Weekly update
18 March
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev continues to issue threats, present ultimatums, and make insults against Armenia and Armenians. According to news.am "Today we [Azerbaijanis] are on the land of native Karabakh, on the land of native Zangazur [(Zangezur)], and we will be here forever. The Azerbaijani people rightfully live with a sense of pride," Aliyev said, addressing the Azerbaijani people from Talish village on Saturday, on the occasion of Nowruz. Also, Aliyev did not forget to present ultimatums and make insults against Armenians, frequently repeating expressions about the "masters" and "backers" of Armenians. "Today, Armenia, which had declared that ‘Karabakh is Armenia and that's it,’ which was threatening us with a new war, is in search of a new master. There will be no benefit from that," he said. Continuing the topic of the unknown "backers" of Armenians, Aliyev spoke about the countries that "support Armenia's invasive policy and have declared an information war against us," but did not specify which countries he means. "For Armenia to live peacefully on the territory of [its] 29,000 square kilometers, there is one condition: they need to accept our conditions, officially recognize Karabakh as the territory of Azerbaijan, carry out delimitation work based on our conditions," said Aliyev.
https://news.am/eng/news/750402.html
17 March
The Artsakh Foreign Ministry on Friday welcomed the adoption of resolutions by the European Parliament on EU-Armenia and EU-Azerbaijan relations, expressing its belief that the measures, including the recommendations on imposing sanctions on Azerbaijani officials, will be an important contribution to efforts to lift Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh and prevent its plans to carry out ethnic cleansing and genocide in Artsakh. In line with asbarez.com the European Parliament, with an overwhelming majority, adopted a resolution, in which it called on Baku to end the blockade of the Lachin Corridor and comply with the order of the International Court of Justice, which last month urged Azerbaijan to ensure “unimpeded movement” along the road. “We support the call by the European Parliament on the European Council to impose targeted sanctions against Azerbaijani government officials, if the order of the International Court of Justice of February 22, 2023 is not immediately implemented,” the Artsakh foreign ministry said. “We consider it important that in its resolutions the European Parliament has clearly acknowledged that the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, which has lasted for more than three decades and has resulted in tens of thousands of casualties, immense destruction and the forced displacement of thousands of people, remains unresolved,” the foreign ministry added.
https://asbarez.com/in-welcoming-european-parliament-resolution-artsakh-calls-for-sanctions-against-baku/
16 March
The Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Imangali Tasmagambetov arrived in Armenia on Thursday for a two-day visit. He visited Jermuk on Thursday to assess the impact of Azerbaijan’s aggression against Armenia in September, the city’s Mayor Vahagn Arsenyan said. According to asbarez.com the CSTO Secretary General was briefed on the damage caused to the city’s and the region’s economy, as well as the many social and psychological problems caused by the aggression. It was noted that at the time of the military operations, there were many tourists in the spas of Jermuk, and that not only military positions, but also civil infrastructures were targeted by the Azerbaijani aggression. In a Facebook post, Arsenyan expressed gratitude to the CSTO leader “for keeping the military operations against the peaceful city and their consequences in the spotlight, as well as for his compassionate attitude.” Tasmagambetov also met with Armenia’s Defense Minister Suren Papikyan. A discussion about a number of international and regional security issues, including the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the military-political situation around Armenia was held, according to Armenia’s defense ministry. Speaking about the border situation, Papikyan presented the long-standing problems regarding the implementation of CSTO collective defense mechanisms and the Defense Ministry’s expectations.
https://asbarez.com/csto-secretary-general-visits-armenia/
15 March
The first pan-Armenian citizens convention was held in Yerevan this week and addressed three goals defined by The Future Armenian initiative: historic responsibility, Armenia-Diaspora unity and population growth. According to armenianweekly.com the convention, which had been in the works for the past year, brought forth a new format for discussions and solutions to pan-Armenian issues. The “Future Armenian” is a public initiative based on the “citizen’s assembly” model of participatory democracy. The vision of the initiative is to create an atmosphere of collective consciousness and mutual understanding around the sustainable development of Armenia and the Armenian nation. A group of experts voluntarily joined the initiative to identify the existing issues and come up with effective solutions. About 112,000 people initially applied to participate in the initiative, and around 1,000 of those helped to define the 15 goals. Another 200 participants from Armenia and the Diaspora were pre-selected from the general applications through a transparent lottery. Several participants selected from Artsakh could not travel to Yerevan because of the blockade.
