Weekly update
11 March
According to Armenpress.am 93,7% of participants in the first the Future Armenian Convention think that the entire Armenian Diaspora ought to assume responsibility for Artsakh rather than leave it for Armenia and its citizens, as well as residents of Artsakh to solve the issue. The results of the vote during the first pan-Armenian Citizens’ Assembly were released on March 11 by the convention’s voting commission chairman Arik Gevorgyan. Gevorgyan said that the Armenian nation must not be afraid of victories. 31% of participants voted in favor of the opinion that so far the efforts by Armenia, Diaspora communities, Armenian organizations and individuals aimed at the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide have been effective, but now the pan-Armenian efforts must be aimed at solving security-related issues. But another 31% believe that the efforts haven’t been productive and corrections are needed. “61% of participants voted in favor of the opinion that it is our duty to preserve our historical-cultural heritage and pass it down to our next generations, and the state and Diaspora Armenians must spend as much resources as needed for this goal and carry out the work effectively,” he said. Summing up the first day of the convention, Gevorgyan said the biggest concern during all discussions is the issue of Artsakh.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1106106.html
10 March
The new U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Kristina Kvien, called for the immediate reopening of the Lachin corridor on Friday as she visited an Armenian province adjacent to the sole road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. In line with azatutyun,am Kvien posted on Twitter photographs of her and Syunik province Governor Robert Ghukasian standing at an Armenian border checkpoint leading to the corridor that has been blocked by Azerbaijani government-backed protesters for the last three months. “Syunik governor Ghukasian reported the effects of the ongoing blockage, including the impact on hundreds of separated families,” she wrote. “The Lachin corridor should be opened immediately.” The United States has repeatedly called on Baku to lift the road blockade that has caused serious shortages of food, medicine and other essential items in Karabakh. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted on the restoration of “free and open commercial and private transit through the Lachin corridor” when he hosted talks between Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s leaders in Munich on February 18. The Azerbaijani side has dismissed such calls, also made by the European Union and Russia, claiming that the lifeline road is not blocked and that the protesters are right to demand an end to “illegal” mining in Karabakh. “We will continue to press this matter,” Louis Bono, the U.S. special envoy for South Caucasus peace talks, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Tuesday.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/32311878.html
9 March
Health authorities are scrambling to contain the first major outbreak of measles in Armenia in almost eight years. According to azatutyun.am the total number of measles cases recorded by them has doubled to 43 in the past week. Most of the persons infected with the highly contagious virus are children, according to the Ministry of Health. Seventeen patients have been hospitalized so far. “We have not yet gone beyond the bounds of a local outbreak,” Health Minister Anahit Avanesian told reporters on Thursday. “But we will have a clearer picture of the trend at the end of the week.”Vaccination is the most effective way of preventing the spread of the acute respiratory disease. Armenian children have long received two doses of a measles vaccine: the first at 12 months of age and a second between 4 and 6 years old. The South Caucasus country’s vaccination rate is estimated at 95 percent, which should be enough to prevent a nationwide epidemic.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/32310578.html
8 March
Armenians in the Republic of Artsakh continue to feel the militant aggression of Azerbaijan. Over the weekend, five more men in the Nagorno-Karabakh region lost their lives in a skirmish between the two sides, europeanconservative.com reported. The Armenians here have been under blockade for nearly 3 months, awaiting relief from negotiation efforts—with none forthcoming—as emboldened Azerbaijani threaten to take “more drastic steps.” The latest clash happened as the Azerbaijani army opened fire and killed three Armenian officials travelling in a convoy. The Armenians returned fire and killed two Azerbaijani soldiers. Azerbaijan claims the Armenians were trafficking weapons, while Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of planned provocation. Negotiations in this region are at an impasse, with the Armenian enclave requesting humanitarian assistance and Azerbaijan demanding integration of the Armenians into Azerbaijan. The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh had been negotiating for restoration of electricity, fuel, and highway access to allow for food and medical supplies—a peaceful resolution to the humanitarian crisis caused by the blockade of the Lachin corridor. Armenian president of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, informed his security council on Monday, March 6th, that negotiation efforts had failed.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/armenians-in-nagorno-karabakh-remain-under-siege/
7 March
