Weekly update
4 March
On December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan imposed a blockade on the Armenians of Artsakh. The 120,000 Armenian residents are prevented from receiving food, medicine, fuel and other vital goods which would normally pass through the Lachin Corridor, the only land route that connects Armenians with the outside world. According to telegram.com the situation worsens every day the blockade continues. The government of Azerbaijan, a very repressive and despotic regime, has long promoted official hatred toward Armenians and has repeated threats to conquer not only Artsakh, but also Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, and other regions of Armenia by force, which it claims is “Western Azerbaijan.” Azerbaijani armed forces attacked the peaceful Armenian residents of Artsakh on Sept. 27, 2020. They were assisted by corrupt Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s military with armed drones, heavy artillery, rocket systems, and Special Forces. About 5000 Armenian fighters and civilians were killed during the 44-Day War with 30,000 Armenian residents of Artsakh permanently settling in Armenia to escape the conflict. Armenian churches, schools, hospitals, and civilian homes were targeted. Numerous verified cases were reported of Azerbaijani soldiers mutilating dead bodies, beheading and executing both combatants and civilians, and using banned weapons, such as cluster bombs and white phosphorus gas.
https://www.telegram.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2023/03/04/minister-draws-attention-to-plight-of-armenians-of-nagorno-karabak/69959385007/
3 March
The UCLA Promise Armenian Institute and the Kerr Family have come together to create an endowed lectureship with the aim of amplifying the stories of heroes and heroines who dedicated themselves to providing humanitarian support for victims and survivors of violence and mass atrocities in times of crisis. In line with asbarez.com the lectureship will be named in honor of the Kerr Family, whose progenitors include Professor Stanley and Elsa Reckman Kerr, who not only worked for many years with the Near East Relief organization, rescuing and caring for survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915–23, but also documented their experiences. Historian and UCLA Professor Emeritus Richard Hovannisian, who knew the Kerrs and wrote the introduction to Stanley Kerr’s 1973 memoir, “The Lions of Marash,” will deliver an introduction and commentary prior to the talk. The inaugural Kerr Family lecture will take place in person on Wednesday, April 12 at 7 p.m. PST at the UCLA Mong Learning Center (Engineering VI Building). Pre-registration is required for the hybrid event, which will offer remote online participation. To register for in-person attendance or participation via the Zoom webinar platform visit the event .
https://asbarez.com/ucla-promise-armenian-institute-announces-kerr-family-lectureship/
2 March
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan's working visit to the Federal Republic of Germany continues. According to armenpress.am the Prime Minister was hosted in the Bundestag and had a meeting with the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee headed by Chairman Michael Roth. The latter welcomed the Prime Minister and noted that the visit is a good opportunity to discuss both the Armenian-German inter-parliamentary cooperation and the processes taking place in the South Caucasus region, Armenpress was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Pashinyan made a speech, in which he specifically stated: “Lachin Corridor should be outside the control of Azerbaijan and should be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. There is a point that Armenia should provide a connection between the western regions of Azerbaijan and the Autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan, but there is no point that those routes should be outside of Armenia's control. That route should operate in the context of the opening of roads and railways in our region. For more than six months now, we have a draft government decision on opening three checkpoints on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, but every time we try to adopt this decision, the Azerbaijani side makes a lot of noise, saying why they want to open a checkpoint near our borders without adjusting with us. The problem is how one can unilaterally incorporate something into the trilateral declaration?”
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1105565.html
1 March
Armenia has “principled positions” in the peace treaty negotiations with Azerbaijan and Yerevan’s “demand” both within and outside of these talks is for Azerbaijan to pull back its troops from the sovereign territory of Armenia, a senior MP has said. In line with armenpress.am “Armenia has its principled positions. By and large, these principled positions fit into the protection of Armenia’s sovereignty and independence, and in context of non-interference by any party in Armenia’s domestic affairs,” MP Sargis Khandanyan, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs said at a press briefing. He refused to disclose the terms on which Armenia and Azerbaijan disagree. “Nevertheless, Armenia remains committed to continuing the negotiations. And we do hope that the moment will soon come and we will have the opportunity to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan,” the legislator said. Asked whether or not there is a precondition that Azerbaijan must pull back its troops from sovereign territory of Armenia, Khandanyan said: “Not only is that precondition within the framework of the peace talks, but in general it is Armenia’s demand that Azerbaijan pulls back its troops from occupied parts of Armenia.”
