Weekly update
19 February
A British human rights campaigner asked the U.N.’s culture agency this week to ensure the protection of historic Christian sites in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to eurasiareview.com, Caroline Cox an independent member of the British House of Lords, made the appeal in a February 15 letter to Audrey Azoulay, the director-general of UNESCO. “I write to express my deep concern about the fate of Armenian Christian churches, Khachkars (carved stone crosses), and cultural heritage sites in Nagorno Karabakh, which are now under Azerbaijan’s control,” she wrote “The sites include 161 churches, including the historic monastery at Dadivank, Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi, the ancient city of Tigranakert, Azokh Paleolithic Cave, and the Nor Karmiravan tombs.” Armenia, the world’s oldest Christian nation, has a population of almost three million people, 92% of whom belong to the ancient Armenian Apostolic Church. In her letter, Cox described the creation of the working group as a “serious cause for concern,” given what she said was the “previous systematic erasure of centuries-old Armenian religious sites” in Nakhichevan, an exclave of Azerbaijan located to the west of Armenia. “I was present in Nakhichevan in the early 1990s when Azeri military forces were driving tens of thousands of Armenians from their homes in their ancient homeland, a policy of religio-ethnic cleansing that was revived in the autumn of 2020,” she wrote. “Between 1997-2006, Azerbaijan destroyed tens of thousands of UNESCO-protected Armenian monuments in Nakhichevan. Every visible evidence of their presence was eradicated so there is now no visible testimony to their existence.”
https://www.eurasiareview.com/19022022-appeal-made-for-unesco-to-ensure-protection-of-nagorno-karabakhs-historic-christian-sites/
18 February
The leadership of Azerbaijan intensively continues the slithering toponymic occupation of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and Armenia. In line with news.am, during a videoconference with Azerbaijan’s regional leaders, country’s President Ilham Aliyev said that businessmen should focus on the "liberated territories" and set up businesses there, according to Azerbaijani media. And by "liberated territories" he means Artsakh and Zangezur. Zangezur is one of the regions of Armenia, and the Azerbaijani-Turkish tandem has set its sights on it. After the military aggression of Azerbaijan and Turkey in the fall of 2020, the Aliyev administration devised a sneaky move by creating a region in Azerbaijan called "Eastern Zangazur," shortly called "Zangazur." In other words, they are instilling in both ordinary Azerbaijanis and Western politicians who do not understand much about regional issues the notion that "Zangazur is a native Azerbaijani land." There is no need to explain that in this way, grounds are being prepared for Azerbaijani territorial claims. Aliyev, however, always resorts to this sly move. By using Azerbaijani toponyms, the president of that country voices territorial claims against Armenia on a regular basis.
https://news.am/eng/news/687511.html
17 February
Erdogan has signaled strong support for Kyiv, but he won’t sacrifice a strong, stable working relationship with Russia. According to foreignpolicy.com, in recent weeks, as Russia positioned more than 130,000 troops along the Russian-Ukrainian border and the United States warned of an imminent Russian invasion, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emphasized his support for Ukraine. The Black Sea neighbors have become critical trade and defense partners during Erdogan’s time in office, signing free trade agreements in the billions of dollars and lucrative weapons production deals. Turkey also controls Ukraine’s only waterway to the Mediterranean—the Bosphorus—critical for the country’s connection to the global market. The Turkish president underlined the importance of the partnership and the Ukrainian autonomy that facilitates it in an interview with the Turkish broadcaster NTV on Jan. 26. “I hope that Russia will not make an armed attack or occupy Ukraine. Such a step will not be a wise act for Russia or the region,” he said. This is a sentiment Erdogan has long repeated, particularly since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, which Turkey still does not recognize. This is done ostensibly in the name of the Crimean Tatar community there, which Turkey views as part of a larger Turkic brotherhood. Crimea was a part of the Ottoman Empire until 1783, when Russia invaded the peninsula and subsequently settled ethnic Russians and displaced ethnic Crimeans there.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/17/how-far-will-turkey-go-to-support-ukraine/
16 February