https://armenianweekly.com/2023/03/15/the-convention-of-the-future-armenian-held-in-yerevan/
14 March
We lost the 2020 war (in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone) because there was a fifth column in our army, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a press conference on Tuesday. According to arka.am Pashinyan said his statement is based solely on facts. "I was convinced of that right after analyzing a number of facts. I am sure if you take a closer look you will find the same facts too. I think that in the near future these facts will become so public that the statements I have made will not seem as strange to you as they might have been at first. I realize, of course, that it is not customary for us to talk about such things. Often it has even hurt us. But absence of such a discussion is much more harmful," Pashinyan said. According to him, as of today, more than 50 former military officers are accused of espionage and treason. "They are officers and even high-ranking career army officers. I don't know if there are those in Armenia who believe they were framed? If there are any, it is very bad," Pashinyan said.
http://arka.am/en/news/politics/armenian_prime_minister_we_lost_the_2020_war_in_nagorno_karabakh_because_of_fifth_column_in_armed_fo/
13 March
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian again telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday after Azerbaijan renewed its threats to launch fresh military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan accused Armenia at the weekend of continuing to send military personnel and weapons to Karabakh with the help of Russian peacekeepers deployed there. Yerevan was quick to deny that. Meeting with the Azerbaijani army top brass in Baku on Saturday, Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov said his troops must be prepared to take “preventive” and “resolute” actions to thwart Armenian “provocations.” In a statement released after the meeting, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry demanded that “illegal Armenian armed units” be disarmed and removed from Karabakh. It said the Russian peacekeepers must help Baku achieve that objective. The Azerbaijani military already threatened to “disarm and neutralize” Karabakh Armenian forces on March 7 two days after a shootout outside Stepanakert left three Karabakh Armenian police officers and two Azerbaijani soldiers dead. It claimed that its soldiers came under fire as they tried to check a Karabakh police vehicle allegedly smuggling weapons from Armenia. The Armenian side strongly denied that, saying that the vehicle transported only policemen and was ambushed by Azerbaijani Special Forces. Yerevan accused Baku on March 8 of preparing the ground for another attack on Karabakh.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/32315546.html
12 March
The negotiations between Azerbaijan and the self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh Republic have been one of the most discussed topics since the end of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war. According to armenianweekly.com the international community believes that these negotiations can help find a long-term solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, while the Armenian government has agreed to separate Armenia-Azerbaijan relations from the issue of the future of Nagorno Karabakh. Armenia insists that a special international mechanism should be established for Azerbaijan-Nagorno Karabakh contacts. At the same time, Azerbaijan rejects this option, claiming that no international involvement is necessary for the Azerbaijani government to speak with representatives of the Armenian minority in Azerbaijan. The self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh Republic rejects the “Azerbaijan-Armenian minority” framework of talks, arguing that talks should be conducted within the international mechanism and between two entities: Azerbaijan and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. Since the end of the war, several meetings took place between representatives of Azerbaijan and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic focused on technical and humanitarian issues. Azerbaijan’s decision to impose a blockade on Nagorno Karabakh and to lose the Lachin road have created additional obstacles for any meaningful negotiations. In recent months, Azerbaijan put forward another demand to resume contacts: the dismissal of Nagorno Karabakh state minister Ruben Vardanyan.
https://armenianweekly.com/2023/03/13/azerbaijani-state-system-should-be-changed-fundamentally/
11 March
Azerbaijan’s ambush in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) on March 5, 2023, resulting in the killing of three policemen of Nagorno-Karabakh and followed by the killing of two servicemen of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, indicate the increased volatility of the security situation in Nagorno-Karabakh that adds to its deteriorating humanitarian situation after nearly three months of blockade. According to evnreport.com this is yet another violation by Azerbaijan of the November 2020 trilateral ceasefire statement. Since the end of the 2020 war, major violations in Nagorno-Karabakh include the December 2020 occupation of the last two villages, an ancient monastery and a strategic mountain in the Hadrut region; the capture of a village and another strategic hill in Askeran province in March 2022; a military offensive resulting in casualties near the original route of the Lachin Corridor in August 2022, forcing the Armenian side to prematurely change the route to a less secure alternative one; and its ongoing blockade of the Lachin Corridor since December 12, 2022. Apart from this, there have been incidents of killing, kidnapping and intimidating civilians while they were conducting livelihood or work activities, and the systematic blockage of gas and electricity supply from Armenia, resulting in disturbing levels of overuse of the hydropower of the Sarsang water reservoir.
https://evnreport.com/politics/international-guarantees-for-security-and-rights-the-case-of-nagorno-karabakh/