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The Alexander Lapshin Case: Extradited and Imprisoned in Azerbaijan over Telling the Truth about Nagorno-Karabakh

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Sunday, February 12, 2017
Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer
Until a few weeks ago no one in North America even heard of journalist-blogger Alexander Lapshin. He lives primarily in Moscow but as a Russian-Israeli-Ukrainian citizen possessing three passports, Lapshin is a globetrotter who writes a blog called “Life Adventures” for the popular travel website LiveJournal. In Russia his on the road stories to off the beaten path, unusual places around the world (122 in all) have generated quite a following for their colorful and humorous portrayal of life as a foreign tourist visiting various diverse cultures and locations. But the 40-year old Lapshin is in political hot water now as a political prisoner sitting in a jail in Baku, Azerbaijan. His legal case has attracted international attention and involves high profile politics in four different nations.
On December 15th last year, Alexander Lapshin was detained in Minsk, Belarus. Viewing the blogger as a threat to “homeland security” based on his alleged “espionage,” the Azerbaijan prosecuting office had ordered the blogger’s arrest and requested extradition at the behest of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev. The travel journalist had made trips in 2011 and 2012 to Nagorno-Karabakh, sympathizing and identifying with the Armenians he met as reflected in his blog entries. Then on his social media account on April 6, 2016 and again on June 29th last year, Alexander commented on the unfairness of Azerbaijan’s territorial claims based on its attempted invasion of the disputed region, calling for recognition of the enclave’s independence, apparently a crime in violation of Azeri law code 281.2. Aware that the popular journalist’s messages were reaching a receptive audience of thousands of readers, the Baku government was growing nervous that his writings were contributing to the Nagorno-Karabakh movement for worldwide recognized independence. Thus, the reactionary oppressive state drew up a legal case against Lapshin, charging him with violating Azerbaijan’s “territorial integrity.” Baku was determined to set a harsh example of him to show the rest of the world what happens to journalists who publicly badmouth Azerbaijan.
Gloating over the victory of extraditing Lapshin and his current Baku incarceration, the deputy speaker for Azerbaijan’s legislature warned the rest of the world:
Those not reckoning with Azerbaijan, may share Lapshin’s fate.
The timing of the blogger’s detainment in Belarus came immediately following Lapshin’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s visit to Baku to close a $5 billion missile arms deal with Azerbaijan. With Azeri-Israeli relations never chummier, the Baku government seized the moment when in mid-December the traveling journalist landed in Minsk, a capital housing a government sympathetic to the Azeri cause.  
Another arbitrary Azeri law no one ever heard of apparently until the Lapshin case prohibits visitors from other countries to travel to Nagorno-Karabakh without authorized permission (code 318.2) from the Baku government. Of course thousands of individuals have gone to Nagorno-Karabakh since 1994, after Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a bloody six year warresulting in 30,000 deaths that Armenia won, leaving only Armenians who’ve been living there for many centuries. But since 1994 apparently Alexander Lapshin is the first and only person ever arrested for entering the disputed region without clearing the visit with Baku officials.
The long contested territory originated when Josef Stalin in 1920 gave Azerbaijan administrative control, despite Nagorno-Karabakh’s overwhelming majority population being Armenian since ancient times. And hence arose the controversy by the ruthless Soviet dictator acting by designed decree as a shrewd divide and rule strategist to facilitate autocratic control over his territorial Soviet colonies Azerbaijan and Armenia. Since the Armenians were still facing genocide, Stalin knew handing over power to the Turkish brethren the Azeris would result in further persecution of Armenian residents in Nagorno-Karabakh, otherwise known asArtsakh to the Armenians. This ancient Armenian land had been home to Armenians long before the Azeris as an ethnic group and culture ever came into existence.
The world’s first Christian nation of Armenia in 301 AD included what is a large portion of now eastern Turkey (Western Armenia), Artsakh, another Armenian enclave Nakhichevan as well as the current small nation Armenia (Eastern Armenia). Even prior to the breakup of the Soviet Empire in 1991, the residents of Artsakh submitted to Moscow a peaceful appeal for Armenian reunification back in 1988. As the pogrom killings of Armenians in Baku and other Azeri cities became more prevalent, eventually in self-defense, war broke out. Amidst the ongoing war, in 1991 Artsakh residents overwhelmingly voted for their own independence, declaring itself the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. At one point Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was receptive to granting sovereignty, but the matter was delayed by bureaucracy in the face of the unstable, chaotic dissolution of the Soviet Union. Smaller than the state of Connecticut with a population near 150,000 Armenians, the mountainous region remains a global hotspot to this day that could potentially be the incendiary igniting World War III.
Continue Reading on: http://empireexposed.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-alexander-lapshin-case-extradited.html
Joachim Hagopian is a West Point graduate and former US Army officer. He has written a manuscript based on his unique military experience entitled “Don’t Let The Bastards Getcha Down.” It examines and focuses on US international relations, leadership and national security issues. After the military, Joachim earned a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and worked as a licensed therapist in the mental health field with abused youth and adolescents for more than a quarter century. In recent years he has focused on his writing, becoming an alternative media journalist. His blog site is at http://empireexposed.blogspot.co.id/. His blog site is athttp://empireexposed.blogspot.co.id/. 
Joachim is also a regular contributor to Global Research (http://www.globalresearch.ca/),  Sott.net and LewRockwell.com. 

