OSCE Minsk Group co-Chairmen were “forced to take cover” crossing the Line of Contact as Azerbaijan opened gunfire

October 27, 2015 By administrator

During our Line of Contact crossing, repeated gunfire forced OSCE monitors to take cover. This is unacceptable», – wrote OSCE Minsk Group American co-Chairman James Warlick on his Twitter and Instagram accounts, publishing photo evidence with bulletproof jackets.

Earlier the U.S. co-Chairman had published another photo where, together with two other co-Chairmen Igor Popov of Russia and Pierre Andrieu of France, as well as Personal Representative of the OSCE CiO Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk were en route to crossing the Line of Contact between Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan.

During our Line of Contact crossing, repeated gunfire forced @OSCE monitors to take cover. This is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/ctH10pufHA

— James Warlick (@AmbJamesWarlick) October 27, 2015

Armenia President meets with OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in New York

September 30, 2015 By administrator

Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan today has a meeting today in New York with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Igor Popov (Russia), James Warlick (US) and Pierre Andrieu (France), as well as the personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

At the meeting, the interlocutors discussed the negotiation process of the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group and the concerns arising at this stage, specifically the tension emerged as a result of the ceasefire violation during the recent days.

US Ambassador to OSCE urges Baku not to use conflict as shield for human rights record

September 23, 2015 By administrator

Using Karabakh conflict as a shield for Azerbaijani human rights record is not serious or helpful, head of U.S. mission to OSCE Daniel Baer tweeted.

His comment came in response to the statement by Azerbaijani delegated during the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) of OSCE.

Ahmad Shahidov, Head of the Azerbaijani Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, being angered by constant criticism against his government started speculating on Azerbaijani side’s beloved topic of “million of refugees and refugees kept by Armenia”.

“Azerbaijan GONGO introduces himself as human rights defender, says that criticism of his government is not appreciated,” Baer tweeted.

U.S. Ambassador noted that serious discussion of human cost of conflict affecting Armenia and Azerbaijan is important, but using conflict as a shield for Azerbaijani rights record is not serious.

He added that saying that cause of civil society crackdown in Azerbaijan is lack of trust between government and international community is equal to putting a cart before horse.

Earlier in his statement U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Robert Berschinski said Azerbaijan continues imposing restrictions against civil society institutions.

Karabakh OSCE monitoring reveals no violation of cease-fire regime

July 23, 2015 By administrator

STEPANAKERT. – The OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the eastern direction of the Talish village of the NKR Martakert region on Wednesday in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria) and Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic).

From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Yevgeny Sharov (Ukraine) and Personal Assistant to the Personal Representative of the CiO Simon Tiller (Great Britain)

The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered.

From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.

Source: NEWS.am

Karabakh: OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair: Peacekeepers need to be deployed

July 20, 2015 By administrator

YEREVAN. – Deployment of peacekeeping forces is one of the elements of comprehensive settlement of Karabakh conflict, OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair James Warlick said in Yerevan. report news.am

The parties need to agree on the issues as a part of negotiated settlement, Warlick said pointing to the free expression of the free will of the population of Karabakh, the return of the territories surrounding Karabakh, allowing refugees and internally displaces persons to return to their homes.

“There also must be true, sound security guarantees as a part of any settlement. And that will mean international peacekeeping force,” he emphasized.

The parties and mediators had not got to the point of working through all the details, but they all need to be worked out to the satisfaction of all of the people of the region, the diplomat added.

US’ OSCE Co-Chairman Is Sounding More Like Aliyev

July 16, 2015 By administrator

BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan (L) and the US Co-Chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick (R)

James Warlick, the US Co-Chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group charged with mediating a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, is sounding more like Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev than a so-called impartial diplomat tasked with resolving the longest conflict in post-Soviet history.

In an interview with Russian daily Vedomosti published this week, Warlick said that the “occupied” territories of Azerbaijan must be returned to Azeri control as part of a comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Warlick said that conflicting sides should not focus on just one element or principle of the settlement. Territories must be returned, but there are other factors involved, which is why the co-chairs advocate a comprehensive settlement.

