Friday,
Armenia To Seek U.S.-Based Blogger’s Extradition
• Naira Bulghadarian
A screenshot of YouTube video posted by Vartan Ghukasian, .
An Armenian law-enforcement agency has decided to ask authorities in the United
States to extradite a controversial Armenian video blogger charged with
extortion, calls for violence and contempt of court.
The blogger, Vartan Ghukasian, is a former police officer nicknamed Dog who
emigrated to the U.S. about a decade ago. Ghukasian has attracted a large
audience in recent years with his hard-hitting and opinionated comments on
events taking place in Armenia. Videos posted by him on YouTube have been
watched by hundreds of thousands of Armenians living in and outside the country
of about 3 million.
Ghukasian is notorious for routinely using profanities, highly unusual in the
Armenian public discourse, to attack both Armenia’s current leaders and their
political foes. He signaled political ambitions when he set up last year a party
called the Public Voice.
The Investigative Committee claimed recently that Ghukasian demanded $110,000
from Tigran Arzakantsian, a businessman and fringe politician, in return for not
making damaging allegations about him and his wife. Arzakantsian refused to pay
up and complained to law-enforcement authorities instead, according to the
committee.
The blogger allegedly made similar threats to try to extort at least $60,000
from the owner of a night club in Yerevan. He was also charged with making
public calls for violence against various politicians and public figures and
disrespecting the Armenian judiciary.
A group of Ghukasian’s friends and like-minded individuals in Armenia are facing
the same charges. At least one of them is held in detention.
The Armenian police issued this week an international arrest warrant for
Ghukasian approved by a Yerevan court. The Investigative Committee said it will
ask Interpol to place him on its most wanted list and help arrange his
extradition from the U.S.
Ghukasian strongly denied the accusations in a YouTube video posted on Thursday.
He specifically dismissed purported screenshots of text messages exchanged by
Arzakantsian and a blackmailer and publicized by investigators. He said he can
prove that a phone number shown in that correspondence is not his.
The blogger also accused the Armenian authorities of trying to discredit him and
mislead the public.
Red Cross Resumes Medical Evacuations From Karabakh
• Susan Badalian
Nagorno-Karabakh - A convoy of Red Cross vehicles is seen outside Stepanakert,
January 4, 2023.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) resumed the evacuation of
critically ill patients from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia on Friday after a
one-month hiatus caused by the tightening of Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin
corridor.
The ICRC has transported scores of such persons to Armenian hospitals since Baku
effectively blocked Karabakh’s land link with Armenia in December. Only Red
Cross vehicles as well as convoys of Russian peacekeepers have been able to pass
through the road.
The ICRC suspended the medical evacuations in late April due to Azerbaijani
checkpoints that were set up on the road in what Armenia considers a gross
violation of the 2020 ceasefire agreement.
The health authorities in Stepanakert announced on Friday that the ICRC helped
to transport 15 Karabakh patients to Armenian hospitals. They said 12 other
Karabakh Armenians were escorted back to Karabakh after undergoing urgent
medical treatment in Yerevan.
Several dozen other Karabakh residents are still awaiting transfer to Armenia.
Three of them are in an “extremely severe” condition, according to the Karabakh
health ministry.
Dozens of others were transported to Yerevan by the Russian peacekeepers this
month. They included Stepanakert resident Narine Danielian and her 10-year-old
son suffering from multiple illnesses.
Danielian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they reached Armenia earlier this
week in a convoy of three ambulances escorted by Russian servicemen. She said
they were stopped and had their passports checked at two Azerbaijani checkpoints.
Azerbaijan claims that the checkpoints were set up to stop the transfer of
weapons from Armenia to Karabakh.
The Armenian side has strongly denied any arms supplies. Russia and the United
States have also criticized Baku’s move.
U.S. Envoy Again Visits Armenia, Azerbaijan
Armenia - U.S. envoy Louis Bono (left) at a meeting with Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian, Yerevan, March 7, 2023.
A U.S. special envoy for Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations has again visited
Armenia and Azerbaijan for further discussions on a planned peace accord between
the two nations.
The diplomat, Louis Bono, met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Foreign
Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenia’s
Security Council, on Friday.
Pashinian’s office said he presented “the Armenian side’s approaches to
resolving the key outstanding issues.” It did not elaborate.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry reported, for its part, that Mirzoyan and Bono
reviewed the Armenia-Azerbaijan “normalization process” and the remaining
differences between the parties. It cited Mirzoyan as stressing the importance
of non-use of force, “border security” and an “internationally guaranteed
mechanism for dialogue” between Baku and Nagorno-Karabakh’s leadership.
Bono met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Baku on Wednesday.
According to an Azerbaijani readout of the meeting, they discussed the draft
peace deal and the results of recent Armenian-Azerbaijani talks organized by the
United States and the European Union.
“As we’ve said, we believe that an agreement is in reach, and we continue to
press the two parties to work together to reach an agreement on the issues that
remain outstanding,” the U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, told
reporters on Thursday.
