YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Two Armenian servicemen have been slightly injured as a result of the Azerbaijani provocation on the eastern part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of MOD Armenia.

On December 9, the units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces once again carried out provocation, firing from different caliber firearms in the direction of the Armenian military positions located in the Gegharkunik region of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border starting from 16:25. The Armenian side retaliated.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres often laments limits to the UN’s authority. In the United States especially, many politicians often roll their eyes at UN pronouncements and then proceed to ignore them. In 1994, for example, John Bolton—who, ironically, would briefly serve as the US Ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration, famously said, that if the UN headquarters “lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”

Such sentiment might spark outrage among progressives and proponents of expansive, UN-centric international law but, often, the UN itself is to blame for the cynicism it engenders. This was the case when Kofi Annan, then-undersecretary for Peace-Keeping Operations, stood down while Hutu génocidaires conducted their anti-Tutsi genocide and, as secretary-general, presided over the institution’s worst corruption scandal. It was also the case when Mary Robinson, a former Irish president who subsequently became the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, sponsored a conference in Durban that became a magnet for anti-Semitism and intolerance; her action, denial, and deaf ear did more to delegitimize the UN’s moral authority than almost any outside entity could have done.

Unfortunately, Guterres now makes a similar mistake. Turkey is increasingly defiant of international law. Turkey has violated UN Security Council Resolutions and decades of status quo to move into Varosha, a once-vibrant quarter in Famagusta, initially transformed into a ghost town when Turkey invaded Cyprus almost a half-century ago. The Varosha land grab had nothing to do with peace and everything to do with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seeking to funnel reconstruction contracts to his political supporters and family members.

In recent years, Erdoğan has additionally poured Turkish settlers into Cyprus to drown out the voice of northern Cyprus’ more moderate indigenous Muslim community. In recent months, Erdoğan abandoned any pretense of resolving the Cyprus issue diplomatically and instead seeks permanent division. Erdoğan has also thumbed his nose at the international community with his conversion into a mosque of the Hagia Sophia among other violations of religious freedom as well as his imprisonment of philanthropist Osman Kavala despite multiple acquittals.

Ordinarily, a moral UN that took its own words seriously would ostracize Turkey for its actions under the Erdoğan regime rather than reward them. Unfortunately, Guterres chooses the latter.

The UN has recently decided to transform Istanbul into a hub for its operations. “The U.N. will relocate some headquarters to Istanbul from Geneva and open an Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the metropolis to support field operations worldwide,” Hürriyet Daily News reported earlier this week.

Istanbul is a wonderful city—certainly my favorite—and Turkey hosts many refugees from Syria, but the UN move is a mistake: It legitimizes both Erdoğan’s repeated weaponization of refugees in an effort to extract concessions from the European Union as well as the demographic games Erdoğan plays as he seeks to dilute the Alevi and Kurdish communities in Turkey. The facilities the UN will lease will directly benefit Erdoğan’s supporters if not Erdoğan himself. The move also signals to Erdoğan that the UN is no longer serious about resolving the Cyprus dispute; otherwise, it would make transfer of offices to Istanbul contingent upon a resolution. Most importantly, operating from inside Turkey gives Erdoğan the ability to hijack U.S. assistance to benefit those willing to support him while denying it to those who are not.

If Guterres wishes to understand why so many hold the UN in low regard, he need look no further than this latest decision. Principle should take precedent over the desire of UN officials to enjoy Istanbul’s good life. Unfortunately, the secretary-general shows that on his watch, it does not.

Now a 1945 Contributing Editor, Dr. Michael Rubin is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014); and “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos” (Palgrave, 2005).

WRITTEN by Michael Rubin

Now a 1945 Contributing Editor, Dr. Michael Rubin is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014); and “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos” (Palgrave, 2005).

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has released a new report showing the number of jailed journalists hit a new record in 2021. With 293 behind bars globally, an additional 24 journalists were killed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Thursday that the number of journalists who are jailed for their work worldwide set a new high record in 2021. 

Globally, 293 journalists are in prison, with China as the world’s worst offender in 2021, according to the CPJ’s annual census and global analysis of journalists imprisoned or killed. 

This is up from 2020 when 280 journalists found themselves incarcerated as a result of their work.

Worldwide, at least 24 journalists died due to their work over the course of this year.

“Imprisoning journalists for reporting the news is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

He added that “it is especially horrifying that Myanmar and Ethiopia have so brutally slammed the door on press freedom.” 

