Azerbaijan denied the allegations made at the ICJ and accused Armenia of ‘decades-long ethnic cleansing’.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/14/armenia-accuses-azerbaijan-of-ethnic-hatred-at-un-court
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PM Nikol Pashinyan says the move would allow border demarcation to be carried out without the risk of military clashes.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/29/armenia-seeks-russian-forces-on-azerbaijan-border-amid-tensions
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Both countries report escalation and blame the other side for initiating the deadly border clashes.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/28/armenia-says-three-killed-in-fire-exchange-with-azeri-forces
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Azerbaijan’s serious crimes court says those sentenced will be deported after serving their prison terms.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/23/azerbaijan-jails-13-armenian-military-personnel-for-six-years
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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to China
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2021/may/08/refugees-and-the-armenian-genocide-human-rights-this-fortnight-in-pictures
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Captions by Sarah Johnson, compiled by Eric Hilaire
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan praised President Biden on Saturday for formally recognizing the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces in 1915 as an act of genocide, saying the move “reaffirms the supremacy of human rights,” according to AP.
Why it matters: The unprecedented designation — which has been largely avoided by previous administrations over fears of straining relations with Turkey — and Pashinyan’s response come on Armenian Remembrance Day.
Context: The mass killing occurred when the Ottoman Turks attempted to transport Armenians from eastern Anatolia to the Syrian desert during World War I. Armenians and several other countries estimate that up to 1.5 million died.
What they’re saying: Pashinyan said the recognition “reaffirms the supremacy of human rights and values in international relations. From this point of view, it is an … inspiring example for all who want to build a just and tolerant international society together,” according to AP.
Of note: Armenia officials, including Pashinyan, commemorated the 106th anniversary of Armenian Genocide with a ceremony at the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex on Tsitsernakaberd Hill in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
The big picture: The genocide designation has been strongly opposed by Turkey and is likely to infuriate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has previously warned that such an assertion would harm U.S.-Turkey relations.
Source: https://www.axios.com/armenian-prime-minister-biden-genocide-80bdcde8-2bf9-4f94-9f45-414b50d45ee0.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jacob Knutson
President Joe Biden on Saturday issued the document Armenian Americans have pursued for decades: a declaration that the Ottoman Empire’s slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian civilians was genocide.
It’s a deceptively simple action, carrying no force of law. Yet it’s a bold move for Biden, who has gone beyond what any American president has ever been willing to do. Until now, presidents have declined to formally apply the term “genocide” for fear of sparking a backlash from Turkey, which vigorously denies it. According to the Turkish account, World War I-era violence between Muslim Ottomans and Christian Armenians led to large casualties on both sides. According to most historians, however, the evidence is clear the Turks engaged in a years-long ethnic cleansing campaign that included forced death marches and mass starvation.
Biden’s declaration represents an important step toward fulfilling America’s commitment to human rights across the world. At home, it begins to close the open wound at the center of the Armenian American experience.
Every American of Armenian descent — indeed, every Armenian in the global diaspora — lives with the ghosts of the Armenian Genocide. We learn the harrowing family stories at an early age. We’re shown photographs that we can never forget. The soundtrack to our lives is Der Voghormia, the haunting liturgical hymn “Lord have mercy.”
What binds us together is a pride and joy in our ancient heritage, but also a sense of shared sadness over this brutal piece of unfinished historical business. Whether it’s the Armenian American communities of California or Boston or Chicago or Detroit or Philadelphia or anywhere else, we have been trapped in a mourning period with no end, a funeral cortege with no destination, so long as the truth of what happened in 1915 was denied and the searing experiences of loved ones went unrecognized.
America occupied an important and positive role in this epic tragedy. Its missionaries and diplomats were among those who courageously raised the alarms about the atrocities unfolding thousands of miles away to a little-known Christian people. It served as a refuge for countless genocide survivors.
Those who were lucky enough to make their way to America were grateful until their dying days. This country gave them so much — a chance to recover, to rebuild, to live without fear. It was their beacon in a murderous and impossibly cruel world, a place that gave them more opportunity and hope than they could have ever imagined just a few short years before.
My grandfather was one of those survivors. He arrived here a penniless, orphaned teenager from the other side of the world, the only one in his family to make it out alive. His love for America eventually burned so brightly that he proudly sent his two sons off to war for his adopted country.
Survivors like him were nearly always too traumatized to look backwards, for fear of what they might see. There was no time to focus on the past; they were too immersed in the immigrant struggle. They left that burden for the generations to come.