Dereck Hogan, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state, revealed earlier this
week that Washington “put forward a number of ideas” designed to help the two
sides overcome those sticking points. He said they relate to the delimitation of
the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, “the distancing of Armenian and Azerbaijani
forces” deployed along the frontier, and “the rights and security of ethnic
Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
During the recent talks, the sides made major progress towards the bilateral
treaty that would commit them to recognizing each other’s territorial integrity.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian confirmed on Monday that Yerevan would thus
recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh. Another senior U.S. official
hailed Pashinian’s statement condemned by the Armenian opposition and Karabakh’s
leadership.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted fresh talks between Pashinian and
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Moscow on Thursday. The two leaders are
scheduled to meet again in Moldova’s capital Chisinau on June 1. They will be
joined by EU chief Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German
Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The Reuters news agency on Friday quoted Azerbaijan’s ambassador to France as
saying that the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty could be signed during the
Chisinau summit. The Foreign Ministry in Yerevan essentially denied this,
however, saying that the signing of the landmark document is “not included on
the agenda” of the summit.
“As we have noted many times, the Armenian side will be ready to sign the
agreement when the key issues are addressed,” the ministry said in written
comments to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “We believe that discussions on them will
continue during and after the meeting scheduled within the framework of the
European Political Community [summit] in Chisinau on June 1.”
Putin Hosts Fresh Talks Between Pashinian, Aliyev
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian meet in Moscow, .
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted late on Thursday fresh talks between the
leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan which focused on the restoration of transport
links between the two South Caucasus nations.
No final agreement to that effect was reported as a result of the trilateral
meeting. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s office said deputy prime
ministers of the three countries will meet in Moscow next week to “continue
work” on opening the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to commercial traffic.
Speaking at the start of the talks, Putin said oustanding differences between
Baku and Yerevan on the issue are “purely technical” and “surmountable.” He said
the Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani vice-premiers should iron out them.
“On the whole, in my opinion, despite all difficulties and problems, which still
abound, the situation is developing towards a settlement,” stated Putin. “One of
these areas is work on transport communications.”
Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev openly argued about the matter
during a Eurasian Economic Union summit held in Moscow earlier in the day.
Pashinian objected to Aliyev’s use of the term “Zangezur corridor” in reference
to planned road and rail links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhichevan exclave
that would pass through Armenia’s Syunik province. He said it runs counter to
the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stoped the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and
amounts to Azerbaijani territorial claims to Armenia.
“The word ‘corridor’ does not constitute a claim to anybody’s territory,”
countered Aliyev.
Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian meet in Moscow, .
At a separate meeting with Pashinian held shortly afterwards, Putin assured the
Armenian leader that Baku unequivocally recognizes Armenian sovereignty over
Syunik and that “any dual or triple interpretation of everything related to the
possible unblocking of transport communication is baseless.”
Pashinian reiterated, for his part, that Armenia is interested in conventional
transport links with Azerbaijan.
“I want to reaffirm that both the border and services of Armenia are ready to
ensure the normal transit of all vehicles and trains through Armenian
territory,” he said.
It was not clear whether the issue of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty was
also on the agenda of the trilateral talks in Moscow. Yerevan and Baku
reportedly made significant progress towards such a deal during a series of
negotiations organized by the United States and the European Union earlier this
month.
Aliyev told Putin during their separate meeting that Pashinian’s pledge to
recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh through the treaty made things
“much easier.”
The Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders are scheduled to meet again in Moldova on
June 1. They will be joined by EU chief Charles Michel, French President
Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
Category: 2023
AGBU Statement on Agreement That Gives Azerbaijan Sovereignty Over Artsakh
May 26, 2023
For immediate release
Yesterday, the Republic of Armenia’s leadership met with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia to continue advancing the process of securing a regional peace agreement. Citing its rationale of making it possible for the citizens of Artsakh to be “guaranteed their security and rights,” Armenia has indicated that it intends to officially agree that Azerbaijan has sovereignty over the people of Artsakh.
AGBU, along with many Armenians across the Armenian World, rejects the validity of this rationalization. While all Armenians want stability, peace and security for Armenia and the region, we are deeply concerned by the prospect of Armenia signing away the fate of the Armenians of Artsakh to an enemy that knows no bounds in reaching its dual goals to eradicate Armenians from Artsakh and ultimately win hegemony in the region, which puts the sovereignty of Armenia, itself, at stake. Especially concerning is Azerbaijan stating that no country, including Armenia, will be permitted to stand in the way of its objectives for the population of Artsakh, signaling that blockades, humanitarian terrorism, and cultural genocide in Artsakh will all be fair game.
