pictures inside a
morgue in Abovian, a town 15 kilometers north of Yerevan.
The photographs circulated on social media showed plastic bags filled with human
remains lying on the ground in its basement, which was not refrigerated to
prevent their decomposition. They caused uproar in the country, with many
accusing the authorities of dishonoring the Armenian soldiers killed in action.
The Armenian Ministry of Health initially denied that their remains are kept in
degrading conditions. But Health Minister Anahit Avanesian publicly apologized
to soldiers’ families on Tuesday, saying that she was wrong not to have
personally inspected the Abovian morgue.
The scandal continued unabated, however. One of the relatives publicized on
Tuesday night a short video of the morgue basement.
Avanesian formally reprimanded Mher Bisharian, the head of a state center of
forensic medicine overseeing the Armenian mortuaries, the following morning.
Bisharian in turned sacked the director and two other workers of the Abovian
morgue.
“We fired them because they didn’t perform their duties properly,” Bisharian
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. He said they should have placed the remains on
stretchers and stored them in a more orderly way.
Bisharian said that the remains were taken to the Abovian facility because a
refrigerated morgue truck where they were kept until May 28 broke down. He said
they were “temporarily” stored in the basement due to a lack of space in the
morgue’s refrigerated rooms.
The official added that the remains were transported on Tuesday to a
refrigerated facility in Martuni, a town 130 kilometers north of Yerevan.
Sofia Hovsepian, an independent member of Armenia’s outgoing parliament critical
of the government, dismissed the authorities’ response to the scandal which she
said highlights their “impunity” and lack of empathy for the families of the war
dead.
“Instead of firing the three individuals they should have sacked and prosecuted
the health minister and the former health minister [Arsen Torosian, the current
chief of the Armenian government’s staff,]” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Hovsepian claimed that many bodies of the deceased soldiers were for months kept
at another morgue not equipped with refrigerators and that the authorities
transported them to more suitable facilities only after her persistent
complaints.
According to the authorities, 200 corpses and 400 body parts of dead soldiers
are currently kept there. Officials say that DNA samples taken from them match
those of nearly 100 families of the missing soldiers. They say those families
refuse to take and bury the corresponding remains because they do not trust the
results of the forensic tests.
About 70 other families are said to have refused to give their DNA samples to
the authorities for the same reason.
Government Promises Greater Input From Defense Industry
• Marine Khachatrian
Armenia -- A worker shows Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian a Kalashnikov AK-103
rifle assembled at the Neitron company plant in Abovian, July 7, 2020.
The Armenian government’s efforts to expand the domestic defense industry
intensified after the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh and will bear fruit soon,
Minister of High-Tech Industry Hayk Chobanian said on Wednesday.
Chobanian said that Armenian defense firms will contribute more advanced weapons
and other military hardware to the country’s arms forces.
“We are now making significant changes in this area,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service. “Some successes have already been achieved. Concrete programs, which
have never been implemented before, are being implemented now.”
“I believe that we will have changes in this sector within months. We will have
the first substantial changes in terms of the involvement of Armenia’s
military-industrial complex in the defense of Armenia’s borders,” he said.
Chobanian, whose ministry oversees the Armenian defense industry, shed no light
on those programs or specify new weapons developed by domestic companies.
The latter are known to manufacture various types of ammunition as well as
unmanned aerial vehicles which the Armenian army had begun receiving years
before the outbreak of last year’s war with Azerbaijan.
One such company, DAVARO, has teamed up with several other local firms to design
and manufacture both military and civilian drones.
“There has been a quite a bit of consolidation in the sector after the war.
Defense and software development companies have joined forces and expect quite
good results,” its chief executive, Davit Galoyan, said on Wednesday.
Aleksandr Yesayan, the chairman of Armenia’s Union of Advanced Technology
Enterprises, stressed the importance of such consolidation.
“Scale is very important for the defense industry in both the internal and
external markets,” said Yesayan. “If you don’t have a [serious] production
volume you can’t compete with, say, Israeli companies.”
Georgia Reopens Armenian Border For Travel
• Satenik Kaghzvantsian
Armenia - The Armenian-Georgian border crossing at Bavra, October 1, 2017.
Georgia has reopened its land border with Armenia to travelers more than one
year after closing it to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Both neighboring states shut down their borders in March 2020 following the
outbreak of the pandemic. The Georgian-Armenian border has since remained open
for only cargo shipments.