But an accounting of the genocide, a moral reckoning led by the United States, never arrived. Other nations — Germany, France, Russia among them — made clear the massacres were state-sponsored genocide. But not America.
In the U.S., efforts to secure that declaration were dismissed as the attempted settling of some ancient tribal feud, a dispute that America had no business being a part of. But it had every reason to exert its moral authority by characterizing Turkey’s actions against the Armenian people in clear and unambiguous terms. This was the first modern genocide, so devious and effective in its design that even Adolf Hitler spoke of it admiringly.
Almost every Armenian knows the line by heart.
“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” Hitler said in his infamous Obersalzberg speech in 1939, one week before the German invasion of Poland.
Failing to call genocide by its name enabled and encouraged the growth of a genocide denialist industrial complex, funded by Turkish interests. For decades, Armenian Americans — who number anywhere from 500,000 to 2 million, depending on the source — found themselves fighting against an offensive dictated by Ankara and launched from its K Street beachhead in Washington, D.C. Lobbyists and former members of Congress — some of whom once championed recognition of the Armenian Genocide as elected officials — worked tirelessly to prevent it from happening.
They were armed with an argument that proved persuasive enough to subordinate America’s founding principles. Genocide recognition, it was said, ran counter to our national security interests because Turkey, an important geostrategic ally, needed to be placated.
To the Turkish government, an affirmation of the genocide was a red line, a transgression that threatened to unravel the entire relationship. Even the determined efforts of heavyweight lawmakers like Sen. Robert Dole, an exalted figure among Armenian Americans for his years-long commitment to their cause, weren’t enough to overcome the fear of alienating such an important ally.
In the end, Turkey undermined its own most powerful argument. It proved its unreliability as an ally under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, altering the political calculus that prevented even American presidents who wanted to affirm that that the killings amounted to genocide from directly saying so.
That left Biden with an opening to fulfill his campaign promise to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. At the time, his vow wasn’t taken at face value — Barack Obama had said exactly the same on the trail, only to shy away at the annual April 24 moment of truth, the date recognized as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day around the world.
Now, Biden has put the United States on record as the latest nation to formally recognize and condemn the Armenian Genocide.
There will be blowback from the Turkish government. The relationship will likely further deteriorate.
But Biden has placed the United States on the right side of history and allowed the sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Armenian Genocide survivors to honor their legacy. Equally important, he has permanently foreclosed the option of any future president to call the horrific violence of 1915 anything other than its true name.
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/24/armenia-genocide-declaration-484546
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Charlie Mahtesian
Democrats praised President Biden on Saturday after he recognized the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as a “genocide.”Biden’s declaration was not only the fulfillment of…
Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/550111-democrats-praise-biden-for-recognizing-armenian-genocide
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Tal Axelrod
While blamed for defeat in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Pashinyan has mended ties with Putin and could regain trust.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/16/armenias-pm-faced-mass-protests-why-is-he-still-leading-polls
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Baku showcases ‘park of trophies’ displaying the helmets of Armenian troops who died in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/13/fury-in-armenia-as-azerbaijan-displays-war-trophies
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Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s embattled prime minister, has pledged to resign next month and prompt an election, amid pressure in the wake of the disastrous defeat to Azerbaijan in last year’s war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh.
However, the Armenian leader said he has no intention to relinquish power. Instead he plans to remain as acting prime minister during the campaign before the general election, which he plans to contest. Pashinyan, who has been perceived as pro-Western, had earlier promised to hold the ballot on June 20.
Under the Armenian constitution, parliament must be dissolved before an early election is conducted. This in turn requires the prime minister to resign and MPs must not appoint a replacement within two weeks.
Support for the populist leader, who came to power on the back of mass protests in 2018, tanked in the wake of last year’s armed conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The predominantly Armenian region of neighboring Azerbaijan won de facto independence in the 1990s, with Yerevan’s military and political support.
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However, the balance of power shifted over the following decades, and in 2020, Azerbaijan, backed by close ally Turkey, recaptured many of the territories lost at the end of the previous century. The defeat was humiliating for Pashinyan, who came under pressure from political opponents and military commanders to resign.
The snap election is meant to renew his mandate to govern Armenia, but, of course, could also prove that the Armenian people no longer want him at the helm. Pashinyan’s opponents accused the prime minister of stalling instead of taking responsibility for his failures, with some even suggesting that his promise to hold the election may not be fulfilled at all.
