Weekly update
20 March
PM Nikol Pashinyan confirmed that Armenia had purchased Russian Su-30SM fighters without missiles back in May 2020, months before the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, reported eurasiantimes.com. Former Chief of Armenia’s army General Staff Movses Hakobyan said in November that the fighters were without missiles intended for them, as Russia prohibits the sale of missiles for the Su-30SM to other countries. The Armenian authorities remained silent about this matter until recently. “Yes, we bought the fighter, it was delivered in May [2020] and yes, we did not have time to buy the missiles before the war [in Karabakh]. Would you buy planes so that we could buy missiles? Why did the 26-year-old state [Armenia] not have fighters?” Pashinyan said at a Saturday meeting with residents of the country’s Aragatsotn region.
https://eurasiantimes.com/armenia-purchased-russias-su-30-fighter-jets-without-missiles-in-2020-pm-pashinyan/
19 March
The Canadian government has been selling sensitive drone technology to Turkey last year, which was used by Azerbaijan in its 2020 conflict with Armenia, Ricochet reported. In line with jpost.com Internal government documents revealed that the Trudeau government exported the Wescam optics for drones to Turkey in coordination with a defense lobbyist with connections to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal party. Canada had previously suspended arms sales to Turkey in 2019, but parts were rolled back in 2020 after Trudeau met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Baykar, the Turkish defense company that produced the drones which housed the Canadian-made Wescam optics, reportedly has close connections to Erodgan's son-in-law. Ken Mackay, a past Liberal donor, has worked for Wescam in the past, and lobbied the Canadian government on behalf of Baykar around the time of the exports.
https://www.jpost.com/international/canadian-drone-tech-used-in-nagorno-karabakh-conflict-662553
18 March
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev ordered the removal of medieval Armenian inscriptions from Armenian Churches that have fallen under Azerbaijani control, calling them “fake.” According to asbarez.com in a separate incident, Azerbaijani forces currently occupying Shushi have destroyed the St. John the Baptist church, commonly known as “Kanach Zham” leveling it to the ground. Aliyev issued the order to his entourage when visiting Hadrut with his wife and Azerbaijan’s Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva this week, angering official Stepanakert and Yerevan, which condemned the Azerbaijani leader for advancing “cultural terrorism.”
http://asbarez.com/201241/aliyev-orders-removal-of-medieval-armenian-inscriptions-as-azeri-forces-destroy-shushis-kanach-zham-church/?fbclid=IwAR08L8c2nztiQFAQxHNbd_GYZ6S34zwdK0DHf5NWDmvtvUeNFAJgMvFn9Jw
17 March
The European Court of Human Rights (sitting as a Chamber of seven judges) decided on March 9 to notify the Committee of Ministers, pursuant to Rule 39 § 2 of the Rules of Court, of the following interim measures indicated under Rule 39 in relation to the recent armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As Armenpress was informed from the Armenian Representation to the UCHR, the Court informed the Committee of Ministers that 58 of the mentioned Armenians had been repatriated between December 2020 and February 2021 and that seven of them had been found deceased, according to the Armenian Government (however, the individual applicants in six cases claim that they have not received any evidence of the death of their relatives). Of the 249 Armenians, 72 are still in Azerbaijan, their captivity and detention having been acknowledged by the Azerbaijani Government. In regard to the remaining 112 individuals, the Azerbaijani Government claim that they have not been able to identify them among their captives.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1046355.html?fbclid=IwAR2LmuJFtceUDM5VSBBw-nvveWyPjsAp85jjo4whJcMoM3VctB2BAKNhFqo
16 March
Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Anna Nagdalyan has dismissed as lie a statement of Azerbaijani top diplomat Jeyhun Bayramov that the country had handed over all prisoners of war in accordance with its commitments, the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s press service said. According to tass.com, "This is another lie of the Azerbaijani side on this topical humanitarian issue. The Azerbaijani foreign minister’s statement runs counter to the data of other respective bodies of this country, which confirmed the presence of dozens of Armenian prisoners of war in Azerbaijan, who were captured both during the fighting and after the ceasefire was established," Nagdalyan said. The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman stated that Azerbaijan was not providing data on the Armenian prisoners of war to the European Court of Human Rights, which considers this issue as part of an interstate case Armenia vs Azerbaijan. According to the press service, "currently provisional measures are being carried out on 188 captured Armenians against Azerbaijan."
https://tass.com/world/1266255
15 March
Meeting in the Republic’s capital yesterday, the Heritage Party convened its nationwide political council for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, said aravot.am. Chaired by Armenia’s first minister of foreign affairs and Party co-founder Raffi K. Hovannisian, the council’s 50 delegates from across the country opened with a moment of silence for the thousands who fell during the Azerbaijani-Turkish invasion and occupation of Artsakh. The Heritage Party’s political council decided unanimously 1) to underscore that the November 2020 and January 2021 trilateral statements did not constitute finally binding peace treaties, which require legislative ratification and judicial review, but rather were militarily imposed ceasefire arrangements; 2) to call for the creation of a new national unity government of professionals to replace the one that signed them, pending stabilization of the country and organization of elections; 3) to demand from it the reinstatement of the territorial integrity (deoccupation on the part of Azerbaijan) of the Republic of Armenia; 4) also to demand recognition, at least de facto, of Artsakh’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity; and 5) on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Moscow to call on the Russian Federation, as a strategic partner and in good faith, to annul, rather than to extend or deepen, the application of its anti-Armenian provisions.
https://www.aravot-en.am/2021/03/15/278632/
14 March
The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde, will visit Azerbaijan on 15 March for meetings with high-level officials. In line with armradio.am, Linde will meet with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Prime Minister Ali Asadov for talks focused on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the OSCE´s continued role in the conflict resolution process. Discussions will also include how to strengthen the co-operation between the OSCE and Azerbaijan.Chairperson-in-Office Linde will also meet with members of civil society.
https://en.armradio.am/2021/03/14/osce-chairperson-in-office-to-visit-azerbaijan/
13 March
After the 44-Day War, students from Artsakh who temporarily sheltered in Dilijan visited the Ayb School to conduct chemistry laboratory tests within the framework of the Teach for Hope program initiated by Teach Armenia. According to aravot.am, the classmates lost contact during the war because they constantly had to move. After studying in different schools in Dilijan, the classmates never had to opportunity to meet. One of the Teach for Hope teachers, Lilit Tonoyan, who also moved to Dilijan from Artsakh, organized a visit for the students from Artsakh to the Ayb School within the framework of the scientific-cognitive experiments class, during which the classmates had a surprise meeting. Lilit Tonoyan, who also became emotional from the friends’ surprise visit, told Aravot Daily in an interview that these meetings between children from Artsakh living in Dilijan will take place on a regular basis since the scientific-cognitive group was intended to increase interest among children for the natural sciences and to make the natural sciences more accessible to children.
https://www.aravot-en.am/2021/03/13/278595/
Sources: www.armradio.am, www.jam-news.net, www.en.kremlin.ru, www.news.am, www.bctorch.com, www.evnreport.com, www.artsakhpress.am