Azerbaijan’s armed forces intensively violated the ceasefire along the Line of Contact overnight, releasing 1,600 gunshots against Armenian defense troops from heavy weapons.
In the eastern and north-eastern directions of the frontline, the adversary shot fire from the 88mm divisional gun D-44, and mine-launchers of different calibers.
In a press release, Nagorno-Karabakh’s Ministry of Defense says the advance military units of its Defense Army took preventive action to suppress the attacks. Azerbaijan’s military reported one loss in the wake of the skirmishes.
The situation on the frontline is under the Armenian defense forces’ full control.
Criminalizing visits to Artsakh is a threat to Russia’s national security and territorial integrity – Denis Dvornikov
“This is a hysteria,” during today’s press conference in Yerevan Russian publicist, member of the Russian Association of the International Law Denis Dvornikov said the above mentioned in response to a reporter’s question over his assessment on the Azerbaijani acts of launching a criminal case against MEPs Frank Engel (Luxembourg), Eleni Teoharus (Cyprus) and Jaromír Štětina (Czech Republic) and submitting request to Interpol to issue international arrest warrant against them.
“The referendum on Constitutional amendments held in Nagorno Karabakh has greatly irritated the neighbouring country. However, I am convinced that Interpol will reject such an application, as it will become a dangerous precedent in all over the world. In addition to that, Interpol officials have respect towards their spare time and work, as when one precedent is formed, they will receive similar requests regarding all the disputed territories of the world. This is a political issue,” Denis Dvornikov said.
He noted that such an act by Azerbaijan is more directed to its own population to show them the authorities can somehow affect the Nagorno Karabakh referendum.
Denis Dvornikov recalled the statement of Russia’s Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov stating that it is unacceptable to ban someone from visiting a place.
“He made it clear that visits to Artsakh are not forbidden,” the Russian publicist said adding that eventually Azerbaijani actions will also pall the international organizations, as they have palled Lavrov.
Criminalizing visits to Artsakh is a threat to Russia’s national security and territorial integrity. This is a very important matter,” he underscored referring to the disputes of Crimea and Kuril Islands.
Czech Ambassador reminds Azerbaijan: MEPs enjoy parliamentary immunity at EU territory
YEREVAN. — Citizens of the Czech Republic are not eligible for extradition by Czech authorities, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Armenia Mr. Petr Mikyska told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
“Members of European Parliament, being at the territory of European Union Member States, enjoy the parliamentary immunity. Regarding the implementation of international arrest warrant at the territory of third countries we esteem that current warrant sets a possible precedent that must and will be thoroughly studied,” the Ambassador said in response to comment on the Azerbaijani media reports.
Ambassador said they “noted that Azerbaijan Prosecutor General Office issued an international arrest warrant for European Parliament members Frank Engel (Luxembourg), Eleni Theocharous (Cyprus) and Jaromír Štětina (Czech Republic) for the “illegal visit” to Nagorno Karabakh.”
Azerbaijan Dictator Aliyev appoints wife as vice president
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has appointed his wife, Mehriban Aliyeva, as first vice president of Azerbaijan.
Aliyev’s order on the appointment was posted on the presidential website on February 21, RFE/RL reports.
Aliyev has been president of the oil-producing former Soviet republic since October 2003.
He has been accused by right groups and Western governments of persecuting opposition politicians, human rights defenders, and journalists.
RFE/RL journalist Khadija Ismayilova spent 17 months in prison in 2015-16 over financial-crimes charges that she and supporters say were government revenge for her reporting on alleged corruption involving Aliyev and his relatives.
Armenia vows adequate response to Azerbaijan’s possible provocations
Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan on Friday, February 17 said that Azerbaijan will receive adequate response in case it makes provocations during the upcoming parliamentary elections, set for April 2.
“Today some in Azerbaijan have the illusion that Armenia is preoccupied with the elections, and will be distracted and vulnerable as a result,” he said.
