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It’s like a shock, but it’s obvious, it’s a #genocide today, and the question is not to debate the genocide but to prevent the killings in Nagorno Karabakh. (First Prosecutor of Intl. Criminal Court – Luis Moreno Ocampo) #ArtsakhBlockade #AzerbaijanIsATerroristState
Aviation security consultant Dyami Strategic Security Services has warned its clients to avoid the area, with founder and CEO Eric Schouten expressing concern that operators may not yet be taking the overflight risk seriously enough. “This is a truly dangerous emerging hotspot,” he told AIN.
The airspace over Armenia and Azerbaijan offers a small corridor between two powerful and unstable states, namely Russia and Iran. Nearby Turkey also has been identified as a player in the Caucasus regional conflict in the context of Azerbaijan’s apparent intention to seize territory in Christian-majority Armenia to create a land connection to its Muslim ally.
The mounting tensions have prompted concerns that aircraft operators may be reluctant to fly even longer, fuel-burning detours to avoid the area altogether on intercontinental flights. Flights are already advised to steer clear of the nearby warzone along the border between Ukraine and Russia
Source: https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2023-09-14/security-experts-issue-airspace-alert-caucasus-war-risk
Bob Menendez։ Azerbaijan’s Blockade of Artsakh has Hallmark of Genocide
Unreal. I’ve never witnessed anything like this. Yuri Kim, a State Department official, says she can’t publicly answer why Azerbaijan’s dictator has kept the Lachin corridor closed — meaning she knows his plans are to starve Artsakh into coercion.
A deeply troubling non-answer that speaks to direct U.S. intelligence on Azerbaijan’s genocidal plans to ethnically cleanse #Artsakh.
“In order to justify all the failures, Pashinyan and the ruling political team are trying to find the culprits in time and space,” Artur Khachatryan, deputy of the “Armenia” faction of the National Assembly,
expressed this opinion during the parliamentary briefing. “The former, co-chairmen are to blame for themselves, they don’t shy away from consciously begging the simplest, well-known truths to blame others… Pashinyan tries to justify his own failure with primitive lies… In order to justify himself, he makes such statements today, which will be used against us again tomorrow if the political situation changes.
Not only did he cause damage, but he also continues to cause damage with his political statements, because he has come to terms with the loss of Artsakh, he blames everyone for it except himself, and in order to justify his own failure, he says that it is an unsolvable problem. And with his maximalist statements, he put a tongue in Aliyev’s mouth, and Aliyev will say: you said such things, I will also start a war, and he will try to justify his aggression against the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh,” said A. Khachatryan, emphasizing that Armenia’s position towards Artsakh has never been so hostile. Details in the video.
You can read the full article at this address: https://factor.am/687776.html
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Almost all analysts agree that Nikol is a Western project. Why “almost”? there are also people who believe that Nikol is not a Western project, but a Russian one. Of course, it is a bit hard to believe, but it is possible.
Can you imagine the leadership of imperialist Russia and the Armenian Color Revolution? But what can you do if having such thoughts does not contain elements of crime? The Nicholas government does not forbid some people to assume that Asians live in Africa, for example.
Returning to the question of Nikoli being a Western project, I will put forward another related hypothesis that no one has thought of. We are talking about the ratification of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Rome Statute. Chronologically, that process was preceded and simultaneously followed by one of the judges of the ICJ, the Japanese Tomoko Akane, to the President of the Russian Federation Vl. Putin and Russian children’s ombudsman M. To issue an international warrant for the arrest of Lvova-Belova. Let me answer the question “how is this possible?” Nicol’s government appealed to the Constitutional Court in December last year. The CC accepted the proceedings at the beginning of January, appointing February 14 as the day of trial. However, for some reason, he announced only on March 24 that the ICC Statute corresponds to the Constitution of our country.