“The history of this conflict over the past 30 years shows that Azerbaijan has never been an honest negotiating partner, “states AGBU President Berge Setrakian. “It has failed to honor any international treaty, convention, agreement, or law where the people of Artsakh are concerned. Ilham Aliyev’s relentless anti-Armenian public rhetoric, unprovoked military aggressions against civilian Armenian communities, and deprivation of thousands of Armenians in Artsakh with a ruthless economic blockade are evidence enough. We know that signing this document is tantamount to giving Azerbaijan a blank check to complete its mission to eradicate Artsakh of all Armenians, with impunity.”
For 30 years, the people of Artsakh have tried to exercise their right to self-determination, as defined by the second article of the United Nation’s Charter and the principles of the OSCE Minsk Group. Self-determination is the only acceptable course of action and the world community must step up to finally see this process through. As such, AGBU calls upon all international bodies to support the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination, otherwise, they will be further subjected to ethnic cleansing by an Azerbaijan that consistently and unapologetically fails to fulfill its end of a settlement.
For translations, please see attached documents or visit: https://agbu.org/statement/agbu-statement-agreement-gives-azerbaijan-sovereignty-over-artsakh
The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) is the world’s largest non-profit organization devoted to upholding the Armenian heritage through educational, cultural and humanitarian programs. Each year, AGBU is committed to making a difference in the lives of 500,000 people across Armenia, Artsakh and the Armenian diaspora. Since 1906, AGBU has remained true to one overarching goal: to create a foundation for the prosperity of all Armenians. To learn more visit www.agbu.org.
This email was sent to [email protected]
AGBU, 55 East 59th Street, NY, New York 10022, United States
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Russian President Putin claims that resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be advantageous for everyone.
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has been ongoing for decades, with both Armenia and Azerbaijan claiming the territory as their own. The dispute has resulted in violence and bloodshed, with thousands of people losing their lives over the years. The situation has been particularly tense in recent months, with both sides accusing each other of escalating the conflict..
To bring it all to a close, President Putin’s efforts to mediate between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute are a positive step towards finding a peaceful solution to the conflict. He also stressed the need for all sides to work together to find a solution that would be acceptable to everyone.. The trilateral meeting held in Moscow on , is seen as a significant development, and the international community is hopeful that it will lead to a lasting settlement of the dispute.
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The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has been ongoing for decades, with both Armenia and Azerbaijan claiming the territory as their own. The dispute has resulted in violence and bloodshed, with thousands of people losing their lives over the years. The situation has been particularly tense in recent months, with both sides accusing each other of escalating the conflict.
As per WION News, Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking on the role of peacemaker between Azerbaijan and Armenia in an effort to settle the conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. On Thursday, , President Putin held a trilateral meeting with the leaders of both countries in Moscow to try and resolve their differences.
President Putin’s efforts to bring the two sides to the negotiating table are seen as a positive step towards resolving the conflict. During the meeting, he emphasized the importance of finding a peaceful solution that would benefit all parties involved. He also expressed his hope that the talks would lead to a lasting settlement of the dispute.
As per President Putin, the situation is developing towards a settlement, and the three countries will meet again in a week to continue the negotiations. He also stressed the need for all sides to work together to find a solution that would be acceptable to everyone.
The meeting between President Putin and the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan has been welcomed by the international community, with many hoping that it will lead to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The United Nations has also expressed its support for the talks, calling on all parties to engage in constructive dialogue to find a way forward.
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has been a major of tension in the region for many years, and its resolution would have significant implications for the entire Caucasus region. A peaceful settlement would not only benefit Armenia and Azerbaijan but would also have positive effects on the wider region, including Russia, Turkey, and Iran.
To bring it all to a close, President Putin’s efforts to mediate between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute are a positive step towards finding a peaceful solution to the conflict. The trilateral meeting held in Moscow on , is seen as a significant development, and the international community is hopeful that it will lead to a lasting settlement of the dispute. All parties involved must continue to engage in constructive dialogue to find a solution that is acceptable to everyone and that will benefit the entire region.
https://www.bollyinside.com/news/world-news/russian-president-putin-claims-that-resolving-the-nagorno-karabakh-conflict-will-be-advantageous-for-everyone/
Armenia, Azerbaijan Optimistic on Normalization at Moscow Talks
Arch foes Armenia and Azerbaijan are advancing toward normalizing ties following mutual recognition of territorial integrity, the two countries' leaders said Thursday as they held talks in Moscow.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the three held joint negotiations late on Thursday.
The talks were held following recent deadly border clashes between the two Caucasus neighbors, which have been locked in a decades-long conflict for control of Azerbaijan's predominantly Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
"There is a possibility of coming to a peace agreement, considering that Armenia has formally recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan," Aliyev said ahead of talks.
"Azerbaijan has no territorial claims to Armenia," he added.
Pashinyan said the two countries were "making good progress in normalizing relationships, based on mutual recognition of territorial integrity."
He said Yerevan was ready "to unblock all the transport links in the region that pass through Armenian territory."
Putin said that "despite all the difficulties and problems that still remain, the situation is developing toward the settlement" of the Karabakh conflict.
