Edik Andreasyan,

The RA authorities have already announced at various levels that Armenia has nothing to do with the Artsakh issue, starting with ensuring the security of Artsakh, and ending with the settlement of such a sensitive issue as the opening of the Lachine Corridor.

The only conclusion that can be drawn from all this is the following: the RA authorities have adopted a policy of non-interference in the affairs of Artsakh. Personally, in my opinion, non-interference in the affairs of Artsakh is the best decision of Nikol Pashinyan and his political group. If they do not interfere, they cannot harm, and the harm they inflict cannot be fatal for Artsakh.
However, a very interesting Sunday opened on Artsakh. It turned out that Nikol Pashinyan has once again poked his nose into the internal affairs of Artsakh and is trying, to put it mildly, to make political adjustments there. Please tell Mr. Pashinyan that Ruben Vardanyan “doesn’t care” that he is the de facto leader of Artsakh today. But who cares about Nikol Pashinyan’s opinion about Ruben Vardanyan, if it completely coincides with Ilham Aliyev’s earlier opinion that Ruben Vardanyan should leave Artsakh. And here Nikol, Arayik Harutyunyan and a group of capitulants from Artsakh are trying to remove Ruben Vardanyan, who has a rather tough position towards the Azerbaijani authorities and managed to manage the situation during the siege of Artsakh.

It is not difficult to understand that these days, throwing political disputes in Artsakh is at least a donkey on the part of the RA authorities, if not to say, to pour water into Azerbaijan’s mill and make the problem of Russian peacekeepers more difficult. The establishment of anarchy in Artsakh is directly beneficial to Azerbaijan. And this is exactly what Pashinyan and Arayik Harutyunyan are trying to do, talking about some elections and the formation of a new government. The idea of ​​organizing new elections in Artsakh is futile and has no prospect of success for the simple reason that no organization in the world will undertake to observe and certify their process and results. Moreover, even Armenia cannot participate in these elections as an observer. And maybe Nikol and Arayik are trying to put the failure of those elections in the pockets of the Russian peacekeepers… It’s ridiculous.

In fact, Nikol Pashinyan sees in Ruben Vardanyan not only the defeat of his henchmen from Artsakh, but also his own defeat. Everyone understands that Ruben Vardanyan managed to carry out a formal change of power in Artsakh and took over the main functions vital for the second Armenian state. Arayik Harutyunyan, whom Nikol appointed the president of Artsakh, has been hopelessly pushed into the background and continues to be considered the president of Artsakh simply because it is simply impossible to organize new elections in Artsakh. Nikol Pashinyan understands very well that tomorrow, the next day, Azerbaijan will have to come to terms with the idea of ​​negotiating with Ruben Vardanyan, and this already means that Ruben Vardanyan will become the de facto leader of Artsakh. and one fine day Arayik Harutyunyan will present to the public what he knows or does not know about Nikol in court. Pashinyan wants to prevent this and is doing everything to bring Araik Harutyunyan back to power. I do not rule out that Aliyev agrees to open the corridor, only if Nikol’s plan is implemented in Artsakh and someone appears there who will agree to be the proxy of official Baku in Stepanakert. Such a thing simply cannot be allowed until Artsakh does not have any status both within Azerbaijan and outside of it.

It remains to urge Nikol one thing: if you need to do something important today to resolve the situation, it is your resignation. Keep your hands off Artsakh. They know what they are doing and how to keep Artsakh Armenian. You better solve the issue of Armenia remaining Armenian with your resignation.

For the past five weeks, the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, sandwiched between Azerbaijan and Armenia, has been blockaded by Azerbaijan. As much of the world celebrated Christmas and New Year, over 120,000 Armenian residents of the region—the oldest continuously inhabited Armenian homeland, dotted with Armenian churches and monasteries and monuments predating the spread of Christianity to Europe by decades—were cut off from the world. 

A group of Azerbaijani citizens identifying as “environmental activists” barricaded the Lachin corridor, a mountainous road that serves as the only path between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, since December 12. The flow of food and medicine fell to a trickle before the supplies essential for the continuation of normal life gradually disappeared altogether. A place that once received 400 tons of food and medical supplies daily now barely receives a few carloads on a good day. Hospitals have indefinitely put surgeries on hold. Children are going hungry. There is an acute shortage of fuel as temperatures drop to below -4°C, and families are burning scraps to heat their homes.

Armenians, a people who endured a protracted genocide under the Ottoman Empire before being exposed to Soviet autocratic rule in the 20th century, are being subjected to collective punishment in the 21st century with the intent of driving them out of their home. 

Nagorno-Karabakh, a historically Armenian territory, is known to Armenians as Artsakh. Despite its history and demography, it was handed to Soviet Azerbaijan in 1921 by Joseph Stalin, who implemented the imperial method of disrupting cohesive national and ethnic communities to keep diverse populations in check. In 1988, the people of Artsakh voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to dissolve Moscow’s artificial cartography, secede from Soviet Azerbaijan and assert their Armenian identity.

