Weekly update
17 April
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian will not sign the law on amending the Electoral Code, but he will not appeal to the Constitutional Court, reported news.am. The president's statement reads that Sarkissian discussed the law with the leaders of a number of parties, politicians, representatives of the Central Election Commission, and listened to their opinions and remarks. Research by the president's office revealed that the law is not controversial from the point of view of constitutionality. Sarkissian has noted that the organization of snap parliamentary elections aimed at overcoming the crisis should be preceded by a process of comprehensive amendments to the Constitution and the Electoral Code, which requires reasonable time frames and, according to the principles of democracy, should be implemented as a result of the broad public, political discussions, taking into account the formed opinions.
https://news.am/eng/news/639438.html
16 April
Dictators have their own strategies to distract and deceive the United States with charm, charisma, caviar and cocktails. According to nationalinterest.org, on April 12, 2021, Azerbaijani public television station ITV broadcast an hour-long program inaugurating a new museum in Baku to celebrate Azerbaijan’s victory in the forty-four-day Nagorno-Karabakh War. Aliyev, who never served in the military even as his peers fought in the first Nagorno-Karabakh War, strolls around in military fatigues showing off captured Armenian equipment and wax models of Armenian soldiers before addressing assembled troops. The centerpiece of the “Park of Trophies” is an arch made from the helmets of killed and captured Armenian soldiers. That Azerbaijan continues to hold illegally 260 prisoners of war (POWs) and kidnapped civilians, some of whom it might have killed in captivity, underscores the tastelessness of the display.
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/azerbaijan%E2%80%99s-ilham-aliyev-new-saddam-hussein-182853
15 April
Armenian officials accused Azerbaijan on Friday, April 9, of reneging on a pledge to free Armenian soldiers and civilians remaining in Azerbaijani captivity five months after a Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. In line with mirrorspectator.com, a new group of Armenian prisoners was about to be set free and repatriated. However, none of them was on board a Russian plane that arrived from Baku to Yerevan shortly after midnight. “Negotiations mediated by Russia are continuing and we hope that the Azerbaijani side will at last respect the statement signed by it and implement the humanitarian agreement,” added the statement. Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov again claimed on Thursday that all of them were captured after the truce accord took effect on November 10 and are therefore not covered by it. He said Baku regards them as “terrorists” and does not intend to release them. More than 50 of the remaining POWs were captured in early December when the Azerbaijani army occupied the last two Armenian-controlled villages in Karabakh’s southern Hadrut district. They all are army reservists who were drafted from Armenia’s Shirak province during the six-week war.
https://mirrorspectator.com/2021/04/15/armenia-accuses-azerbaijan-of-reneging-on-hostage-returns/
14 April
A park with military trophies seized during the second Karabakh war is now open in Baku and is already attracting a lot of attention both domestically and abroad. According to jam-news.net the reaction toward the opening of the park turned out to be radically diverse, ranging from complete approval to categorical condemnation of it. Several Western journalists have already condemned the opening of the park of war trophies. Here is a comment written by Neil Hauer, contributor to CNN and the Guardian on Twitter: “Basically this is example #364,486 from the postwar period alone why it’s just foolish to think there will ever be Armenian-Azerbaijan reconciliation while Aliyev is in power”. On April 13, Baku hosted an international conference entitled “A new outlook at the South Caucasus: Post-Conflict Development and Cooperation”. After the conference, 27 guests from 15 countries visited the newly open park of war trophies. Starting from April 14, everyone will be able to visit the park.
https://jam-news.net/war-trophies-park-in-baku-sparks-controversy-domestically-and-abroad/
13 April
Member of the European Parliament François-Xavier Bellamy has called on Europe to break the silence and not leave Armenia alone against Turkey and Azerbaijan, reported armenpress.am. In an article for Le Figaro newspaper, MEP François-Xavier Bellamy notes that as a result of the 2020 Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression Armenia suffered thousands of victims. The MEP also wrote about Azerbaijan’s refusal to hand over Armenian prisoners of war, noting that this kind of an inhumane blackmail by Azerbaijan must not continue for long and that Europe must show that it hasn’t completely lost its principles.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1048848.html?fbclid=IwAR3egjY2E5Vnrn8YQPaQeg1x3U_K6w62Nh0mG6flvBxOADeuduInib5kM8Y
12 April
During an online conference on the current situation in the South Caucasus, hosted by Rossiya Segodnya news agency, the executive director of the “Eurasian Development” center Stanislav Pritchin and Alexander Karavayev, a researcher with the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Economics, presented their joint report on the “Settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and the development of the South Caucasus: prospects and challenges.” According to moderndiplomacy.eu, the status of the Russian peacekeepers, who will stay on in the conflict zone for the next five years, is an important issue. Their mandate will automatically be renewed if it is not objected to by either side. As of now, 42 percent of Azeri experts believe that five years from now the mission of the Russian peacekeepers will be over. Just as many believe that they will still be needed, and 16 percent said that it will depend on the situation. In Armenia, 85 percent of respondents answered that five years from now the presence of Russian peacekeepers will still be needed.
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2021/04/11/south-caucasus-prospects-and-challenges/amp/
11 April
When Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian signed a Russian-brokered cease-fire in November to end the war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, it created a tumultuous postwar crisis that has eroded public confidence in Yerevan's political establishment. According to rferl.org opinion polls show the approval rating of Pashinian's government has fallen from about 60 percent in September 2020 to around 30 percent today. Pashinian's allies -- faced with political upheaval and declining public confidence in politicians -- are now working to change the country's election laws ahead of snap parliamentary elections expected in June. The 45-year-old Pashinian's My Step alliance is revamping parts of the Electoral Code that were put in place in 2016 by his predecessors, the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), two years before the "Velvet Revolution" that swept him into office.
https://www.rferl.org/a/armenia-election-reforms-end-political-crisis/31197997.html
10 April
Armenia’s foreign ministry has issued a statement on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the genocide committed by Azerbaijan against the peaceful population of Maragha settlement of the Martakert region of the Republic of Artsakh, the MFA told Armenpress.“April 10 marks the 29th anniversary of the Genocide of the civilian population of the Armenian Maragha settlement of the Martakert region of the Republic of Artsakh committed by the armed forces of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani troops, having invaded Maragha, brutally killed and tortured the local civilian population, including women, children, and the elderly. The perpetrators were awarded high state awards, and their commander was awarded the title of National Hero of Azerbaijan, which testifies that the Armenophobian and genocidal policy in Azerbaijan is encouraged at the highest state level.Crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations and must be condemned. The tragic events in Maragha will remain an incurable wound in the memory of our people”, the statement says.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1048633.html
Sources: www.news.am, www.nationalinterest.org, www.mirrorspectator.com, www.am-news.net, www.armenpress.am, www.moderndiplomacy.eu, www.rferl.org