The Alexander Lapshin Case: Extradited and Imprisoned in Azerbaijan over Telling the Truth about Nagorno-Karabakh

 

Belarusian president put Russian blogger up for auction, but turned out self-deceiver – Viktor Konoplev

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russian-bloggerIt is true that Belarus’ relations with Azerbaijan are at a higher level that with Armenia, Belarusian public figure Viktor Konoplev told Tert.am as he commented on official Minsk’s decision to extradite blogger Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan.

The explanation is a simple one.

“Azerbaijan is richer and Belarus can export more of its products, including military goods, there. Time and again, when in conflict with Russia, Belarus imports Azerbaijani oil. In 2010, when Belarus had to pay its gas debts to Russia, Azerbaijan gave it a loan,” he said.

Mr Konoplev has a very simple explanation for extradition of blogger Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan.

“At his press conference on February 3, [President Alexander] Lukashenko made the following comment on the situation: ‘when the issue emerged, I saw there was such a man.’ I instructed our foreign office: ‘listen, to avoid a scandal, try to coordinate it with the foreign ministers of Israel, Russia and Azerbaijan, for him not to become a hostage. If Israel, Azerbaijan and Russia reach an agreement, we’ll do what they agree on. But none of them wanted to agree.’

“If we translate this somewhat vague answer from language of diplomacy into our everyday language, I think the situation was as follows: after ordering Mr Lapshin arrested at Azerbaijan’s request, Lukashenko put him up for auction – which side and what would give Belarus in exchange for him. That is, ‘what could you pay us for setting Lapshin free – oil, gas or a loan? Lukashenko is highly experienced in trading in political prisoners.

“But Lukashenko was erroneous at his point. None wanted to pay, and the Belarusian leader fell  into a trap of self-deception. What could he do in such a situation? After saying ‘A’ you have to say ‘B’. If a person has been arrested, with no one willing to stand bail for him, they had nothing else to do, but hand him over to Azerbaijan. If we recall Lukashenko’s statement saying that he could not let Lapshin free: ‘It has now been made public. If it had not been made public, I would have got to thinking.’”

Mr Konoplev believes it is a diplomatic setback for Belarus because official Minsk sacrificed its relations with not only Armenia, but also Russia and Israel to good relations with Azerbaijan.

What is the difference between the current Belarusian-Russian conflict and the previous ones? It is primarily its historical context.

First, Russia is much more often using strong-arm methods in its foreign policy, which caused the Ukraine crisis and ‘a cold war’ with the West.

Secondly, Belarus remains neutral in Russia’s conflicts with the rest of the world.

Thirdly, the decline is global oil prices caused an economic crisis in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and scaled down Russia’s energy grant to Belarus.

Fourthly, all that overlapped a grave crisis of the Belarusian model of society.

Tigranuhi Martirosyan

Alexander Lapshin’s attorneys file complaint in Belarus Supreme Court

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Alexander-lapshinThe attorneys of blogger Alexander Lapshin arrested in Minsk have filed a complaint in the Supreme Court of Belarus.

Earlier, Alexander Lapshin also filed a similar complaint in the Court.

Lapshin’s attorney told Armenian News – NEWS.am that the complaints have been filed and registered.