The most egregious part of Warlick’s statement, which was a reiteration of US policy outlined last year at the Carnegie Foundation after Warlick held a very public meeting with Armenian-American community leaders in Glendale, is the adoption of the language that has been used for almost 25 years by one side of the conflict—Azerbaijan.

The “comprehensive settlement” to which Warlick alludes is incumbent upon the return of the said territories, without any specific guarantees that may favor Karabakh. Simply put, Karabakh is expected to make the first move before any other provisions of a settlement are carried out.

Warlick told Vedomosti that security guarantees are an element of the settlement, which would include the deployment of international peacekeeping forces—either UN or OSCE. Who would provide the peacekeeping troops should be negotiated and decided by the parties “to ensure the security of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Later in the interview, Warlick acknowledged that the mechanisms for those security guarantees have not yet been outline, but his insistence that the territories in question must be “returned to Azerbaijan” does not, in any way or form, inspire confidence.

In fact, what is being said, in this case by the US Co-Chairman, is nothing short of bullying, which favors and conforms to the rhetoric emanating from Baku. How is this arm-twisting supposed to advance the talks when one side’s bellicose rhetoric is being parroted by the mediator tasked with finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict?

The Armenian National Committee of America astutely observed that “the OSCE Co-Chairs have developed this bad habit of very openly lecturing the Armenian side about exactly what they ‘must’ surrender, while remaining effectively silent about any specific concessions they expect of Azerbaijan. This isn’t mediation, it’s public intimidation.”

Coincidentally—or not—the other entity that urges the return of lands before anything else is Turkey, which has preconditioned its approval of the dangerous Armenia-Turkey protocols on the return of “occupied territories.” It would not be that far-fetched to infer a correlation in this scenario.

The trajectory of the OSCE Minsk Group negotiations has shown that in an eventual peace deal, Armenia and Karabakh stand to lose the most, while Azerbaijan stands to gain despite its guilt in starting and escalating the Karabakh conflict, a fact categorically being ignored by mediators and the international community in general.

Warlick and the other co-chairmen are embracing and buttressing Baku’s victim mentality, thus providing it cover and carte blanche to advance its military rhetoric and continue its attacks on Karabakh and Armenian forces. The reaction to these cease fire violations by Azerbaijan has usually involved a statement urging both sides to refrain from military activities. This creates a false parity that does not bode well for the Minsk Group’s stated intention of providing security guarantees.

Warlick expresses concern about the escalation of tensions on the border and claims that the sides must work together to reach a negotiated peace, with Karabakh expected to make the first move by giving up what Warlick and Aliyev both call “occupied territories.” There is no direct condemnation of the belligerent attacks on Karabakh positions by Azerbaijani forces, such as the downing of a helicopter in broad daylight and Baku’s subsequent prevention of efforts to reclaim the remains of the three soldiers killed in the attack.

The examples of Baku’s violations have been reported and are too numerous to recount here, but the OSCE Co-Chairmen’s reactions have always been the same—urging calm to both sides. Yet that same parity does not apply when the OSCE Co-Chairmen continue to insist that Karabakh make concessions in the interest of eventual peace.

What is lacking in this process is a frank reflection on the genesis of the conflict, from which an equitable solution can be proposed based on truth and justice.

When in 1988 Armenians in Armenia and Karabakh took to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, using the new found freedoms envisioned by Gorbachev’s Glasnost and Perestroika, Azerbaijan’s response was to initiate pogroms against Armenians in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, Shahumian and Getashen, coupled with relentless attacks on the civilian population of Karabakh, thus sparking the war.

Azerbaijan lost the war, and here is the OSCE Minks Group doing its utmost to minimize Baku’s embarrassment and the blemish that it has left on the Aliyev clan. Interestingly, however, it has been successive US Co-Chairmen who have carried that torch, with the most notorious of them being Matthew Bryza, whose entrenched connections with official Baku and Ankara are also too numerous to enumerate.

