Category: 2023

Dec 20 2023

BAKU. Dec 20 (Interfax) – Azerbaijan does not see serious obstacles to concluding a lasting peace agreement with Armenia and believes that the border delimitation issue could be settled separately, Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said.

"The 35-year conflict is over. Azerbaijan's current strategy seeks peace. [That] would require efforts from both sides," Hajiyev told reporters in London on Tuesday.

"There are no more impediments to Azerbaijan on the path to the peace agenda," he said.

 

SWARAJYA, India

Dec 20 2023

India is preparing to supply Armenia with an indigenous anti-air system, continuing to broaden its export list to the European nation. This list currently features multi-barrel rocket launchers, artillery guns, various types of ammunition, and drones.

The deliveries of the Akash anti-air systems, produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), is expected to commence shortly, as part of a deal estimated to be worth Rs 6,000 crore, Economic Times reported citing sources.

This homegrown system is currently utilised by the Indian Armed forces and is also available for export to countries like Vietnam and the Philippines.

In April, the Ministry of Defence had mentioned an undisclosed export order for the anti-air system, without specifying the recipient country.

Previously in March, the Army had acquired two more regiments of the air defence system in a deal worth Rs 8,160 crore.

The enhanced version of the system, created by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, boasts a smaller footprint, advanced seekers, and a 360 degree Engagement Capability.

The system has an indigenous content of 82 per cent and 60 per cent of the project cost is awarded to the private industry, including MSMEs, to maintain a supply chain for the system.

In November last year, Kalyani Strategic Systems had announced a $155 million deal with an undisclosed international client for artillery guns. This order reportedly too was for Armenia.

This arms sale is part of India's larger geopolitical strategy, which has raised concerns among nations like Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan.

These countries perceive India's growing defense and strategic partnerships with Armenia and Greece as a challenge to their interests in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Armenia, a traditional ally of Russia, and Greece, a NATO member, are pivotal in India's efforts to assert its influence in the region.

The strengthening of ties with these nations is seen as a direct response to the informal alliance of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan.

India's relationship with Armenia has been growing since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992, culminating in a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2019.

This partnership encompasses trade, investment, defense, and cultural cooperation.

Similarly, India's relations with Greece have been on the upswing, with a Strategic Partnership Agreement signed in 2020, enhancing cooperation in defense, trade, and energy.

These developments come at a time when the alliance of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan faces internal challenges, including disagreements between Turkey and Azerbaijan over the Eastern Mediterranean.

India's strategic and subtle approach in building these relationships is seen as a long-term strategy to counterbalance the influence of these nations and China's expanding presence in the Mediterranean region.

https://swarajyamag.com/news-brief/bad-news-for-turkey-azerbaijan-pakistan-axis-india-to-export-akash-air-defence-system-to-armenia-under-rs-6000-crore-weapons-deal

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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/boost-for-defence-exports-india-to-export-akash-air-defence-system-to-armenia-in-rs-6000-crore-deal/articleshow/106147083.cms?from=mdr

https://myind.net/Home/viewArticle/india-to-export-akash-air-defence-system-to-armenia-under-rs-6000-crore-weapons-deal

Dec 20 2023

Armenia's possible exit from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is being discussed more and more actively as differences grow between Yerevan and Moscow.

Many in Armenia are wondering what the point is of remaining in a military alliance that has demonstrated its unwillingness to protect the country. 

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly denied claims, including by Russian officials, of an imminent change in Armenia's foreign policy vector, but that has not stopped speculation as to how the country might leave the CSTO and what would come next. Representatives of the authorities are themselves musing about this prospect. 

 "There is of course the idea of Euro-integration in Armenia, but there is also the idea of becoming a country with non-bloc status, so there's a wide range of options. We are listening to civil society and trying to figure out what the best tools are for ensuring Armenia's security and development," Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said at a forum in Brussels on November 10 titled, The Strategic Future of Armenia: Armenia-Europe.

Fifteen Armenian public organizations recently released a statement criticizing Russia for, as they put it, interfering in Armenia's internal affairs. The statement demands that the Armenian government expel Russia's 102nd military base, ban Russian broadcast media, and begin the process of ending the country's membership in the CSTO. 