Under the Belarusian legislation, the attorney and his/her client shall not take part in the consideration of the complaint. They will be notified about the judgment of the court.

Currently, Russia and Israel are trying to achieve the cancellation of the decision on extraditing Lapshin.

After his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2011 and 2012, Alexander Lapshin was “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan. In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijan, but with a Ukrainian passport. Subsequently, he issued several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities. Afterward, the Azerbaijani authorities issued an international search for this famous blogger. And on December 15, 2016, he was detained in the Belarus capital city of Minsk, and based on this international search.

On January 26, the Minsk city court dismissed the complaint of blogger Alexander Lapshin over the decision of the Belarusian prosecutor’s office to extradite him to Azerbaijan.

Israeli Blogger Alexander Lapshin become victim of Azerbaijan and Belarus dictatorship

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famous-blogger-lapshinIsraeli Blogger Jailed in Belarus Extradited to Azerbaijan
Joint Israeli, Russian efforts have failed to prevent the deportation of Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan, which he has criticized in posts.
Lapshin’s Extradition to Baku Widely Criticized,

The Belarus Supreme Court denied Lapshin’s appeal on the extradition verdict issued by the General Prosecutor of Belarus.

Lapshin faces up to 5 years imprisonment in Azerbaijan, under charges of “public calls against the state”, and “unauthorized crossing of borders”.

Belarus police arrested Alexander Lapshin on December 15, 2016 in Minsk. Lapshin, a Russian and Israeli citizen, resides in Moscow and writes for the famous Russian Travel Blog. He is wanted by Azerbaijan for visiting Nagorno Karabakh in 2011, 2012 and 2016, and criticizing Azerbaijan’s policy in his blog.

Baku demanded the extradition of Lapshin from Belarus.

Earlier it was reported that the Deputy Prosecutor General of Belarus has made a decision to uphold the request of Azerbaijan’s General Prosecutor on extraditing Citizen of Russia and Israel Alexander Lapshin, who is wanted for violating Articles 281.2 and 318.2 of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said on February 3 : “Belarus has no grounds to not extradite Lapshin to Azerbaijan”. He said the issue will be solved based on law and international agreements.

The Russian foreign ministry said it is inadmissible to extradite Russian citizens to third countries.

 

Azerbaijani dictator and Ukraine dictator ban imports from Nagorno-Karabakh and Donbas

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Ukraine and Azerbaijan have decided not to allow goods made on the territories that are not under control of Baku and Kiev to enter their territories without permits from official authorities, Ukrainian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Oleksandr Mischenko has told Interfax-Azerbaijan.
“During the visit of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to Baku the heads of the two states instructed chiefs of customs agencies of Ukraine and Azerbaijan to meet and discuss the issue of passing goods coming from occupied territories of the two countries. Heads of customs agencies met and drew up a mechanism, according to which goods from these territories can be supplied only if they are licenses by central authorities – Kyiv and Baku,” Mischenko said.
The diplomat said that goods made in Nagorno-Karabakh could cross the Ukrainian border only if Baku gives a permit. The similar scheme is applied by Azerbaijan to goods arriving from Donbas.
“For example, let’s take a label on sparkling wine. If it says Ukraine, Artiomovsk factory (Donbas) this is good. If it says Novorossiya or something like this, of course, Azerbaijan would not take it. The similar approach applies to goods from Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.
“The rules took effect at once when the presidents issued the orders. We do not need to sign any international agreements here. The document was signed by the heads of customs agencies,” the ambassador said.

Armenian soldier killed in Terrorist State of Azerbaijan firing

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Private of the NKR Defense Army Gor Gareginyan (born in 1997) was fatally wounded as a result of ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani side at about 11:00 this morning, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

Probe into the details of the case is under way.

The NKR Defense Ministry shares the sorrow of the heavy loss and expresses support to the soldier’s family and friends.

Council of Europe urged to investigate Azerbaijan bribery allegations

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A woman sits by a sculpture of a snail near the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan. Photograph: Jamie Squire/Getty Images for BEGOC

(Theguardian) Parliamentary assembly accused of turning blind eye to corruption after claims that ex-member was paid €2.4m to rig election,

One of Europe’s most venerable human rights bodies has been warned it risks falling into irrelevance unless it sets up a robust investigation into allegations of vote-rigging in favour of Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime.

