Nikol Pashinyan came up with a very practical proposal to find the representatives of the 5th column and foreign agents who spread the ranks of the army during the question-and-answer session with the CP-dog MPs.

So, you grab the high-ranking military officer and ask him why you handed over the N rank. That soldier cannot say that he carried out the order of the Prime Minister, because the Prime Minister, as far as the same Prime Minister remembers, did not give the order to surrender the hill. After that, the high-ranking military officer no longer knows what to say and admits the guilt: I made a mistake, judge me, it’s been 7 years, I will sit down. And there the Prime Minister makes a conclusion. “But is it possible that the high-ranking military officer is a foreign agent?” If we also take into account the fact that when answering whose question the Prime Minister came up with this advice proposal, then everything will immediately fall into place.

Without going ahead, I should say that I wrote in advance on my Facebook page that I will not follow the question-and-answer session in question on purpose, and more precisely, for health reasons. Nevertheless, the video of the above-described episode was presented so lavishly on one of the websites that it caught my eye as soon as I turned on the computer, and I could not avoid it. At first, Kocharyan Andranik muttered something about the 5th column in the army, expressed the opinion that there are similar columns in the political field as well, then cast a heavily soapy look at Nikol Pashinyan. The video is there, I am not adding anything to it, and I will advise those who hate Nikol and Kocharyan Andranik to watch it.

Nikol Pashinyan, as expected, could not stand Kocharyan Andranik’s look and approached the main podium. Yes, by the way, about the main podium. NA session moderators, when addressing the speakers, often use the expression “come to the main podium”. To tell the truth, after the last renovation of the National Assembly, I have not been to the session hall yet, and I don’t know if there is a second, less main podium there or not. In any case, I should mention that Nikol Pashinyan approached the main podium after Kocharyan Andranik’s “question” and began to answer the question. What he answered, I have already written above and let me say that several questions arose from his answer, which I would like to raise.

1. Mr. Prime Minister, in the 44-day war, how many cases were there when, after occupying a height or position by your order, one of the high-ranking officers, without your knowledge, came and ordered to surrender that height or position? It is clear, isn’t it, that if we are talking about an entire convoy, then there were not one or two such high-ranking officers.
2. Mr. Prime Minister, during the 44-day war, were there any cases when you ordered to fight for the homeland until the last drop of blood, but the army did not fight and deserted? More specifically, did you order Hadrut to be held at all costs? Is there such a document or, as far as you remember, did you order it?
3. Mr. Prime Minister, it is a well-known fact that in the first days of the 44-day war, Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan reported to you that we have ammunition for several days and suggested to stop the war. Can you claim that you did everything to stop the war, but the “5th column” did not obey you?
4. Mr. Prime Minister, it is a well-known fact that at the beginning and middle of October you were also offered to stop the “meat grinder” and avoid a large number of victims. Tell me, please, did you try to stop the “meat grinder” after that, but it didn’t stop because the “5th column” didn’t leave?
5. Mr. Prime Minister, in the last days of the 44-day war, what order did you give to keep Shush or not? Is it possible that you did not give any order and left the matter to the discretion of the “5th column”?
6. Mr. Prime Minister, it is a well-known fact that after the fall of Shushi, the enemy’s road to Stepanakert was open in all directions. I would like to see the defense plan of Stepanakert drawn up by your genius military strategist and the list of high-ranking military personnel whom you ordered not to surrender Stepanakert. Dig into your memory, Mr. Prime Minister, and also don’t forget to tell what the supposed “5th column” was doing in those days that didn’t just eliminate you for presenting such a genius plan.

And one last question. Mr. Prime Minister, can you repeat for our public: who were you during the 44-day war: the supreme commander-in-chief, the number 1 culprit, the number 1 moderator… Who? Did you, in general, give any orders that were executed or not executed? Isn’t it time to open all the orders you issued during the 44-day war, so that we can understand what else that “5th column” was busy with?

HG. Kocharyan Andranik says that our commission is active, we are calling witnesses for questioning, but some “witnesses” do not come for questioning. Hey Kocharyan Andranik, you are human, your look says everything about you, what witnesses are you waiting for? Let Nikol come, tell, and you write… Alternatively, research-research… Surprise, again.

