Category: Armenia

  • Is Armenia a failed nation?

    Is Armenia a failed nation?

    I think it is a failed nation. I am not trying to be offensive but there are some things to realize why they are failed.

    Average Armenian still lives in 1915. If you try to make a sensible conversation with an average Armenian the conversation ALWAYS comes to “genocide” at some point. It literally sounds like they are BRAGGING about being a victim all the time; it’s bizarre and annoying because it doesn’t add anything to any conversation and it blocks the development of the relationships between their neighbors hence the rest of the world.

    They always talk about how they survived a genocide etc and they think their neighboring countries are the ones who should be blamed for their poor economy and social infrastructure. But they don’t see the fact that Israel, a real holocaust survivor nation, was born from their ashes and now they are one of the strongest and most influential countries in the world.

    Another thing; A nation’s progress happens through their folk. They need to accept their history and move on. There’s no point to feed the younger generation with hatred. The below pictures are average Armenian’s mindset and the lack of respect for national symbols are saddening. These kids are growing with hate. I’ve seen many similar scenes in Los Angeles. Kids and their grandmas/grandpas are stepping on Turkish flags like they are getting revenge, i think this is pathetic.

    (the people in the picture above are Armenian officials..)

    I’ve met and interacted with MANY Armenians who live in California and I can honestly say most of them are decent people but extremely ignorant due to their parents. God forbid if you don’t agree with their genocidal claims they become hostile.

    I personally don’t think Armenia will be a developed country ever because their mindset is a huge block on development.

    Damien Roth

  • Why Azerbaijan Will Keep Attacking Armenia

    Why Azerbaijan Will Keep Attacking Armenia

    The conflict centers on a region disputed for decades.

    The mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh has long been at the heart of tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but with a majority ethnic Armenian population, it declared independence in the late Soviet period.

    A years long war between Armenia and Azerbaijan followed, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving hundreds of thousands displaced. It ended in a 1994 cease-fire that left Armenia in control of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts that were legally part of Azerbaijan. During the war in 2020, Azerbaijan — with powerful Turkish backing including attack drones — recaptured much of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. The death toll was in the thousands, and tens of thousands of people were forced to flee.

  • Baku Cancels Talks With Yerevan

    Baku Cancels Talks With Yerevan

    Armenia, Azerbaijan: Baku Cancels Talks With Yerevan, Threatens Nagorno-Karabakh

    What Happened: Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev backed out of the Dec. 7 round of peace talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after the latter insisted that French President Emmanuel Macron also be present, Reuters reported Nov. 28. This came as Azerbaijani officials accused Armenia of using the “Lachin corridor” to supply weapons to the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region and as Azerbaijani media began to speculate about the need for a new military offensive in the region. 
     
    Why It Matters: Pashinyan and Aliyev failed to meet in Brussels, Belgium, for peace talks in November, and the potential further delay to their December meeting is a clear sign that talks have stalled. The two sides’ failure to make greater progress in peace talks and the recent shift in Azerbaijani rhetoric suggest that Azerbaijan is increasingly motivated to use force to demonstrate its leverage, meaning the possibility of renewed violent episodes either on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border or in Nagorno-Karabakh is rising. A renewed uptick in violence would make a breakthrough in peace talks even more unlikely to occur by the end of this year. 
     
    Background: On Nov. 23, Pashinyan refused to sign Collective Security Treaty Organization documents related to providing assistance to Armenia. On Nov. 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, but the talks did not result in any breakthrough toward a peace agreement. On Oct. 12, Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said Armenia and Azerbaijan were set to agree to a peace agreement by the end of the year that will include the issue of border delimitation, although he indicated that the treaty would not reference the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. 

    Stratfor

  • Azerbaijan, Armenia eye preparations for future peace treaty

    Azerbaijan, Armenia eye preparations for future peace treaty

    Azerbaijan, Armenia eye preparations for future peace treaty

    By Vafa Ismayilova

    Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan have discussed work on preparations for a future peace treaty between the two countries.

    Bayramov made the remarks on his official Twitter account on April 11.

    “Had a telephone conversation with Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan. We had an exchange on the work on the preparation of future peace treaty, the convening of the Joint Border Commission, as well as humanitarian issues,” Bayramov tweeted.

    The direct phone conversation between Azerbaijani and Armenian ministers, the first in about 30 years, is a follow-up to the agreements reached at the level of both states’ leaders in Brussels on April 6.

    Meanwhile, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar expressed support to direct contact and engagement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

    “Important development following last week’s Brussels meeting. EU is supportive of direct contacts and engagement,” he tweeted in response to Bayramov’s publication about the telephone conversation with his Armenian colleague.

    Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and European Council President Charles Michel met in a trilateral format in Brussels on April 6.

    The meeting was held for a continuation of the discussions on the situation in the South Caucasus region and the development of EU relations with both countries.

