Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

Expert urges Armenia’s state bodies to identify who’s behind U.S. Bell-412 copters sales to Azerbaijan

By

U.S. Bell-412 copters sales to Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijani military is reported to have purchased U.S.-made Bell-412 helicopters which will be showcased at the country’s military parade in Baku on 26 June.

It is unclear how the Bell-412 copters produced by American aircraft manufacturer Bell Helicopter reached Baku given the U.S. legislation banning the country to supply arms to a party to conflict, political scientist Suren Sargsyan said in a Facebook post.

He calls on the Armenian states structures and U.S.-based organizations to take urgent efforts towards identifying who is behind the copters sales to Azerbaijan.

“The Armenian Foreign and Defense Ministeries, as well as the U.S.-based organizations should immediately take action to figure out who has sold or resold the helicopters to Baku,” Sargsyan stressed.

The armed forces of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and a number of other countries operate Bell-412 helicopters, the expert added.

Armenia, Azerbaijan ‘voice war preparation plans’, says German analyst

By

The developments around Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) signal a likelihood of renewed Armenian-Azerbaijani military hostilities, the paper says, citing a German political analyst.

“The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group will hopefully demonstrate a creative approach in trying to stop the hazard,” Alexander Rahr told a correspondent of 168 Zham on Friday.

He added that he also expects the peace mediators to turn the recent political changes in Armenia to the country’s advantage. “They know better how to do that,” he added.

According to Pavel Felgenhauer, both the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders are voicing war rhetoric. “I can hardly describe that as diplomacy. In the case of Armenia’s prime minister, diplomacy and war rhetoric are intermingled in a way given the existing desire to be the dictator in the negotiation process,” he told the paper

Felgenhauer also ruled out Azerbaijan’s possible consent to Artsakh’s participation in the peace talks. “Azerbaijan totally rejects that possibility; all the more, they are ready for a war rather than concessions. But there is also the role-playing of Russia and the United States. Their position on Artsakh’s participation isn’t absolutely clear to me for now. Lavrov laid the responsibility for that issue, and its consequences upon the sides. At the same time, the Azerbaijani authorities are facing Western pressures whose outcomes aren’t quite understandable to me,” he is quoted as saying.

Alexander Lapshin claims Azerbaijan might be behind ‘suicide’ of CNN’s Anthony Bourdain for Artsakh episode of Parts Unknown

By

YEREVAN, JUNE 8,. Russian-Israeli travel blogger Alexander Lapshin, the man who was under global media spotlight for his arrest and extradition to Azerbaijan for visiting Artsakh, claims that celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s death may somehow be connected with the latter’s visit and filming of CNN’s Parts Unknown in Artsakh.

Bourdain was officially blacklisted by Azerbaijan after filming the show in Artsakh. Azerbaijan declared Bourdain persona non grata in November of 2017. The world-renowned chef, bestselling author and multiple Emmy-winning television personality traveled to Armenia and Artsakh in October of 2017 and the episode aired in May of 2018. System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian, the Armenian-American rock star, was Bourdain’s guide during the visit.

“Do you think this is connected somehow to his movie about Karabakh and Armenia?

This man was widely criticized by Azerbaijan authorities because of that. Btw, just recently I have published the article in Le Monde called “Azerbaijani regime kidnaps and kills anyone it dislikes” and few days later this guy is gone by “suicide”. Just short remind – they called an attempt of my murder in Baku prison as “suicide” as well) p.s Anton Nosik, the well known Russian journalist “suddenly” gone after his Karabakh visit as well, not to mention that Azerbaijan threatened him as well”, Lapshin said on Facebook after news on Bourdain’s death began emerging.

CNN confirmed Bourdain’s death on Friday and said the cause of death was suicide. Bourdain was in France working on an upcoming episode of his award-winning CNN series, “Parts Unknown.” His close friend Eric Ripert, the French chef, found Bourdain unresponsive in his hotel room Friday morning. Mr. Bourdain was found in his hotel room at Le Chambard, a luxury hotel in Kaysersberg, a village in the Alsace region of eastern France, according to a prosecutor in the nearby city of Colmar. The prosecutor, Christian de Rocquigny du Fayel, said the cause of death was hanging. “At this stage, we have no reason to suspect foul play,” he said. Mr. Bourdain had traveled to Strasbourg in France, near the country’s border with Germany, with a television production crew to record an episode of his show “Parts Unknown” on CNN, the network said. “It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague,” CNN said in a statement.