He said the three countries' deputy prime ministers will meet in a week's time in Moscow "to resolve the remaining issues" regarding the reopening of transport links between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The Caucasus neighbors have been seeking to negotiate a peace agreement with the help of the European Union and United States.
On May 14, they agreed at a meeting hosted in Brussels by the European Council President Charles Michel on mutual recognition of territorial integrity.
But the West's diplomatic engagement in the Caucasus has irked Moscow, the traditional power broker in the region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars — in 2020 and in the 1990s — for control of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Six weeks of hostilities in the fall of 2020 ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire that saw Armenia cede swathes of territory it had controlled for decades.
Armenia, which has relied on Russia for military and economic support since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has accused Moscow of failing to fulfil its peacekeeping role in Karabakh.
Yerevan's concerns have grown after Azerbaijani activists blocked in December Karabakh's only land link to Armenia. In April, Azerbaijan set up a checkpoint manned by border guards along the route.
Last year, Yerevan also accused Azerbaijan of occupying a pocket of its land, in what it has said amounted to military aggression and demanded military help from Russia, which has never materialized.
With Russia bogged down in Ukraine and unwilling to strain ties with Azerbaijan's key ally Turkey, the United States and European Union have sought to repair ties between the Caucasus rivals.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, ethnic Armenian separatists in Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan. The ensuing conflict claimed some 30,000 lives.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/05/26/armenia-azerbaijan-optimistic-on-normalization-at-moscow-talks-a81290
Putin reports progress in talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, saying only technical issues remain
The Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that “strictly technical” issues remain in resolving one of the main disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbors that fought a war over a contested territory.
Putin met in Moscow with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, discussing a dispute over a winding road called the Lachin Corridor. That’s the only authorized connection between Armenia and the contested territory, Nagorno-Karabakh, and it’s a lifeline for supplies to the region’s approximately 120,000 people.
Aliyev and Pashinyan, in a broader regional summit meeting Putin hosted in Moscow, lashed out at each other for their positions regarding the land corridor. But Putin said that on the “principal issues, there is an agreement,” and later said all that remained were “surmountable obstacles,” calling them differences in terminology and “strictly technical.” He said representatives of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan would meet in a week to try to resolve the differences.
According to the Russian state news agency Tass, Pashinyan said last Wednesday that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other’s territorial integrity within Soviet administrative borders. It added that on Monday, Pashinyan said the territory of Azerbaijan that his government is ready to recognize includes Nagorno-Karabakh.
Insight by Verizon: Can agencies create CX that’s ‘simplistic, delightful and surprising’? Leaders from the Agriculture Department, Education Department, Homeland Security Department and IRS think so and share the work underway in their agencies to make it easy to navigate government services.
Pashinyan said Thursday: “I want to confirm that Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity, and on this basis we can say that we are moving quite well towards settlement of our relations.”
For his part, Aliyev said Thursday that the Armenian leader’s statements ensure that “the issue of agreeing on other points of the peace treaty will go much easier, because it was the main factor on which we could not come to an agreement.”
Putin told the leaders a key sign of progress is “an agreement on the fundamental issue of territorial integrity.” He added: “And this is in fact the basis for agreeing on other issues of a secondary nature.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 that killed more than 6,000 people. The war ended in a Russia-brokered armistice under which Armenia relinquished territories surrounding the region. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan, but ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia had controlled the region and surrounding territories since 1994.
The agreement to end the war left the Lachin Corridor as the only authorized connection between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. Russia sent a peacekeeping force of 2,000 troops to maintain order, including ensuring that the Lachin Corridor road remains open. However last December, Azeris claiming to be environmental activists began blocking the road, saying they were protesting illegitimate mining by Armenians. Armenia contends Azerbaijan orchestrated the protests.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly alleged that Armenians have used the Lachin Corridor to bring weapons and ammunition into Nagorno-Karabakh in violation of the armistice terms.
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/world-news/2023/05/putin-reports-progress-in-talks-between-armenia-and-azerbaijan-saying-only-technical-issues-remain/
Also at
https://thepublicsradio.org/article/putin-reports-progress-in-talks-between-armenia-and-azerbaijan-saying-only-technical-issues-remain
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/putin-reports-progress-in-talks-between-armenia-and-azerbaijan-saying-only-technical-issues-remain-1.6413518
https://www.bgdailynews.com/news/international/putin-reports-progress-in-talks-between-armenia-and-azerbaijan-saying-only-technical-issues-remain/article_9e445182-5504-5f60-88c0-e18cc82e77f7.html
https://www.thederrick.com/ap/world/putin-reports-progress-in-talks-between-armenia-and-azerbaijan-saying-only-technical-issues-remain/article_df3c2df8-62b6-55ed-9ba3-46ab53b1a774.html
Before the Moscow talks, Armenia and Azerbaijan are optimistic
Moscow: The leaders of bitter rivals Armenia and Azerbaijan declared they were moving closer to normalising relations after recognising each other's territorial integrity ahead of talks in Moscow on Thursday.
