The proposed purchase of Russian missiles S-400 by Turkey would be directed against Armenia and its “Iskander M”

August 6, 2017 By administrator

“In the event of intervention by Russia during an armed conflict in Artaskh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Turkey will respond in support of Azerbaijan,” said Azerbaijani deputy Rasim Mousabekov. This statement follows Ankara’s intention to buy from Russia, C-400 missile batteries. Last April, Ankara and Moscow approved the planned delivery of Russian-made S-400 missiles to Turkey.

A Russian newspaper writes that when Turkey decided to buy these weapons, the stated objective was to strengthen its air defense. But later, well-informed sources reportedly asserted that these purchases of Russian missiles S-400 not Turkey – which has not yet been realized – were directed against Armenia.

During the Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercises last June, this option would have been discussed between Ankara and Baku. Baku who felt very badly the information of the Russian delivery of the missiles “Iskander M” to Armenia. Thus the objective of the likely purchase of Ankara C-400 missiles would be to counter Armenia in the event of an attack by the “Iskander M” that only Armenia owns in the region.

Krikor Amirzayan

How Azerbaijan’s Paid Agents Manipulate the American Media

August 3, 2017 By administrator

by Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California Courier

For several years, dozens of articles have appeared in U.S., Israeli, and European newspapers, lavishly praising Azerbaijan and severely criticizing Armenia. Most of these articles are written by non-Azeris who are handsomely compensated by the Azeri government.

One man, Casey Michel, had the courage to expose this scam in a lengthy article titled, “Azerbaijan’s American Media Manipulation.” He had done extensive research, linking several of these pro-Azeri authors to Azerbaijan’s well-financed lobbying activities.

In an attempt “to whitewash its dictatorial image… the autocratic government of Ilham Aliyev has unleashed spin-doctors, duped reporters, and led one of the most brazen pushes to abuse American lobbying loopholes of any foreign government,” Michel wrote.

Some of these hired pens sing the praises of Azerbaijan and mislead the general public by acting as if they are uninvolved third parties who are making objective assessments of the situation in Azerbaijan. Whereas, in reality, these writers are on the payroll of the Azeri regime or its state energy company, SOCAR. Here are some concrete examples:

Former Cong. Dan Burton, who was paid to serve as head of the Azerbaijan America Alliance, wrote at least three op-ed articles in the Washington Post, Washington Times, and Daily Caller on what a wonderful country Azerbaijan is, without disclosing that he was on Baku’s payroll! Fortunately, Cong. Burton quit his job, when Azerbaijan stopped paying him!

Michel then mentions Jason Katz as the most prolific pro-Azerbaijan propagandist, the founder of The Tool Shed Group, a U.S. lobbying firm hired by Azerbaijan. Katz wrote a series of articles in Huffington Post in praise of Azerbaijan’s “democracy,” claiming the country to be “a progressive, cosmopolitan, open, secular and Western-oriented society.”

To his credit, Katz initially disclosed in these articles that he was a “senior advisor to the Republic of Azerbaijan.” However, shortly thereafter, Katz began to conceal his relationship with the Azeri government. Since late 2013, Katz wrote at least nine articles in praise of the Aliyev regime, four of them for Roll Call, and three for The Hill, in one of them foolishly claiming that “the U.S. can learn much from a nation like Azerbaijan,” Michel reported.

Katz also wrote an outrageous article in National Review early in 2014, “equating the Armenian government with the Taliban!” In all nine articles, Katz had failed to mention that his firm, The Tool Shed Group, was being paid by Azerbaijan!

Michel went to great lengths to expose Katz by contacting various publications and informing them about Katz’s lobbying efforts on behalf of Azerbaijan. Most of these publications, then added corrections after Katz’s articles were published, noting his close affiliation with Azerbaijan.

For example, the National Review, after hearing from Michel, put a new note under Katz’s name, disclosing that Katz is a consultant to foreign states, “including the Azerbaijani government.” The Hill also inserted an editor’s note after Katz’s name, revealing that “Katz is paid to provide strategic advice to Azerbaijan. This note was added after Katz’s foreign agent registration was brought to the attention of The Hill.”

These articles not only mislead the American readers about Azerbaijan, but cause a further damage when reprinted in the Azeri press as evidence of the high regard Americans had for Azerbaijan!