Growing dissatisfaction with Russia

The CSTO, which also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Belarus, is one of the main causes of the growing Armenian resentment toward Russia. 

The bloc, which is, theoretically, bound to come to the aid of a member state when it is attacked, took practically no action in September last year when Azerbaijani troops invaded border areas and took up positions on strategic heights inside Armenia.   

Since then, Armenia's approach to the CSTO, and to Russia, has been increasingly confrontational. Yerevan has reduced its participation in the bloc to an absolute minimum. Over the past year, it has snubbed CSTO meetings at practically every level and has reassigned its representative in the organization to other work and left his post vacant.

At the same time, Armenia has welcomed more intensive cooperation with the EU, which at the start of this year deployed a civilian monitoring mission to the Azerbaijani border with the aim of supporting stability there. 

This step elicited a sharply negative reaction from the Russian authorities, who claimed the mission's purpose was to "confront Russia geopolitically" in the South Caucasus region.

Such rhetoric from Moscow has done nothing to stop the growing cooperation between Yerevan and Brussels, including in the military sphere. 

At the summit of EU foreign ministers on December 11, it was announced that the EU would review the possibility of rendering military aid to Armenia through the European Peace Fund.

It was also announced that the EU mission in Armenia would increase the number of its monitors from 138 to 209. 

Another sore spot for Armenia is Russia's alleged failure to deliver weapons that Yerevan says it paid millions of dollars for.  

The Armenian authorities have no plans to sue Russia and instead seek to solve the matter in an "atmosphere of partnership," Deputy Defence Minister Hrachya Sargsyan told a briefing on December 4. 

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently proposed resolving the dispute through Russia canceling part of Yerevan's overall debt to Moscow. That total debt amounts to about $280 million, according to the Armenian Finance Ministry's latest calculations. (Armenia has not released precise figures on how much money Russia owes it for undelivered weapons.) 

Scenarios for leaving the CSTO

Most of the analysts Eurasianet spoke to see Armenia exiting the CSTO as a logical possible outcome of the current strained relations between Armenia and Russia. 

The head of the Research Center on Security Policy in Yerevan, Areg Kochinyan, says that Armenia could withdraw from the CSTO after approving a national security strategy that stipulates "non-bloc status" for the country. A new national security strategy is currently being drafted, and it's unknown now whether it will contain such a provision. 

If the national security strategy were amended so, "It would mean that Armenia has decided not to participate in any military bloc or alliance and therefore it would have to leave the CSTO. But at the same time it would mean that the country would not seek to become part of any other collective defense bloc," Kochinyan told Eurasianet. "I think this position would be more acceptable for Russia and the other regional powers, Iran and Turkey."

Yerevan-based political analyst David Arutyunov doesn't find it difficult to imagine Armenia leaving the CSTO.  

"In the context of the whole scope of Armenia's close relations with Russia, including in the economic sphere and the presence of the Russian military base here, leaving the CSTO is a relatively easy matter," Arutyunov told Eurasianet, adding that another crisis could provide the final impetus for quitting the bloc. 

He said the Armenian authorities have deftly managed to achieve domestic political aims by directing public discontent over the country's security problems towards Russia and the CSTO. 

"If something like the crisis of September 2022 happens again and causes internal political ructions in Armenia, it's possible that the Armenian government will resort to leaving the CSTO" in a bid to deflect criticism. 

What might Armenia's "non-bloc status" mean?  

Areg Kochinyan, of the Research Center on Security Policy, believes that a "non-bloc status" could open up opportunities for expanding Armenia's defense and military-industrial cooperation with various countries.

"We're talking not just about the West, but also other countries like India, that produce weapons. Armenia can enhance its relations with them even to the level of strategic partnership," he said. 

David Arutyunov believes that it's too early to speak about any real prospect of Armenia being outside of any military-political alliances.

"For now all this talk is theoretical. There are no real discussions on realizing this in practice. And even so, the talk pertains to the CSTO specifically, while bilateral relations with Russia will remain in any case – alongside contacts with the West," Arutyunov said.