This defiant act of self-determination resulted in yet more massacres of Armenians, whose wish was not honored. Upon the USSR’s collapse, Artsakh ended up inside the Soviet frontiers inherited by Azerbaijan. The Armenians, however, defeated Azerbaijan in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, which lasted until 1994, when the region proclaimed its autonomy. Then, in 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Azerbaijan launched a surprise offensive—now known as the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War—with the open involvement and assistance of Turkey.

Azerbaijan wanted the land—without the people who inhabit the land. Its battlefield gains were followed by a ruthless effort to raze all traces of Armenian history. While Armenia maintains a medieval mosque in its capital, has excellent relations with the Islamic world and welcomes people of all faiths, Azerbaijan has taken to disfiguring and destroying Armenian churches in the territory it took as a matter of policy. Hundreds of Armenian servicemen still remain in Azeri captivity. 

The humanitarian catastrophe we are now witnessing—or, more accurately, the world is refusing to witness—is a textbook enactment of ethnic cleansing. More than a dozen nongovernmental organizations, including Genocide Watch, have issued a stark warning that Azerbaijan’s blockade is “designed to, in the words of the Genocide Convention, deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the end of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part. All 14 risk factors for atrocity crimes identified by the UN Secretary-General’s Office on Genocide Prevention are now present.”

The only lifeline for Armenians in Artsakh is that slender road that connects them to Armenia.

Volunteers at home and in Armenian diaspora communities are doing all they can to help. As the former president of Armenia, I have decided to give the pension set up for me in law to humanitarian causes in Artsakh. Such efforts cannot, however, succeed in isolation. History—Armenian history—teaches us that the success of genocidal campaigns is always dependent on the silence of the world. It is time for the international community to speak up.

Source: https://time.com/6246850/armenia-azerbaijan-nagorno-karabakh-lachin-corridor/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=ideas_&linkId=197030492

Araik Harutyunyan convinces to organize the elections after his resignation

15 January 2023 |: 00:36

Araik Harutyunyan convinces to organize the elections after his resignation

Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan recently addressed the news about his possible dismissal and announced that he personally is not going to resign. “I am not going to resign, especially in the current situation. At the same time, the possible resignation of the country’s president, and therefore also the parliament, is unacceptable.

All of our efforts must be multiplied to overcome the challenges facing Artsakh. 
In this situation, we have no right to serve the enemy’s agenda and surrender.
We now have a real opportunity to keep Artsakh Armenian. 
I appeal to everyone for political common sense and solidarity,” Vardanyan wrote on his Facebook page, essentially escalating the situation and making it clear that his resignation is the demand of some circles, in this case, Nikol Pashinyan, therefore, Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev, which was imposed by Arayik Harutyunyan. Of course, Vardanyan may not submit a resignation letter, but according to the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the president signs the decisions to release and appoint government members, Ruben Vardanyan thus throws the ball into Araik Harutyunyan’s court and urges him to clarify the reasons for his possible release. 

Our sources in Artsakh report that, however, Vardanyan’s resignation seems to have no alternative, now the negotiations are on a different agenda. Arayik Harutyunyan is trying to convince the players of the political field that after his resignation, he will organize the parliamentary and presidential elections of the Republic of Armenia as a temporary official, while according to the Constitution and existing laws, the authority to organize the elections is reserved for the Speaker of the National Assembly, in this case, Artur Tovmasyan.

President Harutyunyan’s demand is definitely not accepted by the field players, they think that in that case there can be no change of power in Artsakh, because according to tradition, whoever organizes the election becomes the government, and Harutyunyan is trying to convince that only in that case can get guarantees for holding elections, there is a danger that the electoral processes will be disrupted and a dangerous situation of anarchy will be created in Artsakh and Azerbaijan will consider its dream fulfilled, to rule Artsakh through some representative. Araik Harutyunyan is conducting consultations on this topic, we will present the arrangements and new developments later.

Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ : https://hraparak-am.translate.goog/post/40aaaea77d77f4fe9792ccb1533a8172?_x_tr_sl=hy&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc

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Arevik Hakobyan

A little while ago, we wrote that the resignation of Ruben Vardanyan, who was appointed as the Minister of State in November, is expected in the coming hours, this is also unexpected for the political forces of Artsakh, who, according to our information, are currently trying to meet with the ruling elite and understand the created situation.

Our sources in Artsakh report that Vardanyan is leaving at the request of President Arayik Harutyunyan, and more precisely, Nikol Pashinyan, it is said that, according to all, such an instruction was given by the Azerbaijani side, various Azerbaijani officials have repeatedly publicly demanded Vardanyan’s resignation. 