China: The world’s largest jailer of journalists

Currently, 50 journalists are thought to be jailed in China. After China, Myanmar has locked up 26 journalists since the February 1 coup this year that saw the military retake control of the state.

Following China and Myanmar, Egypt has locked up 25 journalists, Vietnam has jailed 23 and in Europe, Belarus currently has 19 journalists behind bars.

Turkey, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran then follow down the list of countries, with each having incarcerated several journalists. 

For the first time, CPJ had to include journalists imprisoned in Hong Kong, most notably the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, Jimmy Lai.

Traditionally journalists are being charged with anti-state offenses, however, CPJ is seeing a rise in cybercrime charges for content published and disseminated online.

CPJ also noted the arrests and detention of 56 journalists in the US over the course of 2021, with the overwhelming number of those arrests taking place at protests.

Mexico and India: The deadliest countries for journalists

The deadliest countries for journalists in 2021 were Mexico and India. Four journalists were killed in India, while three were murdered in Mexico.

In Mexico, an additional six journalists’ deaths remain under investigation.

Beyond that, 18 journalists died in uncertain circumstances that obscure whether their journalism played a role in their deaths.

Construction work is underway in the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Azerbaijan, and it is the ruling Aliyev family who benefits the most

On May 12 and August 29 of this year, the opening ceremony of hotels in Nagorno-Karabakh was held in the Armenian city of Shushi, currently occupied by Azerbaijan.

President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady (Vice President) Mehriban Aliyeva on August 29 at the reconstructed “Karabakh” hotel in Shushi.

On October 10, the opening ceremony of the airport took place in the Armenian city of Varanda, which Azerbaijan currently occupies and calls Fuzuli.

Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the opening of the international airport in occupied Varanda.

It is noteworthy that the ruling Aliyev family is monitoring the progress of all construction works, as well as participating in the opening ceremonies.

All construction work is carried out only with their permission and according to their taste. Although in this case it is normal, because all this is being built for them.

But it is not normal that all this is being built with state funds, while there are schools in Azerbaijan where children study in inhumane conditions.

This is the school of the largest village of the Terter district, Azad Qaraqoyunlu, near the border with Nagorno-Karabakh.

Six years ago, an article was published about this school in which they sounded the alarm that it was in an unsuitable state for education, but since then nothing has changed at the school.

There are still many schools and other state structures in Azerbaijan, which are in such a deplorable state but which Azerbaijanis are afraid to speak out loud about because for voicing such problems in Azerbaijan, you can easily lose your job or end up behind bars.

Well, now answer a simple question: why did Azerbaijani soldiers die in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.

And this time the question is not which side suffered the most losses – the Armenian or the Azerbaijani, but that the Armenians died defending their land, their family and homes.

The Azerbaijanis died so that the Aliyev family could build a recreation area there for the corrupt Azerbaijani authorities.

In this life, Aliyev is interested in only two things – money and power, and for the sake of both he is ready to sacrifice the lives and living conditions of ordinary Azerbaijanis.

Arthur Petrosyan is Editor-in-chief of INFOTEKA24 news and is a political expert.

The Armenian government has refused to provide data on the suspicious deal related to the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC), Sona Ayvazyan, Executive Director of the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, told a news conference on Wednesday, responding to a question by Panorama.am about the possible corruption risks in the deal.

“We do not have sufficient information to make any conclusions; we demanded access to the document, but were denied it,” she said.

Ayvazyan explained that they asked the government and the Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine to provide them with the documents relevant to the matter, but both of them failed to give a proper response.

“Most likely, we will lodge an appeal with the court,” she noted.

Earlier on September 30, it was revealed that the Industrial Company, a GeoProMining Armenia subsidiary, acquired 60% of the ZCMC shares and then granted 15 percent of that stake to the Armenian government.

Varuzhan Hoktanyan, Project Director at the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center, told Pastinfo in October that the deal to sell 60% of the shares to Roman Trotsenko, owner of the GeoProMining group, was not transparent and no further clarifications were provided.

YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd daily of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: About a month ago, pro-government figures were spreading information on the Internet that Armenia has filed a crushing lawsuit against Azerbaijan at the UN International Court of Justice. (…) the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague [on Tuesday] deemed it necessary to take additional action against both parties: Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Accordingly, Azerbaijan must take the necessary measures to prevent incitement to racial hatred against Armenians.