    The leaders took stock of developments since their last meeting in Brussels in December 2021 and their videoconference, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, in February 2022. They reviewed progress on the implementation of undertaken commitments. The leaders discussed the recently reported tensions and reiterated the necessity of adhering fully to the provisions of the 9/10 November 2020 trilateral statement.

    Both Aliyev and Pashinyan expressed a willingness to work quickly toward a peace agreement between their countries. To that end, it was decided to instruct foreign ministers to begin work on drafting a future peace treaty that would address all of the issues.

    At the same time, it was also agreed to convene a Joint Border Commission by the end of April. The Joint Border Commission’s mandate will be to: delimit the bilateral border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and ensure a stable security situation along and in the vicinity of the borderline.

    Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz /TURKİSHFORUM – ABDULLAH TÜRER YENER

  • Azerbaijani NGOs Appeal to the International Community

    Azerbaijani NGOs Appeal to the International Community

    By Azer HASRET

    As is known, on September 27, 2020 Occupational Armed Forces of Armenia had started military offensive against Azerbaijani positions and civil settlements. As a result Azerbaijani Armed Forces had to react and started counter-attacks. Thus the war, which lasted 44 days and ended with the victory of Azerbaijan, had started. Day by day Armenian Army had to step back and on November 10, 2020 the sides signed a Statement to stop war operations. The Statement was initiated by the Russian Federation.

    During those terrific days Armenian Armed Forces launched hundreds of rocket attacks on civil settlements. Mostly those settlements were outside of war scene and even hundreds of kms off. Thus one of the most suffered cities was Ganja, some 60 km away from Karabakh and war zone.

    On October 3, 2021, on the eve of the first Armenian rocket attack on Ganja, a group of Azerbaijani NGO representatives traveled to the city to express their solidarity with the suffered people and even with the all inhabitants. The city of Ganja was attacked with rockets 5 times and saw huge damages to the city killing dozens of peaceful civilians.

    NGO representatives, visiting one of the most suffered areas, convened a conference in Ganja dedicated to the attacks on the civil settlements. At the end of the conference participants adopted An Appeal to the International Community which is included below.

    An Appeal to the International Community in Regard to the Military Crimes Committed by Armenia Against Cities and Districts of Azerbaijan in 2020

    03 October 2021, Ganja City

    As a reply to the next military provocation committed against our country by armed forces of the Republic of Armenia on September 27, 2020, the armed forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan had started contra attack operations and had liberated the lands belonging to the Republic of Azerbaijan.

    As a result of successful military operations conducted by our army the military forces of Armenia were completely destroyed. With the aim to compensate the loss in the field of battle the Government of Armenia had chosen the civil population living in the cities and districts out of the frontline of the war shooting from different types of heavy weapons including artillery and ballistic rockets committing crimes and military crimes against the mankind and killed civil population including women and children making damage to the property of population as well as infrastructure facilities in a large scale

    Thus, the second largest city of Azerbaijan Ganja faced heavy artillery and rocket attacks during the dates of October 4, 5, 8, 11 and 17. In general, as a result of these horrible terroristic acts 26 persons lost their lives, 175 persons were wounded, and a huge number of civil infrastructure facilities and vehicles faced significant damage.

    In general, based on the order of the Government of Armenia not only Ganja and Barda, also Yevlakh, Beylagan, Tartar, Gabala, Goranboy, Aghjabadi, Khizi and other cities and districts were attacked with ballistic rockets and other type of heavy artillery weapons. As a result of this military aggression 454 civilians were wounded, 93 civilians died including 12 children and 27 women, totally 12.292 residential and non-residential areas as well as 288 vehicles had been significantly damaged.

    Because of this above-mentioned reasons, we as the NGOs of Azerbaijan with the deep feeling of concern would like to attract the attention of international community to the crimes committed against mankind by the political and military government of Armenia a year ago and we are stating that the international humanitarian law especially Geneva Convention adopted in 1949 had been seriously violated.

    We, the NGOs that are active in Azerbaijan who are signing this appeal on behalf of civil society of our country would like to apply to human rights protection organizations, NGOs, media representatives, parliament members and governments in all over the world calling them to express their protest regarding the military crimes committed against the civil population of Azerbaijan by Armenia and to announce this type of military acts against civil population as unacceptable.

    Signed by 49 NGOs

  • An Open Letter to the Congressmen Tony Cárdenas, Adam Schiff and Brad Sherman

    An Open Letter to the Congressmen Tony Cárdenas, Adam Schiff and Brad Sherman

    Azer HASRET

    We, the people of Azerbaijan just learned that you have acted in the House of Representatives to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022, which includes an amendment in regard to our country. In your amendment we witness many fake accusations which press us to share our position openly.

    First of all you claim that “On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan, with support from Turkey and foreign militia groups, launched a military assault on Nagorno-Karabakh”, “resulting in the deaths of thousands and displacing tens of thousands of ethnic Armenian residents”.