The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) has been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption, after allegations that a former senior member was paid €2.39m (£2.06m) to engineer votes to protect the kleptocratic regime of Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev.

Pieter Omtzigt, a centre-right Dutch parliamentarian, is urging Pace leaders to launch a “deep, thorough investigation by an independent panel” that makes its findings public.

“We see a lot of suspicious outcomes of votes and procedures on Azerbaijan,” Omtzigt told the Guardian. The Dutch Christian Democrat is the co-author of a resolution calling for an urgent investigation and overhaul of the assembly’s code of conduct.

The Council of Europe, which was created in 1949 to protect democracy and promote the rule of law, has 47 members including Russia and Turkey. Azerbaijan joined in 2001, but observers have long raised questions about the parliamentary assembly’s weak response to ballot-box stuffing and human rights violations in the oil-rich country.

Human rights groups have blamed “caviar diplomacy”, gifts of gold, silver, silk carpets and the regional fishy delicacy, which are showered on visiting dignitaries to the capital, Baku.

The latest allegations are centred on Italian politician Luca Volontè, the former chair of the centre-right group in the parliamentary assembly. He is being investigated by the Milan public prosecutor’s office for allegedly accepting €2.39m in bribes, in exchange for working for Azerbaijan in the parliamentary assembly. Human rights groups allege he played a key role in orchestrating the defeat of a highly critical report on the abuse of political prisoners in Azerbaijan in 2013. Volontè denies any wrongdoing.

The allegations, which were aired by Italian public broadcaster RAI in November 2016, have plunged the parliamentary body into turmoil.

Many senior parliamentarians have warned that failure to carry out an independent investigation would erode the credibility of the human rights body, which was inspired by Winston Churchill, and sends election monitors to every corner of Europe. “It is not credible if you tell other countries to be open and transparent if you do not investigate credible allegations of vote-rigging,” Omtzigt said.

One fifth of Pace’s 324 parliamentarians have signed Omtzigt’s resolution, which states that “recent, serious and credible allegations of grave misconduct” risk undermining public confidence in the assembly. The signatories are a cross-party coalition, drawn from 25 countries, including the UK, France, Germany, the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries, Greece and Ukraine.

Mogens Jensen, a Danish politician who leads the socialists in the parliamentary assembly, has also warned that the body’s credibility is at stake. The allegations were a “great threat to the assembly’s reputation and reliability” he told parliamentarians last week, adding his voice to a chorus of calls for action.

Gerald Knaus, the chairman of the European Stability Initiative, a thinktank specialising in south-eastern Europe and the Caucasus, said the Council of Europe’s parliamentary leaders had failed to ask questions about “open and obvious” suspicions of corruption, which had been circulating in the corridors of the Strasbourg assembly.

The rosy picture of Azerbaijan’s elections painted by monitors from Pace should have raised questions years ago, Knaus said.

“We have had election observers from the Council of Europe in 2010, 2013 and again in 2015. Each time these elected parliamentarians came away saying the sun was shining, when everyone else said it was raining. Each time they say the elections were free and fair … and each time the long-term observer election experts from the OSCE and ODIHR, say there were major problems.”

Knaus said the assembly’s leaders had shown an “astonishing amount of indifference”. The Council of Europe “is an institution we need more than ever given all the attacks on core human rights in Europe,” he continued. “If Europe fails to defend these principles what hope is there for anywhere else in the world.”

The head of Pace, Spanish centre-right senator Pedro Agramunt, last week agreed to set up an independent investigation to “shed light on hidden practices that favour corruption”. He had initially resisted the inquiry, blaming fellow parliamentarians for “a campaign to discredit political opponents by means of slurs, intimidation and coercion”.

But Agramunt made an abrupt U-turn in favour of an investigation on Friday, after strongly-worded complaints from a dozen countries, including Switzerland, Belgium, the Baltic and Nordic states.

Knaus said the key question now was the terms of reference of the investigation, which will be presented to Agramunt in early March. “There is no reason to be confident about the caviar coalition,” he said, referring to perceived Azeri government interest groups in the parliamentary assembly. But he voiced hope that MPs could help ensure a credible inquiry.

The Pace president was not immediately available for comment.