After those warrants were issued, the Armenian process stopped, although the RA government had only 3 months to apply to the National Assembly. It is clear that for a long time Nicole did not know what to do in this regard. This proves that the process initiated to punish the leader of Azerbaijan actually had nothing to do with it. Especially since international criminal law experts explained that Azerbaijan has not ratified the Rome Statute. And, accordingly, it will be extremely difficult to sue the leader of that country, especially since Ilham is a reliable partner of Western countries, and the ICC is completely under their influence. The evidence of which is Ilham’s contemptuous attitude towards the decision of another international court, the UN Court of Justice, to open the Lachine Corridor.
In that case, the question arises why Nicole suddenly decided to complete the process that started in 1999. At that time, the Rome Statute was not ratified because it contradicted the Armenian legislation. Then, constitutional amendments were made twice in our country, and in 1999, according to the government, the existing contradiction was eliminated. But let’s remember that two years after the 44-day war, only Nikolenko realized that this mechanism could be used to punish Ilham. Although no episode of Nicole’s more than five-year rule shone with adequacy, this one somehow magically coincided with the process of arresting Putin. Especially since the Russian troops retreated from Kharkiv and Kherson marzes last fall. And in December, they would have managed to generate the myth that Ukrainian children were transferred to Russia against their or their parents’ will. By the way, they probably wanted to hide the shameful process of selling young Ukrainian children in Europe as human organ donors. What Western news media admitted recently.
And if we accept that in terms of the ratification of the statute, the game was organized in the West, and the idea was presented to Nikol at the necessary time, then everything falls into place. And it was not the Rome Statute that Nikolenko remembered because there are benefits in it in connection with the war crimes committed and committed against our country, as they say. In fact, there could hardly be a better excuse to ruin our country’s relationship with Russia. And that would be the locomotive that would drag the anti-Putin or, which is the same thing, the anti-Russian process. Which is successfully happening today, depriving us of the country that provides our security. Moreover, making an enemy of that country, which was our friend. And then throwing us into the arms of Turkey, the next evidence of which was Nikol’s call to the Turkish president.
By Karnig Kerkonian,
SHOCKING. The final two minutes of the Committee hearing regarding #Azerbaijan‘s blockade of #NagornoKarabakh was absolutely shocking. In response to
@SenatorMenendez final question as to why she thinks #Aliyev has not unblocked the #LachinCorridor despite the 2020 Trilateral Statement, #ICJ Order & US demands, Acting Asst. Sec. Yuri Kim
@StateEUR told Sen. Menendez that she would prefer to discuss the answer to that question in “another setting”. What? Astonished, the Senator replied, asking her what in the world would be “classified” about the answer to that simple question. He asked again, visibly surprised, and then continued: “I’ll give you an unclassified answer: he [Aliyev] doesn’t want to open the Corridor because he is in the process of trying to subjugate these people [#Artsakh#Armenia|ns] by starvation . . . and subject them to his will.” Sen. Menendez concluded, while shaking his head in disappointment and disbelief: “I’ve been doing this for 31 years” and “I’m amazed sometimes at what the
@StateDept comes before this Committee and says.” Here’s the thing. Assist. Sec. Kim’s statement suggests rather plainly that there is actual knowledge within the U.S. State Department of Aliyev’s intent to ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabakh and, likely, actual knowledge of Aliyev’s genocidal intent. This means specific individuals within the State Department have actual knowledge of Aliyev’s intent. This is a problem: knowledge of this intent imposes upon such specific individuals an obligation not to aid and abet Aliyev’s intended plans (lest such individuals seek complicity in his actions). Sen Menendez’ “unclassified answer” is at the crux of the issue: Azerbaijan’s “integration” policy is, in fact, a subjugation policy. In this context–where Aliyev’s intent to commit ethnic cleansing and genocide is known–advocating or supporting Aliyev’s integration policy is, in fact, aiding and abetting Aliyev’s genocide policy. There is good reason Asst. Sec. Kim did not want to answer Sen. Menendez in public about what she actually thought about Aliyev’s intentions. And there is good reason why the State Department’s special envoy to the region, who has dealt directly with Aliyev, Louis Bono, was initially scheduled to appear before the Committee, then was not scheduled . . . and then avoided the hearing altogether. You see, actual knowledge is a dangerous thing. There are at least three people–
@SecBlinken, Asst. Sec. Kim, and Louis Bono–who have actual knowledge of Aliyev’s intent. Any actions by them to push for the “integration” of Artsakh Armenians into and under the authority of Aliyev–where there is known genocidal intent–would quite literally aid and abet the destruction of the Artsakh Armenians. Sure, Asst. Sec. Kim, “another setting” is a really good idea . . . .