(…). The same judge [the Court president Joan Donoghue] called on Armenia as well to take steps to prevent incitement to racial hatred against Azerbaijanis (…) by issuing Baku’s [counter] lawsuit against Yerevan (…).

So, what has happened? The RA has returned all the [Azerbaijani] captives after [the] November 9 [statement on ceasefire], whereas Azerbaijan not only holds, but also tortures and tries our captives, returns [them] in parts, according to its expediency, but The Hague tribunal puts an equal sign between us and Azerbaijan, and applies a means of securing the lawsuit also against the RA.

And who is accountable for this situation inside our country? The group headed by Yeghishe Kirakosyan, the permanent representative of the RA government before the ECHR, had to not only file a lawsuit against Baku, but also substantiate and defend the lawsuit. And RA Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan, who regularly states that a criminal case has been filed on this or that Azerbaijani atrocity and they will be used in international instances to protect the rights of [Armenian] citizens, should have been able to gather evidence against Azerbaijan along the lines of the criminal cases that they would have been undeniable.

But it turns out that Armenia is in fact ending up in a vulnerable situation in the face of so much evidence. (…).

In short, having crystalline evidence, we lost in court again (actually at this stage). It remains to wait for the end of the examination.

Facing 130 years in prison, the infamous Turkish-Iranian money launderer Reza Zarrab took a plea deal in 2017 agreeing to testify in U.S. courts. Federal officials have since kept him out of the spotlight while allowing him to live a government-sanctioned life of luxury under a false identity in Miami.

But the man who made his fortune cleaning profits from sanctions evasion and dealing with companies tied to slave labor and organized crime has been anything but idle.

An investigation by OCCRP, Law&Crime and the Miami Herald found that Zarrab remains connected to his former criminal network and has received multiple questionable wire transfers from Turkey. Using fake identities, he’s invested in thoroughbred horses and a palatial equestrian facility, entering an industry rife with fraud and money laundering.

U.S. officials declined to comment when asked if they have concerns about his activities or if he’s surrendered a dime of his fortune.

Dubbed the “The Turkish Gatsby” for his playboy lifestyle, Zarrab ran a vast money laundering operation that channeled funds to Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions against the Persian Gulf country. U.S. prosecutors offered a conservative estimate that his network moved at least US$20 billion from 2010 to 2015 alone.

Reporters tracked Zarrab, 38, to Miami’s Coconut Grove, where he has been living in a $3.6 million condo in a luxury high-rise that affords panoramic views of yachts that crowd the shores of Biscayne Bay. Credit: OCCRP Convicted money launderer Reza Zarrab, now using false names while living in Miami, is seen walking and talking on his phone near the entrance to his high-rise condo building in July.

In July, OCCRP and Law&Crime reporters watched Zarrab as he paced the parking lot of the Park Grove condominiums, talking loudly on his cell phone in Turkish. After several circuits of the area — watched over by a trio of gold-colored statues of men in “See No Evil,” “Hear No Evil,” and “Speak No Evil” poses — he was whisked away in a chauffeur-driven Cadillac Escalade.

Turkey has already seized some of Zarrab’s assets, and he is expected to forfeit more to the U.S. when he is sentenced. That won’t happen until after the trial of Turkish state bank Halkbank, however, and it’s unclear when that will be. In the meantime, Zarrab can afford a lavish lifestyle — some of it funded by the wire transfers from Turkey.

“I’ve long been concerned with how the Justice Department handled this case, and the appearance of political interference on behalf of Turkey influencing the department’s decision-making,’’ said U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden.

“This was the largest sanctions-evasion scheme in U.S. history, and the possibility that the U.S. financial system is being used to facilitate improper transactions for Reza Zarrab and other co-conspirators implicated in the scheme deserves the immediate attention of U.S. officials.”

Two Zarrab defense attorneys — one of whom has allowed Zarrab to use his car and credit card — said their client is living up to his plea deal and “all material aspects” of his activities are known to the government.

Zarrab did not respond to interview requests made through his legal team

Ties to His Old Life

Just over a week after Zarrab’s 2017 plea deal, corporate records show that a key member of his inner circle, Iranian businessman Amir Fathrazi, started a new Turkish company.