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Source: https://www.rt.com/russia/519425-armenian-prime-minister-pashinyan-resignation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
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The Article Was Written/Published By: RT
Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian has refused to approve an order to fire the country’s armed forces chief, who is accused of staging a coup, returning the draft to PM Nikol Pashinyan. The move was applauded by protesters.
Pashinyan ordered the dismissal of the head of the General Staff, Onik Gasparyan, on Thursday, in response to what he called an attempted coup against him. The order followed a joint statement by Armenian military commanders and two former presidents, Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, who called on the prime minister to swiftly resign.
Pashinyan has been under increasing pressure since November, after he signed an unpopular ceasefire deal with Azerbaijan, which ended the fighting in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh but saw parts of the region passing to Azeri control.
Pashinyan has acknowledged that the Moscow-brokered deal, which saw Russian peacekeepers deployed to the disputed region, saved the ethnic Armenian troops from complete and utter defeat. However, Pashinyan’s government has also been accused of mishandling defense policy and thus causing the military disaster in the first place.
The tension between Pashinyan and the military reached boiling point this week after he claimed that Russian-made Iskander missiles – which Moscow says weren’t used in Nagorno Karabakh – had malfunctioned during the conflict. Gasparyan’s deputy publicly rebuked the prime minister’s claim and was then fired. The General Staff’s response, calling on Pashinyan to resign, then placed Gasparyan himself in the crosshairs.
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Sarkissian on Saturday returned the draft law on sacking the head of the general staff to Pashinyan and outlined his objections to it. The motion by the embattled prime minister “contradicts the constitution at its core,” Sarkissian’s office pointed out. The statement added that the president doesn’t side with any political power and only makes decisions based on Armenia’s national interests.
If Pashinyan doesn’t agree with the president’s objections, the law allows him to forward the order to the president once again. In this case, Sarkissian would have to respond by either signing it or taking the issue to the Constitutional Court. If he does nothing, the order will go into force automatically.
The news that the embattled PM’s order hadn’t been approved was announced in front of several thousand anti-Pashinyan demonstrators who gathered in Yerevan on Saturday. The crowd greeted the president’s decision with a round of applause. The people then marched through the center of the city, with the police making no attempts to stop them.
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Opposition activists have been taking to the streets since Thursday, erecting barricades and setting up an encampment in the capital. They insist that the PM must go and that this demand is non-negotiable. Supporters of Pashinyan have, in turn, staged counter-protests in Yerevan.
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Source: https://www.rt.com/russia/516779-armenia-pashinyan-military-sarkissian/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
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The Article Was Written/Published By: RT
Pashinyan is under pressure over his handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which saw key territory ceded to Azerbaijan.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/26/can-armenias-pm-survive-protests-and-a-coup-attempt
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A power struggle has broken out in Armenia after the military called for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to step down in the latest challenge to his leadership since he signed a ceasefire that paused fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.
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Source: https://www.rt.com/russia/516528-armenia-pashinyan-military-coup/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
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Nikol Pashinyan is facing renewed calls for his resignation over his handling of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/23/pressure-mounts-on-armenia-pm-as-nagorno-karabakh-protests-resume
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Three months after Russia oversaw a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, President Vladimir Putin has welcomed the two countries’ leaders to Moscow to negotiate the next steps in keeping the peace in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The four-hour discussion represented the first time Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had met face to face since the end of the six-week war, which concluded in a clear victory for Baku. Following the meeting, Putin revealed that a joint statement on the development of Karabakh had been signed by all three parties. Although not yet published, the Russian president explained that it includes steps to develop economic ties and infrastructure projects. One provision is said to allow for Armenia to be finally connected to the European rail network via Azerbaijani territory.
At the start of the trilateral talks, Aliyev and Pashinyan didn’t shake hands as they took their places around a table in the Kremlin. Before the discussions began, Putin made a statement noting the importance of determining “future steps” following November’s truce. He also revealed that 48,000 refugees had returned to Nagorno-Karabakh when the fighting was over, with an international humanitarian response center created to help restore heat and electricity, among other initiatives.
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“We are grateful to you for responding to the invitation to jointly discuss the implementation of our trilateral agreement,” Putin said. “Russia values the partnership and good neighborly relations that bind our countries and people, so we followed the outbreak of the armed conflict with grave concern.”
