By Harut Sassounian,

Pres. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan repeatedly states that he ignores all international criticisms regarding his violations of the human rights of his own citizens, war crimes by his soldiers, and ethnic cleansing of Artsakh Armenians. Aliyev tries to cover up these violations and crimes through ‘Caviar diplomacy,’ by providing billions of dollars in bribes to various European officials.

Anytime Azerbaijan has a problem with a foreign country, Europeans institutions or international courts, he puts on a brave face and acts like nothing has happened. He repeatedly says, “I don’t care who says what, I will do what I want.”

I would like to cite a recent example of Aliyev being so bothered by such issues that, rather than ignoring them, has gone to unusual lengths to resolve them.

This example has to do with France. In recent months, Aliyev has been quite outspoken with his harsh criticism of French President Emmanuel Macron for supporting Armenia. Aliyev has refused to meet with Pres. Macron and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to discuss the Artsakh conflict. Aliyev also complained about France selling a number of armored personnel carriers to Armenia. While spending billions of dollars to arm Azerbaijan with the latest Israeli and Turkish drones and missiles, Aliyev dares to complain about Armenia procuring a limited number of arms to defend itself.

Late last year, the Azerbaijan-France confrontation got more heated when Azerbaijan expelled two French embassy officials from Baku and in return France expelled two Azeri embassy officials from Paris.

The Intelligence Online website reported that, according to its confidential sources, Azerbaijan’s intelligence services asked Mossad, Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, to intervene with France to resolve their outstanding conflicts.

According to confidential Mossad sources, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Intelligence Service (XKX), led by General Orkhan Sultanov, asked his counterpart in Israel to intervene with the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE) of France to deescalate the tension between Baku and Paris. Azerbaijan indicated that it would not want to worsen the existing dispute.

However, the Azeri effort failed, as Mossad did not transmit the Azeri request to France, according to Intelligence Online sources. This was a delicate issue for Israel as it wanted on one hand to preserve its good relations with Azerbaijan, while on the other hand Israel’s intelligence agency did not want to attempt such mediation at a time when it was preoccupied with the conflict in Gaza and other Middle Eastern hot spots.

Intelligence Online reported that Mossad enjoys a high degree of influence over Baku, since Israel uses the Azeri territory for its operations in Iran. When Mossad stole Iran’s nuclear documents from Tehran in 2018, Israel’s agents used Azerbaijan’s border to flee from Iran. In return, Mossad greatly facilitated Azerbaijan’s acquisition of sophisticated weapons from Israel, which aided Baku, the second largest buyer of Israeli arms, to score victories in 2020 and 2023 in Artsakh. Just before the attack on Artsakh in September 2023, Azerbaijan’s security services informed the experts of Mossad and Unit 8200 (Aman) of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate of their plans and sought their advice.

According to Intelligence Online, Mossad has in recent years brought its cooperation with the French External Security Directorate to a higher operational level, notably on Iran. The French Agency has also been mobilized over the situation in Gaza.

The new director of French Intelligence Agency, Nicolas Lerner, met with David Barnea, the director of Mossad when the latter came to Paris in the last week of January. Attending the closed-door meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian issue were Abbas Kamel, head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (Mukhabarat el-amma); Ronen Bar, head of Shin Bet, Israel’s Internal Security Agency; William Barnes, head of the CIA; and Qatari officials.

Intelligence Online importantly reported that the CIA let Baku know that it was not pleased with Azerbaijan’s conflict with French Intelligence, while France is trying to hinder Moscow in the Caucasus and needs Azerbaijan’s platform.

Having exposed Aliyev’s deception about ignoring international pressure on Azerbaijan, my advice to the international community is to continue pressuring Aliyev to stop his unacceptable behavior. Otherwise, he will go on with his multitude of ever-increasing violations and crimes, causing great harm to Azeris and Armenians alike.

Next week, I will expose another one of Aliyev’s efforts to counter international pressures on Azerbaijan, despite his denials of not paying any attention to them.

Gagik Tsarukyan, who heads the Prosperous Armenia party, recently attended a “For Freedom of Nations” forum in Moscow organized by Russia’s governing United Russia party.

Tsarukyan, an Armenian businessman with pro-Russian leanings, in a Facebook post today writes that he attended the conference to improve relations between Yerevan and Moscow that have soured of late.