    Just to enlighten you and your supporters I’ll recall the statistics delivered by official Yerevan that about 30 civilian Armenians were killed during this 44 days of war, not thousands. And military personal which were eliminated in thousands in the territory of Azerbaijan were mostly of Armenian citizenship, not Karabakh residents. Thus Azerbaijan eliminated foreign occupants and cleansed its territories from the foreign occupants which is not against any international law or obligation.

    By the way, Armenian occupant army launched dozens of rocket attacks on civil settlements of Azerbaijan out of war zone during this war and killed more than 100 civilians. Among them many kids, children and women fell victim of Armenian rockets.

    Then you claim that Azerbaijan used “support from Turkey and foreign militia groups”. Are you serious? Do you know that no any foreigner fought in the side of Azerbaijan and there are no any evidences proving that? Just do not fell a victim of Armenian propaganda.

    You are citing the tripartite statement by Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia from the November 10, 2020 to end the conflict. This statement really oversees exchange of all POWs, and the conflicting sides really had returned all of them immediately after the statement was signed. Thus Azerbaijan and Armenia both have no POWs after this date. But ugly Armenian propaganda is spreading fake information that Azerbaijan is still keeping Armenian POWs. And people like you are volunteering to be a tool for this propaganda.

    Again, to enlighten you, Azerbaijan has several Armenian detainees, but they are not POWs as those people were stopped and detained at the end of November 2020 while illegally entered Azerbaijani lands, killed several Azerbaijanis including civilians. They all are citizens of Armenia and captured in the territory of Azerbaijan. Even most of them are freed and returned home. Going back they claimed that Azerbaijan tortured them, but they could not provide evidences of torture.

    And a question for you: if any well equipped military group would enter the US illegally and kill people what would your government do with them? In such a case would you call on the US Government as well to release these people untouched? I believe that you’ll say no.

    Once, you’re citing on “The Third Geneva Convention, of which Azerbaijan is a signatory, and customary international law” which “require the release of prisoners of war and captured civilians upon the cessation of hostilities and require that all detainees be treated humanely”.

    And again you are claiming that “the Government of Azerbaijan continues to detain an estimated 200 Armenian prisoners of war, hostages, and detained persons, misrepresenting their status in an attempt to justify their continued captivity”.

    Again, I’ll call on you to be serious. If Azerbaijan has released all persons who were captured before the end of the war, how you can claim that my country is still keeping POWs? Just ask the Government of Armenia and they will tell you that Azerbaijan had released all detained persons who were captured during actions of war days.

    While seeing your citation of the Human Rights Watch and Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights reports, once more we see manipulation approval by such organizations. This kind of “human rights” organizations are always used as a tool to serve the interests of those who pay.

    I was surprised while reading your claim that Azerbaijan could subject to sexual assaults woman detainees. Just to enlighten you once more, there is no any female detainee of Armenian origin in Azerbaijan. Even due to other crimes as we have more than 30 thousands of citizens of Armenian origin out of Karabakh, which lived all these years of conflict in peace in Azerbaijan.

    You say, that “Armenia has fulfilled its obligations under the November 9 statement and international law by returning Azerbaijani prisoners of war”. You are right. And Azerbaijan did the same as the sides exchanged mutually in this regard.

    Thus your demand to call on Azerbaijan to “immediately and unconditionally return all Armenian prisoners of war and captured civilians” falls apart for having no ground.

    In regard to your baseless claims on “Azerbaijan’s use of white phosphorous, cluster bombs, and prohibited munitions deployed by Azerbaijan against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Nagorno Karabakh” I’d say this is a joke by your side. No evidence on these fake claims as well.

    I believe that you were maybe drunk while claiming “Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s recruitment of

    foreign terrorist fighters to participate in Azerbaijan’s offensive military operations against Nagorno Karabakh between September 27, 2020, and November 9, 2020”. Why do I think so? Just for very simple reason. A person must be drunk or very far from the issue to claim this way.

    Turkey helped Azerbaijan in this war in political and moral realms and we – the people of Azerbaijan and Turkey are happy with this. But no any person from Turkey or beyond was engaged in military actions in this war. For very simple reason: Azerbaijan does not need this kind of support as we have very professionally trained and well equipped Army. Plus if compare with Armenian Army and even two nations, Azerbaijan’s military, economic and human power is more from Armenia’s for several times. There is no logic to involve foreign fighters while the country has quite enough power. You as a member of Congress had to know this.

    And at last I’d call on you and likewise people to stay away and let the people of Azerbaijan and Armenia to find common language. We here in the Caucasus, which is very far from the US know better how to deal with issues of conflicts between ourselves rather than you. If people like you will stay away from the issues and will not make any interference we’ll find solutions to all questions in our geography. Once we reach an agreement with Armenians you’ll see that we can live together in peace and prosperity. And without your involvement…

    With hopes to be understood,

    Mr. Azer HASRET

    A Journalist, Human Rights and Civil Movement Activist

    Former Candidate to the Parliament of Azerbaijan