A demonstration was held outside the UN Armenia Office in Yerevan demanding the international community and the UN to take measures and prevent the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh by Azerbaijan. In line with armenpress.am, Gayane Abrahamyan, a former lawmaker and the representative of the For Equal Rights Educational Center, told reporters that the demonstration is organized by several NGOs and public figures. “The Azerbaijani side is falsely claiming that the heritage which is in Artsakh for centuries isn’t Armenian. This is a lie, however the actions that they are carrying out for decades cause concern that one day we wont be able to counter these lies. That’s why we are stressing that we have months. If we don’t fight against these lies now and don’t apply to all possible international organizations, namely UNESCO, we will simply lose the Armenianness of Artsakh, because the Azerbaijani authorities are trying to erase our trace. By doing so, they are trying to rule out the right to self-determination from the Armenian side and generally any aspiration in Artsakh,” Abrahamyan warned. She reminded that the International Court of Justice ruled that Azerbaijan must take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artefacts.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1075721.html
15 February
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Vartan Oskanian has been questioned by law enforcement agencies in connection with the former President Robert Kocharyan’s case of alleged bribery. “Oskanian has a status of witness in this case,” prosecutor Gevorg Baghdasaryan said. According to armenpress.am, former President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan is accused of accepting a 3,000,000 dollar bribe from a businesswoman for not obstructing a deal in early 2008, his final months as president. Then-Secretary of the Security Council Armen Gevorgyan is also facing bribery charges under the same criminal case. They both vehemently deny the accusations. The indictment of Kocharyan and Gevorgyan was presented by the prosecutors at a court hearing on February 15. Kocharyan’s lawyers argued in court that the indictment is unclear and demanded clarifications from the prosecution. The lawyers then boycotted the hearing as a sign of protest.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1075623.html
14 February
Deputy Parliament speaker Ruben Rubinian on Monday discussed with a senior Russian diplomat the upcoming second round of negotiations on normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey, reported azatutyun.am. Rubinian, who represents Armenia in the negotiations, had already spoken with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko ahead of his first meeting with Turkish negotiator Serdar Kilic held in Moscow on January 14. Ankara and Yerevan described that meeting as “positive and constructive.” Russian Foreign Ministry said Rudenko discussed with Rubinian by phone the implementation of the latter’s “understandings” with Kilic reached in Moscow as well as their second meeting that will take place in Vienna on February 24. Ankara has for decades linked the establishment of diplomatic relations with Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border to a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has repeatedly made clear that his government will coordinate the Turkish-Armenian normalization talks with Baku.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31703395.html
13 February
Member of the European Parliament Peter van Dalen has condemned Azerbaijan’s plans to erase Armenian traces from churches and called on the Parliament to condemn this “cultural genocide.” According tp armradio.am “Aliyev’s crimes are limitless! Azerbaijan announces plans to erase Armenian traces from churches. The European Parliament must condemn this cultural genocide,” the MP said in a Twitter post. Azerbaijan’s government has announced plans to erase Armenian inscriptions from religious sites in the occupied territories of Artsakh. It justifies the move by arguing that the churches in fact were originally the heritage of Caucasian Albania, an ancient kingdom once located in what is now Azerbaijan. The theory has long been embraced by the current government in Baku.
https://en.armradio.am/2022/02/14/mep-peter-van-dalen-calls-to-condemn-cultural-genocide-against-armenian-heritage/
12 February
Armenian opposition With Honor MP Taguhi Tovmasyan issued a statement today calling on the international community to address Azerbaijan's criminal mistreatment of Armenian POWs. In line with hetq.am factual information was obtained within the framework of the criminal case under investigation in the department of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia on the death of the Armenian prisoner of war Artur Martirosyan, in such conditions as torture of the soldiers, captured by Azerbaijan on November 16, 2021, inhuman and degrading treatment against them, intentionally causing serious suffering, leaving the wounded soldier helpless, not providing necessary medical help. “More than a year has passed since the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh on September 27, 2020, that took forty four days, and terrible cases of war crimes by Azerbaijan against Armenians are still detected”, the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on the Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, Taguhi Tovmasyan said in her address to the international bodies. Taguhi Tovmasyan calls the relevant international institutions to take immediate actions to prevent these unacceptable and criminal actions by Azerbaijan.
https://hetq.am/en/article/141071
Sources: eurasiareview.com, news.am, foreignpolicy.com, armenpress.am, azatutyun.am, armradio.am, hetq.am