The Armenian government began easing its entry ban for foreigners later in 2020
and lifted it altogether in January this year.
By contrast, Georgia as kept its borders with Armenia as well as neighboring
Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey closed up until this month. The Georgian
government announced last week that they will be reopened on June 1 to travelers
who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or have tested negative against the
virus up to three days prior to their arrival in the country.
Two of the three main Armenian-Georgian border crossings thus fully resumed
their work on Tuesday. Most of the first travelers using them appeared to be
Georgian citizens of Armenian descent.
“I have come from Georgia to visit my relatives,” one of them told RFE/RL’s
Armenian Service “It’s very good that the borders are open again.”
Armenian customs officials warned people heading for Georgia to have documentary
evidence of both their vaccination and negative test results.
Individuals entering Armenia by air or via its land borders are also required to
provide such documentation or undergo coronavirus tests upon arrival.
Georgia and especially its Black Sea resorts were a popular travel destination
for Armenian holidaymakers before the pandemic. Also, many Armenians traveled to
and from Russia via Georgia.
According to official statistics, the number of tourists visiting Armenia and
Georgia plummeted by more than 80 percent last year.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2021 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Author: Vicken Chmshkian
Armenia Says Azerbaijan Captured 6 Soldiers at Border
Voice of America
May 27 2021
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| Voice of America – English
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YEREVAN, ARMENIA – Azerbaijan captured Six Armenian soldiers Thursday, the latest in a series of escalating border incidents after last year's war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The United States called on both sides to resolve the situation "urgently and peacefully."
The clash came at a delicate time for acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who faces snap elections next month.
The Armenian defense ministry said that its forces were carrying out engineering work in a border region when Azerbaijan's army "surrounded and captured six servicemen."
Azerbaijan's military, however, branded the Armenian soldiers as a "reconnaissance and sabotage group."
It said they had "tried to mine supply routes leading to Azerbaijan army positions" and "were surrounded, neutralized and taken prisoner."
"The situation is tense and explosive," Pashinyan said during his visit to the eastern Gegharkunik region, where the soldiers were captured.
Speaking separately at a meeting of his security council, the prime minister suggested that international observers be deployed on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
US, France express concern
The U.S. expressed concern about the escalating tension and called for the release of the six soldiers and for the two sides to return to the negotiating table.
"We call on both sides to urgently and peacefully resolve this incident," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. "We also continue to call on Azerbaijan to release immediately all prisoners of war and other detainees, and we remind Azerbaijan of its obligations under international humanitarian law to treat all detainees humanely."
Washington would consider any movements in the nondemarcated part of the border area as "provocative and unnecessary," the statement said.
France urges caution
In France, the foreign ministry similarly urged both sides "to show the utmost restraint and to refrain from any provocation."
This was just the latest in a string of border incidents between the historic rivals stretching back over several months, and it further strained the cease-fire Russia brokered last year.
Last year, the two ex-Soviet countries in the Caucasus region fought for six weeks for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian region in Azerbaijan that separatists had controlled for decades.
Some 6,000 people were killed in the conflict, which ended after Moscow brokered an agreement between Yerevan and Baku that saw Armenia hand large sections of territory it had controlled for decades to Azerbaijan.
Among the recaptured territories was Kelbajar district, which lies across the border from Gegharkunik, the site of the latest incident.
The cease-fire, monitored by 2,000 Russian peacekeepers, has largely held, but tensions persist.
Snap polls
A senior Armenian army representative said there were 1,000 Azerbaijani soldiers on Armenian soil near Gegharkunik.
For now, he said, incidents were being resolved peacefully, but "if a decision is taken to use force, then they will be destroyed."
Azerbaijan said that Armenia had deployed tanks to the area.
Armenia said one of its soldiers was killed earlier this week when shooting broke out with Azerbaijan's forces, an incident Baku denied responsibility for.
Earlier in May, Armenia accused Azerbaijan's military of crossing its southern border to "lay siege" to a lake shared by the two countries.
Elections ahead
And all of this comes in the run-up to snap parliamentary polls in Armenia on June 20, which Pashinyan announced under pressure from opposition protesters.
For months they have staged rallies demanding the prime minister's resignation.
They hold him accountable for what many in Armenia believe was a humiliating defeat at the hands of Azerbaijan's army, and for agreeing to hand over swaths of territory to Azerbaijan.