“I think tomorrow, perhaps, there will be some information in that direction, because the Azerbaijani authorities took it very hard for him to be in that position and announced that they would never negotiate with him. I would not like it to happen that it turns out that the Azerbaijanis are hiding behind all this. pressures, and it should not become the case that a personnel policy should be implemented in Artsakh at their whim”, Arshak Abrahamyan, the EC chairman of the “Ardarutyun” party of the Artsakh Republic, the founder of the “Vernatun” youth analytical center, said in a conversation with hraparak.am .

 “Let me say this: in such a tense situation, it is not possible to repeat the mistakes of the 44-day war and leave very important topics so that the public suddenly gets information from the news media, who very often refer to closed and anonymous sources. This is a very delicate issue, there should be a statement at the official level. “I think it would be right if the Minister of State speaks about it personally,” our interlocutor added.

Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ : https://hraparak-am.translate.goog/post/9bd597bbc97a230ea398889f091a71b2?_x_tr_sl=hy&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc

© 2008 – 2021 «Հրապարակ օրաթերթ»

YEREVAN, JANUARY 14, ARMENPRESS. The international human rights organization Freedom House once again called on Azerbaijan to immediately stop the blockade of the Lachin Corridor, and called on the international community to support the lifting of the blockade. ARMENPRESS reports, Freedom House said in two Twitter posts.

The organization first noted that Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor for more than a month is creating a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh as vital supplies dwindle.

“We call again for Azerbaijan to immediately end the blockage. We call on the international community to support the lifting of the blockade and a return to negotiations without coercion. The rights, security, and well-being of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh must be ensured.” said Freedom House.

Since December 12, 2022 Azerbaiajn keeps the only highway connecting Artsakh to the world, the Lachin Corridor, closed, citing false environmental reasons. In addition, on January 9, an accident was recorded in the 33rd km of the only high-voltage line feeding Artsakh from Armenia. The accident occured in the Aghavno-Berdzor section. Azerbaijan does not allow restoration works to be carried out.

In Artsakh, internet connection supply was also interrupted from January 12. The cable was damaged in the very part of the Lachin Corridor, where the Azerbaijani pseudo-environmentalists are stationed. And only on January 13, thanks to the negotiations conducted by the Russian peacekeeping troops stationed in Artsakh, the technical specialists of “Karabakh Telecom” Company were able to go to the place of the accident and carry out appropriate work on the spot to restore the damaged part of the cable. Internet connection has been restored in the entire territory of the Republic of Artsakh.

The European Parliament will hold a plenary session on January 18 to discuss the humanitarian consequences of the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, the website of the European Parliament reported.

The debates at the plenary session will be held on January 18 and the voting will take place on January 19.

For over a month already so-called Azerbaijani “environmentalists” have been blocking the road to life of Artsakh: Lachin corridor, which is fraught with a humanitarian catastrophe. This is the only road linking Artsakh with Armenia. 

The Executive body of the Republican Party of Armenia issued a statement regarding the closure of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan. We present it below.

“Noting that in 2022 Since December 12, for more than a month, the closure of the Kashatagh (Lachin) corridor, the only road connecting Artsakh with Armenia and the outside world, by the Azerbaijani authorities is another manifestation of Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy and genocidal actions.

Being deeply concerned by the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh, which is becoming more noticeable day by day, the severe consequences of the deliberate disruption of vital infrastructures, such as communication, energy supply and communication,

Convinced of the policy unleashed by Azerbaijan to exert moral and psychological pressure on the people of Artsakh and depatriate them in the name of a false environmental initiative, 

Noting that the situation in 2020 It is a consequence of the non-fulfillment of the obligations assumed by the parties that signed the tripartite statement of November 9,

Welcoming the determination and willingness of the people of Artsakh to manage their own destiny, to live freely outside of Azerbaijan and to exercise their internationally defined right to self-determination,

Condemning the victimizing attitude of the de facto authorities of the Republic of Armenia and the policy of evading Armenia’s assumed responsibility for the fate of the Artsakh Armenians,

Emphasizing the mission carried out by the Russian peacekeeping contingent,

Being deeply concerned about the foolish policies and damaging statements of Nikol Pashinyan and his administration, which harm the security system of Armenia and the Armenian-Russian relations, which are an important component of it.

The Republican Party of Armenia:

He expresses his unconditional support and political-civic support to the people of Artsakh. 
Addressing our compatriots of Artsakh who are going through unspeakable difficulties and deprivation these days, we would like to emphasize that.

The Republican Party of Armenia, as a political force at the roots of the struggle for the independence of Armenia and the Artsakh Liberation War, unconditionally and consistently supports you in the struggle for the realization of the right to live freely, independently and safely in the historical homeland. That struggle was and remains the struggle of all Armenians, regardless of the position and way of working of the authorities of the day.