Edik Andreasyan

Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ : https://hraparak-am.translate.goog/post/3fa7d2cba0588581c6928de8be8b6c7e?_x_tr_sl=hy&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc

© 2008 – 2021 «Հրապարակ օրաթերթ»

Ani Arakelyan

A person’s face says everything about him. There are very rare exceptions, when a literate, kind, sensitive being is hidden under a cruel and uneducated face, a dull look and a dark exterior. Usually, educated people have delicate features, intelligent people have intelligent eyes, kind people have soft facial expressions and friendly and caring people smile, and have soft looks. Have you noticed that if a beautiful girl is dumb and illiterate, her beauty doesn’t captivate you, and an ugly, but literate and intelligent person always looks likable, no matter how much he is not endowed with good-looking features by nature?

Now look at the photos of today’s authorities with this prism. Here are the ranks of the “Citizen Agreement” faction of the National Assembly. those who don’t say anything, vague looks with eyes radiating cruelty and indifference, stupid and incomprehensible faces that don’t evoke sympathy, every time you look at them you wonder what’s on the mind of this person who appeared in this hall with the will of one person and one mission, pressing a button at the moment of need to press.

Now open the messages-photos about the meetings of the RA government and look at the faces of the members of the government. cold, emotionless, frightened looks, with one mindset: no one to say anything, no one to ask anything, sit down, the session is over, go to their offices and enjoy their lot… “the grass” as the famous song says.

Now let’s look at one more thing. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has visited X marz or Yerablur, or is he on some ceremonial occasion. At some point, they started welcoming him and escorting him in a big procession. Someone probably said that it is a sign of strength, power, prime ministership.

And here, the RA Prime Minister approaches, a line of people greets him or his wife or any minister. Look at the faces of the greeters, a group of ugly, cruel, indifferent and uncommunicative people. Another image shows a line of people accompanying Nikol Pashinyan. they buy some workshop or some factory, or a farm, or a newly built garden, as a message to the public about the economic rise. The line of those following Pashinyan resembles a procession of Shked-republic students, a theater troupe or a line of convicts who have finished serving their sentence and have just been released from the fortress, or a group of ordinary spectators who happened to come to a street show. These vagrants of different body and weight, different social status, different educational level, and very different mental and intellectual levels best characterize these authorities.

To this group of random people who did not understand what the government is, what is the management of the state, and who should have what role in the hierarchy of the state. They have understood only one thing: they are nothing, the one who is going in front of them is everything, because they can become nothing again every minute with the will of that one who is going in front of them. Even the one in front of them can become nothing at any minute if the stars align accordingly.

Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ : https://hraparak-am.translate.goog/post/2de6722ff4bfad7d22ad0a81dd0c573c?_x_tr_sl=hy&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc

© 2008 – 2021 «Հրապարակ օրաթերթ»

A new war between Azerbaijan and Armenia would mean trouble for Brussels and its effort to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels.

BY GABRIEL GAVIN

Gas and oil from Azerbaijan are crucial to the EU’s effort to replace Russian fossil fuels — but that’s in danger of becoming entangled in the bloc’s bid to become a power player in the war-torn South Caucasus.

The EU has sent a civilian mission to help police the Armenian side of the tense mountainous border between the two countries, which has Azerbaijan warning of foreign interference in its affairs.

At the same time, a European Parliament report condemning Azerbaijan’s human rights record is sparking howls of outrage from the country.

All of that is casting a shadow over the EU’s high-profile deal with Azerbaijan to double its annual gas deliveries to the bloc to 20 billion cubic meters by 2027.

Speaking to POLITICO on condition of anonymity, a senior official in the EU’s diplomatic service bemoaned the fact that the monitoring mission seems to have soured relations. “We were hoping for a different scenario with Baku. We are sharing all relevant information on patrols and so on with Azerbaijan because we don’t want any issues.”

With Russia distracted by its catastrophic war against Ukraine, Brussels hoped to boost its presence in the South Caucasus, building economic ties with Azerbaijan while offering political support to neighboring Armenia in an effort to keep a balance between the two rival states.

But that’s not the way the 100 monitors — announced by Brussels in January after a two-day war last September — are being seen by Baku. 

In a speech last month, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev blastedoutside interference in his country’s standoff with Armenia over the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh. “The mediators involved in the Karabakh conflict [try] not to solve the issue but to freeze it,” he declared, arguing Baku rejected efforts to “tire us out with meaningless negotiations.”

In 2020, Aliyev launched a successful military offensive retaking swathes of Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region inside Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders but controled since the fall of the USSR by its ethnic Armenian population. That conflict ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire, but tensions are rising and there’s fear of a return to full-blown fighting. 

“Many Armenians believe there’ll be a spring offensive by Azerbaijan,” Markus Ritter, head of the EU mission, told Deutsche Welle. “If this doesn’t happen, our mission is already a success.”

