Weekly update
27 February
February 26, 2021, the president of Azerbaijan stated: "We carried out an anti-terrorist operation and as a result, more than 60 terrorists were arrested. They are now called prisoners of war, reported news.am. We think this is a distortion of the issue because there can be no prisoners of war 20 days after the end of the war. We have returned all the prisoners of war. We returned them before they returned us to our captives. And these people are not prisoners of war, they are terrorists, they are saboteurs." Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman), Arman Tatoyan, wrote about this on Facebook Saturday. He added as follows:1. The Human Rights Defender of Armenia once again resolutely states that all servicemen and civilians of the Armenian side detained in Azerbaijan are detainees by status.2. Reliable evidence collected by the Human Rights Defender's Office confirms that the number of detainees is higher than confirmed by the Azerbaijani authorities; this also applies to the return of up to 44 detainees per group.
https://news.am/eng/news/631023.html
26 February
The New Patriotism in the military sector means one thing above all else. What happened to us in the 44-day war last year, will never be allowed to happen again. According to civilnet.am we need to pledge to ourselves that principle above all else. Our military needs to be reformed in its entirety. The New Patriotism invests in science and technology. It is not possible to be a successful modern country without creating islands of educational and technological excellence. Despite the lack of resources, we need to collectively bring and revive the great traditions of science and technology that Armenia was known for during the Soviet period. If the resources are hard to come by in Armenia, this is where the diaspora can take on as its share of responsibility by creating multiple TUMOs and AUAs to revive our science and education enabling the modernization of the country.
https://www.civilnet.am/news/2021/01/26/The-New-Armenian-Patriotism/417227
25 February
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed thousands of allies who answered his call to rally in the capital Yerevan in a show of support after the military called for his resignation, said france24.com. Pashinyan told the army to do its job and defend the country, and said that Armenians would not allow a military coup to take place. He said the question of his resignation could only be decided by the people. "The situation is tense, but we must agree that there cannot be clashes," Pashinyan told his supporters through a megaphone, adding that the new political instability that follows months of protests against his rule was "manageable". An estimated 20,000 people had flooded onto a central square, according to an AFP journalist, only a kilometre away from an opposition protest where some 10,000 demonstrators were calling on Pashinyan to step down. He later called on the opposition to stop protesting and invited them to hold talks to discuss the political crisis. The country's top military brass had demanded the prime minister resign earlier in the day, setting off a potential power struggle in the Caucasus nation. Pashinyan denounced the statement as a coup attempt.
24 February
The Artsakh issue is for the most part viewed as another “ancient” dispute between two groups of small brown people. In line with civilnet.am no one cares about the specifics, the rightness of any ones cause or what some local Soviet committee decided in the 1920’s. For all practical purposes as far as the world is concerned we are a blank slate, so what should be the brand of a new Armenia? Internationally, our brand should be freedom. In fact, it is more so our willingness to fight for freedom and not to accept tyrannies of any kind, and for being a small island of freedom in a sea of tyrannies all around us. We need to define ourselves as much with who and what we are against as who and what we are for.
23 February
A protest march demanding the resignation of Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan kicked off in Yerevan on Tuesday evening. According to panorama.am the march, organized by the opposition Homeland Salvation Movement, started from the area close to Aram Manoukian statue in downtown Yerevan at 6pm. Earlier on Tuesday, opposition activists gathered in front of the 3rd government complex to prevent Pashinyan from entering the building. The premier managed to enter the building amid the chants “Traitor!”. Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF, Dashnaktsutyun) Supreme Council of Armenia member Ishkhan Saghatelyan announced during the protest that they were to march to the buildings of the National Security Service and Police of Armenia. A protest march demanding the resignation of Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan kicked off in Yerevan on Tuesday evening.
https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2021/02/23/protest-march-Yerevan/2457249
22 February
Iran emerged as a potential loser from the Russia-brokered trilateral truce accords that ended last autumn’s 44-day Second Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan (see EDM January 25), reported jamestown.org. Therefore, Tehran is seeking ways to reposition itself into the new situation in line with its interests. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s five-country regional tour of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Turkey, between January 25 and 28, clearly carried that mission (Tasnim News Agency, January 30). In particular, a top agenda item during this series of foreign visits was the proposal to reactivate a Soviet-era railway connecting Iran and Armenia via Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave, which is wedged between them and Turkey (Twitter.com/JZarif, January 26).
21 February
Russia is helping Armenia modernize its armed forces after the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh and will also expand Russian military presence in the South Caucasus state, according to Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian. According to azatutyun.am Harutiunian stressed that there is “no need” to open a second Russian base in Armenia. “It’s probably more correct to speak about the possibility of a redeployment of a detachment of the [existing] Russian base, given its expansion, to Armenia’s eastern direction,” he said, adding that Moscow and Yerevan are already working on that. Harutiunian referred to Armenia’s Syunik province bordering districts southwest of Karabakh which were retaken by Azerbaijan during and after the six-week war stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire on November 10. Russia deployed soldiers and border guards to the region to help the Armenian military defend it against possible Azerbaijani attacks.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/31115592.html
20 February
The following was released by the Artsakh Foreign Ministry, reported hetq.am. The Artsakh National-Liberation Struggle is one of the most important pages in the history of the Armenian people. In response to the democratic, peaceful, and legitimate expression of will by the Armenians of Artsakh, Azerbaijan tried to intimidate our people through violence and force it to renounce the exercise of its rights. Azerbaijani authorities organized and carried out Genocide, massacres and mass deportations against the Armenian population in Sumgait, Baku and other Armenian-populated cities of Azerbaijan, as well as in the settlements of Northern Artsakh. Thousands of people were killed and injured and over half a million Armenians became refugees. And the peaceful population of Artsakh also became a target for the large-scale military aggression by Azerbaijan.
https://hetq.am/en/article/127704
Sources: www.news.am, www.civilnet.am, www.france24.com, www.panorama.am, www.jamestown.org, www.azatutyun.am, www.hetq.am