120,000 Indigenous Armenians are Being Starved to Death by Azerbaijan Without the UN Taking Any meaningful Action to Stop It
NEW YORK — Thousands to Demonstrate at the United Nations SDG Summit Demand that the UN intervene and end the Artsakh (formerly Nagorno-Karabakh) Genocide being perpetrated by Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan is carrying out an eight-month-long genocide against the indigenous Armenians of the Republic of Artsakh.
On December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan imposed a blockade on all transportation routes connecting Artsakh to Armenia and the rest of the world. This blockade has resulted in the cessation of private and commercial transportation of goods and medicines, leading to the confinement of 120,000 Armenians in Artsakh. Consequently, stores and pharmacies have depleted their supplies, necessitating food rationing through a coupon system. Surgical procedures have been suspended, and only the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), accompanied by Russian Peacekeepers, has been facilitating the transportation of critically ill individuals to Armenia on a sporadic basis. Additionally, Azerbaijan has periodically blocked electricity and gas supply, resulting in prolonged disruptions in home heating during winter months, communication and internet access.
To worsen the crisis, on June 15, 2023, Azerbaijan halted the transportation of all humanitarian aid destined for the people of Artsakh. Consequently, the 120,000 Armenians residing in Artsakh, which includes 30,000 children, are now deprived of necessities such as food, medicines, gas, electricity, and internet access. They live in an open prison, surrounded by Azerbaijani soldiers who frequently engage in gunfire and military attacks against Armenian farmers and residents of Artsakh, inflicting terror and loss of life. On June 27, 2023, the day the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers arrived in Washington, DC, for peace talks with mediation from the U.S. Secretary of State, Azerbaijan launched preemptive drone and artillery attacks in Artsakh, killing four service members.
In a wide-ranging report publicized and published in August, leading international legal expert and the former lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, said there is an ongoing genocide being committed against 120,000 Armenians living in Artsakh. He also noted that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s actions signal that he has ‘genocidal intentions.’
Moreno Ocampo compiled the detailed report in response to a request from former Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan, who appealed to the legal expert late last month to provide his assessment on the matter.
His conclusions were based on assessing the current conditions in Artsakh and international legal precedents confirming that ‘deprivation of food, medical care, shelter or clothing’ constitutes Genocide within the meaning of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention.’
The 2023 SDG Summit will begin a new phase of accelerated progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals with high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions leading up to 2030.
Convened by the President of the General Assembly, the Summit will mark the halfway point to the deadline for achieving the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. It will be the centerpiece of the High-level Week of the General Assembly. It will respond to the impact of multiple and interlocking crises facing the world and is expected to reignite hope, optimism, and enthusiasm for the 2030 Agenda.
On Monday, August 21, a former United Nations expert on Genocide, Juan Mendez, warned of serious risks facing the population of Artsakh that correspond to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
Focusing on the prevention duty of the international community, Juan Mendez highlighted that the facts constitute sufficient reason to proffer an early warning to the international community that the population of Nagorno-Karabakh is at risk of suffering “serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” as defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
‘The lack of compliance with a binding interim measure issued by the ICJ to protect a population at risk is at least as severe an early warning than refusal to cooperate with judicial investigations,’ Professor Mendez concluded, pointing out to Azerbaijan’s defiance of the legally binding order of the International Court of Justice as an indication that necessitates the exercise of the UN’s early warning and prevention capacities.