To build confidence and to ensure the success of any security guarantees in the region, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen must act immediately and unequivocally to return Karabakh to the negotiating table as a full-fledged party to the conflict. After all, the signatories of the 1994 cease fire agreement were Stepanakert, Baku, and Yerevan, with Moscow as the mediating entity.

Furthermore, the parity that is falsely being doled out should actually be exercised whereby the Armenian side is not the only side that is forced to make concessions. For the OSCE, which values democracy above all else, the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has existed for almost a quarter of century and is being governed based on democratic principles (the same cannot be said about Azerbaijan) must become an important consideration in the eventual determination of its status, which can be nothing short of an independent republic, for which the people of Karabakh have shed blood and have expressed their will in the polling booth.

The famous Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov said at the time of the Karabakh conflict that the issue of Karabakh is a matter of life and death for Armenians, but a matter of prestige for Azerbaijan.

Mr. Warlick, conflict resolutions must be guided by matters of life and death, and not on an insistence to give more leeway to the aggressor so that it can advance its military agenda.

Ara Khachatourian

Settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict requires OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ practical steps – Armenian FM

June 18, 2015 By administrator

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, in collaboration with the National Assembly of Armenia, is conducting its 89th Rose-Roth seminar in Yerevan to address peace and security issues. Report, tert.am

At a German delegate’s request, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian presented Armenia’s approaches to a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Mr Nalbandian pointed out a need for practical steps by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs rather than for formal proposals.

This is the only international conflict three states – Russia, the United States and France – are showing a unanimous approach to in terms of settlement.

Mr Nalbandian pointed out five important statements on settling the conflict, which were not mere calls for peaceful co-existence. Rather, they were well-thought-out proposals.

Following each of the statements, Armenia stated its willingness for a settlement on the basis of the proposals. That is, Armenia’s approach is in conformity with that of the international community, particularly of the co-chairs, Mr Nalbandian said.

Speaking of Azerbaijan’s position, he noted that Azerbaijan rejected all the proposals. On the other hand, it took advantage of contradictory wordings, claiming the international community was supporting Azerbaijan, whereas no actually support was ever announced.

Mr Nalbandian also pointed out Azerbaijan’s counterproductive approaches – regular violations of the ceasefire.

The Armenian side is not seeking any nation’s support in opposition to Azerbaijan. The Armenian side’s position has always been that the international community should support the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.

Azerbaijan Orders OSCE To Close Baku Office

June 5, 2015 By administrator

By Carl Schreck

June 05, 2015

Azerbaijan’s move to close the OSCE office comes just days after the contract of the organization’s project coordinator in Baku, Alexis Chahtahtinsky (pictured), expired.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says Azerbaijan has given it one month to halt its operations in the country and that Baku provided “no explanation” for the decision.

OSCE spokesman Shiv Sharma told RFE/RL on June 5 that Azerbaijani authorities this week “informed us of their intentions of closing the office” of its project coordinator in Baku and that the 57-member security organization is “now assessing our options.”

The move comes amid heightened criticism of Azerbaijan’s record on civil society and media freedoms by Western officials and international human rights watchdogs.

Rights groups say Baku has escalated its efforts to muzzle government opponents since Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was reelected for a third term in 2013.

The Vienna-based OSCE has been a prominent voice among those critics.

In November, its media freedoms representative, Dunja Mijatovic, said that “practically all independent media representatives and media NGOs” in Azerbaijan “have been purposefully persecuted under various, often unfounded and disturbing charges.”

Azerbaijan has bristled at Western criticism of its human rights record, saying such censure lacks objectivity.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, which notified the OSCE that Baku was terminating an agreement allowing the organization to operate in the country, had not commented publicly on the situation as of June 5.