Pashinyan, 45, says he had no choice but to concede or see his country's forces suffer even bigger losses. Fresh elections are the best way to end the postwar political stalemate, he says.
Earlier this month, Pashinyan said Armenia and Azerbaijan were in Russian-mediated talks on the delimitation and demarcation of their shared borders.
He also said the two governments could discuss territorial swaps.
Russia's role as the broker between the two countries has largely come at the expense of Western powers such as France and the United States. All three are part of a mediating group that had tried but failed for decades to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan around the collapse of the Soviet Union in a conflict that claimed the lives of 30,000 people and displaced many more.
Turkish press: Talk on ‘genocide’ in 1915 events must focus on Muslims: Expert
Emre Ilikan |26.05.2021
VAN, Turkey
If a genocide is to be discussed in relation to the events of 1915, this discussion should be based in the massacres Muslims suffered at the hands of Armenian gangs, a Turkish historian said on Wednesday.
"Those who were subjected to genocide, who were the victims, who suffered violence during the years of World War I, were Muslims," Bekir Koclar, who heads the History Department at Van Yuzuncu Yil University in eastern Turkey, told Anadolu Agency.
Describing the events of 1915 as a so-called "genocide" is far from the historical reality, said Koclar. "This is a false reading of history. Instead of describing the relocation of Armenians as genocide, it would be more correct to discuss the event in its own reality."
The events of 1915 are the beginning of the historical events that resulted in the occupation of the then-Ottoman city Van, which is today a province in eastern Turkey, and the great suffering of Muslims in the region, argues Koclar.
He said that "great disasters" occurred in Van during this period, adding: "Due to its geographical location, Van was the main center of the Armenian revolt in 1915. If a genocide is to be discussed, this discussion should be about the Muslims."
Underlining that it was Muslims who suffered genocide and violence during that period, he went on to say: "However, with a reverse reading of history, the resistance of the Muslims, the position taken by the state here and the relocation process of the Armenians are seen as a 'genocide'."
Koclar, along with his colleague Haluk Selvi of the northwestern Sakarya University, is scheduled on Thursday to hold a social media session in which they will discuss massacres committed by Armenian gangs during the events of 1915.
As discussions on the 1915 incidents diverged from the historical reality, they have turned into an incomprehensible chaos, said the historian, adding that he and Selvi would share the truth of these events with a wide audience through their live broadcast on social media and that they would keep telling these events on all platforms in order to reveal the truth.
Mass graves found in many parts of Van province and the Zeve Martyrs' Cemetery and memorial built in honor of 2,500 massacred Muslims in the Tusba district, are the greatest evidence of the massacres committed by the Armenian gangs, he added.
Turkish stance on 1915 events
Turkey's position on the events of 1915 is that the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces.
A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.
Turkey objects to the presentation of these incidents as “genocide,” describing them as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.
Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Turkey and Armenia, as well as international experts, to tackle the issue.
In 2014, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was the country’s prime minister at the time, expressed condolences to the descendants of Armenians who lost their lives in the events of 1915.
*Writing by Seda Sevencan from Istanbul
Armenian President, Russian Ambassador refer to situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border and POWs issue
18:13,
YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian received on May 25 Ambassador of Russia to Armenia Sergey Kopirkin.
As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the President’s Office, the sides particularly referred to the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the humanitarian issues resulted by the war, particularly the necessity for an immediate return of Armenian war prisoners and civilians kept in Azerbaijan. The sides exchanged views on regional security and stability issues.
Armenia hasn’t discussed and will not discuss corridor issue in unblocking context – Pashinyan
12:42, 20 May, 2021
YEREVAN, MAY 20, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has stated once again that Armenia has not discussed, is not discussing and will not discuss an issue of corridor in the context of unblocking of regional communications.
At the Cabinet meeting today, he said the opening of regional communications is one of the priorities of the Armenian government.
“I want to draw the attention of all of us to the fact that since 1992 a policy of blocking, in other words, a policy of blocking the communications has been adopted against Armenia. And given this fact we need to understand that the agenda of opening communications is beneficial to Armenia. On the other hand, as we have stated repeatedly, I don’t think that we need to announce this every day, I say this for all times – we have not discussed, are not discussing and will not discuss a corridor logic issue in the context of communications”, he said.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Pashinyan says positions of int’l partners and Armenia are the same: Azerbaijani forces must leave Armenian territory
11:53,
YEREVAN, MAY 20, ARMENPRESS. Major diplomatic work has been carried out and is being carried out after the recent incursion of the Azerbaijani armed forces into Armenia’s territory, Caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during the Cabinet meeting today, presenting the activities aimed at condemning the Azerbaijani actions and withdrawing its troops from the Armenian territory.
