Weekly update
9 October
Azerbaijan aims at causing panic among the residents of border areas, President of the National Assembly of Artsakh Arthur Tovmasyan said in a statement. In line with armradio.am “On October 9, 55-year-old Aram Tepnants, a resident of Martakert, who was carrying out agricultural work in the fields near the city of Martakert, was shot dead by an Azerbaijani sniper as a result of terrorist acts,” the Speaker said. According to him, the only goal of Azerbaijan is to cause panic among the residents of border areas. “The terrorist act took place against the background of the OSCE Minsk Group planning to visit Yerevan, Baku, including Stepanakert,” Tovmasyan said, strongly condemning the aggressive behavior of Azerbaijan, by which it is trying to neutralize the mission of the Russian peacekeeping forces. “Such provocative actions should concern not only the Russian Federation, but also the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, the United States and France,” the Speaker added. “We call on the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to develop appropriate mechanisms to bring the perpetrators and perpetrators of the aggression to justice and to prevent further violations of the ceasefire,” he concluded.
https://en.armradio.am/2021/10/09/azerbaijan-commits-terrorist-act-as-minsk-group-is-planning-a-visit-to-the-region-artsakhs-parliament-speaker/
8 October
On October 6, for the first time since 2014, an Azerbaijani plane flew over Armenia. The news has incited a wave of debate, given the thirty-year conflict the two countries have experienced over Karabakh and last year’s war. The topic has been widely discussed in the Armenian media and on social networks, prompting the government to go into defense mode. We wrote that it’s difficult to understand what this step of Pashinyan's government will afford Armenia. We stressed that without the consent of the upper echelons of power, Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) would not allow the Azerbaijani national air carrier, AZAL, to fly through Armenian airspace, even though, as the committee says, no ban was ever imposed. One hour after the article appeared, the CAC announced: "The RA Civil Aviation Authority does not issue transit permits, since, according to procedures, no permit is required for transit flights by civil aircraft." This is a misleading statement. A 2003 Armenian government decision states: "Transit flights of civil aircraft through the airspace of the Republic of Armenia shall be carried out without prior permission, based only on messages exchanged with the airspace organizing unit and air traffic service bodies in accordance with the established procedure."
https://hetq.am/en/article/136455
7 October
On September 16, Armenia initiated its first-ever proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations mandated to settle legal disputes between states. In its case against Azerbaijan, Armenia alleges violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, including those committed during last year’s brutal war over Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan retorted by filing a similar application one week later. Azerbaijan regained the seven territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh that it had lost during the first war in the early 1990s and also now occupies approximately one-third of Nagorno-Karabakh itself, including the Hadrut region and the city of Shushi. Yet there is still no peace agreement or definitive resolution to the ongoing conflict. Azerbaijan now seems to have set its sights on Armenian sovereign territory with creeping encroachments since May 12 and continues to hold Armenian civilians and prisoners of war hostage as bargaining tools in exchange for minefield maps and territorial concessions. Such acts are illicit under international law and may amount to the crimes of aggression and hostage-taking.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/10/07/the-u-n-must-investigate-nagorno-karabakh-war-crimes/
6 October
Ardem Patapoutian, a neuroscientist based at Scripps Research and elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has received the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with colleague David Julius for uncovering the receptors that enable human beings to feel touch and temperature. In line with aaas.org Patapoutian comes from humble roots. He was born in 1967 in Lebanon. After the country plunged into civil war in the 1980’s, Patapoutian and his brother decided to leave for the United States in 1986. He worked a series of odd jobs in order to establish residency in the state of California, ranging from writing horoscopes for an Armenian newspaper (he has Armenian ancestry) to delivering pizzas. After gaining residency, he started attending college at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). While at UCLA, he joined a research lab in order to build a relationship with a professor who could write him a recommendation letter for medical school. It was there that he fell in love with research. “That changed the trajectory of my career,” he told The New York Times in an interview, stating that when he was in Lebanon, he didn’t even know that he could choose to pursue a career as a scientist feel sensation.
https://www.aaas.org/news/aaas-fellow-ardem-patapoutian-wins-nobel-prize-medicine
5 October
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan gave an interview to the Iranian IRNA news agency within the framework of his working visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran on October 4, Armenpress was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia. According to Mirzoyaan the provocative behavior of the Azerbaijani side has an impact not only on Armenia, but also on other countries in the region, which we witnessed, for example, when inadmissible steps were taken towards transit traffic. Unfortunately, the encouragement of this behavior, as well as anti-Armenian and belligerent rhetoric by third countries, creates additional obstacles for the stability of the region. Nevertheless, Armenia continues its efforts to establish firm regional stability in the region. The program of our Government clearly states the readiness to make efforts for opening an era of peaceful development for the region. I am sure that all the necessary preconditions for that era will be created if other countries display the appropriate political will and take constructive steps. Iran's role and potential in reducing tensions and establishing stability in the region is obvious, a clear example of which is Iran's clear position on the inviolability of the borders of the Republic of Armenia. We believe that expanding Iran's involvement will have a positive impact not only in the context of the friendship and mutually beneficial partnership between our two countries, but will also serve in the interests of a peaceful, secure and prosperous future for the region.