 

A. Lapshin blasts Azerbaijan as “murderous regime”, slams Belarus as “unlawful state” in new Le Monde op-ed

By

YEREVAN, JUNE 4, ARMENPRESS. “The Azerbaijani regime is kidnapping and killing anyone it doesn’t like” – this is the title of Alexander Lapshin’s op-ed in Le Monde daily.

Alexander Lapshin is the Russian-Israeli tourism blogger who was arrested in Belarus and subsequently extradited to Azerbaijan to serve a prison sentence for visiting Artsakh “without Azerbaijani authorization”. The move sparked outrage among human rights activists and journalists worldwide.

In the article Lapshin talks about his sufferings in the Azeri jail. He served 7 months prior to being pardoned and deported to Israel.

Lapshin says he is a travel blogger who has been to more than 130 countries and that he isn’t interested in politics, he likes peace, nature, history, good food and beautiful women.

“Even in my worst nightmares I couldn’t have imagined becoming the victim of the political game of two harsh dictators”, he says, referring to Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

He mentions how he was arrested in 2016 while in Belarus. “Police officers stormed into my hotel room, shouting: On the ground or we will shoot. You are under arrest at the demand of Azerbaijan for visiting Karabakh”. He says at the moment his laptop was switched on and he was talking to his wife, and the latter saw what was happening and contacted the Israeli and Russian embassies.

Lapshin argues that if Belarus were a lawful state, it would never deal with his arrest, extradition and sentencing. Lapshin insists that he has not breached any law of Belarus, and that the only convention on extradition between Azerbaijan and Belarus stipulates that any extradition request based on political motives must be denied.

Speaking about his transportation from Belarus to Azerbaijan on a presidential private jet and escorted by heavily armed masked SWAT agents, Lapshin says that “the tragicomedy was staged for the less-educated segments of the Azerbaijani society”.

Lapshin slams his 7 months incarceration in solitary confinement as a violation of international law.

He says that Azerbaijan accused him in the illegal trespassing into Karabakh and violating the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Lapshin says there is no other way to enter Karabakh since the border between Azerbaijan and Karabakh is closed since 1993. He was also charged for using different terms while referring to the territory – Azerbaijani Karabakh, and Artsakh.

“Azerbaijan, which is demanding this territory, is forgetting that 150,000 Armenians are living there, who use their native language. Azerbaijan is also criminalizing the use of traditional geographic location names”, he says.

“I never talked about the conflict, it is of no interest to me whatsoever. Even the kangaroo court of Baku eventually admitted that I have never made any calls for violating Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity”, he said.

Lapshin also mentioned about anti-Semitic hints during his trial proceedings. He says that all trials began at key dates for the Holocaust. He mentioned June 22, 2017 – the day when 66 years ago Nazi Germany attacked the USSR and began massacring Soviet Jews, June 30, 2017 – on this day in 1941 the massacres of Jews in Ukraine’s Lviv began. Lapshin’s parents are from this city. The third trial took place July 4, 1941 – the day when Latvia’s Jews were forcibly deported to a concentration camp and subsequently murdered.

“On September 10, 2017 – my mother’s birthday, I was cruelly attacked in my prison cell. Four masked men stormed into my cell and began beating me, choking me, and when I was already unconscious they tied a rope around my neck to hang me in the toilet. Then I was transferred to the central hospital of Baku, where doctors documented that I was close to suffering clinical death. My ribs and teeth were broken, my entire body was in bruises”, he said, adding that he had brain hemorrhage.

“Azerbaijani authorities hurried to announce that I attempted to kill myself, and that is why President Aliyev decided to “pardon me”. After three days of coma in a Baku hospital I was deported to Israel”, he said. Based on medical expertise in Tel Aviv, a lawsuit was filed against Azerbaijan in the ECHR under attempted murder charges.

In the end of the article, Lapshin reminds several important facts about Azerbaijan:

  1. According to Reporters Without Borders, Azerbaijan is ranked 163rd among 180 countries in terms of freedom of expression and freedom of speech.
  2. Azerbaijan has appeared in numerous global scandals, ranging from the Panama Papers to the Laundromat scandal, which uncovered the corruption mechanism of the country’s ruling elite
  3. The Azeri government doesn’t hesitate to carry out extrajudicial kidnappings, for example the abduction of reporter Afghan Mukhtarli.
  4. There are credible grounds to allege that the Azerbaijani government is behind the murder of Maltese journalist Daphne  Caruana Galizia – who uncovered the ole of Malta and its banks in Baku’s money laundering.

