Links - The News And Times - links-newsandtimes.comArmenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan will pay a working visit to Brussels, the capital of Belgium.
On September 26, the Security Council Secretary is scheduled to meet with advisers to French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, EU Council President Charles Michel and Assistant to Azerbaijani President Hikmet Hajiyev to prepare the leaders’ meeting scheduled for October 5 in Granada.
Local residents cook food in a street in Stepanakert in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 22. As Baku’s forces tighten their grip on the breakaway Azerbaijani region, concern has been mounting over the plight of ethnic Armenian civilians trapped there.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has told his Caucasus nation on the heels of a bruising defeat for allies in a breakaway region of Azerbaijan that while Baku and Russian peacekeepers bear responsibility for protecting ethnic Armenians there, if necessary his government “will welcome our brothers and sisters of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia with all care.”
In a televised address to his nation of around 3 million, Pashinian also seemingly delivered a barb to Russia and Moscow-led efforts at regional security.
“The attacks carried out by Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia in recent years lead to an obvious conclusion that the external security systems in which we are involved are not effective from the point of view of the state interests and security of the Republic of Armenia,” Pashinian said.
Pashinian and many Armenians blame Russia — which traditionally has served as Armenia’s protector in the region — for failing to use its peacekeeping force to protect ethnic Armenians in Karabakh.
Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which Russia has tried to position as a counterweight to NATO, although as recently as this month its armed forces were conducting exercises with U.S. forces.
Pashinian has been on rocky political footing since overwhelming Azerbaijani forces retook much of the territory in and around Nagorno-Karabakh held for decades by ethnic Armenians in a six-week war in late 2020 that led to a Russian-brokered cease-fire.
Then this week the breakaway leadership in Nagorno-Karabakh was thrashed by a lightning Azerbaijani offensive that led Baku to declare victory in returning its sovereignty to the territory.
Around the time Pashinian was addressing the nation on September 24, an adviser to the defeated leadership in Nagorno-Karabakh said virtually all of the territory’s ethnic Armenians will leave for Armenia in a bitter exodus from “our historic lands.”
Davit Babayan, an adviser for foreign policy to the separatist government’s de facto leader Samvel Shahramanian, told Reuters on September 24 that “Our people do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan. Ninety-nine point nine percent prefer to leave our historic lands.”
He said nothing of a time frame and there was otherwise no official position on a possible mass exodus.
Calls have increased in urgency for humanitarian help from the United Nations and the international community since the ethnic Armenian separatists agreed to a Russian-brokered cease-fire after a 24-hour blitz by Azerbaijani military forces on September 19-20.
Baku has repeatedly vowed to ensure the rights of what ethnic Armenians say is around 120,000 locals but the Azerbaijani side says is around half that figure.
“The fate of our poor people will go down in history as a disgrace and a shame for the Armenian people and for the whole civilized world,” Babayan said. “Those responsible for our fate will one day have to answer before God for their sins.”
Azerbaijan again signaled victory in Nagorno-Karabakh while Armenia urged international help to ensure the safety of the local ethnic Armenian population in competing speeches before the United Nations General Assembly, as evacuation and disarmament efforts continue.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile used his UN appearance to say the two post-Soviet foes have “put things in order” and now it’s time to build “mutual trust.”
The trio of September 23 speeches came as the Yerevan-backed separatists said they were implementing the terms of the days-old cease-fire but concerns continued over the safety of tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians in the territory and with evacuations of the wounded under way.
Azerbaijan and Armenia’s foreign ministers struck opposing tones in their speeches to the UN forum.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov hailed the success of his country’s September 19-20 military campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, as achieving the “goals of anti-terrorist measures.”
“Armenia and its subordinate illegal regime were forced to agree to disarmament, liquidation of all so-called structures and withdrawal of forces from Azerbaijan,” Bayramov said.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly several hours later, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan lamented Yerevan’s repeated calls for greater UN activity to break a nine-month-long de facto Azerbaijani blockade of the region before the latest offensive.
Armenia’s government has distanced itself from the latest cease-fire mediated by Russia’s peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 20, with daily protests targeting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his government.
Mirzoyan accused much larger neighbor Azerbaijan of pursuing a “path of war” and disregarding accepted international principles.
He said the message from Azerbaijan has been that “you can talk about peace, but we can go on the path of war, and you will not be able to change anything.”
Mirzoyan said the latest casualty toll of this week’s Azerbaijani actions were “more than 200 confirmed dead and 400 wounded, including civilians, women, and children.” He said the fates of hundreds more remained “uncertain.”
He also repeated Yerevan’s “imperative” call for a UN mission in Nagorno-Karabakh “to monitor and assess the human rights, humanitarian and security situation on the ground, “with “unhindered access.”