Prior to their meeting in person later on Thursday and the subsequent talks that will be hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had a conversation.
For decades, Baku and Yerevan have been at war over control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an area of Azerbaijan that is largely populated by Armenians.
Given that Armenia has formally recognised Karabakh as being a part of Azerbaijan, there is a chance of reaching a peace agreement, Aliyev told the Eurasian Economic Union, which is led by Russia.
No territorial claims to Armenia are made by Azerbaijan, he continued.
The two nations, according to Pashinyan, are "making good progress in normalising relationships, based on mutual recognition of territorial integrity."
He declared that Yerevan was prepared "to unblock all the regional transport links that pass through Armenian territory."
With the assistance of the European Union and the United States, the Caucasus neighbours have been attempting to negotiate a peace agreement.
At a meeting Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, hosted in Brussels on May 14, they decided to recognise each other's territorial integrity.
Russia, a longtime regional power broker, is displeased with the West's diplomatic efforts in the Caucasus.
For control of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in two wars, one in 2020 and the other in the 1990s.
After six weeks of fighting in the autumn of 2020, a cease-fire mediated by Russia saw Armenia give up large portions of territory it had long controlled.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia has relied on Russia for military and economic support and has accused Moscow of failing to uphold peace in Karabakh.
The United States and the European Union have worked to mend relations between the Caucasus rivals because Russia is mired in the conflict in Ukraine and is unwilling to put undue pressure on Turkiye, a key ally of Azerbaijan.
Israeli spyware found on phones of UN official, journalists, activists in Armenia
This is the first report of spyware being used during a conflict say researchers.
‘Strictly technical’ issues remain in resolving Armenia and Azerbaijan conflict, Putin claims
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that “strictly technical” issues remain in resolving one of the main disputes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, neighbours previously in conflict over contested territory.
President Putin met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Moscow, discussing a dispute over a winding road called the Lachin Corridor.
The route is the only authorised connection between Armenia and the contested territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and is a lifeline for supplies to the region’s approximately 120,000 people.
President Aliyev and Premier Pashinyan, in a broader regional summit meeting Mr Putin hosted in Moscow, lashed out at each other for their positions regarding the land corridor.
But President Putin said that on the “principal issues, there is an agreement,” and later said all that remained were “surmountable obstacles,” calling them differences in terminology and “strictly technical.”
He said representatives of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan would meet in a week to try to resolve the remaining differences.
According to the Russian state news agency Tass, Mr Pashinyan said last Wednesday that Armenia and Azerbaijan recognise each other’s territorial integrity within Soviet administrative borders.
It added that on Monday, Mr Pashinyan said the territory of Azerbaijan that his government is ready to recognise includes Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mr Pashinyan said on Thursday: “I want to confirm that Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity, and on this basis we can say that we are moving quite well towards settlement of our relations.”
Mr Aliyev said on Thursday that the Armenian leader’s statements ensure that “the issue of agreeing on other points of the peace treaty will go much easier, because it was the main factor on which we could not come to an agreement.”
President Putin told the leaders a key sign of progress is “an agreement on the fundamental issue of territorial integrity.”
He added: “And this is in fact the basis for agreeing on other issues of a secondary nature.”
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 that killed more than 6,000 people.
The war ended in a Russia-brokered armistice under which Armenia relinquished territories surrounding the region. Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan, but ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia had controlled the region and surrounding territories since 1994.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly alleged that Armenians have used the Lachin Corridor to bring weapons and ammunition into Nagorno-Karabakh in violation of the armistice terms.
‘A suicide mission’: Anti-war activists explain the challenges of protesting in Azerbaijan
11:52 pm,
Source: Meduza
Story by Bashir Kitachayev for The Beet. Edited by Eilish Hart.
Two and a half years ago, the decades-long conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh escalated into a full-blown war. Today, American and European officials are urging the two sides to seize upon recent diplomatic momentum and broker a lasting peace. Worryingly, however, international calls for Azerbaijan to offer security assurances to Nagorno-Karabakh’s mostly ethnic Armenian population have gone unanswered. Experts from Crisis Group warn that the unresolved Lachin Corridor crisis, which Meduza reported on in March, could not only be a potential flashpoint for “major violence,” but also put the entire peace process at risk. To wit, Baku’s recent decision to set up a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor has renewed fears of ethnic cleansing. In Azerbaijan, meanwhile, the voices of those who oppose further aggression are all but drowned out. For The Beet, freelance journalist Bashir Kitachayev reports on Azerbaijan’s defanged anti-war movement.
The following story is from the The Beet, a weekly email dispatch from Meduza covering Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Sign up here to get the next issue delivered directly to your inbox. A version of this article was first published (in Russian) by the online magazine DOXA.