Azerbaijan’s human rights record has also faced increasing international scrutiny in the run-up to the European Games, an Olympics-style event limited to athletes from Europe that is set to open on June 12.

Status Downgrade

EU lawmakers last month called on Azerbaijan to release individuals widely seen as political prisoners ahead of the games and urged European leaders to skip the event’s opening ceremony in Baku.

The OSCE office in Baku was downgraded to the office of a “project coordinator,” reportedly at Azerbaijan’s request, in January 2014.

The downgrade of the mission came at the request of the Azerbaijani government, which cited the country’s “significant progress” since the OSCE office in Baku was opened in 1999.

Khadija Ismayilova, a journalist and contributor to RFE/RL currently jailed in Azerbaijan on a series of charges that have been internationally condemned as politically motivated, testified before U.S. lawmakers in November that the downgrade had led to a halt of “most” of the OSCE office’s projects “related to media and combating corruption.”

Among other duties, the OSCE coordinator had been tasked with “implementing OSCE principles and commitments” and “maintaining contacts” with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), local authorities, universities, and research institutions.

NGOs have been among the numerous targets of a crackdown by Azerbaijani authorities, including groups promoting free-media efforts in Azerbaijan.

In April, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, said “human rights defenders are harassed through restrictive NGO legislation and selectively targeted with criminal prosecutions on charges that defy credibility.”

RFE/RL last month closed its Baku bureau after Azeri authorities sealed the office shut last December in connection with the government-led campaign against foreign organizations. RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, however, continues to operate on digital and satellite platforms.

RFE/RL Editor in Chief Nenad Pejic said on May 22 that the Azerbaijani authorities had acted “illegally and arbitrarily.”

Azerbaijani ‘Masters’

Azerbaijan’s move to close the OSCE office comes just days after the contract of the organization’s project coordinator in Baku, France’s Alexis Chahtahtinsky, expired.

Novruz Mammadov, the deputy head of Aliyev’s administration and director of its Foreign Relations Department, suggested on Twitter on June 1 that Chahtahtinsky was relieved of his duties because of U.S. objections to the French diplomat’s public appearance with Aliyev.

Mammadov appeared to be referring to a July 2014 statement by Daniel Baer, the U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE, in which he criticized Chahtahtinsky for being photographed with Aliyev and Azerbaijan’s foreign minister but not “with civil society.”

“While consultation with the host government is certainly an important part of your work, you work for all of us, and you work for the principles that underlie this organization. Your masters are not the government of Azerbaijan,” Baer said, addressing Chahtahtinsky in the statement.

Baer did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

But France’s ambassador to the OSCE, Maxime Lefebvre, told RFE/RL that the decision not to renew Chahtahtinsky’s contract was not linked to politics or OSCE-Azerbaijani ties, but rather to “internal management problems.”

Lefebvre said the OSCE “would like Azerbaijan to remain committed” to the organization and “would like the mission to continue its work.”

He added that it would be regrettable if the decision to close the Baku office was confirmed, “because we think it’s important that we keep a field presence of the OSCE in Azerbaijan and that we maintain good relations between Azerbaijan as a participating state with the OSCE.”

Declaration on Genocide centennial handed to OSCE PA chief

February 23, 2015 By administrator

During the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) session in Vienna, the head of the Armenian delegation to the OSCE PA, Artashes Geghamyan, handed over to the OSCE PA President the Pan-Armenian Declaration on 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Panorama.am reports.

Artashes Geghamyan, member of Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), said on Monday, Feb 23 that the Declaration, translated into six languages, and the book “Turkey must repent for its past,” published in seven languages, had earlier been sent to all delegates of the OSCE PA.

Armeniangenocide100.org. Pan-Armenian Declaration on Genocide centennial

OSCE Armenian Foreign Minister: Azerbaijan-threat to regional and int’l stability

December 5, 2014 By administrator

Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian issued a statement at the 21st Meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel.

Dwelling on the Armenian Genocide issue, the official noted, “The first Genocide of the 20th century, the centennial of which will be commemorated next year, was perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian nation, under the cover of the First World War. It stands as a witness to what extent humanity can degrade in the absence of international system of protection of human rights and security.

The direct consequence of the tragic history of the 20th century was the aspiration to create a new common security space, free of wars, dividing lines, closed borders and spheres of influence, where the dignity of individual and fundamental freedoms are fully respected. Those ideas were later on reflected in the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and the main documents of the international law, empowering the people to promote and protect their rights and to freely pursue their own future. The exercise of these rights gave birth to many present day states through the right of peoples to self-determination.

It is based on these understanding that Armenia, along with other participating states, has contributed to the efforts to launch Helsinki + 40 process. We believe that in the year of 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the Helsinki Final Act the reaffirmation of our adherence to its principles will give a new impetus to the OSCE and its endeavors.”

Commenting on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, Nalbandian noted, “this year marks the 20th anniversary of the cease-fire agreement, reached by Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Azerbaijan did everything to undermine the ceasefire regime, despite the calls of the international community to reinforce the cease-fire agreement of May 1994 and fully implement cease-fire consolidation agreement of February 1995. Military actions of the Azrebaijani side along the line of contact and on the Armenia Azerbaijani border, resulted in a significant loss of live and drastically raised tensions on the ground.

During last years our diplomacy, together with the three Co-chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, the only internationally agreed mediation format, has spared no efforts to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh problem. Despite the intensive efforts of the three Co-Chair countries during the last 6 years: about 20 summits, several dozens of meetings on ministerial level, visits of the three Co-Chairs to the region, it has been impossible to reach a breakthrough in the conflict resolution, because the Azerbaijani side rejected one after another all proposals presented by the mediators.

The more the international community, through the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs appeals to the sides of the conflict to prepare populations for peace and not war, the more we hear from Azerbaijan, including at the top level, increasing bellicose warmongering, anti-Armenian hate-speech, glorification of murderers of Armenians and persecution of those journalists, civil society activists, representatives of intelligentsia, who pursue confidence building and reconciliation projects, presenting them as “Armenian spies”. The more the international community is calling on the sides to withdraw snipers from the line of contact, the more sniper shootings, provocative incidents, subversive acts are coming from the Azerbaijani side, resulting in numerous casualties.

The more oil revenues are enriching the Azerbaijani budget, the more weaponry and armament are purchased by Baku. In 2015 Azerbaijan’s military budget will reach 4,8 bln USD, almost 30 times increase in a decade since Ilham Aliyev inherited the power from his father. The absolutely disproportionate military spending and acquisition of excess armaments by Azerbaijan poses a serious threat to regional and international stability and security.

The recent shooting down by the Azerbaijani armed forces of the helicopter of the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army during a training flight, which took the lives of three young servicemen, is Baku’s latest criminal provocation. The Azerbaijani army for almost ten days continuously kept the area of the helicopter shooting under intensive fire, hindering rescue teams, the OSCE, International Committee of the Red Cross representatives to approach that site and evacuate the bodies of killed crew members, which became another gross violation of international humanitarian law by Azerbaijan.

Baku continues to oppose itself to the international community, which was once again demonstrated by its reaction to the statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the helicopter shooting. Azerbaijan is clearly losing the sense of reality and day by day is deepening the gap between itself and the civilized world.

To achieve a durable peace, stability and security in the region, Armenia will continue to invest its utmost efforts towards the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict exclusively through peaceful means.”

The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan

The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out as result of the ethnic cleansing launched by the Azeri authorities in the final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from 1991 (when the Nagorno Karabakh Republic was proclaimed) to 1994 (when a ceasefire was sealed by Armenia, NKR and Azerbaijan). Most of Nagorno Karabakh and a security zone consisting of 7 regions are now under control of NKR defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group up till now.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, the Italian Chamber of Deputies, majority of U.S. states, parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium and Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Chamber of Commons of Canada, Polish Sejm, Vatican, European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.