Its founding chairman was Sami Al-Bazz, the brother of a Turkish lawyer who relocated to New York to help with Zarrab’s defense in December 2017. People familiar with the money launderer’s affairs say that lawyer, Şems Al-Bazz, now works as Zarrab’s personal administrative assistant in Miami. She did not respond to requests for comment. Credit: Instagram Sami Al-Bazz (right) and his sister Şems Al-Bazz (left) in Florida in an Instagram post by Yasemin Daga (center) on July 22, 2019.

Fathrazi was a shareholder in Royal Holding A.S., which Zarrab used to launder billions of dollars for Iran, and his family is closely aligned with Zarrab’s.

OCCRP identified at least a dozen companies in Iran that involved Fathrazi, his father, or another relative as directors alongside members of Zarrab’s immediate family in Iranian corporate records. At least six are now active.

The new Turkish company, Amir Al Gayrimenkul Yatırımları Anonim şirketi, is on paper a real estate investment firm. But like dozens of shell firms Zarrab used to move illicit money, it shows no signs of real business activity. Only scant details of its business affairs appear in public records, and the company has no website or online presence.

Sami Al-Bazz told OCCRP that Zarrab has no connection to the business in Turkey.

“It’s just real estate, but I don’t want to comment about my business,” he said in a brief telephone conversation.

Multiple attempts to reach Fathrazi through his business and individually were unsuccessful.

Zarrab was still a teenager when he partnered with Fathrazi in 2003, according to records for their Turkish jewelry business, Zafer Kuyumculuk. Turkish law enforcement later identified one of its directors, Ertugrul Bozdoğan, as part of Zarrab’s criminal organization. He could not be reached for comment.

A decade later, in 2013, Fathrazi established a gold refining business in Iran with Zarrab’s father, Hossein. Three months earlier the elder Zarrab had been fined $9.1 million by the U.S. in relation to a money exchange in the UAE, which prosecutors later identified as integral to Reza Zarrab’s money laundering scheme. Fathrazi was not charged in the Zarrab prosecution.

Peter Sprung, a retired assistant U.S. Attorney who handled complex criminal cases in the Southern District of New York, said Zarrab’s financial arrangements and apparent continued contact with former money laundering colleagues could cause big problems for prosecutors who plan to use him as a witness against Halkbank.

“If it emerged that Zarrab had acted dishonestly or fraudulently, or associated with known criminals, or even worse, committed a crime, it would seriously undermine his usefulness as a cooperator. Depending on how important he is to the [Halkbank] case, it could grievously harm that case,’’ Sprung said.

Zarrab himself could also face his full 130-year prison term and entirely new charges if the Department of Justice determines he has breached the terms of the deal, Sprung added.

Zarrab’s New York-based criminal defense attorney, Robert Anello, would say little about his client beyond rejecting any suggestion that Zarrab has been involved in improper dealings since his plea deal.

“All material aspects of what Mr. Zarrab has been doing the past couple of years … have been known to the government,” Anello said.

“There have been some suggestions made of activity that you have characterized as money laundering or the like, and to the extent any such suggestion is made — it would be false, defamatory and obviously damaging to Mr. Zarrab.”

Follow the Money

Credit: OCCRP Reza Zarrab in his Istanbul office with stacks of money, shortly before his arrest in the United States for laundering money in violation of Iran economic sanctions.

Financial records obtained by OCCRP indicate that Zarrab’s Florida lifestyle and his horse business are being financed by international wire transfers from dubious companies and people in Turkey with no known connection to the money launderer.

In July 2020 a man in Turkey, Suat Aktas, wired $78,000 to the owner of Zarrab’s former rental home, who lives in Portugal. That wire passed through the Manhattan branch of Standard Chartered Bank, a British lender that processed more than $1.2 billion for 10 Zarrab-linked companies between 2007 and 2015.

Five days later, Aktas wired $10,000 on Zarrab’s behalf to a South Florida interior designer who decorated his condo and house in Davie, a town northwest of Miami. The interior designer said Zarrab identified himself by yet another name, John Kaplan, and said he was from Turkey. She said she dropped him as a client because he was slow to pay and “things just didn’t seem right.”

Aktas’ wires list two Istanbul addresses where he isn’t registered. He could not be further identified by OCCRP or located for comment.

Zarrab arranges even small payments directly from Turkey. In July 2020, for example, a Florida man Zarrab hired to transport horses received a $1,600 Western Union wire transfer initiated by Uğur Kolcu, an Istanbul-based accountant for an automotive company.