The group will demonstrate in front of the UN building on Monday, September 18, and Tuesday, September 19. They have a list of demands from the United Nations, including the UN Security Council. There is a 45-minute program on Monday, September 18, at noon, including speeches by elected officials, community leaders, and genocide experts.
Contact vic@thebluntpost.com
Please see the following video: https://youtu.be/tx5X-bwQ3tI?si=e349cjkrq7slBbjJ
For seventeen days, Azerbaijani special forces and military personnel—masquerading as “environmentalists”—have blocked the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia.
They have effectively severed the only lifeline the Artsakh Armenians have to the outside world—a lifeline guaranteed by the Trilateral Statement of November 10, 2020. With 120,000 Artsakh Armenians now completely encircled and isolated, Azerbaijan is poised to rid itself of the entire Armenian population this holiday season, and it will try to do so while Europe sips hot chocolate and watches.
Frankly, it is rare to have the opportunity to witness mass atrocity as it unfolds, but social media and Azerbaijan’s impunity have given the West an opportunity to watch the ongoing travesty on their iPhones. Azerbaijani sources excitedly publish their atrocities against Armenians online. In fact, Azerbaijan has proudly telegraphed its intentions to ethnically cleanse Artsakh of Armenians—and the lead-up has been quite entertaining, at least for the sadists.
The movie trailers promise a rather captivating show. An Armenian woman in Azerbaijani captivity, her eyes gouged out, her finger severed and shoved into her mouth, her empty eye sockets plugged with stones, hate speech carved into her bare, exposed chest. A video showing an elderly Armenian man in Artsakh, squirming on his back in the grass and weeds as an Azerbaijani soldier mercilessly continues to saw off his head with a dagger. Armenian POWs brought to their knees, tied and bound like animals. Azeri soldiers, in sickening euphoria, unloading bullet after bullet after bullet into the heads and backs of young Armenian boys. Yet, Azerbaijan assures the West that it is looking for peace and “coexistence”.
Independent observers, however, tell quite a different story. The International Association of Genocide Scholars has proclaimed that “[s]ignificant genocide risk factors exist in the Nagorno-Karabakh situation concerning the Armenian population.” Genocide Watch has raised the genocide threat level facing Artsakh Armenians beyond the “dehumanization” stage and even the “preparation” stage into the “persecution” and “denial” stages. Indeed, the former Armenian Human Rights Defender, Arman Tatoyan, along with the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention have warned that Azerbaijan’s “actions are part of a larger genocidal pattern, demonstrating Azerbaijan’s Armenophobia and genocidal intent [aimed at] the eradication of Armenia, Artsakh, and the Armenians.”
Azerbaijan demands that Artsakh Armenians be subjected to Azerbaijani authority—against their will. This is quite the cocktail: dictatorship, subjugation and genocide. But the West need remember that, after the Holocaust, it rewrote the book on watching dictators round up and deliver humans to their slaughter. Let’s be clear: “coexistence” under Azerbaijani authority is not only an utterly ridiculous proposition; it is patently inhumane, intellectually vapid—and, frankly, impermissible. We would never imagine subjecting a population of 120,000 Jews today to the authority of a rabid Nazi regime—or any Nazi regime, for that matter.
But, for the Armenians, let’s go with “coexistence”. After all, Azerbaijan is doing a rather bang-up job laundering sanctioned Russian gas through Baku to help Europe evade sanctions and stay warm for the winter. Only the French President has stated that he is not willing to trade winter warmth for the lives of the Armenian people. The rest of Europe seems to be just fine trading some dead Armenians for thick wool socks, a gas fireplace and some hygge.