“Everyone is concerned today. Everyone understands that today’s Armenians are broken. They don’t have their former pride, and this is not a favorable situation for our people,” Tsarukyan writes.

Delegates from more than fifty countries attended the forum that discussed “countering interference in the sovereign affairs of states and countering destructive neo-colonial practices.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a statement welcoming forum participants, wrote that Russia has “done a great deal to dismantle the foundations of the colonial system and support national liberation movements.”

Putin accused the West of aggressively interfering in the internal matters of independent states, including Russia, to “preserve its stranglehold and domination at any cost, to economically subjugate other countries, to deprive them of sovereignty and to impose alien values and cultural traditions upon them.”

The top photo shows Tsarukyan (left) talking with Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev who now chairs the United Russia party.

Source: https://hetq.am/en/article/164400

(SANTA ANA, CA) – Transport yourself to ancient Greece and Rome at John Wayne Airport with Brennan Major Harris’s newest exhibition, Arete & Ergon, on view from January 29, 2024, to February 29, 2024. 

Hailing from Southern California, Harris earned his BA in Studio Art from California State University, Long Beach, where he specialized in drawing and painting. Inspired by the aesthetics and philosophies of Classical Greece and Rome, Brennan Harris seamlessly infuses a contemporary twist into ‘classically beautiful’ forms.

“This body of work aims to celebrate the refinement that Classic sculptors achieved in their works, blended with a vibrant, abstract aesthetic. Building a bridge through time in paint with invigorating color,” Harris says about the exhibition.

“The balance of rhythmic, non-objective shapes with the eternal, stoic beauty of the cold marble figures is endlessly interesting to me,” he muses, “It is in a way, my attempt to breathe new life into and offer a contemporary context for an ancient beauty and virtuous principles.”

Guided by the profound ideals of Greek mythology and philosophy, Brennan strives to embody the concepts of Arete and Ergon—the pursuit of excellence through the fulfillment of a purpose and the maximization of potential through dedicated hard work.

By Harut Sassounian

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has boasted for five years about his political party’s fair conduct in elections, blaming the former leaders of carrying out fraudulent elections. As the proverb says, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Pashinyan has used the considerable resources of his government to gain an unfair advantage over his political opponents during local and parliamentary elections. Nevertheless, some of the opposition candidates, following their election to a public office, are removed after being arrested, tried and jailed by pro-Pashinyan judges.

A recent example of fraud carried out by Pashinyan’s political party is the September 17, 2023 elections for the City Council of Yerevan. After ousting his own party member Hayk Marutyan from the position of mayor for daring to criticize the ruling party, Pashinyan planned to replace him with former Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan.

Pashinyan’s backers resorted to a typical fundraising trick to ensure that Avinyan, who had little public support, becomes the Mayor of Yerevan. To accomplish their objective, they raised over one million dollars in campaign funds from mysterious individuals under fake names, an investigation revealed.

Infocom.am journalists contacted many of the names on the donors’ list and found out that some of them were fake.

The scandal starts with a Pashinyan supporter borrowing the ID card of a friend to donate using her name 2.5 million dram ($6,200), the maximum amount allowed by law, to Pashinyan’s political party, Civil Contract. This lady’s ID card was used to hide the real donor’s name. Unbeknownst to her, she was listed as a large donor to Pashinyan’s party. The fraudulent transaction took place on July 31, 2023, hours before a fundraising event held later that evening during which Pashinyan’s party claimed that 987 donors had raised over one million dollars (506 million dram), for the City Council race.

When asked by the media, Pashinyan’s political party refused to make the donors’ names public. Only after the Freedom of Information Center filed a lawsuit, the party disclosed the list of donors with fake names on January 12, 2024. The list included 996 names who had donated nearly $1.3 million (509 million dram) to the campaign.

When the lady, who was reported as donating 2.5 million dram, saw her name on the donors’ list, she was very upset. Infocom.am contacted other names on the donors’ list. Many of them were surprised that their names were used as donors to a political campaign. 87% of the donors were listed as donating over a million dram each, 70% of whom (140 individuals) were listed as donating the maximum amount of 2.5 million dram. Among the large donors were 88 candidates for City Council from the ruling Civil Contract party.

Infocom.am disclosed that the largest donors were the owners of major corporations, their executives and employees. Eight of the large donors worked for a single prominent company. It was confirmed that its employees had not donated from their personal funds, but the business owners had paid in their names. Several other big businessmen were listed as donating the maximum amount. Among the donors on the list were the names of employees of the City Council of Yerevan.