The head of the Armenian Institute for Resilience and Statecraft, Gevorg Melikyan, is doubtful that the Armenian authorities really intend to leave the CSTO and declare non-bloc status.

"I don't see any such clear policy or strategy. For now, it's a matter of the Armenian government's desire to make an impression on Western partners to extract some kind of security guarantees. Since there are none [such guarantees], the Armenian government will try to convince Western partners to treat Armenia like they would treat any other anti-Russian country and not accuse it of maintaining contacts with Russia in the security sphere because it remains in the CSTO," Melikyan told Eurasianet. 

Belarus – Dec 20 2023

MOSCOW, 20 December (BelTA) – Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Imangali Tasmagambetov is set to visit Armenia on 21 December, BelTA learned from the CSTO press service.

“On 21 December, CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov is scheduled to visit Yerevan to meet with Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan. The parties are expected to discuss the results of the joint meeting of the CSTO Foreign Ministers Council, the CSTO Defense Ministers Council and the CSTO Committee of Secretaries of the Security Councils and the session of the Collective Security Council held in Minsk in November 2023,” the press service said.

As BelTA previously reported, Armenia did not take part in the abovementioned events.

Dec 20 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA, /EINPresswire.com/ — The renowned first chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has published his second report on the 2023 genocide of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) people by Azerbaijan. After 9-months-blockade, Azerbaijan made an aggression in September, as a result of which hundreds of people were killed and practically the entire people of Nagorno-Karabakh have been forcibly displaced to Armenia within 6 days. The full report can be found here.

This paper focuses on the Nagorno-Karabakh situation, affirming the urgency to release more than twenty victims of genocide, including three former Nagorno-Karabakh presidents and five other community leaders, incarcerated in Azerbaijan. Their captivity is part of the genocide and a message to their community: if you come back to Nagorno-Karabakh, you will be starved, incarcerated or killed.

The 75th anniversary of the Genocide Convention’s adoption exposes the consistent state parties' position to deny the commission of genocide. In the last months of 2023, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide alerted about six different situations where there is a risk of genocide against ethnic groups, including the Rohingya, the Nagorno-Karabakh people, the Tigray in Ethiopia, the Israelis and Palestinians, and the Masalit in Darfur, Sudan.
State parties of the Genocide Convention, like the US, France, the UK, Germany, Israel and Russia, ignored information about the serious risk of genocide for the Nagorno-Karabakh people. Instead, they wanted to facilitate an agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan to avoid new hostilities and to achieve economic and geopolitical national interests. Israel, for instance, benefited from substantial weapons sales to Azerbaijan. State parties of the Convention should not benefit from genocide.

Their obligation to prevent genocide requires to continue assessing President Aliyev's genocidal intention to attack Armenia, ensure reparations for those who have lost their lives and their property in Nagorno-Karabakh, guarantee the rights of the ethnic group to return to their ancestral land safely, and to release the “Armenian prisoners.”

Artak Beglaryan's testimony, the short video version here, is evidence of the serious mental harm suffered by the entire ethnic group as established by the Genocide Convention Article II b).

The report analyzes in detail three topics:

a) the ethnic cleansing against a group of Armenians living for centuries in Nagorno-Karabakh constituting genocide and deportation as a crime against humanity.
b) regarding the prevention of genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh, the consistent state practice was to ignore the information about genocide against the targeted ethnic group.
c) regarding the obligation to punish genocide, the International Criminal Court will obtain jurisdiction at the beginning of February to investigate President Aliyev for crimes committed in Armenia since 10 May 2021.

Artak Beglaryan
Unblock Humanity
email us here

https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/676284640/icc-chief-prosecutor-s-second-report-on-nagorno-karabakh-genocide-emphasizes-prevention-and-punishment

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Dec 20 2023

As announced today by GEETHA, the 2024 plan is a continuation of the 2023 plan, is part of the Greece-Cyprus-Armenia Tripartite Military Dialogue, and includes, among other actions:

● Staff participation in operational training exercises and activities.

● Joint training of Special Forces – Special Operations Forces.

● Carrying out co-training using simulators.