We assure you that under no circumstances will we deviate from the path we adopted more than three decades ago and we are faithful to the letter and spirit of the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Armenia expressing the united will of the Armenian people, as well as to the resolution of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Armenia in 1992. to the decision of July 8, which, among a number of important provisions, states: “It is unacceptable for the Republic of Armenia to consider any international or domestic document in which the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh will be mentioned as part of Azerbaijan.”

Geopolitical negotiations, purposeful political adventures against the security systems of Armenia and Artsakh are considered unacceptable. 
He thanks the Russian peacekeeping mission for the service, at the same time emphasizing that he expects decisive decisions and clear actions arising from the situation to ensure the 2020 peacekeeping mission. the unconditional fulfillment of the points stipulated in the tripartite declaration of November 9,

Strongly opposes any agreements, written or oral, that would ignore the prospect of realizing the right to self-determination and international recognition of the people of Artsakh. 

Urges the de facto authorities of RA to stop the anti-national policy of recklessly endangering the interests of Armenia and Artsakh in the ongoing struggle between the superpowers in the current tense geopolitical situation, serving other interests and thus maintaining their own meager power. 

Demands from Nikol Pashinyan to publish all the important agreements and promises made on behalf of the people of Armenia and Artsakh in 2020. after November 9

He assures that he will continue working with his international partners, providing full, objective information about the situation and the Artsakh issue, as well as encouraging the condemnation of Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy in relevant international institutions.

Demands that the current authorities fully implement the duty of the Republic of Armenia to be the guarantor of Artsakh’s security. 
It considers the creeping dismantling of the existing security mechanisms of Artsakh or putting them under attack until the final settlement of the Artsakh issue unacceptable.

Emphasizes the necessity of restarting the OSCE Minsk Group Institute and the more effective involvement of the co-chair countries in resolving the current crisis.

Liana Sayadyan

Anne Genetet, a member of the French National Assembly delegation now in Yerevan, has been criticized by many for her cozy relations with Baku. 

A member of the French National Assembly since 2017, Genetet represents the Eleventh constituency for French residents overseas, including Armenia.

Genetet cancelled her scheduled visit to Armenia in November 2021, as part of the “Armenia-France” friendship group, at the last minute after being roundly criticized by Armenians and others for attending a Paris dinner-debate organized by the Azerbaijani embassy celebrating the “1st anniversary of the liberation of Karabakh”.

The embassy posted photos of the event. Genetet also publicized her presence at the event in a Twitter post showing her seated next to the Azerbaijani Ambassador to France.

The Tweet reads: Yesterday, I took part in a dinner-debate: “Karabakh at the time of peace: hope and challenges. What role for France?” with @AzAmbassadeFr. I will be going next week to Armenia. France must work for #peace and parliamentary diplomacy can contribute to this.

Genetet’s post drew serious public criticism. On November 11, 2021, she announced the postponement of her trip to Armenia and posted the following message:

“As a deputy of the 11th constituency of the French living outside France, which covers 49 countries, including Armenia and Azerbaijan, I am regularly called to have bilateral contacts, hoping that I will be able to create opportunities for multilateral contacts between all interested parties in Armenia and Azerbaijan …

On Tuesday, November 9, I participated in a dinner-debate with deputies of various political groups of the National Assembly at the invitation of the Embassy of Azerbaijan. “Karabakh at the time of peace. hopes and challenges”. My participation in this dinner entitled “what is the role of France” was not perceived correctly in the framework of our French community in Armenia and in the Armenian political and institutional world. I deeply regret this situation. I did not celebrate any anniversary.

Maintaining relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan, I want to participate in the process of dialogue and peace establishment at the parliamentary level for the sake of peace. I planned to go to Armenia from November 13 to 17 with a delegation of French parliamentarians to better understand the situation and discuss it directly with the local authorities, as well as with French people living in Armenia. Until now, I have not been to Azerbaijan.

My role as a parliamentarian is not to side with anyone, but to understand the situation and build bridges […] As such, it is of course important for me to be able to travel to these countries and meet with French communities and local authorities.”

In a June 2022 interview with Le Courrier d’Erevan,  Genetet admitted her mistake of accepting Azerbaijan’s invitation on that sad day for Armenians and apologized for offending Armenians.

Hetq contacted Armenia’s National Assembly for clarification as to why Armenian National Speaker Alen Simonyan included Genetet  in the list of French deputies invited to Armenia

Simonyan’s spokesperson, Tsovinar Khachatryan, said she wasn’t aware of Genetet’s Paris story, and that she’s generally “regarded as pro-Armenian, because Genetet not only voted in favor of the resolution of the French Parliament supporting Armenia and proposing sanctions against Azerbaijan, but also is one of its coauthors. 

Genetet today paid her respects at Yerevan’s Armenian Genocide Memorial (see photo).