 

 

Armenia revolution crushed Aliyev’s plans to flaunt Cabinet reshuffle: expert

By

The “velvet revolution” in Armenia stepped in the way of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s plans to impress the international community with the cabinet reshuffle he made once re-elected to the President’s post, Azerbaijani expert and political analyst Zaur Shiriyev says in a fresh article.

Elites in Baku worried that any military activity on the line of contact would incur an international backlash, casting Azerbaijan in a negative light as the “velvet revolution” proceeded, Shiriyev says.

“They had hoped that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s cabinet reshuffle, his most significant to date, following his election win on April 11, would generate some positive international coverage,” says the article published on the website of the International Crisis Group.

“Baku wanted to present this change as a first step toward reform at home. Instead, the Yerevan events overshadowed the cabinet reshuffle, leaving it almost unnoticed.”

Tens of thousands of Armenians protested against the former ruling authorities in a civil disobedience campaign that lasted several weeks in April-May.

As a result, former Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan was forced to resign, while the parliament elected protest leader Nikol Pashinyan as the country’s new PM.

Related links:

International Crisis Group. For Azerbaijan, Armenia’s Political Upheaval is a Double-edged Sword

Trump Tower fire: Hotel in Azerbaijan capital Baku ablaze just weeks after deadly inferno at New York building

By

A skyscraper that was slated to become a Trump International Hotel in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku has caught fire.

The Azadliq newspaper reported that the blaze broke out on the middle floors of the 33-storey building, which is locally known as Trump Tower, and spread.

Etibar Mirzoev, deputy head of the Emergency Situations Ministry, said there were no injuries and authorities were working to establish the cause of the of the fire.

He said it took more than three hours to extinguish the flames and suggested the response was delayed because of road closures put in place for Sunday’s Grand Prix, on the Baku City Circuit.

It came after an apartment fire at Trump Tower in New York left a prominent art dealer dead and six firefighters injured earlier this month.

Development was started on the tower in Baku a decade ago but it has never opened.

Originally planned as a luxury apartment building by local developers, the project was taken over by the future US President’s company in 2012.

Czech Republic Sells Weapons To Azerbaijan Illegally via Israel

By

Harut Sassounian

Harut Sassounian

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
While the Azerbaijani army was showcasing its weapons on a promotional video during exercises on Sept. 18-22, 2017, observers noticed Czech-made military hardware, including DANA howitzer artillery pieces (11-mile range) and Rm-70 rocket launchers (12-mile range).
 
Initially, it was not known how these weapons arrived in Baku, given the fact that the Czech Republic had not issued any permits to its manufacturers to sell such hardware to Azerbaijan. Under the laws of the Czech Republic, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Interior have to approve requests for weapon sales proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
 
Also, the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had recommended that their member states not supply arms to Azerbaijan and Armenia due to the Artsakh conflict.
 
In addition, weapon sales to Azerbaijan would violate United Nations Security Council Resolution 853, adopted on July 29, 1993, which urged member states “to refrain from the supply of any weapons and munitions which might lead to the intensification of the [Karabagh] conflict or the continued occupation of territory.” Already several countries had violated this Security Council resolution, including Israel, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, and Pakistan.
 
In response, Jan Pejsek, the Czech Defense Ministry spokesman stated that the “Ministry had not approved any military exports to Azerbaijan.” Meanwhile, Irena Valentova, spokeswoman for the Czech Foreign Ministry, told the Prague Daily Monitor that “no permits were issued for export of military materiel to Azerbaijan, while some licenses for the export of modernized self-propelled gun howitzers Dana-M1 and rocket launchers RM-70 were rejected in 2016-2017 and the EU partner countries were notified of the rejection.”
 
In 2016, “Azerbaijan purchased non-lethal weapons worth over one million euros from the Czech Republic, which is three times less than three years ago,” the Hospodarske Noviny reported.
 
In the past, when Azerbaijan had tried to import weapons from the Czech Republic, it was refused a permit for such military shipments.
 
The Prague Daily Monitor reported that the “Czech authorities and secret services are investigating how Czech arms … reached the Caucasus.”
 
In the meantime, The Slovak Spectator revealed on April 17, 2018 that “Bratislava [capital of Slovakia] airport is used as a transit point for smuggling Czech rocket launchers and howitzers to Azerbaijan…. The weapons are reportedly produced by the Czechoslovak Group Holding, owned by Czech Jaroslav Strnad, according to Czech Television…. An employee of the Slovak arms factory MSM spoke up and described how the old weapons are rebuilt in the Trenčín-based company and are then transported via Israel to Azerbaijan, the TASR newswire reported.”
 