The following month, a man named Erhan Okcuoglu wired $3,350 from Turkey to Wellington, Florida horse trainer and riding coach Endel Ots, who confirmed that he had received the payment for riding lessons he provided to Zarrab’s former girlfriend.

Reached in Turkey, Okcuoglu said he doesn’t know Zarrab and never transferred him money. When pressed, he stopped replying to messages. OCCRP also contacted Kolcu through social media, but he immediately deleted his account.

When not paying with international wire transfers, Zarrab has used a high-limit platinum American Express card bearing the name Erich C. Ferrari, the attorney whose firm handles the sanctions violation portion of Zarrab’s defense. The Escalade Zarrab uses is also registered to Ferrari in Washington, DC.

“Mr. Zarrab is my client and my relationship with him is an attorney-client relationship, and not personal in nature,” the attorney said in a written statement. “Further, any financial arrangements between Mr. Zarrab and myself were proper and lawful, were in connection with my representation and/or to protect his safety, and the government is aware of them.”

Anello, Zarrab’s New York-based attorney, agreed with his colleague, saying: “There has been no financial impropriety and the government is aware of Mr. Ferrari’s representation of Mr. Zarrab and his assistance.”

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which oversees Zarrab and the Halkbank prosecution, declined to comment.

But attorneys who were briefed by reporters about what’s known of Zarrab’s financial entanglement with Ferrari questioned its propriety.

Jennifer Rodgers, a former prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, said there can be legitimate reasons for a defense attorney to help a client with expenses, often adding it to their bill later. But she said the financial dealings involving Zarrab’s lawyer appear to be “weird stuff” that suggests prosecutors were “not being as careful as they should be.”

“Maybe they were more lenient than they should have been in terms of letting him keep more than he should,’’ she said.

Sprung, who spent more than a decade in the Justice Department public integrity section, said the arrangement could come back to haunt Ferrari.

“When he [Ferrari] stands up and addresses the court, he’s got to speak with authority and impartiality,” Sprung said. “If [Ferrari’s] getting involved in seemingly sketchy financial transactions with his client, then he’s undermining his ability to do that.”

Read More: https://www.occrp.org/en/how-iran-used-an-international-playboy-to-launder-oil-money/notorious-money-launderer-reza-zarrabs-lavish-life-and-new-business-in-miami

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has faulted Turkey for violating the right to freedom of expression of a former teacher, stating that public comments in favor of the Gülen movement made before a coup attempt in July 2016 do not constitute a crime, local media reported on Tuesday.

The judgment came after Yasin Özdemir, one of more than 130,000 civil servants who were dismissed from their jobs due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement as part of a purge carried out after the failed coup, complained to the ECtHR about his conviction for praising crime and criminals, due to comments he had posted on social media in April 2015 in favor of the group.

The ECtHR issued its ruling on Tuesday, responding to the complaint submitted in March 2018, that Özdemir’s conviction was a violation of freedom of expression since his messages had contained ideas and opinions, expressed within the framework of public debates on certain sensitive subjects, that “hadn’t incited people to commit violence or revolt.”

“At the material time no members of the Gülenist movement had been convicted with the final effect of being leaders or members of an illegal or terrorist organisation,” the court also said, referring to the Turkish government’s accusation of the group as orchestrators of the failed coup and labeling them as a terrorist organization.

Kerem Altıparmak, a member of the Ankara Bar Association, on Tuesday referred to the court’s statement in the judgment that said, “… whether the movement was an educational and religious community or an organisation endeavouring unlawfully to infiltrate the State organs had been the subject of heated public debate in April 2015 ….”

Altıparmak indicated in a tweet that the statement would affect tens of thousands of cases, expecting that the court would find violations in cases where it would examine Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights in complaints against convictions based on links to the Gülen movement.

The article stipulates that “no one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence under national or international law at the time when it was committed.”

“The judges and prosecutors, who use the legal and routine activities in the past as grounds for conviction, are committing crimes knowingly and willingly! … All such convictions will be overturned by the ECtHR, and they [Gülen movement supporters] will eventually get their due,” former judge Kemal Karanfil, who was also purged after the coup attempt, tweeted on Tuesday, referring to the judgment.

“The ECtHR has thrown away the milestones and punishment criteria [belonging to a time before July 15, 2016, and] produced by Ankara [to convict Gülen movement members]. The Yasin Özdemir decision will set a precedent for tens of thousands of people accused on similar grounds,” said freelance journalist Necdet Çelik, a former correspondent for Turkish state broadcaster TRT.

Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government launched a war against the Gülen movement, a worldwide civic initiative inspired by the ideas of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, following corruption investigations in late 2013 that implicated then-prime minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s close circle.

The war against the movement culminated after the attempted coup because Erdoğan and his AKP government accused the movement of masterminding the abortive putsch and initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

Although both Gülen and the members of his group strongly deny any involvement in the abortive putsch or any terrorist activities, Erdoğan’s AKP has detained a total of 319,587 people while jailing 99,962 over alleged links to the movement as part of a massive purge launched under the pretext of an anti-coup fight, according to the latest Interior Ministry data.

The relatives of the captured servicemen of Shirak region carried out protest actions, closing the streets in Gyumri. In a conversation with Tert.am, the brother of the arrested Haykaz Hovhannisyan,

Arkady Hovhannisyan, mentioned that they were indignant and disappointed with the NA Speaker Alen Simonyan’s statements about the captives. “No one has the right to accuse our boys of treason, we demand that they return and conduct an investigation.

How can announcements be made that the captives do not exist for them? “The state is obliged to bring the boys back,” he said. According to Arkady Hovhannisyan, they tried to negotiate with them only from the police, they tried to contact the governor Nazeli Baghdasaryan, but they did not succeed.

Arkady Hovhannisyan said that he passed on the words of all the relatives: they will not keep silent, they will fight until their sons are returned. It should be reminded that the relatives of the captives and the missing made a protest action in front of the Government building this evening, demanding that NA Speaker Alen Simonyan come and meet with them. Later, they closed several streets entering the Republic Square for several hours

By: TATUL HAKOBYAN

After the Armenian Prime Minister’s monstrous remarks about the Armenian captives, he was followed by the second official of the country, the Speaker of the National Assembly.

“Do you know who those people are? They put down their weapons and fled,” says Alen Simonyan about the captured Armenian servicemen when he is away from the pulpits with loudspeakers, Azatutyun writes. “If I lose Syunik because of those captives, if I lose Sisia, I’m sorry, it may be a little bad, I say something wrong, but I consider those captives to be gone,” says Simonyan, secretly on one of the telegram channels.

in the video. Then, a wider version was probably spread on the initiative of the speaker of the parliament, entitled “What did Alen Simonyan really say?” There are no big differences between the edited and unedited versions, the conversation was recorded during the meeting with the Armenian community in France. “Yes, of course, we will bring those guys back, it is not discussed. But we can not take the whole of Armenia, Artsakh, all the Armenians hostage… Do you know who those captives are? These are the people who laid down their weapons, fled, got lost. I can not say this out loud.

“They laid down their weapons and fled,” says Simonyan. In the telegram recording, he substantiates why the parents of the captured servicemen are not active. Because he says, they know that their sons are deserters. Shortly after the video was released, the speaker of the parliament tried to explain what he wanted to say, and in general reaffirmed what he had said in the video. “Unfortunately, there are soldiers, officers, who, because they did not fulfill their duty, found themselves in captivity.” The journalists inquired why Alen Simonyan was biased and assumed the role of a law enforcement officer, claiming that the captured servicemen were deserters. Simonyan responded. “The law of the Republic of Armenia, as the Prime Minister spoke about it from the tribune of the National Assembly, the Criminal Code stipulates that in such cases responsibility must be borne.

And that responsibility will be borne by all the people who violated the law, instead of protecting the border of the Republic of Armenia, they preferred to surrender. ” Earlier, Nikol Pashinyan made a statement on the issue of Armenian captives on November 18, during a question-and-answer session with the National Assembly-Government. “In which case is captivity not considered a crime? In each case, we have to examine whether we are dealing with that case or not. “For example, it is obvious that if a person is wounded and unconscious, he is taken prisoner, of course, he can not be complained about,” Pashinyan answered the question of opposition MP Tigran Abrahamyan, who gave it or who did not give the order to shoot. “Because it was clear from the published videos that the capture of one of the battle positions took place without a shootout, it was officially registered that we have 13 captives, the connection with 24 servicemen has been cut off. “First, what is known about the fate of our servicemen? Second, what is being done to prevent violence against them? I am not talking about a worse scenario. In fact, who was responsible for this situation?” Abrahamyan asked.