Days before, the country’s state media alleged the EU mission is actually helping “provoke Azerbaijan into a new war,” leaving the “EU to bear the blame” for any new conflict.

“Azerbaijan and Russia are basically saying the same thing — that the EU mission is a military-intelligence operation under the cover of monitoring,” the EU official added. “They’ve been trying to discredit the mission, which is exclusively civilian and unarmed, from the beginning and there’s not much we can do about it.

Vaqif Sadıqov, the head of Azerbaijan’s mission to the EU, told POLITICO that the presence of the monitors near the border with Azerbaijan is worrying Baku.

“This is a bilateral issue between Armenia and the EU, but it is happening a few hundred meters from our own border posts and in a heavily militarized environment where we have Russian border guards, Armenian border guards, Russian regular units, Armenian regular units and, closer to the Iranian border, Iran’s military. Now we also have EU peacekeepers. So we have legitimate security questions,” he said.

Sadıqov warned the mission could be seen as an effort by Brussels to bolster its presence in the region.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-showdown-former-soviet-union-oil-azerbaijan-armenia-conflict-south-caucasus/

One of the two Azerbaijani soldiers reported to have entered some twenty kilometers into Armenia earlier today has been caught, according to the Armenian Defense Ministry.

The two Azerbaijani soldiers, reported to have been in civilian dress, were seen on the outskirts of the Armenian Syunik town of Sisian.

Bnunis village residents told Azatutyun Radio the arrested Azerbaijani was carrying a knife, but no firearms.

The ministry, in a statement, didn’t clarify how the two Azerbaijanis were able to penetrate so far into Armenia.

Earlier today, Baku reported that two Azerbaijani servicemen got lost in the direction of Shahbuz district of Nakhichevan, “in adverse weather conditions and limited visibility”. Nakhichevan borders Armenia’s Syunik province.

Since 2020, Pashinyan’s policy of “handing over territories so as not to allow escalation, to have no new victims” is showing cracks and collapsing.

The residents of Tegh village in Syunik state that they are ready to fight and make new sacrifices, just to protect the land of their grandfathers and grandchildren. After the 44-day war, by open and non-public orders of Pashinyan, territories from Armenia were continuously ceded to Azerbaijan without resistance. Pashinyan explains the lack of resistance by the concern of not giving victims and saving people’s lives, he tries to convince that for him the life of an Armenian person is of greater value than the Armenian land, it is better to hand over the land piecemeal than for people to fight and die for that land. : Pashinyan was convinced that the Armenian society would support his policy of handing over the homeland. because the society that lost more than 4 thousand victims in the 44-day war is not ready for new victims and sacrifices. This open capitulant and treacherous policy has started to meet tough resistance.

Local residents reveal the lies of Pashinyan and his subordinate NSS. Pashinyan lied, saying that there was no positional change and Armenia did not hand over territory, and the National Security Service lied, saying that the Azerbaijanis violated the agreement and came and positioned themselves in the Armenian territories, and now they are allegedly conducting negotiations to remove the Azerbaijanis from the Armenian territories. The local residents show the fields cultivated by them and the Azerbaijanis carrying out fortification works in those fields. They also cultivated those territories during Soviet Armenia, they were within the borders of Soviet Armenia, they have ownership certificates that they received during the privatization of land in 1991, and it’s not like they came under the control of Armenia as a result of the first Karabakh war. This refutes Pashinyan’s lie. that the Armenian side has no positional change or territorial loss. The local residents say that before the arrival of the Azerbaijanis and positioning themselves in their fields, the servicemen of the border guard troops of Armenia were also positioned, but far behind our real border. One of the villagers tells. “I saw that it was the border guard troops, they were digging a ditch, they were setting up a post. I stopped and asked: are you setting up this post, he said yes. I said: our border is there (points to the mountains visible in the distance), why are you setting up a post here? He said: dear Hopar, don’t ask us such questions. So they knew in advance, right?” The villager reveals that the NSS border guard troops were not surprised by the Azerbaijani advance, they knew in advance and agreed with the Azerbaijani side where the Armenian positions would be, and where the Azerbaijani ones were, they agreed in advance.