Switching tactics, Katz’s wife, Mallory Moss, began to write similar anti-Armenian articles on the Artsakh (Karabagh) conflict in mid-2014. She wrote one for the Capitol Weekly and two for the Hill, under the guise of being a nurse! Michel discovered that Mallory Moss had registered under her name the website BakuWoman.com which was reregistered under the name of Jason Katz. “The registrant organization listed for Moss was The Tool Shed Group,” Michel reported. Mallory Moss’s op-eds should have been filed under the Foreign Agent Registration Act of the U.S. Justice Department! When Michel reported to The Hill about Mallory Moss’s association with Jason Katz and The Tool Shed Group, The Hill added an editor’s note under her article: “A firm that is paid to provide strategic advice to Azerbaijan submitted this op-ed. The note was added after information was brought to the attention of The Hill.”

Finally, Michel mentions the case of Prof. Brenda Shaffer who had written pro-Azerbaijani articles for the New York Times and the Washington Post. In both cases, she had failed to mention that she was an advisor or consultant to Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company, SOCAR. Subsequently, both newspapers published an editor’s note exposing her financial relationship with SOCAR!

There are many others who are hired by Azerbaijan to write propaganda pieces in the Western media on behalf of the “Caspian kleptocracy” as Michel describes the country. Unfortunately, we are unable to name these propagandists without a solid evidence of their payoffs from Azerbaijan!

Source: http://www.thecaliforniacourier.com/how-azerbaijans-paid-agents-manipulate-the-american-media/

Armenian soldier wounded in Azerbaijan’s fire near border

August 1, 2017 By administrator

An Armenian contract serviceman was wounded in Azerbaijan‘s cross-border fire near the town of Ijevan on Tuesday, August 1.

“The soldier was take to Ijevan medical center,” Aysor.am cited defense ministry press secretary Artsrun Hovhannisyan as saying.

The injured serviceman’s condition is assessed as stable.

Another Armenian contract serviceman from the village of Paravakar was wounded in Azerbaijan’s fire in Tavush province on Friday.

4 Azerbaijan citizens were granted asylum in Armenia

July 31, 2017 By administrator

YEREVAN. – Four Azerbaijani citizens—a 17-year-old boy and a girl as well as a 35-year-old man and a 64-year-old woman—were granted asylum in Armenia in the first half of the year.

Karine Kuyumjyan, Head of the Census and Demography Division at the National Statistical Service of Armenia, said the abovementioned at a press conference on Monday.

She noted that 55 people—25 Syrian citizens, 9 Ukrainian citizens, 7 Cuban citizens, 6 Iranian citizens, and 8 from other nationalities—have sought asylum from Armenia.

In addition 46 persons—33 Syrian citizens, 4 Azerbaijani citizens, 3 Ukrainian citizens, 3 Iraqi citizens, and 2 Iranian citizens—were granted a refugee status in Armenia.

Armenians File War Crimes Lawsuits Against Azerbaijan

July 27, 2017 By administrator

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Hundreds of Armenians have filed government-backed lawsuits in the European Court of Human Rights accusing Azerbaijan of beheading Armenian soldiers and committing other atrocities during last year’s heavy fighting around Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ara Ghazaryan, an Armenian legal expert involved in the unprecedented legal action, said on Tuesday that the Strasbourg-based court has already requested official information from Baku on over 20 of the 359 lawsuits filed from Armenia and Karabakh.

“We expect a just compensation,” Ghazarian told a joint news conference with Armenia’s and Karabakh’s human rights ombudsmen. “It could be both a recognition of the violations [of the European Convention on Human Rights] and subsequent compensation for material and moral damages. But first and foremost, we must ensure that the European Court recognizes that there were violations.”

The war crimes alleged by the plaintiffs stem from the April 2016 hostilities in and around Karabakh which left least 180 soldiers from both warring sides dead. The authorities in Stepanakert and Yerevan say that three Armenian soldiers were beheaded by Azerbaijani troops at the time. They claim that one of them, the 31-year-old Major Hayk Toroyan, was still alive when his Azerbaijani captors began cutting off his head.

The headless body of another soldier, Kyaram Sloyan, was handed over to his family and buried on April 4, 2016, two days after the Azerbaijani army launched an offensive at two sections of the Karabakh “line of contact.” The family living in a village in central Armenia received the 19-year-old’s severed head later on.