Armenia’s Health Ministry announced on September 24 that ambulances were transporting 23 seriously injured individuals from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenian territory.
In his speech to the General Assembly on September 23, Lavrov said “the time has come for confidence-building measures between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
He said Russia’s peacekeepers would assist, and he accused Western governments of inserting themselves unnecessarily in the Caucasus.
Lavrov said that “Yerevan and Baku actually put the situation in order.”
Nagorno-Karabakh‘s ethnic Armenian separatist leaders said on September 23 said they were implementing the cease-fire, including evacuations of injured civilians to Armenia with the help of Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The separatists said that, as part of the September 20 agreement, aid was to be delivered from Armenia to Stepanakert — the de facto capital of the breakaway region under ethnic Armenian control — through the Lachin Corridor, for decades the main link between Karabakh and Armenia.
Also as part of the agreement, separatists said, talks would take place on “the political future” of the region, which is suffering from shortages of food, fuel, and electricity.
Russian peacekeeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh reported that Karabakh separatists had already handed over more than 800 firearms, grenades, mortars, anti-tank guided missiles, and anti-tank missile systems, and the disarmament process would continue over the weekend.
U.S. Democratic Senator Gary Peters, who is leading a congressional delegation to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, called for international observers needed to monitor the situation and said people in Karabakh were “very fearful.”
“I am certainly very concerned about what’s happening in Nagorno-Karabakh right now. I think there needs to be some visibility,” Peters told reporters.
Azerbaijan has vowed to protect the rights of civilians there.
The offensive was halted on September 20 after Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leadership accepted a proposal by the Russian peacekeeping mission, although sporadic fighting has been reported.
Baku has said it envisages an amnesty for Karabakh Armenian fighters who give up their arms and seeks to reintegrate the territory’s ethnic Armenian population. Some separatist fighters have vowed to continue to resist Azerbaijani control.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Pashinian in a phone call on September 23 that Washington continues to support Armenia’s “sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity” and that it has “deep concern for the ethnic Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
During a special meeting of the UN Security Council after this week’s cease-fire, council members including the United States and Russia called for peace, while Armenian and Azerbaijani officials traded barbs.
During a short but bloody war in 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured much of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as seven surrounding districts that had been controlled since the 1990s by ethnic Armenians with Yerevan’s support.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is leaving for Nakhichevan at the invitation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
According to the Turkish Haberturk, meetings of the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan and the delegations of the two countries will take place in Nakhichevan to discuss cooperation between the two countries, as well as regional developments.
The Turkish press links Erdogan’s visit with the so-called “Zangezur corridor”.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians are likely to flee Nagorno-Karabakh, and Armenia says it is prepared to take them in after Azerbaijan’s military victory last week in a conflict dating to the fall of the Soviet Union.
About 120,000 civilians in the region in the South Caucasus will leave for Armenia because they do not want to live in part of Azerbaijan and fear “the danger of ethnic cleansing”, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Sunday.
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“The likelihood is increasing that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will see expulsion from their homeland as the only way out,” he said.
Armenia “will lovingly welcome our brothers and sisters from Nagorno-Karabakh”, Pashinyan added, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
Armenia said more than 200 people were killed and 400 wounded in Azerbaijan’s military operation last week. The fate of the ethnic Armenian population, which make up the majority of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population, has raised concerns in Moscow, Washington and Brussels.
Separatist fighters from Nagorno-Karabakh – a territory internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but previously governed by the breakaway Republic of Artsakh – were forced to declare a ceasefire on Wednesday after a decisive 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared victory over the enclave on Thursday, saying it was fully under Baku’s control and the idea of an independent Nagorno-Karabakh was finally confined to history.
He promised to guarantee the rights and security of Armenians living in the region, but years of hate speech and violence between the rivals have left deep scars. Azerbaijan, which is mainly Muslim, has said the Armenians, who are Christian, can leave if they want.
Vehicles seized from Nagorno-Karabakh forces are displayed at a position held by Azerbaijan’s military [Emmanuel Dunand/AFP]
Nagorno-Karabakh, known as Artsakh by Armenians, lies in an area that, over the centuries, has come under the sway of Persians, Turks, Russians, Ottomans and the Soviets. It was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.
Azerbaijan has said it will guarantee rights and integrate the region, but the Armenians have said they fear repression.
“Our people do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan – 99.9 percent prefer to leave our historic lands,” said David Babayan, an adviser to the Karabakh leadership. “The fate of our poor people will go down in history as a disgrace and a shame for the Armenian people.”
Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijan’s president, told Al Jazeera that civilians in the region have been asked for a “direct dialogue” about their future, “including political integration [and] socioeconomic issues”.