And make no mistake: the Azerbaijani peace agenda has no credible basis—Azerbaijan has violated every single ceasefire since 2020, and its hereditary dictator (who, incidentally, sports a mustache curiously similar to Hitler’s) has openly admitted that he launched the 2020 war to bring an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through force. Peace agendas usually involve negotiations—not summary executions, medieval beheadings, and open promises by a dictator to drive Armenians out “like dogs”. But then again, as long as the Europeans are toasty and warm, Azerbaijan appears free to starve and then ethnically cleanse the Artsakh Armenians.
There is a history of this too—and I am not even speaking of the Armenian Genocide (in which the Azerbaijanis, again with the help of their Turkish brothers, gladly participated). Azerbaijan’s march toward ethnic cleansing and genocide is blindingly clear in our own lifetimes. In response to peaceful demonstrations in Artsakh for unification with Armenia, Azerbaijan launched pogroms and massacres of Armenians in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and other cities in the late 1980s. Since then, Azerbaijan has only further institutionalized its Armenophobia, breeding and curating hatred toward Armenians at every turn.
More recently, Azerbaijan has offered its viewers a slew of genocide party favors: a stamp issued by Azerbaijan displays an exterminator in a Hazmat suit “exterminating” Artsakh; a military trophy park showcasing the helmets of fallen soldiers, gruesome mannequins of Armenians for children to mock and degrade; President Erdogan of Turkey praising Nuri Pasha, of Armenian Genocide era fame, at a military parade in Baku. Frankly, it is unclear what else Baku has to do to telegraph to the world its intention to eliminate the Artsakh Armenians.
The smell of genocide wafts unmistakably in the air. Just a year ago, the International Court of Justice itself indicated provisional measures ordering Azerbaijan to “[t]ake all necessary measures to prevent the incitement and promotion of racial hatred and discrimination, including by its officials and public institutions, targeted at persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin.” The case against Azerbaijan was brought under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination—a treaty in place as a stop-gap measure to prevent (you guessed it) genocide. Of course, it has not stopped Azerbaijan from targeting the Artsakh Armenians or, for that matter, even claiming the capital of Armenia as its own. You really can’t make this up.
But back to the blockade. No consignments of food or medicine can now reach Artsakh, and patients cannot be transferred to Armenia for life-saving treatment. Azerbaijan, at one point, even deliberately cut off the gas supply to Artsakh, subjecting the isolated population to subzero winter temperatures. As a result of this cruelty, schools, kindergartens, and hospitals were unable to be heated. Two weeks on, the food shelves are empty, the medicine cabinets are bare, and families are separated.
More than 270 children were left stranded on a road, meters from where civilian-clad Azerbaijani special forces kill peace pigeons and flash hand signs pledging allegiance to the “Grey Wolves”—an ultra-fascist hate organization banned in several countries.
There is no question a genocide is looming in Artsakh. The West, cozy with Russian gas laundered through Azerbaijan, can’t find that voice to condemn Azerbaijan or even call for humanitarian intervention. Europe has secured itself a front-row seat for this human catastrophe; now, let’s see if it has the stomach to watch it unfold.
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About the author
Mr. Karnig Kerkonian is a distinguished international lawyer who leads the international and federal practice groups at Kerkonian Dajani LLP. Kerkonian holds an A.B. magna cum laude in Government from Harvard University and two law degrees—a J.D. from the University of Chicago, where he served on the Law Review, as well as a post-graduate Diploma in Public International Law from Cambridge University, England, where he studied under James R. Crawford, Judge on the International Court of Justice.
This article was originally contributed to ZARTONK Media by Karnig Kerkonian and is republished with permission.