The MSM employee further described to the reporters of the Czech Television, as quoted by TASR, according to The Slovak Spectator: “The whole process starts with bringing the old DANA howitzer that is disassembled directly in the company…. The new facilities, including navigation, camera and communication systems were sent from Israel, the employee added. He also revealed that they signed a contract for distributing 18 howitzers and 15 rocket launchers this year, and the same amount next year, as reported by TASR…. The company confirmed the delivery of DANA-M1 and RM-70 systems to Israel.”
 
The Slovak Spectator “even recorded one such transport on camera” confirming the delivery of the weapons to Israel and from there smuggled to Azerbaijan. “The transport of one rocket launcher started on December 27, 2017, and was carried by a truck from Trenčín to the Bratislava airport, where it was moved to the plane owned by Azerbaijani airlines, Silk Way. It then flew to Tel Aviv in Israel, where the company Elbit, which was described as the end customer, is located. The data then revealed that the plane continued to Baku in Azerbaijan. Nothing is unloaded in Israel; there is only a stop to make sure the papers are correct,” the employee of MSM told the Czech Television. “The plane flies directly from the Israeli airport to Azerbaijan,” The Slovak Spectator wrote.
 
I suggest that Armenian officials immediately file protests with the governments of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Israel for circumventing their export provisions and violating the bans recommended by the EU, OSCE and the UN Security Council regarding the sale of weapons to Azerbaijan.
 
If such complaints are not filed, these three countries and several others will be encouraged to ship more lethal weapons to Azerbaijan which will be used to kill and injure Armenian soldiers and civilians.



NKR Defense Ministry releases video on enemy’s live force and military equipment accumulation on contact line

By

STEPANAKERT, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh has released a video on the enemy’s live and military equipment movements on the line of contact, as well as touched upon the statement made by the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan, noting that on April 21 the information distributed by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan distorted public attention from false and mass disturbances. The working style of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry was fully expected and completely fit in the tactics adopted by Baku’s military-political leadership.

In a statement issued to Armenpress by the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan, “On April 22, the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan, in order to cover its provocations on the Line of Contact, issued a statement, in which the Ministry of Defense of Artsakh described the information circulated by the Ministry of Defense on April 21 as a distortion of public attention from fake and mass disturbances. This practice was fully expected and fully fit into the tactics adopted by Baku’s military-political leadership.

In fact, as for the movement and accumulation of the enemy’s live force and military equipment on the contact line of the Artsakh-Azerbaijani opposing forces, we suggest watching the video below without comment. ”

Freedom of speech is guaranteed Aliyev says as Azerbaijan blocks news websites

By

By Gulnoza Said/CPJ Europe and Central Asia Research Associate ,

President Ilham Aliyev claims that in Azerbaijan the internet is free and press freedom is guaranteed. But ahead of the April 11 snap elections, authorities have systematically silenced critical voices online through amending laws and blocking news websites, and hackers have attacked independent news outlets.

In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, Aliyev said that about 80 percent of the country’s population were online, adding, “When internet is free, without any censorship and absolute majority of population are using internet, it is difficult to talk about restriction of press.”

However, Azerbaijanis waiting to learn the election results–hopefully after they cast ballots, not before, as happened in 2013 –have been cut off from independent or critical coverage of Aliyev and his family.

In March last year, Azerbaijan’s parliament passed amendments to the law on Information, Informatisation, and Protection of Information to allow authorities to shutdown websites without a court ruling, according to reports.

And in May the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technology blocked access to the websites of the RFE/RL Azeri-language service locally known as Azadliq, Berlin-based independent online news agency Meydan TV, independent daily newspaper Azadliq, and the online broadcasters Turan TV and Azerbaycan Saati (Azerbaijan Hour), CPJ reported at the time. A Baku court ruledthat the outlets promoted violence, hatred, or extremism, violated privacy or constituted slander.

In a statement, RFE/RL said that the move to block its Azeri website came after it published investigative reports about financial activities allegedly linked to members of President Aliyev’s family and inner circle. The outlet tried to fight the ban, but in December a Baku court of appeals upheld the decision and all the websites remain blocked, according to reports.