According to Karabakh prosecutors, 15 other Armenian soldiers had their ears cut off after being killed by Azerbaijani forces.

Another Armenian lawsuit filed in Strasbourg stems from the violent deaths of three elderly members of a family in Talish, a village in northern Karabakh that was devastated by Azerbaijani shelling in April 2016. They were reportedly murdered by Azerbaijani commandos that burst into their home located on the outskirts of Talish.

Harut Sassounian: Azerbaijan’s US lobbying firm’s list of impressive accomplishments

July 26, 2017 By administrator

Azerbaijan lobby By Harut Sassounian

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the four lobbying and PR firms hired by Azerbaijan in the United States. One of these companies is the Tool Shed Group.

This week, I would like to present a sample of the impressive activities organized by the Tool Shed Group on behalf of the Consulate General of Azerbaijan which is getting a great bargain by paying only $9,000 a month for all of these pro-Azeri efforts, almost none of which could have happened without the Tool Shed Group.
Most readers are unaware that American lobbying and PR firms hired by foreign entities are legally required not only to register their clients with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), but also file the detailed list of activities on their behalf.

In order to know what efforts have been made by the Tool Shed Group on behalf of the Consulate of Azerbaijan, I have checked the website of the Justice Department where the Tool Shed Group has listed by date all of their activities for Azerbaijan’s Consulate in Los Angeles.

Tool Shed’s list of activities starts on April 1, 2009, but mysteriously ends on March 31, 2011. This must surely be a violation of the Justice Department’s requirement which has to be brought into the attention of the U.S. government. Nevertheless, the two-year report provides a detailed glimpse which I have summarized below as it is a dozen pages long:

1) Outreach to Universities:
Arranged meetings for Consul General Elman Abdullayev with the following University officials: Jolene Kester, California State University, Northridge, CA; the University of New Mexico; Geoff Cowan and Adam Clayton, USC; Chapman University, Orange, CA; Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA; Larry Greenfield, Vice President of the Claremont Institute, Los Angeles, CA; Jack Lewis, Associate Dean, USC Marshall School of Business, Los Angeles, CA; Gail Lapidus, Stanford University, Stanford, CA; David Lundberg, UCLA NanoSystems Institute; University of California, Irvine; and University of Las Vegas, Nevada; Lectures by the Consul General at UCLA; San Francisco State University; San Jose State University, San Jose, CA; USC; Scripps College, Claremont, CA; University of California, Santa Barbara, CA; California State University, Fullerton, CA; Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ; University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ; and Stanford University, Stanford, CA; spoke at a conference on religious pluralism at USC; and conference call with USC Center for Public Diplomacy to discuss a lecture by the Consul General.

2) U.S. Politicians:
Consul General met with Darrell Steinberg, President Pro Tem, California State Senate, Sacramento, CA; Karen Bass, Speaker, California State Assembly, Sacramento, CA; Annette Porini, Chief of Staff, State Senator Joe Simitian, Sacramento, CA; Felipe Fuentes, Assemblyman, California State Assembly, Sacramento, CA; Councilor Chris Calvert, City of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Speaker Ben Lujan, New Mexico State Legislature, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Mayor Bob Foster, Long Beach, CA; Cong. Adam Schiff, Glendale, CA; Congresswoman Diane Watson; Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchins, Santa Ana, CA; Orange County Board of Supervisors; Mike Schneider, President Pro Tem, Nevada State Senate, Las Vegas, Nevada; Mayor Oscar Goodman, City of Las Vegas, Nevada; Asked Cong. Michael McMahon (NY) to join the Azerbaijani Caucus, Los Angeles, CA; Mayor Chuck Reed, City of San Jose, CA; Meeting with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to present a gift from Azerbaijan to the Governor, Los Angeles, CA; Mayor Coss, City of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Cong. Dana Rohrabacher, Huntington Beach, CA; and City Council Member Jan Perry, Los Angeles, CA.

3) Jewish and Israeli Representatives:
Consul General of Azerbaijan met with Consul General Jacob Dayan of Israel, Los Angeles, CA; John Fishel, Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles; Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, CA; Lecture at Temple Judea, Tarzana, CA; American Jewish Committee, San Francisco, CA; and met with Rabbi Leider and Prof. Reuven Firestone regarding a lecture by the Consul General at Temple Beth Am, Los Angeles, CA.