Infocom.am, after contacting the donors on the list provided by the Civil Contract party, concluded that some of the names on the donors’ list are “at least suspicious. The investigation showed that through organized mechanisms, funds of unknown origin were directed to the Civil Contract party’s fundraising, sometimes under the names of citizens who were generally unaware of the process.” In addition, since the law does not allow fundraising donations in cash, Infocom.am asked Avinyan’s campaign officials how the donations were made during the fundraising event. They answered that employees of ‘Hayeconobank’, who were present, transferred the cash to the account of the party. Among the shareholders of Hayeconobank is the ruling party parliament member and well-known oligarch Khachatur Sukiasyan, known as Grzo.

Infocom.am told the Deputy Head of the Civil Contract party Vahagn Aleksanyan that the donors it contacted said that they have made no such donations. Aleksanyan asked for the names of these individuals in order to verify them. When told that Infocom.amcannot disclose their names, Aleksanyan replied that perhaps they did not identify the correct individuals.

According to the law, the government can inspect the fundraising of a campaign only eight months after the election. The law states that by May 31 of the year following an election, political parties have to present their financial reports to the Anti-Corruption Committee.

When Infocom.am asked the former President of the Central Election Committee Vahagn Hovakimyan, a former Parliament member from the Civil Contract party, about its refusal to disclose the list of donors, Hovakimyan replied: “You are treating the political forces as potential criminals.”

This is a clear illustration of the fraud committed by Pashinyan’s party during the elections for the City Council of Yerevan. Nevertheless, the election was not as successful as expected for the ruling party. Avinyan was elected mayor only after the opposition parties, which had more City Council members than the ruling party, had failed to combine their votes to elect their own candidate for mayor.

This is the sad picture of the so-called democracy in Armenia. I seriously doubt that the Anti-Corruption Committee will take any legal action against Pashinyan’s political party for violating election laws.

The Committee for the Defense of Fundamental Rights of the People of Artsakh issued a statement on Friday. It reads as follows: In furtherance of its statement dated January 18, 2024, the Committee for the Defense of Fundamental Rights of the People of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) informs that the initial composition of the Committee includes the following individuals: –

Vartan Oskanian, Foreign Minister of Armenia (1998-2008) – Gegham Stepanyan, Human Rights Defender of Artsakh – Karen Bekaryan, Chairman of the Board, “Insight” Analytical Center for Applied Policy and Research, Armenia – Mario Nalpatian, Member of ANC Central Committee, Argentina – Kaspar Karampetian, President, European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy, Belgium – Karnig Kerkonian, International Lawyer, USA The Committee will expand to include additional members, incorporating also individuals from Russia and the Middle East.

The primary mission of the Committee is to pursue and defend the Artsakh people’s right of collective return under tangible international protections, ensuring their safe, secure, and dignified resettlement in their homeland. The people of Artsakh have been forcibly displaced from their homes and lands under the threat of genocide. It is their inherent and inalienable right to return to their homeland without hindrance and to continue their normal democratic life, which was interrupted by military aggression. They should be able to safeguard their language, cultural, and religious heritage, reclaim their property, organize their lives, and maintain their distinct identity according to internationally accepted norms. The right of individuals displaced by conflict to return to their homes voluntarily and safely is recognized as a customary norm of international humanitarian law and is protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, and numerous regional conventions. Furthermore, on November 17, 2023, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the Republic of Azerbaijan must ensure the safe and unhindered return of those who left Nagorno-Karabakh after September 19, 2023.

The Committee will engage in multilateral initiatives on international platforms to advocate, introduce, substantiate, and champion the interests and rights of the people of Artsakh. Additionally, the Committee will serve as the representative voice for the people of Artsakh in dealings with state and political entities, as well as in international instances, forums, and courts. The Committee will undertake sustained efforts with the Artsakh Armenians, the public in Armenia, and compatriots in the Diaspora, aiming to unite all available resources, including civil society, mass media, academic and professional circles, in pursuit of the aforementioned objectives. The Committee anticipates that the authorities of Armenia and all political forces will show support and a willingness to cooperate. The Committee is ready to work with anyone and everyone willing to assume responsibility within the goals pursued by this mandated Committee.

Source: 301