The parliamentary assembly leader also faces pressure from the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, who has said there can be “zero tolerance on corruption” when asked about the allegations by Transparency International.

Jagland’s spokesman said the secretary general had raised concerns internally within the Council of Europe, but could not confirm whether he had spoken to Agramunt. The spokesman added: “He has deemed and still deems this a matter for the parliamentary assembly.”

Under Jagland, the Council of Europe launched an investigation into Azerbaijan’s compliance with the European convention on human rights in 2015, the first such inquiry into a member country in more than a quarter of a century.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/feb/01/council-of-europe-urged-investigate-azerbaijan-bribery-allegations?CMP=share_btn_tw

Karabakh army captures Azerbaijani saboteur

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The Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army on Wednesday, February 1 thwarted an attempted subversive attack by Azerbaijan in the north of the contact line, also capturing one of the saboteurs.

At around 3 p.m. local time, according to the Karabakh Defense Ministry, a battalion of Azerbaijani soldiers took advantage of foggy conditions and attempted to infiltrate the Karabakh-Azerbaijan border near the village of Talish.

Having timely identified the rival, Karabakh army border divisions launched a counter offensive, forcing the Azerbaijani units to retreat.

During the operation, an Azerbaijani saboteur, Elnur Hussein Zade (b. 1995) from the city of Barda was taken captive, the Karabakh Defense Army said.

At least one serviceman from the Azerbaijani side was wounded, a fact also reported by the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

Azerbaijani troops attempted a subversive attack near the village of Chinari in Armenia’s Tavush province in the early hours of December 29. Three Armenian servicemen were killed in the attack. The Armenian Defense Ministry said it possesses undeniable evidence of violation of the state border by Azerbaijan, adding that up to seven Azeri troops were also killed. Armenia still holds the body of one of Azerbaijan’s soldiers, with ICRC engaged in negotiations over its return.

Source: http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/231514/

Minsk Group ready to arrange new Armenian-Azerbaijani talks over Karabakh – Russian co-chair

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The Russian co-chair the OSCE Minsk Group has expressed the mission’s readiness to arrange a new round of Armenian-Azerbaijani talks over Nagorno-Karabakh between the two countries’ foreign ministers.
“The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have agreed to conduct individual consultations with the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers on the sidelines of the Munich Conference in mid-February,” the news agency TASS quotes Ambassador Igor Popov as saying.
The diplomat said they are continuing the trilateral peace efforts (Russia-Azerbaijan-Armenia) based upon the agreements reached at the St Petersburg talks last summer.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh issue has been recently discussed between [Russian and Armenian Foreign Ministers] Sergey Lavrov and Edward Nalbandian, and later also with [Azerbaijani Foreign Minister] Elmar Mammadyarov. Once the necessary conditions are met, we will be able to conduct the trilateral meeting,” he added.

 

PACE investigation into examining corruption involving high-ranking European politicians “Caviar diplomacy”

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To note most of the corruption allegations involving PACE delegates are linked with the Azerbaijani authorities. One particular example is the recent report by European Stability Initiative named “Caviar diplomacy: the European Swamp,” in which it describes blatant facts of corrupt schemes organized by the Azerbaijani authorities with the involvement of high-ranking European politicians.  Expensive carpets worth thousands of euros were given away as gifts; so many that one Azerbaijani embassy had its own room for them. Luxury Vertu smart phones, handmade in the UK, were presented to supporters. Expensive watches and jewellery, silver sets and MacBookswere handed over to politicians, officials, even secretaries. Business contracts and paid holidays were part of the benefits. And then there was money: large sums, given in cash or transferred via anonymous companies.

The Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) has called on the Bureau of the Assembly to set up an independent external investigation body to assess the functioning of the Assembly and shed light on hidden practices that favour corruption.

As the declaration adopted the unanimously by the committee reads the investigation will be the only measure which would end impunity for abuses and restore confidence in the Parliamentary Assembly, its actions and decisions.

The decision comes after allegations of corruption and fostering of interests made against some members or former members of the Parliamentary Assembly.

“Whether they prove to be founded or false, such allegations undermine the Assembly’s image and credibility as an institution and, in turn, the reputation of each and every one of its members. A number of parliamentary delegations have voiced concern over the situation and called for a swift and resolute response,” reads a part of the adopted text, published by PACE website.

 

 

Source Panorama.am