“Recently, Baku, which adores useless and short-lived PR campaigns and spends big money to carry them out, declared the Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) issue is Azerbaijan’s “internal” affair. Unfortunately, people have short memory. This kind of reasoning, which has neither legal nor moral basis, once resulted in the escalation of the conflict and war, with numerous victims and suffering first of all for the people of Azerbaijan itself.”
“We wish Azerbaijan no suffering, honestly, but won’t allow anybody to even dream about causing suffering to our people,” Sargsyan went on to say.
“The Artsakh issue is the Armenian people’s business, the national cause: the future of Artsakh is in the hands of Artsakh people.
“I see it as my duty to declare that every provocation will receive an adequate response. Politics based on illusions has no future.”
Armenia to provide medical assistance to family that fled Azerbaijan
YEREVAN. – The needed medical assistance will be provided to the Mirzoyev family, who fled Azerbaijan and requested asylum in Armenia.
Armenian State Migration Agency Head Gagik Yeganyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am that, to this end, the relevant healthcare institutions of the country have been put to work.
Şahin Mirzoyev had petitioned to the authorities of Armenia, with a request for asylum.
Mirzoyev, who is a participant in the Talysh liberation movement and a correspondent of the Talysh Sado newspaper, was forced to flee Azerbaijan with his family, and due to persecution and human rights abuses.
The authorities of Armenia have responded positively to Şahin Mirzoyev’s request for asylum.
Canadian Armenian students give international law lesson to Belarus Deputy FM “VIDEO”
Oleg Kravchenko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, on Monday delivered a lecture, entitled “Belarus and its Neighbors,” at Carleton University in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada.
Representatives of the Armenian Students’ Association of Ottawa and the Armenian National Committee of Canada also attended the event.
A Q&A was held after the lecture, and during which the Canadian Armenian students asked a barrage of questions to the Belarus deputy FM, and which were exclusively in regard to Israeli Russian blogger Alexander Lapshin’s extradition from Belarus to Azerbaijan, and overall, the human rights violations in Belarus. Oleg Kravchenko, however, became perplexed and gave contradicting answers to these queries.
During his lecture, Kravchenko drew similarities between Canada and Belarus. But to the remark that Canada is a democratic state, whereas the president of Belarus rules the country in an autocratic manner for more than 20 years, the Belarusian deputy FM responded by just saying there are no flawless countries.
https://youtu.be/Jh_uteCgTxI
And responding to a question on the extradition of Lapshin, Kravchenko said: “Sometimes the CIS [i.e. the Commonwealth of Independent States] conventions on extradition can contradict the UN conventions.”
This view completely unmasks the true demeanor of Belarus, which is quite far from the UN conventions and numerous other international legal acts.
After his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2011 and 2012, blogger Alexander Lapshin was “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan.
In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijan–but with a Ukrainian passport–and, subsequently, he published several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities.
Afterward, Azerbaijan issued an international search for this famous blogger. On December 15, 2016, Lapshin was detained in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk, and based on this search.
https://youtu.be/q71tGOdm2Ws
On January 26 of the current year, the Minsk city court dismissed the blogger’s appeal of the Belarusian General Prosecutor’s Office decision to extradite him to Azerbaijan.
On February 7, the Supreme Court of Belarus dismissed the appeals that were filed into this case, and upheld the aforesaid decision by the General Prosecutor’s Office.
On the evening of the same day, the famous blogger was extradited to the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku, where he was taken into custody.
According to analysts and human rights defenders, however, Alexander Lapshin’s case may become an appalling precedent that curtails the freedom of speech of foreigners and the freedom of movement of Armenian citizens.
Amnesty International: Aleksander Lapshin is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment in Azerbaijan
Amnesty International condemns the extradition of a blogger from Belarus to Azerbaijan.
“The criminal proceedings against Aleksander Lapshin should be terminated, and he should be released immediately,” organization said in a statement.
Amnesty International is not aware of any other cases of extradition requests being made by the Azerbaijani authorities against individuals who have entered Nagorno-Karabakh without their permission. However, there are numerous individuals who have visited the territory without permission from the Azerbaijani authorities and been “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan – put on an official list of offenders who will be permanently refused entry to Azerbaijan. Amnesty International takes the view that the extradition and charges against Aleksander Lapshin are a means of targeting him principally in connection with his blogs, in particular his criticism of the Azerbaijani border control system and the country’s social inequality.