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1105310.html
28 February
Congressman Adam Schiff on Monday released a statement to mark the 35th anniversary of the Sumgait Pogrom. According to asbarez.com the statement will be included in the Congressional Record for February 27, 2023. Here is an extract from the text of the statement. “I rise today to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the pogrom against the Armenian residents of the town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan. Beginning on February 27, 1988 and over the course of three days, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians. The violence left dozens of Armenian civilians dead and hundreds injured, women and girls were raped, and some victims were burned alive after being tortured and beaten. Thousands were forced to flee their homes, leaving behind their belongings. Armenian homes and businesses were left to be looted and destroyed. The pogroms came about as the result of years of hateful, racist anti-Armenian propaganda woven into the very fabric of Azerbaijani society by Azerbaijani leaders, who made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities in Sumgait and denying the government’s role in instigating the killings. This unprovoked violence against Armenians was a precursor to subsequent attacks on ethnic Armenians, including the pogroms in Kirovabad, Baku, and the Maragha Massacre.”
https://asbarez.com/schiff-marks-35th-anniversary-of-the-sumgait-pogrom/
27 February
After just over three months on the job, the departure of Ruben Vardanyan from the political scene in Nagorno-Karabakh is as unexplained as was his arrival on it. According to eurasianet.org on February 23, Karabakh’s de facto leader, Arayik Harutyunyan, announced that he was relieving Vardanyan of his duties as state minister. The firing brought an end to the tumultuous rule of the Russian-Armenian billionaire who, during his brief time in office, appeared to be the most powerful figure in the territory. But he had no shortage of opponents, and there have been similarly many explanations for his ouster. Whether his removal was the result of pressure from Baku, Yerevan, Moscow, from inside Stepanakert itself, or some combination of those, remains an unanswered question. One thing, though, is certain: Vardanyan’s departure removes a significant irritant in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, and many expect negotiations between the sides to gain pace now that he is out of the picture.
https://eurasianet.org/vardanyans-ouster-raises-as-many-questions-as-his-arrival
26 February
A senior European Union diplomat confirmed over the weekend that the EU is trying to organize further high-level negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. According to azatutyun.am the U.S. State Department spokesman, Ned Price, said last Wednesday that the EU’s top official, Charles Michel, is due to host such talks “in the coming days” in a bid to build on “significant progress” made by the conflicting parties in recent months. “There are no specific dates,” Toivo Klaar, the EU’s special envoy to the South Caucasus, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Saturday. “But we are working on that and this is the reason why I’m here in Yerevan.”Klaar confirmed that the EU hopes Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will meet again in Brussels soon. “That is obviously the aspiration,” he said, citing the need to reinvigorate the “Brussels process.” Michel held a series of trilateral meetings with Aliyev and Pashinian last year. Klaar met with Pashinian on Friday. An Armenian government statement on the meeting, said the two men discussed, among other things, “the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” It said nothing about the Armenian-Azerbaijani talks planned by the EU.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/32290241.html
25 February
Following their visit to Armenia on 17-19th of February to assess the situation on the border with Azerbaijan and at the entrance of the Lachin Corridor, the co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Armenia Kimmo Kiljunen (Finland, SOC) and Boriana Åberg (Sweden, EPP/CD) issued the following statement on February 24. According to hetq.am the situation in the Lachin corridor requires immediate action. As of today, inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh cannot travel freely out of the region and, as we were informed, 954 are still stranded on either side of the corridor. Only International Committee of the Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers’ vehicles are allowed to travel along this corridor, which is clearly insufficient to fulfill the needs of the population. Moreover, it is vitally important that goods can get through in time for the sowing season. The free circulation of all vehicles must be restored urgently in accordance with the Trilateral Statement of 10 November 2020. Furthermore, the repeated disruption of gas and electricity supply to the territory has resulted in serious violations of the rights of the inhabitants: many people have already lost their jobs and children are deprived of education since schools had to close.
https://hetq.am/en/article/153577