Over 90 flights from the Azeri Silk Way Airlines cargo company have landed at the Israeli southern airport of Ovda in the past seven years, reports revealed on Monday. According to al-monitor.com Israeli newspaper Haaretz said Silk Way Airlines is one of the few foreign companies to land in Ovda and with authorization to carry explosives in Israel’s airspace. The report notes that Ovda is the only Israeli air base authorized to receive and launch outgoing and incoming flights carrying explosives. Contrary to Ovda, located in the Negev Desert, Israel’s main gateway, Ben Gurion Airport, is located in a densely populated area in the center of the country, which is why cargo planes carrying explosives are not allowed to land there. Also, Ovda serves simultaneously as an air base for both civilian and military flights. The Haaretz report notes, however, that three weekly Silk Way Airlines flights are operating between the airport in Baku and Ben Gurion. The report comes as tensions heighten again between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute revealed in 2021 that Israel has been selling Azerbaijan weapons, and in return Baku has been selling Israel fuel while either sharing or enabling the intelligence it collects on neighboring Iran. Foreign reports, such as the Times of London, have also claimed that Azerbaijan authorized the Mossad to set up shop in the country.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/03/israel-exporting-arms-azerbaijan-tensions-soar-armenia-report
6 March
According to washingtonexaminer.com Azerbaijan talks today not only about completing the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh but also about conquering Armenia proper. Rather than stop the flow of military equipment to Azerbaijan, Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken not only defy the Freedom Support Act to send more weaponry to Azerbaijan but also seek congressional approval to send upgraded F-16s to Turkey. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev plays Biden like a fiddle. So long as he tells diplomats behind the scenes that he is interested in peace, Biden refuses to cut off his flow of military equipment. This is backward. Biden should calibrate incentives to peace, not to negotiations. To do otherwise incentivizes insincere adversaries to engage in the process but never reach peace. If Aliyev is sincere about peace, he will renounce territorial ambitions, cease eradicating Armenian cultural heritage, and stop the deliberate starvation of more than 100,000 people for the crime of being Christian. The provision of weaponry also belies a fundamental question: What for? This goes to the second false assumption underlying Biden’s policy. Azerbaijan’s lobbyists insist that Azerbaijan stands against Iran. They describe Azerbaijan as a pro-Western oasis in a neighborhood threatened by Iran and Russia. In reality, Azerbaijan collaborates with both. It seeks an Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia trade corridor, partners with Russian oil firms in the Caspian Sea, and swaps gas to give Iran an outlet to Europe. True, Azerbaijan also works with Israel. Israel and Azerbaijan have a long arms-for-energy partnership, and Azerbaijan enables Israel to listen into Iran and perhaps even infiltrate the country. Here, though, it simply repeats the strategy of Turkey, playing both sides to maximum advantage.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/biden-is-being-played-by-azerbaijan
5 March
The Artsakh Ministry of Defense reports that a group of Azerbaijani soldiers today and attacked a police van, killing three Armenian officers near a place called Khapalu, not far from Stepanakert. In line with hetq.am the Artsakh Police Department says the officers, from the Police Passport and Visa Department, were travelling from the Artsakh capital Stepanakert to the village of Lisagor. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, referring to the incident, accuses the Armenian side of "attempting to transport military equipment and soldiers along the Stepanakert-Ghaibalishen-Lisagor highway". According to the Azerbaijani statement "Azerbaijani border guards stopped the convoy for the purpose of checking documents, after which a shootout began." The Azerbaijani ministry says both sides have victims and wounded. Armenian MP Tigran Abrahamyan, a former adviser to the Artsakh president, in a Facebook post, writes battles of varying intensity have been going on for several hours in the area adjacent to Shushi.
https://hetq.am/en/article/153806
4 March
According to genocide-museum.am newly appointed Ambassador of Mexico to Armenia Eduardo Villegas Mejias (residence: Moscow) visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial on March 4, accompanied by Honorary Consul of Mexico to Armenia Nikolay Kostandyan. The guests were welcomed by AGMI Senior guide Hasmik Martirosyan, who narrated the history of the creation of the Memorial. She also presented the guests with the history of the three khachkars placed in the Tsitsernakaberd area in memory of the Armenians who died in the massacres in the cities of Sumgait, Kirovabad (Gandzak) and Baku in the last century organised by the Azerbaijani government, and the stories of the five freedom fighters buried in front of Hushapat during the Artsakh war, emphasizing the connection between what happened and the Armenian Genocide.
They put flowers at the Eternal Fire and observed a minute’s silence in memory of the innocent martyrs of the Armenian Genocide. They also toured the Armenian Genocide Museum accompanied by AGMI senior guide Hasmik Martirosyan, becoming acquainted with the permanent and temporary exhibitions there, after which Mr. Eduardo Villegas Mejias made a note in the Memory Book for Honourable Guests.
http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/04.03.23.php