Weekly update
24 April
April 24 marks the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. According to Armenpress, the Armenian people have made many sacrifices for a long time in order to be able to keep their millennia-old culture, language, religion and in order to survive, President of the Central American Parliament Carolina Fernández said in her remarks at the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, expressing her support to the Armenian people. “We are with you on the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. The word freedom, “libertad”, is one of the best words in the world which has a broad meaning. It is the person’s capability, according to which he acts on his own will, and also doesn’t want to obey and be obeyed. Nations have paid quite a high price for freedom, and this cost them human lives, pain and suffering. Armenia, like the Central America, have paid quite a high price for freedom. In our case it cost thousands of human lives who have been killed during the civil wars.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1050141.html?fbclid=IwAR0U599bNamCIMHYZS0qrcV-7jv3E0z3tR92S2MgJPyx2_0Wux_CfI5hxlg
23 April
According to nytimes.com at the risk of infuriating Turkey, President Biden is set to formally announce on Saturday that the United States regards the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by Turks more than a century ago to be a genocide — the most monstrous of crimes. Mr. Biden would be the first American president to make such an announcement, breaking with predecessors who did not wish to antagonize Turkey, a NATO ally and a strategically pivotal country straddling Europe and the Middle East. The term was incorporated into a 1948 United Nations treaty that made genocide a crime under international law. Turkey’s denial of genocide is ingrained into Turkish society. Writers who have dared to use the term have been prosecuted under Section 301 of Turkey’s penal code, which bans “denigrating Turkishness.” The denial is taught at an early age, with school textbooks calling the genocide a lie, describing the Armenians of that period as traitors and declaring the actions by the Ottoman Turks as “necessary measures” against Armenian separatism.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/23/world/europe/armenia-genocide-turkey-biden.html
22 April
The PACE Monitoring Committee has made a statement, expressing its concern over the fact that not all persons detained in the context of recent Nagorno Karabakh war have been exchanged, reported armenpress.am. It called on Azerbaijan to ensure that all Armenian detainees are released without delay into the care of the Armenian authorities. The committee reiterates that the clear intention of Article 8 of the Trilateral Statement was the exchange of all detained persons, without distinction as to the status of these people assigned by one of the parties. Underscoring the concerns expressed by the European Court of Human Rights with respect to 188 Armenians allegedly captured by Azerbaijan, the committee calls upon Azerbaijan to ensure that all Armenian detainees are released without delay into the care of the Armenian authorities.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1049890.html?fbclid=IwAR2xS__agUnY5szYTR77yk0kNxrr7B7qDgui4P-f5ESbHRq4W05azn5qQFU
21 April
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has threatened to use force to establish a ‘corridor’ through southern Armenia connecting western Azerbaijan with the Autonomous Nakhchivan Republic. The comments were met with outrage in Armenia. In line with oc-media.org, ‘The creation of the Zangezur corridor fully meets our national, historical and future interests. We will be implementing the Zangezur Corridor, whether Armenia wants it or not’, Aliyev said during an interview with Azerbaijani Public TV. ‘If Armenia wants to, we will solve this issue more easily, if it does not, we will solve it by force.’‘The Azerbaijani people are returning to the occupied Zangezur’, he said. Aliyev’s statements instantly sparked outrage in Armenia. Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan condemned the comments, stating that they ‘do serious harm to regional peace and stability’ and ‘reveal the false nature of Azerbaijan’s recent peace statements’.
https://oc-media.org/aliyev-threatens-to-establish-corridor-in-armenia-by-force/
20 April
"Large number of Armenian migrants in Russia will be affected by the new regulation, requiring illegal workers to leave the country by June 15," the Head of Public Relations department at the RA Migration Service Nelli Davtyan told a press conference on Tuesday. In line with panorama.am, Davtyan's comment came on recent requirement by Russian migration authorities for migrants from post-Soviet states living there without proper documentation. According to Davtyan, around 61,000 illegal migrants from Armenia are residing at present in Russia whose entry to the country have been banned for various reasons. "The notification has been sent out, and Russia is currently preparing sanctions which will be applied against those group of people," the official said, informing about upcoming severe regulations as well. In particular, from July 7, a new legislation about the control of international transport operators will take effect. "The matter concerns those international transport operators with unpaid fines. They will be required to pay the fines while entering Russia within three hours after crossing the border. For transport organizations failing to do so, a ban to enter the country will be applied," Davtyan said.
https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2021/04/20/Armenian-migrants-Russian-regulation/2488995
19 April
Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok described the ''park'' in Baku and the scene of Ilham Aliyev being photographed in front of the wax mannequins of Armenian soldiers as very unpleasant, Armenpress reports Minister Stef Blok referred to the issue at the parliament, during answering the questions of the MPs. ‘’Those were very unpleasant images. Regarding this conflict, I have announced earlier that I call on the sides to reach a settlement in the sidelines of the OSCE Misnk Group through negotiations and refrain from behavior that will make the final solution impossible’’, the Minister said. A so-called "exhibition-park" related to the September-November 2020 war was opened in Baku on April 12, 2021.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1049527.html?fbclid=IwAR3DzLg5nQu6PD2UcjGrROJyQw7gM1WtTi-ZObKwiW0fYcNd8cjzu-e3zcg
18 April
In September 2019, Turkey deployed jihadi gangs in the Hamza and Sultan Murad brigades from Syria to Artsakh (the Armenian term for Nagorno-Karabakh, a historic Armenian land in Azerbaijan) where they committed war crimes that include decapitating civilians, mutilating bodies, and driving hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians from their homes. According to ahvalnews.com, these crimes can be linked right back to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) given the agency’s remit over organising Syrian proxies to fight Erdogan’s wars abroad in place of Turkish soldiers. Erdogan ignores opportunities for dialogue and reconciliation. If Biden uses the “G-word”, Erdogan threatened to deny US access to Incirlik Air Force Base, a NATO facility, as well as other military bases in Turkey. A perfect storm of problems results from Erdogan’s Genocide denial, purchase of sophisticated weapons from Russia, and attacks on the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). Freedom House downgraded Turkey from “partly free” to “not free” in response to its abuse of political and civil rights, as well as denial of Internet freedoms in recent years as a result.
https://ahvalnews.com/joe-biden/fork-road
17 April
The United Nations has not responded to Russia’s invitation to join mine clearance works in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in an interview with a documentary aired by the Zvezda television channel on Friday, TASS news agency reported. According to panorama.am, "As soon as it happened in November, we asked the United Nations mine action service to come. The area was stuffed with mines inside out. People cannot return there. Has anyone come? No, no one," he said, adding that only Russian and local bomb specialists are working in the area. "But no one else has come," he stressed, as quoted by the source.
https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2021/04/17/UN-demining-Karabakh-Shoigu/2487999
Sources: www.armenpress.am; www.nytimes.com; www.oc-media.org; www.panorama.am; www.ahvalnews.com