Sheila Paylan, an international human rights lawyer, said she does not believe ethnic Armenians will be treated fairly under Azerbaijani rule.
“There is a longstanding policy of hatred towards the Armenians that goes back decades. That just doesn’t stop overnight. There’s no reasonable basis to trust there will be any safety or security or rights protected for the Armenians of Karabakh. … They are very much in danger right now,” Paylan told Al Jazeera.
Armenia has called for the immediate deployment of a UN mission to monitor human rights and security in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian authorities said about 150 tonnes of humanitarian aid from Russia and another 65 tonnes of flour shipped by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had arrived in the region.
“Given the scale of humanitarian needs, we are increasing our presence there with specialised personnel in health, forensics, protection, and weapons contamination,” the ICRC said in a statement.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
Furious relatives of ethnic Armenians trapped in Nagorno-Karabakh gathered at the Azerbaijan border to await a medical evacuation convoy on Sunday, as their country signalled a rift with traditional ally Russia.
The Armenian health ministry said 23 ambulances carrying a first batch of “seriously and very seriously wounded citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh” were on their way to the border, accompanied by medics and Red Cross workers.
As the human drama unfolded, the sudden Azerbaijani victory in the three-decade old conflict also triggered a geopolitical shift, with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan taking a swipe at long-standing ally Russia.
In nationally televised comments, the Armenian leader — himself a target of protests over Karabakh’s defeat — said the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and Moscow-Yerevan military-political cooperation were “insufficient” security guarantees.
Like a rival to NATO, the CSTO group pledges to protect other members that come under attack. But, bogged down in its own war in Ukraine, Russia refused to come to Armenia’s assistance in the latest Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, arguing that Yerevan itself recognised the disputed region as part of Azerbaijan.
Now, Russian peacekeepers are helping Azerbaijan disarm the Karabakh rebels.
Pashinyan added that Armenia should ratify the treaty which established the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war.
Meanwhile, tension was running high at Armenia’s Kornidzor border crossing, five kilometres from the Hakari bridge on the convoy’s route, where dozens of angry relatives had gathered to await news and one man was so frustrated he pulled out a knife.
Wild rumours spread through the agitated crowd and concern for missing relatives was mixed with fury over the lightning Azerbaijani offensive that this week seems to have defeated Karabakh’s separatist rebellion after decades of fighting.
“My son was in the army in Artsakh. He’s alive, but I’m worried for him,” said 43-year-old Alik Blbuyan, using the name Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population gave their breakaway statelet.
“I came here to get news but I’m also hoping armed groups will cross the border. If they do, I’ll go with them to rescue my son.”
Vardan Kirakosyan comes from Machkalshen village in Nagorno-Karabakh, but was working in Russia when Azerbaijani forces imposed a blockade on the enclave nine months ago. Now the 22-year-old is on the border desperate for news about his family.
Emmanuel Dunand
If ethnic Armenian civilians are killed by Azerbaijani forces, he threatened, they he would take revenge by murdering any “Turk” he encounters outside the country. “They’ll call me a terrorist, but I don’t give a damn,” he declared.
On the other side of the border in the Azerbaijani town of Beylagan, just outside the breakaway region, local civilians had no sympathy for their Armenian neighbours and were celebrating their government’s victory over the rebels.
State television played patriotic music paying tribute to the nation and its army, and the roadside was lined with flags and portraits of dozens of local “martyrs”, fallen in the fighting during the previous 30 years.
Famil Zalov’s 18-year-old brother was among those killed, and he’s in no mood to forgive.
“I support the operation. Our beautiful land got liberated. I’m proud my brother was avenged,” the farmer, now in his early fifties, told AFP.
Asked whether he could imagine living alongside ethnic Armenians in peace now, he said he could not: “The president has shown them the way. The corridor is open. They can use it and go away.”
While some argue that Armenians have no future in Azerbaijan, others like Minaya Valiyeva, a smallholder in her seventies, go further and argue they have no past either.
“If you take a shovel and dig in the mountains you will find belongings; the wool jacket of our grandfather. You will find our grandmother’s combs. You’ll not find anything that belongings to Armenians or Russians,” she said.
ALAIN JOCARD
The bad blood between the communities will only fuel international concern that Azerbaijan’s sudden victory could trigger another round of persecution in a conflict that has seen abuses on both sides.
In a call on Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan that Washington had “deep concern” for ethnic Armenians there, a spokesman said.
But, speaking for Baku, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov told the General Assembly: “Azerbaijan is determined to reintegrate ethnic Armenian residents of the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as equal citizens.”
Baku will also secure further diplomatic backing from key ally Turkey, whose leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave on Monday.