Why is Pashinyan lying by saying that there is no positional change or territorial concession? He understands that if he admits that Azerbaijan is getting territorial gains at the expense of Armenia, then the other fairy tale invented by him, that it is nothing that we ceded Artsakh to the enemy, the important thing is to ensure the security and integrity of Armenia’s 29.8 thousand square kilometers, will collapse. Now it is clear, isn’t it, that after ceding Artsakh, Pashinyan is also ceding Syunik. It’s just that, unlike Artsakh, which surrendered with war and casualties, Syunik is surrendering without war, piece by piece. The NSS records the progress of the Azerbaijanis, because it is impossible not to record, they cannot bury their heads in the sand and say that there was no territorial concession, as they said after the surrender of the Black Lake area, when they officially refused to accept it for a long time.

The two ideological pillars of Pashinyan’s government – “let’s give territory so that there are no victims” and “let’s give Artsakh to save at least 29.8 thousand square kilometers” – have collapsed. During the extraordinary parliamentary elections of 2021, the representatives of the government, as a counter-argument to protect Pashinyan, said: now that the opposition has come to power, it will bring back Shushi and Hadrut, thereby trying to convince the public that what we have lost, we have lost, without Pashinyan, one thing: it is not possible to bring those territories back, or there will be a war, and again territorial and human there will be losses, it is better to put up with the loss and live peacefully. It turned out that Pashinyan will not be satisfied with surrendering territories only through war and will continue to surrender. Even after the war, they said, “Why should we risk 3 million residents of the Republic of Armenia for 120,000 Artsakh citizens?” It’s clear, isn’t it, that in the case of Pashinyan’s government, not only the people of Artsakh, but also any RA citizen has no guarantee of safety, safety of his life and property, Turkish gangs can enter the territory of Armenia at any time and take possession of people’s property, and there is no one to protect it.

Armenia and the Armenian society are facing an ontological dilemma. either they put up with the existence of Pashinyan and his government and allow him to hand over the motherland in parts, keeping his power, or they save Armenia by removing Pashinyan. The advance of the Turkish army does not particularly concern or threaten Pashinyan and his rulers. Pashinyan must have asked someone, the mathematicians of his team, that if the Turk advances by 300 meters once a month, how long will it take to reach his seat? They also counted and said that it will take 20-25 years to reach Republic Square at this pace, we can be calm for that long. There is no alternative to restoring the constitutional order that was overthrown in 2018. Five years was enough time for the deluded and desensitized part of the society to understand.

Avetis Babajanyan

Statement of the ARF Western USA Central Committee

According to a report in the “Asbarez” newspaper, Lilit Makunts, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the United States of America had a meeting on April 1 with individuals (led by Carmen Ohanian) who declared themselves to be the “ARF Central Committee of the Western United States” ​​but in reality, are part of a syndicate of former members who were expelled and banned from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation due to severe misconduct.  A similar meeting was held between the Republic of Armenia’s Los Angeles Consulate and the same self-proclaimed syndicate in Los Angeles on March 21.

Denying the participation by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western U.S.A. Central Committee in the abovementioned meetings, we hereby declare:

A- The last World Congress (General Meeting) of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, with its announcement dated March 8, 2022, clearly proclaimed that the only ARF Entity operating in the Western United States Region of the United States is the Central Committee elected for a term of two years on July 18, 2021 at the ARF Western United States 55^th Regional Convention and that this entity is the only one authorized to incorporate the use of the ARF’s name and use its flag, insignia, and anthem.

B- If the R.A. Embassy was in fact oblivious about the identities of members of the ARF’s regional bodies, which would be a serious failure for the state apparatus of any country, it could easily have verified with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or directly from the Supreme Council of the ARF in Armenia, an active Parliamentary opposition party registered in the Republic of Armenia. Or it could have checked with the Yerevan office of the ARF Bureau.

C- Like all Diasporan bodies of the ARF, the Central Committee of the ARF Western United States of America has always maintained a certain level of respect and protocol with all RA diplomatic missions. This attitude  stems from our deep understanding of the difference between a ruling party and the institution of the state. Despite this, on its official websites, the RA Embassy, ​​trampling political protocols, national consciousness and basic civility, purported to present a group that has nothing to do with the ARF as if they were representatives of the ARF in the Western United States.

D- This political act by Ambassador Makunts cannot be attributed to happenstance or lack of information. This clearly deliberate act strives to disseminate misinformation and confusion in the Western U.S. Armenian-American community and spread the same confusion to Armenians everywhere, including Armenia, where the authorities are trying to silence the political opposition by all means in order to prepare the country for new capitulations. This is an unacceptable and gross interference in the internal affairs of the Diaspora and reveals the true political orientation and motivations of the rogue group of expelled individuals, which has misled their small band of followers from the beginning.