Image credit: Hrayr Badalyan
Hayk Gevorgyan
The public television company has started a series of debates ahead of the Yerevan Council of Elders elections, which are also a requirement of the law. Today, at 22:00, the first televised debate of the 2023 Yerevan Council of Elders elections will take place live. It is held in accordance with the requirements of the Electoral Code and with the technical advisory support of the National Democracy Institute (NDI), in accordance with international standards. The TV debate will be broadcast live on First channel, First news channel and Public’s social platforms. Numbers 2-6 of the lists of parties and alliances registered for the elections will take part in today’s TV debate, but on September 14, at 10:00 p.m., only the persons mentioned in the first number of the electoral lists of the forces participating in the elections were invited.
As it is known, Hayk Marutyan, the former mayor of Yerevan, an actor, and now a candidate for mayor, refuses to appear on Petros Ghazaryan’s broadcasts, considering them one-sided and not impartial. Artak Galstyan, the number one leader of the “Public Voice” party, is in detention. Tigran Avinyan, who occupies the first place in the CP, also did not go public, it seems that Avinyan also does not sympathize with Petros Ghazaryan and his plans.
“Hraparak” tried to find out which of the mayoral candidates will go to the debate organized by the public. Especially, when we are talking about leaders. The spokesperson of CP headquarters Hayk Kostanyan informed “Hraparak” that Tigran Avinyan will definitely participate in the debate organized by Public. Tigran Urikhanyan, who occupies the second number of “Public Voice”, noted that there is no clarification in this regard yet. Urikhanyan mentioned. “I would be happy to participate if the public would like to ensure my participation through online broadcasting. I would dedicate that debate to the series of my findings and I would dedicate the most noisy part to the city of Yerevan itself, to the city administration,” he said.
Isabella Abgaryan, who is number three on Hayk Marutyan’s list, informed us that Marutyan will not go to H1 as long as the debates and programs are conducted by a man whose wife works as a minister today. According to Abgaryan, the minister’s husband cannot be an objective TV journalist, so it is pointless to go to the debate organized by such a TV journalist. “We have set the demand: we will participate in the debate, if it is objective, and not if the debater’s wife is a member of the political team – a minister, which already means dependence. We see obvious subjectivity during those programs, just let them change the presenter, that’s the demand. As long as Petros Ghazaryan is in H1, Marutyan will not go there. We prefer objective information,” says Isabella Abgaryan. We asked Abgaryan whether there is an objective in Public
By Michael Rubin,
Azerbaijan is on a war footing.
On Sept. 9, Artsakh, the Kosovo of the Caucasus, an ethnic Armenian republic set on land Soviet leader Joseph Stalin transferred to Azerbaijan, held presidential elections. It was the unrecognized republic’s seventh presidential election since the 1990s. But this year Azerbaijan, sensing weakness in Washington, delivered an ultimatum: elections would equal war. The oil-rich dictatorship broadcast mobilization footage to underscore its demands. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken dutifully calledAzerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, but his words were weak, and by omission, Blinken signaled that Aliyev faced no consequences should he ignore them.
Blinken should know better. The Artsakh elections are not the first time he has faced this scenario. In November 2020, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a war of attrition to punish the Tigray region for holding its own local elections. When Blinken took office two months later, he did little other than wag his finger at Abiy. The Ethiopian leader dismissed Blinken and privately mocked him and his envoys. Hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans starved. That U.S. President Joe Biden subsequently rehabilitated Abiy signals to Aliyev and other would-be mass murderers that America’s words are empty.
Why is Aliyev so upset at the prospect of Artsakh elections? There are two reasons. Certainly, free elections in any region Azerbaijan claims are embarrassing. Freedom House ranks Azerbaijan as “not free” and labels it a “consolidated authoritarian regime.”
Put another way, the dictatorship for which some in Washington and London now shill ranks alongside China and Myanmar, and below even Russia and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, in freedom rankings. Artsakh itself is far from perfect, but it ranks “partially free,” with better scores than Turkey, sitting more than 50 places above Azerbaijan. The notion, then, that it might elect its own government is anathema to Aliyev.
Read more: https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/09/anatomy-of-genocide-how-the-state-department-inadvertently-green-lighted-war-on-armenians/