https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1064848.html
4 October
On October 26, 2012, Armenia’s Haykakan Zhamanak daily newspaper, owned by the family of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, published an English advertisement about the investments a group of British businessmen planned in Armenia's mining sector. According to hetq.am the day before, the paper had published the Armenian version of the advertisement. The paper usually does not publish English advertisements. Also of note, is one of the investors named in the ad - Sir Tony Baldry, knighted in 2012 who served as member of the British Parliament from 1983-2015. The British investors clearly made the announcement through their Armenian partners. And who was the "leader" of the latter? That would be Vardan Ayvazyan, who was a Republican Party of Armenia MP at the time, who served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economic Affairs (2007-2017) and Minister of Nature (2001-2007). Hetq has obtained documents revealing the business relationships and business network he has established with British colleagues who set up businesses in Armenia through offshore companies. Hetq received documents from their partners, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Hetq presented leaked documents from various offshore zones. The entire portfolio, dubbed the Pandora Papers by reporters, is the largest package ever released by the consortium.
https://hetq.am/en/article/136311
3 October
A vast network of offshore companies, administered by service provider Trident Trust and fronted by a small group of trusted cronies, helped the Aliyevs secretly own vast real estate holdings in the British capital. According to occrp.org three children and two close associates of Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev used secretive offshore companies to acquire luxurious penthouses, commercial office space, and even an old tavern in the heart of London. Leaked documents from the Pandora Papers reveal how these properties were held by an interconnected network of 84 offshore companies. It has been reported that the Aliyevs own millions in property abroad. But this fortune dwarfs their previously known holdings in the United Kingdom — and the newly obtained records shed light on the complex offshore mechanisms that allow it to remain a secret. For centuries, London has been one of the world’s top destinations for shopping, dining, and good living. And a development boom over the last few decades has only expanded the range of attractions. Aliyev’s two daughters, his son, his father-in-law, and two of the family’s close business associates have held, at their peak, a staggering £429 million ($694 million) in London real estate — including prominent historical buildings, commercial developments, and luxury apartments in prestigious neighborhoods. Their ownership of this property empire has been systematically hidden for years behind offshore companies with generic names like Sheldrake Six and Fliptag Investments. But thanks to the Pandora Papers, a new leak of offshore documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with OCCRP and other media outlets, reporters have been able to pierce the veil of secrecy that surrounds these companies.
https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/azerbaijans-ruling-aliyev-family-and-their-associates-acquired-dozens-of-prime-london-properties-worth-nearly-700-million
2 October
Until 1920, Shushi was the capital of Artsakh (Nagorny Karabakh). In line with Facebook caucasusgroup there were 40 thousand people who were separated in two different parts of the city: Muslim (occupied 35 % of the city's area) and Armenian (65 % of town's square). The Muslim part consisted of 7 blocks with one mosque, madrasa, several prayer houses and music schools. The Armenian part consisted of 18 blocks, which operated 12 churches, 7000 residential buildings, real school, several schools, two printing names of newspapers, including 20 in Armenian and 3 in Russian, 2 theaters, several museums, etc. All buildings in the city were built in a single architectural style, walls made of white stone, red roof made of tiles, or metal. Houses (usually two-story ones) were built close to each other. The city was distinguished by European layout, wide central streets and narrow yard streets, with lots of lights. The end of Shushi came in March 1920, when the Turkish army, with the help of wide Tatar masses from the Muslim part of the city, began medieval barbarism in the Armenian districts of Shushi. In 3 days, 6-10 thousand Armenians were killed, 2 thousand were captured, the rest were saved by fleeing the city. After the massacre, a mass robbery of Armenian property began, then all 18 Armenian blocks were burned. The ruins of the Armenian city laid deserted like a ghost, for more than 40 years, until in 1961, the leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan did not decide to compare them to the land, and in their place to erect Soviet faceless five-story, which were settled exclusively by ethnic Azerbaijanis. Out of 12 Armenian churches in the city, only 2 have miraculously preserved today.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/caucasusgroup/posts/784639605291300/
Sources: armradio.am, hetq.am, foreignpolicy.com, aaas.org, armenpress.am, occrp.org, facebook.com