On behalf of the ARF Western United States of America Central Committee, we call on the relevant bodies of the Republic of Armenia to refrain from attempting to promote illegitimacy in the internal life of the Diaspora and try to display some level of political maturity. At the same time, we call on the Armenian-American community to remain steadfast in our work toward the realization of our common  goals, to unite around the ARF, and to continue to contribute in every way possible to the self-determination of Artsakh and the safety and security of Artsakh’s Armenians.

Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Western United States of America Central Committee

The shame is that Anna Hakobyan tells the people of Ajharkut that she formed a squad during the 44-day war and participated in the war when no one saw her or any member of her squad on the battlefield.

when the information about that squad was exclusively through photographs taken at an unknown location. To stand at an event dedicated to the memory of a soldier heroically killed in the war and talk about the non-existent actions is a mockery and an insult to the real heroes. Davit Shahnazaryan’s relatives and fellow villagers should at least ask Anna Hakobyan very calmly not to desecrate David’s memory and not to use the hero’s memorial event for their own propaganda, to present the nation as a coward and deserter.

A man speaks of heroism, whose husband, occupying the position of Prime Minister of Armenia and, in fact, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief during the war, was in Stepanakert for only a couple of hours, hiding in a bunker. A woman whose husband did not go to the front line at least once during the 44-day war and did not stand next to the fighting soldiers speaks of heroism. And what kind of heroic behavior did Anna Hakobyan’s husband show after signing the shameful act of capitulation, when he hid in an unknown bunker and came out only when it became clear that all threats to his security were neutralized? A person who, in order to take a photo with her husband on the street, has to first clear the street of her own citizens or disguise herself in such a way that suddenly no one recognizes her in a store or on the street, speaks of heroism.

Anna Hakobyan says that the heroes are the fallen, and the 565,000 men who survived are ordinary cowards who did not dare to go to the front, or even if they did, they did not sacrifice themselves and become heroes. Even the 25,000-30,000 soldiers who kept the front line throughout the war, did not allow the enemy to advance, but did not die, are cowards. Anna Hakobyan and her husband would like them all to become heroes, for Armenia to have not 4 thousand, but 40 thousand, 565 thousand heroes. After all, all the actions of Pashinyan and his government were aimed at this. In order to make Armenian soldiers and officers heroes, Pashinyan led the army without anti-aircraft defense to stand in the field, so that the soldiers would become targets of Turkish and Israeli drones and become heroes by the hundreds and thousands.

The reality is that the Armenian society really gave Anna Hakobyan and her husband the opportunity to talk about themselves as cowards. Because if we were not cowards, why should Nikol Pashinyan have held the position of Prime Minister until now, and his wife should have taught people lessons of heroism during events dedicated to the memory of heroes? If 565 thousand men and the same number of women tolerate the rule of these people, then they really have the right to treat our society that way.

But, regardless of everything, the power of Pashinyan and Hakobyan is in danger. As long as the 565,000 people mentioned by Hakobyan are alive, until all of them have become heroes, there is a danger that one day the Armenian society will rebel and wipe that shame from its face. That is why they are doing everything to make as many people in our country become heroes, die, be killed, leave the country. They also understand that the joint existence of the Armenian people and their government is becoming more and more incompatible. Either-or.

Avetis Babajanyan

Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the First President of the Republic of Armenia (RA), has written an article that has been published on ilur.am, where he states that the ruling majority “Civil Contract” Faction of the National Assembly (NA) is obligated to launch the matter of NA speaker Alen Simonyan’s dismissal. The article reads as follows:

“No matter how much I tried to restrain myself, I still couldn’t stop not reflecting on the disgusting incident that happened two days ago. When a [Diaspora Armenian] young man saw RA National Assembly president Alen Simonyan surrounded by bodyguards on the street, he loudly called him a ‘traitor.’ Simonyan, calmly breaking through the chain of bodyguards, approached the young man with ‘quiet steps’ and fully spat in his face, which, by the way, he proudly confirmed in his explanations after the incident.

“The word spit (except in the field of medicine) is vulgarity in itself and totally disgusting when it is used even in domestic disputes. But when it comes from the lips of one of the highest state officials, especially when it turns into a concrete action by him, then it is already the end of the state.

“As for the word traitor, it is not a domestic profanity or a personal insult, but a purely political assessment which should be not countered by vulgar speech or spit, but by an appropriate and reasonable response, especially since the authorities possess unlimited means of information and propaganda.