There are dozens of other meetings that Jason Katz, the owner of Tool Shed Group, had arranged for the Consul General of Azerbaijan. I must admit that for a paltry $9,000 a month Mr. Katz is underpaid for arranging such a wide array of access for Azerbaijan in several US States, something the Consul General of Azerbaijan could have never accomplished on his own.
The Armenian-American community makes up for its lack of lobbying and PR firms by the activism of its organizations and their members. However, a professional lobbying and PR firm can add a lot to the existing successes. Unfortunately, most Armenians do not have a proper appreciation for the work of lobbying and PR firms and therefore do not believe in funding such a valuable and much-needed effort!

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Canadian defense deal with Azerbaijan raises more questions about arms export controls

July 25, 2017 By administrator

A deal by a Canadian company to export armoured personnel carriers to Azerbaijan and set up a joint production of these military-style vehicles in the oil-rich former Soviet republic is once again raising questions about the efficacy of Canada’s defence export controls.

According to Cbc.ca, Toronto-based INKAS Armored Vehicle Manufacturing has signed a deal with Azerbaijan’s interior ministry under which the company has already delivered “a few” Canadian-made armoured personnel carriers (APCs).

The privately owned company has also set up a joint venture with an Azerbaijani firm to produce APCs in Azerbaijan, which has been embroiled in a simmering armed conflict with neighbouring Armenia since the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, said Roman Shimonov, vice-president of marketing and business development at INKAS.

“Azerbaijan is a very unique country in terms of geographic location, in terms of geopolitical challenges, because they are in the middle between Iran and Armenia and Turkey,” said Shimonov, who has also been appointed CEO of the joint venture AZCAN Defence Solutions. “And they have resources, more resources than other countries, and they are looking to be able to have more solutions in terms of defence — and not only defence, they’re looking to protect their borders.”

Shimonov said the company has fully complied with all the government rules for the export of military goods.

“We cannot sell anything without getting a written permit from export control and once we get it, we know that our authorities, our Canadian authorities, have checked and they have approved,” Shimonov said.

Global Affairs Canada, the federal department responsible for issuing export permits for military and controlled goods, said “all applications for permits to export dual-use, military and strategic goods are assessed on a case-by-case basis, based on the specific goods and technology being exported, the destination country, and the specific end-use and end-user, amongst other criteria.”

“Regional peace and stability, including civil conflict and human rights, as well as the possibility of unauthorized transfer or diversion of the exported goods and technology, are actively considered,” said Global Affairs spokesperson Natasha Nystrom.

Azerbaijan shells Barekamavan village of Armenia’s Tavush province at night

July 22, 2017 By administrator

Azerbaijan shells barekamavan On July 21, in the period from 23:00 to 01:00, the Azerbaijani side shelled Barekamavan village of Armenia’s bordering Tavush province.

As Jonik Mikaelyan, head of Barekamavan community, told Panorama.am, the adversary opened irregular fire towards the village with two-hour time intervals.

“We did not suffer any casualties or damages,” he added.

Mr. Mikaelyan also informed that this is not for the first time Azerbaijan fires shots towards the village.

“We had many such cases previously, however shots were not fired towards the village in the past one year. Whereas, they [the Azerbaijani forces] open fire in the direction of the military posts almost on a daily basis,” the village chief said, adding that life proceeds normally in the village, with its inhabitants engaged in their daily struggles. “We are not a coward people,” he added.

FIBA U20: Armenia beats Azerbaijan

July 21, 2017 By administrator

FIBA U20: Armenia beats Azerbaijan Armenian U20 national defeated Azerbaijan 82-80 in a match for 17 place at the FIBA U20 European Championship Division B 2017 that is hosted by Romania.

Armenia’s national is the last in Group A after losing three matches and winning two.

Iranian tourist’s Armenia T-shirt spurs anger in Baku

July 20, 2017 By administrator

An Iranian tourist’s T-shirt bearing Armenia’s name has mounted a wave of anger in Azerbaijan’s capital.

A major incident erupted after the young man wearing the ‘controversial clothing’ was seen at the Baku trade center 28 Mall, Minval.az reports.

After strong protests by a crowd of people, a security guard urged him to take off the T-shirt.

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