In late September 2020, Azerbaijan launched attacks across Nagorno-Karabakh, reigniting a full-fledged war with neighboring Armenia. The hostilities lasted for six weeks and left nearly 3,000 Azerbaijani soldiers dead. But despite the large number of casualties, and the fact that Baku had declared a partial mobilization, popular support for the war remained incredibly high in Azerbaijan.
All major political figures praised the war. There were no anti-war rallies (in stark contrast to earlier pro-war protests), and people who openly opposed the fighting faced harassment and public condemnation. Even President Ilham Aliyev’s most uncompromising opponents had to refrain from holding demonstrations.
Among them was peace and human rights activist Giyas Ibrahimov, who became famous in 2016 for spraying protest graffiti on a monument of Heydar Aliyev, the ex-president of Azerbaijan and the father of the current head of state. For this, Ibrahimov was sentenced to 10 years in prison on a false charge of drug possession and spent three years behind bars. Following his release, Ibrahimov took part in anti-government rallies and even conducted solitary pickets.
During the 2020 war, however, he didn’t take to the streets. According to the activist, it was simply impossible, since society reacted negatively to any manifestations of pacifism. Had he gone out in protest, Ibrahimov said, he would have suffered not at the hands of police, but of ordinary people.
Nevertheless, Ibrahimov publicly spoke out against what became known as the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War: together with other activists, he signed an anti-war statement and expressed his opposition on social networks. In response, the Prosecutor General’s Office summoned him for an “educational talk.” “I was told that if I’m not a supporter of nationalism, then it’s better for me to leave, insinuating that people like me have no place in a society united by the idea of war,” Ibrahimov recalls.
Ibrahimov soon became the object of harassment and regularly received insults and threats in comments and private messages online. Though he considered them empty threats, he decided to leave the house as little as possible.
Murad (name changed) also opposed the 2020 war. In his words, he had no desire “to die for the sake of the ruling elites’ golden toilets.” But he didn’t dare take part in anti-war protests in person or online — primarily due to his ethnicity.
Murad, who belongs to Azerbaijan’s Lezgin minority, says that protesting openly would have meant risking not just harassment or a lecture from the security forces, but being arrested and tortured. “Protesting in Azerbaijan would be a suicide mission for me,” Murad maintains. “In my case, the conversation would immediately turn to ethnicity, and then I would be accused of separatism, treason, or terrorism. The authorities are still carrying out reprisals against ethnic activists [belonging to] the country’s indigenous peoples.”
Indeed, ethnic-minority activists have long been under pressure in Azerbaijan. The case of Talysh activist and historian Fakhraddin Abbasov (Aboszoda) is just one high-profile example. In 2019, Russia extradited Abbasov to Azerbaijan, where he was sentenced to 16 years in prison on treason charges. When Abbasov died in prison during the 2020 war, the Azerbaijani authorities declared it a suicide. Shortly before his death, however, Abbasov had released a statement warning that his life was in danger.
Even the main opposition parties in Azerbaijan, despite the consistent repressions they have suffered at the hands of the current government, have supported the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and continue to do so today.
“The majority of the Azerbaijani opposition consists of people who would be regarded as far-right in the West. Their rhetoric is almost the same as that of the authorities,” explains sociologist Sergey Rumyantsev, whose research focuses on the peaceful transformation of conflicts in the Caucasus.
Rumyantsev is convinced that a strong anti-war movement has failed to emerge in Azerbaijan because no one has come up with an alternative to the government’s militant rhetoric. With the peace process now ongoing for decades, many in Azerbaijan have grown convinced that talks don’t yield results. The Azerbaijani authorities, meanwhile, have been able to write off the country’s problems as consequences of the conflict and rally society around the cause of avenging the “humiliation” of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
“Ilham Aliyev very openly shared his ‘secret of success’ in the war at the recent Munich [Security] Conference. Aliyev said that it was necessary to educate the younger generation so that they would be ready to kill and die for the sake of their historical land. This is exactly what the Azerbaijani authorities did,” Rumyantsev explains.
According to the sociologist, the state’s war propaganda machine is all-encompassing and includes the education system. “History textbooks are written in a way that instills in children a belief that Azerbaijanis, as a nation, are much older than Armenians and have historical rights to these lands,” he says. The Azerbaijani media also portrays Armenians in a negative light, usually presenting them as Azerbaijan’s “historical enemy.”
The way Rumyantsev sees it, decades of active propaganda have borne fruit. “Citizens and politicians can argue over different topics, but they agree on one thing: ‘Karabakh is ours, and it’s worth dying for.’ And killing people is not an issue (although the government doesn’t say this openly), because they aren’t killing people, they’re killing ‘enemies,’” the sociologist explains.
“[When] a soldier is taught all his life about Armenian atrocities [against Azerbaijanis], he himself already comes to the conclusion that, for example, it’s not a crime to cut off an old man’s head,” Rumyantsev adds. “Dehumanization is an important component of conflict.”