“The charge of “public appeals against the state” has no legal basis, as the criticism of the Azerbaijani authorities in his blog falls entirely within the scope of his right to freedom of expression. With regard to the criminal charge of illegal border crossing, the organization maintains that irregular entry should not be treated as a criminal offence. As such, Amnesty International considers that his detention is arbitrary and calls for the criminal proceedings against Aleksandr Lapshin to be terminated. He should be released immediately,” the statement reads.
“Concerns were raised regarding the conditions of Aleksander Lapshin’s detention in Belarus where he was held at the pre-trial detention centre (SIZO) #1 in Minsk. He is also at risk of torture and other ill-treatment while in custody in Azerbaijan.”
“The Azerbaijani authorities have persistently failed to investigate allegations of torture and other ill-treatment and the Azerbaijani courts have on numerous occasions admitted as evidence “confessions” obtained under torture. In extraditing Aleksander Lapshin to Azerbaijan, where he is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, amongst other human rights violations, the Belarusian authorities have failed to adhere to their obligations under international human rights law. Belarus ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1998, according to which “no State Party shall expel, return or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”
Lapshin’s Case Again Brings the Issue of Signing the RA-NKR Mutual Military Aid Agreement on the Agenda
By Greta Avetisyan
(Armedia) The extradition of Lapshin and the developments around it have become one of the main topics of discussion recently. The claims that the extradition of the famous blogger is a violation of fundamental freedoms, that this is a result of Azerbaijani-Belarusian bilateral agreement raise no doubts. It is also obvious that the incident connected with Lapshin is another provocation by Azerbaijan and the target is not Lapshin, but Armenia and Artsakh.
If in case of Armenia Azerbaijan intends to make it resort to provocative actions and come up with destructive position, in case of Artsakh Azerbaijan’s aim is its isolation.
Azerbaijan has always responded to any international visit to Artsakh quite toughly, and if previously that response was limited with several announcements and with including several people in their “black list”, now, after carrying out the “operation” of extradition of Lapshin, Azerbaijan tries to threaten those, who have visited or intend to visit Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.
Azerbaijan’s policy which attempts to isolate Artsakh society may give rise to certain concern among the Artsakh people of being isolated from the world, as well as a fear of increase of threat to their security.
In such a case, perhaps, it is necessary to again consider the issue of signing RA-NKR mutual military aid agreement, which will become another security guarantee for NKR people hitting the attempts of Azerbaijan’s isolation policy. In this regard it is important that the mutual military aid agreement includes a corresponding provision, which will fix that an attack on one side would mean attack on the other side.
Greta Avetisyan
Source: http://armedia.am/eng/news/45191/lapshins-case-again-brings-the-issue-of-signing-the-ra-nkr-mutual-military-aid-agreement-on-the-agenda.html
Senor Hasratyan: The Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan is ultimately losing its ability to assess the reality soberly
“Today the Azerbaijani agitprop has spread another disinformation according to which the Armenian side has attempted a sabotage infiltration and their forces prevented it in time,” NKR Defense Army’s Spokesman Senor Hasratyan has noted the aforesaid in a post on facebook.
“By the way, in order to make the fiction more colourful, the magicians of Baku, as usual, have decided to release a rather tasteless and unprofessional footage as an “”irrefutable proof” to the claims, and which won’t be possible to understand even after studying it thoroughly… Anyways, as it is said tastes differ, but in addition to all of this the fact that the Defence Ministry of Azerbaijan is ultimately losing its ability to soberly assess the reality is obvious…
And in the end, let me add something: pursuant to the official statement released by the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry on 12 February, “during the shootout aimed at preventing the shelling of the frontline positions by the adversary, contract serviceman of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Junior Sergeant Fuad Farhad oghlu Gafarov died.” We leave you with all the conclusions to be drawn from this,” Hasratyan added.
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