● The exchange of experiences and lessons learned from the use of Air Defence Systems and Unmanned Combat Aircraft, and more generally on items related to Air Defence.

● Co-training on Management and Leadership subjects.

● Staff meetings and conversations on matters of mutual interest.

With the signing of the plan for 2024, the statement added, the already close military cooperation between the Armed Forces of the three countries is further deepened in the context of their defence coordination, and the joint effort to address common challenges is strengthened to strengthen peace of security and stability in the Caucasus and Eastern Mediterranean region.

Dec 20 2023

Dec 20 2023

Pope Francis has repeatedly called on Israel to lay down arms in its defensive war against Hamas, whose Oct. 7 terrorist attack was the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

It’s “forbidden to respond to terror with terror,” the pontiff reportedly told Israeli President Isaac Herzog last month. On Sunday, the pope said, “Some say, ‘This is terrorism and war.’ Yes, it is war. It is terrorism.”

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which is based in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, stated on Dec. 16 that an Israeli sniper “murdered” two Christian women in a Gaza church. “No warning was given, no notification was provided,” it said. “They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.”

On Oct. 7, the patriarchate blamed Israel for being a victim. “The cycle of violence that has killed numerous Palestinians and Israelis in the past months has exploded this morning, Saturday Oct. 7, 2023,” it posted. “The operation launched from Gaza and the reaction of the Israeli Army are bringing us back to the worst periods of our recent history.”

It also called for “the international community” to “de-escalate” the situation and for a ceasefire and for negotiation of peace.

In some of the worst periods in less recent history than what the patriarchate referenced, the Catholic Church is accused of turning a blind eye to Nazi atrocities and it murdered and oppressed Jews over many centuries.

“My conscience and moral duty require me to state clearly that what happened on Oct. 7 in southern Israel is in no way permissible and we cannot but condemn it. There is no reason for such an atrocity,” Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote in an Oct. 24 letter to the diocese which now yields an error message.

“The same conscience, however, with a great burden on my heart, leads me to state with equal clarity today that this new cycle of violence has brought to Gaza over 5,000, including many women and children, tens of thousands of wounded, neighborhoods razed to the ground, lack of medicine, lack of water and of basic necessities for over 2 million people,” he added. “These are tragedies that cannot be understood and which we have a duty to denounce and condemn unreservedly.”

He added that “It is only by ending decades of occupation and its tragic consequences, as well as giving a clear and secure national perspective to the Palestinian people that a serious peace process can begin. Unless this problem is solved at its root, there will never be the stability we all hope for.” (He also referred to “the Queen of Palestine.”)

Warren Goldstein, chief rabbi of The Union of Orthodox Synagogues of South Africa, said that the pope’s recent comment that it is “forbidden to respond to terror with terror” compares “Israel’s just war of self-defense to the barbarism of Hamas.” In so doing, the pope “repeats the sins of Pope Pius the XII, from the Nazi era, of surreptitiously supporting the forces of evil who seek to annihilate the Jewish people,” Goldstein said.

“If Israel’s war is not just, then there has never been a just war,” he added. (He noted a Dec. 13 Wall Street Journal article, in which David Rivkin and Peter Berkowitz note the pope’s “primitive pacifism,” and that the “Catholic Church developed just-war theory, but the pontiff doesn’t seem to understand it.”)

“It is a matter of public record that the IDF has done more in this war and previous wars to minimize civilian casualties than any other army in recorded history,” Goldstein said. “International law accepts, unequivocally, that even a just war can, and inevitably will, result in civilian casualties.”

Pope Pius XII, prior to his papacy, was the Vatican ambassador to Nazi Germany and was “at the very least a passive bystander to the Holocaust, if not an active supporter,” Goldstein said.

“Pope Francis, I turn to you and say: ‘God has given you an historic opportunity to atone for the sins of Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church, during the Holocaust,” he added.

“Pope Francis, to repent on behalf of the Catholic Church, you must not stand by as a passive bystander like Pope Pius did during the first Holocaust, while Iran seeks to perpetrate a second one,” he said.

https://www.jns.org/the-pope-again-appears-to-accuse-israel-of-terrorism/