The absence of anti-war protests in Azerbaijan doesn’t mean that supporters of a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have done nothing at all. In the 2000s, peace projects aimed to destroy the “image of the enemy” in Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as in Nagorno-Karabakh. These projects were most often organized by researchers and independent journalists, with funding from international organizations.
Hamida Giyasbayli, an Azerbaijani journalist and rights activist, has been involved in such projects for more than a decade. In 2012, Giyasbayli began to collaborate with the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation, leading its work in Azerbaijan. The initiative was created in 2008 as a platform where Armenians and Azerbaijanis could speak openly about the most sensitive issues without hiding their true feelings from each other. Giyasbayli helped organize meetings between Armenian and Azerbaijani youths in neutral countries, most often in Georgia.
“The most interesting thing for me was to hold dialogues between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. We talked about the history of the conflict, and about what events influenced the relations between peoples,” Giyasbayli recalls. “I saw how people […] found the strength to say to each other’s face everything they felt, which of the conflict’s problems bothered them, and to discuss what could be done about it.”
According to Giyasbayli, these meetings changed people and helped them to look at the conflict in a new way. A former participant named Arpi agrees. “I remember when we were discussing the Sumgait pogrom,” says Arpi, referring to the 1988 ethnic riots in a city just outside of Baku (according to the Soviet authorities, at least 30 people were killed; other estimates put the death toll in the hundreds). “One of the Azerbaijanis said that the Armenians committed it themselves. I asked her: ‘What is the logic in this? Are you so exposed to propaganda that you don’t even doubt this absurdity?’”
“After some time, we started talking about the Khojaly massacre,” she continues, this time referring to the 1992 mass killing of Azerbaijanis by Armenian troops in the town of Khojaly during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War (according to Baku, more than 600 civilians were killed). “I said that in Armenia, we believe that the Azerbaijanis committed these events themselves. And then I realized the irony of the situation. In Armenia, we were also lied to about the conflict.”
According to Giyasbayli, many projects had to close due to a lack of funding after Azerbaijan passed a law in 2013 that tightened restrictions on foreign donors. (The Imagine Center was able to continue operating, however). Around the same time, Aliyev’s government unleashed a wave of mass repressions against opposition-minded individuals.
During the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, Giyasbayli moved to Georgia to avoid potential persecution and to escape the widespread militaristic euphoria in Azerbaijan. She continues to hold meetings for Azerbaijani and Armenian youth in Tbilisi.
Despite the prevalence of militaristic propaganda in Azerbaijan and the ongoing conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, more and more people appear to be getting tired of the war.
Azerbaijan is investing heavily in reconstruction projects in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as in armaments, all while Azerbaijani living standards are falling drastically. According to official figures, food prices have risen significantly, and the real picture could be much worse. The population, meanwhile, is seemingly beginning to realize that the deaths of thousands of people haven’t made their lives any better.
The level of support for Azerbaijan’s attack on Armenia in September 2022 turned out to be much lower than for the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. Some public figures and representatives of opposition parties who supported the 2020 conflict even spoke out against the attacks, which targeted Armenia’s sovereign territory. (Notably, the Lachin Corridor blockade, which brought about a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh earlier this year, hasn’t drawn similar condemnation.)
The center-left youth movement Democracy 1918 (D18, for short) also condemned the hostilities. D18 chairman Ahmad Mammadli openly accused President Aliyev of military aggression. “Someday, Ilham Aliyev will definitely answer before the international court for the crimes committed not only against the Azerbaijani people but also against the Armenian people. The first task of democratic Azerbaijan will be to punish those who sow enmity between peoples,” Mammadli wrote on social media at the time of the attacks.
The reaction from the authorities was not long in coming. “In the city center, I was attacked by five policemen in civilian clothes. They forced me into a civilian car. They wanted me to delete what I posted on social media. I refused,” recalls the politician.
A court sentenced Mammadli to 30 days in jail on charges of disobeying the police. “In the pre-trial detention center, they called me a ‘traitor to the motherland.’ I spent 29 days in solitary confinement for advocating peace,” Mammadli says.
After he was released, Mammadli learned that support for his movement had actually grown. D18 began to create working groups that cover problems in the regions, and it started developing a peace agenda, which they continue to broadcast on social networks to counter Baku’s aggressive foreign policy. The movement has even created a politics school that holds lectures and discussions on topics such as the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and developing a green economy.
Mammadli remains optimistic about the future of the anti-war agenda and peace initiatives in Azerbaijan, but at the same time notes that society is not yet ready for mass protests. “We need to wait for people’s discontent to reach a peak,” he concludes.
Six months into blockade, Nagorno-Karabakh faces energy crisis as key reservoir dries up
The Sarsang Reservoir in Armenian-administered Nagorno-Karabakh is reaching critically low levels. If it gets much lower, the region will face crisis-level electricity shortages and environmental catastrophe.
Karabakh has been largely dependent on the reservoir for electricity generation since early January, when cables from Armenia were damaged and could not be repaired amid Azerbaijan's blockade.