“One of the key evidence of this is also the fact that today the foreign minister is not attending the Cabinet session because our colleagues of foreign ministry are engaged in this work at this moment. I would like to state that I consider the diplomatic work of this moment effective. And not only the foreign ministry, but also the defense ministry, the deputy prime ministers work on this direction”, he said, calling this work successful because, according to him, the positions of international partners and Armenia are the same in fact, that is the Azerbaijani armed forces must leave Armenia’s territory.
Recently, on May 12, the Azerbaijani armed forces have illegally crossed into Armenia’s territory, in particular the Sev Lake in Syunik province. Thanks to the actions of the Armenian side, some of the Azerbaijani forces have returned back to their initial positions, but some Azeri troops still remain in some border sections of Armenia’s Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces. Negotiations over the withdrawal of the Azerbaijani forces are taking place.
Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
Azerbaijani side fails to show up at planned negotiations – Armenian military
14:21,
YEREVAN, MAY 19, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani side did not show up to the negotiations that were planned to resume today over the resolution of the border situation which was created after Azeri troops breached the Armenian border on May 12, the Armenian Defense Ministry said.
The negotiations were scheduled for 14:00, May 19, and the Azerbaijani side failed to appear.
“Despite the earlier agreement, the Azerbaijani side did not come to the negotiations,” the defense ministry said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
Armenian delegation to participate in EAEU member states-Egypt negotiations in Moscow
20:32,
YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Governmental delegation will participate in the 4th stage of negotiations between the EAEU member states and Egypt on free trade agreement, ARMENPRESS reports caretaker Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan signed the relevent decision.
The delegation will be led by Minister of Economy Varos Simonyan. The visit will take place from May 25-27.
Pastinfo: Armenian village head: Azerbaijanis haven’t retreated, advancing in direction of Gegharkunik Province
News.am, Armenia
Pastinfo: Armenian village head: Azerbaijanis haven't retreated, advancing in direction of Gegharkunik Province
20:27, 17.05.2021
R
The adversary has not only failed to retreat, but also continues to advance and set up military posts. This is what head of Geghamasar village of Gegharkunik Province of Armenia Hakob Avetyan said, confirming Pastinfo newspaper’s information.
“The Azerbaijanis didn’t retreat. They actually advanced,” he said, noting that the Azerbaijani side, which is in the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, has advanced a few hundred meters more.
“Today, they advanced 200-300 meters, but we see that they are able to move forward. This is very bad and is sparking more tension. I don’t know what the consequences will be,” the head of the village said.
According to him, the problem is that it has already been six days since the enemy’s troops invaded the territory of the Republic of Armenia and, instead of leaving, they continue to advance.
Yesterday the Ministry of Defense of Armenia unofficially put into circulation news that the negotiations had ended successfully and that the Azerbaijani troops had to retreat, but Avetyan told Pastinfo that there have been advancements over the past two days.
Avetyan also informed that the Armenian troops are deployed in the territory, aren’t panicking and are ready to fight, just like the villagers.
Syunik Province: Talks with participation of Armenian general ends in vain
News.am, Armenia
21:03, 15.05.2021
Negotiations with the Azerbaijani side, taking place today near the Khndzoresk community of the Syunik province in Armenia, ended in vain, Mayor of Akner village of Syunik province Spartak Minasyan told NEWS.am.
Today the Commander of the Peacekeeping Forces in Artsakh Rustam Muradov took part in the negoations.
“We have information that the negotiations are over and there are no results. I don't know if the negotiations will continue tomorrow or not,” he said.
According to the statement of the Armenian Ministry of Defense, on the morning of May 12, under the pretext of 'clarifying the borders', the Azerbaijani Armed Forces tried to carry out certain work on one of the border areas of Syunik. However, after the measures taken by the Armenian units, the Azerbaijani military stopped working.
On the same day, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called a meeting of the Security Council, at which he said that this was a sabotage attack by Azerbaijan, that the problem must be resolved through talks. The Security Council meeting was held on May 13, at which Pashinyan announced that he had instructed to start consultations provided for under the CSTO agreement.