Putin also thanked Baku and Yerevan for their “positive reception” to Moscow’s mediation efforts, “which were aimed at helping to stop the bloodshed.”
“The trilateral agreements are being consistently implemented,” he noted, before expressing the hope that the negotiations would progress “in a businesslike atmosphere” to “ensure lasting peace.”
After the meeting had finished, Putin revealed that the leaders had unanimously agreed that the truce was being adhered to, with all three parties, including the Russian peacekeepers, fulfilling their obligations. However, the discussion wasn’t wholly successful, with the Armenian PM noting that the parties had failed to see eye to eye on the matter of prisoners of war.
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On November 9, Moscow oversaw a ceasefire between Yerevan and Baku that determined Azerbaijan could keep the areas of Nagorno-Karabakh it had regained control of during the conflict. Armenia agreed to withdraw from neighboring regions, and Russian peacekeeping troops were deployed to the contact line. The Russia-brokered agreement saved the Armenians from an almost guaranteed loss, with Pashinyan himself admitting the situation was dire.
The conflict between Yerevan and Baku in Nagorno-Karabakh re-escalated on September 27. The dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia is decades old, with both countries believing they have legitimate claims to the territory. The region is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but is primarily populated by ethnic Armenians. Baku considers the enclave to be illegally occupied by Yerevan.
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Source: https://www.rt.com/russia/512172-meeting-putin-armenia-azerbaijan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
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The Article Was Written/Published By: RT
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/thousands-in-armenia-protest-nagornokarabakh-truce-terms-armenia-azerbaijan-nagornokarabakh-people-capital-b1721063.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Via AP news wire
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/us-wades-in-cautiously-to-armeniaazerbaijan-peace-effort-azerbaijan-armenia-nagornokarabakh-mike-pompeo-administration-b1255494.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Via AP news wire
What’s happening: The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, two countries at war with each other, are scheduled to separately meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington on Friday.
It’s not clear whether the envoys will meet with each other or whether U.S. officials will try to convene a trilateral session. But their same-day visits signal that the U.S. is deepening its efforts to tamp down the resurgent conflict, which has reportedly killed hundreds of combatants and civilians since late September.
The visits also offer the Trump administration a chance to showcase an attempt at global leadership just days before President Donald Trump faces reelection.
According to U.S. government documents seen by POLITICO, Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov will meet first with Pompeo on Friday morning. His Armenian counterpart, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, will meet shortly afterward with the U.S. secretary of State.
The State Department also did not respond to an email seeking comment.
In an interview on Monday, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the United States, Elin Suleymanov, did not rule out the possibility of an encounter between the Armenian and Azerbaijan ministers during their Washington stay.
Ideally, he said, the two countries can resume meaningful negotiations soon. “We want a substantive conversation,” he stressed.
The background: Armenia and Azerbaijan are battling over a region called Nagorno-Karabakh, the status of which has been a flashpoint between the two countries for decades.
The territory is within Azerbaijan, but it is under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia. The recent violence is the worst in the area since a war over the region paused in 1994.
Outside powers, especially Turkey and Russia, also have interests in the region. Turkey has openly backed Azerbaijan in the recent fighting; Russia has a defense pact with Armenia but has also sought warm ties with Azerbaijan.
The United States, along with Russia and France, co-chairs the so-called Minsk Group, a body that has sought to mediate an end to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
As the fighting has progressed over the past few weeks, Pompeo has appealed to Armenia and Azerbaijan to adhere to agreed-upon cease-fires, but such truces have rapidly collapsed.
The Armenian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/mike-pompeo-azerbaijan-armenia-430151
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Nahal Toosi
Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other overnight of breaching the ceasefire in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Details: An Armenia Defense Ministry spokesperson said late Saturday Azerbaijan was “violating the humanitarian ceasefire” by firing artillery shells and rockets. Hours later, the Azeri defence ministry said Armenia had fired “mortars and artillery” at “the vicinity of the Jabrail city, as well as the villages of this region,” per Reuters.
The big picture: Hundreds of soldiers and dozens of civilians have been killed since the recent fighting began in late September.
The backstory: Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous region of around 150,000 people that is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians but lies within the borders of Azerbaijan.
Go deeper: Armenian Americans rally in U.S. as Nagorno-Karabakh truce frays
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with the spokesperson’s comments.
Source: https://www.axios.com/armenia-azerbaijan-nagorno-karabakh-ceasefire-0a36e912-c30d-4ec5-9241-314c5723cdf6.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath
