investigation Archives

(ANCA) call for investigation into Azerbaijan-Israel arms export

September 7, 2018 by administrator

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) called on the U.S. Department of State this week to officially investigate the potentially illegal use of U.S. defense equipment in a 2017 Israeli drone attack by the Azerbaijani military against the Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) Republic.

In a letter to Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Tina Kaidanow, the ANCA requested an open inquiry into “potential U.S. arms export violations in connection with the Israeli government’s legal action against Aeronautics Defense Systems, an arms manufacturer accused of illegally launching a 2017 Orbiter 1K armed drone attack, in coordination with the Azerbaijani military, against Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).”

The attack reportedly took place in July, 2017, when the firm was demonstrating their Orbiter 1 drone to Azerbaijani military officials, and was asked to live test its capabilities on Artsakh positions. While the drones did not hit their targets, Army Colonel Armen Gyozalian confirmed to Israeli news outlets that two soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident.

The ANCA highlighted the troubling “prospect that Aeronautics Defense Systems armed drones and other defense systems deployed by Azerbaijan against both Artsakh and Armenia may – in contravention of U.S. law and Administration policy – contain U.S. components or technology subject to the U.S. Arms Export Control Act and other legal restrictions governing the third-party sale or transfer of U.S. defense and dual-use articles, technology, or services.” The letter noted a specific area of ANCA concern, notably: “the possible use of transistors, electrical components, and other equipment and technology,” in the Orbiter 1K armed drone.

“Violations of U.S. law in connection to this specific assault and the broader pattern of Azerbaijani aggression against Armenia and Artsakh undermine U.S. interests in promoting regional stability, deterring a renewed outbreak of regional war, and preventing proliferation, including through potential Azerbaijani third-party sale or transfer of sensitive U.S. equipment, software or technology to Russia, Iran, or other problem end-users,” concluded the ANCA.

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

January 27, 2017 by administrator

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.

Criminal investigation into Yerevan police violence launched

August 4, 2016 by administrator

The Special Investigative Service instigated a criminal case over the police’s use of violence against demonstrators and journalists during the Yerevan police station siege, Armenian media reports.

According to the Special Investigative Service, the police exceeded authority “in the prejudice of service or deliberately”. In particular, the matter concerns the use of riot control devices in Yerevan’s Khorenatsi Street and Sari Tagh districts, violence against the detainees and journalists and hindering the meetings of lawyers and their defendants.

The Service also urges the persons injured in the police actions to provide the investigative body with facts on violation of laws by the law-enforcers.

Turkey blocking probes in southeast, says Human Rights Watch

July 11, 2016 by administrator

The Turkish government is blocking access for independent investigations into alleged abuses against civilians across southeast Turkey, the Hurriyet Daily News reports quoting Human Rights Watch (HRW) as stating on July 11.

“The government should promptly grant the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights permission to enter the area and investigate according to its standards,” a statement on HRW’s website read, adding that rigid curfews have been imposed in many towns since the restart of security operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in summer 2015.

“The curfews also prevent non-governmental organizations, journalists, and lawyers from scrutinizing those operations or any resulting abuses by security forces or armed groups. Authorities have blocked rights groups – including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights – from trying to document abuses even after curfews and operations ended,” the statement said.

According to the HRW, the Turkish government has not responded to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein’s public statement in May, nor to his letter requesting permission for a U.N. team to conduct an investigation in the region. However, it added that the government has indicated that Zeid himself would be welcome to visit Turkey.

“The Turkish government’s effective blockade of areas of the southeast fuels concerns of a major cover-up,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Turkish government should give the U.N. and nongovernmental groups immediate access to the area to document what’s going on there.”

About 60 organisations call on US president to investigate into allegations of Azerbaijan’s collaboration with ISIS

April 10, 2016 by administrator

About 60 Armenian American organisations have joined together to call upon President Barack Obama to stand up to Azerbaijan’s aggression against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR), as well as to promote peace and foster long-term regional stability, Asbarez reports.

“In view of the renewed hostilities by Azerbaijan, which undermine our nation’s regional interests, and taking into consideration President Aliyev’s open threats to continue and further expand aggression against Nagorno Karabakh, we express our full support for the courageous efforts of the people and governments of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh to protect their citizens and encourage the U.S. government to support the self-defense of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic,” reads the statement addressed to the US President Barack Obama.

Further, the organisations call upon Obama to immediately stop all military aid to Azerbaijan and to work with Armenia and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic on the deployment of gunfire locator. They urge the US President to immediately send emergency relief aid to the NKR, as well as to investigate the allegations that Azerbaijan has engaged ISIS fighters and to evaluate the destruction inflicted by Azerbaijan’s aggression.

“We welcome this renewed opportunity to underscore the Armenian American community’s enduring solidarity with the Armenian homeland, and – amid this latest escalation of Azerbaijani aggression – to highlight our diaspora’s rock-solid commitment to the security, the strength, and independent status of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

Armenian Assembly requests Department of Justice investigation of Turkish & Azerbaijani groups

November 3, 2015 by administrator

(armradio.am report) Today, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) called on the Department of Justice to investigate potentially illegal activities of U.S. groups with ties to foreign entities in Turkey and Azerbaijan.

The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) and the House Committee on Ethics concluded that 9 members of Congress and more than two dozen staff members accepted a trip that was improperly paid for by foreign corporations in Azerbaijan and Turkey. In addition to attending a convention in Azerbaijan, several Members of Congress and their staff also traveled to Turkey free of cost. The OCE’s review found that the congressional travel to Azerbaijan and Turkey was “not funded exclusively by the entities disclosed on travel forms submitted to the Committee on Ethics.”

A USA TODAY investigation discovered that Gülen groups, Turkish organizations who follow the leadership of Fethullah Gülen, “secretly funded as many as 200 trips to Turkey for members of Congress and staff since 2008, repeatedly violating House rules and possibly federal law.” Over the course of its review, the OCE obtained evidence that a Turkish organization, named the Bosphorus Atlantic Cultural Association of Friendship and Cooperation (BAKIAD), funded and coordinated the congressional travel within Turkey dating back several years. Four of the Gülen groups sponsoring the 2013 conference in Azerbaijan also “used BAKIAD to arrange and finance all in-country expenses for congressional travel in Turkey,” OCE found. “Importantly, however, BAKIAD’s role does not appear to have been disclosed to the Committee on Ethics in 2013 or in other years.” Congressional disclosures show the Gülen-backed trips totaled more than $800,000 in free travel for lawmakers and staff. Both the Turkish and Azerbaijani Congressional Caucuses have significantly increased their membership over the last several years.

According to the USA TODAY, “A dozen different Gülen groups have sponsored congressional travel since 2008 and have filed forms with the House certifying that they were paying for the trips. The House Ethics Committee approved all the trips in advance based on the forms the Gülen groups submitted. But a USA TODAY investigation found many of those disclosures were apparently false. Some of the Gülenist groups claimed to be certified nonprofits, but they do not appear in state or IRS databases of approved charities. Groups that did register with the IRS filed tax forms indicating that they did not pay for congressional travel. And five of the groups admitted to congressional investigators earlier this year that a Gülenist group in Turkey was secretly covering the costs of travel inside Turkey for lawmakers and staff.”

The OCE investigators received documentation that the lawmakers accepted donations by two Texas-based nonprofit corporations, the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (TCAE) and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan (AFAZ). They found that TCAE and AFAZ concealed the true source of the funding for travel and other expenses for the U.S. officials. Instead, much of the cost of travel and funding for the convention was paid for by undisclosed entities including the Republic of Azerbaijan through its national oil company, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). Evidence revealed that SOCAR founded AFAZ in the month prior to the Convention, transferring $750,000 to an AFAZ bank account.

“The revelations by the USA TODAY investigation, in addition to the Office of Congressional Ethics investigation, are remarkable,” the Assembly said in its letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “We respectfully request a full and thorough investigation by the Department of Justice into these groups and the full application of the law. The reported activities constitute plainly illegal behavior and strikes at the core of our Constitutional government through blatant foreign influence peddling.”

France: Cash Investigation: Azerbaijan asked the CSA to sanction France 2

October 1, 2015 by administrator

PARIS (AFP) – Azerbaijan has seized Wednesday CSA calling for sanctions against France 2 to protest against a report that presented the country as a dictatorship, and during which the journalists of “Cash investigation” had been confiscating opponents interviews.

“The Republic of Azerbaijan has decided to ask the President of CSA to use its powers to initiate a sanctions procedure against France 2,” said in a statement the French lawyer of Azerbaijan, Olivier Pardo.

Azerbaijan has also filed a defamation suit Wednesday against the chain and journalists Elise Lucet and Laurent Richard with the court of Nanterre.

A trial that journalists are confident of winning, with the support of NGOs that want to take the opportunity to denounce the regime.

The story of “Cash investigation”, shot during the visit of Francois Hollande on site, presenting the country as a dictatorship and President Aliyev as a despot.

“France 2 journalists have clearly failed in their duty of rigor, honesty and impartiality (…) by choosing a partial vision, partial and oriented Azerbaijan” accuses the lawyer.

After shooting, two journalists from the magazine were confiscated interviews of opponents and advocates of human rights that they had made.

“We did our work as journalists, the struggle of Azerbaijan will be complicated” defends Laurent Richard Azerbaijan face the charges.

“We have been contacted by numerous organizations defending human rights, such as Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International, who expect this trial to come forward to testify about the situation in Azerbaijan,” says the journalist of the First Agency lines, which produced the report.

The NGOs defending human rights accuse the Azerbaijani authorities have increased their repression against the opposition and civil society since the reelection of President Ilham Aliyev, 53, for a third term in 2013.

This former Soviet republic in the Caucasus comes 162nd out of 180 in the world ranking of freedom of the press RSF 2015, who notes “a unprecedented wave of repression.”

In a similar procedure in 2011, the president’s daughter Lola Karimova ouzbekh had filed a complaint against the website Rue 89 who described it in an article as a “dictator’s daughter” and accused him of “whiten” the image of the countries.

The 17th Chamber of the High Court of Paris had dismissed the complaint for defamation.

Thursday, 1 October 2015,
Stéphane © armenews.com

France: Cash investigation – My President is on business “Baku”

September 18, 2015 by administrator

For over a year the team of “Cash investigation” has investigated the scenes of presidential trips. How large contracts are signed? What are the hidden counterparties? What about the issue of human rights when the president travels in dictatorships accompanied by fifty entrepreneurs? The first step of this investigation is taking place in Azerbaijan, one of the most repressive dictatorships in the world, when moving in May 2014 the French president. Elise Lucet asks Rachida Dati or MP Thierry Mariani, close to the Aliyev regime and also a member of the board of “The Friends of Azerbaijan”, a structure that ensures the promotion of France country and financially supported by the authorities in Baku.

TURKEY Opening a criminal investigation against the leader of the pro-Kurdish party

July 31, 2015 by administrator

Istanbul, July 30, 2015 (AFP) – Turkish judicial authorities opened an investigation Thursday against the pro-Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas for “disturbing public order” and “incitement to violence,” said the government agency Anatolia.

The charges against Mr Demirtas date back to October 2014, but the opening of this investigation comes amid offensive of the Islamic-conservative power against Kurdish rebels. If it was found, Mr. Demirtas could face up to 24 years in prison, according to Anatolia.

Mr. Demirtas heads the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), considered one of the big winners of the parliamentary elections of June 7 With 13% of the vote and 80 elected, he has partly prevented the Islamic-conservative ruling party to retain an absolute majority in Parliament.

Since then, Mr. Demirtas is a favorite target of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused of supporting “terrorism”. According to the Anatolia news agency, the prosecutor of Diyarbakir (south-east) launched proceedings against the HDP leader for his alleged role in the violence that occurred in October 2014.

Demonstrations, which the HDP had called, were held throughout the country to protest against the lack of support of the Turkish power in the Syrian Kurds threatened by the fighters of the Islamic State Group (EI). At least 35 people, including two policemen, were killed in the protests.

In a Thursday interview with AFP, Mr Demirtas accused Erdogan of pursuing a policy of “showing off” by claiming now fight against EI, to please the West. He also insisted that “the HDP is not the political wing of the PKK,” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which multiplies the guerrilla operations against the security forces.

According to the HDP, power seeking to destabilize the country to create a Legitimist reflex in case of possible early elections.

Special Investigation Service preparing report on violence against journalists during Yerevan protest

June 25, 2015 by administrator

YEREVAN. – The Special Investigation Service (SIS) of Armenia is preparing a report on special service officials’ carrying out violence and hampering the lawful professional activities of journalists during Tuesday’s protest in capital city Yerevan, and against the recent decision to raise the price of electricity in the country.

The SIS Press Secretary, Mikayel Aharonyan, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the service is preparing the aforesaid report on the basis of the respective information disseminated by the mass media.

As reported earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am had learned from the General Prosecutor’s Office that the latter’s Special Cases Investigation Department had forwarded the respective materials, video recordings as well as a letter from the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office Director, human rights activist Artur Sakunts, to the SIS in order to process them.

On early Tuesday morning, the Yerevan police dispersed the activists protesting against electricity price hike by using water cannon, and they detained many activists and journalists, who were later released.

On Tuesday evening, however, the sit-in participants marched toward the Office of the President—on Baghramian Avenue—yet again and with a larger crowd, but the police blocked their way again.

But the sit-in continues at the starting point of Baghramian Avenue, which is closed off, and traffic towards this boulevard is suspended.

Despite numerous protests, the Public Services Regulatory Commission recently increased the price of electricity in Armenia, and this decision will take effect on August 1. The decision, however, is expected to be followed by an increase in the prices of numerous products and services in the country.

Armenia News – NEWS.am