“There has never been a leader of a more or less democratic state in the world who was not labeled a traitor by his political opponents. It may seem surprising if, for example, I recall that at one time even outstanding US presidents such as Roosevelt were declared traitors by their political opponents for ceding Eastern European countries to the Soviet Union, Truman—for not preventing the communistization of China, and Clinton—for weakening his country’s military power due to courtship with Russia. None of them spat in the face of those who labeled them as traitors, but countered—personally or by their supporters—all such accusations with valid arguments.

“Now let’s return to the unforgivable act of infamous Alen Simonyan, the head of the only instance endowed with the primary mandate of Armenia. By the way, unforgivable is not just a word in this case, but under it, it is assumed that the National Assembly, and, first of all, the latter’s ‘Civil Contract’ Faction, in order not to lose its standing before the people once and for all, is obligated to launch the matter of Alen Simonyan’s dismissal [as NA speaker]. I am not exaggerating at all. His action is the biggest damage done to the standing of our statehood, which can be eliminated only at the price of the latter’s removal from office. This is the only way to restore the honor of our people before the international community.

“I call on all the media to disseminate this article, and to our entire society, political forces—to join this initiative; moreover, not at all through mass events, demonstrations, marches, but purely legal means.”

Maybe there will be another war tomorrow A country cannot escape its geography. Armenia, wedged between busy neighbors, is therefore trying to find new allies.

By Meike Dülffer, Jermuk, Yerevan,

Shurnuch According to an Armenian joke, if you ironed Armenia, it would be as big as Russia. Unironed, it’s just 12,000 square miles of mountains wedged between Iran, Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. That’s a problem. With whom can this small country trade, and who supports and protects it? Three million inhabitants, old monasteries, lakes, mountains, delicacies, and vibrant life in the capital Yerevan.

Recently, Armenia has become a little bit smaller and there is a great fear that it could become even smaller. Last September, Azerbaijan fired rockets at the Armenian resort town of Jermuk. Up to 55 impacts were counted, says Armen Tadewosyan, who operates the chairlift here. The remains of a Grad rocket lie behind a little house next to the lift, and the plastic windows of a small café are torn to pieces. Already in Soviet times people came here to relax.

Jermuk is located in eastern Armenia at 2,000 meters in the South Caucasus, skiing in winter, hiking in summer, mineral water and fresh air all year round. There used to be 30,000 tourists a year, but who wants to vacation in the field of fire now? Not only Jermuk was attacked last year, but also other Armenian towns near the border with eastern neighbor Azerbaijan. The conflict with Azerbaijan has escalated in recent years. After Armenia lost the last war in 2020 over the Armenian-inhabited region of Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenian Arzakh), which is part of Azerbaijan under international law, it had to cede several previously Armenian-controlled areas to Azerbaijan following a ceasefire agreement. In the following two years, Azerbaijan finally attacked various places on Armenian territory that actually have nothing to do with the Karabakh dispute.

In Jermuk, Azerbaijani troops even advanced several kilometers into Armenian territory in the mountains. The cable car operator Tadewosyan points to the snow-capped mountains that surround the place: “You can see one of their positions up there!” They are only a few kilometers away. A pattern of escalation There is fear in the country because of such attacks on Armenian territory. Are there new attacks? Is a major military escalation imminent? War? “We’re seeing a pattern,” says Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanyan, referring to the threat situation.

“First there are minor provocations at the border, then the rhetoric of the Azerbaijanis escalates and finally there is a major attack.” That’s how it was before the attacks last September, and that’s how it is now again. The fact that the authoritarian Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev recently gave his speech on the Nowruz New Year celebrations in Nagorno-Karabakh, where around 120,000 Armenians currently live without access to Armenia, is seen as a provocation in Armenia.

And it is observed with particular attention that Aliyev has repeatedly spoken of “West Azerbaijan” in relation to Armenia in the past few months, a phrase that makes the Armenians fear for their existence. A major point of contention between the two countries is currently the Azerbaijani demand for a corridor to the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan. Armenia is ready to open a road between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan, but nothing more. An extraterritorial corridor controlled by Azerbaijan would cut off the Armenian region of Syunik from the rest of Armenia and potentially make it attractive to Azerbaijani expansionist aspirations.

Source: https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2023-03/armenien-aserbaidschan-waffenstillstand-russland?wt_zmc=sm.int.zonaudev.twitter.ref.zeitde.redpost.link.x&utm_medium=sm&utm_source=twitter_zonaudev_int&utm_campaign=ref&utm_content=zeitde_redpost_link_x&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2F