The severe water shortage – sure to worsen as temperatures rise and precipitation reduces in summer – will likely make it impossible for Karabakh authorities to deliver on a deal to provide Sarsang water to nearby Azerbaijani-controlled areas for agricultural purposes. This raises the risk of "military provocation" from Baku, local officials fear.
Critical levels reached
Nagorno-Karabakh's de facto state minister, Gurgen Nersisyan, reported on May 6 that in the first five months of 2023 almost three times as much water had been released from the Sarsang Reservoir compared to the same period last year. This while water inflow was half as much due to lower precipitation.
"Currently, Sarsang's water resources have reached a critical limit of about 88 million cubic meters (about 15 percent of the total capacity), approaching the dead (unusable) volume of about 70 million cubic meters," he wrote on Facebook.
His post included a striking pair of satellite images showing how much the water level in Sarsang has fallen between January 1 and April 28.
A few weeks later, on May 25, Karabakh's energy distribution company announced that "unprecedented water scarcity" compelled it to further limit electricity production and introduce a new rolling blackout schedule of three 2-hour outages per day.
The Sarsang hydroelectric power plant is one of six remaining in the region and accounts for 70 percent of its generation capacity.
Prior to the Armenian defeat in the Second Karabakh War of 2020, there were an additional 30 hydropower plants under the local authorities' control and their loss resulted in a 59 percent decrease in generation capacity.
After the war, cables from Armenia through the Lachin corridor provided the region with about 70 percent of its electricity needs but this line was damaged in January, a few weeks after Azerbaijan began its blockade.
On January 9, the Nagorno-Karabakh government began implementing rolling blackouts since the region was now entirely dependent on its own generation capacity.
(During the blockade, which began on December 12 when Azerbaijani government-backed activists staged a sit-in on the Lachin corridor, Karabakh Armenians also dealt with periodic disruptions to internet access and natural gas supply. There has been no gas supply to Karabakh since March 22.)
Artak Beglaryan, an advisor to Karabakh's de facto state minister, says that Sarsang and the region's five other hydropower plants are operating at maximum capacity but will likely not meet the population's needs in the coming weeks and months.
"If precipitation decreases again, which will undoubtedly happen, soon in June, we will gradually extend the rolling blackouts. We will confront serious energy issues in summer, which will bring about dire humanitarian conditions. If the volume drops to the dead level, an environmental disaster will also fully manifest itself," Beglaryan told Eurasianet.
Irrigation demands unlikely to be met
Davit Babayan, an advisor to the Karabakh president and founder of the water security committee after the First Karabakh War (1991-1994), says that when the Soviet authorities built the reservoir in 1976, it was meant both to generate electricity and to provide irrigation for surrounding farmland through a management system based in Terter, Azerbaijan.
Between the two wars, the reservoir was used to generate electricity for the local Armenian population in winter. Water was simultaneously released into Azerbaijan-controlled territory, but it was of little use to local farmers because of the season.
That changed after the second war, and in June 2022, Karabakh officials told Eurasianet that they had informally agreed to allow some of the water from Sarsang to flow into Azerbaijan for irrigation purposes in the summertime.
But Babayan says since then Azerbaijan has declined numerous proposals for more detailed discussions on the joint use of the reservoir's water.
"They decided that any deal with Nagorno-Karabakh authorities would mean indirect recognition of the de-facto republic, and they preferred to leave their agricultural issues unresolved over signing agreements with Karabakh," he said.
Aside from a brief experiment with dialogue in March 2023, Baku has been refusing to engage the Karabakh Armenian authorities. The main sticking point in the talks on a comprehensive peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan is Yerevan's insistence on guarantees for the rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians backed by some kind of international mechanism. Azerbaijan has not obliged despite Armenia's now-explicit readiness to recognize its sovereignty over Karabakh.
Artak Beglaryan, the advisor to Karabakh's state minister, believes Azerbaijan's goal is the "complete de-electrification" of the region as part of its campaign of "psychological terror" aimed at pushing the Armenian population out of Karabakh.
"They are also trying to create a military pretext around this matter. If we do not release enough water in summer, because we will not have water there, they will use this for military provocations," Beglaryan added, noting signs pointing to this in Azerbaijani media.
Indeed, there have been at least some calls in Baku to take action over Sarsang. Adalat Verdiyev, a military expert, said that the drying of the reservoir could lead to cracks in the dam, which in turn could cause flooding in nearby Azerbaijani-populated areas once precipitation picks up again. "Six districts of Azerbaijan will wind up underwater. We must prevent this catastrophe," he said, as quoted by Nedelia.az on May 22.
Beglaryan sees two solutions to the electricity issues: the restoration of electricity supplies from Armenia or unusually high precipitation – both of which he considers highly unlikely.
"As an emergency response, we will reduce consumption to minimal levels and extend the power blackouts. We also make attempts to create alternative energy sources, but this is not a quick solution to the issue, and time is of the essence," he added.