Weekly update
10 April
On April 12 the European parliament will host a special discussion on the issue of immediate release and return of Armenian captives from Azerbaijan, reported armradio.am. The discussion has been initiated by Member of the European parliament Loukas Fourlas, Chair of the EU-Armenia friendship group at the European Parliament.“Honored to host this event. The issue of the Armenian captives and prisoners of war in Azerbaijan remains one of the most urgent and crucial humanitarian issues and should concern us all,” Mr. Fourlas said in a Twitter post.
https://en.armradio.am/2021/04/10/european-parliament-to-host-special-discussion-on-armenian-pows/
9 April
The political uncertainty in Armenia means that Russia has an opportunity to tighten its grip on the direction of Armenian foreign policy. According to globalriskinsights.com, a key obstacle facing Armenia’s efforts to pursue its own foreign policy after the collapse of the Soviet Union is its reliance on Russia for its security. The Kremlin knows that it can afford to adopt a cautious response since the perception of threat to Armenian security that is driving the demonstrations allows Moscow to wield influence. The Armenian military’s intervention in support of the protesters demonstrates that Yerevan is relapsing into its security dependence on Russia. The November accord serves Putin’s geopolitical interests more than the prospect of conflict resolution in the region in that it does not define a long-term status of Nagorno-Karabakh. In keeping the threat perception alive in Armenia that its national security has been compromised in surrendering to Azerbaijan, Moscow keeps Yerevan within its sphere of influence. As a result, Russia can hinder potential Armenian initiatives to pursue its own relations with other potential partners in the region, such as Turkey.
https://globalriskinsights.com/2021/04/russia-armenia-ties-complicate-turkish-regional-plans/
8 April
One of the most important principles of international humanitarian law is the humanitarian treatment timely release and return of prisoners of war following the cessation of active hostilities. Now, it comes to the issue of nearly 200 prisoners of war and civilian captives. In line with defenseone.com for months, Azerbaijan has denied this, and tried to use loopholes in international law to claim anyone who is still being detained is a “terrorist.” Then Human Rights Watch issued a damning report showing the extent of Azerbaijan’s lies and inhumane treatment of prisoners of war. In interviews with the limited number of prisoners of war who have been returned, they described regular beatings, electric shocks, constant psychological torture and humiliation. Extrajudicial killings, beheadings, torture, humiliation, and other war crimes systematically perpetrated by the Azerbaijani military personnel have also been documented. Armenia is grateful to friends in Congress who have seen this farce for what it is. Earlier this month, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Menendez condemned Azerbaijan’s unlawful detention of Armenian prisoners, and in a letter, more than one hundred members of the House urged the Biden-Harris administration to put pressure on Azerbaijan. Additionally, a bipartisan House resolution drafted on March 16 called on Azerbaijan to release all POWs and captured civilians. If adopted, this resolution provides a path for the United States to help end this injustice.
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/04/american-support-needed-resolve-pow-crisis-caucasus/173224/
7 April
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, who arrived in Moscow on a working visit, will discuss issues relating to the bilateral agenda, the integration processes and the implementation of the trilateral joint statement over Nagorno Karabakh, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. According to armenpress.am “The inter-governmental commission is working actively, from our side the chairman of the commission is deputy Prime Minister Overchuk. There is a talk also about the integration processes as we are in close economic partnership both with Armenia and within the CIS, the EAEU and the CSTO. And of course, the issue on how the trilateral joint statement over Karabakh is being implemented, how the peaceful life is going on in the region, the development and unblocking of transportation infrastructure will be discussed”, the Kremlin spokesperson said.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1048318.html?fbclid=IwAR14mO1hRq0CcxJEONmThmMMqDW93E-U3DhU1WQJa9pBIReiVSxACEn04rc
6 April
In line with armradio.am a Yerevan court of general jurisdiction has announced the criminal proceedings against Armenia’s former President Robert Kocharyan, former Chief of the General Staff Seyran Ohanyan, former Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Khachaturov and former Secretary of the Security Council Armen Gevorgyan will be terminated. The decision can be appealed at the Court of Appeal. Defendants had demanded the termination of the criminal prosecution on the grounds of absence of a crime. The four were charged with overthrowing constitutional order under Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code. Last month the Constitutional Court ruled the Article unconstitutional.
https://en.armradio.am/2021/04/06/criminal-proceedings-against-kocharyan-and-others-terminated/
5 April
The Artsakh Republic Ombudsman’s Staff has published the annual report on its 2020 activities, also details the results of the fact-finding mission initiated by the Ombudsman and the reports based on them to document the human rights violations as a result of the large-scale aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against the people of Artsakh on September 27, 2020. According to armradio.am, by the report, the Ombudsman draws the attention of the competent authorities to the existing issues in the legislation and law enforcement practice (social security right, property right, health care right, right to fair trial, right to free movement, children’s rights, disability rights, detainees’ rights and a number of other areas), coming up with tangible proposals to address these issues.
https://en.armradio.am/2021/04/05/artsakh-ombudsmans-office-releases-report-on-2020-activities/
4 April
On April 4, 2021 during his traditional Easter message “Urbi et Orbi” Pope Francis mentioned ՛՛[T]here are still too many wars and too much violence in the world! May the Lord, who is our peace, help us to overcome the mindset of war, reported May he grant that prisoners of conflicts, especially in eastern Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh, may return safely to their families, and may he inspire world leaders to curb the race for new weaponry”. According to armradio.am this is the fifth time since July last year that the Roman Pontiff refers to the war in Artsakh unleashed by Azerbaijan.
https://en.armradio.am/2021/04/04/pope-mentions-nagorno-karabakh-prisoners-in-easter-message/
3 April
The statement by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the Summit of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States is of serious concern in terms of establishing lasting peace and stability in the region. According to hetq.am the President of Azerbaijan continues to fuel anti-Armenian sentiments not only within Azerbaijan, but also in the societies of Turkic-speaking and Muslim countries. By doing so, the leader of Azerbaijan deliberately attaches ethnic and religious elements to the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict, attempting to unite the Turkic and Muslim worlds around the aspirations of Azerbaijan. Aliyev purposefully transfers the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict and Armenophobia to the dimension of Pan-Turkism and Pan-Islamism, thus attaching elements of radicalism to these ideologies. In this context, the first serious geopolitical claim of the criminal trinity of Azerbaijan, Turkey and international terrorists was the large-scale military aggression unleashed against the Republic of Artsakh on September 27, 2020. This is followed by the expansionist aspirations also for different regions of the Republic of Armenia, in particular, Syunik. Without adequate steps by the international community, similar actions will surely take place in other regions as well, which are fraught with unpredictable consequences for global peace and stability.
https://hetq.am/en/article/129297
Sources: www.armradio.am, www.globalriskinsights.com, www.defenseone.com, www.armenpress.am, www.hetq.am