As the first Red Cross aid convoy crossed into the disputed enclave since Azerbaijan launched last week’s offensive, government forces there said rebel “demilitarisation” had begun.
Ethnic Armenian separatist fighters began surrendering weapons under a Russian-mediated agreement on Friday, said Moscow.
On Saturday, the Azerbaijan forces showed off part of the captured rebel arsenal: sniper rifles, Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and four tanks painted with cross insignia.
In a sign the violence may not be over, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry on Saturday accused Karabakh Armenians of setting fire to their homes in one village to keep them from Baku’s advancing troops.
Some villagers also set fire to their homes before fleeing after Azerbaijan first began to re-establish control over parts of Nagorno-Karabakh in a six-week war in 2020.
Twenty-three citizens who were seriously wounded because of the recent military operations by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh were transported from the Republican Medical Center of Stepanakert to Armenia’s specialized medical institutions On September 24, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia reported.
The transportation of the wounded was carried out through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, in ambulances provided by the RA Ministry of Health, with the support of the relevant medical personnel.
The wounded people will soon be transported to Armenia’s medical facilities.
on Sunday took a veiled swipe at long-standing ally Russia, calling his country’s current foreign security systems “ineffective”.
Pashinyan’s nationally televised comments signalled a major foreign policy shift away from Moscow, where criticism of Armenia
has also grown.
“The systems of external security in which Armenia is involved are ineffective when it comes to the protection of our security and Armenia’s national interests,” Pashinyan
said days after Azerbaijan’s resounding victory in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Russian-dominated group comprised of six post-Soviet states.
Like Nato
, the group pledges to protect other members that come under attack.
But bogged down in its own war in Ukraine, Russia refused to come to Armenia’s assistance in the latest Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, arguing that Yerevan itself recognised the disputed region as part of Azerbaijan.
“It has become evident to all of us that the CSTO instruments and the instruments of the Armenian-Russian military-political cooperation are insufficient for protecting external security of Armenia,” he said.
“We must transform and supplement the instruments of Armenia’s external and domestic security, in cooperation with all the partners who are ready for mutually beneficial steps,” Pashinyan said.
He added that Armenia should ratify the so-called Rome Statute, a treaty which established the International Criminal Court, of which Russia is not a part.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin
over his Ukraine policies.
“The decision is not directed against CSTO and the Russian Federation,” Pashinyan said of his desire to join the ICC.
“It comes from the interests of the country’s external security, and taking such a decision is our sovereign right.”
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If no real living conditions are created for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh to live in their homes and if no effective mechanisms of their protection from ethnic cleansing are created, there will be an extremely high possibility that the they will see removal from their homeland as the only way to save their lives and identity, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said in a live address.
He said that a series of events that took place in recent years have forced all of us to assess, re-evaluate the situation, and draw conclusions.
“What happened in Armenia?” What is happening and what should happen? These are the questions whose answers are strategic for the future. The latest attacks undertaken by Azerbaijan against the Republic of Armenia lead to an obvious conclusion that the external security systems in which we are involved are not effective from the point of view of the state interests and security of the Republic of Armenia. This was became clear both during the 44-day war, during the events of May and November 2021, and in September 2022, and the list can be continued.
The capture of Khtsaberd and Old Tagher villages of Nagorno-Karabakh in December 2020 and the capture of more than 60 Armenian servicemen, the events of Parukh, the numerous expressions of intimidation of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, the illegal blocking of the Lachin corridor, the Azerbaijani attack on Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19 raise serious issues also about the goals and motives of the activities of the Russian peacekeeping troops in Nagorno-Karabakh. Contrary to the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh are still facing the threat of ethnic cleansing,” he said.
According to Nikol Pashinyan, in recent days humanitarian goods delivered to Nagorno-Karabakh, but this does not change the situation. “If no real living conditions are created for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh to live in their homes and if no effective mechanisms of their protection from ethnic cleansing are created, there will be an extremely high possibility that the they will see removal from their homeland as the only way to save their lives and identity,” he added.
“The responsibility for such a development of events will fall entirely on Azerbaijan, which has adopted the policy of ethnic cleansing, and the Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh. Of course, the RA government is working with international partners on the formation of international mechanisms to ensure the rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, but if these efforts do not yield concrete results, the government will welcome our brothers and sisters of Nagorno-Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia with all care. With this, however, the above-mentioned issues will not only not be addressed, but will also be exacerbated.
The Republic of Armenia has never abandoned its obligations to its allies and has never betrayed its allies, but the analysis of events shows that the security systems and allies on which we have relied for many years have had a goal of demonstrating our vulnerabilities and justifying impossibility that the Armenian people can have an independent state,” he added.