Authorities also ordered access to the website of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) to be blocked in September after the Sarajevo-based organization published “The Azerbaijan Laundromat,” which implicated the government in various money laundering and lobbying schemes, according to a Freedom House report.

When contacted by CPJ for comment about conditions for the press Mushfig Aleskerli, deputy chairman of Azerbaijan’s Press Council, asked for questions to be sent via email, but as of April 9 the media authority not responded to the emailed questions.

Social media accounts of critics have also been targeted by hackers and legal complaints, which many Azeri journalists say they believe are part of a government effort to silence them.

When the Facebook account of the award-winning outlet Meydan TV was hacked on January 29, it lost 100,000–nearly one-fifth–of the subscribers to its Azeri, English and Russian-language pages, and all content posted since 2012 was deleted. Staff at Meydan TV told CPJ at the time that it was devastating to lose the followers that they worked so hard for. According to the outlet’s 2017 annual report, every third Facebook user from Azerbaijan was a Meydan TV follower. Facebook was finally able to restore Meydan’s 100,000 followers in late March, but the deleted content has not been restored.

In late December, YouTube removed four Meydan TV videos that allegedly infringed YouTube’s copyright rules, after Muse Networks, a company based in Turkey and with an office in Baku, filed a complaint, according to Meydan TV director Emin Milli.

Milli told CPJ at the time that the videos contained video and audio clips either produced or owned by Meydan. The videos included allegations of official corruption, police brutality, and reports on the financial dealing of President Aliyev and his family, and the state oil company.

Muse Network blamed a technical error for copyright strikes, apologized, and the videos were restored, Milli said, adding, “I have no doubts the Azerbaijani government is behind this.”

Azadliq, RFE/RL’s Azeri-language service, had six videos removed from YouTube in early January, also after Muse Networks flagged alleged copyright violations. Azadliq is a leading news channel in Azerbaijan with over 100,000 subscribers and more than 40 million annual views, according to RFE/RL. Azadliq’s director Ilkin Mammadov told the independent site Coda Story the videos were restored after Azadliq complained to YouTube.

Azerbaijani journalists have also reported an increase in trolling and digital denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Alex Raufoglu, a Washington, D.C.-based Azerbaijani journalist who contributes to the independent news agency Turan, told CPJ that the government follows “the textbook of silencing critical media.”

“Not only has there been more trolling recently, but the comments the trolls leave [on social media accounts] repeat and duplicate each other. That means they are centralized and managed by the government,” Raufoglu said.

Investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova told regional news website Kavkazsky Uzel she believed bots as well as “employees of state institutions or journalists of pro-government media,” are behind the trolling, adding, “[they] are obliged to write comments under the posts of critics of power.”

In the same article, Ogtay Gulaliyev, head of the advocacy group Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners, said attacks from trolls increase when he posts something critical about the president’s assistant for public and political affairs, Ali Hasanov.

Sevinc Osmanqizi, who contributes to Meydan TV, has also alleged that Hasanov is linked to internet trolls. She circulated a letter that she wrote to Hasanov on April 8, in which she called on the presidential assistant to order “his trolls” to cease attacking her Facebook and YouTube pages.

Hasanov denied being connected to any online attacks. “I unequivocally declare that the accusations and the slander that I instructed troll or some fictional groups to insult certain individuals are clearly defamatory and target the government of Azerbaijan and me personally,” Hasanov said in a statement distributed through pro-government media.

In response to Hasanov’s statement, Richard Kauzlarich, a former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan who has been labeled a spy and a “staff critic” after raising the country’s poor press freedom record, tweeted, “Oh but you did organize slander against me personally five years ago–using false news in government-controlled media.”

Turan contributor Raufoglu told CPJ that the attacks by trolls and bots are “just one, albeit conspicuous, element of the Azerbaijani regime’s ‘arsenal’ to fight freedom of speech.”

Azerbaijani troops fire towards Armenian positions from Nakhijevan

By

The Azerbaijani armed forces on April 7 and the night through the next day violated the ceasefire for several times from Nakhijevan and opened fire towards the Armenian positions.

The Azeri troops mainly employed firearms, Armenian defense ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said in a Facebook post.

The Armenian side took retaliatory measures to silence the rivals.

“The Armenian defense ministry calls on Azerbaijani units to refrain from further provocations and warns that nothing will remain unaddressed,” Hovhannisyan said.

The border situation near Nakhijevan is relatively calm, armed incidents are rare there.

Related links:

Artsrun Hovhannisyan’s Facebook post